joe pairman | multiplying the power of taxonomy with granular, structured content

Multiplyingthe Power of Taxonomy

with Granular, Structured Content

<div property="author"><span

property="sameAs"href="https://twitter.com/joepairman">Joe Pairman

</span></div>

<author keyref=”JoePairman"/>

Taxonomies themselves are

often very granular…

…the objects that taxonomies label are often less granular (pages, sections, and documents)

Benefits of applying taxonomy to granular, structured content~ Easiermanagementofcontentvariability~ Improvedcontent

coverage&quality~ In-contextrelevantlinks

(improvedUX)~ Easypublishingof

search-enginefriendlyLinkedData

How I cut my teeth in structured content…

…in HTC’s User Education team

We needed multichannel output

”Show Me” app on phone

Support content on desktop

PDF user guide

We needed multichannel output

PDF

Enriched XTHML for mobile app

author interface

CCMS

topics

build maps

text and media

Publishing engine: based on DITA Open Toolkit

DITA XML• re-use/re-assembly• cascade changes

Enriched XTHML for corporate site & internal KB

Component content management — multichannel publishing

Many product variations to document, for different models…

…regional variants…

…and customizations.

PDF

Enriched XTHML for mobile app

author interface

CCMS

topics

build maps

text and media

Publishing engine: based on DITA Open Toolkit

DITA XML• re-use/re-assembly• cascade changes

Enriched XTHML for corporate site & internal KB

Component content management — managing variability

In-topic variation handled with a combination of techniques

Standard tech comm approaches encourage ad-hoc, local practicesXML tech content tends to separate:~ Profiling condition values~ Variable IDs & values~ Metadata terms stored in the XML~ CMS-level metadata

Markup often describes what should happen to the content, not what it signifies!

“There are no tools that pay attention to this sort of stuff today, and until there is a strong driver to do markup in this way,

it won’t become popular”

Since then, several things

have come together…

My work on XML consulting/integration/dev.— incl. taxonomy dev & application to structured content at the section level

Partners, providing dynamic web delivery for DITA XML

— incl. linking key terms to glossaries & related content

intuitive, reliable XML authoring tool— now, easy inline term tagging too,

powered by PoolParty concept extraction API

Partners: I started playing with their concept extraction tech & then moved

into the other features— clients are integrating structured

content tech & other systems

Next: Mekon’s demo

to illustrate the power of

structured content /

semantic tech combined

Content Marketing case study

Appealing recipes…

Link to related products

But the link is out of context, and not obvious

By using structured content + taxonomy, we could do better

Starting with a recipe taxonomy

Tech writers create tech docs

Marcom creates recipes

In FontoXML

Connecting key inline terms…

To the taxonomy concepts.

When we publish the

recipes & blender docs

to DITAweb…

Users can select a preparation

method or ingredient

…to see the

attachment that makes the method easier

To learn

more aboutthe attachment,

select the button

From here, you can buy the

product directly

The doc automatically links back to the recipe, and the recipe relates to “shave” and “blend”

Why this approach to links?

Whyaskauthorstoidentifyconceptsinsteadofenrichingautomaticallylater?~ Disambiguation~ Correctusage

Why this approach to links?

Whyaskauthorstoidentifyconceptsinsteadofenrichingautomaticallylater?~ Disambiguation~ Correctusage

Whynotsimplycreatedirecthyperlinkstothetargetpage?~ Fragile~ Application-specific

More use cases for connecting structured content + taxonomyArea Example/s

Easier management of content variability

Pharma or any other situation where a product has multiple concurrent names

Improved content quality Technical content referring to parts of a machine:• Are all parts covered?• Do the parts that users enquire about most

often have sufficient coverage?

In-context relevant links • Glossary info defined in taxonomy• Integration with PLM, where a click on a part

name brings up the relevant drawing/animation

Easy publishing of search-engine friendly Linked Data

Benefits to connecting granular, structured content + taxonomyArea Example/s

Easier management of content variability

Pharma or any other situation where a product has multiple concurrent names

Improved content coverage quality

Technical content referring to parts of a machine:• Are all parts covered?• Do the parts that users enquire about most

often have sufficient coverage & effort spent?

In-context relevant links • Glossary info defined in taxonomy• Integration with PLM, where a click on a part

name brings up the relevant drawing/animation

Easy publishing of search-engine friendly Linked Data

• SEO for answers about products• Aggregation to allow doctors the ability to see

drug info straight from manufacturers alongside national guidelines on those drugs

Thoughts? Questions? Need a demo?Get in touch:

~ joe.pairman@mekon.com

~ @joepairman on Twitter