Linked Data at Pearson: The Proof is in the Putting

"Smart Content" is a phrase du jour in the publishing industry. As the contexts defining content creation, delivery and consumption morph the mechanisms through which learning (and monetization) occur, leading education services companies such as Pearson face real challenges in adopting agile digital asset management solutions while protecting existing revenue streams. Is it possible to both nourish the cash cows and encourage the rising stars?

This presentation offers up a recent Pearson proof of concept to reveal the promise of Linked Data as a path to approach issues such as DAM, Enterprise Taxonomy Management, Enterprise Search, and even alignment of content to education standards. The presentation sets out the following topics:
• Why enrich content? This question is approached from a business perspective.
• Who has done this already? The presentation does not cover external examples in detail but looks at a few relevant (and excellent) approaches, including the New York Times and the BBC.
• Which legacy issues in traditional publishing must be respected, which can be disrespected, and how we ensure that forward momentum will overpower (or replace) internal resistance?
• Pearson’s Asset Enrichment Pipeline has successfully leveraged DBpedia to deliver discipline taxonomies, topic and keyword tagging, and alignment of assets to education standards.

In this session, the Metrics of Success used for the project will be explored.

Madi Weland Solomon is Director of Content Standards for Pearson Plc, the international media company which owns brands such as The Financial Times, Penguin Books, and Pearson Education. She leads the development and management of Pearson metadata and content management standards to ensure the support of current and new product models. Prior to Pearson, she was the Corporate Taxonomist for The Walt Disney Company and a taxonomy and metadata consultant specializing in rich media. Her background is in the visual arts sector as the former Project Associate with the Getty Information Institute in Standards and Vocabularies and Curatorial Assistant with The Broad Art Foundation. She has developed and implemented corporate strategies relating to global interoperability for large organizations using a cultural approach to change management.