how to create/fix a document file structure

vidro3 · January 2009

So we are two years into an 8 year $1billion construction contract and the 40gb of data we have accumulated so far is organized terribly. There are no naming conventions, duplicate documents, incoherent nesting of folders, etc.

How do I go about 1) fixing it and 2) making sure it works for the next 6 years?

I've been trying to find best practices for creating a file structure and looking for software that might automatically categorize existing files but nothing I've found seems to be right.

Any ideas?

jeffrey · January 2009

For a project of that scale and duration I'd go for something like Atlassian's Confluence to organize it all:

The case for Confluence instead of shared drives:
http://www.atlassian.com/software/confluence/solutions/shareddrives.jsp

sethnyc · January 2009

I hate to say it, but it's going to be a huge manual effort. I inherited a lot of shit and we're still working thru ways of cleaning it all up and structuring it properly.

We started by moving everything before a certain date off to the side and worked on sorting out the new stuff first (figured it was still relevant) and then chipping away at the older stuff

jeffrey · January 2009

^ that is no joke

vidro3 · January 2009

jeffrey wrote: For a project of that scale and duration I'd go for something like Atlassian's Confluence to organize it all:

The case for Confluence instead of shared drives:
http://www.atlassian.com/software/confluence/solutions/shareddrives.jsp

thanks, I'm checking that out.

do you have any experience with either
http://www.cluster-text.com/products.php
or
http://www.mastercontrol.com/solutions/taxonomy.html

anastasia beaverhausen · January 2009

It's gonna suck. You have to come up with an easy-to-figure-out system for anyone who might access info and for anyone who wants to add info. Once you get a clear cut way to organize, it'll be easy to spot the screw up. Is this just documents? Or is it CADs, drawings, etc.?

vidro3 · January 2009

cads, drawings, pdfs, jpegs, everything.

are there any guidelines for coming up with an organization system or am i just doing this off the top of my head?

anastasia beaverhausen · January 2009

Mine is obviously a little different, but I have mine set up by building, then by project within the building, then by trade. And correspondence pertaining to that building is under the main folder, pertaining to the project, etc. Are you fully managing the project as well? If you want to PM me some info I can try to help you create a simple system.

hitokiri · January 2009

Flexichick wrote: I hate to say it, but it's going to be a huge manual effort. I inherited a lot of shit and we're still working thru ways of cleaning it all up and structuring it properly.

We started by moving everything before a certain date off to the side and worked on sorting out the new stuff first (figured it was still relevant) and then chipping away at the older stuff

yup. gonna be a huge amount of elbow grease

brooklynpotter · January 2009

mechanical turk

anonymous · January 2009

Hire a consultant.

I love it when people ask for free computer services here and on craigslist.

Good luck.

vidro3 · January 2009

Ezn wrote: Hire a consultant.

I love it when people ask for free computer services here and on craigslist.

Good luck.

such as ...

anonymous · January 2009

vidro3 wrote: [quote=Ezn]Hire a consultant.

I love it when people ask for free computer services here and on craigslist.

Good luck.

such as ...

Such as what?

vidro3 · January 2009

such as a suggestion for a consultant

anonymous · January 2009

vidro3 wrote: such as a suggestion for a consultant

http://tinyurl.com/ct4b66

carmen · January 2009

This sounds like my hell Vidro- good luck (I have little to offer except that document management is one of my least fave portions of my job)

anastasia beaverhausen · January 2009

He doesn't need a consultant unless his company is willing to pay someone to do all this work for him. It's overwhelming feeling, but not a great feat of intelligence. It's just going to take a long time if there's a ton of data to sort.

anonymous · January 2009

It's an $8 billion contract, billion with a 'B', right?

Most companies want to hire consultants just so they don't have to do it (whatever 'it' is) themselves. It would certainly seem that they afford it.

It is a wast of time and mony for the employer of the OP to task them with something they don't know how to do.

anastasia beaverhausen · January 2009

Well, shit. They can pay me to do it. Less than a week.

anonymous · January 2009

That's more than 1GB/hr !

anastasia beaverhausen · January 2009

Ezn wrote: That's more than 1GB/hr !

It ain't rocket science. My files are pristine. But I also have OCD.

vidro3 · January 2009

Ezn wrote: It's an $8 billion contract, billion with a 'B', right?

Most companies want to hire consultants just so they don't have to do it (whatever 'it' is) themselves. It would certainly seem that they afford it.

It is a wast of time and mony for the employer of the OP to task them with something they don't know how to do.

$1 billion spread over 8 years and no, they aren't hiring a consultant to do it since it wasn't accounted for in the original contract.

It's not really a database either - it's a folder structure. I can right click>new folder and rename and drag and drop all day. Determining what these folders should be named and their nesting structure is the hard part.

The enterprise wiki by Atlassian that Jeffrey linked to seems to be the closest thing to what I need that I've found so far. I've found a few other ideas and have a better idea of how I am going to tackle this now; I just didn't want to reinvent the wheel, as the saying goes.

how to create/fix a document file structure

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