BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//Ensemble Independent//vPim 0.360//EN CALSCALE:Gregorian X-WR-CALNAME:Boxes and Arrows Events Calendar tagged "taxonomy" BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20061025 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20061026 SUMMARY:Operationalizing your taxonomy LOCATION:Virtual DESCRIPTION:Date & Time: Wednesday Oct 25th - 2:00 to 3:30 PM EDT. \n \nDe scription \n \nBringing a taxonomy to life is not an easy job. Operationali zation often requires juggling multiple perspectives, such as those of desi gners, content publishers, application developers, not to mention consumers . These groups all have different views on what taxonomy is, how it should be applied, managed, integrated, etc. \nSo, knowing this, how do you roll your taxonomy to the enterprise? This session will present taxonomy operati onalization strategies that take into account this multiplicity of views. L earn about: \n \n- Different taxonomy formats (controlled value lists, ref erence data, etc.) \n- Implementation issues \n- Cross-project perspectiv es \n- Communication and education \n- Governance and standards \n \nThi s session explores these and other issues around "socializing" the taxonomy within the organization to ensure it is an effective tool. \n \nPresenter : \n \nSeth Earley, Earley & Associates END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20061201 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20061202 SUMMARY:Taxonomies and Information Architecture LOCATION:Virtual DESCRIPTION:User Experience design is often thought of as distinct or diffe rent from taxonomy design. What are good IA practices and how do they influ ence taxonomy design? In this session you'll hear from three experienced IA 's who will share specific examples from their organizations and consulting projects that will illustrate principles that you can apply in your taxono my projects. \n \nIn this session, hear about: \n \na user experience des ign effort that combines information architecture and taxonomy approaches f or a major financial services client; \n \nspecific experiences applying IA with Compaq and HP and "business taxonomies" - taxonomies that live within strict business limitations. \n \nPresenters: \n \nSeth Earley, Earley & Associates \nJoe Lamantia \nTanya Rabourn \nAndrew Gent, Hewlitt Packar d END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20070131 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20070201 SUMMARY:Integration with Enterprise Initiatives LOCATION:Virtual DESCRIPTION:Join us for this month's Taxonomy Community of Practice confere nce call: Integrating your taxonomy project with other enterprise initiativ es. \n \nDate & Time: Wednesday, Jan 31st - 2:00 to 3:30 PM EST. \n \nReg ister for the session at http://www.earley.com. \nPlease register by Januar y 30th to ensure that you receive the instructions in time. \n \nDescripti on \nWhether you like it or not, you won't be deriving your taxonomies in a vaccuum. During the development process, you often have to collaborate an d integrate with related projects in the enterprise, such as web design, se arch engine optimization, e-commerce, and enterprise architecture. So how d o you keep in alignment with all these other workstreams and keep your proj ect on plan? Our speakers in this session will cover strategies to help you achieve a smooth integration. \n \nLearn about working with cross-functio nal teams, communication strategies, and cross-initiative workstream integr ation. \n \nPresenters: Seth Earley (Earley & Associates), Margaret Hanley, and Ron Daniel (Taxonomy strategies LLC) END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20070221 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20070222 SUMMARY:Tagging: It's the Interface Stupid! LOCATION:King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, USA DESCRIPTION:Time: 6 - 8 pm \nLocation: GSI Commerce, Inc., 935 First Avenue , King of Prussia, PA \nRSVP: Please let us know if you are coming at phill yCHI@gmail.com \n \nInterest in content user-assigned tags is one of the bi g new stories on the Web. But content tagging is not a new story. What's ne w about Web 2.0 is that end users are doing the tagging instead of libraria ns, and the results are being shown almost instantly on websites like flick r, del.icio.us, Wikipedia, and Technorati.Librarians have long contended th at end users cannot usefully tag content because they are not trained in ho w to do indexing. More correctly, end users cannot tag content the way libr arians tag content. But this begs the question about what kind of tagging i s useful. \n \nJoseph will discuss the usefulness to be found in tagging as it relates to librarians and usability professionals, the Semantic