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Features
The issue of corporate taxonomies—systems for naming and organizing things that share similar characteristics into groups—first appeared on Montague Institute members’ radar back in 1999. At that time, we convened a roundtable to explore a collaborative development effort in which different companies, possibly in the same industry, would share the costs of creating taxonomies everyone could use. As it turned out, a cooperative joint venture for corporate taxonomies was neither feasible nor necessary. In the first place, companies can license taxonomies from many sources, including publishers, professional associations, and software vendors. In the second place, corporate information and the taxonomies used to organize it are viewed by most companies as key intellectual assets to be used for competitive advantage. But the idea of collaborative taxonomy development is not dead.
The initial reaction of most readers, upon seeing these two ideas—complexity theory and intranets—conjoined, might be described as befuddlement, promptly followed by the question, “What does this have to do with my job and my intranet?” Well, I’ll argue here that some very interesting implications result in both theory and practice when you consider them together. Complexity theory is an interdisciplinary method that can be applied to a wide variety of subjects, including math, artificial intelligence, economics, ecology, and so on. The Santa Fe Institute is one focal point for a lot of new research. In addition, there is a growing field of complexity theory and social research with David Byrne, senior lecturer in social policy at the University of Durham, as a leader.
Columns
We often read about the benefits of metadata for intranet content management systems. We know that adding keywords and subject categories to each content page improves the findability of content and renders search results more useful. Creating a thesaurus from which to select keywords and using a taxonomy to categorize pages can also assist with the Information Architecture of the site. Well, all this is true, but what may not be obvious is that metadata has just as much value for the casual browser as it does for loftier CM objectives.
Language strategies are moving targets, evolving with enterprise strategies as well as business and operational changes. To develop and maintain an effective one, you need to start by asking the right questions. Once you know what you’d like to achieve, see how technology can help you, how much it will cost, and what organizational changes are needed. Over the years, I’ve developed some “reality checkpoints” that may prove helpful to you when analyzing language needs.
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Reviewed this issue: Why Intranets Fail (and How to Fix Them): A Practical Guide for Information Professionals, Search Tools for Web Sites and Intranets, and The Enterprise Search Report: Requirements, Costs, Products & Practices
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