Euan Semple's blog

Euan Semple is an interesting guy who heads up KM at the BBC in the UK. I know him only through his presence on the ACT-KM online forum, but I've just discovered he has a blog. Semple is getting quite a reputation for using wikis and blogs at the BBC.

Tags: enterprise blogging, enterprise wikis, euan semple, social software

AFR BOSS on communication in the workplace

The July edition of AFR BOSS magazine looks at different approaches to communication in the workplace, with PowerPoint getting special attention.

The discussion of communication approaches looks at the pros and cons of everything from blogs to management by walking about - however due to space the analysis is quite lightweight. For example we are warned that "Intranets are resource-hungry projects that need dedicated teams and they can turn into white elephants that nobody looks at or uses if they’re not managed properly" while "too many in-house publications are anodyne PR, designed to portray the boss in a favourable light instead of passing on real news and knowledge". Hmm, tell me something we didn't already know... Unfortunately viral marketing and story telling doesn't get a mention :-(

The PowerPoint article provides different perspectives on why we have to suffer some much PowerPointlessness or death by PowerPoint. Edward Tufte thinks that PowerPoint is "making us stupid, degrading the quality and credibility of our communication, turning us into bores, wasting our colleagues’ time". What I found more interesting was the observation that people in business are driving demand for PowerPoint because they insist on what one person describes as the "eight-and-a-half by eleven mentality" (or for us Aussies and Europeans, the "A4 mentality") - i.e. just give me as much information as will fit on an A4 page. So like most technologies its not just the tool that is to blame, but why people want it and how they choose to use it.

PS For some tips on more effective PowerPoint presentations, have a look at my previous post on this subject.

Tags: communication in the workplace, edward tufte, knowledge management, powerpoint

Clay Shirky interview: Breaking news and Wikipedia

Following on my post earlier this morning, you might also like to take a look at this recent interview with Clay Shirky picked up by Jim Phelps on his blog.

When asked if Wikipedia could be the replacement for all traditional media on breaking news, Shirky comments that "Wikipedia solves that problem, while at the same having a symbiotic relationship with those news analysts because it points people to the written versions of stories at a certain point in time. So I don't think it replaces them, but I do think it lowers the need for those outlets to have to just continually repeat the basic story in the absence of facts because the Wikipedia is a better place to handle that period of the breaking news."

Tags: clay shirky, social software

Attack on London: Old and new media working together

The ChiefTech blog has been quiet this last week in part because the terrorist attack in London dampened my desire to blog but also because I have a number of projects on the go, one of which involved me going down a mine (and interesting experience for someone who normally works in an office).

However, it was interesting to observe the role of blogs and photo sharing tools like flickr. But on the whole I think it was the way the old media used social software that provided the best use. The Guardian coverage in particular was excellent in the way they integrated traditional and social software approaches.

BTW Brian Bailey has started a new blog and one of his first posts is a short summary of my social software presentation at the NSW KM Forum last week. If you would like a copy of my slides please let me know. UPDATE: Matt Moore, from IBM Consulting, has also blogged about my NSW KM Forum presentation. Thanks for all the positive feedback everyone!

Tags: social software

The Role of IT in Getting New Managers Up to Speed

A new leadership article in HBS Working Knowledge caught my eye this morning:

"The usual employee-orientation process needs to be retired. In this article from Harvard Management Update, savvy companies explain how to jump-start the success of new managers. Tip: Set up meetings, use technology, and coach newcomers."

Global and geographically diverse companies need to use technology to help with this process and they suggest:

• Using e-mails to announce the new manager's expertise and interests to others;
• Signing the new manager up for the online discussion groups and mailing lists they'll need as they ramp up; and
• Showing the new manager how to use expertise locators.

One short coming of this article is that they don't explicitly make the link between technology and helping new managers understand social networks in their new organisation - so jump over to CIO magazine to complete the picture on the role of social network analysis.

Tags: knowledge management, social network analysis

In Twos: Effective Personal Workspaces

Steelcase publish some great research on workplace design issues, and Kirsten Lowe in her Chaos Generation blog picked up on something interesting in their 360 ezine:

"For decades, there have been two kinds of work spaces: a private office or workstation for one person, and conference rooms and team spaces for groups. Research indicates, however, that most work actually happens through the efforts of pairs of people working together. A significant body of evidence substantiates that working in pairs is the foundation of better learning, improved negotiation, problem-solving and – most importantly – innovation."

