KMWorld & Intranets 2007 – Tagging strategies and the impact on search in the intranet
November 8, 2007Notable quotes and key ideas from Jordan Frank from Traction Software who spoke about "Tagging Strategies & E2.0 in Action". (This is not a product endorsement – only comments on the talk.)
Described 3 wiki use cases
1. Unordered documentation (for example a wikipedia), glossary, policies, FAQs
2. Ordered documentation, reference manuals, proposals
3. Project team collaboration – hybrid blog and wiki, combines wiki content – order and unordered
as well as blog type content – questions, issues, status, meeting notes, comments – chronological information.
Described 5 types of tags that can be defined, then used to slice and dice information and display it in different ways. A way of bringing some structure without limiting spontaneity and flexibility.
1. Content – bulleting, requirements, milestone, process, practice, etc
2. Importance: headline, alert, priority 1,2 etc, next, etc.
3. Status: to do, done, stalled, skipped, waiting, no
4. Assignment: person, role, function, etc.
5. Category: strength, weakness, threat, opportunity; 4 P’s of marking, and so on (depends on the group)
Put this cocktail of tags together in a project team space, and you can see a lot of different angles
Impact on search
- Search in the wiki/blog context can outperform the traditional intranet – wikis and blogs often reference information outside themselves. They are tagged in such a way that is more effective than in the average intranet CMS-driven content.
- You can use the wikis and blogs to weight the information around them, in the enterprise, which will help to make search better.
Frank included 3 case studies in his presentation: a competitive intelligence application in Ipsen, a team in the Department of Defense (US) doing experiments with night vision equipment and a team in the National Health Services (UK).