Frank Branch and Aaron Bradley from Electronic Arts gave a presentation on taxonomy development in a linked data world. They discussed how taxonomies are now used for more than just search and indexing, and support tasks like personalization, content enrichment and analytics. They explained how ontologies provide taxonomy scope and context, and require taxonomies to be networks rather than trees. Content models are also driving taxonomy usage, where querying concepts can facilitate content creation and taxonomies must support precision to function in content graphs. The key lessons were that taxonomy development has changed and taxonomies now live in networks to support varied uses across many content endpoints.

1. Taxonomy Bootcamp London 2019
Taxonomy Development in a
Linked Data World
Frank Branch and Aaron Bradley
Marcom Strategy - Content Ecosystem
Electronic Arts

2. TAXONOMY DEVELOPMENT IN A LINKED DATA WORLD - TAXONOMY BOOTCAMP LONDON 2019
Aaron Bradley
Knowledge Graph Strategist
EA 5 years
Strategies for connecting intelligent content at
massive scale
Spends too much time on Twitter as @aaranged
Frank Branch
Senior Ontologist
EA, started June 2019
Ontology modelling & data architecture
Introductions

3. TAXONOMY DEVELOPMENT IN A LINKED DATA WORLD - TAXONOMY BOOTCAMP LONDON 2019
Electronic Arts

4. TAXONOMY DEVELOPMENT IN A LINKED DATA WORLD - TAXONOMY BOOTCAMP LONDON 2019
Because the world we live in is big and complex, we need
to go about the job of taxonomy development in a way
that matches that.
The big idea

5. TAXONOMY DEVELOPMENT IN A LINKED DATA WORLD - TAXONOMY BOOTCAMP LONDON 2019
Taxonomy use cases then and now
Traditional
● Search
● Document indexing and
faceted browsing
● Basic measurement
Contemporary
● Used to control reasoning
and algorithms
● Intelligent content models
● Personalization
● Semantic annotation and
content enrichment
● Rich analytics and
measurement
● Search

6. MARCOM STRATEGY
Ontology lens

7. TAXONOMY DEVELOPMENT IN A LINKED DATA WORLD - TAXONOMY BOOTCAMP LONDON 2019
Ontologies change taxonomy usage
● Personalized views of content
● Aid in forming recommendations
● Generates content for any device,
anywhere, and everywhere
● Creates insights to learn from our
data
● Focuses on your organizational
needs with connection to the wider
world
● Only then can it enable better
search

8. TAXONOMY DEVELOPMENT IN A LINKED DATA WORLD - TAXONOMY BOOTCAMP LONDON 2019
Ontologies change the taxonomist’s process
● User warrant must take in a broader
group of stakeholders
● Ontology needs to come first
● Ontology creates taxonomy scope
and context
● Taxonomies in a linked data world
are networks, not trees
● Collaboration becomes distributed
amongst many different people
across that network

9. MARCOM STRATEGY
Content model lens

10. TAXONOMY DEVELOPMENT IN A LINKED DATA WORLD - TAXONOMY BOOTCAMP LONDON 2019
In a content graph models drive taxonomy use

11. TAXONOMY DEVELOPMENT IN A LINKED DATA WORLD - TAXONOMY BOOTCAMP LONDON 2019
In a content graph models drive taxonomy use

12. TAXONOMY DEVELOPMENT IN A LINKED DATA WORLD - TAXONOMY BOOTCAMP LONDON 2019
Querying concepts facilitates content creation

13. TAXONOMY DEVELOPMENT IN A LINKED DATA WORLD - TAXONOMY BOOTCAMP LONDON 2019
Taxonomic precision is vital in content graphs

14. TAXONOMY DEVELOPMENT IN A LINKED DATA WORLD - TAXONOMY BOOTCAMP LONDON 2019
One thesaurus, multiple uses

15. MARCOM STRATEGY
What we’ve learned

16. TAXONOMY DEVELOPMENT IN A LINKED DATA WORLD - TAXONOMY BOOTCAMP LONDON 2019
Taxonomy development has changed
● In a big, complex world the uses of
taxonomies are increasingly varied,
and extend far past controlled
vocabularies for search
● Each taxonomy lives in a network of
content, relationships and
algorithmic reasoning
● Each taxonomy must be tailored to
its environment, be personalizable
and support multiple content
endpoints

17. MARCOM STRATEGY
Thank you!
Questions?