September 25, 2003

Enterprise Information Architecture

Yes, I realize that I made fun of the word "Enterprise" recently, but I'm back with another Enterprise related topic.

Lou Rosenfeld has posted a very interesting chart for Enterprise Information Architecture development (45k PDF).

The chart is a vague timeline of activities that an organization might undertake. Rosenfeld includes activities like taxonomy design, web site indices and navigation, content modeling, metadata development, search, weblogs, and wikis. Any mid to large size organization could take this and sketch out a plan of attack quite easily. And, looking over the chart, I think most of the ideas are pretty good.

A minor semantic quibble: Coming from my background, I'd be inclined to call these activities "Information Management," not (Enterprise) "Information Architecture." I'm pretty sure that we're talking about the same things here. Off the top of my head, the only things I can think of that I'd call Information Management that aren't on Rosenfeld's chart are some of the "softer" activities like Communities of Practice.