Knowledge architecture is the foundation for all of our services. It provides a framework within which we can develop smarter, cheaper, and more integrated solutions. Knowledge architecture deals with the design, creation, and maintenance of the intellectual infrastructure of organizations.

This intellectual infrastructure typically involves 3 levels:
· Organization
· Implementation
· Strategic

We offer services for all three levels but know from experience that without a solid organizational foundation, the implementation layer will lack the depth necessary for success and the strategic layer can too often remain unconnected to the real problems of the organization.

Knowledge Architecture Audit

Because the organizational foundation is so vital, we offer a basic service, a knowledge architecture audit, which can be a separate service or can be the first step in a larger engagement. This audit is a report on the state of your intellectual infrastructure, including a catalog and characterizations of your information people, processes, and technology. It also includes rich characterizations of your content, publishing procedures and stakeholders, and the full variety of formal and informal communities that are served by your intellectual infrastructure.

We produce a knowledge architecture audit using a variety of methods including stakeholder interviews, content and metadata analysis, usage and search log analysis, user interviews and surveys, technology needs analysis, and ethnographic studies.

We offer three levels of audits ranging from a 2 person - 2 day audit to a much more in depth and broader audit utilizing 3 people over 10 days. See a complete description and pricing for our Knowledge Architecture audits.

3 Levels of Services

1.) Knowledge Organization. The design and development of taxonomies, classification schemas, metadata schemas and standards, semantic networks, controlled vocabularies, catalogs of users and communities, development and characterization of personas and other knowledge organization work.

2.) Implementation and Presentation. The design and implementation of search engines, browse taxonomies, multiple navigation interfaces, categorization and classification support, design and development of structured search results including faceted taxonomic and entity based views and a variety of visualization interfaces. This level also includes the design and/or support for the evaluation of potential technology solutions through comparison studies, demo's or pilot projects.

3.) Strategic Consulting. The evaluation and analysis of the processes, procedures, and place of information based activities in an organization. This can include the information elements within a particular implementation such as a search engine, content management software, or portals. It can also include the internal policies and procedures within the organization such as publishing procedures, roles and authority of steering committees, security, and the types and range of content generated within the organization or purchased from outside. We can also offer help and strategy for the enterprise wide adoption of our recommendations.