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Understanding metadata - practical spia book
This document provides an overview of metadata, emphasizing its importance in organizing and categorizing data, particularly in SharePoint 2010. It discusses the relationship between metadata, taxonomy, and content types, highlighting challenges in effective implementation and management. The document aims to enhance understanding of metadata and its practical applications in information architecture.
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Understanding metadata - practical spia book
- 1. Understanding Metadata A supplementto: Practical SharePoint 2010 Information Architecture by Ruven Gotz Buy the Book (or Kindle): http://amzn.to/JnxlcC
- 2. Ruven Gotz @ruveng spinsiders.com/ruveng ruven.gotz@avanade.com Ruven Gotz slideshare.com/ruveng
- 3. The BIG Question What is Metadata?
- 4.
- 5. Ruven Gotz @ruveng spinsiders.com/ruveng ruven.gotz@avanade.com Ruven Gotz slideshare.com/ruveng
- 6. The BIG Question What is Metadata? I think I get it What is INow I see think Oh! I (Mostly)it get Metadata?
- 7.
- 8.
- 9. What does acow say?
- 10. What does achicken say?
- 11. What does aduck say?
- 12. The sounds theseanimals make are attributes that distinguish them
- 13. • Prince • Pop/Rock • 1984 Example from Yoav Lurie
- 15. Adapted from the“pea soup” story by Serge Tremblay
- 18. What is ourBase Metaphor for files?
- 20. What if wesaw this?
- 21.
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- 28.
- 29. Taxonomy Animal Kingdom Invertebrates Vertebrates Mammals Fish Amphibians Reptiles Birds Predators Primates Whales Rodents Squirrels Mice Porcupines Guinea Pigs Hamsters and Mice & Rats Voles Real Voles Gerbils Hamsters Short-tailed Long-tailed dwarf dwarf hamsters hamsters Djungarian Roborovski dwarf Hamster hampsters
- 30. Taxonomy Animal Kingdom Invertebrates Vertebrates Superclass Mammals Fish Amphibians Reptiles Birds Predators Primates Whales Rodents Squirrels Mice Porcupines Guinea Pigs Hamsters and Mice & Rats Voles Real Voles Gerbils Hamsters Short-tailed Long-tailed dwarf dwarf hamsters hamsters Djungarian Roborovski dwarf Hamster hampsters
- 31. Taxonomy Animal Kingdom Invertebrates Vertebrates Mammals Fish Amphibians Reptiles Birds Class Predators Primates Whales Rodents Squirrels Mice Porcupines Guinea Pigs Hamsters and Mice & Rats Voles Real Voles Gerbils Hamsters Short-tailed Long-tailed dwarf dwarf hamsters hamsters Djungarian Roborovski dwarf Hamster hampsters
- 32. Taxonomy Animal Kingdom Invertebrates Vertebrates Mammals Fish Amphibians Reptiles Birds Predators Primates Whales Rodents Order Squirrels Mice Porcupines Guinea Pigs Hamsters and Mice & Rats Voles Real Voles Gerbils Hamsters Short-tailed Long-tailed dwarf dwarf hamsters hamsters Djungarian Roborovski dwarf Hamster hampsters
- 33. Taxonomy Animal Kingdom Invertebrates Vertebrates Mammals Fish Amphibians Reptiles Birds Predators Primates Whales Rodents Squirrels Mice Porcupines Guinea Pigs Suborder Hamsters and Mice & Rats Voles Real Voles Gerbils Hamsters Short-tailed Long-tailed dwarf dwarf hamsters hamsters Djungarian Roborovski dwarf Hamster hampsters
- 34. Taxonomy Animal Kingdom Invertebrates Vertebrates Mammals Fish Amphibians Reptiles Birds Predators Primates Whales Rodents Squirrels Mice Porcupines Guinea Pigs Hamsters and Mice & Rats Voles Family Real Voles Gerbils Hamsters Short-tailed Long-tailed dwarf dwarf hamsters hamsters Djungarian Roborovski dwarf Hamster hampsters
- 35. Taxonomy Animal Kingdom Invertebrates Vertebrates Mammals Fish Amphibians Reptiles Birds Predators Primates Whales Rodents Squirrels Mice Porcupines Guinea Pigs Hamsters and Mice & Rats Voles Real Hamsters Voles Gerbils Subfamily Short-tailed Long-tailed dwarf dwarf hamsters hamsters Djungarian Roborovski dwarf Hamster hampsters
- 36. Taxonomy Animal Kingdom Invertebrates Vertebrates Mammals Fish Amphibians Reptiles Birds Predators Primates Whales Rodents Squirrels Mice Porcupines Guinea Pigs Hamsters and Mice & Rats Voles Real Voles Gerbils Hamsters Short-tailed Long-tailed dwarf dwarf Genus hamsters hamsters Djungarian Roborovski dwarf Hamster hampsters
