Taxonomy Strategies LLC Essentials of Metadata and Taxonomy

Taxonomy Strategies LLC Essentials of Metadata and Taxonomy Strategies: Steps for Successful Project Planning Michael Lauruhn Taxonomy Strategies LLC September 25, 2008 Copyright 2008 Taxonomy Strategies LLC. All rights reserved.

Who am I: Mike Lauruhn v Over 8 years working at Internet companies. § Member, Taxonomy Strategies § Content Intelligence Technical Specialist, CMP Media § Metadata Consultant, Interwoven § Ontologist / Category Manager, Looksmart. com v Community service. § Cataloger, California Newspaper Project § Co-President, American Library Association Student Chapter § Volunteer, Electronic Discovery Center, San Francisco Public Library Taxonomy Strategies LLC The business of organized information 2

Purpose v Identify and explain steps to help guide a taxonomy project through an organization. v Explain how to: § Build interest and support for a taxonomy project. § Build momentum and a governance model so the taxonomy doesn’t end on the “last day” of the project. (It’s more than having the “correct” taxonomy in place. ) Taxonomy Strategies LLC The business of organized information 3

Why is this important? v Taxonomy projects can be misunderstood. § “It's the new search engine. ” § “It's the new site navigation. ” § “Can't we just use the site map? ” § “Luxury. . . but not an essential project. ” v Taxonomy projects can be expensive. § Involves participation from many resources. § Multiple meetings and iterations. § Can involve multiple IT applications. – Search engine, DAM, CMS, etc. § Legacy content tagging and migration projects. Taxonomy Strategies LLC The business of organized information 4

Topics v Defining succinct use cases. v Making the case to management. v Understanding your audience, content and technology. v Build a usable and durable taxonomy. v Communications, education and marketing. v Planning, governance and maintenance. Taxonomy Strategies LLC The business of organized information 5

Topics v Defining succinct use cases. v Making the case to management. v Understanding your audience, content and technology. v Build a usable and durable taxonomy. v Communications, education and marketing. v Planning, governance and maintenance. Taxonomy Strategies LLC The business of organized information 6

Defining Use Cases v Use cases should be: § Tangible and specific. § Relevant to your organization. § Measurable. § Focused. • Pick one or two applications and describe a pain point. v Avoid: § Vague and open-ended use cases. – “It’ll improve the search. ” § The temptation to start with large-scale enterprise-wide use cases. Taxonomy Strategies LLC The business of organized information 7

Defining Use Cases v Be specific with use cases: § This will give our account managers to ability to find all the assets we’ve created for a particular customer. § This will allow artists the ability to find examples of other print advertisements generated for a given demographic. § Content creators can use this to find templates used for similar communications to the one they are working on. Taxonomy Strategies LLC The business of organized information 8

Defining Use Cases v Benefits of succinct Use Cases § Keeps the taxonomy focused. § Provides goals that stakeholders can indentify. § Makes it easy to describe to colleagues and sponsors. Taxonomy Strategies LLC The business of organized information 9

Topics v Defining succinct use cases. v Making the case to management. v Understanding your audience, content and technology. v Build a usable and durable taxonomy. v Communications, education and marketing. v Planning, governance and maintenance. Taxonomy Strategies LLC The business of organized information 10

Making the case to management Identify savings to the bottom line: v Efficiencies to existing business process. § “It will save time. ” v Better utilization of tools. § “We will get more use from our repository and storage. ” v Lower risk. § “This will help us get better control over our clients’ intellectual property. ” Taxonomy Strategies LLC The business of organized information 11

Making the case to management v Re-state use cases: v This will give our account managers to ability to find all the assets we’ve created for a particular customer. § “This will give us better control over Intellectual Property. ” v This will allow artists the ability to find examples of other print advertisements generated for a given demographic. § “This will save hours and contribute to the creative process. ” v Content creators can use this to find templates used for similar communications to the one they are working on. § “This will save hours of searching and recreating content. ” Taxonomy Strategies LLC The business of organized information 12

Making the case to management v Benefits of communicating to management § Support for the immediate project. § Can help identify similar projects to leverage the taxonomy. § Makes is easier to justify expansion and future initiatives. Taxonomy Strategies LLC The business of organized information 13

Topics v Defining succinct use cases. v Making the case to management. v Understanding your audience, content and technology. v Build a usable and durable taxonomy. v Communications, education and marketing. v Planning, governance and maintenance. Taxonomy Strategies LLC The business of organized information 14

Understanding your audience v Does the taxonomy make sense to: § The resources who will be tagging the assets? § The resources who use and search for the assets? v Getting their buy-in: § Re-affirm the use cases. § Interview during the taxonomy development process. § Incorporate them into review cycles. § Use existing terminology. Taxonomy Strategies LLC The business of organized information 15

Understanding your technology v What metadata does the technology support? § Does the software automatically assign technical metadata that can be used? Size, color, scale, formats, etc. v What are the vocabulary elements that will be supported? § Will the taxonomy require: » Hierarchies? » Relationships between vocabularies? » Synonyms and alt terms? Taxonomy Strategies LLC The business of organized information 16

Understanding your content v How will the metadata be assigned to the assets and content? v How easy is it to tag or re-tag the content? v How accessible is the metadata and how can it be reused or deployed? Taxonomy Strategies LLC The business of organized information 17

Understanding your audience, content & technology v Benefits § Internal anticipation and support for the immediate projects. § Avoids surprises for technical implementation. § Prevents superfluous taxonomy development and identifies unsupported functionality. § Avoids surprises for asset owners and content users. Taxonomy Strategies LLC The business of organized information 18

Topics v Defining succinct use cases. v Making the case to management. v Understanding your audience, content and technology. v Build a usable and durable taxonomy. v Communications, education and marketing. v Planning, governance and maintenance. Taxonomy Strategies LLC The business of organized information 19

The faceted taxonomy v Discrete branches of a taxonomy. v Consistent, extensible sets of attributes for labeling content and content components. Benefits: • Easier to maintain. • Easier to tag by content owners. • Can be easier to navigate. Main Ingredients • • • Taxonomy Strategies LLC The business of organized information Chocolate Dairy Fruits Grains Meat & Seafood Nuts Olives Pasta Spices & Seasonings Vegetables Meal Type • • • Breakfast Brunch Lunch Supper Dinner Snack Cooking Methods Cuisines • • • African American Asian Caribbean Continental Eclectic/ Fusion/ International Jewish Latin American Mediterranean Middle Eastern Vegetarian • • • • Advanced Bake Broil Fry Grill Marinade Microwave No Cooking Poach Quick Roast Sauté Slow Cooking • Steam • Stir-fry 20

Some examples of facets v Functional Context: Content Type: Audio Recording Banner Ad Brochure Photograph Print Advertisement Public Service Announcement … Function: Marketing Sales Legal Safety … Taxonomy Strategies LLC The business of organized information 21

Some examples of facets v Who is the asset for? Industries & Vertical Markets: Aerospace Automotive Healthcare Information Technology Retail … Audience & Demographics: Veterans College students Families Active Military … Taxonomy Strategies LLC The business of organized information 22

Some examples of facets v Proper names: § Clients & Partners § Products & Services § Place names § People Taxonomy Strategies LLC The business of organized information 23

Faceted taxonomy v Refer to the Use Cases when defining the facets. § This will give our account managers to ability to find all the assets we’ve created for a particular customer. § This will allow artists the ability to find examples of other print advertisements generated for a given demographic. § Content creators can use this to find templates used for similar communications to the one they are working on. Taxonomy Strategies LLC The business of organized information 24

Build a usable and durable taxonomy v Benefits § Easier to maintain than a single comprehensive taxonomy. § Easy to use for tagging. § Allows for narrowing and expanding of searches. Taxonomy Strategies LLC The business of organized information 25

Topics v Defining succinct use cases. v Making the case to management. v Understanding your audience, content and technology. v Build a usable and durable taxonomy. v Communications, education and marketing. v Planning, governance and maintenance. Taxonomy Strategies LLC The business of organized information 26

Communications, Education & Marketing v Engage stakeholders and content owners v Hold meetings and ongoing dialog: § Re-affirm the use cases. § Interview during the taxonomy development process. § Incorporate them into review cycles. § Keep stakeholders up to date about process and workflow changes. Taxonomy Strategies LLC The business of organized information 27

Communications, Education & Marketing v Encourage content owners and users to participate in taxonomy validation exercises. v Sample tagging exercises with screenshots and spreadsheets of the taxonomy. § Helps build confidence and familiarity. § Final opportunity for feedback and questions. Taxonomy Strategies LLC The business of organized information 28

Communications, Education & Marketing v Benefits § Engaged users will be supportive and not surprised. § Training will be less intensive for users. § Users will understand processes and feedback mechanisms. Taxonomy Strategies LLC The business of organized information 29

Topics v Defining succinct use cases. v Making the case to management. v Understanding your audience, content and technology. v Build a usable and durable taxonomy. v Communications, education and marketing. v Planning, governance and maintenance. Taxonomy Strategies LLC The business of organized information 30

Taxonomy Roadmap v Identifies ways key business functions organize and store information so it can be found and used later. v Makes recommendations on how to use these methods into common information organization practices. v Provides the governance model to facilitate development and maintenance of the taxonomy. Taxonomy Strategies LLC The business of organized information 31

Planning, governance & maintenance v The taxonomy is not “locked down” upon implementation. v Taxonomy will need to grow and evolve, but in predictable way. v Taxonomy governance will help manage the taxonomy and answer questions: § How can content users make suggestions? § Who is responsible for adding new terms? § How do verdicts get reached? § When does an update taxonomy get released? § What if there is an urgent update needed? Taxonomy Strategies LLC The business of organized information 32

Planning, governance & maintenance v Components of taxonomy governance may include: § Taxonomy governance team. § Team charter. § Multiple change request processes. § Communications model. v Duties include: § Log change requests. § Communicate changes. § Taxonomy release schedule. § Develop & maintain documentation. § Prepare training materials. Taxonomy Strategies LLC The business of organized information 33

Planning, governance & maintenance v Benefits § Taxonomy owners will have documented processes for decisions. § Users will understand processes and feedback mechanisms. § IT administrators and content owners know who can make changes to the taxonomy. Taxonomy Strategies LLC The business of organized information 34

Taxonomy Strategies LLC Questions? Michael Lauruhn, +1 -415 -378 -2747 mlauruhn@taxonomystrategies. com www. taxonomystrategies. com September 25, 2008 Copyright 2008 Taxonomy Strategies LLC. All rights reserved.