grouping-examples

Grouping

Grouping is a fundamental mechanism for understanding the relationship between objects. Where an object resides in a network of relationships can clarify its purpose. Grouping relationships are fundamental to how we understand object interactions.

The Problem

It is useful to understand the relationship between objects on a website. A blogger may want to describe several different objects on a web page and group them explicitly. It is important that the structure of the page not affect this grouping as network relationships are often not hierarchical (HTML is always hierarchical).

Where an object resides in a network of relationships can clarify its purpose. For example, an audio album can have a number of audio tracks. It is desirable that the tracks and the album can be associated with one another without needing to be explicitly grouped. The same goes for chapters in a DVD movie, sections of a podcast, and a set of geographic points.

Grouping relationships are fundamental to how we understand object interactions.

Contributors

• Manu Sporny, Bitmunk - Digital Bazaar, Inc. (PI, editor)
• Danny Ayers
• Rudy Desjardins
• Chris Griego
• Scott Reynen
• Brian Suda
• Mary Hodder
• Ryan King
• Kevin Marks

Discussions

Discussions related to grouping:

• April 17th, 2007 - Suggestion for collections (audio, video, images)
• April 22nd, 2007 - collection-design-pattern proposal

Real-World Examples

PLEASE USE THIS TEMPLATE WHEN MARKING UP EXAMPLES

• Site Name
  • Example
    • Information: unordered, ordered, sparse, non-sparse

Types of grouping

• unordered - Unordered grouping is a type of grouping where the items in the group have no particular order or are not numbered in any way. These lists can be marked by <ul> HTML tags, but do not have to be.
• ordered - Ordered grouping is when items in a group have a very clear order. The easiest way to differentiate ordered grouping is if the items are numbered. These lists are almost always marked by <ol>
• sparse - Sparse grouping means that the items in the group are spread over the entire page and are not contained in a single list. Sparse groups are also created when items of the same type are interspersed, but don't belong to the same group. For example, an example of two sparse groups would be birds and fish: crow, dolphin, dove, shark, pigeon.
• non-sparse - Non-sparse grouping means that the items in the group are very close together on the page and are usually encapsulated in a single list. For example: crow, dove, pigeon.

People and Song Grouping in Music Podcasting

These sites usually list one big file containg multiples songs, speech, audio advertising and prerecorded audio (such as voicemail or promos). Effort is taken to list each section of the recording as a group (aka: playlist).

• Coverville
  • Example episode
    • Information: unordered, sparse

• Magnatune podcasts
  • episode example
    • Information: ordered, sparse

• Radio Clash
  • episode example
    • Information: unordered, sparse

• Daily Source Code
  • episode example
    • Information: unordered, sparse

• Rock and Roll Geek show
  • episode example
    • Information: unordered, non-sparse

• Accidenth hash
  • episode example
    • Information: unordered, sparse

• Veer cast
  • episode example
    • Information: unordered, sparse

• Concert Blast
  • mp3 episode example
    • Information: unordered, sparse

• 3 hive podcast
  • episode example
    • Information: unordered, non-sparse

Album and Track Grouping in Music Services

• AudioFind
  • Album Example
    • Information: ordered, sparse

• Telstra BigPond
  • Album Example
    • Information: ordered, sparse

• Bitmunk
  • Album Example
    • Information: ordered, sparse

• Download Punk
  • Album Example
    • Information: unordered, non-sparse

• FYE
  • Album Example
    • Information: ordered, unordered, sparse

• iMusic
  • Album Example
    • Information: ordered, sparse

• AON Music
  • Album Example
    • Information: ordered, non-sparse

• MSN
  • Album Example
    • Information: unordered, ordered, sparse

• TDC Online
  • Album Example
    • Information: unordered, sparse

• Audio Lunchbox
  • Album Example
    • Information: unordered, ordered, sparse, non-sparse

• Chaos Music
  • Album Example
    • Information: unordered, ordered, sparse, non-sparse

• Digirama
  • Album Example
    • Information: ordered, non-sparse

• eMusic
  • Album Example
    • Information: unordered, ordered, sparse

• FNAC
  • Album Example
    • Information: unordered, ordered, non-sparse

• Sanity
  • Album Example
    • Information: ordered, non-sparse

• MisRolas
  • Album Example
    • Information: ordered, sparse

• MTV
  • Album Example
    • Information: ordered, non-sparse

• Musica360
  • Album Example
    • Information: unordered, ordered, sparse, non-sparse

• Musicload
  • Album Example
    • Information: unordered, ordered, non-sparse

• Napster
  • Album Example
    • Information: unordered, ordered, sparse, non-sparse

• PartyMob
  • Album Example
    • Information: unordered, non-sparse

• Peer Impact
  • Album Example
    • Information: ordered, non-sparse

• Pure Tracks
  • Album Example
    • Information: ordered, non-sparse

• Reggae Country
  • Album Example
    • Information: unordered, sparse

• Real/Rhapsody
  • Album Example
    • Information: unordered, ordered, non-sparse

• Ruckus
  • Album Example
    • Information: ordered, non-sparse

• Starzik SARL
  • Album Example (hidden url)
    • Information: ordered, unordered, non-sparse, sparse

• CellCity
  • [1] Album Example]
    • Information: unordered, non-sparse

• top100.cn
  • Album Example
    • Information: ordered, non-sparse

• Wippit
  • Album Example
    • Information: unordered, ordered, non-sparse

• Yanga
  • Album Example
    • Information: ordered, non-sparse

• somesongs
  • Album Example
    • Information: unordered, non-sparse

• Magnatune
  • Album Example
    • Information: unordered, ordered, sparse, non-sparse

• SONG FIGHT!
  • Album Example
    • Information: unordered, non-sparse

• Yes.com
  • Album Example
    • Information: ordered, non-sparse

• MySpace
  • Album Example
    • Information: unordered, sparse

• MusicBrainz.org
  • Album Example
    • Information: unordered, ordered, sparse, non-sparse

• iTunes RSS extensions
  • Album Example
    • Information: unordered, ordered, sparse, non-sparse

• Discogs
  • Album Example
    • Information: ordered, non-sparse

• Last.fm
  • Album Example
    • Information: unordered, ordered, non-sparse

Analysis

This analysis was performed on April 23rd on all of the grouping examples listed on the page at that point.

Total examples: 48

• 100% of examples contained some form of grouping
• 67%: ordered
• 65%: unordered
• 62%: non-sparse
• 54%: sparse

Existing Practices

Listed below is an overview of existing patterns and practices found in the wild for grouping metadata.

Summary of common patterns discovered

• There are typically 4 different methods of grouping: sparse, non-sparse, ordered and unordered.

Other attempts to solve The Problem

• collections-examples - Grouping information in libraries.