The document discusses how taxonomies for organizing information are similar to how tomato plants emerge and are guided. It recommends letting an organic taxonomy emerge through user tagging initially before the tags get too messy, then guiding the taxonomy by collecting tags into categories to improve structure and search results, similar to how tomato plants naturally emerge before being pruned and guided.

1. Gia Lyons (@gialyons) Strategic Consultant Jive Software Taxonomy Bootcamp 2009 Taxonomies and Tomato Plants (They’re more similar than you think) Flicker.com/spisharam

2. prescribed structure doesn’t work for E2E Flicker.com/redjar

3. But you need some structure, ‘cause search sucks

4. bring user contribution to your intranet via tags …and encourage a more organic taxonomy Flicker.com/33909700@N02

5. But, how?

6. let it emerge… (messy is ok at first!) Flicker.com/efsavage

7. … then guide it Flicker.com/22863752@N06

8. … but avoid this (by continually guiding) Flicker.com/darinhercules

9. things to remember… EMERGE: When information is not commonly understood, let people tag the way it makes sense to them

10. things to remember… GUIDE: After the organic taxonomy gets too messy, Provide guidance by collecting tags into categories

11. things to remember… SEARCH: You may not have Google’s algorithm, but user-generated tags can improve search results

12. Thank you! Gia Lyons (@gialyons) Strategic Consultant Jive Software Taxonomy Bootcamp 2009