• Overview (1 pt)

 

This is a hypothetical website dedicated to the organization of mountains for outdoor enthusiasts. The website allows users to discover mountains and find out information that will aid them in their mountain activities. Information includes: elevation, location, route descriptions / trails, climbing difficulty, user reviews, photos, and maps. These properties allow users to search for mountains based on what properties they value most, as well as perform research for future trips into the wilderness.

 

• What resources are being used? (2 pts)

 

What is a mountain? At first thought, this seems like a relatively trivial question. But different entities have differing requirements for what is considered a mountain, based on different properties. The most widely used property for defining a mountain is elevation. The United States considers any point higher than 1,000 feet to be a mountain, but the United Kingdom requires a peak to be at least 2,000 feet. In addition to elevation requirements, some entities include a topographical prominence requirement, which basically means that a peak must be a specified elevation above its surrounding geography. Similar to elevation requirements, there are many conventions used, but no universal standard. For the purposes of this organizing system, we will define a mountain as any geographic peak 1,000 feet higher than its surrounding geography.

Even after we have  settled on a definition based on elevation and prominence, we still have to answer, what is a single mountain? For example Mount Whitney, which is the tallest peak in California, actually consists of five separate peaks, but is still identified as one entity. Mountaineers typically use a less-than-perfect specification based on perceived prominence. If a particular peak dominates an area, it is called the “parent” peak. A hierarchy is created, with all associate peaks on the landmass classified as “subpeaks” of the parent.

Taking into consideration the four distinctions about resources in an organizing system, we can use the above requirements of a mountain to describe the resource domain. The primary format of these resources is physical. The agency view on resources is passive, becoming valuable only if interacted with. And the focus is the digital description of these physical resources.

 

• Why are the resources organized? (2 pts)

 

Most users of the organizing system will have a set of predefined requirements for what resource properties make up their ideal mountain experience, and seek to discover a mountain that fits these requirements. Other users will already know which mountain they are looking for, and seek out particular descriptions associated with this resource. With this in mind, resources are being organized to support access and discovery of mountains. Additionally, a selection interaction supports a choice/comparison of resources from the collection.

 

• How much are the resources organized? (2 pts)

 

The resource scope is narrow and the scale is fairly large. There are many mountains to be organized, but the resource type is homogenous. Because the resource types are so similar, a larger number of descriptions is needed to differentiate them. Also, there is a large and relatively diverse set of users for this organizing system. Different types of users include: day hikers, backpackers, mountaineers, skiers and snowboarders, and ice climbers. This heterogeneity in users means that the system must support a variety of interactions, with different users placing more importance on particular resource properties.

Because of the diversity in users with different selection principles, a faceted classification system will allow users to search for resources by filtering on multiple resource descriptions.

 

• When are the resources organized? (1 pt)

 

Organizing occurs when an interaction takes place. Resources are organized by selection of desired resource properties. Different users differentiate resources by different properties. Although a resource is created by users, the predefined schema ensures each resource is highly structured, with the same set of resource descriptions.

• Who does the organizing? (1 pt)

 

The schema of the system determines which resource properties are used to organize the resources. However, each individual user determines which properties to organize the resources by. Similar to Wikipedia, curation of the resources is handled by the user community. Explicit dynamic properties that users may modify, like climbing routes and activities, could affect the organization of these resources.

 

• Other considerations (1 pt)

Because resources are created by users, maintenance is of critical importance to ensure accuracy of information. Misinformation could put other hikers in danger. Another maintenance consideration is dynamic resource properties and the possible vocabulary problem that they create. Names of mountaineering routes and hiking trails may change with time, creating an overlapping synonimity problem. People searching for a particular route by name may be unsuccessful if they are using the “wrong” name. Additionally, even properties that appear to be static may be dynamic. The elevation of Mount Everest was recorded to be 29,028 feet in 1954. Recent measurements indicate that Everest has grown 7 feet to 29,035. Mountain Names can also be dynamic properties. There has been a longstanding debate about what to call North America’s highest mountain, Mount McKinley or Denali.