P2P Foundation Wiki Taxonomy
The P2P Foundation Wiki Taxonomy
This page serves as general overview for the P2P Foundation Wiki Taxonomy.
- The top level of the site-wide taxonomy is Category:P2P Foundation. All categories are actually subcategories of this top-level category.
- End User documentation is here: Help:Using Categories.
- Planned, wide scale changes and requests for changes to the Taxonomy are kept in P2P Foundation Wiki Taxonomy Maintenance.
Theory of the P2P Foundation Wiki Taxonomy and Category System
The P2P Foundation Wiki Taxonomy is a structured taxonomy in the sense that we attempt to apply more and more specificity to articles through the use of subcategories. Subcategories are also used to classify areas of emphasis, the media type of an article, the authoring process for articles, and groups of individuals, and even the typologies of groups of individuals.
Using more than one category on a page can be very useful. For example, the Standards category can and is be applied to a number of different emphasis areas like Peer Governance or Peer Production articles. A "Standards in Peer Production" a page exists that shows the articles that are categorized with both the Standards and Peer Production categories. It is possible to create an intersection like this for any two or more categories.
P2P Foundation Knowledge Commons
All articles about Peer-to-Peer should be placed in one of the sub-subcategories of Category:P2P Foundation Knowledge Commons. Most articles on the site should be placed into one or more of the subcategories of the Category:P2P Resource Collections categories, specifically, as these categories are wildly inclusive and used as primary delimiters for special collections based on further subcategorization, as mentioned above in the example of the intersection between the Standards and Peer Production categories. These instructions are given to users explicitly on the Help:Using Categories article.
Of these P2P Resource Collection subcategories the three most popular, lovingly referred to as the "Trifecta" as outlined in Category:P2P Theory, are: Category:Peergovernance, Category:Peer Property, and Category:Peerproduction. It is highly recommended that a paragraph emphasizing relevance to the primary P2P Resource Collection category be included with the article as a subheading within the article itself. This is also an excellent place to link the article to other relevant articles and concepts on the wiki.
Here is the Category:P2P Foundation Knowledge Commons category system. If you click on "P2P Resource Collections" you will see the level of subcategory where you articles should be placed.:
Taxonomy as the Default, Sub-optimal Linking System on the Wiki
Wikis are the most useful when an effort is made to link the core concepts in an article to related articles within the wiki and the wider web. Linking between pages creates a rich web of relationships and context for articles. The taxonomy categories are used as a sort of backup system. It is currently rare for users to refer to article categories to find related content. As such, while categories are easy to use, they are only of limited value when compared to linking key concepts within articles together through the use of highlighted links.
Please Review Current Categories Before Adding New Ones
Users are actively encouraged to research and review current categories before creating new categories. You can see visit Help:Search for Duplicates and Related Articles to find out more about doing a power search for your desired category. Empty categories aren't helpful to site visitors. Time has shown that collaborating on the expansion and specificity of the category system is beneficial because it informs other editors of new categories and helps uncover current, under-utilized categories. Categories are no substitute for linking between articles, and adding them actually complicates things more than it helps because site visitors will run into a category page that lists only one link and leave the site frustrated.
If you have a recommendation for a subcategory you should feel free to start a discussion on one of the already existing core category pages about your idea. This is a good way to get the ball rolling.