2000 review, 2001 preview
January, 2001
In this annual review/preview, we
look back at what happened in 2000 and look forward to what we plan for
2001.
2000 review
Last year's publishing and event agenda focused on taxonomy and collaboration,
reflecting a shift in member interest from creating intranets to finding
and sharing information. Like many of our colleagues, we were developing
a thesaurus and testing new information-sharing technologies. At the same
time, we were exploring new ways to help members make connections -- exchange
ideas, identify job candidates, and share experiences.
Taxonomy
In 2000, many of us came to grips with the limitations of search engines.
For some, this meant looking for ways to make information on the corporate
intranet more accessible. For others, it meant streamlining shopping and
ordering processes in e-commerce applications. In either case, we used
both software programs and human experts to create taxonomies and thesauri.
Taxonomies are structures that provide a method of classifying things
into a series of hierarchical groups to make them easier to identify,
study, or locate. Thesauri are lists of linked terms that show relationships,
allowing users to navigate laterally as well as up and down from one related
topic to another. To look at our taxonomy, see the Indexes
and thesaurus page.
But we discovered that indexing techniques
that work well for librarians and book publishers don't necessarily translate
well into the business environment. Moreover, software techniques lack
precision and flexibility, especially for content that spans different
subject areas. Finding the right mix of techniques remains a key issue
for many members.
In the first of last year's taxonomy roundtables,
participants explored the idea of reducing costs through collaboration
(see "Collaborative taxonomies").
But, in business (unlike academia) taxonomies are idiosyncratic, reflecting
specialized subject matter and company-specific business processes. They
also contain confidential information and can be viewed as a competitive
advantage.
Members seemed more interested in discussing
implementation issues, such as budgeting and ROI, standards, staffing,
tools, and techniques (see "Adding
value with taxonomy"). Those from established corporations were
particularly interested in budgeting and ROI. Participants from "dot.com"
companies, on the other hand, accepted the cost of taxonomy as a critical
success factor in surviving the inevitable market shakeout and were more
interested in tools, techniques, and usability.
Collaboration
Collaboration -- another recurring theme -- was the focus of three of
last year's four roundtables:
As usual, roundtable participants were
eager to compare notes on tools (e.g. Abuzz and Yellow Brix) and techniques
(e.g. "culture coaches" and "knowledge stewards").
Although several software vendors attended (as practitioners, not marketers),
we have not resolved the question of whether to allow other types of vendor
participation in Society activities.
Roundtables also had a lot of discussion
about "soft" issues -- e.g. how to build trust and how to
deal with cultural differences. Collaboration was the topic of two
Member Q
& A columns (see "Concurrent
user access").
Local discussion group
Meanwhile, the New England discussion group evolved into an effective
way for both members and nonmembers in Connecticut and Massachusetts to
share their experiences. Participants took turns describing their experiences
in knowledge management benchmarking, knowledge management program development,
software tools, user surveys, and the evolving role of the corporate librarian.
There is no charge to attend meetings, but each person pays for his/her
meal.
2001 preview
Taxonomy continues to be a hot topic, but it's only a part of what is
now being called "content management." For some, content management
is the process of acquiring and deploying information on the Web, especially
for e-commerce sites. For others, it also involves other formats, such
as print and wireless, and related processes, and other applications,
such as intranets and "personal knowledge management" systems.
Taxonomy in 2001
We plan to delve deeper into taxonomy in 2001 with a new course, "Introduction
to business taxonomies," and two more roundtables:
"Taxonomy creation: man vs. machine."
May 16, Bedford, MA. Hosted by Mitre Corporation. Do you create a taxonomy
and then associate terms with documents or do you "mine" documents to
create a taxonomy automatically?
"Taxonomy applications: what works
for users?" June 20, Enfield, CT. Hosted by the Montague Institute.
Once you've created a taxonomy, how do you use it effectively on the
Web and in print?
Content management
Three issues head the list of member content management concerns:
-
which tasks should be performed centrally
and which should be performed locally;
-
how to develop a common user interface
that includes all types of information from both internal and external
sources;
-
how to cope with the growing demand
for content management training and support.
Two of our spring roundtables address
the first of these issues:
"Content management strategies:
centralized, decentralized, or hybrid," Enfield, CT, March 7. The
roundtable will be preceded by an optional "Introduction to content
management" seminar on March 6.
