Metadata and Web Content Management

1
Metadata and Web Content Management

• Sam Gallagher
• Departmental Web Manager
• U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

2
Role of Metadata

• What is the role of metadata in web content
  management?
• The answer varies from office to office, agency
  to agency.
• The role of metadata varies from none at all to
  being an integral tool in managing web content.

3
Role of Metadata

• For most of us, metadata isnt new, just reborn.
• Many agencies have been using description and
  keywords for years with little guidance and no
  consistency.
• Agencies that do use metadata consistently, built
  it into the content creation process.
• The rest of us are trying to find our way through
  the jungle of terms, standards, and concepts.

4
Web Content Management

• Web Content Management also varies by agency
• Some content managers are also content owners
• Some are editors
• Others simply manage the content design/flow, but
  rely on content creators/editors
• There are varying levels of understanding of the
  concept of metadata

5
Web Content Management

• However, there are some commonalities
• Our websites are huge
• HUDs for example is something over 200,000
  documents
• Our websites change frequently
• Last Friday alone, HUD made over 700 changes.
• Our website have become increasingly difficult to
  maintain

6
Web Content Management

• In addition to having too much content, there are
  also too many websites more than 24,000
  government websites at last count.
• The total number of web documents in the Federal
  space isnt known easily millions.
• There is a proliferation of portals.
• FirstGov lists more than 90 Portals.
• Instead of reducing the clutter, many portals end
  up as duplicating navigational structures to
  content that already exists.

7
Web Content Management

• And, there are a host of regulations and
  standards to follow.
• The Web Content Managers Working Group found over
  16 laws, regulations, or policies directly
  affecting federal public websites.

8
Role of Metadata

• What we are beginning to learn is Metadata can be
  a tool for helping us meet some of these demands.

9
Web Managers Advisory Council

• Created in January 2004 as part of the
  Interagency Committee on Government Information.
• Originally known as the Web Content Management
  Working Group.
• An interagency group of 30 web managers, with
  representatives from every cabinet-level agency
  and many independent agencies.

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Web Managers Advisory Council

• Tasked with recommending policies and guidelines
  to OMB for all federal public websites.
• Group issued its recommendations in June 2004 to
  OMB.
• OMB issued policies for federal public websites
  on December 17, 2004.

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Web Managers Advisory Council

• After policies were issued, web managers saw the
  need for continuing discussions.
• The Web Managers Working Group became the
  Advisory Council a community of web managers
  helping web managers.

12
The Metadata Discussion

• One of the recommendations to OMB was the use of
  a standardized set of metadata.
• Federal public websites must include metadata on
  the homepage and all major entry points

13
The Metadata Discussion

• The arguments for standard metadata included
• improve search relevancy,
• provide an audit trail,
• support website maintenance and administration,
  and
• allow information to be tracked and assembled
  government-wide.

14
The Metadata Discussion

• The arguments against standard metadata included
• Commercial searches dont use metadata
• Time/resource consuming
• Education requirements
• Too many documents to encode

15
The Metadata Discussion

• During the comment period, 38 comments were
  received specifically relating to
  metadata--nearly all were positive.
• In the end, the consensus was that the potential
  benefits could outweigh the costs.
• Discussion then centered on how many and which
  elements to promote.

16
The Recommendation

• The Working Group agreed on
• Mandatory use of 6 elements
• Require use of metadata on homepage and major
  entry points only
• If an agency wanted to use more elements, refer
  to Dublin Core

17
The Recommendation

• The 6 elements agreed upon were
• Title
• Description
• Creator
• Date Created
• Date Reviewed
• Language

18
OMBs Policies

• OMB did not choose to specifically include
  metadata in their policies.
• However, the Web Managers Advisory Council
  continues to promote the use of standard
  metadata.
• Created the Metadata Task Group to continue the
  discussion and promote the use of metadata.

19
Metadata Standards

• While no standard has been issued, consensus has
  centered on the use of the Dublin Core metadata
  standard.
• Already existing international standard
• Relatively easy to implement
• Already used by Great Britain, Canada, Australia
  and several federal agencies in the U.S.

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Metadata Standards

• Based on the consensus to use Dublin Core, the
  Web Advisory Council is now advising agencies to
  use the following elements
• dc.title
• dc.description
• dc.creator
• dc.date.created
• dc.date.reviewed
• dc.language

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Metadata Standards

• While not yet a recommendation, there is a
  growing discussion on the need for standardized
  vocabularies for
• dc.audience
• dc.subject
• Some limited work is underway to create a
  controlled vocabulary for audience.

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The Role of Metadata

• Web managers throughout the federal government
  struggle with some of the same issues
• It is often difficult to find out who owns
  content
• Ensuring content remains current and accurate is
  a monumental undertaking
• Competition for space on the front page makes it
  difficult to get people to the content they need.

23
The Role of Metadata

• The role of metadata in web management comes back
  to those pros
• improve search relevancy,
• provide an audit trail,
• support website maintenance and administration,
  and
• allow information to be tracked and assembled
  government-wide.

24
Improve Search Relevancy

• While commercial searches like Google and Yahoo
  may not use metadata YET
• We could use metadata to improve the searches on
  our own sites
• FirstGov, while not currently set-up to take
  advantage of metadata, could be in the future
• If you build it, they will come

25
Provide an Audit Trail

• Several of the elements were selected for their
  ability to create an audit trail. For example
• Creator identifies who/which office is
  responsible for the content
• Date Reviewed identifies old, possibly obsolete,
  documents

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Support Website Maintenance

• Metadata gives us a method for
• Tracking down who is responsible for content
• Ensuring content is current/accurate
• Archiving appropriate content from one
  administration to the next
• Identifying content by language

27
Aggregate Content

• With the use of Audience and Subject, we could
• Discover redundant/duplicative content
• Find content that needs to be brought up to
  higher levels of the website
• Aggregate content from within our organizations
  and across organizations
• This could lead to reducing the need for portals.

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What is being done now?

• Metadata has been the subject of a session at
  each of the last three web content managers
  conferences.
• Interest is high, but there are still doubts
• Metadata task group of the Web Advisory Council
  is
• Creating guidance/tools for implementing metadata
  
• Beginning work on a controlled vocabulary for
  Audience

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Next Steps

• There needs to be a proven benefit
• Weve made one attempt to show how metadata could
  be used across agencies

30
Next Steps

• Metadata has to be easily implemented
• Simple tools need to be developed
• Tools should be integrated into the content
  creation process
• Education developed on the benefits gained by the
  consistent use of metadata

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Conclusion

• The role of metadata in web content management is
  just beginning
• We see the potential
• We have some tentative first steps
• We need successes to trumpet to build the momentum

32
Conclusion

• Web Advisory Council
• Continues to meet once a month.
• Plans and holds web manager conferences
• Manages a website
• www.webcontent.gov
• Hurricane Katrina www.youragency.gov/katrina

33
Conclusion

• Contact info
• Kate Donohue
• E-mail kathleen.donohue_at_occ.treas.gov
• Phone [phone]
• Jeffrey Levy
• E-mail Levy.Jeffrey_at_epa.gov
• Phone [phone]

34
Questions/Comments?

• Metadata task group
• Sam Gallagher202-708-1547sam_r._gallagher_at_hud.go
  v