Web, an d document and content management practices. \n \nJoseph Busch is the Found er and a Principal of Taxonomy Strategies. Joseph is an authority in the fi eld of information science, a past President of the American Society for In formation Science and Technology, and an appointee to the Board of Director s of the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative. He is a frequent speaker on metad ata, taxonomy, indexing, classification research, information retrieval, an d content management. Read more about Joseph at Taxonomy Strategies. END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20070228 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20070301 SUMMARY:Developing Taxonomy Project Requirements LOCATION:Virtual DESCRIPTION:Date & Time: Wednesday, Feb 28th - 2:00 to 3:30 PM EST. \n \nC ost: $50 per participant. \nRegister for the session at http://www.earley.c om. \nPlease register by February 27th to ensure that you receive the instr uctions in time. \n \nDesigning and implementing a practical and effective taxonomy always starts with a practical and effective set of project requi rements. Whether you're developing or implementing a taxonomy, using in-hou se talent or creating a vendor/consultant request for proposal (RFP), you n eed to clearly scope the project and identify the application framework. Wh en you get the ball rolling with a set of well-defined goals and requiremen ts, you'll be more likely to end up with a result that meets your expectati ons. In this session, our speakers will offer practical insights into the r equirements development process. \n \nWe'll learn about: \n* Scopi ng your taxonomy project \n* Defining your application framework \ n* Creating effective RFPs \n* Aligning project requirements with your goals and expectations \n \nPresenters: Seth Earley (Earley & A ssociates), Jie-hong Morrison (Computer Technologies Consultants, Inc.), Ha rry Ringwood (Philip Morris) END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20070328 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20070329 SUMMARY:TaxoCoP call - Taxonomy and Knowledge Management LOCATION:Virtual DESCRIPTION:Date & Time: Wednesday, Mar 28th - 2:00 to 3:30 PM EST. \n \nCo st: $50 per participant. \nRegister for the session at http://www.earley.co m. \nPlease register by March 27th to ensure that you receive the instruct ions in time. \n \nDescription: \nThe challenge of knowledge management (KM ) is one of context - understanding the user's frame of reference, mental m odel, problem solving approach and stage of process in their work task. We also need to know something about how people describe the things that they need, and their understanding of labels that are placed on documents. \n \n All of this points to the need for terminology that is consistent and multi ple facets that can be used to describe all of these various attributes of content-- in other words, a taxonomy. \n \nAs organizations attempt to deal with information chaos, managers are recognizing the need for organizing p rinciples that can extend across silos, span the enterprise, and connect di sparate systems and repositories. Taxonomies and other categorization schem es offer solutions to that chaos. \n \nHear how taxonomy projects are essen tial to knowledge management initiatives, and learn how to apply thesaurus structures to improve the findability of explicit knowledge, and the abilit y to locate and leverage tacit expertise. \n \nSpeakers will focus on the n eed to define context and process, and how to apply taxonomies to effective ly support KM. \n \nPresenters: \nSeth Earley (Earley & Associates), Giovan ni Piazza (KnowledgeWeb Program, Center for Business Knowledge, Ernst & Yo ung LLP), Jayne Dutra (Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA) END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20070412 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20070413 SUMMARY:Taxonomy & Metadata Jumpstart Call LOCATION:Virtual DESCRIPTION:Get up to speed quickly on what you need to know about taxonomi es and learn how to get started on a taxonomy project in your organization in this free 4-week webinar series. The Taxonomy & Metadata JumpStart will tackle some of the issues and challenges in deriving taxonomies and metadat a standards. During these calls, you will hear from experts at leading Fort une 500 companies and be exposed to tools from select vendors. \n \nLed by Seth Earley of Earley and Associates, each of the four 90-minute webinars f eature taxonomy experts and practitioners sharing practical advice and info rmation about how to develop, manage, and maintain a taxonomy. You'll recei ve a valuable slide deck in advance of each call, and have the opportunity to ask questions of the speakers and interact with others