1. The document discusses how to optimize metadata and taxonomy by creating a content strategy plan, determining key metrics, applying metadata to content, and communicating results to stakeholders. 2. It outlines the key steps: create a content strategy plan, determine metrics to measure goals, apply metadata to content using a metadata schema, and communicate results using reports and queries. 3. Applying metadata according to the strategy helps users find content and measures strategy success, while communicating results builds trust and credibility with stakeholders.

1. How to Optimize Your
Metadata & Taxonomy
Jason Owen
DITA specialist

2. Metadata helps you find what you
need to know
Oh Metadata!

3. Overview
• Content strategy
• Key metrics
• Metadata for metrics
• Communicate results

4. Key steps
1. Create your content
strategy plan
2. Determine the metrics
that will be used to
measure those goals
3. Apply metadata to
content
4. Communicate results
to stakeholders
Communicate
results
Metadata
Key metrics
Content
strategy

5. CONTENT STRATEGY

6. Key steps
Communicate
results
Metadata
Key metrics
Content
strategy
1. Create your content
strategy plan

7. What makes a content strategy?
• Content strategy defines the your content business
goals in a succinct, substantive statement
 Info model
 Content reuse strategy
 Metadata strategy
 User experience
 Workflows, processes
 Tools
 Other standards, etc.

8. Why do we need metrics for content
strategy?
• Credibility
 Credible professions require to show that goals are met
 Credibility helps build trust
• Trust
 Use metrics to build trust with stakeholders
 Provide the value of our work to stakeholders, whom we may never
meet face-to-face
 Metrics become our face and are the foundation for establishing
trust
• Reputation
 Earned by showing the capabilities and values in our past work
 We have to be able to show that we have met the goals of our
content strategy plan

9. Benchmarking
• Benchmarking is a comparison of your content
strategy with your competitors
 Performance benchmarking – How does our
performance compare with our competitors
performance?
 Process benchmarking – How can we learn from the
business processes of our competitors?

10. How technical publications add value
Data Information
Informing
knowledge
Action

11. What do you need to do?
• Put together your content strategy plan:
 What content?
 What products and services?
 What do your customers need to know?
 What content will benefit your business for your customers to
know?
 What audiences?
 What do your customers need?

12. KEY METRICS

13. Key steps
Communicate
results
Metadata
Key metrics
Content
strategy
1. Create your content
strategy plan
2. Determine the metrics
that will be used to
measure those goals

14. Reasons for measuring
• Douglas Hubbard, in How to Measure Anything,
says that we need effective measurements to
make better decisions
 Diagnosis – Determine how a specific part of the content
strategy is performing
 Justification – Justify continuing a part of the content
strategy
 Orientation – Use to make decisions about the direction
of the content strategy
 Rewards – Assess the improvements made as part of
the content strategy and how to reward individuals or
groups

15. Measurement
• Measurement relies on the collection and analysis
of data, which are then compared to standards,
goals, objectives, etc.
• Assessment questions:
 How many?
 How economical?
 How accurate?
 How reliable?
 How prompt?
 How satisfied?

16. Examples of criteria for assessing
value
User criteria Value added examples
Ease of use • Indexing
• Glossary
• Linking
• Access (subject description, short descriptions)
• Ordering/sequencing
Quality • Item identification
• Currency
• Reliability
• Validity
• Conciseness
Adaptability • Response speed
• Precision

17. Analysis Tools
• Satisfaction surveys
• Search log analysis
• Database analysis
• Usability testing

18. Categories of measurement
• Process measures
 Focused on the activities to transform data and
information into content
 Can be measured by quantifying the cost or time to
perform a specific task or process
• Output measures
 Indicate the degree to which content is used by users
 Indicate satisfaction of users

19. METADATA FOR METRICS

20. Key steps
Communicate
results
Metadata
Key metrics
Content
strategy
1. Create your content
strategy plan
2. Determine the metrics
that will be used to
measure those goals
3. Apply metadata to
content

21. Metadata is….
• Correct, but ambiguous
 Data about data
 Information about data
• A little more descriptive
 Structured information that describes, explains, locates,
or otherwise makes it easier to retrieve, use, or manage
an information object (Zeng and Qin)
 Data provided in machine processable forms and
communicated via protocols