Tags: collaboration, workplace design

Mobile social networking could be bigger than online networking sites

Mobile social networks are (predominately) consumer tools that help users find dates, keep in touch with friends, share photos, and update their personal blogs via their mobile phones. BusinessWeek makes a good observation that "mobile social networks could eventually snag more users and generate more revenue than online social-networking sites. After all, the installed base of cell-phone users is much larger: There are 2 billion cell phones in the world, vs. fewer than 700 million PCs."

A couple of examples of some US-based mobile social networks are SMS.ac and WhoAt.

Tags: mobile social networks, social software

11,109 + 1

Watch the blogosphere in action and find out (care of Technorati) who is blogging about Live8... when I last checked there were 11,109 blog posts tagged Live 8. I guess I've just added one more!

As for me, I'm surprised to actually find myself watching the TV for a change. I guess the old media still has its uses ;-).

Tags: live8

Yahoo Social Search Beta

I'm not going to comment on Yahoo's new beta social search until I've had a chance to play with it further, but in the meantime checkout Ross Mayfield's post on the Many-to-Many blog for an overview of where it has come from and where he thinks it is going.

He concludes "this is a very big thing. A clear watermark of social infrastructure being developed upon physical infrastructure. I'm not apologetic for calling it a new kind of web, and I think my friends will too. The great promise, of course, is for non-bloggers to annotate the web."

Stowe Boyd also provides good commentary and provides a link through to Yahoo's own blog post about their new search system(?).

And if you found this interesting, have a look at OutFoxed (also in beta) who provide their perspective on the next stage of internet search. OutFoxed is a way "to use your network of trusted friends to determine what's good, bad, and dangerous on the internet. Outfoxed does this by adding functionality to the Firefox web browser."

Tags: social search

The Skype challenge- networks that exists both inside and outside the firewall

strategy+business magazine provides a short but IMHO spot on analysis of how new social software related technologies such as Skype (the peer-to-peer VoIP application) will "force management and IT executives to consider how to structure a network that exists both inside and outside the corporate firewall."

The article draws on a story in James Enck's EuroTelcoblog that project teams in Accenture used Skype to coordinate on work between Madrid and several locations in Pakistan because it was a better option than alternative communication technologies.

The s+b article concludes that: "as the Accenture incident illustrated, that won'’t stop employees who are dissatisfied with the quality of other forms of communication from accessing Skype anyway. Which means that, before long, management will have to address the potential of Skype or Skype-like technologies— and determine the peer-to-peer applications whose benefits outweigh their risks— rather than simply outlaw the technology and hope it goes away."

This really relates a lot to what I've been going on about with the Intranet Imperative.

Tags: collaboration, intranets, intranet imperative, extranets

19th July: Reserve your place for the Intranet Imperative live

You've read the blog, now attend the seminar ;-)

Chief Technology Solutions in association with Institute for Information Management is pleased to present the inaugural live industry update seminar:

The Intranet Imperative - Getting alignment with business needs

The nature of intranets is changing. In fact the term intranet itself is rapidly losing meaning. The traditional 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.

In this half-day seminar:

• Hear about the latest technology and workplace trends driving the evolution of intranets;
• Learn how to apply the intranet imperative management framework to align your intranet with business needs;
• Understand alignment in practice from two local vendor case studies; and
• Discuss implementation issues with an expert panel.

Presenters and panelists include James Dellow (Chief Technology Solutions and author of the ChiefTech blog), Brian Bailey (freelance provider of information, knowledge, change and project management services), Linda Shave (President, Institute for Information Management, NSW) plus Steven Layer (Weblogics) and Matthew Lipscombe (DocBanq).

But wait there is more: The good news is that thanks to the help of our supporters, the Institute for Information Management, DocBanq, and Weblogics, we can bring you this half-day seminar at a great price of $99 (incl. GST) including a light breakfast.

You can download the brochure and reserve your place at the seminar on the event Website at:

http://events.chieftech.com.au/

We look forward to seeing you there!

Tags: knowledge management, ChiefTech Industry Updates, intranets

Coming soon... Live Industry Update Premiere

For those of you following my industry update series (most recent) I'm pleased to let you know that I'll be running my first "live" industry update half-day seminar in the middle of July in Sydney, Australia. Stay tuned for more details or drop me a line to register your interest.