- 37. Taxonomy Animal Kingdom Invertebrates Vertebrates Mammals Fish Amphibians Reptiles Birds Predators Primates Whales Rodents Squirrels Mice Porcupines Guinea Pigs Hamsters and Mice & Rats Voles Real Voles Gerbils Hamsters Short-tailed Long-tailed dwarf dwarf hamsters hamsters Djungarian Roborovski dwarf Hamster Species hampsters
- 38. Shared Drive Zoo Taxonomy X: Sales & Production Marketing Marketing Sales Web Design Newsletter Social Commercial Industrial Government Healthcare Labs Hospitals Clinics Mobile Private Public Large Medium Small Urban Rural Not University Associated
- 39. As we’ve alreadyseen: This always works out great
- 40. Findability vs. Putability:a basic asymmetry
- 41. Shared Drive Zoo X: Sales & Production Marketing Marketing Sales Web Design Newsletter Social Major Commercial Industrial Government Healthcare Hospitals Labs Hospitals Clinics Mobile Colleges Private Public Big Small Large Medium Small Urban Rural Not University Associated
- 42. Moving this messto SharePoint makes it worse
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- 44. The #1 ruleof SharePoint? Except when it makes sense Never use folders ever
- 45. Folders for Security Permissions assigned per folder
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- 51. A SharePoint Taxonomy(Navigation)
- 52. A SharePoint Taxonomy(Metadata) Customer Type Sector Size Location University • Lab • Private • Large • Urban • Yes • Hospital • Public • Medium • Rural • No • Clinic • Small • Mobile
- 53. Adding Metadata (whenuploading)
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- 55. Document Type InventoryWorksheet
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- 58. What are contenttypes?
- 59. Vacation Request Drug Reimbursement Name _________ Name _________ Emp. # _________ Emp. # _________ Date _________ Date _________ Dates Requested: Drug Used: From __________ Name __________ To: __________ Cost: $ _________ Manager ________ Manager ________ Approved Y/N Approved Y/N
- 60. Both Content Typesin One Library
- 61. Content Types for:Workflow, Policy, Security
- 62. Back to theInventory Worksheet
- 63. Build Mind Map(based on inventory worksheet)
- 64. Why is itstill so hard to get this to work?
- 66. Which leads tothis:
- 67. Some great thinkingby Carsten Knoch (Navantis)
- 68. Increasing the likelihoodof metadata success Compliance Search & Discover Records Search Management Magic Metadata Intersection Business Process Day-to-day workflow This graph originates from thinking by Carsten Knoch
- 69. It’s a questionof focus Metadata • Why? • Where? • How?
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- 72. To Sum Up… •Do you have a better understanding of Metadata? • Do you think you’ll be able to explain these concepts more easily to your stakeholders? • Did you get value out of this presentation?
- 73. Thanks for yourattention Buy the Book (or Kindle): http://amzn.to/JnxlcC Practical SharePoint 2010 Information Architecture by Ruven Gotz
Editor's Notes
- #4 Everyone knows…
- #5 It’s “Data about Data” as Einstein proved all those years ago
- #6 This answer helps exactly no-one
- #7 I won’t tell you yet but…It is an iterative process – you won’t understand it right away, but you will circle in towards understanding over time[ANIMATED]
- #8 Metadata is a new concept for manyUse of metaphors to explain the concepts
- #9 Metadata is a new concept for manyUse of metaphors to explain the concepts
- #10 If you were to ask a child: What does a cow say? How would they answer?
- #13 Ok, so that was goofing around – now let’s get serious.
- #14 The music is the contentYou can know a lot of facts about the album:PrincePop/Rock1984You can know all the facts, but it doesn’t substitute for the content (the music)(Purple Rain example originally suggested by Yoav Lurie)
- #15 How do you sort CD’sArtist?Title?Year?Genre?Colour?You have to decide up-front – and stick to it –because the objects are physical
- #16 What if the store was full of unlabeled tin cans?You would need to open every can to see if had what you wanted(Tin can example originally suggested by Serge Tremblay)
- #17 Now we don’t need to open each can, but they are all in a jumble and you have to pick up each can to check if has what you want.
