The Intranet Imperative - Part 2

This is the 2nd part of the Internet Imperative. Part 1 takes a critical look at our understanding of what is an intranet. This part provides a framework for developing a strategic view of intranets that encompasses our new definition.

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The Strategic View of Intranets

Organisations need to control how their intranets will evolve into application-nets. The right approach for achieving this control is a management response that starts with developing a strategic view of their intranet. This strategic perspective does not prescribe the exact future form of the intranet as an application-net, but it provides the basis for creating a system architecture that will facilitate it. The critical point of difference between this new architecture and the old approach is that the intranet imperative forces us to broaden our horizons in order to understand more fully the fit between people, places and things.

This new strategic view should be built from understanding four key elements:

1. People and Process - understand who the current and future users of system will be, where they are located and what work activities the system must support;

2. Content - not just documents and information, but the collection of applications and other data in the system;

3. Infrastructure - The basic technical structure or features of the system (e.g. servers, networks, content management software, etc) and also the human support functions (e.g. helpdesks, trainers, technicians, etc); and

4. Governance -– the management controls (standards, committees, etc) that deal with the form of the infrastructure and the nature of the content in the system to ensure it meets the needs of the organisation and its users.

But like any type of strategic planning, the application of this strategic view must take into account the overall context of the organisation. Steps for understanding the strategic context and incorporating it into the design of the new architecture include:

• Business and Technology Analysis - Develop a strategic understanding of the intranet and how this technology, at its most fundamental level, relates to the overall strategy objectives of the organisation;

• System Audit and Gap Analysis - Complete a review of the people, processes, technology and content that already exists within your organisation to identify the gap between where you are and where you want to be;

• Manage expectations - Negotiate performance outcomes with your stakeholders to link the evolution of the intranet to the organisation's objectives; and

• Innovation - Look outside the organisation to learn from leading practices, understand the different options that are available in the market, and emerging trends.

These steps take us beyond simply asking how users will contribute and access information in the intranet and instead make us focus on the bigger picture, resulting in an architecture that is better aligned to the needs of the organisation.

In the final part of the Intranet Imperative - pulling it all together: trends, strategy and where to with next generation intranets.

Tags: collaboration, intranets, intranet imperative, extranets

Instant Messaging Is Here to Stay: Deal With It!

I wish I had seen this article before, but I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one who thinks instant messaging (IM) deserves proper consideration as an enterprise collaboration tool - Alan R. Earls, writing in Application Development Trends, tells us that IM is here to stay so its time we just deal with it. I'm right with you Alan!

Earl's article offers the following talking points:

• Most businesses have found that IM is too useful and pervasive to stop. Some see it as the entry point for implementing a new era of collaboration tools.
  
• But you must manage IM, especially if your company must comply with a growing list of regulations and records-retention mandates.
  
• Businesses are using consumer and enterprise IM offerings. But the industry needs to resolve the issue of Enter city or point of interest...interoperability among the various products.

In a sidebar we also discover that Austrade is using IM "to increase the 'match making' cycle between Australian suppliers and overseas distributors".

Tags: instant messaging

The Intranet Imperative - Part 1

This is the first part of new "thought piece" I've been working on, but rather than overload you in one go I'll post it in a few parts. It builds on many of the ideas I've been blogging and presenting on in the last few months. Feel free to give me some feedback along the way! (Of course, if you really can't wait just drop me an e-mail and I'll send the complete article in a PDF)

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What exactly is an intranet?

The nature of intranets is changing. In fact the term intranet itself is rapidly losing meaning as the Internet interpenetrates organisations through a mixture of business-to-business marketing, extranets, hosted application services and of course personal use of the Web at work. The traditionalist view of intranets, one that concentrates on static information built around an impregnable information architecture, creates a risk for organisations that may be oblivious to the rise of collaborative and dynamic “application-nets” that connect users to people, places and things.

Consider for a moment - what exactly is an intranet? The most simple or basic definition defines it as a restricted, private computer network that uses TCP/IP (Internet) network protocols to facilitate data transmission and exchange within an organisation. But when we look at modern intranets (and extranets), this definition raises more questions than answers – for example:

• Restricted or private to whom – does this include business partners or even customers?
• What is the computer network - does it end at the PC on your desk, the mobile phone in your pocket or a kiosk on the shopfloor?
• Does data include self-service systems, rich media, access to Web - and video conferencing and business intelligence tools that empower staff to get their work done?

Clearly the potiential demands placed on intranets are moving well beyond their original scope of simple access to information and documents. In fact paralleling other changes in our working environments, intranets now need to support always on, always connected access and provide flexibility and interactivity on demand. The technologies to do this already exist and the key challenge for many organistions is how to manage the evolution of an intranet into a multifaceted application-net in a controlled manner.

Of course while you can choose to ignore this imperative, be aware that technology has a habit of winning. You may find your users taking the path of least resistance (like returning to the dreaded network drive) or they will pick their own user-driven tools that will ensure they can get the job done.

In part 2 - How to take a strategic view and apply it to the evolution of intranets

Tags: collaboration, intranets, intranet imperative, extranets

Where in the world is that blog?

If you think Google Maps is good and you like blogs, then you'll like Blogmap:

"Using FeedMap you can geo-code your blog, browse already geo-coded blogs and search for blogs. Once geo-coded, you can get your own BlogMap location using a simple url that allows you to network with your local bloggers and much more!"

Even better than Google Maps at the moment, because its based on Microsoft MapPoint, Blogmap also covers Australia. The only challenge is that you need to register your blog and either embed your latitude or longitude coordinates, or register them manually. As soon as I work out where I am I'll add the ChiefTech blog...

Tags: GIS, Weblogs

Consumer Generated Marketing

Well, here is a nice new term I learned today from HBS Working Knowledge: Consumer Generated Marketing. I think this means word of mouth, however I guess being called a CGM consultant would sound a whole lot better :-)

Tags: marketing

New Shared Technology Research

ANTA - the soon to be abolished Australian National Training Authority - have published a new report titled New technology, training and public funding: The case for greater flexibility, that adds to their past Shared Technology research.

Even while these report are focused on the needs of the vocational education sector in Australia, they do provide some interesting insights into technology adoption and trends. The new report investigates the views of enterprises that are using new technology and how they respond to new technology training requirements. It includes a discussion of theory around technology adoption and some case studies.

Shared Technology: A Road Map for Traditional and Emerging Industries to 2008 looks at the technologies that are likely to have an impact in a range of industries in the next five years to 2008. The key technologies they identified to be influential across many industries were:

• increased use of integrated voice and data communication;
  
• increased use of wireless communication technologies;
  
• continually increasing processing speed of equipment; and
  
• use of independent power systems.
  

Industry Update No.4: TeamFrame from Crux Cybernetics

Talking to Maarten Tentij, Managing Director of five-year old Sydney-based software developer Crux Cybernetics, is a refreshing change - rather than diving into TeamFrame's features and functionality, Tentij's initial focus is on business outcomes and how technology can support service delivery.

TeamFrame meets this objective by helping organisations to connect planning to action by providing an online work and resource management solution that is flexible and responsive to change in dynamic service industries. In this way processes can be captured in templates and workflow but adjusted to meet new need demands or situations. It is then possible to build common best practice standards over time.

