January 13, 2011 – The Defense Acquisition University has launched the Service Acquisition Mall (SAM) as a resource for acquisition professionals to collaborate and share best practices in the acquisition arena.

We found this applicable information online at  Federal News Radio in their article, “DAU launches acquisitions marketplace.” This resource was created to collect information in one location, both process knowledge and functional knowledge. This central space has color-coded wings based on a taxonomy of services to make finding the information successful.

The mall is hosted on a DAU website and is open to anybody in the federal government. Expansion is expected, for example, creating protected zones where multiple users can collaborate on more sensitive matters.

We like this practical use of taxonomies, and that they are able to look beyond the present and already foresee growth.

Melody K. Smith

Sponsored by Access Innovations, the world leader in thesaurus, ontology, and taxonomy creation and metadata application.