"Content integration," Cleveland,
OH, April 25. The roundtable will be preceded by an optional "Introduction
to content management" seminar on April 24.
Education and experimentation
Broader access to information sources and Web publishing creates more
demand for education. Members have reported that:
-
business unit publishers are asking
for help in organizing their Web sites and integrating content;
-
senior managers are beginning to recognize
the need for training employees to use information resources wisely
and responsibly;
-
user surveys identify large groups
of employees that needed a basic introduction to business research
techniques;
-
"vendor neutral" courses
on content management are hard to find.
In addition, we believe that some of the
issues raised at roundtables and discussion groups can be resolved by
providing cross-functional learning opportunities for teams of business
unit managers, technical staff, and content managers. Our experience in
managing our own content shows that tools such as a thesaurus of technical
terms, inexpensive Web pilots, and prototyping software can save both
money and time.
But where do you find staff to develop
and facilitate this kind of learning? Recruiting new hires with the right
combination of business savvy, technical knowledge, and content management
experience is not easy. Asking existing staff to add training to their
list of responsibilities is difficult. Hiring a consultant may work for
a one-shot learning experience, but what about ongoing needs and updates?
For members with relatively sophisticated content management systems,
recruiting and training are important issues.
2001 education programs
This year we are meeting this need with a four-pronged approach:
1. An expanded schedule of public
courses that includes two new offerings:
2. A hands-on, vendor-neutral course
series covering all aspects of knowledge base publishing and content
management. Offered on site to teams of 6 people or more.
3. Licensing of our courses to both
internal and external learning facilitators. Companies can get discounts
of up to 80%, based on their initial investment and/or the number of
learners. The program includes updates to both the prototyping tool
and course content as well as the ability to customize content for a
specific application (e.g. marketing) or industry.
4. Certification for both learners and
learning facilitators. A financing plan is available for independent
contractors already providing services to member companies.
New membership plans
Last year several companies took advantage of our new group discounts
and "read-only" plan (see http://www.montague.com/member.html).
To eliminate the need for members to enter passwords, we have been beta
testing concurrent user access with one member. In this scenario, users
log onto a corporate intranet and then click on a link to the Society
Web site. Our server recognizes the link or domain name as a permitted
source and provides automatic access.
Several issues have surfaced in the beta:
-
Pricing -- Pricing is still tentative,
but concurrent user access probably doesn't make sense unless a company
has at least fifty potential users. If you have fewer than that, individual
membership is probably more cost effective.
-
Monthly updates -- We always see a
surge of traffic on the Society Web immediately following a monthly
alert. The concurrent user plan will be more effective if a member
has an effective alerting vehicle, such as a company-wide newsletter
that can incorporate our monthly table of contents.
-
Information sharing -- The Member
Q&A column is a good way for members to solicit and share information
with other members, but experience shows that people need to be encouraged
through personal phone or e-mail to keep the questions flowing. The
concurrent user plan will provide more value if departmental or business
unit editors funnel questions and answers to our office.
If you are interested in concurrent user
access, contact us for details.
2001 research trends
On the research front, we are monitoring three trends:
-
Decentralizing knowledge management.
Maybe it's because enterprise software vendors are trying to sell
further down the food chain, or maybe people are beginning to recognize
that the closer you get to the end user, the more value you can create.
In any case, we see more attention to "upstream
knowledge management."
-
Content integration. How do you corral
information features and sources into one convenient application that
can be accessed on the desktop or from a remote location? Given the
constant evolution of the information food chain, this is a constant
challenge. Will decentralizing content management make it easier or
harder?
-
Deploying taxonomies. Creating a taxonomy
is one thing, deploying it in print and electronic publications is
another. We need to go beyond "information architecture"
that focuses on Web site navigation and look at the entire print/electronic
publishing spectrum to find out what works for users.
Local discussion groups
in 2001
Help is available to members that would like to start a discussion group
in other locations:
-
a Web page for reporting on meeting
presentations, group projects, and photos;
-
advice on how to get started;
-
e-mail announcements from the Society
office.
We look forward to working with our members and Advisory
Board to make 2001 another productive year.
Created on January 27, 2001 by Jean Graef
|
