iSchool Capstone

Building a Tag Protocol for Washington State’s Open Data Program

Project tags:

content & digital asset management

information architecture

information behavior & user research

Data.wa.gov is a digital catalog of open data and consists of a collection of data sets and visualizations uploaded by independent authors. These assets have nearly 1,200 tags applied to them as user input is uncontrolled, leading to numerous duplicates and variants that have reduced the effectiveness of the tags as a whole. We created a tag protocol that consists of defined rules and edge cases along with a dashboard and future recommendations. This solution provides structure to their tag list, and increases data quality, searchability of assets, and sustainability, by reducing tag maintenance and preserving tag effectiveness.

Project participants:

Alana Montoya

MSIM

Isabella Eriksen

MSIM

Ken Masumoto

MSIM

Max Lieberman

MSIM