Collaborative Classification for Group-Oriented Organization of Search Results

Abstract

In this chapter the authors examine the use of collaborative classification to support social information retrieval by organizing search results. It subscribes to the view that the activity of collaborative classification can be characterized by top-down and bottom-up approaches, both in terms of the nature of concept classification and the process of classification development. Two approaches, collaborative indexing and search result classification based on shared classification schemes, are described and compared. It suggests that by allowing open access to classification development tools to generate shared classification schemes, which in turn become collaborative artifacts, cooperating user groups will generate their own coordination mechanisms that are not dependent on the system itself.