A quick introduction to taxonomies, and how they relate to ontologies and knowledge graph. See how they can serve as part of a semantic layer in your information architecture. Learn which use cases can be developed based on this.

1. Andreas Blumauer
CEO, Semantic Web Company
Taxonomies put
in the right place
Benefiting from a
Semantic Layer
1

2. All things put in
context
2
Semantic Web
Company
founder &
CEO of
Andreas
Blumauer
developer and
vendor of
2004
founded
6.0
current
Version
active at
based on
Vienna
located
part of Enterprise
Knowledge Graphs
manages
standard for
part of
enriches
>200serves customers
editor of
Taxonomies
is about
Ontologies
standard for
graduates

3. What is a
Taxonomy?
Hierarchies
3 Hierarchies
broader/narrower relations
▸ Champagne flute is a Stemware
▸ Stemware is a Glassware →
▸ Champagne flute is a Glassware
Nota bene
With taxonomies, one can describe also
poly-hierarchies, i.e. one concept can have
more than just one parent concept.

4. What is a
Taxonomy?
Labels
4 Labels
prefLabel/altLabel
attributes
▸ http://vocabulary.semantic-web.at/cocktails/fece03….
has preferred label Champagne flute
▸ http://vocabulary.semantic-web.at/cocktails/fece03….
has alternative label Champagne coupe
Nota bene
With taxonomies, there
is one central place
where all names for
things can be managed.

5. What is a
Taxonomy?
Relations
5 Non-hierarchical relations
related/custom relations
▸ Champagne flute is related
Champagne cocktail →
▸ Champagne cocktail is related
Champagne flute
▸ Champagne flute is used by Bellini →
▸ Bellini uses Champagne flute
Nota bene
Ontologies describe the meaning of attributes and
relations between concepts. A basic ontology is
SKOS, the Simple Knowledge Organization System.

6. What is a
Taxonomy?
Mappings
6 Mappings
exactMatch/sameAs relations
▸ http://vocabulary.semantic-web
.at/cocktails/fece03…
exactMatch
http://dbpedia.org/resource/Ch
ampagne_stemware
Nota bene
With mappings, local taxonomies can be
enriched and extended by already existing
taxonomies and knowledge graphs, either
from internal or from the Semantic Web.

7. How to maintain
a Taxonomy?
PoolParty provides
a user-friendly GUI
and API to create,
maintain, and
integrate
taxonomies in
existing
information
systems
7

8. Try it out!
8 Get your test account at
www.poolparty.biz/demo/

9. SKOS as part of
the Semantic
Web Standard
9
Further readings
SKOS Simple Knowledge Organization System
SKOS: A Guide for Information Professionals
skos:
Concept
Tony’s Bar
skos:prefLabel
skos:
Concept
skos:related
Champagne flute
skos:prefLabel
Champagne
coupe skos:altLabel
skos:
Concept
Highball glass
skos:prefLabel
skos:related skos:
Concept
Scheme
skos:inScheme
skos:inScheme
Glassware
skos:prefLabel
skos:
Concept
Champagne
cocktail
skos:prefLabel
skos:
Concept
skos:broader
Cocktail
bar
skos:prefLabel
skos:related

10. Four-layered
Content
Architecture
10

11. 11Benefiting from
a Semantic Layer
along the
Content Life
Cycle

12. 12Video: Why
Taxonomies?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VI0QAzz6LM

13. 13PowerTagging
Bain Capital is a venture capital
company based in Boston, MA.
Since inception it has invested in
hundreds of companies including AMC
Entertainment, Brookstone, and Burger
King. The company was co-founded by
Mitt Romney.
Taxonomy &
Ontology Server
Entity Extractor &
Text Mining
Data Integration &
Data Linking
Unstructured
Data
Semi-
structured
Data
Structured
Data
Unified
Views
PoolParty
GraphSearch
Identify new
candidate concepts
to be included in a
controlled vocabulary
Controlled vocabularies
as a basis for highly
precise entity
extraction
Entity Extractor informs
all incoming data
streams about its
semantics and links them
Schema mapping
based on ontologies
RDF
Graph Database

14. 14Semantic
Search
http://vocabulary.semantic-web.at/GraphSearch/

15. Get linked
Andreas Blumauer
CEO, Semantic Web Company
▸ andreas.blumauer@semantic-web.com
▸ https://www.semantic-web.com
▸ https://www.linkedin.com/in/andreasblumauer
▸ https://twitter.com/semwebcompany
▸ https://ablvienna.wordpress.com/
15
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