sharepoint information architecture integrating taxonomy & metadata shawn shell, consejo inc....

SharePoint Information Architecture Integrating taxonomy & metadata Shawn Shell, Consejo Inc. Stephanie Lemieux, Earley & Associates J.Boye, Aarhus November, 2009

About Shawn Shell Founder and Principal Consultant for Consejo, Inc. More than 20 years in technology; 10 in content technologies Internationally recognized expert on SharePoint products and technologies Primary analyst and author of the CMS Watch SharePoint Report (http://www.cmswatch.com/SharePoint/report)http://www.cmswatch.com/SharePoint/report Co-author Microsoft Content Management Server 2002: A Complete Guide (Addison-Wesley) Co-developer of the original connector between MCMS and SharePoint for Microsoft Developer of the SharePoint 2007 version of the SocialText Wiki integration with SharePoint

About Stephanie Lemieux Taxonomy Practice Lead Experience implementing taxonomy across different tools: CM, DM, Intranet, Faceted Search, DAM Recent clients: Motorola, American Greetings, AstraZeneca, Ford Foundation Author of Integrating Taxonomy with CMS in TIMAF Information Management Best Practices 2009, Bob Boiko ed.

4 SharePoint is very easy to implement badly

Typical SharePoint complaints I cant remember where to find anything Search is like a random document generator Id rather go back to fileshares than have to upload content there 5 Earley & Associates, Consejo 2009

Typical SharePoint Projects 6 Biz Reqs Implementtttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt Implement Business Reqs Implement Business Reqs Implement Examples courtesy of Lulu Pachuau: http://www.slideshare.net/LuluP/information-architecture-and-sharepoint Where is the information architecture?

Requirements Research Use Cases & Personas Site Map & Navigation Wireframes Taxonomy Content Modeling/Me tadata Prototyping/T esting The IA Process For SharePoint Earley & Associates, Consejo 2009

Good IA needs a system that: Supports control & standards Has user friendly interfaces (esp. tagging) Understands relationships Hierarchy Synonyms Associations Manages metadata & taxonomy values 8 Earley & Associates, Consejo 2009

Taxonomy 101 System for classification Improves search tools and mechanisms Common language for relating and sharing concepts, content Products Games Card games Action figures Board games Car SYN: Automobile Vehicle fr-CA: Voiture en-UK: Auto es-CO: Carro Synonyms Translations and regional variants Preferred term 9 Earley & Associates, Consejo 2009

Why use taxonomy? Tagging content with taxonomy creates access points that can be leveraged for multiple purposes Search Dynamic publishing Records management Workflow BI & reporting Navigation 10 Earley & Associates, Consejo 2009

Before we start some basics Site Collections Collection of sites Primary source of main navigation Sites Container for lists/libraries Primary source of quick launch navigation Lists Libraries List: Basic unit of storage, collection of items Library: advanced list 11 Earley & Associates, Consejo 2009

SharePoint columns & content types Lists Content Types Collection of columns Associated policies, workflow, templates Columns Individual metadata item Can reference lists or other data sources 12 Earley & Associates, Consejo 2009

Boundaries & inheritance 13 Content types are specific to a site collection or a site & its children Content types inherit columns from parents Columns follow the same rules 13

More about columns Different kinds Date Number Free text Controlled list (a.k.a Lookup) Etc. 14 You can also create custom column types

Content display 15 Earley & Associates, Consejo 2009

Advanced search (OOTB) 16 Full text keywords Extended metadata properties

Navigation 17 All navigation approaches are configurable (largely) Quick launch shows current site elements Top-level navigation shows sub sites and peers Earley & Associates, Consejo 2009

SharePoint strengths 18 Easy to create new structures Navigation is largely automatic Easy to create metadata and connect to LOB systems Many ways to consume content Office integration Federated search built-in Earley & Associates, Consejo 2009

