[WEB4LIB] Re: Use of DDC in web displays

[Eric Hellman]

Couldn't agree more.

Simple trees of classifications do not take advantage of emerging 
ontological and knowledge representation tools, such as RDF, OIL, 
Ontobroker, Protege.

Hence my suggestion that cloning DDC  would not reinvent the wheel, 
but would enable the development of new classification practices 
which build on the old.

Eric

Links:
http://www.smi.stanford.edu/projects/protege/
http://www.ontoknowledge.org/oil/
http://ontobroker.aifb.uni-karlsruhe.de/
http://www.w3.org/RDF/

At 4:51 AM -0800 12/28/00, Robert Tiess wrote:
>Eric Hellman wrote:
>  > a thought:
>  >
>  > I imagine that it is only the definitions of the categories which are
>  > copyrighted by oclc. (You can only copyright an expression of an
>  > idea, you can't copyright the idea)  Given this, an open source
>  > project could do a clean-room clone of DDC by deriving category
>  > descriptions from samples of cataloged items.
>
>But do we really want to reinvent the broken wheel?  DDC has been
>a good tool, but its overt Westernness (refined somewhat over years,
>yes), archaic synthesis (e.g. Cutter numbers), slow adaptation to
>new technologies, fields of study, and media types, and generally
>incomprehensible digits to many patrons who actually use the system
>to retrieve materials, all converge at a compelling argument for
>a new system that can be easily implemented and understood by all
>those who use it, free of licensing red tape, immediately
>extensible, and globalized to reflect all cultures and knowledge.
>
>Simply enough, our information age demands a much better system.
>While it is updated periodically, the overall DDC scheme was first
>established in 1876.  That it lasted this long is not so much a
>testament to its strong structure as it is to those who took steps
>to revive it along the years through revisions.  This can occur
>indefinitely, and the status quo can be effectively maintained
>well into the new millennium.  Or, the networking technology that
>helped establish Linux and bring it to the masses can be used to
>do the same for a new and open classification system that frees
>and empowers its users and is no longer esoterica among catalogers
>alone but clear and navigable among laypersons.
>
>If anyone has any feelings or ideas on this, I welcome posts on
>this topic in the new "OpenClass" forum at
>http://www.egroups.com/group/openclass
>
>Robert Tiess
>rjtiess at warwick.net
>http://rtiess.tripod.com

Eric Hellman
Openly Informatics, Inc.
http://www.openly.com/           21st Century Information Infrastructure
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