- #18 Items are grouped by area (canned fruit, canned sauce, canned vegetables)Signs point you to the correct area so that you can quickly find what you need.BUT: Because the objects are physical, you need to pick a method and stick to it
- #19 This uses the base metaphor that we live with every day.The concept of a “file” and a “file folder” as a way of storing digital data is a metaphor taken from the world of paper managementIt has become so ingrained, that we think of it as natural, but it’s not: It was invented in 1983 by Apple (wikipedia)
- #20 Old apple interface from the 80’s
- #21 All your files are stored in one folder and their names are completely meaninglessThis is like the unlabeled cans: You have to open each file to see what it contains
- #22 You have a bit of a better situationThe naming convention lets you find the file you need (but there’s no way to sort by year)Rely on users to follow the naming convention (religiously)
- #23 A ha!Now we’re in great shape. We’re like the supermarketStructured and LabelledBUT...
- #24 ... then, you hire a summer internWho doesn’t know the folder hierarchy and makes up their own
- #25 Findability is challengingPutability is the real problemThis is Bill English’s word for knowing where to save a documentWhat if we could make putability easier while also improving findability?This is the promise of metadata
- #26 Data about dataYes, but not enough info Seth Maislin of Earley & Assoc. says it's the "Is-ness" of something:This 'is' a contract. That 'is' a pop album.For us it enables findability, policy and processFindability for locating the right documentsPolicy – records managementProcess – Status of a business process (e.g. Not started, In process, Complete, Approved, Archived)
- #27 So, let’s create an alternative structure that is logically equivalent, but that makes putability much easier while preserving findabilityBy the way: One way to start to figure out an organization’s metadata is to look at the folder names.You will probably not want to simply copy this, but it can be a good guide/starting point
- #28 It’s not this… (visual joke)
- #29 It’s this…Not really this, but let’s use these creatures to understand.
- #30 Swedish botanist, physician, and zoologist, who laid the foundations for the modern scheme of binomial nomenclature. He is known as the father of modern taxonomy
- #39 This works because it’s really about governance – this is a stable structure that can’t be changed by just anybody:Changing this structure requires a world-wide meeting of the top scientists in the field, usually involving name-calling and fist-fights (or so I’ve heard)[ANIMATED]
- #40 Did you catch the subtle change here.The taxonomy is now of your ‘X’ drive.
- #41 And this is a common result
- #42 The asymmetry is that you’ll spend less time looking for a place to save something then you will looking for something after the fact.
- #43 Problem here is lack of governance – anyone can add any folder anywhere anytimeThis boils down to the ‘putability’ problem – I’ll search for a long time to find a doc, but not for long to see where to put it.[ANIMATED]
- #44 Once you’ve migrated your x drive to SharePoint, and all the promised benefits fail to emerge, The reaction is: (next slide)
- #46 Never, ever, use folders!Except when it makes sense to do so.[ANIMATED]
- #47 Never, ever, use folders!Except when it makes sense to do so.[ANIMATED]
- #48 [ANIMATED] Here is one reason to use folders: Application of security and then simplifying it for the user by using the ‘no folders’ view.
- #54 I’m not Carl, but let’s talk about why this works.After all, it’s the same as a directory treeThe difference is governance
- #56 Is this too many to ask for?Do we force users to answer all these questions/enter all this data?
- #57 Instead of confusing people with the SharePoint interface, I use a familiar tool: ExcelUsing some simple macros, I am able to illustrate the power of filters and views.There’s no free lunch however: People now have to enter metadata.We can simplify this by defaulting values like “Date” to today and “Year” to current year.We can leverage content types as well
- #58 Explain metadata and then use this worksheet for ‘homework’
- #62 Think of them as different forms with slots to fill in.Two documents may have overlapping slots (or, metadata).It may make sense to store these two types of docs in the same library (HR Requests), but use content types to drive workflow, policy and prompt users only for the metadata that applies.[ANIMATED]
- #63 Think of them as different forms with slots to fill in.Two documents may have overlapping slots (or, metadata).It may make sense to store these two types of docs in the same library (HR Requests), but use content types to drive workflow, policy and prompt users only for the metadata that applies.[ANIMATED]
- #65 [ANIMATED]
- #67 Using mind-mapping tools to build the taxonomy from the homeworkI use MindJet MindManager – and I like and highly recommend it.There are other tools that are less expensive.
- #72 This comes from some great thinking by CarstenKnoch – someone with great insight into this issuehttp://carstenknoch.com/2012/04/sharepoint-metadata-design-principles/Search – Find docs: eg. Subject, Status, Pub type, Author, YearRM – manage compliance: Retention period, confidentiality status, FOI rulesProcess – Day to Day: Status, assigned to, Due Date, etc.
- #73 Pragmatic & Outcomes focused
- #74 The answers are not clear-cut, everyone has to be on the same page.These decisions are not made by the consultants, or even IT – it has to involve the business
- #75 Find the common denominatorShoot for the magic subset