At the crossroads of ubiquitous computing and the Internet, the user experience is out of control, and findability is the real story.  Access changes the game. We can select our sources and choose our news. We can find who and what we need, when and where we want. Search is the new interface of culture and commerce. As society shifts from push to pull, findability shapes who we trust, how we learn, where we go, and what we buy. In this cyberspace safari, Peter Morville explores the future in mobile devices, search algorithms,
ontologies, folksonomies, findable objects, ambient advertising, and the Long Tail of the sociosemantic Web. Reflect with Peter as he challenges us to think differently about the power of search—and findability—to redefine our sources of authority, inspiration, and competitive advantage.

(All attendees will receive a copy of Peter’s new book, Ambient Findability, published by O’Reilly Media.)

When it’s time to select and deploy a multiterabyte search project, you may encounter some surprises. The analysts and search software suppliers can only tell you so much, and for the rest you’re on your own. Hear lessons learned about selection, functionality, organizational readiness, and other aspects of deploying enterprise search on a large scale, including searching confidential and regulatory-restricted information.

What is common practice for search and metadata? How can you determine where your organization’s practices fall short and where they exceed the norm? To help you benchmark your organization, Ron Daniel presents results from a recent survey that asks about an organization’s business drivers for metadata, search and taxonomy, team sizes and structures, and the processes employed to reach their goals. He then puts the survey results into the larger context of a “metadata maturity model” to help you decide which processes your organization may be ready for and which are too sophisticated to tackle now.

How often have you heard users complain that they can’t find exactly what they need on your corporate intranet? Is your search engine the culprit? Or is it inconsistent metadata? Or maybe even your user interface? In this session, you will learn how to address some common problems that hinder customer satisfaction with search. We will show you how to set appropriate expectations, analyze your collection, leverage your formal taxonomies, and exploit end-user tags to create a more intuitive and satisfying search experience.

Search tools are more abundant than ever, but the people you support are spending valuable time sifting through irrelevant search results and may be missing critical information. How can you improve their overall search experience, and, more importantly, how can you help them make intelligent use of search intelligence? P&G created a unified search tool that sorts results into clusters that are intelligently selected from words and phrases found in the documents themselves. Learn about the benefits of clustering and how P&G’s
project evolved to extend across the entire enterprise.

Hear how Capital One implemented search in a large call center environment, and about the operational maintenance that is required to maintain search usefulness of 98%. John Lewis discusses lessons learned from the call center project that have been applied to their intranet and Internet search, with a focus on information architecture and search engine customization.

Can topic maps finally provide end users with a complete solution for knowledge discovery, specifically the capability to conduct iterative search-scan-browse sessions? Here’s the good, the bad, and the ugly of topic maps and an assessment of the feasibility of implementing them in a for-profit environment.

 The Google-box defines the interface for search queries, but what about the need for user-centered results page design? Mike Doane describes his effort to build a SERP (search engine results page) using the idea of patterns that meets the needs of users at all levels, and Ravi Mynampaty outlines how the HBS modified the underlying code of a commercial search engine to create a tabbed results page.

Hear about an enterprise search project at a major European energy provider that integrates heterogenous content sources and user access rights into a single, central search platform. Learn how to set up a framework that integrates content and security from different document repositories, so users can find all the information they have access to from any enterprise application.

Learn how Cisco Systems has leveraged a combination of search and machine-based sentiment analysis to provide rapid turnaround of press content, touching on important aspects of assigning sentiment and showing examples of sentiment analysis in different areas including the technically complex vertical market of network security.

Faceted navigation depends on metadata from databases, CMS repositories, and/or manual processes to organize and structure access to information.  Now some applications are involving end users in the generation of metadata.Learn about applications and work processes that blend user-generated metadata with faceted navigation and hear case studies in the areas of Web services and e-commerce.

Much of a large company’s intellectual property is contained in repositories of unstructured content, and making it accessible to large numbers of corporate end-user customers is a daunting task. Based on internal deployments and multiple supplier proofs of concept, these Intel search analysts examine various dimensions of search performance on this type of content, ranging from system architecture, standards, and governance to user needs and relevance.

Using sentiment analysis, users can do a simple search and view a “sentiment scale” displayed in a basic statistics format, offering the capability to do customized, comprehensive, instant polls of the Web with regard to any product or service. Learn how it works and get a glimpse of the analytical power it offers to both consumers and e-commerce retailers.

Enterprise search projects aim to unlock the full value of information, but often fail to live up to lofty expectations. The problem? There’s often a disconnect between user experience and findability. This session focuses on search best practices and the latest academic research into how humans actually behave when they go seeking important information. Get some new insights and user experience tips to make your search project a success.

The U.S. EPA limped along for years with old, unsupported search technology. This talk chronicles a 4-year journey of evaluating alternatives and then selecting and deploying a new enterprise search engine. John Shirey will share the challenges and victories, including their approach to metadata-weighted ranking and plans for the next phase with taxonomy-clustered results.

Did a frustrated searcher just ask again why we don’t use Google as our search engine? But you know that your search technology is OK—it is that blasted content that you can’t get under control. Your authors don’t use the right keywords; your Webmasters block the spiders; marketers insist on their precious message, and tech support people write entirely in acronyms. Search queries and results are only as good as the underlying content.  Hear how to impose control and standards on unruly content (and its creators) and how to get all the players to follow the rules.