Scott Abel, The Content Wrangler

I’ve been contacted several times this month from content professionals charged with making SharePoint work. While each project is different, they all seem to share a common problem — a lack of understanding in the SharePoint department. Specifically, how to optimize content for findability when SharePoint is in the mix.

Unfortunately, I have little knowledge (and even less experience) in the SharePoint arena. But, as luck would have it, I know some folks over at Earley & Associates who are well-versed in SharePoint who have tons of real-world experience. Not only do they offer SharePoint consulting services and project management, but they also put on a traveling series of master classes designed to help you leverage SharePoint to accomplish you business goals. One class I find particularly interesting is SharePoint Information Architecture – How to Optimize Findability in SharePoint.

The 3-day hands-on course promises a practical introduction to key information architecture concepts and to deliver the knowledge needed so to apply the concepts to your most pressing information problems. The course is unique in the level of attention given to content type definition, taxonomy, and metadata. I seldom see these issues discussed in much detail, but knowing the folks at Earley as I do, I would imagine students will learn a lot more about these topics than they might imagine.

The course website says students will learn to:

• Develop a user-centric information architecture
• Determine how to derive and apply taxonomies for site structures
• Define metadata structures, content types, lists, views and libraries
• Leverage use cases and scenarios to optimize SharePoint
• Architect effective information management governance processes

The class takes place several times this spring, in the following cities:

• Boston, MA – May 2-4, 2012
• Philadelphia, PA – May 22-24, 2012
• Santa Clara, CA – June 6-8, 2012

And, classes are also planned later in Calgary, Alberta; Toronto, ON; Meadowlands, NJ; Arlington, VA; Dallas, TX; and, Tampa, FL.

According to Earley, the class is designed for information specialists, program managers, business process owners, SharePoint developers, taxonomists, library science specialists, intranet professionals and anyone who needs a stronger grounding in information architecture and guidance on how to configure SharePoint to meet business and user requirements.

Interestingly, the course also includes a free one year license of MetaVis Architect – a graphical design tool for the creation and deployment of your SharePoint taxonomy, content types and structure.

Check out the syllabus. Determine if the course is right for you. If so, consider registering today!