Metadata and Controlled Vocabularies

1. Metadata and Controlled Vocabularies Global Corporate Circle Working Session Joseph Busch

2. Focus of this session • Best practices for specifying and using controlled vocabularies in DC-compliant information management applications. • Tradeoffs and best practices around organization-dependent vs. sharable common controlled vocabularies. • Tagging content for internal vs. external audiences using the same metadata and controlled vocabularies. • When and how to map different taxonomies to each other.

3. For us, taxonomy work includes: • Metadata specification defines the properties needed to describe content so that it can be found & used. • Vocabularies are collections of terms that are used to specify some of the metadata properties. • Some vocabularies are big and hierarchical, some are small and flat. • An application profile specifies what metadata & vocabularies are required, and then represents them formally.

4. Best practices (1) • Intranet and public taxonomies should be based on a common metadata specification and shared value vocabularies. • Some metadata attributes are directly mapable to DC, some will be local (locally declared). • Use qualified Dublin Core attributes. • Some vocabularies are sharable industry standards, while others will be organization-dependent. • Some value vocabularies will be particularly relevant to intranet content.

5. FDA Metadata specification (excerpt) Legend: ? – 1 or more * - 0 or more

6. FDA Metadata specification (excerpt) Legend: ? – 1 or more * - 0 or more DC.Format=“text/html”, DC.Language=“en”

7. All facets and sub-facets FDA* Taxonomy Center Geography Subject Audience Type Activity Law Product Brand Company Condition Topic * U.S. Food and Drug Administration

8. Intranet facets– a taxonomy subset FDA Taxonomy* Center Geography Subject Audience Type Activity Consumers Employees Healthcare Industry Directories Dockets Forms Instructions & How-To Job Information News Policies & Procedures Product Alerts Product Information Product Lists Publications Recalls Subject Indexes Tools & Databases Transcripts & Statements Warning Letters Law Administration Application & Approval Grant-Making & Sponsorship Investigation & Enforcement Public Awareness Research Rule-Making Training & Education Product Brand Company Condition Topic * U.S. Food and Drug Administration

9. FDA.gov tagging example: Information about what to do about bad spinach.

10. FDA.gov tagging example: Information on “Accutane” for patients.

11. Inside.FDA tagging example: Instructions on how to replace a security badge.

12. Best practices (2) • Intranet and internet content should share a common repository, but not replicate the same content in two places. • Tag content for appropriate audiences. • E.g., Public, Internal, Confidential Intranet Internet Intranet Internet Intranet Internet Public Content Public Internal Public Internal Internal Conf.

13. Mapping taxonomies • More complicated approach than multiple attributes with multiple value vocabularies. • Cases: • One-to-one. • One-to many. • Parallel, independent hierarchies. • If mapping is done, then business rules can be used to • Automatically add attribute values. • Improve search. • Create multiple views into the same content. • An ontology specifies typed associative relationships • Typically “Is a” relationships.

14. Taxonomy mapping

15. Advanced relations Taxonomy Person Organization Location Products Audience Type Product Line Technology Application Industry “Is a” Groups of Products

16. Product relationships provide tagging rules for product groupings Product names are consistent labels Generic labels

17. press room application http://pressroom.oracle.com/prNavigator.jsp “Is a” Groups of Products

18. events application http://events.oracle.com/ “Is located” powers Google Maps mash-up “Is a” Groups of Product

19. Questions jbusch@taxonomystrategies.com +1-415-377-7912

20. GCC (Global Corporate Circle) Topics • Change focus to large organizations including governments & government agencies. • Enterprise-Wide Metadata Applications Community (EnMAC) • Is this agreeable? • 2007-2008 activities. • Best practices case studies. • Identify and describe projects that are using DC. • What is the best way to do this? • Other activities?