Tags: knowledge management, ChiefTech Industry Updates, intranets

Killer niche apps for location-based services

I've blogged in the last few months about location-based and geographic information system (GIS) related social software tools. If you are still trying to work out what you might do with location-based services (LBS) and GIS, GPSWorld has some suggestions - the following ideas all won cash prizes at the Cellular Telephone Industry Association Wireless show held in March this year:

• asset tracking/field services;
• monitoring and measuring physical activity in fitness programs;
• child/teen tracking service for parents;
• peer-to-peer/find me;
• navigation systems giving real-time traffic, weather and fuel-price information, and nearby points of interest;
• sale prices for houses and recently sold in the vicinity; and
• location-based imaging and tagging.

However, I think Rob Roveta, from Qualcomm CDMA Technologies (QCT), makes the right observation when he says about location-based services that "more targeted niche apps will get the market going."

I'd also suggest that we are seeing a similar thing evolving in the social software space as people connect different social software and GIS tools into niche applications. For example, Foundcity combines mobile camera phones/PDA, Google Maps and tagging:

"What's Foundcity? With Foundcity you send photos and text messages from the street to your personal map and tag it, share it, blog it and more..."



Tags: GIS, Google Maps, location-based services, social software

7th July - Social Software: Knowledge Management Panacea... or Technology Fad?

A date for your diary - I'll be presenting in a few weeks time at the NSW KM Forum, which meets in Sydney, Australia at Standards Australia:

7th July 2005 - Social Software: Knowledge Management Panacea... or Technology Fad?

WHY: So you've heard people talking about them but are blogs, wikis and other social software tools just another technology fad? Social software lets people rendezvous, connect or collaborate using a computer network. Learn about social software on Internet, what this means for enterprise knowledge management systems, and discuss how this will affect knowledge management within organizations.

WHO: James Dellow is the Principal Consultant of Chief Technology Solutions and member of the NSW KM Forum's committee. James has a decade of experience in the knowledge and information system space, including time spent within Ernst & Young's award winning Center for Business Knowledge. He recently completed a Master of Business & Technology at UNSW and is expected to graduate in October 2005. James also writes his very own blog.

WHEN: 5.30pm for 6pm, Thursday 7th July 2005.

WHERE: Standards Australia, 286 Sussex Street, Sydney NSW 2000. Call James Digges on 0414 191 009 for after hours entry to the building

HOW MUCH: Free

Tags: knowledge management, social software

Wiki - The New Facilitator?

My most recent Image & Data Manager (IDM) article, published in the May/June 2005 edition, is now available for download from the archive on my Website:

Looking at the use of wikis within organisations, I ask "Is the wiki about to revolutionise team work, communication and how we collaborate in organisations? A wiki is a server program that allows users to collaborate in forming the content of a Website. Wikis are quick, simple and effective whenever people need to share information, but what exactly makes the wiki such a good collaborative tool and should mature IT applications, platforms and architectures be thrown out in favor of the new kid on the block?"

Don't forget to look out for my next IDM article, which will discuss Mobile Knowledge Management. PS In the meantime, if you are still looking for more reading materials have a look at my three part Intranet Imperative article right here on the ChiefTech blog (part 1, part 2 and part 3).

Tags: collaboration, intranets, social software, wiki

Industry Update No. 5: GrouputerNet from Grouputer Solutions

Mea Culpa! I have to admit to being a little behind with the industry updates at the moment, however my excuse is that I'm currently in the process of planning an industry update live event to take place in Sydney during July. Further details coming soon...

But back to this industry update: A few weeks ago I spoke to Anne Hudson, CEO of Grouputer Solutions and co-inventor of the GrouputerNet technology. Grouputer was founded in 1996 and is based in Sydney, Australia but has over 300 users in USA, Australia, Mexico, Europe and New Zealand. Prior to starting Grouputer, Anne worked as a management consultant and in senior positions for multinational organisations. The late Tony Benson (one of only seven people to have received the highly prestigious Pearcey Medal in recognition of his lifetime commitment to the IT industry) was also a member of the Grouputer board until his death earlier this year.

GrouputerNet is a Web-based collaborative group decision support and meeting application. This application is designed to be used by organisations to aid decision making, planning, problem solving and learning. This makes GrouputerNet quite different from the other products I've covered so far in the industry updates (see below) and in this respect it is complementary to other content or project management tools you might already have in place.

For me its the structured discussion and decision support functionality in GrouputerNet that make it stand out from other Webconferencing products because it ensures:

• Every participant has an opportunity to be heard; and
  
• Meetings are more productive because they are outcome driven.

