Procedural revision (1986-1987) | Kairos @ Laetus-in-Praesens.org (original) (raw)

Functional Classification in an Integrative Matrix of Human Preoccupations (Part 1) (Part #21)

Following the 1985 revision two developments resulted in further modifications to the procedures used. The first of these was the transfer of the database onto an in-house local area network with many more software possibilities, in addition to those which were specially designed to facilitate production of this particular publication. In 1986 these procedures were further rationalized and modified to remove system errors. The second development was the completion of the 1986 edition of the Encyclopedia of World Problems and Human Potential, from which information on world problems, strategies and values was drawn in order to clarify their relationships to the fields of international organization activity.

The main modifications were therefore as follows:

a) Whereas the previous editions have been based on the allocation of subject codes based on single words, the software has since been developed to permit subject coding based on word pairs in an organization title. In 1986, approximately 1,000 such word pairs were added to the thesaurus to avoid the earlier need for manual intervention to resolve such coding problems as 'flying saucers' or 'brain drain'; in 1987 500 word pairs were added.
b) Whereas in the previous editions the subject codes allocated for a single organization were based on the title only, the software was developed in 1986 to permit the allocation of codes to specially italicized words text in the 'Aims' paragraph of the description in Volume 1. (The resulting entries are flagged in Section W to distinguish them from those arising from the title of the organization.) In 1987 Sections X and Y also included entries generated through allocation of codes via keywords in the 'Aims' paragraph.
c) Because of the cruder procedures employed in the past, many words had been maintained in the inactive portion of the thesau rus to prevent them from generating ambiguous or misleading subject codes. With the above-mentioned procedures these inactive words were reviewed and some 1,000 were activated for the 1986 edition, and several hundred more in 1987.
d) The new software permitted a much more flexible approach to any necessary fine-tuning of the pattern of allocated codes. A more sophisticated approach was possible to forcing the allocation of codes (whether forcing into a subject area or out of it). With the introduction of word pairs into the thesaurus, fewer such interventions were necessary.
e) Relatively few changes were made to the central portion of the code matrix (Rows 0 through 6); some 200 words were transferred to new codes. Major changes however were made to Rows 7, 8 and 9, as part of the continuing exploration of ways of incorporating human values and strategies in the light of the work on the 1986 Encyclopedia of World Problems and Human Potential. Given the inherently ambiguous nature of the words associated with those rows of the matrix, a much higher proportion of words was forceably associated with particular codes, partly in an effort to take advantage, at least provisionally, of the groupings which emerged in the Encyclopedia. In particular the 1986 edition explored the use of polarities as categories whereby values or strategies can be grouped. This approach offers some advantages in handling words which are usually an embarrassment to any scheme of subjects, despite the importance attached by society to the concepts to which they may refer. The value and strategy polarities of the Encyclopedia (Sections VP and SP) were therefore used as categories in Rows 7 and 8 in the 1986 edition. In the case of the 2,000 value words from Sections VC and VD of the Encyclopedia, which are grouped under one (but usually more) of these polarities, these were forced into the relevant categories on the basis of the information in the Encyclopedia. This procedure was also adopted for the strategies arising from Sections SS and ST of the Encyclopedia. In this case however the allocation to a polar category was based only on the gerund term used in the strategy to emphasize the activity inherent in it. Any other words resulted in the allocation of the strategy to other subject codes as in the case of organization titles.
f) In 1987 work continued on rationalizing rows 7, 8 and 9. The value and strategy polarities (Sections VP and SP of the Encyclopedia of World Problems and Human Potential) continued to be used as categories in rows 7 and 8, with value words from Sections VC and VD being grouped under the row 8 polarities and strategies form sections SS and ST under row 7 polarities. To improve transparency, all other row 7 and 8 headings were grouped as W70 or W80 terms; organizations, problems or strategies indexed under such headings therefore appear together, rather than interspersed with strategy and value polarities. In line with the structural philosophy of the matrix, the third digit of the heading code reflects the overall headings of the matrix columns. A number of minor changes were made to the central portion of the code matrix.
g) The basic organization of the major sections (W,X and Y) of the 1986 volume remained the same. In 1986 Section Z was added to group types of organizations. In the few cases where such types were already allocated to particular codes, it was appropri ate to move them to this new section.
h) The Citation index, previously published as an Appendix, was omitted in 1987. This is because a revision of Volume 1 has led to cited organizations being listed, together with their Yearbook reference numbers, in the descriptions of organizations citing them.

In 1986 the thesaurus contained 20,000 words, including 1,000 word pairs. Of these some 9,000 words were inactive in that they did not result in the allocation of codes leading to the incorporation of an entry at some place in this volume. The thesaurus was therefore increased by 6396 words since the 1985 edition. In 1987 the thesaurus contained over 23,000 words, including 1,500 word pairs. Of these some 11,000 words were inactive. Overall, there was an increase of 3,000 index terms since the 1986 edition.