Looking Under the Hood:How Your Metadata Strategy Impacts Everything You Do

Christian Buckley Director of Product Evangelism, Axceler

@buckleyplanet

How your metadata strategy impacts everything you do

What I’ll cover today:

• An overview of metadata – what it is, and why you should care about it

• Why taxonomy matters

• Taxonomy component in SharePoint

• What it means to manage metadata

AboutChristian Buckley, Director of Product Evangelism at Axceler

• Microsoft MVP for SharePoint Server

• Prior to Axceler was part of the Microsoft Managed Services team at Microsoft (now part of Office365 org)

• Prior to Microsoft, was a senior consultant working in the software, supply chain, and grid technology spaces – always focusing on collaboration technology

• Co-founded and sold a collaboration software company (Qoses Inc) to Rational Software. At another startup (E2open), helped design, build, and deploy a SharePoint-like collaboration platform (Collaboration Manager), onboarding numerous high-tech manufacturing companies, including Hitachi, Matsushita (Panasonic), Cisco, and Seagate

• Co-authored ‘Microsoft SharePoint 2010: Creating and Implementing Real-World Projects’ link (MS Press, March 2012) and 3 books on software configuration management

• Twitter: @buckleyplanet Blog: buckleyplanet.com Email: cbuck@axceler.com

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Looking Under the Hood:How Your Metadata Strategy Impacts Everything You Do

Christian Buckley Director of Product Evangelism, Axceler

@buckleyplanet

What are you trying to accomplish with SharePoint?

Let’s walk through this…

What was missing from your previous attempts?

Let’s get down to the fundamentals

Why aren’t my end users using SharePoint?

Creating Passionate Users, Kathy Sierra

Things your end users want that rely on taxonomy

• Social that works• A working search engine• Reliable eDiscovery• The ability to automate

End Users are so selfish

What is your metadata strategy?

What is metadata, anyway?

Metadata 101

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• Book title• Author• ISBN• Publisher

• Name• Account Number• Credit Card• Social Security #• Billing Address

• Device ID• Email• Software version

Email Cell Twitter Blogcbuck@echotechnology.com 425.246.2823 @buckleyplanet http://buckleyplanet.net

• Travel dates• City visiting• Flight number• GPS position

• Friend’s Name• City visiting• GPS position• Distance to friend• Avoidance Flag = Yes

• Name• Account Number• Mileage to date• Home town

The Role of Metadata

Scott Singleton, Managed Metadata in SharePoint 2010 http://www.slideshare.net/scottsingleton/managed-metadata-insharepoint2010

Asset Type Company Asset Number

Barcode Tracking Number

Color code(by department)

Email Cell Twitter Blogcbuck@echotechnology.com 425.246.2823 @buckleyplanet http://buckleyplanet.net

StateID Type

Class

Expiration

License Number

Address

Date of Birth

Donor

Emergency Contact

• Metadata is the lifeblood of SharePoint

• Taxonomy and metadata drive the tools and processes that make the world go round

• Metadata powers search,

it powers social media,

and it powers SharePoint

The role of metadata

Taxonomy

In Biology, taxonomy is the science dealing with the description, identification, naming, and classification of organisms. “however, the term is now applied in a wider, more general sense and now may refer to a classification of things, as well as to the principles underlying such a classification.”

~Wikipedia.org

Your Current Taxonomy

Tier 1 site collections based on business units or product areas

Top level portal

Tier 2 sites that follow specific structure

This is your metadata

A great example of taxonomy by Ruven Gotz, MVP(@ruveng)

Animal Kingdom

Invertebrates Vertebrates

Mammals

Predators Primates Whales Rodents

Squirrels Mice

Mice and Rats Hamsters and Voles

Real Hamsters

Short-tailed dwarf hamsters

Djungarian dwarf hamsters

Roborovski Hamster

Long-tailed dwarf hamsters

Voles Gerbils

Porcupines Guinea Pigs

Fish Amphibians Reptiles Birds

Taxonomy

Superclass

Class

Order

Suborder

Family

Subfamily

Genus

A great example of taxonomy by Ruven Gotz, MVP(@ruveng)

But it gets easy from here

Right?

