[MNASIS-L] SLA MN Chapter hosts the May 24th SLA Virtual Seminar: Taxonomy KM -- Where to go once the KM program is already in place

[Janet Arth]

The Minnesota Chapter will host the May 24th SLA Click-U-Live 
Webinar:  "Taxonomy KM -- Where to go once the KM program is already in place"

Date:  Wednesday, May 24, 2006

Time:  1:00pm - 2:00pm CT  (plan to arrive a few minutes early, as the 
seminar starts promptly at 1pm)

Location:
Northwest Area Foundation (located on the 4th floor of the Drake  Building 
- between Robert and Wabasha Streets)
60 Plato Blvd., Suite 400
St.  Paul,  MN   55107
651-224-9635

Your Host:  Melissa Yauk

Directions & Parking:
http://www.nwaf.org/about.aspx?pg=about/contactus.htm
Cost:  $10 for SLA/ASIST/MALL or HSLM members:  $15 for 
non-members  (Please make your check payable to "Minnesota Chapter SLA" and 
bring it with you to the seminar.)

How to register:  Send the registration form shown below to Jim Tchobanoff 
(jtchobanoff at bigfoot.com)  or call Jim at 651 636-3738.  Space is limited, 
so register ASAP.

Registrations will be handled in the order received and a confirmation 
message will be sent.

[Please note that if you register, you are obligated pay for your seminar 
attendance, whether or not you show up on the 24th]

*********************************************

May 24th Virtual Seminar Registration Form:

Name:

Phone number:

SLA/ASIST/MALL/HSLM member:  yes  no

Do you need a receipt:  yes  no

*********************************************

Thanks to Melissa Yauk for hosting the seminar.

Any questions, call Jim at 651 636-3738 or send an email to 
jtchobanoff at bigfoot.com

Jim Tchobanoff

Seminar information follows:

******************************

Taxonomy KM -- Where to Go Once the KM Program Is Already in Place
24 May 2006
1:00-2:00 p.m. CT

Presenter:
Seth Earley, President, Earley & Associates, Inc
<http://www.sla.org/content/learn/learnmore/distance/2006cul/052406cul/searleybio.cfm>

The Course:
Knowledge management projects have seen a resurgence in many organizations. 
However, KM initiatives are much more grounded, with a focus on tangible 
benefits and bottom line results. Organizations recognize the need to 
capture knowledge as it is created, vet, edit and approve knowledge objects 
and make them available to knowledge consumers in a variety of roles, 
engaging in a multitude of tasks and with varying contexts.

For example, a piece of explicit knowledge for a software firm might be in 
the form of a support document. That document might be appropriate for 
customers who are trying to troubleshoot a problem by searching a publicly 
available knowledge base. The same content might be useful for a technical 
field consultant installing the software. It might also be provided as a 
tech bulletin, or subscription based "tips and tricks" document. It might 
also have value to a business analyst scoping a project or developing a 
project plan. It may have applicability to specific products or a products 
used in a particular configuration.

The challenge of KM is one of context - understanding the user's frame of 
reference, mental model, problem solving approach and stage of process in 
their work task. We also need to know something about how they describe the 
things that they need and their understanding of labels that are placed on 
documents.

All of this points to the need for terminology that is consistent and 
multiple facets that can be used to describe all of these various 
attributes of content. We need knowledge taxonomy.

But knowledge is messy and language is imprecise. The landscape of 
organizational knowledge and expertise is constantly shifting. People are 
continually processing explicit knowledge, combining it with tacit judgment 
and expertise and applying it to create, communicate, and apply new knowledge.

A few years ago, KM lost credibility when the term was hijacked by 
technology firms or abstracted to theory disconnected from practical 
application. But now, organizations are recognizing the chaos that Web 
sites, intranets, document management tools, portals, collaborative 
workspaces, email, discussion forums, and other technologies are creating. 
Managers are starting to recognize the need for organizing principles that 
can extend across silos, span the enterprise, and connect disparate systems 
and repositories.

A well-conceived taxonomy is the foundation for any project involving 
search, navigation, enterprise integration, content management, portals, 
compliance, records management, and collaboration.

This session will review how taxonomy projects are essential to knowledge 
management initiatives and how to apply thesaurus structures to improve the 
search, navigation, and findability of explicit knowledge as well as the 
ability to locate and leverage tacit expertise.

We will focus on the need to define context and process and ways to apply 
taxonomies to effectively support KM and solve business problems that 
impact the bottom line.

Targeted Learners:

Business managers, librarians, information architects, application 
developers, intranet managers, content managers, people responsible for 
search and for application integration.

Critical Questions
    * How can taxonomy support knowledge processes?
    * How can facets be derived and applied?
    * What are the ways that taxonomies need to be integrated with search, 
expertise location, and personalization?
    * How can structured and unstructured processes be better managed 
through use of enterprise taxonomies?
    * How can processes be mapped to useful terms in a taxonomy?

Related Reading:
"<http://www.sla.org/ebrary/index.cfm?docID=10118118&page=33>To Keep KM 
Current, Pay Attention to Context Changes." Seth Earley,  Information 
Outlook April 2006.