The Connection Between Metadata, Social Tools, and Personal Productivity

Christian BuckleyDirector of Product Evangelism, Axceler

What I’ll cover today:

• The productivity dilemma

• The evolution of the Information Worker

• Why social is important to the enterprise

• How metadata and social improve productivity

AboutChristian Buckley, Director of Product Evangelism at Axceler

• Microsoft MVP for SharePoint Server

• Prior to Axceler, worked for Microsoft, part of the Microsoft Managed Services team (now Office365-Dedicated) and worked as a consultant in the areas of software, supply chain, grid technology, and collaboration

• Co-founded and sold a software company to Rational Software. At E2open, helped design, build, and deploy a SharePoint-like collaboration platform (Collaboration Manager), onboarding numerous high-tech manufacturing companies, including Hitachi, Matsushita, Cisco, and Seagate

• Co-authored ‘Microsoft SharePoint 2010: Creating and Implementing Real-World Projects’ link (MS Press, March 2012) and 3 books on software configuration management.

• Twitter: @buckleyplanet Blog: buckleyplanet.com Email: cbuck@axceler.com

Get the Book

Published 2012 by Microsoft PressOrder your copy at http://oreil.ly/qC4loT

Tackle 10 common business problems with proven SharePoint solutions:• Set up a help desk solution to track service

requests

• Build a modest project management system

• Design a scheduling system to manage resources

• Create a site to support geographically dispersed teams

• Implement a course registration system

• Build a learning center with training classes and resources

• Design a team blog platform to review content

• Create a process to coordinate RFP responses

• Set up a FAQ system to help users find answers quickly

• Implement a cost-effective contact management system

Axceler Overview

Improving Collaboration since 2007• Mission: To enable enterprises to simplify, optimize, and

secure their collaborative platforms• Delivered award-winning administration and migration

software since 1994, for SharePoint since 2007• Over 3,000 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

THE BUSINESS DILEMMA

How productive are your end users on SharePoint?

Email Cell Twitter Blog

cbuck@echotechnology.com 425.246.2823 @buckleyplanet http://buckleyplanet.net

The Challenge of End User Engagement

External variables

Perceived

usefulness

SimpleTo use

Personalattitude

IntentActual system

Source: Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) by Fred Davis 1985, shared with me by Jussi Mori @JussiMori

Idea:The business dynamics of how Information Workers capture, consume, and interact with data are changing

Online tools and the social platforms help teams work together more collaboratively

Why is the Information Worker role changing?

The economics have changedNeed to get more out of our investmentsAnd do it with fewer headcount

Cloud adoption is helping drive itMovement away from hardwareChange in focus from maintenance toward productivity and performance focusSocial is becoming a layer across most enterprise applications

Idea:Metadata is fundamental to making social, knowledge management, and SharePoint work

What is metadata?

Definitions

In Biology, taxonomy is the science dealing with the description, identification, naming, and classification of organisms. “however, the term is now applied in a wider, more general sense and now may refer to a classification of things, as well as to the principles underlying such a classification.”

“Metadata provides context for data. Metadata is used to facilitate the understanding, characteristics, and management usage of data. The metadata required for effective data management varies with the type of data and context of use.” Wikipedia.org

Govern

Metadata

Taxonomy Folksonomy

Social Media

Search

End Users

The metadata stack

Structured and Unstructured

• Site architecture is centrally controlled• Metadata is always applied to content• Site Columns and Content Types are created

at site collection root• Lists get “bundles” of columns

PROS• Improves consistency• Reduces metadata duplication • Easy to update• Easy to support and train on• Allows document-level DIP, Workflow,

Information Policies, and document templates

CONS• Requires planning• Requires upfront work• Hard to manage across site collections and

portals

• Site architecture is ad-hoc• Metadata may not be applied to content• Columns are created on lists• Columns are combined in an ad-hoc basis on

each list

PROS• Requires no planning• Requires little upfront effort• Works across site collections and portals

CONS• Decreases consistency• Increases metadata duplication• Hard to update• Hard to support and train on• Only allows list-level Workflow, Information

Policies and document templates• Difficult to reverse

CENTRALIZED DECENTRALIZED

Metadata is the fundamental building block of every SharePoint solutionTaxonomy adds structureFolksonomy refines the modelApply governance, as needed (Hint: its always needed)

Case StudyU

TeamsCorporate Departments

Empowerment

My Site

Business ROIFaster employee on-boarding and trainingMore productivityMore usage of the platformFaster realization of the financial investments

http://bit.ly/2nk9Fe

Metadata is the fundamental building block

Taxonomy adds structureFolksonomy refines the modelApply governance, as needed (its always needed)

Automated (by content type)Document nameFile typeAuthorDescription

Where the metadata lives

Taxonomy Department Title Role Status Approval

Folksonomy Project Definition Correlated projects

Idea:Social tools are just another layer of the search experience

“Social media is media designed to be disseminated through social interaction, created using highly accessible and scalable publishing techniques. Social media uses Internet and web-based technologies to transform broadcast media monologues (one-to-many) into social media dialogues (many-to-many).

It supports the democratization of knowledge and information, transforming people from content consumers into content producers.”

Definitions

Wikipedia.org

Your team wants social for the enterprise, but what does that really mean?

Good question

Why SharePoint needs social

• Taxonomy applied

• Folksonomy (tags)

• Social dialog• Shared• Liked• Rated

• Taxonomy applied

They surface dataThey provide contextThey extend the search experienceThey are increasingly being viewed as the way in which people communicate

Why are social tools important?

• The primary value of a folksonomy is that it uses your own vocabulary

• May come from your intimate knowledge of a subject

• A way to correlate discovered content (through search or social interactions) to your understanding

Why use folksonomy?

Taxonomy• Paper• Airplane• White• Toy

Folksonomy• Paper• Flight• Airplane• Design• White• Toy• Origami• Technique• Distance

taxonomy

folksonomy

Opportunity to improve global search

AdvantagesIntegrated into SharePoint

Can be extended (social tools providers)

DisadvantagesRequires social interaction

Improved filtering needed

Need more display/sharing options

Requires ongoing management (governance)

Another example, this time within SharePoint 2010, because I want to be thorough…

Social in SP2013Features

• Community• Social tagging• Easily share content

and activities• Follow documents,

people, sites, tags, and activities

• Improved activity streams

• Improved My Sites• Save locally

Benefits

• Build more robust metadata• Make content more findable• Link people, teams, content

and activities

Adding Metadata through Social

Sharing is Key

Idea:Organizations don’t understand, much less track and measure, user productivity

Where do you begin?

What are you doing to make your end users productive?

4 Ways to Improve Productivity

What are their most active sites?

What are their usage patterns?

What business problems have been improved or solved by SharePoint?

What has been the ROI of your most recent SharePoint deployment efforts?

Measurement

Many managers have a difficult time answering these questions

Not because the platform is failing to provide value, but because of a lack of measurements

How do you measure your success?

It is easy to put a value on quantitative improvements to productivity

But difficult to put value on qualitative improvements

What are you doing to make your end users productive?

Why focus on Productivity?

To simplify the interface into SharePoint

To better align end user activities with the needs of the business

To better streamline business processes

To get more out of SharePoint

Most commonly used automation of end user interaction with SharePoint

Reduces “hunt and peck” by simplifying interactions

Allows enforcement of process and governance rules

“Pushes” action rather than relying on end users to do the right thing

Why use workflow?

Simplify the interface to SharePointBreak down complex tasks into natural languageGives people step-by-step instructionsCapture more complete dataCapture richer metadata

Why build out your forms?

Where to start?

Are you optimized for search?

Have you adopted a metadata strategy?

Have you developed a social strategy?

Have you prioritized feature and solution requests?

Have you established a cycle for continuous improvement on what you’ve built?

Areas for initial focus

1. Start with out-of-the-box

2. Understand your culture

3. Communicate your vision

4. Develop your use cases, and define your solutions

5. Outline your taxonomy

6. Implement a governance plan

7. Make continuous improvement part of your culture

Strategy for Improving Productivity

Before you talk about productivity:

Understand the business value of what can be delivered through SharePoint

Clarify the scope of what is to be built -- before you start building it

Thank you!

Order your copy at http://oreil.ly/qC4loT

Additional Resources The Heretics Guide to Best Practices, Paul Culmsee http://hereticsguidebooks.com On The Importance of Metadata, Craig Mullins http://bit.ly/cOWp2F Enabling Social Media through Metadata http://slidesha.re/gdjoaz Managed Metadata in SharePoint 2010, Scott Singleton http://slidesha.re/hNPeAQ The Battle for Metadata in SharePoint 2010, Michal Pisarek http://bit.ly/g7vFWN 5 Steps of a Successful SharePoint Site Transformation http://bit.ly/eB6qbN Creating Passionate Users, Kathy Sierra http://headrush.typepad.com/

Christian Buckleycbuck@axceler.com @buckleyplanetwww.Axceler.comhttp://tiny.cc/buckleypresentationshttp://tiny.cc/buckleybloghttp://tiny.cc/buckleybookhttp://tiny.cc/buckleygovernance4hybrid

The Connection Between Metadata, Social Tools, and Personal Productivity

Technology

OHMS (Oral History Metadata Synchronizer) USER GUIDE€¦ · (audio or video) • Media host • Media connection (depending on your connection type and media host) o Media URL (for

Metadata and Semantics Workshop Current Report · ! 6! 3. Metadata!for!discovery!followed!by!manual!selection!and!connection!isalreadyachievable. However!the!selection!of!appropriatedatasets!or!softwareisgreatly

Trade and Productivity: The Family Connection Reduxcege/Diskussionspapiere/DP159.pdf · TRADE AND PRODUCTIVITY: THE FAMILY CONNECTION REDUX ... Galor and Mountford aptly coined the

Hearth Connection Productivity Model

Oy What is Metadata? j of Metadata. Metadata 101 joy of Metadata Common terms What is metadata? Why metadata?

Expert Review Big Metadata, Smart Metadata, and …microblogging.infodocs.eu/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/...Big metadata, smart metadata, and metadata capital are presented as part

Metadata Analyser: measuring metadata quality

A Programmatic View of Metadata, Metadata Services, and Metadata Flow in ATLAS

Oy Metadata Content j of Metadata. Discovery Access Understanding Levels of Metadata joy of Metadata Metadata Standards Why standards Which standards

Changing Patterns of Productivity and Business Dynamism ... · Changing Patterns of Productivity and Business Dynamism: Is There a Connection? February 2017 By John Haltiwanger, University

Introduction to Geospatial Metadata Module 1 – Introduction to Metadata and Metadata Standards

Crossref Metadata and Metadata Services

Employee Well-being and Productivity: Making the Connection · Well-being and Productivity: A 2015 Gallup Poll (22) Employees that are highly engaged and experience well-being are

Metadata Content. Levels of Metadata Discovery Access Understanding Metadata Standards Additional Metadata Common Core Metadata Why standards Which standards

Improving Forage Productivity on a Shoestring Budget · 3/20/2015 Kim Cassida, MSUE, cassida@msu.edu 1 MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITYMSU Forage Connection, Improving Forage Productivity

What is metadata? Book metadata in product information files Book metadata in digital content files Book metadata carriers Who creates and uses metadata?

Metadata & CMDI CLARIN Component Metadata Infrastructure

Expanding fish productivity in Tasmanian saltmarsh wetlands ... - Expanding...1 1 Expanding fish productivity in Tasmanian saltmarsh wetlands 2 through tidal re-connection and habitat

Introducing Geospatial Metadata ---1 Don’t Duck Metadata Introducing Geospatial Metadata A Metadata Workshop

04 Metadata and Metadata Management