in the audience. \n \nApril 12th - 1:00-2:30pm EDT \nSession 2: Getting Started - Taxonomy B uilding Blocks \nTopics include: \n \n * What is a taxonomy? \n * Wh at is metadata? What is a thesaurus? \n * How do these pieces become a t axonomy? \n * A taxonomy project roadmap \n \nPresenters:Seth Earley (Ea rley & Associates, Marjorie Hlava, Jay Ven Eman (Access Innovations, Inc.) END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20070419 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20070420 SUMMARY:Taxonomy & Metadata Jumpstart Call 3 LOCATION:Virtual DESCRIPTION:Get up to speed quickly on what you need to know about taxonomi es and \nlearn how to get started on a taxonomy project in your organizatio n in \nthis free 4-week webinar series. The Taxonomy & Metadata JumpStart w ill \ntackle some of the issues and challenges in deriving taxonomies and \ nmetadata standards. During these calls, you will hear from experts at \nle ading Fortune 500 companies and be exposed to tools from select vendors. \n \nLed by Seth Earley of Earley and Associates, each of the four 90-minute \nwebinars feature taxonomy experts and practitioners sharing practical \na dvice and information about how to develop, manage, and maintain a \ntaxono my. You'll receive a valuable slide deck in advance of each call, \nand hav e the opportunity to ask questions of the speakers and interact \nwith othe rs in the audience. \n \nApril 19th - 1:00-2:30pm EST \nSession 3: Managing Structured Metadata and Taxonomies \nTopics include: \n \n * Relationsh ip between taxonomy, metadata and content objects \n * Metadata standard s and thesaurus structures \n * Managing taxonomic and structured metada ta - the different flavors \n * Bridging the gap between the data world and the content world \n \nPresenters: Seth Earley (Earley & Associates), B arbara Nichols (Metaview 360), Stu Carty (Gavlian Research) END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20070530 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20070531 SUMMARY:Multi-lingual Taxonomies – TaxoCoP call, May 30th LOCATION:Virtual DESCRIPTION:In our global business environment, it often isn't enough to de rive a taxonomy in English. Frequently, international businesses and web s ites now need multi-lingual taxonomies, or local language variations. This challenge was discussed in a CoP thread earlier this year, and now the May conference call will let you hear from some experts on this topic. Should you have a central master taxonomy and local variants? Do the local versio ns translate back to global term? What happens when some taxonomy owners a re non-English speakers? What is the governance structure for a multi-ling ual? Seth Earley, along with Marti Heyman and Denise Bedford, will discuss strategies, solutions, and describe case studies and examples about how to manage multi-lingual taxonomies. \n \nPresenters: Seth Earley (Earley & Ass ociates), Denise Bedford (World Bank Group, Georgetown University, Universi ty of Tennessee, Kent State University), Marti Heyman (Phena Partners) END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20070531 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20070601 SUMMARY:Online Card Sorting & Analysis LOCATION:New York, New York, USA DESCRIPTION:Please see event site for complete details. \nNote: While the c urrent event venue is sold out, a larger venue is in the works. Please put your name on the waiting list. \n \nSubscribe to NYC UPA emailing list for event updates at http://www.ncyupa.org/ END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20070801 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20070802 SUMMARY:Beyond Auto-Categorization LOCATION:Virtual DESCRIPTION:TaxoCoP Monthly Call \nDate & Time: August 1st, 1:00pm EDT \nCo st: 50$ \n \nRegister for the session at http://www.earley.com/_July2007.as p \n \nRecently, tagging, folkonomies and ontologies are emerging as new wa ys to capture social and domain knowledge. Furthermore, using the emerging Semantic Web standards such as RDF and OWL, and technologies for automatic metadata extraction (annotation) and semantic analysis, we have alternative or newer ways to organize, integrate and exploit (search, analyze and perf orm knowledge discovery) information within enterprise and on the Web. \n \ nWe will provide an overview of current state of the art and share some per sonal experiences that may answer the following questions \n \n * what t ypes of ontologies have been built, how they are built, is there a typical ontology, low large a typical ontology is, what does it take to build and m aintain ontologies \n * how well (semantic) metadata annotation/extracti on work \n * what is the status and adoption of Semantic Web standards a nd technologies \n * what kind of advanced