Using Taxonomies Effectively in the Organization v. 2.0

Using Taxonomies Effectively in the Organization v. 2.0KnowledgeNets 2001Vivian BlissMicrosoft Knowledge Network [email protected]

5/16/2001 Using Taxonomies- Microsoft Knowledge Network Group

2

RoadmapWhat are taxonomies?Where do taxonomies fit?What are taxonomies good for?How do you build them?How do you use them?Future directions


3

What are Taxonomies?Taxonomy: a classification of elements within a domain 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


4

Resources

User Interface

Feedback Custom er Satisfaction

Ente

rpris

e Po

rtal S

ervi

ces

Res

ourc

es

S

ecur

ity

M

etric

s

IntegrationNavigation M ethods

BrowseSearch

Com munication ProcessPublishing Distribution

BusinessRules

Personalization Customization

Information Architecturem etadata - organization services

PS S KBArchive

Docum entS tores

Public FoldersPersonnel HR Data Collaboration Tahoe Store

LO BPortals

Where do Taxonomies Fit?


5

What are Taxonomies Good For?

Taxonomies are applied to: Items: (aka resources) individual pieces of

information (documents, people, etc…)By the use of: Metadata: (aka properties, attributes) information

describing types of data. Which may or may not use values from a: Vocabulary: selection of terms, classified or sorted

To create: Content: an item and its associated metadata


6

How Do You Build Taxonomies?

Determine scope of project Boundaries will determine resources

needed Breadth and depth are both important

dimensionsObtain resource commitments Project will require both high and low

level support If cross-organizational, even more critical


7

First StepsUser needs survey to understand: The content your users need to do their

work The ways your users access that conten The context(s) in which your users function

Information audit to determine: Where your existing content is How that content is structured Who is responsible for the content


8

Sample Survey QuestionsMSWeb 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

Sample Tag Audit


10

Next StepsInvolve your users Include key stakeholders in process Validate direction with content

owners and usersDecide on architectural approach Dependent on purpose of project Complexity will depend on needs


11

The ProcessIdentifybusinessneeds_______•User needssurvey•Tagaudit•Contentaudit

Collect/structureterms________•Buildvocabs•Definerules•Createchangecontrolprocess

Tagcontent

________•Embedvocabaccessin tools•Provideguidelinesfor use

Expose Content

________•Embedtags ininterfaces•Segment content by attributes•EnablethruXML/XSL

Defineneeded attributes _______•Buildobjectmodel•Createflat list•Providemappingschema?


12

How do You Use Taxonomies?

Classes of Taxonomies Content focused/user focused

Global and local-------

Content creation- taggingSite navigation- categoriesInformation retrieval- searchPersonalization- delivery


13

Content CreationTagging of documents, URLs, other items is critical for improved retrievalTwo examples: 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


14


15


16


17


18

Site NavigationMuch of a portal’s navigation centers around organization of information through categoriesCategories can be considered a site-specific or local vocabulary, used to tag URLsMSWeb uses taxonomy management tools for this purpose


19

MSWeb Categories


20

Category subpage


21

MSWeb Search


22


23

ResultsKey measure Q4 99 Q1 00 Q2 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 top50 search strings returning 10 or more BB 6 10 5

Number of top 20 search strings returning 10 or more BB 3 6 4


24


25

Future directionsAdditional groups inside the company leveraging

taxonomies and processes for internal AND external use.

2nd generation taxonomy management tool being built-translating terms into multiple languages-sharp focus on relationships between terms allowing more creative query expansion both automatic and interactive

KNG responsible for managing global taxonomies, various groups responsible for their own local taxonomies with everyone using the same tool.

Continue investigating personalization.


26

Questions? v. 2.0Vivian [email protected]

v. 1.0 KMWorld 2000 – Mike Crandall

mailto:[email protected]


28

Taxonomies in Search

Indexing

User

Other Users

Query Preprocessing

Result Set Manipulation

Searching Index(es)User

Interface

IndexerIndependent Metadata

Data Stores

Data Analysis

Index Metadata

database schemasthesauri

file systemhttpmessaging storesDocument storeDatabasesDirectory stores

string manipulationsynonym sets &thesauristemmingwordbreaking

adaptive crawlingword breakingword stemmingNLP

dedupingconcatenationranking

Result Refining

User Metadata


29

Key Success FactorsDefine in terms of business value authority, relevance, timeliness, impact

Include metrics to prove successBalance between control and collaborationMeet key stakeholder criteria on costs to build, costs to maintainTake usability/user behavior seriously Manage expectations all round


30

Finding common ground across multiple taxonomies or schemas with similar terms and different meaningsOverkill…building relationships where they aren’t practical given severe human resource constraintsEnsuring the ongoing integrity of the taxonomyAcceptance by authors of tagging toolsApplication across object types, storage devices, languages, contextIntegration with legacy systems and external content

Challenges


31

Conflicts in Using Taxonomies

Flexibility versus stabilityCosts versus resource commitmentsFocus versus breadth of scopeLocalization versus globalizationSpeed versus thoroughness


32

PersonalizationThe last step in linking content to peopleRequires well tagged content, and the ability to capture a user profileCurrent directions for MSWeb are to take advantage of Active Directory profiles, based on values pulled from common taxonomyStill in beginning stages

Using Taxonomies Effectively in the Organization v. 2.0

Documents

Transcript of Using Taxonomies Effectively in the Organization v. 2.0