Yes, Donna is right. Placing an essay in multiple categories is essentally the same as assigning multiple tags to each essay. Each tag essentially represents another category to which that essay belongs.
Then, all tags can be listed alphabetically in an index, to make them easier to find. Even more importantly, searching for a keyword in the essays will also find the keywords in the tags with each essay. Thus a search for "subroutines" by a Fortran user would ideally find essays on "verbs", which hopefully would have been tagged with the "subroutine" tag by a newbie who stumbled on the verb/subroutine similarity. Skip On Fri, Jul 20, 2012 at 9:22 AM, Donna Y <[email protected]> wrote: > Another mean is to have search tags > > Donna > [email protected] > > > On 2012-07-20, at 1:50 AM, Skip Cave <[email protected]> wrote: > > > There are many ways to classify the essays, and that is the basic > problem. > > Different people will classify the same essay in different categories. > This > > makes it hard for someone that is looking for a particular essay. The > > searcher will assume that the essay should be in a specific category, but > > the person that categorized the essay put it in a different category. > This > > is always a problem when categorizing complex objects like essays. > > > > The "secret" is to realize that a specific essay may belong in > > *several*categories simultaneously. Different people will try to find > > the same > > essay, looking in different categories. > > > > In addition, different people have different ideas about what set of > > categories cover the whole spectrum of essays. The trick is determining > > what all the categories should be, and then determining which essays go > in > > which categories (multiple categories for a specific essay are fine). > > > > Relying on a single "category expert" to do categorization of the essays > > will always have problems. No matter how expert the person is, they will > > invariably have a worldview that will differ from others who will be > > searching for essays. What you need is a collaborative mechanism that > pulls > > in the views of many people who are familiar *and unfamiliar* with the > > essay's subjects. Non-experts can be as valuable as experts in this > > process, as non-experts will also be searching for the essays. This gives > > you the best chance for a successful categorization effort. > > > > The easy way to do this is to build a group-categorizing wiki, which lets > > any forum member create categories and place the essays in it. There can > be > > as many categories as forum members choose, and any specific essay can be > > in as many categories as the forum members choose. The categorization > wiki > > should automatically alphabetize the contributed categories on the home > > page, and keep the links pages for each of the categories up-to-date. > > > > If you want a truly useful essay categorization, this is the way to do > it. > > Of course, this requires the efforts of a wide range of users to > > participate. To jump-start the categorization effort, you can insert a > > question with each essay, asking the reader if the essay was in the right > > category, and if not, what should the category be. That answer could > > automatically add that essay to the new category. > > > > Having a parallel discussion forum on the categorization effort could > help > > keep things in order. The J Software crew would be the final arbiter of > the > > category list, helping to combine similar categories, and dealing with > > low-volume categories. > > > > Skip > > > > > > On Thu, Jul 19, 2012 at 11:42 AM, Howard Peelle <[email protected] > >wrote: > > > >> I agree, especially if one doesn't know precisely what to look for (via > >> search) or would like to see related essays. How would you classify the > >> essays? > >> HAP > >> > >> > >> Quoting Murray Eisenberg <[email protected]>: > >> > >> The list at http://www.jsoftware.com/**jwiki/Essays< > http://www.jsoftware.com/jwiki/Essays>is now quite long -- so long as on > the way to becoming useless to find > >>> something unless you know somewhat precisely what you're looking for. > Any > >>> chance of classifying the essays by category/categories? > >>> > >>> Just a thought (not a stepping forward, unfortunately). > >>> > >>> -- > >>> Murray Eisenberg [email protected] > >>> Mathematics & Statistics Dept. > >>> Lederle Graduate Research Tower phone 413 549-1020 (H) > >>> University of Massachusetts 413 545-2859 (W) > >>> 710 North Pleasant Street fax 413 545-1801 > >>> Amherst, MA 01003-9305 > >>> ------------------------------**------------------------------** > >>> ---------- > >>> For information about J forums see > http://www.jsoftware.com/**forums.htm<http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm> > >>> > >>> > >> > >> > ------------------------------**------------------------------**---------- > >> For information about J forums see > http://www.jsoftware.com/**forums.htm<http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm> > >> > > > > > > > > -- > > Skip Cave > > Cave Consulting LLC > > Phone: 214-460-4861 > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm > -- Skip Cave Cave Consulting LLC Phone: 214-460-4861 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