capabilities (analytical, dec ision making and discovery) are made possible using Semantic Web technologi es \n * which domains have been more amenable to applications of ontolog ies and Semantic Web technologies, and what are few use cases? \n \nMost of the discussion will be through the use of real-world examples/applications . \n \nPresenter: Dr. Amit Sheth \nDr. Sheth is the LexisNexis Ohio Eminent Scholar and director of the Knowledge Enabled Information and Services Cen ter (http://knoesis.wright.edu) at Wright State University. Earlier he foun ded and directed the LSDIS lab at University of Georgia, and worked at Bell core, Unisys and Honeywell. His research interests include the Semantic Web , services science, and information integration and analysis. END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20070823 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20070824 SUMMARY:PhillyCHI August Meeting - Taxonomy LOCATION:Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA DESCRIPTION:Time: 6:00 pm - 8:30 pm \n* Meet & greet from 6:00 pm - 6:30 pm * \nLocation: Berger Auditorium, Skirkanich Hall, University of Pennsylvan ia \n210 South 33rd Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104 \nMap: http://www.facili ties.upenn.edu/mapsBldgs/view_map.php3?id=140 \nRSVP (not necessary, but ni ce): phillychi@gmail.com \n \nMost folks know that taxonomy has something t o do with organizing things. \n \nFewer folks know, however, that taxonomy is the practice of classification, which originally began as a science devo ted to the classification of living organisms. And that over time, taxonomy has become known as the classification of just about anything and everythi ng. \n \nEven fewer get down into the weeds and do the work that goes beyon d simple classification that makes today’s information systems work: meta d ata, facets, controlled vocabulary, thesauri, synonym maps, ontologies, tag ging… \n \nWhat’s troubling about this divide between those that know about taxonomy and those that don’t is the very importance of taxonomy. For lots of designers & developers, the applications, websites, and interactive pro ducts they spend their waking hours creating could not function without wel l-structured, carefully crafted information structures. \n \nThis month’s P hillyCHI meeting will explore in practical and tangible terms the specific ways taxonomy is important to the work we do. We will discuss the design, i mplementation, and governance of taxonomies by examining four real-world ca se studies: \n \n * a user-centric catalog for a large e-commerce site a nd its impact on the user experience \n * a content-heavy non-profit inf ormation site \n * a system processing data through controlled vocabular ies and thesauri \n * a consumer-driven search engine \n \nPlenty of tim e will be reserved at the end of the meeting for discussion, so bring your tough questions! \n \n \nPanel Participants \nDave Cooksey, GSI Commerce, I nc \nEmily Culbertson, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation \nJohn Ferrara, Vangu ard \nJulia Remick, Yellow Book USA END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20070829 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20070830 SUMMARY:Facets & Taxonomies - August TaxoCoP LOCATION:Virtual DESCRIPTION:We are seeing a drive toward less control and a decentralizatio n of term creation. Think tags and collaboration tools like wikis and blogs . Is there a hybrid process? Can we get the precision of facets with the ad aptability of tags? \n \nThis month's taxonomy Community of Practice call will explore these issues. We'll start with an overview of facets and facet ed search and then hear from Peter Bell, one of the founders of Endeca, a f aceted search company, about new developments in the field that allow a com bination of unstructured and structured tagging and classification. \n \nW hen Facets Meet Wikis and Tags \n \n"Put simply, if you're an information architect, we see facets in your future," writes Peter Morville and Louis R osenfeld in the newest edition of O'Reilly's "Information Architecture for the World Wide Web" (aka The Polar Bear.) Faceted classification has moved beyond early adopters in the past few years, and is now graduating to more advanced projects. One such use is enterprise social collaboration, aka Ent erprise 2.0. In particular, facets are being used to improve information ac cess for employee-generated content like wikis and blogs. And this content is categorized into facets with folksonomies, or user- generated tags. But without centralized authority, how can facets ensure security, tame chaos, and coexist with curated content? In this session, we'll show results from Endeca's own internal deployment of such a system, which has served as a la boratory