Model of Taxonomy Development

1. Model of Taxonomy Development Tom ReamyChief Knowledge Architect KAPS Group Knowledge Architecture Professional Services http://www.kapsgroup.com

2. Agenda • Introduction • Infrastructure Model of Taxonomy Development • Taxonomy in 4 Contexts • Content, People, Processes, Technology • Infrastructure and Theory • Beyond Search and Taxonomy Projects • Infrastructure Solutions – the Elements • Applying the Model – Practical Dimension • Starting and Resources • Infrastructure Look at Taxonomy Boot Camp • Conclusion

3. KAPS Group • Knowledge Architecture Professional Services (KAPS) • Consulting, strategy recommendations • Knowledge architecture audits • Partners – Convera, Inxight, and others • Taxonomies: Enterprise, Marketing, Insurance, etc. • Taxonomy customization • Intellectual infrastructure for organizations • Knowledge organization, technology, people and processes • Search, content management, portals, collaboration, knowledge management, e-learning, etc.

4. Infrastructure Model of Taxonomy DevelopmentTaxonomy in Basic 4 Contexts • Ideas – Content Structure • Language and Mind of your organization • Applications - exchange meaning, not data • People – Company Structure • Communities, Users, Central Team • Activities – Business processes and procedures • Central team - establish standards, facilitate • Technology / Things • CMS, Search, portals, taxonomy tools • Applications – BI, CI, Text Mining

5. Taxonomy in ContextStructuring Content • All kinds of content and Content Structures • Structured and unstructured, Internet and desktop • Metadata standards – Dublin core+ • Keywords - poor performance • Need controlled vocabulary, taxonomies, semantic network • Other Metadata • Document Type • Form, policy, how-to, etc. • Audience • Role, function, expertise, information behaviors • Best bets metadata • Facets – entities and ideas • Wine.com

6. Taxonomy in Context:Structuring People • Individual People • Tacit knowledge, information behaviors • Advanced personalization – category priority • Sales – forms ---- New Account Form • Accountant ---- New Accounts ---- Forms • Communities • Variety of types – map of formal and informal • Variety of subject matter – vaccines, research, scuba • Variety of communication channels and information behaviors • Community-specific vocabularies, need for inter-community communication (Cortical organization model)

7. Taxonomy in Context:Structuring Processes and Technology • Technology: infrastructure and applications • Enterprise platforms: from creation to retrieval to application • Taxonomy as the computer network • Applications – integrated meaning, not just data • Creation – content management, innovation, communities of practice (CoPs) • When, who, how, and how much structure to add • Workflow with meaning, distributed subject matter experts (SMEs) and centralized teams • Retrieval – standalone and embedded in applications and business processes • Portals, collaboration, text mining, business intelligence, CRM

8. Taxonomy in Context:The Integrating Infrastructure • Starting point: knowledge architecture audit, K-Map • Social network analysis, information behaviors • People – knowledge architecture team • Infrastructure activities – taxonomies, analytics, best bets • Facilitation – knowledge transfer, partner with SMEs • “Taxonomies” of content, people, and activities • Dynamic Dimension – complexity not chaos • Analytics based on concepts, information behaviors • Taxonomy as part of a foundation, not a project • In an Infrastructure Context

9. Infrastructure Model of Taxonomy Development Infrastructure vs. Project Approaches • Economist June 9, 2005: • Overdue and over budget, over and over again. • Companies are increasingly keen on projects. • Why? When so many of them fail. • Failure to integrate all relevant contexts • Under-developed understanding of contexts • Ideas – least developed infrastructure • Closure is an illusion.

10. Infrastructure Model of Taxonomy Development :Project Approach or Infrastructure Approach • Situation: Problem with access to information • Project Approach • Publish everything on the intranet • Buy a search engine • Do some keyword and usability tests • Buy a portal (or two) • Buy content management software • Try knowledge organization – taxonomy? • Infrastructure Approach • “The path up and down is one and the same.” (Heraclitus)

11. Infrastructure Model of Taxonomy Development The Infrastructure Solution: Why • Immanuel Kant • Concepts without percepts are empty. • Percepts without concepts are blind. • Knowledge Management • KM/KA without applications is empty • Strategy only, management fad • Elegant taxonomies - unused • Applications without KA are blind • IT based KM • Fragmented applications

12. Infrastructure Model of Taxonomy Development The Infrastructure Solution: Why • Taxonomies are not for the timid • Software and SME’s is not the answer • Example of keywords • Taxonomies not stand alone • Metadata, controlled vocabularies, synonyms, etc. • Variety of taxonomies, plus categorization, classification, etc. • Important to know the differences, when to use which • Integrated Enterprise requires both an infrastructure team and distributed expertise. • Advanced Cognitive Differences • Panda, monkey, banana

13. Infrastructure Model of Taxonomy Development The Infrastructure Solution: Why • In a Word – Word • Infrastructure as Operating System • Word vs. Word Perfect • Instead of sharing clipboard, share information and knowledge. • Importance of Integration • ROI – asking the wrong question • What is ROI for having an HR department? • A Political Fable – Finding the right set of answers

14. Infrastructure Solutions: The start and foundationKnowledge Architecture Audit • Knowledge Map - Understand what you have, what you are, what you want • The foundation of the foundation • Contextual interviews, content analysis, surveys, focus groups, ethnographic studies • Category modeling – “Intertwingledness” -learning new categories influenced by other, related categories • Natural level categories mapped to communities, activities • Novice prefer higher levels • Balance of informative and distinctiveness • Living, breathing, evolving foundation is the goal

15. Infrastructure Solutions: ResourcesPeople and Processes: Roles and Functions • Knowledge Architect and learning object designers • Knowledge engineers and cognitive anthropologists • Knowledge facilitators and trainers and librarians • Part Time • Librarians and information architects • Corporate communication editors and writers • Partners • IT, web developers, applications programmers • Business analysts and project managers

16. Infrastructure Solutions: Resources People and Processes: Central Team • Central Team supported by software and offering services • Creating, acquiring, evaluating taxonomies, metadata standards, vocabularies • Input into technology decisions and design – content management, portals, search • Socializing the benefits of metadata, creating a content culture • Evaluating metadata quality, facilitating author metadata • Analyzing the results of using metadata, how communities are using • Research metadata theory, user centric metadata • Design content value structure – more nuanced than good / poor content.

