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This Web course gives TWO PEOPLE one-on-one assistance in developing a strategy for integrating multiple taxonomies — both internal and external. By "integration" we mean bridging the conceptual gaps between disciplines and cultures as well as making taxonomies available to navigation tools, incorporating them into business applications, and including them in editorial work flow. For an example and demo, see "Linguistic tools for knowledge discovery."

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN
At the end of the course, you should be able to:

• create two taxonomies (controlled vocabulary + thesaurus) for each of two domains;
• map terms from one taxonomy to related terms in the second taxonomy;
• create a metadata repository for standardized names and use it to create thesaurus terms;
• create navigation tools that bridge two domains — e.g. topic hierarchy, lists, A - Z index with cross references.

WHO SHOULD TAKE THIS COURSE
This course is designed for Web site publishers, content owners, knowledge managers, technical writers, e-commerce managers, editors and others who want to learn how to define the requirements for increasing information productivity. We recommend that an interdisciplinary team of two to four people take the course together.

TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS
You'll need Internet access and a Web browser (e.g. Internet Explorer 4 or later, Netscape 5 or later).

COURSE FORMAT
The course is conducted via teleconference, e-mail, and the Web.

COURSE OUTLINE

Section 1: Review of taxonomy basic concepts

 

Section 2: Conceptual integration

How to define domain boundaries

How to integrate domains

How to create and use thesauri and authority files

The role of content creation and structured writing

 

Section 3: Structural integration

Ontologies

Repositories

Metadata

Standards and collaborative development

 

Section 4: Applications

Sources of metadata for applications

Search and navigation

Portals & e-commerce

Print and electronic publishing

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Lab The course requires you to select a project and gather Lab data for a real-world application. To save time, most data can be imported via Excel worksheets. The instructor will help you select and define your project, assemble required data, and assist you in using a private, passworded work area in the Web-based Lab. Communication with the instructor is via phone and e-mail. At the conclusion of the course, the instructor will help you identify lessons learned. Your Lab data can be exported and saved as an Excel file. After exporting, it will be permanently deleted from our server unless you arrange for long term hosting. You have 60 days to complete the Lab portion of the course. You can contract for a custom, hosted version of the Lab as well as a custom version to install on your own server.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jean Graef is a "boundary spanner" with an interdisciplinary background as a manager, entrepreneur, librarian, programmer, and journalist. She has been developing and conducting seminars on cutting edge information topics since the early 1980's.

DATE & TIME
You can start the Web course at any time and proceed at your own pace. You do not have to wait for a class to form. The amount of work involved is roughly equivalent to a semester's course at the graduate level. Most people can complete the course in three to six months. To minimize the time commitment without compromising the educational experience, you can:

• take the course as an interdisciplinary team;
• narrow the scope of your Lab project;
• extract data from existing corporate systems when possible;
• submit Lab data on Excel worksheets for importing instead of manually entering Lab data;
• build on data structures created in previous Montague Institute courses.

COST
$5,500 for two people (nonmembers), $5,000 for two people (members of the Society of Knowledge Base Publishers). Course fee includes Lab access for 120 days and up to 4 hours assistance via phone and/or e-mail from the instructor.

HOW TO REGISTER
Call (423) 968-5584 to request a pro forma invoice or provide a credit card number (we accept Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Diners Club, and Discover). Created on July 15, 2002 l Updated on November 15, 2012