Information FIRST! Valued IA roles discussion

Cue song: "Too Much Information," The Police

Information.... If it's an important asset, shouldn't an organization invest in it? The discussion goes back to Mixon's declaration: Information First! At the SF SP Tech 2008 session, he put it out there in the CT/SC / search / reporting / findability session. When a client works through the hard part to dive down and emerge with the agnostic business (or pre-technical, ontological, epistemological solution), it to leads to thrills when they determine the core information, the foundation they need to begin their road to the appropriate ECM solution.

Mark Schneider's Taxonomy 101 added a lot of depth to the IA exploration; we talked in depth about this best practice, this governance priority: ensure that information management (at least the metadata management) is deliberately managed enterprise-wide, not accidentally or every three years when it is obviously a mess. Who will manage enterprise content, metadata (not just another hat for the overburdened IT admin/dev/support/DBA/PM guy)? See those clouds coming--there's just more to integrate, and you'll be revisiting your TAX / IA / Key Word / Folksonomies / MMS / SEARCH tactics again.

At the Las Vegas SP 2010 Conference last October, a lot of folks from all over the world--groups and organizations large and small, gov and private--talked information and content (business assets for sure) piling up fast. And many of them asked "Is SP that solution to manage it and tag it to manage it and find it? SP is another way to do it. RES IPSA LOQUITUR -- it's an inventory of parts, capabilities, packages, processes, etc. SP isn't the solution; if you use it right, it contributes to the solution.

Check out this discussion about IA roles (alas, too often undervalued), responsibilities, deliverables, and all that make the IA career interesting and fun. Hug your IA person soon.

The commoditization and fragmentation of the ia community

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