Weaknesses Physically oriented Constructs are bound to site collections Metadata is simplistic No metadata/taxonomy management Vocabulary lookups limited No hierarchical metadata or any kind of relationships! OOTB search reflects all limitations 19 Topics Architecture Accounting Construction Engineering Civil Mechanical Environment Finance Earley & Associates, Consejo 2009

No hierarchy Metadata can only be tagged and stored as flat controlled vocabulary no hierarchy possible Regions Asia Pacific EMEA Latin America North America Countries Cambodia Canada Chad China Columbia Croatia Geographic regions Asia Pacific China Japan Europe France Switzerland Possible Not Possible 20 Earley & Associates, Consejo 2009

Native thesaurus Expansions (a.k.a synonyms) E.g. HR = Human Resources = Employee Relations Replacements (a.k.a. use) E.g. for NTK or W2K use Windows 2000 21 human resources hr employee relations NT5 W2K Windows 2000 No ability to store any other types of relationships (e.g. Associative) Earley & Associates, Consejo 2009

MOSS search & taxonomy Lack of metadata relationships leads to lack of advanced search functions OOTB Related terms Hierarchy Search Term = RightsNavigating down through Taxonomy 22 Earley & Associates, Consejo 2009

No taxonomy management No place to store Term definitions Scope notes History Translations No integrity in lookup values Implies need for external taxonomy management 23 Earley & Associates, Consejo 2009

And then it gets technical Content databases should be less than 100 Gb Site collections are bound by content database Navigation is naturally only within a Site Collection 24 Earley & Associates, Consejo 2009

25 Q: I have SharePoint, but I still want good findability. What are my options? a) Pray b) Ace OOTB IA features c) Customize d) Buy 3 rd party add-ons

Navigation tweaks Use web interface to show or hide navigation Use SharePoint Designer to manipulate elements like main and quick launch navigation Create new master page to create more unified experience Use alternative navigation providers 26 Earley & Associates, Consejo 2009

More on improving navigation List views in standard web parts RSS feeds and XSLT (OOTB or custom) Content query web part with XSLT Custom part to leverage search Faceted navigation 27 Earley & Associates, Consejo 2009

Improving tagging Custom event handler or workflow to automate tagging Location User profile Custom tagging interface Cascading list add-on Taxonomy management tool connector Auto-tagging tools 28 Earley & Associates, Consejo 2009

Basic tagging options Custom tagging interface Cascading list add-on http://sharepointsnippets.com/post/2009/01/Cascading-Dropdown--- Configuration.aspx 29 Earley & Associates, Consejo 2009

Advanced tagging options E.g. from Wordmap www.kwizcom.com Add-on Taxo. Mgt. Tool 30 Earley & Associates, Consejo 2009

Auto-tagging Documents can be auto- classified in SharePoint based upon policies 31 E.g. from SmartLogic Earley & Associates 2009

Auto-tagging Can be manually edited using Add or Remove 32 E.g. from SmartLogic Earley & Associates, Consejo 2009

Search Biggest pain point in MOSS 2007 (random document generator) Basic problems: Each content source has potentially different metadata/vocabulary Most customers do nothing to ensure search works Most end users dont have good search expectations MOSS OOTB interface is limited 33 Earley & Associates, Consejo 2009

Improving search Metadata mapping Keep more relevant content near the top Use search scopes/display groups Use authoritative pages/URL removal Leverage best bets Construct canned searches Customize advanced search Analytics Faceted search 34 Earley & Associates, Consejo 2009

Add-on: Codeplex faceted search Free, but leverages SharePoint structure, so limited to flat lists 35

Connector: SmartLogic e.g. 36 Refine / Suggest with preferred terms and relationships Earley & Associates, Consejo 2009

Connector: SchemaLogic e.g. 37 Model content types & metadata outside SharePoint

Creating hierarchy outside metadata Combination of sites and libraries to create part of the hierarchy (limited solution) Facet on physical location to surface that in search Limitation: perpetuates physical storage paradigm Earley & Associates, Consejo 2009