Grouputer can also supply a process builder for GrouputerNet that allows meetings and learning processes to be packaged up into stand alone applications.

According to Grouputer, end-users require no training however they support facilitators with both product training and skills transfer through co-facilitation. You can visit the Grouputer Solutions Website to see live demos of GrouputerNet.

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
Update No.4: TeamFrame from Crux Cybernetics

Tags: ChiefTech Industry Updates, Collaboration

New Associate: Conclusive Consulting Group

The Conclusive Consulting Group, based here in my adopted home town of Wollongong, NSW, Australia, has joined my list of associates.

Stephen Cuff is the Managing Director of Conclusive Consulting Group and he has consulted to a wide range of business types, from solo entrepreneurs to Fortune 500 companies.

Conclusive Consulting Group deliver custom designed solutions to help improve businesses and corporations. As the name suggests, a specific need is determined and the exact end result of a collaborative project defined. The process includes a clear determination of Objectives, Measures of Success and Value to be gained by the Client. This provides an accurate determination as to the return on investment that will be possible. Our goal is to improve management skills and processes for our clients.

Check out the Conclusive Website for free articles and you can also fill out an on-line Business Analysis survey to find what is and isn't working well in your business.

Dark Blogs: A case study of an enterprise blog... or perhaps not

I'm beginning to really like Nancy White's Full Circle Online Blog, as she picks up on some interesting stuff. This time she's blogged about Suw Charman's case study on a "Dark Blog" (PDF file) at a European Pharmaceutical Group used for sharing competitive intelligence.

However the more I read this case study the more troubled I became. For example, the case study is introduced with the following:

"This case study examines how a European pharmaceutical group used Traction Software's TeamPage (www.tractionsoftware.com) enterprise weblog software to create a competitive intelligence (CI) knowledge base to replace previous platforms such as Lotus Notes databases and static websites."

Ok. Fair enough so far, but then it sounds like they then duplicated the core functionality of Lotus Notes with the new solution such as things like user permissions and flexibility in managing unstructured information, ease of deployment etc. The other interesting point is that when you read the details you'll find they began planning in late 2002 and but then the development of the application didn't start until 2004. Not exactly what I would call quick.

If anything - from a technical perspective - all we have here is a case of someone building a better mouse trap. That's a fair enough outcome but (at the risk of repeating myself) we need to focus on understanding the difference between the benefits of blogging as a style of hyper-communication versus blogs as an information technology platform. It also raises a question for me as to what exactly is a blog?

Tags: Collaboration, Dark_Blogs, Enterprise Blogging, Knowledge Management, Social Software, Weblogs

StoryCast from HP: storytelling with photos and narration

Jean Burgess, PhD student in cultural studies & new media, Queensland University of Technology, Australia has a great blog covering creativity, culture and technology. By chance I found this link to HP Labs' StoryCast - an experimental digital storytelling service.



"StoryCast... lets people use their camera phones and other mobile devices to easily create and instantly share stories with friends and family. Each story consists of a sort of narrated slide show of photos accompanied by the storyteller's voice."

It reminds me a little of Nokia's Lifeblog. Now wouldn't it be interesting if we could then share stories peer-to-peer through Nokia's Sensor application.

Tags: mobilephones, social software, storytelling

The Power Of Us - Collaboration and Cooperation

US-based Consultant Nancy White picked up on an interesting Business Week article on "how mass collaboration on the Internet is shaking up business". White comments that "There is some cool stuff in this article, but also some troubling issues which get sparse attention" and I agree - it reads like an essay rather than providing any new insights, but its still interesting.

BTW This article is part of collection a few other articles looking at The Future of Technology including mobility in the workplace.

Tags: collaboration

The Intranet Imperative - Part 3

This is the 3rd and final part of the Internet Imperative. Part 1 takes a critical look at our understanding of what is an intranet, while part 2 provided a framework for developing a strategic view of intranets that encompassed our new definition.

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From imperative to action

The intranet imperative is driven by unstoppable technology advances that affect how people work with and use information technology in the workplace. These include:

• Blurred lines between people, places and things - the distinction between intranets, extranets and Internet sites is changing;

• Rich media and interactive content - the scope of content has expanded to includes more than static documents, text and images;

• Always on, always connected - the working environment and intranets need to be delivered through new channels, such as mobile phone, wireless PDAs, voice and kiosks on the shop floor;

• Next generation networks - awareness, presence and locality will be built in; and
  

• User-driven software - users will take the path of least resistance and will pick less sophisticated tools if they get the job done.