22. DITA is metadata and requires
metadata
• DITA, as XML, is a veritable sea of metadata for
information development groups
• You can’t use DITA without having metadata
solutions to help solve problems and help with use
cases
• A strong metadata strategy will give users
mechanisms to access the information they need
for common search and retrieval use cases

23. Principles of metadata
• Good metadata…
 Supports interoperability
 Supports organizational needs
 Is appropriate to the materials in the collection
 Uses standard controlled vocabularies
 Includes a clear statement on the conditions and terms
of use
 Supports the long-term management of objects

24. Why is metadata important?
• Metadata is critical for finding information in the
CMS
 Searching can be enhanced by rich, consistent,
descriptive metadata
• Metadata is critical for enabling dynamic publishing
 Publishing for different audiences, customers, and so on
 Faceted searching
• Metadata classifies information to make it more
findable on the Web

25. Metadata supports…
• Increased accessibility
• Retention of context
• Expanding use
• System development and enhancement
• Multi-versioning
• System improvements and economics

26. Metadata Typologies in the DITA
CMS
• Embedded metadata
 Stored as part of the DITA objects
 Stored in prologs of maps and topics
• Associated metadata
 Stored separately with linkages in the CMS
 Stored in CMS properties files

27. Embedded metadata
Embedded
Map and
topic
prologs
Taxonomy Elements
and
attributes

28. Associated metadata
Associated
CMS
properties
Labels

29. Embedded or associated?
• Use embedded metadata
 Searching in the CMS
 Needs to be used in output
 Needs to travel with the object for localization or
interchange
• Use associated metadata
 Searching in a portal
 Metadata is manifested when objects are in locked
states

30. Types of metadata
Type Descriptive Structural Administrative
Description Describes an object
for purposes such as
findability and
identification
Indicates how the
type of objects
Provides
information to help
manage objects
Examples topic IDs, index terms
and keywords,
conditional attribute
values
root elements
(topic types)
rights, states,
dependencies

31. Common Quality Issues
• Missing metadata
• Incorrect metadata
• Confusing metadata
• Insufficient metadata
All impact issues impact discovery, interoperability,
and reusability.

32. Quality Indicators
• Completeness
 Discovery, Use, Authentication, Administration
• Correctness
 Content, format, input, browser interpretation,
mapping/integration
• Consistency
 Data recording, source links, identifiers, description,
representation, syntax

33. Existing Metadata
• Industry standards
 Check with the standards bodies for your organization to
see if there are existing metadata schemes
• Channel/format standards
 Dublin Core
 SCORM

34. What do you need to do?
Develop your metadata strategy:
1. Determine the metadata to measure the success
of your content strategy
 And to help CMS users find files in CMS
2. Decide where to apply metadata
 Document the schema
 Produce guidelines for using the schema
3. Apply metadata to content
4. Test metadata for creating reports

35. COMMUNICATE RESULTS

36. Key steps
Communicate
results
Metadata
Key metrics
Content
strategy
1. Create your content
strategy plan
2. Determine the metrics
that will be used to
measure those goals
3. Apply metadata to
content
4. Communicate results
to stakeholders

37. Graphical and tabular information
• CMS Reports
• TSV from Search Results
• BIRT: Business Intelligence and Reporting Tools

38. What do you need to do?
Communicate the progress on the content strategy
plan:
1. Build a report template
2. Create queries to measure your key metrics
3. Create report and insert query results into report
 Identify the objectives of your content strategy
 Definition of a metric or score for each objective
 A target value
 A target date
 A periodic measurement cycle
4. Meet with stakeholders

39. Resources
• Rockley, Ann & Cooper, Charles. Managing
Enterprise Content: A Unified Content Strategy
(2nd ed.).
• Baca, Murtha (ed.). Introduction to Metadata, 2nd
ed.
• Peh, Diana, et al. BIRT: A Field Guide.
• Weinberger, David. Everything is Miscellaneous:
The Power of the New Digital Disorder.
• Zeng, Marcia L & Qin, Jian. Metadata.

40. Resources
• Baca, Murtha (ed.). Introduction to Metadata, 2nd
ed.
• DITA 1.2 specification.
• Hedden, Heather. The Accidental Taxonomist (The
Accidental Library Series).
• Morville, Peter. Ambient Findability: What We Find
Changes Who We Become.
• Weinberger, David. Everything is Miscellaneous:
The Power of the New Digital Disorder.
• Zeng, Marcia L & Qin, Jian. Metadata.