Mondeca: Content IQ
September 23, 2014
I reacted strongly to the IDC report about the knowledge quotient. IDC, as you know, is the home of the fellow who sold my content on Amazon without written permission. I learned that Mondeca is using a variant of “knowledge quotient.” This company’s approach taps the idea of the intelligence quotient of content.
I interpret content with a high IQ in a way that is probably not what Mondeca intended. Smart content is usually content that conveys information that I find useful. Modena, like other purveyors of indexing software, uses the IQ to refer to content that is indexed in a meaningful way. Remember if the users do not use the index terms, assigning these terms to a document does not help a user. Effective indexing helps the user find content. In the good old days of specialist indexing, users had to learn the indexing vocabulary and conventions. Today users just pump 2.7 words into a search box and feel lucky.
Like vendors of automated indexing systems and software, humans have to get into the mix.
One twist Modena brings to the content IQ notion is a process that helps a potential licensee answer the question, “How smart is your content?” For me, poorly indexed content is not smart. The content is simply poorly indexed.
I navigated to the “more information” link on the Content IQ page and learned that answering the question costs 5000 Euros, roughly $6,000.
Like the knowledge quotient play, smart content and allied jargon make an effort to impart a halo of magic around a pretty obvious function. I suppose that in today’s market, clarity is not important. Marketing magic is needed to create a demand for indexing.
I believe professionally administered indexing is important. I was one of the people responsible for creating the ABI/INFORM controlled vocabulary revision and the reindexing of the database in 1981. Our effort involved controlled terms, company name fields, and a purpose built classification system.
Some day automated systems will be able to assign high value index terms without humans. I don’t think that day has arrived. To create smart content, have smart people write it. Then get smart, professional indexers to index it. If a software system can contribute to the effort, I support that effort. I am just not comfortable with the “smart software” trend that is gaining traction.
Stephen E Arnold, September 23, 2014
Comments
-
- Subscribe to Beyond Search
Feature archive
News archive
-