Um…..

Managing your metadata

Uploading Content

• It’s basically a definition of an artifact that can be stored in a SharePoint site. For example:– A project document, including

• File type• Date created• Author• Last modified

– It is part of a workflow, including• Who needs to approve• Date of approval

– It includes information management policies that• Cannot be edited once approved

Content Type

Multiple Content Types

Content types may be applied for each site collection

…or for certain sites

• SharePoint offers many services OOTB– Search– Excel Services– BCS– Project Server– Web Analytics– Access– Performance Point– Visio– Word– Office Web Apps– People

• These centrally managed services allow for greater control across the enterprise

The Role of Services

• It is a service application created by a Farm Administrator• It is added to a farm’s default list• Allows you to centrally manage your content types,

subscribe to them as a service• You can also create a content type hub, which is a URL

to a site collection

What is Behind Managed Metadata

Scott Singleton, Managed Metadata in SharePoint 2010 http://slidesha.re/hNPeAQ

• Content types can be shared• Create a content type hub, which is an blank site

collection used to publish content types• Publish the content types• Consume them• Content types become visible in subscriber’s

content type galleries

Syndication

About Folksonomy

• End user-generated keywords• Personally applied tags of pages and objects

to content you discover and consume • Generally applied through social interactions

What is folksonomy?

• The primary value of a folksonomy is that it uses your own vocabulary

• May come from your intimate knowledge of a subject

• A way to correlate discovered content (through search or social interactions) to your understanding

Why use folksonomy?

Taxonomy• Vinyl• Record• Blue label• Audio

Folksonomy• Vinyl• 12”• Extended play• Record• Rare• Blue label• Audio• Duran Duran• Autographed• No scratches

taxonomyfolksonomy

Opportunity to improve global search

Adding Metadata through Social

What is the role of governance?

Governance is about taking action to help your organization organize, optimize, and manage your systems and resources.

In SharePoint…

Corporate

SharePoint

Project

IT

Email Cell Twitter Blogcbuck@echotechnology.com 425.246.2823 @buckleyplanet http://buckleyplanet.net

Corporate

SharePoint

Project

IT

Taxonomy Management

Search will not improve if you are not actively managing your taxonomy

Compliance, Regulations,

StandardsEnd User Activity

Governance

Bridges the gap

Note: what is a best practice for me may not be a best practice for you, so do what makes sense

Your organization has two content types, and uses

Best Bets

Your end users employ social tagging, add

comments, ratings, Likes to content

Weekly keyword review and optimization

Monthly governance review, including Best Bets review

Your governance activities may include:

Lessons Learned

1. Understand your metadata and taxonomy model

2. Have a strategy for Managed Metadata – structured taxonomy

3. Involve your end users through Folksonomy and feedback

4. Make governance a priority – define it, document it, promote it

5. Create a governance site, publish it, and keep it fresh

6. Iterate, iterate, iterate

Lessons learned, at a high level

• Map out your high level taxonomy • Web applications

• Site collections

• Content Types

• Constantly optimize• Consolidate your content types

• Clean up your folder structures

• Refine your keyword taxonomy

• Standardize your site structure and templates

• Build a consistent navigation

Getting tactical – First Steps

Thank you!

Order your copy at http://oreil.ly/qC4loT

Christian Buckleycbuck@axceler.com+1 425-246-2823@buckleyPLANETwww.buckleyPLANET.com and http://info.axceler.com

* Additional Resources * On The Importance of Metadata, Craig Mullins http://bit.ly/cOWp2F * Enabling Social Media through Metadata http://slidesha.re/gdjoaz* Understanding Metadata: Practical SP Information Architecture, Ruven Gotz http://amzn.to/JnxlcC * The Battle for Metadata in SharePoint 2010, Michal Pisarek http://bit.ly/g7vFWN * 5 Steps of a Successful SharePoint Site Transformation http://bit.ly/eB6qbN * Creating Passionate Users, Kathy Sierra http://headrush.typepad.com/