I'll bite, quickly...

- XML is primarily a data transport and exchange format, sometimes a
data storage format. It is certainly not enough to say "we have an
XML-based taxonomy management system" because that could mean many, many
different things!

- There are some standard taxonomy exchange XML protocols (not
necessarily "Schemas" in the W3C XML Schema sense of the term) in
existence:
- XFML: http://xfml.org/
- SKOS: http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/
- some vendor specific ones that never saw any traction (eg
documentum's TEF)

- "better than XML" is RDF, which is what SKOS is based on. It is a
little bit misleading to say it's better than XML, because it can
actually be represented as XML, but the more defined format, with
specific ways of defining relationships between objects, means that you
can hand an RDF file to a semantic web querying tool and it can
interoperate with other data sources.

Brendan.

-----Original Message-----
From: TaxoCoP@yahoogroups.com [mailto:TaxoCoP@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf
Of Darin Stewart
Sent: 28 November 2006 23:42
To: TaxoCoP@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [TaxoCoP] Need input for eContent article

Hello all *
I am in the process of writing an article on "Taxonomies and XML" for
the March issue of eContent magazine. I would like to feature the
thoughts and experiences of members of this community. Specifically, I
would like your input in the following areas.

What is the role of XML in taxonomy development, management and
application?

Are there situations in which XML is not appropriate?

What are the minimum XML capabilities a CMS or Search system should
have to adequately leverage taxonomies?

Which platforms and applications currently have the best or most
innovative approaches to XML and taxonomies? Have any come up with a
better approach that doesn't use XML?

What capabilities are needed that are not currently available?

What constitutes a good Taxonomy XML schema?

Are you currently using XML to manage taxonomies (or have you in the
past)? If so, how and what has the experience been like?

War stories and philosophical positions are very welcome. I would like
to make the article as practical as possible, illustrating it with the
experience and insights of practitioners such as yourselves. I think
this could stimulate some interesting discussion on the list, but feel
free to respond to me off-list if you prefer. Unfortunately, I'm on a
tight deadline so I'll need to collect everything by the end of the
week. Everything will be fully attributed unless you let me know that
you would prefer to remain anonymous. Thanks for your thoughts.

-dls-


Darin L. Stewart, Ph.D.
Director, Research Information Services
Oregon Health & Science University
503.494.9119




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