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Journal ArticleDOI

Warrant as a means to study classification system design

09 Jan 2017-Journal of Documentation (Emerald Publishing Limited)-Vol. 73, Iss: 1, pp 75-90
TL;DR: This paper demonstrates how the analysis of daily classification design can illuminate the interaction between disparate philosophies of classification and connects a ubiquitous and observable element of classification design – the application of warrant – to longstanding divisions in classification theory.
Abstract: Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of warrant in daily classification design in general and in negotiating disparate classification goals in particular. Design/methodology/approach This paper synthesizes classification research on forms of warrant and uses examples of classification decisions from ethnographic engagement with designers to illustrate how forms of warrant interact in daily classification decisions. Findings Different forms of warrant, though associated with incompatible theories of classification design, coexist in daily classification decisions. A secondary warrant might be employed to augment the primary warrant of a system, such as to decide among equally valid terms, or to overturn a decision based on the primary warrant, such as when ethical impacts are prioritized above user preference. Research limitations/implications This paper calls for empirical research using the application of warrant as an object of analysis. Originality/value The paper connects a ubiquitous and observable element of classification design – the application of warrant – to longstanding divisions in classification theory. This paper demonstrates how the analysis of daily classification design can illuminate the interaction between disparate philosophies of classification.
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It is argued that to support vibrant and effective crowdsourcing communities while ensuring the quality of the work of crowdsourcing project volunteers it is essential to reevaluate and transform the traditional univocal, top-down approach to representation and organization.
Abstract: Purpose After reviewing cultural heritage institutions; crowdsourcing initiatives and tension between univocal and multivocal views of those who interact with cultural expressions, this paper argues that to support vibrant and effective crowdsourcing communities while ensuring the quality of the work of crowdsourcing project volunteers it is essential to reevaluate and transform the traditional univocal, top-down approach to representation and organization. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach This conceptual paper applies Foucault’s power–knowledge construct and theories of representation to the processes and practices employed in cultural heritage crowdsourcing projects. Findings Viewed through the Foucauldian lens, cultural heritage professionals are regarded as active parts of the power–knowledge relationship due to their direct engagement in the representation, organization and dissemination of knowledge, exercised not only through the traditional role of cultural heritage institutions as gatekeepers of knowledge but, more importantly, through the power of representation and organization of the cultural heritage. Originality/value This paper provides a theoretical understanding of cultural heritage crowdsourcing initiatives and proposes a framework for multivocal representation of cultural heritage expressions in which the voices of volunteers have the same validity as the voices of cultural heritage professionals.

9 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This approach, termed “curated folksonomy,” presents a new object of study for knowledge organization and represents one answer to the tension between scalability and the value of human judgment
Abstract: Traditional knowledge organization approaches struggle to make large user-generated collections navigable, especially when these collections are quickly growing, in which currency is of particular concern, for which professional classification design is too costly. Many of these collections use folksonomies for labelling and organization as a low-cost but flawed knowledge organization approach. While several computational approaches offer ways to ameliorate the worst flaws of folksonomies, some user-generated collections have implemented a human judgment-centered alternative to produce structured folksonomies. An analysis of three such implementations reveals design differences within the space. This approach, termed “curated folksonomy,” presents a new object of study for knowledge organization and represents one answer to the tension between scalability and the value of human judgment.

8 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
01 Nov 2018
TL;DR: Biological taxonomy is described in the context of CSCW, and key strategies taxonomists deploy to facilitate loosely coupled cooperative work are identified, including semantic refactoring, a unique kind of "articulation work'' entailed in developing, maintaining, and migrating classification systems.
Abstract: If scientific research can be described as "arm's length'' cooperative work, then the sciences engaged in the creation and maintenance of cooperatively built classification systems might be said to require extremely long arms; workers must reach across great distances of time, space and awareness to independently contribute to the creation and maintenance of a conceptual infrastructure. This is particularly the case for the field of biological taxonomy, in which researchers across the globe have, for more than three hundred years, cooperatively developed a massive knowledge organization system describing all life on earth. As taxonomists move from paper-based workflows to born-digital, data-first modes of publishing, new tools and approaches are needed to support their work. In this paper, we present research conducted as part of the "Transforming Taxonomic Interfaces" project aimed at improving interfaces for taxonomic software. We describe biological taxonomy in the context of CSCW, and identify key strategies taxonomists deploy to facilitate loosely coupled cooperative work. We also contribute a discussion ofsemantic refactoring, a unique kind of "articulation work'' entailed in developing, maintaining, and migrating classification systems. This work has implications for the design and study of knowledge organization systems and infrastructure, classification research, and for the development of general semantic web tools and software as well as those specifically for biological taxonomy.

