What does Web 2.0 mean for Enterprise Search? Michael Sampson Collaboration Success Advisors, Ltd. www.collaborationsuccess.com

Where am I coming from? Focus = Helping people and organisations succeed with collaboration technologies and practices An advisor / analyst / thinker / consultant Not a vendor I’m not selling products for this stuff

Focus = Helping people and organisations succeed with collaboration technologies and practices

An advisor / analyst / thinker / consultant

Not a vendor

I’m not selling products for this stuff

Just a normal day at the office? challenge 1 information tsunami too much stuff

“ I put it somewhere safe, but now I can’t find it” challenge 2 information retrieval re-findability

power of folksonomy = serendipity 1

either / or it’s not 2

certain effective usage requires a employee count 3

Agenda Why are we talking about this? Introduction to Tagging Taxonomies vs. Folksonomies Impact on Enterprise Search Applying the Long Tail to Search (0) agenda

Why are we talking about this?

Introduction to Tagging

Taxonomies vs. Folksonomies

Impact on Enterprise Search

Applying the Long Tail to Search

Why? (1) why? Dead category vs. live tag

(1) why? classification distinguish organize sort comparative meaning what is it?

Applying meta-data to an object for the purposes of classification (2) tagging tags

Tagging Engines on the Web 43things.com … GOALS technorati.com … BLOG POSTS flickr.com … PHOTOS youtube.com … VIDEOS del.icio.us … WEB PAGES (2) tagging

43things.com … GOALS

technorati.com … BLOG POSTS

flickr.com … PHOTOS

youtube.com … VIDEOS

del.icio.us … WEB PAGES

power of folksonomy = serendipity 1

Serendipity To other perspectives To experts, new colleagues, communities To new resources To emergent competitors To possible customers To people you wouldn’t otherwise meet (2) tagging

To other perspectives

To experts, new colleagues, communities

To new resources

To emergent competitors

To possible customers

To people you wouldn’t otherwise meet

Serendipity To other perspectives To experts To new resources To emergent competitors To possible customers To people you wouldn’t otherwise meet (2) tagging "I've been revisiting things like talent, community, high-performing teams, pushing decision making more toward the edge,” Gotta said. "The problem is we don't have any good sensors out there to try to get groups to work collectively in loosely coupled ways. We have this fog of war . We don't know what's important to people. They can't communicate or share. With enterprise social bookmarking, you start connecting identity to it. Then I can see that Jane Doe is bookmarking the same thing I am. I should talk to her . Say, 'Hey, we're working on the same stuff.'” Mike Gotta, The Burton Group

To other perspectives

To experts

To new resources

To emergent competitors

To possible customers

To people you wouldn’t otherwise meet

Cogenz: “Locate employees with shared interests or expertise in a specific area” (2) tagging

7 Pillars of IT-Enabled Team Productivity Shared Access to Team Data Location Independent Access Auto- Discovery Enterprise Action Mgmt Social Engagement Tools Team-aware Calendaring Shared Real-Time Viewing (2) tagging

Eg, subscribe to an expert’s tag stream (2) tagging

Eg, see related items of interest after a search for a tag (2) tagging

Taxonomy vs. Folksonomy nomy taxo folkso classification people management (3) ’nomy

Taxonomy vs. Folksonomy (3) ’nomy Personal vocabulary Defined vocabulary Expansive Restrictive Discovery Navigation Good enough Accurate Just do it Process to add new Meaning to the reader Meaning per the author Bottom-up Top-down Democratic creation Central control

Architecture diagram … tag store doc doc doc www (3) ’nomy tag1, tag2 tag3, tag4 tag1, tag4 distributed storage tag4 put tags get tags

Tags in a Folksonomy … meta-data findability category keyword mesh tags tag clouds about it no control classification navigation serendipity ad hoc insightful interesting wisdom of the crowd perspective distributed intelligence folly of the crowd (3) ’nomy

meta-data findability category keyword mesh tags tag clouds about it no control classification navigation serendipity ad hoc insightful interesting wisdom of the crowd perspective distributed intelligence folly of the crowd

either / or it’s not 2

(3) ’nomy taxonomy known corpus objectively right or wrong accuracy vital folksonomy emergent corpus subjective interpretation serendipity cool

Impact on Enterprise Search Changes the nature of search Reputational relevancy as key factor Connect people to people Expertise as explicit search factor Navigate vs. Explore vs. Search “ There’s gold in dem der hills” … extending corporate search into Internet search data sets (4) impact

