The Industry

The ontology of the software universe

Organizing the discussions in the online software universe into some kind of hierarchy is a difficult and yet well-understood and frequently under-taken task.

Typically, most sites default to a relatively flat hierarchy of programming languages. You know Java, C++, JavaScript, Ruby, Flash etc.

For example dzone and stackoverflow are mostly like this.

Another hardly ever used classification scheme would be to organize things by software platform:

Weblogic, JBoss, Linux, Windows, Firefox, Chrome, etc.

No one does that ASFIK

Another is by target hardware platform location:

desktop, smart phone, serverside, medical equipment, kiosk

No one does this either ASFIK

Another is to organize things by domain:

medical, space, business, entertainment

No one does this either ASFIK. Lame ain’t we.

Finally, one can organize by information assumptions type:

tips, Q&A, engineering, craft, quick&easy

and in general the sites themselves are implicitly organized (separated) into this scheme.

Software is one of the most prevalent topics on the internet, lots of data points here :-)