for innovations on facets in enterprise social collaboration. \n \n \nPresenters: \n \nSeth Earley \nSeth Earley is founder and senior con sultant for Earley & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in kn owledge, content and document management systems with a focus on taxonomy d evelopment and search integration. \n \nPete Bell \nPete Bell is the cofo under of Endeca, the pioneer of the Information Access Platform and one of the world's fastest growing software companies. \n END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20070926 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20070927 SUMMARY:Folksonomy & Taxonomy LOCATION:Virtual DESCRIPTION:What if we let users drive the taxonomy? \n \nThere is a lot of dialogue and research being conducted on folksonomies - also known as soci al tagging. Is it effective? How can we use folksonomy in the corporate env ironment? \n \nEmma Tonkin from the University of Bath will talk about how research projects in recent years have centered around the analysis and des cription of user tagging practice and the resulting data sets. She will pro vide a brief description of their approach towards data collection and anal ysis of large tag sets, and highlight a few potential uses for a successful model of user tag sets. \n \nLaurie Damianos will describe an ongoing tech nology investigation at MITRE to assess the value and utility of social boo kmarking on a corporate intranet. They hypothesize that social bookmarking would be useful in this environment for resource management, information sh aring and discovery, expert finding, and social networking. She will discus s features of the prototype system deployed and early analysis of findings on adoption, usage, and social influences. She will conclude with our chall enges and plans for future development and integration into the enterprise END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20071105 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20071109 SUMMARY:UI12 - User Interface 12 Conference LOCATION:Boston, Massachusetts, USA DESCRIPTION:Register for all 4 days by October 23rd with the promotion code BOXES to receive $30 off each day and a limited-edition UI12 iPod video ht tp://www.uiconf.com \n \nBOXES promo code cannot be combined with any other special offer or promotional code, and is only valid for 4 day registratio ns. \n \nFor the User Interface 12 Conference \n( http://www.uiconf.com ) , Jared M. Spool and his team of usability researchers have asked the most forward thinking minds in the world of usability to present on today's most pressing design topics. \n \nFor 4 full days, you'll learn in-depth tech niques from these top experts, and come away with the knowledge and confide nce necessary to tackle your biggest design challenges. \n \nNow in its tw elfth year, the UI12 Conference examines the most critical web design and u sability issues facing designers, information architects, and usability pro fessionals. Topics include: Agile Development, Task-based Information Archi tecture, Usability Testing, Visual Design, Building Innovative Designs, Com municating with Comics, Interaction Design, and Designing with CSS. \n \nO n Monday, November 5th, you'll have the chance to attend one of four full-d ay seminars from Larry Constantine, Gerry McGovern, Rolf Molich, or Luke Wr oblewski. \n \nOn Tuesday, November 6th, you'll have the chance to attend several of the informative and entertaining 90-minute Featured Talks from e ach of our conference speakers, as well as the UI12 Conference Keynote pres entation from Jared M. Spool. \n \nOn Wednesday, November 7th, you'll have the chance to attend one of four full-day seminars from Scott Berkun, Kevi n Cheng, Kim Goodwin, or Cameron Moll. \n \nWe'll cap off the week on Thur sday, November 8th, with our Showcase Seminar Day, where you can choose bet ween UIE's most popular seminars. END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20071128 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20071130 SUMMARY:Gerry McGovern- Creating Customer-Centric Websites LOCATION:Ottawa, Ontario, Canada DESCRIPTION:If you are involved in managing, developing, or writing for web sites, you won't want to miss this opportunity to spend two engaging and ed ucational days with one of the world's leading experts on web content and u sability. \n \nGerry McGovern, is making a rare visit to Ottawa this fall t o give a Masterclass on creating customer-centric websites. Organizations w hose websites focus on the customer and on task completion, rather than on themselves, are the ones getting the most from their Web content, whether i t’s selling products or delivering services. \n \nThis two-day Masterclass will provide you with the knowledge and tools needed to create quality “kil ler Web content” and the arguments to support an approach that puts the cus tomer at the very centre of your Web strategy. \n \nYou should attend this workshop if you are: \n- Writing, editing or publishing Web content \n- Man aging Web projects \n- Promoting websites \n- Concerned about Web usabilit y \n \nThe Masterclass is being hosted by Neo Insight Inc., in collaboratio n with the Ottawa Centre for Research and Innovation (OCRI) and Canada Busi ness, Industry Canada. \n \nDon't let others miss out on this opportunity. Please forward this announcement to friends and colleagues (distribution l ists too) who have a stake in good Web design. \n \nWe have several people who have attended previous Gerry McGovern workshops and were so impressed t hat they have registered again for this Masterclass. Come join us! \n END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20071205 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20071206 SUMMARY:Taxonomy, Metadata & Publishing LOCATION:Virtual DESCRIPTION:Join us for this month's Taxonomy Community of Practice call on Taxonomy, Metadata & Publishing \n \nWeds. Dec 5th, 1-2pm ET \nCost: 50$ \ nRegister at www.earley.com/_Nov2007.asp \n \nIssues of data delivery, aggr egation, \ncontent reuse and standards have been at the forefront of many e -publishers' minds. \n \nWe will hear from Chris Hogue (Roundarch) on the P ublishing Requirements for Industry Standard Metadata (PRISM) and its usage . We will also hear from Mid Walsh on the use of taxonomy, indexing and con tent reuse at Houghton Mifflin. END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20080130 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20080131 SUMMARY:Taxonomy CoP Call - Getting Management Buy-in LOCATION:Virtual DESCRIPTION:Time: 1:00-2:00pm ET \nCost: 50$ \n \nDescription: Taxonomy an d metadata standards projects can be abstract and difficult to explain. How ever, unless you are able to clearly convey the value of this work, it will be challenging, if not impossible to get organizational support, resources and buy in. How do you get management to understand how taxonomy can impro ve business processes and help achieve goals of improved productivity as we ll as provide a foundation for new capabilities that the organization will need down the road? How can the magnitude of the effort be explained while convincing decision makers that the investment in these kinds of projects a re core to organizational adaptability and flexibility? How do you explain the role of taxonomy projects in the era of "just get Google"? \n \nJoin us to learn how Jeff Auker, Assistant Vice President in the Hartford's Person al Lines Department managed communications and gained support for an enterp rise taxonomy initiative at the insurance company. This session is a must h ear event for anyone struggling with getting and retaining organizational s upport for their taxonomy and information architecture programs. END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20080226 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20080227 SUMMARY:Taxonomy is User Experience - PhillyCHI LOCATION:Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA DESCRIPTION:PhillyCHI February Meeting - "Taxonomy is User Experience" by D ave Cooksey \n \nDate: Tue, 2/26/2008 \nTime: 6 - 8PM \nLocation: Irvine Au ditorium \nUniversity of Pennsylvania \n3401 Spruce Street \nPhiladelphia, PA 19104 \nRSVP: Please help us to plan and RSVP at phillychi@gmail.com \n \nTaxonomy Is User Experience \nOver the past couple of years, we've all se en a lot of discussion around user-organized, user-generated content with s ites like Flickr and Wikipedia held up as the future of user experiences wh ere users tag and organize information as it suits them. We've even heard a certain amount of talk about the end of taxonomies. \n \nDespite the rise of tagging and wikis, and the user experiences they enable, taxonomy has ne ver been more important. Taxonomies continue to grow in importance as metad ata and ontologies extend their capabilities and allow us to create more en gaging user experiences. \n \nThis presentation will approach taxonomies fr om the user's perspective by introducing a simple conceptual framework that communicates the centrality of taxonomies to UX. Then, it will cover: \n \ n- the virtues of thinking of taxonomy in terms of the user experience and not simply as data or classification \n \n- ways to talk about taxonomy tha t clearly communicate its business value and help promote it as a practice \n \n- how to craft a user-centric taxonomy by examining several e-commerce redesign case studies \n \nAbout Our Speaker \nDave is a UX Lead at gsi in teractive and Chair of PhillyCHI. His day-to-day work includes guiding and executing UX & design