By using TeamFrame's reporting tools, organisations can retrospectively mine past projects to look at what is and isn't working. From this perspective TeamFrame also helps organisations to manage risk by picking up on issues before they become problems.

The functionality of the TeamFrame application is built around what Tentij calls the the Optimal Practice Methodology (PDF).

The actual application is provided as a hosted ASP service using the resources of ac3 at the Australian Technology Park (where Crux Cybernetics are also based). Users access TeamFrame using a Web browser and Macromedia Flash is used to provide a rich user interface. It is suitable for small teams and large organisations - for example it has been used by a small software development company as well as the marketing department of a financial services organisation. The software was successfully deployed at international financial giant HSBC in 2004 to manage its outsourced IT work.

In recent news, Crux Cybernetics used CeBIT last week as an opportunity to announce the release of TeamFrame version 3 with the following new features:

• File Attach and Share for Teams (FAST - an easy way for project participants to securely access and share project files, no matter where they are)
  
• Cross-company project sharing
  
• Custom risk management
• Expense reporting

BTW You can also check out an exclusive Chief Technology Solutions article on the TeamFrame portal, title The Sum is Greater than the Whole, that looks at the role of trust and technology in effective collaboration.

Disclaimer: Information on this site is of a general nature. Please seek advice for specific circumstances. Unless otherwise stated, please assume that I have no commercial relationship with the vendors or products discussed.

Previous Industry Updates:

• Update No.1: Pivot Software
  
• Update No.2: Objectify
  
• Update No.3: GMB Research
  

Chief Technology Solutions Associates

My Website has undergone a minor update to put greater emphasis on highlighting my range of vendor neutral and strategic consulting services that include system reviews, strategy and planning, knowledge management, software and systems selection, and development.

Something else I'd also been intending to do for a while is provide a mention and some links to a few complementary businesses that I work closely with:

• AdeptKM
• Optimice
• ThinkingShift

Read more on my associates page.

Observations from Redesigning your Intranet and CeBIT

As you might have guessed from my recent posts, this week I've been pretty much focused on the Ark Group's Redesigning your Intranet conference and CeBIT, both of which are taking place in Sydney at the moment.

The Ark Group's intranet conference is always popular and its a good place to get a feel for what's happening across a wide range of organisations from government to construction and finance to telecommunications. Some of the common issues I observed that are challenging many participants in all industries include:

• Dealing with the ever present problem of getting management and stakeholders to engage with the different aspects of running an intranet;
  
• The need to evolve intranets into extranets and a desire to reconcile the management of internal and external facing sites; and
  
• The increasing use of intranets as platforms for delivering rich media, access to business applications and collaborative tools.
  

Some participants expressed dissatisfaction with the capabilities of content management system software and vendor support, but I suspect some of this has origins in the growing complexity of intranets and how people plan, acquire and manage their intranet "systems". I was however a little surprised about the lack of awareness of social software like blogs, wikis and RSS.

As for CeBIT, it really is a rather overwhelming smorgasbord of different IT vendors (CeBIT itself divides them into about 15 or so major categories). I was interested to look at both content management solutions as well as other products for project management, governance, voice over IP telephony and web-based video conferencing and of course mobile solutions. However, just focusing on the content management system space, some of the companies I spoke to at CeBIT include (and in no particular order) Komodo CMS, ISYS, Crux Cybernetics, Intranet Dashboard, Solutione, Internetrix, Weblogics and Elcom Technology. Look out for industry updates on some of these vendors in the future.

PS Also look out for my latest article in the May/June edition of Image & Data Manager (IDM) article where I look at the advantages, disadvantages and technology choices of using wikis within organisations. A copy of this article will be available in my IDM archive in due course or pick up a free copy of the magazine at IDM's CeBIT stand!

Industry Update Extra: CeBIT starts today

Just a reminder that CeBIT starts in Sydney today. Some of the vendors I've covered or will be covering in the ChiefTech blog are exhibitors.

"CeBIT Australia is Australasia's leading Information & Communications Technology (ICT) event for the business marketplace and covers the entire spectrum of technology and the key elements that make up the ICT products and services marketplace. This is the only Australian event where you can explore the full range of next generation global technologies and solutions."

Previous Industry Updates:

• Update No.1: Pivot Software
• Update No.2: Objectify
• Update No.3: GMB Research
  

Conductive organisations: Moving beyond automation to optimal collaboration

I've been playing with the idea of collaborative infrastructure and more recently collaborative ecology for a while now, however a new term in this field comes from Canadian KM guru Hubert Saint-Onge: Conductive Organisations.

A conductive organisation is one "that continuously generates and renews capabilities to achieve breakthrough performance by enhancing the quality and flow of knowledge and by calibrating its strategy, culture, structure, and systems to the needs of its customers and the marketplace."

That's the definition they provide anyway. If you want to learn more you can read the book (co-authored with Charles Armstrong) or have a look Saint-Onge's take on the conductive organisation from the CIO's perspective, which apart from being is free is perhaps a little more accessible.

I particularly like the point Saint-Onge makes in the article where he says "if all it took were wireless technology and data mining, every business would have the perfect collaborative environment. In fact, technology is absolutely required, but it's insufficient by itself to build an effective knowledge platform. The right approach and process must be put in place to harness the full potential of a technology-enabled collaboration system"

It fits in with my own ideas that "collaborative" ability and know-how is source of competitive advantage that can't be easily replicated with technology alone.

Blogging@IBM

IBM is telling the world that it too is getting on board the blogging train...

"IBM today is publishing an announcement on its Intranet site encouraging all 320,000+ employees world wide to consider engaging actively in the practice of "blogging". This move follows several years of persistent grassroots efforts by an informal community of IBM bloggers."

Apparently they used an internal wiki (not Quickplace then?) to develop their own corporate blogging guidelines.

24th May: Consolidating your Intranet

Back in 2003 I enjoyed presenting a workshop on "Evolving Your Intranet into a Corporate Portal" at the Ark Group's Annual Re-Designing your Intranet conference. Now I'm pleased to announce that I've been called in at late notice to fill in for a workshop next week at this year's event. This time around rather than talking about intranet evolution, I'll be running a workshop on "Consolidating your Intranet". I'll be covering:

• Concepts and building blocks
• Current trends
• Strategy and planning
• Audit & analysis
• Issues in design
• Implementation, management and monitoring

Can't make the conference but would like to know more? Drop me a line or give me a call to discuss how I can help you to consolidate or evolve your intranet.

Suits, cardigans... but what about the users?

The suits versus cardigans debate in the Australian IT industry continues - a couple of weeks ago in the Australian newspaper's IT section Campbell Arnott's CIO , "suit" Craig Garvin, proclaimed that "It is not about whether I am technical or not, it is about whether I have a good team."

Later Aussie retailer, Woolworths, weighs into the debate in Computerworld, where their CIO warns that "If the people are not right, everything will be difficult" and advises us to "Emphasize leadership management skills over technical skills. Great leaders first, great technicians second."

However, it has occured to me that maybe what both the cardigans and the suits should really be worried about is the users. Users have access to an ever growing range of user-driven software tools (from the humble spreadsheet to mobile devices and Web-based social software applications, such as wikis) but they may not always be aware of the information risks associated with them.