Changes the nature of search

Reputational relevancy as key factor

Connect people to people

Expertise as explicit search factor

Navigate vs. Explore vs. Search

“ There’s gold in dem der hills”

… extending corporate search into Internet search data sets

Irene Greif, IBM Research “ Something we've worked on is a shared bookmarking system on a company intranet site that is in wide use now within IBM. What we felt was needed to make this relevant to business is connection to the enterprise directory. In this context, tags are associated with people you know or whose job and expertise you know something about. When you merge real identities with tagging , you can search for things both by people and by tag. You can look up particular people to see what they're reading, which can be a shortcut to high-value information . Or you can look up by tag to see which people are reading what, identifying those with specific areas of expertise or interests you share. This helps you find and connect with others in productive ways . So this set of capabilities is less explicitly about building relationships, but it does help you build them.” “ On the Web, it might be interesting to see what other people are bookmarking, but because it's not a defined community you may not care too much. In the enterprise it's different. We find that sets of items bookmarked by colleagues get high click-through rates, showing that they can be more useful than compilations our search engine finds . That's because there has been a relevant selection process to determine what matters.” http://www-306.ibm.com/software/swnews/swnews.nsf/n/nhan6vrjqk?OpenDocument&Site=lotus (4) impact

“ Something we've worked on is a shared bookmarking system on a company intranet site that is in wide use now within IBM. What we felt was needed to make this relevant to business is connection to the enterprise directory. In this context, tags are associated with people you know or whose job and expertise you know something about. When you merge real identities with tagging , you can search for things both by people and by tag. You can look up particular people to see what they're reading, which can be a shortcut to high-value information . Or you can look up by tag to see which people are reading what, identifying those with specific areas of expertise or interests you share. This helps you find and connect with others in productive ways . So this set of capabilities is less explicitly about building relationships, but it does help you build them.”

“ On the Web, it might be interesting to see what other people are bookmarking, but because it's not a defined community you may not care too much. In the enterprise it's different. We find that sets of items bookmarked by colleagues get high click-through rates, showing that they can be more useful than compilations our search engine finds . That's because there has been a relevant selection process to determine what matters.”

Applying the Long Tail to Enterprise Search (5) application condition 1 target need set business need condition 2 enough people critical mass

Sales teams Research and development Brand and product marketing Proposal development (5) application condition 1 target need set business need

Sales teams

Research and development

Brand and product marketing

Proposal development

certain effective usage requires a employee count 3

Applying the August 2006 Digg Statistics to an Enterprise … Digg (Aug06) Registered Users Contributed 100% Contributed 55% Contributed 10% 445,000 2,287 (0.51%) 100 (0.02%) 10 (0.002%) IBM: 315,000 employees … 100% = 16,065 people "The interesting thing about social bookmarking and Dogear is that there are 300,000 people in IBM. If only 20,000 create bookmarks , the other 280,000 will benefit because the wisdom of those 20,000 will be used in the enterprise search engine.” David Millen, IBM Research http://searchcio.techtarget.com/originalContent/0,289142,sid19_gci1195182,00.html (5) application SMB 50 50 0.26 0.01 0.001 SMB 500 500 2.6 0.1 0.01

1:10:100% Problem 1 in 10 will contribute something 1 in 10 somethings will be original 1 in 10 originals will be valuable SMB 50 = 0.05 valuable in 50 SMB 500 = 0.5 valuable in 500 http://fastforwardblog.com/2007/02/23/solving-the-110100-problem/ (5) application

1 in 10 will contribute something

1 in 10 somethings will be original

1 in 10 originals will be valuable

SMB 50 = 0.05 valuable in 50

SMB 500 = 0.5 valuable in 500

Tag, You’re It! Definitely -- Public Internet Competitive Intelligence Customer Engagement Market Tracking New Product Research Project Resources Perhaps -- In the enterprise (5) application

Definitely -- Public Internet

Competitive Intelligence

Customer Engagement

Market Tracking

New Product Research

Project Resources

Perhaps -- In the enterprise

Discussion Michael Sampson, [email_address] Principal Advisor, Collaboration Success Advisors, Ltd. www.collaborationsuccess.com www.michaelsampson.net (happy to discuss further after my session; I’m here until 6pm) please clarify how about what if