Taxonomy Research: Project Strategy Determination for Taxonomy creation

During my flight to SharePoint 2011 continued research on developing Taxonomy creation methodology.  Lambe’s book provided excellent insights.  What I glean from his work was prior to undertaking a taxonomy project its necessary to assess the state of readiness an organization.  The question becomes what you do to assess taxonomy readiness.

Here again Lambe provided excellent insights.  The two major factors to use in an assessment are Information Maturity and Technology/Environment Maturity.  Information Maturity can be partitioned using Cynefin Framework into four state matrixes: Known, Knowable, Complex, and Chaotic.  This matrix infers that level of taxonomy usage that is applicable:  Structure & Organizing, Establish Common Ground, Span Boundaries, Sense Making and Discovery

The assessment of technology maturity spans a range from Ad Hoc Storage, Bucketing, Libraries, and finally Content Management Systems.  These ranges of technology maturity limit to what level of usage are possible in the current enterprise.

By the end of the week I hope to have both an assessment worksheet and guidance selector for how to scope a taxonomy creation project.   

Book Review: Content Strategy for the WEB

One of the missing elements in most Web projects these days is the creation and management of content.  It’s as though  teams think its enough to just put up a container and content will appear. 

During the past year I’ve watch multiple sites stood up with weeks of effort and then try to cram content creation in two days.  The results have always been a disaster.  I don’t know why this is, but it seems a consistent theme.  Good content takes time and effort.  

I’m just finishing up Kristina Halvorson‘s book,  ISBN 978-0321620064, Well worth the read for anyone working with WEB, SharePoint or Information Management in general.   It’s a short, very concentrated read full of good insights on the why and how to’s of managing the Content Development Process.  She doesn’t address the why content is often overlooked, but she does address the process behind creating good content.

Included in her book are references to many other books that dive deeper into specific topics, such as Influencer Marketing, MultiMedia content, and Information Architecture.   I’d call it the Cliff Notes of Content Management.