For example, as social software tools like wikis evolve up and integrate other functionality such as workflow and complex access control mechanisms, the risk of users introducing a costly design mistake will grow. Just consider the recent history of mistakes with spreadsheets.

What can we do about reducing this risk? IMHO the technicians, suits and users all need to be included in the IT management equation. That way the right information risk controls and know-how can be embedded across the organisation, rather than resting within the domain of the IT department.

Technology & Business (T&B) reviews document management systems

Matthew Lipscombe, from DocBanq, has pointed out that Technology & Business (T&B) magazine's April review of 7 document management systems is now available online on ZDNet Australia. T&B review Objective, DocuShare, HummingBird, DocBanq, Interwoven, SmartLibrary and Trim.

One word of caution - this review isn't really going to be much use in helping you to pick the right solution, just possible candidates. As the reviewers puts it:

"In this extremely competitive market place picking a clear winner is almost impossible. It is a dead heat between Interwoven and Hummingbird. DocuShare, Objective and Trim coming a close second. Also don't discount Docbanq or SmartLibrary as a solution if you are a smaller business and have limited budget for investing in infrastructure."

PS If you need assistance with selecting a document management system, please contact me. Further information can be found on my Website and don't forget to check my industry update series for further software options not covered by T&B.

Bluetooth liaisons with Nokia's Sensor

Talking of social software, you might remember this story from the Sydney Morning Herald's Column 8 about a brief laptop-to-laptop liaison on a commuter train. Well, Nokia, the company that brought us life caching with its LifeBlog service, now brings us Sensor.

Nokia describe Sensor as a "spontaneous, sociable application for spontaneous, sociable people". What it actually does is use Bluetooth to allow one Sensor user to 'sense' other Sensor users within a 10m radius of their phone. Each Sensor user creates a personal profile page that is accessible to other Sensor users in range. You can also exchange messages, and share files.

Grey Area: Social Software or Information Management?

A recent contribution I made to an online forum and a later an e-mail conversation had me thinking about the grey area between social software and information management.

What I mean by "grey area" is the fuzzy line between using tools like blogging and RSS as genuine social software or simply for the purposes of information management. What's the difference? Well, that difference can be subtle but I think essentially for a blog to be used as social software we need to see evidence of hyperlinked dialogue (or polylogue perhaps?) taking place. In other words social or community blogging isn't a style of communication, its a form of electronic conversation. On the other hand, one-way communication isn't a conversation (no matter how you chunk up the content or style it) - but blogging and RSS technologies still provide a perfectly valid mechanism for helping audiences deal with information overload.

Of course, real life is never this black and white - we get a grey area because of the intent of the blogger, the reaction of the audience and their ability or willingness to engage in conversation, and the skills of the communicators to use this medium well. People, particularly knowledge workers, are also good at blending communication and a blogged conversation can shift between other channels and modes. For example, Podcasting - at least in its current and typical form - exists in the grey area. To move out of the grey area we need someone to come up with a popular way of tagging, slicing and hyperlinking multimedia content. (Any suggestions anyone, or should I patent this idea now?). Also within an organisation blogging and RSS could be used to support a mixture of conversation and information management. The question is would the use of this technology for information management help to diffuse the idea of social blogging into an organisation? That will depend more on the collaborative ecology in place at that organisation - i.e. technology, know-how and culture.

BTW Before you ask, yes by my own definition I would say this ChiefTech blog currently exists in the grey area. It could go either way, but that depends on the you my audience and your willingness to engage me in conversation ;-)

Industry Update No. 3: GMB Research & Development

Last week I spoke with John Simeon, Sales Director for Asia-Pacific at GMB Research & Development, who briefed me on the upcoming launch of their new KnowledgeOne (K1) product, which is set to be released in July. GMB, headquartered in Sydney, Australia, has a twenty year history in the information management field and is well known for its RecFind product (which K1 replaces - more on this). GMB has over 500 customers in Australia and also has a presence in New Zealand, North America, the United Kingdom.

In an exciting development for GMB, K1 replaces RecFind which has its last planned major update at the beginning of the year. I say replace, because GMB emphasis that K1 isn't simply a rebadging of RecFind. Existing RecFind customers will be able to move over to K1 as an upgrade, while still continuing to have access to the same functionality. User profiles will mean that users will only see the functionality they need and are permitted to use. However, those that decide to tap into the new functionality will be able to do a lot more by using K1 as a platform for a broader range of information and knowledge management tasks.

John explained that out-of-the-box K1 can be used to provide customer relationship, human resource and helpdesk functions. The key benefits for organisation doing this is that they can reduce the number of separate applications being used while also allowing data to be better integrated. In this respect, one of the K1 features John described that really interested me is the availability of a wizard that will allow superusers to further customise K1 in terms of look and feel, but also the ability to add and remove data fields. Some of the other technical features of K1 are that is developed in .Net, is browser-based, has multilingual capabilities and integrates with Active Directory.

We also spoke a little about GMB's e-mail archiving solution, called GEM. Recognising that user behavior can be a barrier to dealing effectively with e-mail content, GEM is able to automate e-mail capture using programmable filters and workflow. GEM works with Exchange, Domino and Groupwise.

In the next industry updates I'll be reporting on Crux Cybernetics and Grouputer.

Disclaimer: Information on this site is of a general nature. Please seek advice for specific circumstances. Unless otherwise stated, please assume that I have no commercial relationship with the vendors or products discussed.

Previous Industry Updates:

• Update No.1: Pivot Software
• Update No.2: Objectify

Nicholas Carr on Utility Computing and RSS

For those of you who haven't heard of Nicholas Carr, he's the guy who created a few waves in the information technology industry last year with a Harvard Business Review article and book that asked the provactive question, does IT matter?


Carr has a go at refreshing this debate with a new article in MIT Sloan Management Review, titled The End of Corporate Computing. He draws a comparison with the history of commoditisation in electricity generation with what he suggests will be an eventual move to utility computing. Underlying this idea appears to be a focus on the thin-client computing trend, built on top of “highcapacity, fiber-optic communication networks”, along with software tools and data that are univerally compatible with each other using virtualisation and Web-services. This will mean organisations can simply plug in and access as much, or as little, computing capacity and applications as they need.

Unfortunately, while I think Carr has done a good job of explaining the drivers for and benefits of utility computing, I don't really see any ground breaking observations here. He does make a good point about the management mindset being a barrier to utility computing, but I think he fails to consider how organisations will manage the risks associated with utility computing and the nature of change possible in the digital world. I was also interested to note that he makes no mention of wireless and mobile computing or peer-to-peer networks.

Now, along the way to finding this new article I discovered that Carr how has his own blog, called Rough Type. One of his recent posts outlines his thoughts on RSS as the next “killer protocol for push media”. But what makes this post worth mentioning is the cheeky comment from Wired that points to a May 2004 article in that magazine where they had already revisited their 1997 predictions about push technology. In the later article, Wired comments that:

“But while the vision has become vivid once more, the seamless Web of the original push fantasy is almost as far away as ever. This is because the Web has grown far bigger, more diverse, more open, and messier. It cannot be unified by a single easy-to-learn, concretely useful specification like RSS... But one of the things we have learned since push is that at the level of real applications, we will continue to live in a world of translations, patches, interruptions, incomplete instructions, neat tricks, false hopes, and a receding universality that's always almost just as far away. Paradoxically, this is a sign that the progress is real.”

