Thread:Discussing ontology and the internet (2)

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 * Ontology is Overrated: Categories, Links, and Tags

Maintainability is another big issue for the WikiEducator solution. For Wikipedia, the purpose is pretty clear and all contributors have the same objectives - to make Wikipedia a really good source of information. So having strict categorization is do-able. On the other hand WikiEducator contributors have personal and institutional requirements that override the WE community goals.

Or, WE could alter the basic assumptions to align with the Wikipedia model - you are a contributor, not an owner of an OER. Then anyone and everyone can contribute and edit to make each OER better. There would need to be the whole system of specialty editors with additional privileges to enforce the categorization.

Scale needs to be considered in any categorization scheme. Yahoo is a good example of extensive professional categorization of online resources that eventually outgrew the ability to scale. WE has the additional challenge of being a largely volunteer effort.