Categories in Chaos
It’s ironic that one of the toughest challenges in understanding software for information architects involves trying to define meaningful categories for the darned stuff. There are huge overlaps between products, exaggerated by overzealous marketing efforts that claim the software can create taxonomies, manage content, fix dinner, and tie your shoes. And, of course, the vendors and their products are multiplying, merging, and mutating at a terrific pace. Given this fluid, ambiguous context, this chapter is an early attempt to define a few of the product categories relevant to information architects. They include:
Automated Categorization
Automated Taxonomy Generation
Search Engines
Thesaurus Management Tools
Collaborative Filtering Tools
Portal Solutions
Content Management Software
Analytics
Database Management Software
Diagramming Software
Within each category, our lists of product examples are by no means comprehensive. We hope only to provide a framework and a starting point.
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