An interesting thought considering Carr's ideas on utility computing.

Its all about content: PDAs, 3G and what people want

A Gartner report on the global PDA market shows a reversal of previous predictions that suggested this sector was in decline and instead grows by 25% in the 1st quarter of 2005. According to Gartner, "This increase is primarily the result of the growing popularity of wireless e-mail, with users favoring larger displays and QWERTY keyboards that are operated with both hands."

Meanwhile over the weekend, Business Sunday (transcript available) on the Nine Network provided a report on the 3G evolution in mobile telecommunications that is finally gathering momentum here in Australia. Business Sunday pitched 3G as the mobile technology that no one asked for, but when you consider the growth in wireless PDAs above its not too far fetched to see that wireless PDA users are at some point going to start demanding access to rich content and information services that go beyond e-mail on the move.

Of course the big question is what will this content be? If we listen to MIS magazine, then the future of 3G content (for consumers at least) is adult content... which isn't much use to the business user, although ironically they will benefit from the investment in the infrastructure. So what might we expect in the business space from mobile content? Just a couple of ideas:

• Mobile digital dashboards (although this may need to be mirrored on the desktop); and
• Web-services that can bring existing internal business content to the small screen.
  

Maybe not quite as exciting as girls, gambling and games, but collaboration and access to information is the content of doing business.

Are smaller enterprises in a better position to get the benefits of telework?

Further news on the investigation by the Australian Federal government into “telework”:

ComputerWorld reports that Dr Neville Meyers (who I recall meeting at a telework conference last year in Brisbane) has presented findings from his research to the government committee that show telework results in a 30% increase in productivity and better work-life balance (as long as you don't become an info-maniac of course!). Meanwhile this week the Sydney Morning Herald also reported on other research by the Australian Institute (read a summary - PDF file) that in Sydney some working parents are spending more time traveling to work than they do with their children and overall long commutes result in nervous tension and higher blood pressure. So one way or the other it looks like we need telework.

But Dr Meyers suggests that the biggest challenge is overcoming the resistance of Australian corporations to embrace telework. Perhaps this is the wrong sector to chase – the SME sector may be in a much better position to embrace telework because the sad fact is that a whole range of new human-centred and user-driven technologies – from mobile computing to social software – are currently evolving outside of the formal control of corporate IT departments.

Just yesterday I saw an example of a small regional transport business taking advantage of “corporate” technologies such as thin-client and mobile computing. Where there is a willingness to give it a go and the setup cost is reasonable, smaller enterprises typically have the flexibility to implement it and get on with it. So it may be that as we see more powerful technology placed in the hands of non-technical users, the larger companies will struggle to keep up unless they find a way of embracing these user-driven technologies.

Industry Update No. 2: Objectify

Objectify describe themselves as a “young and innovative” Australian software company. They are based in Victoria and were established in 2000 around their core product, an XML-based Web Content Management System (WCMS). An AusIndustry COMET grant in 2001 and an R&D Start grant in 2004 has helped them to commercialise their product and the company now employs 22 staff.

I was particularly interested to meet up with Objectify because I had earlier received an unsolicited recommendation from one of their government users. Despite talk of moving to Open Source in the government sector, in this case a proprietary offering was seen as offering a better package of functionality, service and support. According to earlier e-mail correspondence I had with Objectify's CEO, Karina Heikkila, their clients include a flagship installation at the City of Greater Geelong council as well as a range of private and public organisations such as BankWest, Toll Holdings, and Sensis.

Jodi Barry, Sales Manager at Objectify, was up in Sydney this week and she gave me a tour of the their new Objectify Enterprise Knowledge Management System (KMS). The KMS is part of a new Objectify Enterprise suite and the idea behind it is to provide a flexible repository where users can easily contribute and retrieve information.

At the moment the KMS product is still fairly new and I expect we'll see ongoing improvements in future iterations. Jodi explained that it was developed in part as a response to a need at Geelong council to provide staff with a customer service knowledgebase that could be shared across multiple sites. However, in looking at their architecture it is clear that the Enterprise suite is a natural progression for them. Possible applications suggested for the KMS range from using it as a skills register to storing procedures.

From an architecture perspective the core content management engine (that provides content management functions such as workflow and approval for the KMS) runs under Windows and was developed in .Net, while the control interfaces are designed with Internet Explorer (IE) 5.5 and above in mind. However it is probably important to emphasis that there is a very strong XML flavour to Objectify. While the KMS will come with prebuilt forms, savvy KMS administrators can edit the underlying XML schema and design content filters that can make the underlying data accessible to other parts of the Objectify suite and other applications. In that respect the KMS can exist along side another content management system as either a stand alone site or as a content source.

So if you're looking for content management system plus other functionality with a strong XML flavour then Objectify may be worth looking at. I'll stay in touch with Karina and Jodi from Objectify and will bring you further updates during the year.

PS Coming up in my next industry update I'll be reporting on a new product release coming from GMB in July.

Disclaimer: Information on this site is of a general nature. Please seek advice for specific circumstances. Unless otherwise stated, please assume that I have no commercial relationship with the vendors or products discussed.

Previous Industry Updates:

• Update No.1: Pivot Software

For and against business blogging

Two articles caught my attention this week, both offering a different perspective on business blogs:

• A marketing and public relations professional, writing for Darwin magazine, gives 10 reasons "Why Business and Blogs Are Like Oil and Water"; and
• Journalist Edward Cone writing in CIO Insight magazine tales a more positive look at the Rise of the Blog (and also wikis) in the business world.
  

Cone's article, as well as providing an overview of RSS and sharing Sun's blogging rules for its employee blogs, has a look at the thorny issue of integrating bottom-up blogging and wiki technologies into the typically top-down, standardised corporate IT environment.

Industry Update No. 1: Pivot Software

This is the first of a new intiative on the ChiefTech blog where I'll give you an update on a particular vendor or product in the information and knowledge management space. I'll be primarily looking at different content, messaging and collaboration tools but from time to time I reserve the right to look at anything else that looks interesting (this is my blog after all!).

This week I had the opportunity to catch up with Colin Tan, NSW Regional Manager, from Pivot Software to learn more about their “integrated Knowledge-Based Business Application”, which goes by the same name. Pivot Software is based in Queensland, Australia, and was established in 2000. The focus of the company is on a suite of applications all based on the same Pivot architecture, for example Knowledge-Pivot, Project-Pivot and Sales-Pivot.

Since I had already spoken to Colin earlier in the year about Pivot Software, this time it was a chance to take a closer look at Project-Pivot in action (client and server were running on Colin's laptop). There were a couple of particular features that caught my attention:

• It manages 'knowledge objects', consisting of unstructured data within a form template, in a loose content architecture that allows users to navigate either by a folder-like interface or by following links between knowledge objects.
• It provides a graphical navigator that lets you browse knowledge objects as a network of connected objects or as steps in a process.

One of the other nice things I liked about Pivot was that it doesn't try to 'capture' everything – the Pivot approach has a strong emphasis on capture and reuse of knowledge objects but in quite a flexible way. For example, project steps can be templated and linked to related 'knowledge objects' such as people, resources and other unstructured information. Users can then collaborate on individual projects – reusing or adapting these templates plus adding new knowledge objects - all from within Pivot.

