When the subject of improving search arises, discussions of taxonomies and metadata are sure to follow. Taxonomies may be used behind the scenes in a search implementation, or can be part of the user interface as a useful adjunct to searching. But what are taxonomies? How do you get a good one? How do you get metadata that associates the taxonomy with your content?
This tutorial will answer those key questions, along with others such as:

• Does adding a taxonomy mean replacing my search engine?
• What kinds of taxonomies are there, and what do I need?
• Can I get a taxonomy off-the-shelf or create one with software?
• How can we make our current search engine better?
• How can I sell my management on a taxonomy project?

Taxonomy, metadata, a search engine, and a navigation structure—pulling all these elements together is like solving multiple jigsaw puzzles with a lot of extra pieces. This workshop will discuss how to build an effective content management strategy based on these various components, all of which ultimately support improved search and findability. A hands-on exercise that presents actual problems and solutions will illustrate how to make your content management system, search engine and other components really work together.

Learn the fundamentals about how enterprise search engines differ from public Web search engines, and how they are the same. Acquire a solid grounding on how search engines work, from indexing to the actual search to the results display, using real-world examples so that you can make the most of the intensive, in-depth sessions at Enterprise Search Summit. This workshop will cover robot spiders, general index structures, simple query parsing, retrieval, relevance ranking, and designing usable search interfaces. It will explore the three core aspects of enterprise search: search functionality, content searchability, and interface. There will be some time to discuss attendees’ experiences with enterprise search and suggest directions for improvement.

Once you have developed and deployed a taxonomy, how should you keep it and the associated metadata updated to reflect all the changes in and around the organization? What kind of a team is required to maintain the taxonomy, what skills and tools do they need, and what governance processes should they follow? This tutorial covers these areas:

• Best practices for designing and building maintainable taxonomies and metadata
• Sources of change; i.e., organizational changes, SME input, end-user feedback, tagging difficulties
• Two fundamental processes every organization should implement to maintain its metadata and taxonomies
• Additional processes to prioritize and plan for maintenance operations
• Team structures used by different organizations to manage changes to their taxonomies, metadata, and search engine
• How to select which governance processes an organization needs, and how to avoid the ones beyond its capabilities

Interface stands on the shoulders of infrastructure, and user experience relies on the foundation systems of information architecture. The biggest problem on today's Web sites and intranets is findability. In this half-day seminar, Peter Morville covers information architecture from top to bottom, explaining how search and navigation systems can be designed to support and shape user behavior. In this workshop attendees will:

• Explore the fundamental relationships between taxonomies, metadata, search engines, and the user experience.
• Explore the concepts, methods, and tools that are needed to practice information architecture successfully.
• Learn how to make the information on your Web site or intranet more useful, usable, accessible, desirable, credible, and findable.
• Discuss best-in-class examples drawn from corporate, e-commerce, education, and government Web sites and intranets.