Not Otherwise Categorized…

Enterprise Search Survey
Sue Feldman, research VP, content technologies at IDC, and Michelle Manafy, editor of EContent magazine, the Enterprise Search Sourcebook, and conference programmer for the Enterprise Search Summit Invite you to participate in a short (2-4 minute) survey about enterprise search tool selection. They will present the results at the Summit and on the Enterprise Search Center.

Links:
IDC: Http://www.idc.com
EContent: http://www.econtentmag.com
Sourcebook: http://www.enterprisesearchcenter.com/SourceBook/default.aspx
Summit: http://www.enterprisesearchsummit.com
Survey: https://vovici.com/wsb.dll/s/2b4cg3261b

From time to time we organize a free educational conference call series on search, taxonomy or content managment.  Next month, we’ll be running our Search Series.  

Register at http://www.earley.com/Searchjumpstart2008.asp

Search is complex:
There are lots of tools and techniques that can be applied to solving the challenges surrounding the “findability” of information. Some people think you just put up a search box and that’s it, but in reality effective search is much a more complex issue. Effective search strategies leverage metadata and taxonomies and include a variety of tools integrated as search applications and search systems.

Learn about:

• The value of effective search – making the business case
• Issues and challenges in deploying enterprise search solutions
• The nuts & bolts – understanding and evaluating search tools
• Issues in implementing search and building search applications
• Tuning for improved precision and recall of search results
• Evaluating search infrastructure
• Integrating with taxonomies, tagging systems, etc.
• Faceted search and guided navigation
• Complex federated search
• Natural language queries and semantic search
• Future developments in search

Vendor Sponsorship:
Each session is sponsored by a vendor who will present a 5 minute ‘commercial’ about their offering. In this way we separate educational content from commercial content.

Presenters include:

 Lou Rosenfeld, Rosenfeld Media
 Rennie Walker, Wells Fargo
 Chris Modzelewski, ChartSearch 
 Mike Ferguson, Intelligent Business Strategies
 Ted Sullivan, Raritan Technologies
 Theresa Regli, CMS Watch  

We recently had a prospect ask what they needed to consider as part of their taxonomy RFP.  Here are some things to include:

1.  Specific approaches to taxonomy development: steps for term extraction, approaches for automated and manual content audit procedures

2.  Taxonomy testing:  What are the methods by which the taxonomy will be tested prior to deployment?  What usability tests would be performed and what data would be collected?

3.  Metrics:  How will search engine and web tracking metrics be used in deriving the taxonomy?

4.  Integration with content strategy:  By what process will taxonomy be integrated with content strategy and content management systems?

5.  Integration with search strategy:  How will the taxonomy be leveraged and integrated with search tools and mechanisms?

6.  Success factors:  What are the critical success factors for taxonomy project success?  How will you ensure that these are met?  

7.  Project risks:  What are the typical and atypical project risks?  Provide a risk mitigation plan for these.

8.  Taxonomy operationalization:  List clients for whom you have operationalized the taxonomy.  What is the process by which you will ensure proper handoff of the taxonomy?

9.  Organizational buy in:  How do you achieve organizational buy in?  How are senior managers brought into the process?

10.  Hand off to technical teams:  How is the taxonomy delivered for technical implementation?  

11.  Tools used:  What tools do you use in taxonomy development and testing?  

12.  Support model:  What kind of support is provided for the taxonomy process after project completion?  

13.  Current or pending litigation: Is your company involved in litigation? If yes, please explain

14.  Has your company ever defaulted on a contract or been sued for failure to comply with contract terms?  If yes, please explain

15.  Has your company ever failed to complete any work awarded?  If yes, please explain

16.  How do you propose that our company should hold your organization accountable for its performance in this program?

Here is a terrific article written for Content Wrangler.  http://thecontentwrangler.com/article/wordmap_makes_taxonomy_creation_simple/