There is obviously more to Project-Pivot (and the other flavours of Pivot in suite) than just the features I've highlighted, however these alone make it worth taking a look at. I can see immediate application for this tool in the SME space and the fact that it has its own client interface, rather than being browser based, is probably a point in its favour. I plan to keep in touch with Colin and will keep you posted on any interesting developments.

Meanwhile look out for updates in the next couple of weeks on Objectify, Crux Cybernetics (one of my previously unpublished articles recently appeared on their TeamFrame portal) and Grouputer...

Disclaimer: Information on this site is of a general nature. Please seek advice for specific circumstances. Unless otherwise stated, please assume that I have no commercial relationship with the vendors or products discussed.

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Will Microsoft take on Adobe's PDF with Metro?

Earlier in the year I blogged about PDF software but now I hear (various media reports including this one on internetnews.com) that Microsoft will include a new XML-based document file format called Metro in its next operating system (currently code named Longhorn), which is due for release next year.

Most people have pointed out that Metro does a lot of what PDF is designed to do, but Microsoft claim that it won't compete with PDF. Read the reports and judge for yourself...

21st Century Tools for Business

Next Tuesday (3rd May), as part of the Australian Innovation Festival that runs from the 28 April to 15 May, I'll be one of three technology "gurus" (their words, not mine) speaking to small business owners in the Illawarra on 21st Century Tools for Business.

My presentation is based around the idea of looking at information technology tools that are right here, right now. But as well as looking at the information technologies that I think every small business should be using, I'll also take a look at the real and present disruptive information technologies that are on the immediate horizon.

Yes, that means I'll get to talk about empowering customers with self-service technologies like self-service checkouts - they are a great way of demonstrating how technology can impact any business in any industry. However, I'll also be introducing them to other ideas such as business blogs, RSS and social software. The presentation itself will then be wrapped around some ideas such as the IT Feasibility Triangle and SMART goal planning for IT.

BTW One of the other presenters is Geoff McQueen from Internetrix, who has previously shared his thoughts on enterprise wikis on the ChiefTech blog. Geoff will be talking about how small business owners can use the tools on their desktop to better manage customer relationships.

Drive IT from the boardroom, not the backroom

Call me cynical, but its not often that I find myself agreeing with a politician ;-) However a press release from the Australian Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, Senator Helen Coonan, telling us about new research that confirms "the level of benefit achieved from an ICT investment is largely a function of effective management" is music to my ears.

The key lessons appear to be that:

• You need clear, strategic reasons for the investment.
• You need to be knowledgeable about how ICT can best serve your organisation.
• You need clear, formal arrangements in place with ICT suppliers.
• You need to be patient and persistent in realising ICT benefits.
• You need to expect, and be positive about, organisational change.
  

The timing is great considering the current debate between cardigans and suits in IT while Standards Australia and SAI Global are promoting the publication of the new IT governance standard. BTW I've already made use of the new IT governance standard in a report to a board to help set the context for their IT decision making. I do actually think the principles and model it provides are quite good, even if you're not a director on the board.

Rojo - hosted RSS reader with unique features

Rojo is another hosted RSS reader service, however they apparently offers some unique features:

• Sharing of content between friends and colleagues;
• Tagging and commenting on stories for yourself and others; and
• Recommended feeds based your current subscription.

Also - have a look at their Introductory Tour site. It uses Jotspot, a hosted enterprise wiki that also includes some advanced functionality. For more on this look out for my article on enterprise wikis in the May/June edition of Image and Data Manager magazine.

Australian Telework Advisory committee

The recently established Australian Telework Advisory Committee (ATAC) has made a call for public submissions. Past and present teleworkers as well as people who employ teleworkers are invited to provide comment on their experiences of telework. The ATAC define telework as:

"Telework generally relies on the use of ICT to facilitate communications between remote workers and central work locations. A significant focus of this review includes the consideration of flexible working practices that are supported by broadband connectivity, including the use of high-speed Internet, multi-party videoconferencing, virtual collaboration and 3G hand-help [I think they mean hand-held?] access technologies."

While its great that they are talking to employers and teleworkers, I would have liked to have seen them also talk to people who work with teleworkers but are not managers or employers. The support and training of rank and file staff in the central work locations (to use ATAC's terminology) is also a critical factor to success.

Info-mania is bad for your IQ

Research commissioned by Hewlett Packard (HP) in the United Kingdom (UK) by Dr Glenn D Wilson has found that "The abuse of 'always-on' technology" can cause IQ to drop by 10 points! This is apparently equivalent to losing a night of sleep and has obvious implications for productivity. HP recommends that people use always on technology appropriately and learn to switch off occasionally.

That's good advice that reminds me of the idea of a techno-Sabbath (literally a day off from using technology) that has been floating around for a while. Last year I actually presented at a conference where I spoke about the issues that being always on, always connected might be creating for the workplace. It was based on a short article I wrote titled, The Future of Work: Always On, Always Connected:

"If you believe what they say, then mobile phones and wireless computing devices give people the opportunity to live the most wonderful, 'unwired life'. For business this is a world where we are constantly connected to the information systems that are increasingly critical to getting work done. No doubt we expect the industry to talk up the benefits of a wireless world but the trouble with disruptive technologies like this is that we can never be quite sure of the end result. What is clear from looking at the past is that disruptive technologies throughout the ages have changed society in surprising ways."

If you would like a copy, drop me line - contact details are on my Website.

Wines maker makes good with open source

For some reason Australian wine maker De Bortoli Wines has been getting good media coverage for the last few months on its use of open source software. Maybe they have a good PR firm behind them or perhaps its just a good open source story, which it is.

The Australian Financial Review covered them this week ( 19 Apr 2005, p.36) but you can read about them in ComputerWorld (7 Dec 2004) and also the Australian (22 Mar 2005). Going against the Citrix thin-client trend, De Bortoli are using bootable linux DVD's and USB drives so that PC's can keep working despite communication and networking problems. They are also using Firefox, Thunderbird and OpenOffice on Windows machines. Its not all smooth sailing of course and they haven't completely dumped Windows, however its still a good example of how an SME can take advantage of open source software.

Update on Mastering E-mail Overload

A few weeks ago I pointed out the continuing interest in dealing with the big problem of e-mail overload in the workplace. I ran my first short inhouse seminar yesterday and I'm currently talking to a few more organisations who have also expressed an interest in running a briefing session on this topic.

Very briefly, the Mastering E-mail Overload briefing focuses on a three step process that can move your organisation toward dealing with this growing problem:

1. Eliminating the root cause of the problem;
2. Individuals taking control of their own inbox; and
3. Communicating better with e-mail.

As a bit of background on this approach - which I think is a bit different from the usual generic "six tips for effective e-mail" we hear about - I've also now written a brand new short article, titled For better, or worse: Living with e-mail in the workplace. Please let me know via the contact details on my Website if you are interested in this article, or perhaps even a briefing session in your workplace.