17. Infrastructure Solutions: ResourcesPeople and Processes: Facilitating Knowledge Transfer • Need for Facilitators • Amazon hiring humans to refine recommendations • Google – humans answering queries • Facilitate projects, KM project teams • Facilitate knowledge capture in meetings, best practices • Answering online questions, facilitating online discussions, networking within a community • Design and run KM forums, education and innovation fairs • Work with content experts to develop training, incorporate intelligence into applications • Support innovation, knowledge creation in communities

18. Infrastructure Solutions: ResourcesPeople and Processes: Location of Team • KM/KA Dept. – Cross Organizational, Interdisciplinary • Balance of dedicated and virtual, partners • Library, Training, IT, HR, Corporate Communication • Balance of central and distributed • Industry variation • Pharmaceutical – dedicated department, major place in the organization • Insurance – Small central group with partners • Beans – a librarian and part time functions • Which design – knowledge architecture audit

19. Infrastructure Solutions: ResourcesTechnology • Taxonomy Management • Text and Visualization • Entity and Fact Extraction • Text Mining • Search for professionals • Different needs, different interfaces • Integration Platform technology • Enterprise Content Management

20. Infrastructure Solutions: Taxonomy DevelopmentInitial Development / Customization • Combination of top down and bottom up (and Essences) • Top: Design an ontology, facet selection • Bottom: Vocabulary extraction – documents, search logs, interview authors and users • Develop essential examples (Prototypes) • Most Intuitive Level – genus (oak, maple, rabbit) • Quintessential Chair – all the essential characteristics, no more • Map the taxonomy to communities and activities • Category differences • Vocabulary differences

21. Infrastructure Solutions: Taxonomy DevelopmentEvaluate and Refine • Formal Evaluation • Quality of corpus – size, homogeneity, representative • Breadth of coverage – main ideas, outlier ideas (see next) • Structure – balance of depth and width • Practical Evaluation • Test in real life application • Test node labels with Subject Matter Experts, representative users and documents • Test with representative key concepts • Test for un-representative strange little concepts that only mean something to a few people but the people and ideas are key and are normally impossible to find

22. Infrastructure Solutions: Taxonomy DevelopmentIssues and Ideas • Enterprise Taxonomy • No single subject matter taxonomy • Need an ontology of facets or domains • Standards and Customization • Balance of corporate communication and departmental specifics • At what level are differences represented? • Customize pre-defined taxonomy – additional structure, add synonyms and acronyms and vocabulary • Enterprise Facet Model: • Actors, Events, Functions, Locations, Objects, Information Resources • Combine and map to subject domains

23. Infrastructure Approach:Taxonomy Boot Camp • Making the business case: • Sell as infrastructure, platform, foundation – not a project • Project within contexts, not end in itself • Defining the requirements • Not just for the project, but how it will fit with other projects • Criteria for decisions – strategy options, types • Developing an Enterprise Taxonomy • Decide how and when and whether to • Mix of global and local • Making the build, buy, automate decision • Make a better, deeper decision

24. Infrastructure Approach:Taxonomy Boot Camp • Building A Taxonomy • Keeping broader and multiple contexts in mind • Integration and Implementation • Major area for infrastructure approach • Applications, communication, users • Testing & Usability • Usability in different applications and user communities • Need a map of user communities, activities

25. Infrastructure Approach:Taxonomy Boot Camp • Governance & Maintenance • Part of people infrastructure – organizational issues • Partnership of central team and business, SME’s • Enterprise Taxonomy – Groundwork, Governance, Connections • Infrastructure approach doesn’t mean start big, do it all at once • Facets & Folksonomies • To Facet or not to Facet • Complexity Theory and Folksonomies • Central Group, but not management, control

26. Infrastructure Approach:Taxonomy Boot Camp • Strategies & Tools • Strategies • Think Big, Start Small, Scale Fast • Foundation as a separate project • Tools • Integration as important as features • Support for all phases of taxonomy development • Platform software – CMS, KM, LMS

27. Conclusion • Taxonomy development is not just a project • It has no beginning and no end • Taxonomy development is not an end in itself • It enables the accomplishment of many ends • Taxonomy development is not just about search or browse • It is about language, cognition, and applied intelligence • Strategic Vision (articulated by K Map) is important • Even for your under the radar vocabulary project • Paying attention to theory is practical • So is adapting your language to business speak

28. Conclusion • Taxonomies are part of your intellectual infrastructure • Roads, transportation systems not cars or types of cars • Taxonomies are part of creating smart organizations • Self aware, capable of learning and evolving • If we really are in a knowledge economy • We need to pay attention to – • Knowledge!

29. Questions? Tom Reamytomr@kapsgroup.com KAPS Group Knowledge Architecture Professional Services http://www.kapsgroup.com