Get the brief and basic answers to the most common questions about developing and implementing taxonomies in this fast-paced introduction to taxonomies and metadata.Taxonomy Boot Camp assumes attendees already know taxonomy fundamentals,so attend this optional FAQ course if you want to get up-to-speed quickly.

Developing a taxonomy has little or no value until content can be organized using it.Tagging of any kind is better than the words that happen to occur in a piece of content.End-user tagging and tagging by librarians are useful,as are tags automatically assigned by business rules and language processing algorithms.Content should be tagged throughout its life cycleó each time the content is handled and used - so that it accrues value.This session will address the practical considerations and proven approaches to tagging content with a taxonomy.

With the trend toward integrated software solutions,it is becoming difficult to find simple stand-alone taxonomy management tools.  Using examples from recent projects,Tom Reamy discusses selecting the right taxonomy software in the context of developing and applying taxonomies with enterprise search and content management software.Hear the major feature sets that this class of software should have,and understand how to integrate the right variations of features with the other major components such as search and content management.You will learn how to find the best mix of features and software offerings for taxonomy management,distributed taxonomy development, entity extraction,and categorization capabilities.

How to Determine If Auto-Categorization Software Is Right for You

This session discusses the ever-increasing use of auto-categorizers to support enterprise applications.Drawing from practical experience, Wendi Pohs will describe the pros and cons of using auto-categorization software,what you should look for in product user interfaces, and the kinds of resources you need to support this work.Hear about her best practices and also learn what to avoid when using auto-categorization tools.

Auto-Categorization Tools,Rules,& Techniques

This session will examine issues surrounding the use of auto-categorizers, including when to use these tools (i.e.,when will and when won't auto-categorization work successfully);auto-categorization technologies and their strengths and weaknesses;an overview of auto-categorization techniques and tools;and auto categorization approaches,schemes,and how to write auto-categorization rules.  You will learn when to consider auto-categorization for an application,what you will have to do to make it work correctly,and how to select the right tools.

What Does It Cost to Implement Auto-Classification?

The full cost of the implementation for an automatic indexing system includes the creation of the rule base or training sets and the time from your purchase to actual productivity enhancementsóin addition to acquisition costs.  Then,once the software is in the production line,what does it cost to keep it current?  Learn about the real and hidden expenses of using auto-classification software so you can make an informed cost-benefit decision for your own project.

Using Auto-Classification Software

Hear how the EPA used Documentumís Content Intelligence Service (CIS) to auto-classify its Web content by loading the EPA controlled vocabulary and then classifying some test documents.The EPA then adjusted the default configuration of the tools to achieve satisfactory results.

Join colleagues and Taxonomy Boot Camp speakers for breakfast and discussion groups built around topics of common interest.  Trade ideas, share solutions, and tap into the experience of other attendees before you begin the day's sessions.

Ontologies are often presented as next-generation taxonomies,but how do ontologies differ from taxonomies?  What does it mean to ontologize a taxonomy?  What is the business value of an ontology?  How are ontologies likely to evolve in coming years?  Learn about the distinctive advantages of an ontological representation and how to determine if it's appropriate for your needs.

The General Motors Media Archive began tagging and indexing its content in 1993 using a customized controlled vocabulary.  The Adam Opel Public Relations Archive began doing the same in 1997 with a different customized controlled vocabulary.  Hear about the process of merging these two disparate vocabularies into one bilingual (German and English) faceted taxonomy, which enabled GM to understand its visual heritage, gain insight into the cultural/corporate context reflected in its imagery, and discover the impact of its imagery on customers and staff.

In global organizations,one taxonomy does not fit all.Often,the concepts and terms used in different jurisdictions and business units are different.  Linked or mapped taxonomies can assist with this challenge.  Users in one jurisdiction or business unit are only required to classify and search for content based on terms that they know.  By mapping or linking their terms to a taxonomy used in another jurisdiction or business unit, they can search its content without needing to understand its taxonomy or concepts.  The work of linking the concepts together is done by managing the taxonomy lists.  This session illustrates how linked and mapped taxonomies are used to classify and organize content at a Canadian law firm.

Over the past year the U.S.Air Forceís Enterprise Vocabulary Team has developed a range of "bottom-up" vocabularies for use in automated metadata tagging of structured and unstructured content.  Recognizing dramatic problems of ambiguity, its most critical task was aligning the different vocabularies: reconciling differences without imposing definitions.  Learn about the Air Force's dynamic process for developing, maintaining, and implementing large-scale vocabularies and how your organization might implement such a process.  The driver for this massive effort is the growing reality of a "net-centric" environment, where every member (and every sensor) can be connected to the enterprise store of information assets regardless of location or time.

We all know the importance of ensuring that taxonomies offer user interactions that reflect the language that users really use.  However, in a Web 2.0 world it is not enough to simply tailor the language of the taxonomy to the lexicon of our average or target user.  Web 2.0 gives us countless ways of interacting with our users to better respond to their needs and reflect their voice in our design.  This session explores some of the emerging ways we can leverage technology to bring the user into our taxonomies and expand our ability to deliver quality user interactions through taxonomy development and deployment.

Taxonomies and folksonomies each have their strengths,and new forms of knowledge representation, including facets, facts, and new visualization techniques, are showing more and more promise.  This thought-provoking endnote session describes recent research that studied combining the formal strength of taxonomies with the social and collaborative nature of folksonomy creation and utilization, theoretical ideas (complexity theory), collaborative software, and traditional taxonomy governance methods.  The project then extended that approach to include the development of faceted metadata and the use of facts (sets of RDF-based Subject-Verb-Object triples).  The basic finding was that for a small increase in the task of adding tags, their usefulness was greatly improved, and by including facets and facts in the mix, the result was a powerful new way to develop knowledge structures that are both formal and social and theoretical and practical.