BTW One interesting question that came up during yesterday's briefing session was the issue of how quickly should people reply to e-mail. The answer is that it depends. Last year I ran a workshop for small business on e-mail customer service – in some instances a business needs to reply as quickly as possible and there are strategies you can use to make this easier. Some of the responsibility also falls on the sender of the message – if you need an immediate reply make it clear in your message that this is your expectation. Or use an alternative communication channel like the telephone, instant messaging or if its an option, good old face-to-face.

Service or self-service?

I must admit to having a slight fascination with the human-computer interaction perspective of how technology is used to serve customers in supermarkets. A visit to the United Kingdom in the middle of last year gave me a chance to see how supermarkets there were experimenting with different variations of self-service checkouts. During that time a number of large chains were piloting different systems and I saw first hand how a couple of different approaches were being used by Waitrose and Sainsburys.

I asked the assistant at Sainsburys about who was using them and she commented that she had been surprised as people of all different ages were choosing to use them. This Gartner article gives some insights into why:

"Retailers generally assume self-service checkouts will be used by shoppers with few purchases, to get through the checkout quickly. In fact, this option was most popular with older people and adults with children, no matter how much they were buying. Parents thought it would be easier and faster, and some even remarked that their children could do the scanning, speeding up the checkout even further. Conversely, many older people actually want the process of shopping and checkout to be slower. They like the idea scanning goods and packing them at their own pace, rather than having to keep up with a checkout assistant."

More recently Megan Santosus has written a couple of challenging articles (Life In The Not-So-Fast Lane and The Price of Nice) in CIO magazine where she questions the value of self-service to customers. A worthwhile discussion as it highlights what I think is an important distinction between automation and empowering customers – have a look at my own short article, Empower customers with self-service, not automation (PDF, 77KB) where I suggest the following points to consider when introducing a self-service system:

• Look for bottle necks in the way you currently serve customers and aim to automate a task or process that already needs to be done;
• Keep in mind that empowering customers with a self-service system is quite different from automating a standardised process to reduce costs; and
• Try to identify how a customer will really benefit from this approach – can you answer the “what’s in it for me" question from their perspective?

BTW The myth of self-service applies equally within organisations, for example access to information can empower but form filling by knowledge workers can end up just being an unproductive distraction.

Book Review: Remote Control

Later in the year I expect to have a paper published in the International Association for Human Resource Information Management (IHRIM) journal, which discusses the link between the success of strategic HR management and the loss of social capital in what I call virtualised organisations. Through a common interest in virtual teams I was pleased to have the opportunity to review a new book that will soon to be released by the IHRIM called:

Remote Control: A Practitioner’s Guide to Managing Virtual Teams
by Gerald Falkowski and Stephen Troutman

Falkowski and Troutman, who share a background in IBM Consulting, offer Remote Control as a comprehensive and actionable “how-to” for real-life virtual teaming. They see a strong distinction between what they call remote teams (working in one or more dispersed locations) from virtual teams (remote and lacking a single chain of command). But don't let this distinction deter you from reading further – much, if not all, of the book is applicable to that grey management area between routine remote teams and true virtual teams that many of us experience.

The authors are good on their word at making this a practitioner's guide and quickly position the key conceptual theme of the book, the Virtual Team Capital Model, and then get on with the business of describing how to put it into practice. The first half of the book focuses on three key activities that Falkowski and Troutman believe are essential for a successful virtual team: Rudimentary Project Management, Elementary Team Building and Facilitation, and Some Change Management. The introduction to these concepts is then integrated with a detailed case study.

The second half of the book looks at specific issues related to virtual teams, including a chapter devoted to virtual teaming technologies. However, the primary focus is on management issues and three other co-contributors provide additional input into the book by sharing advice on trust in virtual teams, managing cultural differences and how to support virtual teams with a program management office.

I found the chapter on managing cultural differences, which is clearly written from a North American perspective, quite excellent. The sensible tips in this chapter give the rest of the book a strong level of credibility. However, the final chapter that covers the establishment of a virtual program management office is what I feel really positions this book as something quite different. Few people talk about the supporting infrastructure required to make virtual teams successful and sustainable, so a chapter on forming a virtual program management office is a welcome addition to the virtual teaming body of knowledge.

Overall I found Remote Control an unpretentious and practical guide for managing virtual teams. It includes a generous selection of checklists and as a sign that the authors really intended this to be a practitioner's guide, they are also collected together at the end of the book for easy reference.

Remote control can be ordered online from the IHRIM. Pre-order before the 1st May and get a discount! Reference: Falkowski, Gerald and Troutman, Stephen, 2005, Remote Control: A Practitioner’s Guide to Managing Virtual Teams, IHRIM Press, Austin, Texas.

BTW If this book interests you, also have a look at Knowledge Management Tools and Techniques.

Suits versus cardigans? Try the MBT

This month Computerworld magazine has picked up on the trend of IT people (the "cardigans") needing business skills, and business people (the "suits") needing IT skills. If you are a suit or a cardigan who wants to get ahead you might be interested in attending an information evening to learn about what the Master of Business and Technology (MBT) program at UNSW has to offer.

What's the MBT? "The Master of Business & Technology ( MBT ) Program is tailor-made for busy managers and professionals in technology driven environments who want to elevate their careers. MBT courses focus on business, on technology, and on the point at which they intersect. The MBT Program is designed to be undertaken part-time, in combination with full-time employment. Customise your study through MBT's flexible program structure and work with experienced class facilitators and co-participants in online or Sydney-based face-to face classes."

They have been holding information evening in recent weeks around the country and the last two are coming in Parramatta (NSW) on 20th April and Wollongong (NSW) on the 21st April. As I'm just about to complete my MBT I've been invited to speak at the Wollongong information evening on my experiences of the MBT and what it takes to complete it.

You need to RSVP if you want to attend go along to either of these remaining information evenings or you can request an information pack.

Watch Out! Cyber-criminals like to blog

Image and Data Magazine reports on a press release from Web filtering company, Websense, that warns toxic blogs are responsible for distributing Malcode and Keylogging software to unsuspecting users. I suppose it was only a question of time, and in my mind doesn't detract from the core value of blogs, but it does hightlight the immaturity of the software presently used by hosted blogging sites with this comment:

"Cyber-criminals are now taking advantage of blog sites that allow users to easily publish their own web pages at no cost. Blogs can be attractive vehicles for hackers for several reasons - blogs offer large amounts of free storage, they do not require any identity authentication to post information, and most blog hosting facilities do not provide antivirus protection for posted files."

Soft phones on steroids: Digital Dashboards

Melanie Turek, from US-based technology research firm Nemertes, has written some interesting articles and papers on range of technology issues including collaboration. One of her articles that talks about the power of "presence" in what she calls digital dashboards has been syndicated to a few publications, such as Network Fusion World and also Computerword. (The article also has some screenshots of a "digital dashboard").

I'm not so sure about calling a presence-enabled messaging application a digital dashboard, but her analysis of the importance of presence is fair:

"Presence has the potential to change the way people work - and how they communicate and collaborate with one another. Change will come slowly; the technology isn't as mature as it needs to be. The productivity gains are difficult to measure, and the cultural adjustments won't come easily from end users, but companies that adopt the new tools will be well positioned to support a dispersed workforce and leverage the benefits such an environment brings."

BTW In 2003 I wrote a short whitepaper about next generation voice over IP (VoIP). I noted then, when most people were talking up the costing savings of VoIP, that:

"It is quite interesting to compare next generation VoIP services with enhanced services that can be provided through Instant Messaging (IM) systems. IM has both the same synchronous qualities of voice combined with presence information that could also be utilised by VoIP applications. Presence is the awareness functionality in IM applications that tells you when another user is on-line and available. This provides the potential to build intelligent workflow systems that, for example, would know when a manager is on-line and available to approve an urgent request – rather than e-mailing the user, an IM agent can interact with the user to ask for the workflow approval. Simple Web services have also been built that utilise the IM interface as a way to interactively query other databases, such as a corporate address book. So it is possible that an IP Phone could dynamically interact with such a database to provide different information to the user."

Draft Corporate Blogging Guidelines

Angus McDonald in his Falkyn's Blog links to Michael Hyatt's (President and Chief Operating Officer of Thomas Nelson Publishers in the US) blog where he has published the 1st and 2nd draft of their Thomas Nelson Blogging Guidelines.

Angus comments that "What is nice about this is that Michael was smart enough to elicit comment from the readers of his Working Smart blog to ensure that the guidelines were appropriate. Thanks to their feedback what they ended up with was much more user-friendly than their first effort which was a dismal set of legalistic rules."

Ah, change management for new technology. Good idea :-)

After you read the guidelines also check out this advice from an E.M.T who works for the London Ambulance Service (linked from a comment on the Thomas Nelson guidelines).

Internet 2.0: The Information Sushi Belt

Chris Hyder, Director of Knowledge Management at the Department of the Environment and Heritage, gets a thank you for spotting this excellent BBC News article that includes an interview with Dave Winer (a co-inventor of the RSS format). Surfing RSS channels gets vividly described by the BBC reporter, Jo Twist, as:

"Like sushi restaurant conveyor belts, it delivers content to people so they can easily pick what they want to read."

An important point is also made about the average Internet user in terms of "how to explain what RSS can do to change a person's web surfing experience, and also how to avoid bamboozling people with strange-looking code and acronyms." Remember if you're reading this you may be an early adopter who gets it! It might not be as easy for everyone else.

BTW There is also a link to my two earlier posts about RSS as Content Glue and Controlling RSS. Incidentally I also discovered what RSS Reader technology the Guardian Newspaper is using (the smarts behind it is a company called Consenda - apparently using their technology, "newspapers are able to place themselves at the convergence point of traditional news publishing and blogs, while increasing average revenue per user through NewsPoint’s innovations in RSS-related targeted text, display, and classified advertising").

Agilent's Virtual Experiences

Its not often that we see an Australian business talking up the benefits of "virtual teams", but Grant Marshall, General Manager at Agilent Australia, shares his experiences in an interview in CEO Forum magazine. While Agilent have created a virtual shared service that is spread across Asia, the challenges and successes are the same for any kind of organisation that has staff working in remote teams or workgroups in Australia or overseas. Some key lessons from Agilent are:

• You need motivation to change from a traditional to virtual organisation structure;
• You need to invest in change management and training; and
• Remote managers can deliver higher levels of employee satisfaction (bet you didn't see that one coming!).

If you enjoyed this interview, also have a look at a related article that I wrote for Image and Data Manager magazine, titled Meeting of Minds.

MIT's Technology Review Looks at Sun's Blogs

Sun Microsystems is well known for the way it has embraced blogging and the April edition of MIT's Technology Review takes a look at Sun's reasons for encouraging its staff to blog in the open. According to Sun, they believe the benefits of their open approach to staff blogging are:

• The feedback they get results in better products; and
• It shows their customers they are listening.
  

Technology Review concludes that "consumer-oriented companies that abjure the blogosphere are missing out on opportunities to generate buzz, monitor customer concerns, and—perhaps most importantly—show their human side."

RSS as Corporate Content Glue

Following on from yesterday's post about RSS in the enterprise, Andrew Mitchell, Knowledge Manager at UrbisJHD, pointed out this list of ten ideas for corporate RSS feeds.

Its worth noting that their ideas are not necessarily about blogging - in fact what they are really suggesting is RSS as an alternative to other forms of push notification (e.g. e-mail or even SMS) that may help the audience to deal better with information overload or spam. The key thing to remember with RSS is that it is just another way for serving up information over the Web or an intranet - what you choose to package as RSS is really up to you.

For example, say you had a staff directory stored in a database. If you developed it the right way you might choose to deliver this information via various channels, such as part of the intranet or even via an interactive instant messenger bot. You could also create RSS channels, such as:

• New staff;
• Staff transfers;
• Staff assignments;
• Etc, etc.
  

The beauty of RSS in this instance is that you have a light weight syndication method - individual staff with a particular interest in staff movements might subscribe via their own personal RSS readers, however departmental or project sites could also filter out and display relevant changes on their own home pages.

BTW I wouldn't blame you if you are thinking this all sounds a bit like what a "portal" might do. The answer is yes, because ultimately RSS is just a very simple type of content "glue".

Nice to meet you

Today's Column 8* in the Sydney Morning Herald had a cute story from a reader about their brief laptop-to-laptop liaison on a commuter train:

"Travelling home after work by train last week, I was seated next to a fellow commuter using a laptop and headphones. Not to be outdone, I started work on my own laptop and as it booted up, a message appeared on the screen - 'another computer has been detected. Do you want to send a file?' Naturally I declined as we had barely met, but as he left the train, my companion confirmed that he was aware of our brief laptop liaison."

Column 8 then made the comparison with two dogs meeting in the park (you get the picture). A more interesting (and perhaps more tasteful) application can be found in the conference industry, where smart name badges (for example nTag and others) seek out people with similar or target profiles. Of course, this idea exists in the domain of Personal Area Networks (PANs) – also see my earlier post on RedTacton.

*Please note that the contents of Column 8 changes daily, so this story won't be there tomorrow!

Controlling Enterprise RSS

Wired reports that some newspapers in the US and UK are developing their own branded RSS readers in an attempt to retain the readership that has "bleeding" for years, and perhaps even make some revenue from selling advertising.

Considering we've had push news media before (remember PointCast?), for this to work I suspect they will need to find some way of adding value to public RSS feeds and readers. Providing less technically savvy users with a branded set of pre-selected and categorised RSS channels could be one way of doing that, as one newspaper suggests. In fact, digital news content distributor Factiva already has a limited RSS service in beta and they are also limiting their enterprise users to the "Editor's Choice" of channels

Providing users with a pre-selected list of RSS channels could also be useful within an enterprise, particularly if there are RSS channels broadcasting corporate information that everyone must know. A couple of companies in the US are beginning to tackle the needs of the emerging enterprise market for RSS:

NewsGator offers an NewsGator Enterprise. In an earlier commentary in a blog about this product, they comment that:

"We do a LOT of enterprise business with our Outlook-based product. As we've been working with these customers, we've learned a lot about their needs and issues for information distribution...and what we've been finding is that a desktop-based product alone is not exactly what they need...Imagine NewsGator Online, picked up and installed on a server behind a corporate firewall. Imagine it also (optionally) connecting with Active Directory and Exchange server. No longer would a system administrator need to go install NewsGator Outlook edition on 3000 desktops; rather, with [NewsGator Enterprise], they could install a single server, make some configuration choices, and employees will just get "more stuff" somewhere in their Exchange mailbox without having to install anything on their own machines."

