[Sigia-l] Taxonomy/Classification IA and Enterprise IA

[Chiara Fox]

> How are you defining Enterprise IA?
> Do you mean the metadata attributes and associated vocabs for an
> entire Enterprise-wide Document Management strategy?
> Do you mean the recommended navigation structure for an
> Enterprise-wide Intranet? Internet?
> Do you mean Enterprise-wide ideas applied to portals?

Hi Donna-

Yes and more. By "Enterprise IA" I am referring to information
architecture(s) that is/are embraced by the entire organization (be that a
company, univeristy, whatever). It goes beyond just what they are doing on
the website to include the extranet, intranet, department databases,
advertising and print marketing, and more.

Enterprise IA can take a lot of different forms. It could be a basic set
of metadata attributes that is used by all departments (HR to User Support
to Financials) on their intranet sites. It could be a standard product
vocabulary that all departments use. It could be guidelines on how to
use/implement global, local, contextual, and supplemental navigation
company-wide. It could take many forms.

I can't point to something and say "that's Enterprise IA" in action,
because I don't know where they are doing it sucessfully. But I know it's
coming. We aren't doing it at my company, but the longer I work here, the
more I see a need for it. And the more I know it's going to be hard, and
messy, and need executive approval at the highest levels to get done.

Let me give you a real life example. If we had a standard product
vocabulary/hierarchy, that would mean a user could use the same terms to
find marketing info about a product, search for support cases and patches,
download release notes and other documentation, and find training classes.
But because all four of those are owned by different departments, the
products are all structured slightly differently. And you need different
methods/terms to find things in those four areas. It makes seamless
integration very difficult. And makes for a less than ideal user
experience.

-Chiara