A Matter of Definition Explaining Taxonomy and Metadata to the Uninitiated

1. A Matter of Definition Explaining Taxonomy and Metadata to the Uninitiated Ben Licciardi Taxonomy and Information Management Analyst

2. Agenda Understanding Taxonomy and Metadata Taxonomy and Metadata In Action Barriers to Buy-In Communication Strategies and Tools Definitions You Can Use Explaining Taxonomy to Different Audiences

3. Understanding Taxonomy and Metadata What is Taxonomy? Broadly speaking, a taxonomy is any system of organization that divides and orders concepts into groups or categories. In the corporate setting, a taxonomy usually refers to a controlled vocabulary designed to help a business or organization classify and organize information assets in order to solve a problem or accomplish a goal.

4. Understanding Taxonomy and Metadata Document Metadata Title Author Topic File Size Date Created 4 What is Metadata? • Metadata is a way of describing various aspects of an object in a structured and consistent way. • For example, if you were to describe a business document, you might want to capture information like: • Title • Author • Topic • File Size • Date Created • These descriptive elements are called “metadata fields.” They are also sometimes called “facets” or “attributes” depending on the context.

5. Understanding Taxonomy and Metadata Taxonomy is often actualized by applying metadata to an object, like documents, products, or images. Audience Internal Executives Managers External Suppliers Customers Partners Metadata Values (As Taxonomy) Topics Employee Services Compensation Retirement Insurance Further Education Support Services Infrastructure Supplies Products and Services Finance and Budget Metadata Title Author Department Audience Topic

6. Taxonomy and Metadata in Action

7. Taxonomy and Metadata in Action

8. Taxonomy and Metadata in Action

9. Taxonomy and Metadata in Action

10. Taxonomy and Metadata in Action

11. Taxonomy and Metadata in Action

12. Barriers to Buy-In Why is Taxonomy So Hard to Explain? Most of your colleagues have never heard of taxonomy and have no idea what it is. Not all of your colleagues will be interested in organization and classification. Taxonomy and metadata can be difficult to explain in a succinct way. People often don’t see the benefits of taxonomy.

13. Communication Strategies and Tools How Can I Better Explain Taxonomy to My Colleagues? Know your audience – What are their problems, priorities, and goals? How can taxonomy help them succeed? Start at the beginning – Assume your audience knows nothing. Use lots of examples, simple language (no jargon!), be patient, and entertain questions. Emphasize the benefits – Focus on what taxonomy does, not what it is. Hit on themes like findability, efficiency, and ROI.

14. Communication Strategies and Tools Emphasize What Taxonomy Does Taxonomies can help you… Organize and display products and content to customers, members, and citizens. Organize internal documents and resources for staff (knowledge management). Support search and personalization. Support website navigation.

15. Communication Strategies and Tools Emphasize Problem Solving

16. Communication Strategies and Tools Workshops: Gather stakeholders in a room, teach them about taxonomy, gather their input, and turn them into taxonomy converts. Stakeholder Interviews: Sit down with stakeholders one-on-one or in small groups, tell them about your project, and gather their input. Training: Use training as an opportunity to bring your colleagues up to speed on taxonomy and show them the benefits. Advertising: Use existing channels within your organization to spread the word and point colleagues toward helpful resources.

17. Definitions You Can Use Keep it simple… A taxonomy is a system of organizing information assets in a way that supports a business goal. A taxonomy is a controlled vocabulary designed to help a business or organization classify and organize information assets in order to solve a problem or accomplish a goal. Taxonomy is a controlled vocabulary used to describe, organize, and classify information in order to make it easier to find and use. Taxonomy is a hierarchical organizational structure for the classification of concepts and things.

18. Explaining Taxonomy to Different Audiences Personas Business Leaders Search and Navigation Leads Content Creators IT and Database Professionals

19. Explaining Taxonomy to Different Audiences Business Leaders Who They Are • Decision-Makers (C-Level, VPs, Directors). • Hold the purse strings. • Care about the bottom-line: money, mission and project outcomes. Why They Should Care • Good taxonomy = $$$. • Taxonomies increase sales by helping customers find and purchase products and services. • Taxonomies help promote the organization’s mission by making content and services easier to find and distribute. • Taxonomies increase efficiency by making internal resources more findable and accessible to staff. Key Points • Customers can’t purchase products and services if they can’t find them. • You can’t further a mission without effectively sharing and distributing content. • When staff struggle to find the internal documents they need to do their job, they waste time on fruitless searches and recreate work that’s already been done.

20. Explaining Taxonomy to Different Audiences Search and Navigation Leads Who They Are • Lead search and navigation efforts on the public-facing site. • Concerned with usability and the underlying structure of the website. Why They Should Care • Good taxonomy = improved findability. • Taxonomy provides the basis for faceted search filtering. • Content that’s been tagged with quality metadata helps search engines retrieve accurate and comprehensive results. Key Points • Taxonomy provides the back-end structure that supports faceted browsing and search narrowing features. • Sometimes free-text search isn’t enough. Think videos. Without tags, the search engine has nothing to work with.

21. Explaining Taxonomy to Different Audiences Content Creators Who They Are • Webpage authors and publishers. • Web content authors and publishers. • Internal document creators. Why They Should Care • Taxonomies help users find content by improving search and navigation. • Taxonomies help distribute content to targeted groups through dynamic publication and personalization. Key Points • If users can’t find your content, what’s the point? • Taxonomy allows you to get creative with content distribution (personalization, recommendations, dynamic syndication, etc.)

22. Explaining Taxonomy to Different Audiences IT and Database Professionals Who They Are • IT decision-makers and support staff • Database designers and administrators • Master Data Management Specialists Why They Should Care • Taxonomies are often an integral component of an information system. • Taxonomies make databases more usable by providing well-structured and usable attribute values. • Taxonomies promote interoperability across databases by enforcing attribute value consistency and reducing ambiguity. Key Points • Technology is critical, but in order for an information system to work, it needs to be structured in a way that makes sense to the end user. • Taxonomy people and database people are in a similar line of work: Both care about how data is structured, distributed, and shared.

23. Questions? Questions? PPC Webinar

24. Contact Ben Licciardi ben.licciardi@ppc.com (703) 748-7263 @PPCTaxonomy PPC Webinar