8 citations


Cites background from "Warrant as a means to study classif..."

  • ...[16]) approaches to developing classifications (among many others that are unfortunately beyond the scope of this paper to review)....

    [...]

Proceedings ArticleDOI
30 Oct 2018
TL;DR: This panel brings together scholars who have conducted research related to online fandom to discuss their experiences, the challenges they have faced, and the vast opportunity for more work in this area from a range of perspectives.
Abstract: Communities focused on creating and sharing fanworks have existed since before the internet, but have thrived in the presence of online platforms. From young people learning literacy skills through writing fanfiction about their favorite media to complex infrastructural work in fans creating their own platforms to longstanding social norms that promote inclusivity, these communities showcase many core interests of CSCW-however, there has been little research focused on fandom within social computing and HCI. This panel brings together scholars who have conducted research related to online fandom to discuss their experiences, the challenges they have faced, and the vast opportunity for more work in this area from a range of perspectives.

8 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This paper presents an exhaustive update and revision of the concept of warrant, analyzing, systematizing, and reviewing the different warrants discussed in the LIS literary warrant in a critical way.
Abstract: Purpose The purpose of this paper is to update and review the concept of warrant in Library and Information Science (LIS) and to introduce the concept of epistemic warrant from philosophy. Epistemic warrant can be used to assess the content of a work; and therefore, it can be a complement to existing warrants, such as literary warrant, in the development of controlled vocabularies. In this proposal, the authors aim to activate a theoretical discussion on warrant in order to revise and improve the validity of the concept of warrant from the user and classifier context to the classificationist context. Design/methodology/approach The authors have conducted an extensive literary review and close reading of the concept of warrant in LIS and knowledge organization in order to detect the different stances and gaps in which the concept of epistemic warrant might apply. The authors adopted an epistemological approach, in the vein of some of the previous commenters on warrant, such as Hope Olson and Birger Hjorland, and built upon the theoretical framework of different authors working with the concept of warrant outside knowledge organization, such as Alvin Plantinga and Alvin Goldman. Findings There are some authors and critics in the literature that have voiced for a more epistemological approach to warrant (in opposition to a predominantly ontological approach). In this sense, epistemic warrant would be an epistemological warrant and also a step forward toward pragmatism in a prominently empiricist context such as the justification of the inclusion of terms in a controlled vocabulary. Epistemic warrant can be used to complement literary warrant in the development of controlled vocabularies as well as in the classification of works. Originality/value This paper presents an exhaustive update and revision of the concept of warrant, analyzing, systematizing, and reviewing the different warrants discussed in the LIS literary warrant in a critical way. The concept of epistemic warrant for categorizational activities is introduced to the LIS field for the first time. This paper, and the proposal of epistemic warrant, has the potential to contribute to the theoretical and practical discussions on the development of controlled vocabularies and assessment of the content of works.

