why should you care about sharepoint metadata?
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Why do I Care About SharePoint Taxonomy and Metadata?Steve
Goldberg
Steve Goldberg, Sales Engineer at Axceler
Software Engineer at Axceler for ControlPoint
Prior to Axceler, was a consultant at Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC), specializing in SharePoint development
Current Role:
Talk to 30-40 people weekly about how to govern SharePoint
Metadata is always part of a governance plan but it is rarely executed
Twitter: @iamgoldberg Blog: iamgoldberg.com Email: [email protected]
Metadata MAKES SharePoint cool
What will help?
Metadata is the fundamental building block to successfully surface data to end users
Taxonomy adds structure Folksonomy refines the model Apply governance as needed (it always is)
Ugh…Definitions
In Biology, taxonomy is the science dealing with description, identification, naming, and classification of organisms.
“However, the term is now applied in a wider sense and now may refer to a classification of things, as wells as to the principles underlying such classification.”
“Metadata provides context for data. Metadata is used to facilitate the understanding, characteristics, and management usage of data.”
Wikipedia.org
So what does that have todo with SharePoint?
Metadata provides real business ROI Improved search Organize content without using the F word More usage of platform features More productivity
How do you measure SharePoint’s success?
End user activity rising on sites More content is being added Implemented business critical workflows Houses secure content
Measuring Success
It’s easy to put a value on quantitative improvements to productivity
It is difficult to put a value on qualitative improvements
What’s causing this?
Ad-hoc content addition leads to junk in portal Content is in different locations Inconsistent taxonomy across farms and site collections No ownership of authored content
Ask yourself…
Do you have content on a network drive? Do you have a deep folder structure in SP? Have you examined your site structure? Are you using the content type hub? Are you supporting social features of SP 2010? Do you need to support multiple languages?
Where do you start?
Taxonomies = term store in SP 2010
Accessible throughCentral Administrationor Site Collection
Managed Metadata Service
Create an enterprise wide taxonomy that is centrally managed
Enterprise Keywords Words or phrases
added to SharePoint
Non-hierarchical
Managed Metadata Predefined by administrator Create, copy, reuse, merge,
deprecate, move, or delete terms
Created manually or imported through interface
Hierarchical Synonyms (labels) Translatable
When to use managed metadata
Finite list of potential values Need synonyms Hierarchical
Value Add Consistent, correct terminology
Users are guided to use pre-set terms Dynamic and consistent (unlike choice columns)
What can I do with all this data?
Search Refinement
The Content Organizer
Workflow
Metadata can be used to drive workflow functionality critical to the business
For strategic environments e.g.: Assign task to certain person based on
column values like Approved Y/N, date submitted, date reviewed, department
Custom workflow is often used to apply metadata
Document Sets
“Like a folder, but better” – SharePoint admins
Groups related content – can synchronize metadata Can be sent to record center to take advantage of
content organizer to route entire set Can version individual documents and the document
set itself- unlike a folder Document set can be part of a workflow instead of
individual documents
Document set settings
How can end users help?Folksonomy The result of personal free tagging of pages
and objects for one’s own retrieval: notes, tags, enterprise keywords column.
What are you doing to make your end users more productive?
What’s folksonomy’s value?
Gives end-users power to derive their own vocabulary and explicit meaning which may have
been originally inferred.
Users are not categorizing. They are connecting items to provide their meaning in their own
context and understanding.
Taxonomy vs. Folksonomy
Business Employee
Taxonomy Folksonomy
SP Object
Promote to Term Store
Every person becomes an expert
Enabling Enterprise Metadata
What are users searching for?
Why are social tools important?
They surface data They provide context They extend the search experience It’s the direction the world is moving in order
to communicate with others
Cloud adoption is changing the focus from maintenance towards productivity and performance - making social a layer
across the enterprise
Documents in your SharePoint environment are never found
Content is put in the wrong lists and libraries Content is duplicated Content is obsolete
SharePoint migraines solved by metadata
Governance!
Metadata needs to be a constantly evolving part of your governance plan
Who is going to update and manage terms and content types?
Who is talking to end users?
AxcelerImproving Collaboration Since 2007
– Mission: To enable enterprises to simplify, optimize, and secure their collaborative platforms
– Delivered award-winning administration and migration software since 1994
– Over 2,500 global customers
Dramatically improve the management of SharePoint
– Innovative products that improve security, scalability, reliability, “deployability”
– Making IT more effective and efficient and lower the total cost of ownership
Focus on solving specific SharePoint problems (Administration & Migration)
– Coach enterprises on SharePoint best practices– Give administrators the most innovative tools available– Anticipate customers’ needs– Deliver best of breed offerings– Stay in lock step with SharePoint development and market trends
Steve [email protected]@iamgoldberg
Additional Resources available 11 Strategic Considerations for SharePoint Migrations http://bit.ly/j4Vuln
The Insider’s Guide to Upgrading to SharePoint 2010 http://bit.ly/mIpOBZ
Why Do SharePoint Projects Fail? http://bit.ly/d1mJmw
Best practices for capacity management for SharePoint Server 2010, TechNet http://bit.ly/nvNrig
What to Look for in a SharePoint Management Tool http://bit.ly/l26ida
The Five Secrets to Controlling Your SharePoint Environment http://bit.ly/kzdTjZ
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