TAXONOMY FOR A KM SITE - WHY AND HOW?Janice Keeler

Manager, Knowledge Management

NERA Economic Consulting

Chair-Elect, SLA Taxonomy Division

KM Chicago

October 9, 2012

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About Our Firm

• For half a century, NERA's economists have been creating strategies, studies, reports, expert testimony, and policy recommendations for government authorities and the world's leading law firms and corporations• We bring academic rigor, objectivity, and real world industry experience

to bear on issues arising from competition, regulation, public policy, strategy, finance, and litigation

• Clients value our ability to apply and communicate state-of-the-art approaches clearly and convincingly, our commitment to deliver unbiased findings, and our reputation for quality and independence• Our clients rely on the integrity and skills of our unparalleled team of

economists and other experts backed by the resources and reliability of one of the world's largest economic consultancies

NERA Economic Consulting is a global firm of experts dedicated to applying economic, finance, and quantitative principles to complex business and legal challenges

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What about Google/Free Text Search?

• Cardiac assist devices• Catheter• Defibrillator• Medical devices• Medical equipment• Medical products• Medical supplies• Hospital supplies

• Heart valves• Insulin pumps• Hypodermic products• Pacemakers• Stent

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What is Taxonomy?• Taxonomy: A collection of controlled vocabulary terms organized into a

hierarchical structure. [1]• Taxonomy terms are:

• Controlled – coherently structured with no random additions• Hierarchical – with defined broader and narrower terms.

• Animals• Mammals

• Cats• Dogs• Humans

• Typically linked to all identified synonyms to facilitate searching

[1] Guidelines for the Construction, Format and Management of Monolingual Controlled Vocabularies, ANSI/NISO Z39.19-2005, p. 9.

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Controlled Vocabularies

Guidelines for the Construction, Format and Management of Monolingual Controlled Vocabularies, ANSI/NISO Z39.19-2005, p. 17.

Ontologies are even more complex; with concepts related by explicitly named types of relationships. See Google Knowledge Graph

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Semantic relationships• Equivalency• Hierarchy – generic, instance, whole-part• Associative:

• Cause/effect• Process/agent• Process/counteragent• Action/product• Action/property• Action/target• Concept or object/property• Concept or object/origins• Concept or object/measurement unit or mechanism• Raw material/product• Discipline or field/object or practitioner

Guidelines for the Construction, Format and Management of Monolingual Controlled Vocabularies, ANSI/NISO Z39.19-2005, p. 53-56.

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Where are Taxonomies Used?• Navigation• Indexing• Search • Search refinements and suggestions• Dynamic population of web pages or RSS feeds

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Getting Started - Sponsor• Identify an executive sponsor• Determine taxonomy scope and purpose• Keep sponsor updated, revisit scope and purpose based

on research• Get budget

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Discuss Business Requirements• What is the goal of the taxonomy?

• Common language for improved search• Text analysis/discovery• Auto-populate website content pages or RSS feeds

• What is the scope of the taxonomy?• How many platforms will use the taxonomy?• Are you going to go back and reclassify old documents?• Do you need to map any existing or specialized

taxonomies to the new taxonomy?

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Getting Started - Research• Study organization’s information needs• Interview stakeholders• Do a content audit• Use text mining for terms if tools are available

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Text Mining

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Overall Strategic Plan

• Purpose, scope and benefits• Change management• Communications• Governance

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Taxonomy Project Plan

• Identify Steering Committee and participants for taxonomy development – with all stakeholders represented

• Taxonomy development or acquisition• Taxonomy tool identification/selection/integration• Taxonomy maintenance

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Taxonomies – Build or Buy• License (and potentially customize) existing taxonomies:

• Taxonomy Warehouse - http://www.taxonomywarehouse.com• TaxoBank - http://www.taxobank.org

• Build a taxonomy• Card Sorting• Focus Groups• Build draft and get reactions• Revise and consult

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Card Sorting Example• Outdoor dining sets• Propane grills• Fire pits• Snow blowers• Lawn mowers• Trimmers and edgers • Hot tubs• Hedge shears• Patio benches

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Actual Categorization

As of Oct. 9, 2012 on company web sites: http://www.homedepot.com/ and http://www.lowes.com/

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Taxonomy Tools – What to Ask About

• Taxonomy features of content management system vs. standalone tool

• Term management options

• Polyhierarchy• Synonyms and Related

Terms• Ability to create custom

relationships

• Auto-categorization• Machine-Aided vs.

automated only• Rule-based vs. algorithms

• Mapping of multiple taxonomies

• Multilingual capabilities• Standards compliance• Import/Export options• Integration/Interoperability• Users/security

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Appendix: Resource Lists• Blogs• Books• Groups

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Blogs• http://www.earley.com/blog (Seth Earley and staff)

• http://www.greenchameleon.com (Patrick Lambe and Straits Knowledge Staff)

• http://taxodiary.com (Margie Hlava, Jay Ven Eman and Access Innovations staff)

• http://www.vocabcontrol.com (Fran Alexander)

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Books• The Accidental Taxonomist. Heather Hedden. Information

Today, Inc., 2010.• Building Enterprise Taxonomies. Darin L. Stewart. Mokita

Press, 2008.• Organising Knowledge: Taxonomies, Knowledge and

Organisational Effectiveness. Patrick Lambe. London: Chandos Publishing, 2007.

• Thesaurus Construction and Use: A Practical Manual. Jean Aitchison, Alan Gilchrist, David Bawden. 4th ed. London: Europa Publications, 2000. 

• Card Sorting: Designing Usable Categories. Donna Spencer. Brooklyn, NY: Rosenfeld Media, 2009.

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Groups• SLA Taxonomy Division: http://taxonomy.sla.org

• Taxonomy Community of Practice: http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/TaxoCoP/