Presentation for annual V-ict-OR Shopt IT conference

1. From data storage to
information management
Adventures in -ication

2. Who am I
★ Managing Partner, Outerthought
★ www.outerthought.org
★ content- and knowledge management
★ Open Source CMS
★ www.daisycms.org

3. Topics

4. Organisation

5. Classification

6. Discovery

7. Organisation

8. The Database

10. Rule 1: The Information rule
All information in the
database is to be
represented in one and
only one way, namely by
values in column positions
within rows of tables.

12. BigTable

13. ★ Schema-free databases
★ Name-value pairs
➠ URIs
★ Keys
➠ HyperLinks
★ Relations
★ No SQL unfortunately?

14. ★ The era of
information
repositories

15. ★ Storage of documents instead of records
★ Relations through hyperlinks
★ Dynamic or non-relational schemas
★ Weak, if any, typing
★ Focus on findability and storagability rather
than on schema adherence

16. ★ Shift from database to data modelling
★ Increasing importance of the domain
model
★ Semi-structured information
★ Content- and information rather than
website or document management

17. Two challenges 1. Domain Modelling
2. ‘External Classification’

18. Domain Modelling

19. ★ wireframes
★ navigation hierarchy
★ landing pages
★ lists of things
★ which content will fit where
★ ‘UML’-like domain model
★ content
★ structure
★ which content can be shown where

20. ★ domain model
★ define and name entities, content parts
and characteristics
define and establish relationships
★
think about findability
★
think about unit of manipulation
★
think about access control
★

21. External Classification

22. Labelling

23. Classification

24. The
Universal
Taxonomy

25. un!
Run!

26. ★ the universal taxonomy fails
★ single-rootedness
★ things appear in multiple locations
★ omphaloskepsis: navel gazing

27. multi-labeling
➠
tagging
➠
taxonomies ➠ folksonomies

28. 

29. 





31. ★ folksonomies
★ tags and optional tag bundles
★ content- rather than
classification-driven
★ user generated micro-content
★ shown as tag clouds

34. ★ user generated micro-content
★ represents a genuine value
★ must be moderated
★ history falsification
★ spam (PR whoring, p0rn)
★ lower the doorstep
★ no authentication required
★ QA burden for content owner

36. Drip feeding

37. success factors
★ volume
★ diversity
★reward

38. impediments
★ when a formal classification is
required
★ expert communities
★ classification ~ structure
★ when full-text searching is a viable
alternative
★ use tags to define weight in ranking

39. Discovery

41. ★ the doom of simplicity
★ natural language processing
★ plurals
★ typos
★ abuse-prone
★ no upfront expectation management

43. BE
ILL
W
★ upfront knowledge
★ managed expectations
★ principle of least astonishment

44. Facetted navigation

45. Facetted navigation

46. Facetted navigation

47. Facetted navigation

48. Conclusions

49. Organisation
★ Always make a thorough judgment as to
where to store what
★ RDBMS for relational data
★ Repositories for documents/information
★ Integrate instead of standardization

50. Classification
★ Rich metadata improves findability and (re)
usability
★ Somewhat-typed metadata
★ Tagging, folksonomies r k3wl, but
★ Business case needed
★ Don’t forget menial tasks

51. Discovery
★ Premature feedback doesn’t exist
★ Classification can add influence ranking
★ K I Simple !

52. Case

53. CCGC
★ aka: Lesson learnt in information design
★ Canadian Coast Guard College
★ Case: Management of Competency-based
Training Material

54. Competency Table Course
Sub-Competency
Course Unit 1 Course Unit 2
Specific
Sub-Competency
Competency Performance
Sub-Competency Objective
General
Sub-Competency Terminal
Specific
Competency
Objective
Competency Sub-Competency
Enabling
Sub-Competency
Specific Objective
Competency Competency Sub-Competency
Area Enabling
Objective
Sub-Competency
Course Unit 3
Enabling
Sub-Competency
Specific
Objective
Competency Sub-Competency
General
Enabling
Competency Sub-Competency Objective
Sub-Competency
Specific
Competency Sub-Competency

55. Learning Object
Competency Classification
Competency General Specific
Area Competency Competency
(Course Unit) (Perf. Obj.) (Terminal Obj.)
Enabling Objective / Sub-Competency
Performance Performance
Body
Action Verb Environment
Teaching Information
Overview
Aim
Trainer’s Notes
Learning Strategies
Exercises
Ressources
References
Evaluation

56. model classification
use documents to
Competency Area Learning Object
General Competencies: link - Competence Hierarchy: link
Description: daisy/html
competence hierarchy
- Performance Action Verb: string
hierarchy
- Performance Environment: string
+ Prerequisites: link
+ Student Notes: link
General Competency + Exercises: link
Specific Competencies: link + Resources: string (selection)
Description: daisy/html - DeliveryTime: long (minutes)
- DeliveryMethod: string (selection)
Aim: daisy/html
Trainer's Notes: daisy/html
References: daisy/html
Specific Competency
Performance Standards: daisy/html
Description: daisy/html
Evaluation Standards: daisy/html
External Course
n/a
Description: daisy/html
Exercise
- Competence Hierarchy: link
- DeliveryTime: long (minutes)
- DeliveryMethod: string (selection)
+ Resources: string (selection)
Type?
Description: daisy/html
Teacher info: daisy/html Student Note
Student info: daisy/html + Competence Hierarchy: link
Content: daisy/html
Competency Table
n/a
CompetencyTable: list of LO's
Internal Course
n/a
Course Training Standard: daisy/html
Course Structure: list of LO's
competency
competency
listing course rendition
table
(query)
curricullum
Curricullum Rendition
+ Courses: link Metadata?
Description: daisy/html All parts required for bookpublishing

57. CCGC
★ Problem
★ 10 x 10 x 10 x 10 = 10.000
★ 20 x 20 x 20 x 20 = 160.000
★ ...

58. CCGC
★ Solution
★ Hierarchical Structure Widget
★ Store hierarchy in XML document
★ Provide authoring and editing widget for
hierarchy

59. CCGC

60. CCGC

61. CCGC
★ Lessons learnt
★ think critically about metadata
★ the system might need adaptation (or the
data)
★ focus on domain model rather than on
the ‘website’

62. Q &A
Thank you!
stevenn@outerthougth.org