Abstract
Advancements in digital technology have eased the process of gathering, generating, and altering digital data at large scale. The sheer scale of the data necessitates the development and use of smaller secondary data structured as ‘indices,’ which are typically used to locate desired subsets of the original data, thereby speeding up data referencing and retrieval operations. Many variants of such indices exist in today’s database systems, and the subject of their design is well investigated by computer scientists. However, indices are examples of data derived from existing data; and the implications of such derived indices, as well as indices derived from other indices, pose problems that require careful ethical analysis. But before being able to thoroughly discuss the full nature of such problems, let alone analyze their ethical implications, an appropriate and complete vocabulary in the form of a robust taxonomy for defining and describing the myriad variations of derived indices and their nuances is needed. This paper therefore introduces a novel taxonomy of derived indices that can be used to identify, characterise, and differentiate derived indices.
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Notes
- 1.
We use this particular example to point out that such an index can have surprisingly comical uses. This example, and terrible pun, was inspired by the works of British writer and comedian John Finnemore.
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Acknowledgement
Many thanks are due to the departments of Mathematics and Computer Science (MCS) and Computer Science and Engineering (CSEN) for their continued support of the project. And to reviewers of ToDI’s drafts for their helpful comments without which this work could not have been improved.
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A Appendix
A Appendix
1.1 A.1 Taxonomy and Associated Descriptors
Term | Description |
|---|---|
Term Name | Base Index |
Label | Base Index |
Definition | A base index is an immediate index of a data set |
Comment | A base index is different from other derived indices in that it is base/source of all other derived index (indices). All the indices described in the related work section of this paper are examples of base indices. An example of a base index is for a book could be the table of contents, which is used to index the location where each chapter or section of the presented data in the book can be found |
Type of Term | Base index |
Term | Description |
|---|---|
Term Name | Derived Index |
Label | Derived Index |
Definition | A derived index is an index that is derived from an existing index |
Comment | Derived indices may be the result of structural or functional derivation, or a combination of the two |
Type of Term | Derived Index |
Term | Description |
|---|---|
Term Name | Functional Property |
Label | Functional Property |
Definition | Functional property refers to the functionality and purpose of the index that is being derived from |
Comment | A functional property is different from other properties of an index in that it is in some ways indexes or duplicates, summarizes, supplements, and/or combines existing indices’ functionality |
Type of Term | Property |
Term | Description |
|---|---|
Term Name | Structural Property |
Label | Structural Property |
Definition | Structural property refers to the structural aspect of the index |
Comment | A structural property is different from other properties of an index in that it is in some ways mimics the look and feel of the index or indices it is derived from |
Type of Term | Property |
Term | Description |
|---|---|
Term Name | Copy Index |
Label | Copy Index |
Definition | A copy index is an index that duplicates a portion of an existing index |
Comment | Copy index is different from Carbon copy index and from other derived index in that it copies some or all of an existing index’s functionality, structure or both |
Type of Term | Derived index |
Term | Description |
|---|---|
Term Name | Carbon Copy Index |
Label | Carbon Copy Index |
Definition | A carbon copy index is an index that duplicates an existing index a hundred percent |
Comment | Carbon Copy index is different from copy index and other derived index in that it is an exact copy of an existing index or indices |
Type of Term | Derived index |
Term | Description |
|---|---|
Term Name | Meta Index |
Label | Meta Index |
Definition | An index of an index, meaning an index that is abstracted from the original index without revealing identifiable information, that may be doubly distanced from the original base index or other derived index |
Comment | Meta index is different from other derived index in that it is meta of derived index. An example of a meta index is a bibliography of books and book chapters in a particular subject area. It is a meta index of indices |
Type of Term | Derived index |
Term | Description |
|---|---|
Term Name | Abridged Index |
Label | Abridged Index |
Definition | An abridged index is a briefer version of an existing index |
Comment | Abridged index is different from other derived index in that it is shorted version of a derived index. An example of a abridged index can be seen in books which poses two indices: one that only lists the chapters and another which lists the chapters along with every section and subsection of each chapter... |
Type of Term | Derived index |
Term | Description |
|---|---|
Label | Fragment Index |
Term Name | Fragment Index |
Definition | A fragment index is an incomplete portion of an index |
Comment | Fragment index is different from other derived index in that it is an incomplete derived index. An example of a fragment index is a table of contents of a book which is missing a page |
Type of Term | Derived index |
Term | Description |
|---|---|
Label | Supplemental Index |
Term Name | Supplemental Index |
Definition | A supplemental index is an index which supplements an existing index |
Comment | An example of a supplemental index in a book is seen in various paper copy textbooks which include several additional (not included on paper) chapters on either an included digital media such as a disk or the textbook’s/author’s/publisher’s website |
Type of Term | Derived index |
Term | Description |
|---|---|
Label | Tangential Index |
Term Name | Tangential Index |
Definition | A tangential index is an index which indexes related data to data already indexed in an existing index |
Comment | For example, a book word index, listing the pages upon which a word occurs, can be enhanced with a tangential index that adds the line number or numbers in that page wherein the word occurs |
Type of Term | Derived index |
Term | Description |
|---|---|
Term Name | Intersectional Index |
Label | Intersectional Index |
Definition | An intersectional index is an index which combines parts of existing indices into a single index |
Comment | For example, a table of contents in a book that is an editorial work which brings together parts of several books and lists several chapters, sections, and subsections of each in one uniform index is an intersectional index |
Type of Term | Derived index |
Term | Description |
|---|---|
Term Name | Union/Aggregate Index |
Label | Union/Aggregate Index |
Definition | A union/aggregate index is an index which combines 2 or more indices in their entirety into a single index |
Comment | Any book series which after completion is then republished in a single volume edition will contain a master index which brings together the indices of each of the books together in a single index |
Type of Term | Derived index |
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Israel, M.J., Shaghaghi, N., Amer, A. (2021). ToDI: A Taxonomy of Derived Indices. In: Shaghaghi, N., Lamberti, F., Beams, B., Shariatmadari, R., Amer, A. (eds) Intelligent Technologies for Interactive Entertainment. INTETAIN 2020. Lecture Notes of the Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering, vol 377. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-76426-5_4
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