An activity-based model for managing unstructured content

Abstract

An increase in the volume of documents, images and other unstructured content in organisations has resulted in several new approaches to the management of unstructured content. These approaches are however focused on specific problem areas and do not address the problem of how to manage all unstructured content in a unified manner. This research investigates the requirements for managing unstructured content from a records management, knowledge management and information security perspective. To address the management requirements, a model for managing unstructured content by using organisational activities as a basis for categorising the content into a taxonomy is proposed. The management requirements for unstructured content are then determined and applied on the taxonomical node level. The research showed that a strong relationship exists between organisational activities and the content management requirements of unstructured conent. It was also shown that using an activity-based model for classifying unstructured content, can be used as the basis for managing unstructured content from a records management, knowledge management and information security persective. Copyright