8 citations

References
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Book
01 Jan 1999
TL;DR: In Sorting Things Out, Bowker and Star as mentioned in this paper explore the role of categories and standards in shaping the modern world and examine how categories are made and kept invisible, and how people can change this invisibility when necessary.
Abstract: What do a seventeenth-century mortality table (whose causes of death include "fainted in a bath," "frighted," and "itch"); the identification of South Africans during apartheid as European, Asian, colored, or black; and the separation of machine- from hand-washables have in common? All are examples of classification -- the scaffolding of information infrastructures. In Sorting Things Out, Geoffrey C. Bowker and Susan Leigh Star explore the role of categories and standards in shaping the modern world. In a clear and lively style, they investigate a variety of classification systems, including the International Classification of Diseases, the Nursing Interventions Classification, race classification under apartheid in South Africa, and the classification of viruses and of tuberculosis. The authors emphasize the role of invisibility in the process by which classification orders human interaction. They examine how categories are made and kept invisible, and how people can change this invisibility when necessary. They also explore systems of classification as part of the built information environment. Much as an urban historian would review highway permits and zoning decisions to tell a city's story, the authors review archives of classification design to understand how decisions have been made. Sorting Things Out has a moral agenda, for each standard and category valorizes some point of view and silences another. Standards and classifications produce advantage or suffering. Jobs are made and lost; some regions benefit at the expense of others. How these choices are made and how we think about that process are at the moral and political core of this work. The book is an important empirical source for understanding the building of information infrastructures.

4,480 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A scientific community cannot practice its trade without some set of received beliefs as discussed by the authors, and these beliefs form the foundation of the educational initiation that prepares and licenses the student for professional practice, which helps ensure that the received beliefs are firmly fixed in the student's mind.
Abstract: A scientific community cannot practice its trade without some set of received beliefs. These beliefs form the foundation of the \"educational initiation that prepares and licenses the student for professional practice\". The nature of the \"rigorous and rigid\" preparation helps ensure that the received beliefs are firmly fixed in the student's mind. Scientists take great pains to defend the assumption that scientists know what the world is like...To this end, \"normal science\" will often suppress novelties which undermine its foundations. Research is therefore not about discovering the unknown, but rather \"a strenuous and devoted attempt to force nature into the conceptual boxes supplied by professional education\".

2,115 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A new approach to information science (IS): domain‐analysis, which states that the most fruitful horizon for IS is to study the knowledge‐domains as thought or discourse communities, which are parts of society's division of labor.
Abstract: This article is a programmatic article, which formulates a new approach to information science (IS): domain-analysis. This approach states that the most fruitful horizon for IS is to study the knowledge-domains as thought or discourse communities, which are parts of society's division of labor. The article is also a review article, providing a multidisciplinary description of research, illuminating this theoretical view. The first section presents contemporary research in IS, sharing the fundamental viewpoint that IS should be seen as a social rather than as a purely mental discipline. In addition, important predecessors to this view are mentioned and the possibilities as well as the limitations of their approaches are discussed. The second section describes recent transdisciplinary tendencies in the understanding of knowledge. In bordering disciplines to IS, such as educational research, psychology, linguistics, and the philosophy of science, an important new view of knowledge is appearing in the 1990s. This new view of knowledge stresses the social, ecological, and content-oriented nature of knowledge. This is opposed to the more formal, computer-like approaches that dominated in the 1980s. The third section compares domain-analysis to other major approaches in IS, such as the cognitive approach. The final section outlines important problems to be investigated, such as how different knowledge-domains affect the informational value of different subject access points in data bases. © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

637 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The proposed model is “wrapped around” existing Library of Congress subject-heading indexing in such a way as to enhance access greatly without requiring reindexing, and is argued that both for cost reasons and in principle this is a superior approach to other design philosophies.
Abstract: A model based on strikingly different philosophical as. sumptions from those currently popular is proposed for the design of online subject catalog access. Three design principles are presented and discussed: uncertainty (subject indexing is indeterminate and probabilistic beyond a certain point), variety (by Ashby’s law of requisite variety, variety of searcher query must equal variety of document indexing), and complexity (the search process, particularly during the entry and orientation phases, is subtler and more complex, on several grounds, than current models assume). Design features presented are an access phase, including entry and orientation, a hunting phase, and a selection phase. An end-user thesaurus and a front-end system mind are presented as examples of online catalog system components to improve searcher success during entry and orientation. The proposed model is “wrapped around” existing Library of Congress subject-heading indexing in such a way as to enhance access greatly without requiring reindexing. It is argued that both for cost reasons and in principle this is a superior approach to other design philosophies.

297 citations