At Taxonomy Boot Camp London, information professionals come together to shape the future and investigate how newer technologies affect how our professional world is changing. It’s a practical approach, with case studies on how technologies such as knowledge graphs, semantic layers, graphRAG, and linked data tie in with the core skills of creating metadata, curating content, determining relevance and facilitating information retrieval. The work of taxonomists and ontologists to create the backbone of intelligent search has never been more important.
Helen Lippell should know: she’s been the face of Taxonomy Boot Camp London since its inception in 2016, when it was co-located with Internet Librarian International, so she’s seen it all. She’s steered the conference from in-person to virtual Bite-sized and back to in-person. She’s monitored the trends affecting the profession. She has hands-on expertise through her consulting work. I asked her what to expect from Taxonomy Boot Camp London in 2026.
She told me that this is taxonomists’ "moment in the sun", given the explosion of ways in which taxonomies and many other knowledge artifacts can be used. Digital taxonomies, rooted in content management and information architecture, reinforce the need for good content, content governance, data standards, semantic foundations and tagging. We’ve always known this, but it took the massive interest in AI technologies to drive the point home. The ability to cut through the hype and buzzwords remains a superpower for all varieties of info pros.
Another aspect of modern taxonomy work is the huge growth in ontologies. "It's very hard to be a proper senior taxonomist now without some background in ontology," she said. In a world with a surfeit of data, choosing the right structure is critical. The definition of what constitutes content has changed considerably since that first Boot Camp. We’ve certainly moved beyond text and documents.
AI has also affected not only an explosion in types of content but also in how taxonomists and ontologists go about making them accessible. As senior management struggles with getting the most out of their investments in AI technologies, the skills that taxonomists bring to the table will make those investments much more likely to succeed. It’s what makes for satisfactory results rather than burying people in AI-created hallucinations and nonsense due to poorly structured content.
Diverse Topics to Be Discussed
The presentations scheduled for Taxonomy Boot Camp London reflect the incredible diversity of projects that taxonomists, ontologists and other information professionals are doing. Personally, I’m looking forward to hearing what Joe Busch, Taxonomy Strategies, has to say. He’s been in the taxonomy world for decades and even spoke at the early Boot Camps, both in the US and the UK. Sharing the stage with Altuent’s Rahel Bailie, Busch considers the importance of structured content and the vocabularies that can shape content architectures.
I’m also excited about meeting in person some of the taxonomy experts who have spoken at various Bite-sized Taxonomy Boot Camps over the past several years; to see them as more than a small square on a screen. Clemency Wright, who runs her own consulting business, tackles the intricacies of user-focused controlled vocabularies, which will be of interest to anyone who’s experienced conversational misunderstandings due to the words being uttered. My guess is that is almost everybody.
Jo Chapman and Ahren Lehnert, both highly experience taxonomists, also delve into the intricacies of language, which is at the heart of semantic systems and presents several knotty problems. Selena Bryant, Indeed, presents a case study on how she leverages technology in the recruitment sector, while Matthew Oleynik, from Canada’s rangefinder, explains his legal research tool. Fran Alexander, Expedia, takes a practical look at the relationship between LLMs and hallucinations, explaining how this can be a feature not a bug for knowledge workers inside an organization.
Talks are not solely technology-oriented. The business aspects also get attention. How to sell the value of the profession is critical. Lisa Riemers and Joyce van Aalten, for example, explain how to maximise your effectiveness within your organization.
The premise of the conference, as Lippell expressed it to me is to expose people to topics that are beyond their immediate specialized world. That’s the real value of conferences, to expand the individual’s knowledge base, to introduce new concepts and ideas. What a great opportunity for information professionals of all stripes.