On 8/31/07, Sperr, Edwin <sperr_at_nelinet.net> wrote:
> I'm sorry, but I just don't believe you.
Alex replied: No wonder ; you don't even read what I write. :)
Alex, I am following this thread with great interest. Let me say "thank
you" for taking the time to educate many of us I'm sure (me at least) in
an area we don't have much familiarity with.
I am puzzled why you would way that Edwin isn't even reading what you
wrote. Could you be more specific about why you said that?
Also, I am intrigued about this Teragram thing (at the World Bank), and
hope others with some time (and the necessary background knowledge) on
their hands will look at it closely and weigh in intelligently.
Again, Ed said:
Point us to these applications that can *currently* slurp in 250 pages
of full text and return 5 to 7 reasonably good, controlled vocabulary
subject headings (or topics or topic maps or well-formed RDF triples or
what have you). Point to one *real world example* of this happening --
not a lab, with pre-selected documents from a single topic domain, or
test runs against 5 paragraphs. This is *not* a trivial task. To say
that it is misapprehends the entire scope of what we're talking about.
(end)
Ed's most recent comments about the nature of technical reports and news
reports is also good food for thought, I think.
I take it whatever people think though, no one is going to claim such
software will produce subject headings like...
Nicholas |b II, |c Emperor of Russia, |d 1868-1918 |x Family |x Death
and burial |x Bibliography.
Or
Jews |z Italy |z Bologna |x Conversion to Christianity |x History |y
19th century.
Or
Mobs |z Massachusetts |z Boston |x History |y 18th century.
Or
a World War, 1939-1945 |x Campaigns |z Africa, North |x Personal
narratives, French.
Or
Byron, George Gordon Byron, |c Baron, |d 1788-1824 |x Homes and haunts
|z Italy |z Pisa.
A person can only say that this kind of descriptive power - and the
corresponding ability to locate such items -- is *unimportant*, or
generally a waste of time, if they really don't care to know about such
things. Which I might not, but someone else might. And then that
person might be able to popularize it in a way that will break through
to everyone and help them to think or see that it is important and
valuable in this or that sense...
But I understand most people on this list are ready to leave this help
behind - no matter how many few-and-far-between scholars may find such
things helpful. And after all, as Karen Coyle just noted, we *need* to
be prepared to study and investigate *these* technical things... whose
got time for this other stuff? :)
Seriously, I do want to make time, balance it, etc...
So we can really get good, intelligent controlled vocabulary subject
headings from this stuff, huh? (obviously shorter and less detailed
ones :), unlike those above) For all different kinds of topics,
subjects, disciplines? Without any human help in the process besides
the initial programming? (building off Karen's last email, kind of like
the deistic view of the universe...)
Regards,
Nathan Rinne
Media Cataloging Technician
ISD 279 - Educational Service Center (ESC)
11200 93rd Ave. North
Maple Grove, MN. 55369
Work phone: 763-391-7183
-----Original Message-----
From: Next generation catalogs for libraries
[mailto:NGC4LIB_at_listserv.nd.edu] On Behalf Of Alexander Johannesen
Sent: Thursday, August 30, 2007 3:48 PM
To: NGC4LIB_at_listserv.nd.edu
Subject: Re: [NGC4LIB] Resignation
On 8/31/07, Sperr, Edwin <sperr_at_nelinet.net> wrote:
> I'm sorry, but I just don't believe you.
No wonder ; you don't even read what I write. :)
And I'm sorry that you need to see it now (and also fulfill your
specific requirements; why those?) for you to believe that it's coming
to a Googleplex near you soon. I guess we'll just have to wait and
see.
Alex
--
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Project Wrangler, SOA, Information Alchemist, UX, RESTafarian, Topic
Maps
------------------------------------------ http://shelter.nu/blog/
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Received on Thu Aug 30 2007 - 17:37:28 EDT