A whitepaper by KnowNow, also in the US, points out four limitations of RSS as far as enterprises are concerned:

1. Lack of centralized control;
2. Increased load on infrastructure;
3. Timeliness, completeness and relevancy of information; and
   
4. Duplicate content publication.

Actually, those four issues could be equally applied to e-mail. In that respect I hope RSS helps to reduce information overload rather than contributing to it!

Techno-ethnography at Intel

Today's AFR BOSS magazine has a 2 page article on anthropologist Genevieve Bell who works for Intel and is helping them to understand better how people use technology. The article is particularly revealing in providing some examples of how national culture and lifestyle influences how we utilise technology, for example:

"What constitutes the home was one important finding from her recent fieldwork. People from Asia, Australia and Britain spend more time socialising outside the home than most Americans, who prefer to 'pull up the metaphoric drawbridge' once inside their climate-controlled houses. 'All of which has big implications for the way you use technology,' says Bell.

'Mobile phones make really good sense when a lot of your social life happens outside your home.' This could explain why 85 per cent of Australians have mobile phones compared with 60 per cent of Americans, and why they’re growing at the rate of 10 million a month in China. The Chinese send more text messages to each other in a month than Americans do in a year."

While Bell's primary interest appears to be in consumer use of technology, the same approaches can be applied to the use of technology in the workplace. If you are regular reader of my blog you'll know I have a long standing interest in this area so you might find this post about Melanie Kan's research work at UTS of interest. Earlier in the year the NSW KM Forum also heard from Dr Theresa Anderson (also from UTS) on the topic of using ethnography and storytelling in the workplace as she has an interest in how people interact and deal with electronic information.

Workplace design events at the AGSM

In January I reported on my observations from a visit to the Ark workplace in Sydney. On that theme I spotted a couple of interesting events on the AGSM Website that are coming up later in the month:

• 2005 Neil Hanson Memorial Lecture - Constructing Knowledge Networks: The Ecology of Informal Learning

and

• Organisational Ecology: uncommon workspace strategies that add value and improve performance

Taking it to the People - Applying KM in Telstra

Just a reminder that the next NSW KM Forum meeting is taking place on Thursday (7th April), with Alister Webb from Telstra's Consumer & Marketing Division talking about applying KM at Telstra. Full details can be found on the NSW KM Forum wiki.

The Sum is Greater than the Whole

Crux Cybernetics is an Australian-based software company who specialises in "collaborative business management and process knowledge tools to improve workforce performance and productivity and that significantly reduce administration overheads". They have recently launched a new portal for their TeamFrame solution where they are building a library of useful documents with particular emphasis on work and resource management, collaboration, etc.

Maarten Tentij, Managing Director of Crux Cybernetics, asked if I'd like to contribute something so I forwarded him a previously unpublished article titled, The Sum is Greater than the Whole:

"Research conducted by the University of Wollongong demonstrates that one of the primary reasons that SMEs have been slow to adopt ecommerce is a reluctance to form partnerships with other businesses. But in a global, information driven economy the ability to collaborate is a key competency that every business needs. Overseas outsourcing threatens all industries – white and blue collar alike – but local companies can still compete by embedding themselves in virtual supply chains that add value through effective business collaboration. So how do we do it?"

You can read the rest on the TeamFrame portal. If you have a topic suggestion or just want to learn more about TeamFrame I'm sure Maarten and the team at Crux would be pleased to hear from you.

Cracking the code of IT change

I follow the technology change management concepts of James Carlopio, who you may be familar with from the AFR's BOSS magazine (search on "Carlopio"), so it was great to see him quoted recently by Computerworld. He points out that:

• Those working in IT, he said, need to broaden their minds when tackling projects admitting that implementations are complex;
• Discussion, disagreement and experimentation can make a real difference and encourage end users to embrace technology changes; and
• Resistance is often the result of past failures so IT executives need to accept a degree of end user cynicism.

All great advice - the challenge is in the execution of course! For an overview of his change management process - which has origins in Rogers innovation diffusion theory - see his Innovation Implementer site. He has also written a couple of books on change management and technology:

• Implementation: Making Workplace Innovation and Technical Change Happen
• Changing Gears: The Strategic Implementation of Technology

Workplace Innovation at the ATO

Colette Woodford, Secretary actKM and Director Adept KM, is promoting an interesting event tomorrow (Tuesday 5th April) in Canberra:

What? Understanding & Applying 'Workplace Innovation' Through Design In The ATO
Who? Grant Brodie
When? Tuesday 5 April 2005, 5:30-7pm
Where? National Library of Australia - Main Conference Room 4th floor.
How much? $4 donation for wine and cheese.

Australian public sector organisations like the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) are complex, adaptive social systems that grow their capability to effectively respond to change through the knowledge they create, the processes for sharing information and knowledge, and the relationships that develop among those who work and learn in them.

The key knowledge elements of people, process, technology and content have a vital role to play in enabling organisations like the ATO to meet outcomes set by Government. This presentation draws on recent research that explores some of the factors that drive innovation in the workplace and that helps maximise the impact of information in organisations.

CollaborativeAID: Taking wikis to the next level

Last week while down in Melbourne for the day working on a client project I made time to catch up with Ashin Wimalajeewa from Self Technologies. Ash is a software methodologist and architect, and he is currently working as a contractor at a major Australian bank. (Actually "contractor" is perhaps the wrong word since he could easily fit Davenport and Prusak's definition of an idea practitioner.)

He has a created a really interesting knowledge management and project collaborative platform called CollaborativeAID. Based on the wiki paradigm, Ash has extended the idea to create a tool "that empowers all stakeholders to contribute, collaborate, learn from one another and innovate". As well a basic enterprise wiki features (e.g. access control, simple editing), CollaborativeAID also includes:

• Forms to capture and display wiki content;
• Cross referencing of content;
• Graphic content maps (e.g. a methodology map that links to relevant content); and
• Integrated project workspaces.
  

Having seen CollaborativeAID in action I was impressed by what I saw, but I have to admit wondering now what is or isn't a wiki? Perhaps someone can come up with a new name for these advanced wikis. If you have any suggestions please post them here!

More on Enterprise Blogging

Karna O'Dea attend the Blogs and Wikis for Trainers presentation and suggested this preventing Newsletter article by Dr L. Anne Clyde as some recommended general reading on enterprise blogging. Thanks Karna.

As well as providing lots of links to other articles and blogs about enterprise blogging, Dr Clyde suggests the following purposes for enterprise blogs:

• Project Management
• Competitive Intelligence
• Marketing
• Knowledge Management
• Customer Service
• Newsletters

Slides from Wednesday's AITD/ACT KM Forum presentation

If you attended my AITD/ACT KM Forum presentation on Wednesday in Canberra looking at Blogs and Wikis for Trainers and would like an electronic copy of the slides please let me know.

For everyone else: I won't be making them available for public download as I don't think the slides themselves are particularly meaningful outside the presentation and discussion we had (to understand why have a look at this). However, if you would like a copy and are willing to invest some time to talk through the slides with me then I'm more than happy to share what I know.

And don't forget that my invitation to come to your organisation to talk about just about any workplace technology issue still stands.