Taxonomy Strategies

Taxonomy Strategies Taxonomy Strategies is based in Washington, DC. government usa.gov, and for international organizations such as the International Monetary Fund.

Taxonomy Strategies is an information management consultancy that specializes in applying taxonomies, metadata, automatic classification, and other information retrieval technologies to the needs of business. Founded by information scientists who met at Metacode Technologies, a start-up company that built the MetaTagger automated categorization solution acquired by Interwoven in 2001, Taxonomy Str

ategies has been involved in projects for government agencies including development of the content model for the official portal of the U.S. A third area of leadership has been work on e-commerce merchandising taxonomies to enable cross-selling, up-selling and personalization by category rather than item.

I recently returned from London with a collection of B-Roll photos—planes, trains, automobiles, and the 17th-century pub...
05/26/2026

I recently returned from London with a collection of B-Roll photos—planes, trains, automobiles, and the 17th-century pubs of Greenwich.

On their own, they’re just files on a drive. They only become a story when they are placed into a framework—a timeline, a map, or a narrative of urban renewal.

Your enterprise data is the same.

AI vendors will sell you the planes and trains (the technology), but without a metadata framework, you just have a pile of unorganized footage.

To move from statistical guesswork to Organized Intelligence, you have to define the business logic first. Otherwise, you’re just paying for expensive storage of things you can’t find and stories you can’t tell.

Let’s stop collecting B-roll and start building the highway for your information to travel on.

- Joseph Busch

For a long time, building a taxonomy was seen as a specialized, permanent endeavor—the work of a few high priests of inf...
05/25/2026

For a long time, building a taxonomy was seen as a specialized, permanent endeavor—the work of a few high priests of information science.

We are entering the era of Democratized Taxonomy.

As enterprises adopt localized language models, we need tools that allow teams to generate their own topic maps organically. This isn’t about replacing the expert; it’s about making the knowledge structure a part of the everyday infrastructure.

Imagine an environment where:

- A research process automatically suggests a roadmap of where you’ve been and where to go next.

- Knowledge artifacts are generated as a result of the work, not as a separate burden.

- The semantic layer becomes a living, breathing part of the ecosystem.

At Taxonomy Strategies, we help organizations build the frameworks that make this organic growth possible without falling back into data slop.

- Joseph Busch

Documenting what you want to do is as important as doing it.In the rush to implement the latest AI tool, documentation i...
05/22/2026

Documenting what you want to do is as important as doing it.
In the rush to implement the latest AI tool, documentation is often treated as an afterthought—or worse, drudge work to be automated away.

But documentation isn't about bureaucracy; it's about understanding.

You need to understand the business logic as deeply as possible before you build the solution. At Taxonomy Strategies, we focus on the endgame. Taxonomy is just the vehicle; the clear, documented outcome is the goal.

If you can't articulate what you're trying to fix, no amount of automation will fix it for you.

- Joseph Busch

If you have a complex condition like fatty liver disease, you don't just need a doctor. You need a specific type of prac...
05/21/2026

If you have a complex condition like fatty liver disease, you don't just need a doctor. You need a specific type of practitioner that fits a tertiary care model—a niche within a niche.

We recently helped the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) solve this exact problem.

The user knows their symptoms (the problem), but the system is organized by provider types (the solution). Without a taxonomy to bridge that gap, the user stays lost.

Taxonomy is the mapping scheme that translates human need into system logic. It’s the difference between a frustrating no results found and getting the life-saving information you actually need.

- Joseph Busch

Most people use AI like a single-shot search engine—type a prompt, get an answer.But high-level research and complex pro...
05/20/2026

Most people use AI like a single-shot search engine—type a prompt, get an answer.

But high-level research and complex problem-solving don’t work that way. You don't want to search the entire universe every time you have a question.

You want to create a collection.

Effective Organized Intelligence is about building and managing a content library where you can slice, dice, and refine your search sideways.

We are moving from Information Retrieval to Collection Development. If you haven't organized your sub-collections, you're just paying for the privilege of repeating the same broad searches over and over.

- Joseph Busch

I recently spent time in Greenwich, London—the home of the Prime Meridian.In the 18th century, the time ball at the obse...
05/19/2026

I recently spent time in Greenwich, London—the home of the Prime Meridian.

In the 18th century, the time ball at the observatory dropped at 1:00 PM every day so ships in the harbor could set their timepieces. Without that shared reference point, navigation was guesswork.

In the modern enterprise, we are still trying to set our clocks.

When different departments use different vocabularies for the same concepts, your information ships are sailing in different directions. You don't need more satellites (tech); you need a validated, agreed-upon fact base (the meridian).

A taxonomy isn't just a list; it’s the zero meridian that makes interoperability possible.

- Joseph Busch

In the early days of the web—and even back to my work with NASA—the mission was clear: transform fragmented slop into st...
05/18/2026

In the early days of the web—and even back to my work with NASA—the mission was clear: transform fragmented slop into structured intelligence.

Today, the tools have changed, but the fundamental logic hasn't.
Many firms are bushwhacking through the AI hype cycle right now, feeling overwhelmed by vendor promises. They need more than a tool; they need a methodology that ensures their data flows through a reliable highway.

As a small, nimble consultancy, we prioritize Pragmatic Problem-Solving over flashy demos. We don’t just give you a taxonomy; we teach you how to sustain it so your organization can solve complex problems with zero hallucination waste.

Let's move beyond the hype and get back to what works.

- Joseph Busch

AI is becoming fabulously expensive to run at an enterprise level.If every employee in your organization is asking the s...
05/15/2026

AI is becoming fabulously expensive to run at an enterprise level.

If every employee in your organization is asking the same question to a Co-pilot—and you are paying the usage fee for that single-shot query every single time—that isn’t innovation. It’s a waste.

We need to move back to the principle of Collection Management.
Create a collection of good stuff.

Organize it so you don't have to search the whole universe every time.

Use a semantic layer to slice and dice information sideways.
Efficiency isn't just about reducing headcount; it's about reducing the statistical guesswork that drains your budget and the environment.

- Joseph Busch

Standard search is a blunt instrument.If a customer looks for Buffalo Wings, a basic tool might miss the mark. But a pre...
05/14/2026

Standard search is a blunt instrument.

If a customer looks for Buffalo Wings, a basic tool might miss the mark. But a precise taxonomy knows that if the user's intent is spicy sauce, they might accept Spicy Cauliflower.

This isn’t just about food; it’s about Interoperability.

Whether you are managing Medical Informatics or Legal Archives, your specialized vocabulary needs to align with global standards to be useful.

At Taxonomy Strategies, we don't just build lists; we build mapping schemes that capture institutional memory before it disappears.
Is your search providing answers, or just more slop?

- Joseph Busch

For a few months, the narrative was that GenAI would replace the drudge work of taxonomy and ontology.The tune is changi...
05/13/2026

For a few months, the narrative was that GenAI would replace the drudge work of taxonomy and ontology.

The tune is changing.

As organizations fall into the valley of despair, they are realizing that unanchored AI is a liability, not an asset. Without a validated fact basis, you aren't building a solution; you’re building a hallucination engine.

Even Gartner is circling back to the importance of ontology. Why? Because a knowledge graph is the organized highway that allows AI to function with 100% reliability.

Don't let the"silver bullet cycle distract you from the plumbing. If the business logic is fragmented, the technology will fail.

- Joseph Busch

Address

Washington D.C., DC
20015

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Taxonomy Strategies posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Business

Send a message to Taxonomy Strategies:

Shortcuts

Share

Category