activities, conducting user research, and information architecture. He also leads taxonomy and metadata projects. Dave's work is informed by masters degrees in information systems and social science. \n \nThis presentation will be sponsored by gsi interactive. To learn more abo ut gsi interactive, visit www.gsicommerce.com. END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20080505 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20080507 SUMMARY:Gerry McGovern - Creating Customer-Centric Website LOCATION:Ottawa, Canada DESCRIPTION:If you are involved in managing, developing, or writing for web sites, you won't want to miss this opportunity to spend two engaging and ed ucational days with one of the world's leading experts on web content and u sability. \n \nGerry McGovern, is making a repeat visit to Ottawa, after hi s sold-out presentation last November, to give an encore Masterclass on cre ating customer-centric websites. Organizations whose websites focus on the customer and on task completion, rather than on themselves, are the ones ge tting the most from their Web content, whether it's selling products or del ivering services. \n \nThis two-day Masterclass will provide you with the k nowledge and tools needed to create quality "killer Web content" and the ar guments to support an approach that puts the customer at the very centre of your Web strategy. \n \nYou should attend this workshop if you are: \n- W riting, editing or publishing Web content \n- Managing Web projects \n- P romoting websites \n- Concerned about Web usability \n \nThe Masterclass i s being hosted by Neo Insight Inc., in collaboration with the Ottawa Centre for Research and Innovation (OCRI). \n \nDon't let others miss out on thi s opportunity. Please forward this announcement to friends and colleagues ( distribution lists too) who have a stake in good Web design. \n \nWe have s everal people who have attended previous Gerry McGovern workshops and were so impressed that they have registered again for this Masterclass. Come joi n us! \n END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20080507 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20080508 SUMMARY:Gerry McGovern -Managing Customer-Centric Websites LOCATION:Ottawa, Canada DESCRIPTION:This Executive session is for senior managers and executives wh o have to translate strategic plans and visions into coordinated actions by other people. It is for those of you who want to: \n \n- Take your vision and manage your website to realize your strategic objectives \n- Make decis ions based on data rather than opinion \n- Establish a clear return on inve stment \n- Maintain a clear focus to get maximum impact from limited resou rces \n- Develop actionable metrics for effectively managing the web chann el \n \nThe key challenge you face today with your website is not about te chnology or content. It’s about service. How do you let your customers (cit izens, consumers and businesses) more quickly and more easily serve themsel ves? Because on the Web it’s all about self-service. \n \nThe Web is about the shift in power from the organization to the customer. Simply put, the W eb empowers customers and citizens more than it empowers organizations. The most successful websites are built around the needs of its users, rather t han the demands of organizations and managers. In the long-term, being cust omer-centric is not a like-to-do, it is a must-do. \n \nGerry McGovern is w orld-renowned speaker and expert on Web content and usability. He communica tes the essential strategies that every manager needs to know, in an engagi ng and humorous way that makes his message unforgettable. Do not miss this one-off opportunity \n END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20080518 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20080523 SUMMARY:Semantic Technology Conference 2008 LOCATION:San Jose, California, USA DESCRIPTION:Widely recognized as the World’s Foremost Symposium on the Comm ercialization of Semantic Technologies, the SemTech Conference is where Sem antic Technologies and Web 3.0 come to life in products, in working applica tions, in case studies, and in conversations with hundreds of developers, e ntrepreneurs and practitioners who are building a new industry. SemTech 200 8 is a world-class educational program, including 5 days of business case s tudies, technical tracks, user groups, product briefings, demonstrations, i ndustry-focus groups and networking opportunities. \n \nEARLY REGISTRATION DISCOUNTS – including our special 3rd Person attends Free offer – are avail able until April 21! \n \nFor the full conference agenda and to receive reg ular program updates, go to: \nwww.semantic-conference.com or \ncall +1-31 0-477-4475 \n END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR