Using Taxonomies Effectively in the Organization KMWorld 2000

Using Taxonomies Effectively in the Organization KMWorld 2000 Mike Crandall Microsoft Information Services mikecran@microsoft. com 9/17/2000 Using Taxonomies- Microsoft Information Services

Roadmap What are taxonomies? Where do taxonomies fit? What are taxonomies good for? How do you build them? How do you use them? Issues and challenges 9/17/2000 Using Taxonomies- Microsoft Information Services 2

What are Taxonomies? Taxonomy: a classification of elements within a domain n n 9/17/2000 Domain: a sphere of knowledge, influence, or activity Classification: the operation of grouping elements and establishing relationships between them (or the product of that operation) Relationships: a defined linkage between two elements Element: an object or concept Using Taxonomies- Microsoft Information Services 3

Where do Taxonomies Fit? 9/17/2000 Using Taxonomies- Microsoft Information Services 4

What are Taxonomies Good For? Taxonomies are applied to: n Items: (aka resources) individual pieces of information (documents, people, etc…) By the use of: n Metadata: (aka properties, attributes) information describing types of data. Which may or may not use values from a: n Vocabulary: selection of terms, classified or sorted To create: n 9/17/2000 Content: an item and its associated metadata Using Taxonomies- Microsoft Information Services 5

How Do You Build Taxonomies? Determine scope of project n n Boundaries will determine resources needed Breadth and depth are both important dimensions Obtain resource commitments n n 9/17/2000 Project will require both high and low level support If cross-organizational, even more critical Using Taxonomies- Microsoft Information Services 6

First Steps User needs survey to understand: n n The content your users need to do their work The ways your users access that content Information audit to determine: n n n 9/17/2000 Where your existing content is How that content is structured Who is responsible for the content Using Taxonomies- Microsoft Information Services 7

Sample Survey Questions MSWeb Redesign Information Goals/User Assessment Sheet: 1. List the top five most important information services/or products under your area that you think most employees need to know about? What is the business impact of employees not being aware of this information? 2. Are there additional services and/or information/products within your area that would benefit from increased exposure? Describe the potential business value from employees having a better awareness or understanding of this information. 3. What types of content/information do you think is missing from MSWeb? Why is it important that this…. 9/17/2000 Using Taxonomies- Microsoft Information Services 8

Sample Tag Audit 9/17/2000 Using Taxonomies- Microsoft Information Services 9

Next Steps Involve your users n n Include key stakeholders in process Validate direction with content owners and users Decide on architectural approach n n 9/17/2000 Dependent on purpose of project Complexity will depend on needs Using Taxonomies- Microsoft Information Services 10

The Process Identify business needs _______ Define needed attributes _______ Collect/ Tag Expose structure content Content terms ________ • User needs survey • Tag audit • Content audit • Build object model • Create flat list • Provide mapping schema? • Build vocabs • Define rules • Create change control process 9/17/2000 • Embed vocab access in tools • Provide guidelines for use Using Taxonomies- Microsoft Information Services • Embed tags in interfaces • Segment content by attributes • Enable thru XML/XSL 11

How do You Use Taxonomies? Content creation- tagging Site navigation- categories Information retrieval- search Personalization- delivery 9/17/2000 Using Taxonomies- Microsoft Information Services 12

Content Creation Tagging of documents, URLs, other items is critical for improved retrieval Two examples: n n 9/17/2000 MSWeb Best Bets database- catalog of URLs used in search and categories News publishing tool- used for tagging external and internal news for portal display Using Taxonomies- Microsoft Information Services 13

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Site Navigation Much of a portal’s navigation centers around organization of information through categories Categories can be considered a sitespecific vocabulary, used to tag URLs MSWeb uses taxonomy management tools for this purpose 9/17/2000 Using Taxonomies- Microsoft Information Services 18

MSWeb Categories 9/17/2000 Using Taxonomies- Microsoft Information Services 19

Category subpage 9/17/2000 Using Taxonomies- Microsoft Information Services 20

Taxonomies in Search 9/17/2000 21

MSWeb Search 9/17/2000 Using Taxonomies- Microsoft Information Services 22

Results Key measure Q 4 99 Q 1 00 Q 2 00 Total number of registered sites 834 858 808 Average # Best Bets returned with 20 top search strings 3. 6 2. 75 4. 35 Modal # BB with top 20 1 5 1 Median # BB with top 20 2. 5 3 3 Percentage of all top search strings that return Best Bets 69% 85% 98% Percentage of 50 top search strings that return BBs 82% 84% 98% Percentage of 20 top search strings that return BBs 90% 80% 100% Number of all top search strings returning 10 or more Best Bets 18 12 5 Number of top 50 search strings returning 10 or more BB 6 10 5 Number of top 20 search strings returning 10 or more BB 3 6 4 9/17/2000 Using Taxonomies- Microsoft Information Services 23

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Personalization The last step in linking content to people Requires well tagged content, and the ability to capture a user profile Current directions for MSWeb are to take advantage of Active Directory profiles, based on values pulled from common taxonomy Still in beginning stages 9/17/2000 Using Taxonomies- Microsoft Information Services 25

Conflicts in Using Taxonomies Flexibility versus stability Costs versus resource commitments Focus versus breadth of scope Localization versus globalization Speed versus thoroughness 9/17/2000 Using Taxonomies- Microsoft Information Services 26

Challenges Finding common ground across multiple taxonomies or schemas with similar terms and different meanings Overkill…building relationships where they aren’t practical given severe human resource constraints Ensuring the ongoing integrity of the taxonomy Acceptance by authors of tagging tools Application across object types, storage devices, languages, context Integration with legacy systems and external content 9/17/2000 Using Taxonomies- Microsoft Information Services 27

Key Success Factors Define in terms of business value n authority, relevance, timeliness, impact Include metrics to prove success Balance between control and collaboration Meet key stakeholder criteria on costs to build, costs to maintain Take usability/user behavior seriously Manage expectations all round 9/17/2000 Using Taxonomies- Microsoft Information Services 28

Questions? Mike Crandall mikecran@microsoft. com 9/17/2000 Using Taxonomies- Microsoft Information Services 29

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