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!

Questions?

Tom Reamytomr@kapsgroup.com

KAPS Group

Knowledge Architecture Professional Services

http://www.kapsgroup.com