Microsoft Graph Simplified

Overview: Microsoft Graph provides an API to allow search to bring back data stored in Office 365 (email/Exchange Online, SharePoint, and others).  The centralized search provides the data source to query and adds a ranking engine on top to allow for easy access to data.

Overview of Office Graph

A more formal description: "The Office Graph is a collection of content and activity and links the relationships between people and this active content.  Any activity in the entire Office suite online is pushed into Office Graph such as e-mail including attachments, conversations, to documents in SharePoint and OneDrive.  The Office Graph maps the relationships among people and information, and acts as the foundation for Office experiences that are more relevant and personalized to each individual."

The Microsoft Graph is a single queryable API endpoint for accessing data, intelligence and insights coming from the Microsoft Cloud. 

More Info:
A great article on Graph is here.  NB!

Screenshot from my iPhone 6 using the Microsoft's Delve iOS app with my own Office 365 E3 tenant.

Update Mar 2023 - Video (2 min) where MS Graph helped my find a value I needed for a DevOps pieline

Building a customers Taxonomy

Problem: I need to create a taxonomy for my client's business that represents entities in a specific industry.

Initial Hypothesis: Either start by interviewing stakeholders and building up a taxonomy that is offered as a Service application or
Buy an existing industry taxonomy http://blog.wandinc.com/2011/02/list-of-taxonomies-for-sharepoint-2010.html and offer it via a Service Application

Resolution: My preferred option would be to buy a taxonomy and try amend the taxonomy with key stakeholders.  WAND have good taxonomies I believe: http://www.wandinc.com/

Taxonomy Definition: A hierarchical classification system that organizes concepts into parent-child relationships.  Tree-like structure e.g., categories and subcategories. Used too group and categorize items based on shared characteristics.

Example: Animal Kingdom > Mammals > Primates > Humans

Ontology Definition: A more complex and flexible framework that defines the relationships between concepts, not just hierarchical ones.   Graph-like structure (can include many types of relationships).Used to model knowledge domains, including properties, rules, and interconnections.

Example: API Graphs.  Railway Track has railway sleepers made by different manufacturers.  Uses semantic web and linked data links.