Knowledge Networks - a Case Study at Autodesk

Embracing a Knowledge Ecosystem

Knowledge-as-a-Service Using Cloud-Based

Aggregation and Delivery

Tom Williams | Autodesk

05.05.2014

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Autodesk Knowledge Network

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We help people

imagine, design, and

create a better world

We help people

imagine, design, and

create a better world

Helping is more than just

providing the tools

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Is this you?

1. Employees, partners, customers share

knowledge all over the place?

2. That knowledge needs to be delivered to

multiple ‘channels’?

3. Pace of business change is accelerating?

4. Extreme need to scale?

5. Knowledge management vendors want to sell

‘all in one’ solutions to you?

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CHALLENGES &

OPPORTUNITIES

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Fragmented Online Resources

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Inconsistent Delivery & Measurement

usa.autodesk.com

Trisoft CMS

Online Help

SFDC Case Management

21M page views/mo

1.7M content pages/yr

14 languages

2.4M page views/mo

40,000 threads/yr

6 languages

Lithium Forums

10 languages

Knowledgebase Contact Us

9.5M page views/mo (for /support)

3,000 articles/yr

1 language

SFDC

ArticlesLithium Tribal

Knowledgebase

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Opportunity: Context-Driven Relevancy

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Highly-motivated global ecosystem of

highly-specialized expertise and knowledge

• Employees

• Resellers

• Training Centers

• Student Expert program

• Highly-engaged community of users

• Designated experts in large accounts

Opportunity: Established Ecosystem

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STRATEGY

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What is a “Knowledge Network”?

“Knowledge Management”, but:

Beyond the bounds of a single enterprise

Embracing a broad ecosystem of multiple

sources and contributors of knowledge assets

Blended, multifaceted approach

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No single

CMS -

Aggregate &

Standardize

Content

Embracing Ecosystem Complexity

Tutorials

& Help

Wiki

Support

Knowledge

Base

YouTube

Discussion

Groups

Blogs

IN PRODUCT BROWSER MOBILE

Design for

Multichannel

Delivery

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Tutorials

& Help

Wiki

Support

Knowledge

Base

YouTube

Discussion

Groups

Blogs

Autodesk

Screencast

Community

Programs


Third-

Party

Content

Accelerate Community Contribution

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Tools

Programs

Content

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Autodesk Partners Community

FeedbackViewSearchBrowse Rate

Aggregate

Qualify

Analyze

EnrichIndex

ClassifyTranslate

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OUR SOLUTION

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Service-Oriented Architecture, in the Cloud

Java Web Services on Amazon WS

JSONP/XML

RESTfulQuery

SEARCH

JSONP/XML

RESTfulRequest

CONTENT

JSONP/XML

RESTfulRequest

USER FEEDBACK


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Conceptual Architecture

Knowledge

Assets

Knowledge-as-a

Service

Presentation Layer In-Product Viewer

Tutorials &

Learning

Materials

YouTube Blogs.Help

Documentation

SFDC Articles –

Customer Service

& Support

SaaS

Products

In-Product

Features

Desktop

Products

Autodesk Web

Sites

Mobile

browsersGoogle

Contextual

Help

Search

Web Site Web Services

Apps

Partner & other

3rd Parties

Lithium

Community

Accepted

Solutions

Autodesk Partners Customers

Discovery- Search

- Faceted Navigation

- Feeds

Syndication- Syndicate knowledge in a

presentation neutral

format

Feedback- Usage

- Ratings

- Comments

Au

tod

esk K

no

wle

dg

e N

etw

ork

Framework &

Tools- Taxonomy

- Content Guidelines

- Tagging Standards

Access Points

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Help Content Restructuring Program

1. “Topic-based Authoring” – ‘atomization’ / ‘chunking’– Web-ready –‘Every page is the first page’

– Well-formed “Lego blocks”, modular, reusable

– Meta tagging standards to drive search-ready content

– Clean, simple, constrained DITA

2. Keep it light, do it right – High-quality, simple, helpful content

– Think mobile and web, not print

– Get rid of complex over-designed ‘cruft’

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Cloud-based Documentation Pipeline

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Online Help Content

• DITA content standard

– Industry standard XML

– Modular, reusable

– Highly-localizable

• DITA Open Toolkit

running in the Cloud

– Extremely scalable

– Rapid, automated

transformation

– Well-formed HTML

• Optimized for responsive,

multichannel delivery

DITA Open

Toolkit

Cloud

Storage

Web-ready

format (JSONP)

Support & Service Content

• SFDC Articles extracted

to Cloud and transformed

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Intelligent Crawling & Aggregation

Autodesk knowledge of content

informs data extraction:

• Selective extraction

• Utilize hidden and custom

metadata

• Intelligently handle

‘duplicate’ content

• Weight content according to

source

• Tune with weightings on

different fields

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Auto-Classification & Auto-Tagging

• Text analytics applied to extracted content to ‘recognize’

known taxonomy terms, classify content

• Enriches and standardizes metadata and tagging

• Core technology: GATE (open source)

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Excellence in Search Relevancy

Custom relevancy model

• Leverages enriched ‘hidden’ data

• Tunable according to communication channel

• Influenced by taxonomy of product functionality

Integrated into Autodesk’s ‘hero’ products for four releases now

Core technology: SolrCloud

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Proof – Relevancy for Autodesk Users• Side-by-side blind comparison against Google Site Search

• AutoCAD 2011 Web-based Help

• Judged by 14 internal AutoCAD experts

• Test cases based on real world users as well as AutoCAD test plans

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Syndicate for Multichannel Delivery

Syndicate answers from:

• Help Documentation

• SFDC Articles – Support &

Service Knowledgebase

• Lithium Discussion Forums

(Accepted Solutions)

• YouTube Channels

• Blogs

• Autodesk web sites

Content stored in the Cloud in

presentation-neutral, web-ready

formats (XML/JSONP)

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Crowd-Sourced Curation by Community

Universal user feedback

mechanisms across

different presentations

of content

EngagementHelpfulness

Sharing

Comments

Usage

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Expanding Knowledge Contribution

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Autodesk Screencast –

Simple free utility for

recording and sharing an

information-rich tutorial

or demonstration

See it: http://chronicle.autodesk.com

http://chronicle.autodesk.com/

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Encourage Contribution with Creative

Commons

• “Open Source” licensing of

learning and support

content

•Makes contribution more

inviting

• Facilitates reuse,

translation, remixing

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See it: http://autodesk.com/creativecommons

http://autodesk.com/creativecommons

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REALIZED

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As of today…

4 million visits per month

• 5 million content items in 15 languages

• 1.1 million unique pages transformed from DITA in the

cloud in 2014 so far

• 9,900 SFDC Articles – support knowledge base

• 26,000 blog articles

• 36,000 “Accepted Solutions” from Lithium forums

• 9,300 YouTube videos

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See it: http://knowledge.autodesk.com

Web site:

http://chronicle.autodesk.com/


In-product Online Help:


Learning paths:


In-product user interfaces:


iOS App:

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LESSONS LEARNED &

TAKEAWAYS

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Lessons Learned

• Cloud infrastructure and open source

technologies = great ROI

• Aggregation is flexible, “Future-proof”

• Deliver something early, then iteratively expand

• A successful solution begets new problems –

Content quality is our next big challenge

• Expanding analytics and feedback loops also a

critical focus where we’re playing catch-up

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QUESTIONS

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Contact Information

[email protected]

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Autodesk Knowledge Network

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APPENDIX

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Internet

Knowledge Networks - a Case Study at Autodesk