How much do you need? 39 MOSS OOTB Advanced search, limited configuration Navigation based on site architecture Basic add-on Better UI for search or tagging Basic faceted search (no/limited hierarchy) Connector Taxonomy-driven faceted search BT/NT thesaurus Auto-tagging External search tool Fully flexible UX Deep indexing Configurable search Earley & Associates, Consejo 2009

Conclusions Dont skip IA process just because its SharePoint Master OOTB features first Keep your eye on consistency across sites, site collections through governance Select tools based on high-value requirements 40 Earley & Associates, Consejo 2009

Resources Free four part series on improving search and IA www.earley.com/webinars/jumpstarts/sharepointsearch-and-information-architecture www.earley.com/webinars/jumpstarts/sharepointsearch-and-information-architecture Codeplex: www.codeplex.comwww.codeplex.com WSS Demo (Metadata and Content Types) www.wssdemo.com/Pages/metadata.aspx www.wssdemo.com/Pages/metadata.aspx Shawn Shell: CMS Watch SharePoint Analyst & Consultant (also co-author of this session) www.consejoinc.com (blog: http://blog.consejoinc.com/) www.consejoinc.comhttp://blog.consejoinc.com/ www.cmswatch.com/SharePoint/Report/ www.cmswatch.com/SharePoint/Report/ Earley & Associates, Consejo 2009

Tool list (partial) Smartlogic (www.smartlogic.com) - taxowww.smartlogic.com Synaptica (www.synapticacentral.com/) - taxowww.synapticacentral.com/ Wordmap (www.wordmap.com) - taxowww.wordmap.com SchemaLogic (www.schemalogic.com) - taxowww.schemalogic.com MetaVis (www.metavistech.com)www.metavistech.com Ontolica (www.ontolica.com) - searchwww.ontolica.com Concept Searching (http://www.conceptsearching.com)http://www.conceptsearching.com Cogniva (www.cogniva.ca) - taggingwww.cogniva.ca SharePart XXL (www.sharepartxxl.com) - taggingwww.sharepartxxl.com Kwizcom (www.kwizcom.com) - taggingwww.kwizcom.com 42

Notable blogs Consejo http://blog.consejoinc.com http://blog.consejoinc.com Earley & Associates http://www.earley.com/blog http://www.earley.com/blog Gilbane Group http://gilbane.com/blog/ http://gilbane.com/blog/ CMS Watch http://www.cmswatch.com/SharePoint/trends http://www.cmswatch.com/SharePoint/trends SharePoint Team Blog http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/ http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/ 43

Other resources & downloads SharePoint IA Jumpstart Series 4 free recordings http://www.earley.com/webinars/jumpstarts/sharepoi nt-search-and-information-architecture http://www.earley.com/webinars/jumpstarts/sharepoi nt-search-and-information-architecture SharePoint Search Portal http://sharepointsearch.com/default.aspx http://sharepointsearch.com/default.aspx SharePoint End User Content Team (MSFT) http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/blogs/GetThePoint/d efault.aspx http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/blogs/GetThePoint/d efault.aspx WSS Demo (Metadata and Content Types) http://www.wssdemo.com/Pages/metadata.aspx http://www.wssdemo.com/Pages/metadata.aspx 44

Other resources & downloads CodePlex http://www.codeplex.com http://www.codeplex.com Taxonomy Tagging Starter Kit http://cks.codeplex.com/Release/ProjectReleases.asp x?ReleaseId=2830 http://cks.codeplex.com/Release/ProjectReleases.asp x?ReleaseId=2830 Popular Page Web Part http://popularpages.codeplex.com/ http://popularpages.codeplex.com/ 45

QUESTIONS? Stephanie LemieuxShawn Shell Taxonomy Practice LeadPrincipal Earley & AssociatesConsejo, Inc E: [email protected] E: [email protected] P: 847-704-0438P: 773-271-1474 W: www.earley.com W: [email protected][email protected] 2009