"Whether you realize it or not, you're already familiar with controlled vocabularies. The Library of Congress subject headings and Yahoo's search criteria are a couple of examples. So, as you've probably guessed by now, controlled vocabularies are predete
In an attempt to summarize the relationship among various metadata formats and how they relate to building Internet systems I wrote a glossary. I then ordered and tied the terms together with a bit of narrative to explain the relationships among the terms
Clarity regarding controlled vocabularies, taxonomies, thesauri, ontologies, and metamodels. With all the scuttlebut going around about folksonomies and tagging, these are important terms to understand. In the process of tagging, it's pretty noticeable
“A controlled vocabulary is a way to insert an interpretive layer of semantics between the term entered by the user and the underlying database to better represent the original intention of the terms of the user."