Protected: SharePoint: Time Is Money
April 18, 2011
Protected: Wave a Taxonomy WAND for SharePoint Improvement
April 15, 2011
Deciding On the Importance of Metadata: A Forgone Conclusion?
March 18, 2011
We were surprised to see “Judge Scheindlin Decides that the Metadata Is “Integral” in FOIA Case: Fmr. Judge Ron Hedges Weighs In“. Around the pond, as is the case within the industry, this is a point that was assumed settled some time ago. What took so long for these legal eagle guys to catch up?
The crux of the piece is a case involving the application of metadata of four separate Government agencies and how it relates to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). When these agencies were petitioned for documentation under the FOIA, they did not provide the corresponding metadata. Currently there is no precedent which covers metadata’s incorporation into the public record. Citing a class action suit involving the Department of Homeland Security in which unlawful search and seizure of property fostered a debate regarding metadata production, the judge made this statement:
“[b]y now, it is well accepted, if not indisputable, that metadata is generally considered to be an integral part of an electronic record.”
Of course, the government was not ready to concede. They went on to argue that the information must be requested and then reviewed before its release, a point that finds backing amongst other parties. To read the full debate, see the source article.
What can we take away from this? Very little in reality. Still no absolute rules are formed in regards to metadata, regardless of its inherent significance. The continuing conversion to digital information, coupled with our progress in efficient manipulation of data, seems to have outpaced the writing and applications of the governing laws. This issue is far from resolved, though the hope seems to be that it will serve as a foundation for future discussions.
Sarah Rogers, March 18, 2011
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Protected: How to Add Keywords to Microsoft Fast Search
March 8, 2011
Protected: Whose Metadata for Fast Search?
February 14, 2011
Augmenting Output for Clarity
February 12, 2011
We love it when mid tier consulting firms “discover” a trend. A Gartner expert has revealed “Relationship Context Metadata.” Here’s the definition of the polysyllabic concept:
“Relationship context metadata explicitly describes the relationship from which the identity information was obtained and the constraints imposed by the participants in that relationship on the use and disclosure of the information.”
The consulting firm’s example is that of a credit card number. Instead of just sending the number, you could tag the number with metadata that specifies how it is to be used and what relationship will be damaged if it is misused.
This mid-tier consulting firm is applying a new name, “relationship context,” to the social graph. Will we apply their metadata to information from Foursquare, Gowalla, and other social networking / geospatial services?
One of the goslings here in Harrod’s Creek asked, “Could we include a tag that means no stalking?”
Cynthia Murrell, February 12, 2011
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Access Innovations Dazzles on the High Wire
February 9, 2011
The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) is to partner with Access Innovations’ semantics services to tag and index their vast journal content on the HighWire platform. The project will allow users to better access and correlate articles on several websites.
As reported in “AACR Selects Access Innovations for Semantic Indexing of Content on High Wire,” AACR has confidence in their choice:
” ‘We are thrilled to be working with Access Innovations to develop an AACR taxonomy that can be applied to our content, and with HighWire Press to allow us to present related articles across our journals,’ said Diane Scott-Lichter, publisher of the AACR suite of journals. ‘We expect to expand these efforts to include semantic tagging of other AACR information.’ “
Between Access Innovations’ years of experience managing data and the advanced HighWire taxonomy, AACR looks to be on solid ground.
Cynthia Murrell February 9, 2011
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Protected: Managing SharePoint Metadata 1
February 8, 2011
Exclusive Interview: Sam Brooks, EBSCO Publishing
January 18, 2011
We have been covering “discovery” in Beyond Search since 2008. We added a discovery-centric blog called IntelTrax to our line up in September 2010. One of the companies that caught our attention was EBSCO Publishing, one of the leaders in the commercial database, library information, and electronic publishing sectors. EBSCO has embraced discovery technology, making “search without search”, faceted navigation, and other user-centric features available to EBSCO customers. Chances are your university, junior college, middle school, and primary school libraries use EBSCO products and services. Thousands of organizations world wide rely on EBSCO for high-value, third party content, including rich media. You can get the details of the EBSCO content and information services offerings at http://www.ebscohost.com/.
I wanted to know how a company anchored in online technology moved “beyond search” so effectively. I spoke last week with Sam Brooks, senior vice president of EBSCO Publishing. He told me:
As library users have grown accustomed to the simplicity and one-stop shopping of web search engines, EDS allows users to initiate a comprehensive search of a library’s entire collection via a single search box. The true value of EDS is that while providing a simple, familiar search experience to end users, the sophistication of the service combined with the depth of available metadata allows EDS to return extensive results as if the user had performed more advanced searches across a number of premium resources.
EBSCO’s presentation is easily customized. This particular user interface matches the rich options available from such companies as i2 Ltd. and Palantir, two leaders in the “beyond search” approach to information.
The new discovery interface makes it easy to pull together a broad range of content to answer a user’s query. The interface then goes farther. Exploring a topic or following a research thread is facilitated with the hot links displayed to the user. The technology for the user interface is intuitive. Mr. Brooks told me:
By using our EBSCOhost infrastructure as the foundation for EBSCO Discovery Service (EDS), the entire library collection becomes available through a fast, familiar, full-featured experience that requires no additional training. Additionally, unprecedented levels of interface customization allow libraries to use EDS as the basis for creating their own “discovery” service. Currently, users can access EDS via the mobile version of the EBSCOhost interface. Further, there will soon also be a dedicated iPhone/iPad app for use with EDS as well.
For the full text of the exclusive interview, navigate to the Search Wizards Speak feature at this link.
Stephen E Arnold, January 18, 2011
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Taxonomy and Efficiency
January 14, 2011
One of the leaders in the data and content management field, Access Innovations, Inc., has compiled a list in “10 Reasons to Resolve to Create a Taxonomy for Your Business in 2011.” A taxonomy creates an organized system of classification.
Here are three of the reasons with which we resonated:
Every person or department uses a different term, even though they’re all talking about the same thing. Your coworkers can’t find the company policy for the Fourth (or Fifth, or Sixth) of July, because it’s tagged as Independence Day? An enterprise taxonomy can get all of you searching the same language, if not talking it.
A coworker just spent 45 minutes trying to locate a document, but didn’t know what search term to use. Taxonomy browsing should work for him or her. And with synonyms, he/she can look for eye doctors or even “optimalogists” and find ophthalmologists.
Everything for HR gets called “HR” – all 10,000 documents. Get your indexers, taggers, and searchers browsing down to the more specific terms that a taxonomy can show them. You have HR documents on free pizza as a fringe benefit? Add Fringe benefits as a narrower term, and add Free pizza under Fringe benefits, so people can save some dough.
Access Innovations asserts that their system of taxonomy can help to eliminate irrelevant and unwanted search returns and will enable a searcher to use relative terms for the same search regardless of punctuation, spelling, or terminology.
“The bottom line is that a good taxonomy can save your staff time, and your organization time and money.”
If this system can save companies both time and money, why not give it a try? Let’s face it, in today’s economy where every penny counts, waste and inefficiency can lead to the failure of a business venture while efficiency and ease tend to lend themselves to success.
Leslie Radcliff, January 14, 2011
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