Engineering Taxonomy-Based Sources

Abstract

This chapter is divided into two parts. The first part introduces an algebra that enables the interaction paradigm of dynamic taxonomies even if there are no indexed objects. This algebra is fully intensional, in contrast to dynamic taxonomies which are both intensional (due to the existence of hierarchies and their semantics) and extensional (as they discard concepts with empty extension). The second part describes other aspects of managing taxonomy-based sources, specifically the adaptation of objects’ descriptions on the basis of user feedback, the creation of inter-taxonomy mappings and issues concerning integration and distributed taxonomy-based sources.