Monday May 19, 2008
W1: Enterprise Search 101
9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
Avi Rappoport, Consultant, Search Tools Consulting
There are many elements to an enterprise search engine, from index options to relevance ranking to log analysis. This workshop will provide a thorough grounding in the technology and design issues important to configuring search engines and the processes involved in maintaining and extending search. Understanding the fundamental principles and vocabulary of search will prepare you for the intense, in-depth sessions at the conference itself and give you a grounding for discussions with vendors of search engines.
W2: Creating an Effective Search Strategy
9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
Seth Earley, President, Earley & Associates Inc.
Too often organizations neglect search strategy and simply attempt to deploy a tool as an enterprise service, or a high-level, “30,000-foot” strategy is created that lacks enough detail to be practical and actionable. The goal of an actionable search strategy is to create an approach that can be adapted to future business needs while satisfying the immediate requirements of enterprise search projects.
W3: SharePoint Search: Good Enough for the Enterprise?
9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
Jean Graef, Founder, The Montague Institute
The search component in the current version of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS 2007) is a big improvement over its predecessor, but is it good enough for enterprise search? This workshop will look at the new features of MOSS search to see how it compares with other popular enterprise search systems. Graef will cover various implementation scenarios: options for crawling SharePoint content with a non-Microsoft search engine, how to do “federated search” in MOSS 2007, how to leverage an existing thesaurus, and how to integrate a taxonomy management system. Graef will also compare the “bottom up” planning process for MOSS 2007 search with the “top down” approach for enterprise search.
W4: Designing the Search Experience
1:30 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Rebecca Rodgers, Senior Consultant, Step Two Designs
Beyond the technology and the installation of a new search engine, there remains the need to ensure that search is easy and efficient for users. In conflict with this is the cluttered and complex out-of-the-box interface deployed by most search engines. This workshop will explore the concept of search usability and the fundamental principles of a well-designed enterprise search interface. Real-life examples will be used to provoke vigorous debate and discussion.
W5: Enterprise Search Technology Intensive
1:30 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Theresa Regli, Principal, Real Story Group
This will be an intensive workshop on the nuts and bolts of how search technology works. After an overview of enterprise search fundamentals, we’ll look at the enterprise search marketplace and take a nonbiased look at the current enterprise search solutions available. We’ll look at strengths and weaknesses, explore how to tackle specific scenarios, which tools to use, and provide an overview of who’s offering the most cutting-edge features such as social search and collaboration. Finally, we’ll look at the new administrative interfaces of several search solutions, exploring search management analytics, and tuning.
W6: Structuring Search in Complex Intranet Environments
1:30 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Jane McConnell, Intranet Strategy Consultant, NetStrategy/JMC
For search to work effectively, content must be structured in a highly “findable” way. High findability is a combination of clarity in user architecture, workable governance, an appropriate customization strategy, and a meaningful confidentiality policy. This workshop will provide concepts and examples of these points based on years of experience working with large, complex, global intranets. Workshop participants will leave with the ability to adapt these models and guidelines for use in perfecting content findability in their own intranet landscapes.