Unfortunately for the average intranet manager or management team these changes will of course increase the complexity of dealing with already existing document-centric challenges such as information architecture, effective search and content quality. For example, expert designed information architectures will need to co-exist with those created by user communities. In practice what this means is that we will see organisations embrace different degrees of control, standardisation and integration in order to align their application-nets with the strategic goals of the organisation. For example, centralised authoring will live along side self-publishing systems such as wikis and blogs because it makes business sense rather that isolated decision to choose one over the other.

What may be worse still for some teams is that the technology of the intranet will no longer be isolated from other parts of the organisation. Under these circumstances the system architecture becomes even more critical as both a plan but also as a process for engaging with the rest of the organisation, both in terms of needs but also to create the right operational linkages. So, applying strategic thinking and designing a system architecture for your next generation intranet represents more that just a nice theoretical step but is instead a critical success factor.

Summary

We now understand that the nature of intranets is changing. Unless you use strategic thinking to broaden your concept of what constitutes an "“intranet"” into a next generation application-net, then you risk losing control as technology leaps ahead without you. You can prepare for this challenge by:

• Understanding why the nature of intranets is changing;

• Analysing the strategic context of your intranet today and what will be needed moving forward; and

• Designing a new system architecture that will facilitate this change so it is progressive, evolutionary and beneficial rather than chaotic, revolutionary and disruptive.

That's the end of the Intranet Imperative - I welcome your comments, feedback and questions.

Tags: collaboration, information-architecture, intranets, intranet imperative, extranets

Dull future for the home and office PC

Nicholas Carr recently blogged:

"The first 25 years in the history of the personal computer were an aberration. Here's why: The business and consumer markets for the product were essentially the same. When you went out to buy a computer for your home, you used more or less the same criteria that corporate purchasing agents used when buying fleets of PCs for employees. The drab, utilitarian PC on the desk in your study (or spare bedroom) looked the same and worked the same as the drab, utilitarian PC on the desk in your office...But it's not going to last much longer. I think we're finally at the point where we're going to see the home PC diverge, and diverge quite radically, from the business PC. The home PC is going to turn into a real consumer product - or fragment into a whole bunch of consumer products."

Carr's discussion around divergence understates the fragmentation that will actually take place in the PC market over the long term. However, I don't think it has anything to do with "snazzier models" - what happens to the PC has more to do with how we use technology in the workplace (including the design of the workplace) and at home. For example it was reported recently that laptop/notebooks outsold desktop PCs in the US. So the idea of a desktop PC at work may also become a thing of the past, when what people need from time to time is a big screen and big keyboard.

Tags: IT, mobility, technology

News from the Chief

Just a little bit of personal news today - yesterday was (hopefully!) my very last exam for my Masters in Business & Technology at the University of New South Wales. Starting in 2002 I've completed a dozen subject units covering subjects ranging from the Management of Innovation and Technical Change to Advanced Information Technologies for Managers. Its been a lot fun and hard work, but I'm really pleased to have got this far and finished it :-)

I also have a couple of service anouncements for you about the ChiefTech blog:

• You may notice that I 'm now running Google AdSense on the blog (currently 2 at the top and some more down the side if you scroll down). My reasons for doing are two fold - one as an experiment to see how this kind of advertising works and if its worth it. Secondly, if I can make a bit of revenue from the advertising it will help to make the time and effort I put into the ChiefTech blog just that bit more worthwhile. However, if you think they are distracting or distasteful let me know. BTW One of the nice things I've noticed is that ads today are all talking about "strategy". And you all thought I was some kind of IT nerd... obviously Google knows me better than I think!
• Moving forward I'm going to be making an effort to tag my posts, so you can find them using services like Technorati. If you don't know about "tags" have a look at the Wikipedia entry on folksonomy - "the practice of collaborative categorization using freely chosen keywords".
  

Tags: UNSW

Location-enhanced applications

Mark White from Brisbane, Australia, based Locatrix Communications, comments in his new blog on a Business 2.0 article looking at different examples of how organisations are developing software and services that leverage location awarness. Mark says "My take is that it’s not so much about location-based services as it is about location-enhanced applications, whether they are games, corporate applications like Xora or contact management tools that know where your friends and colleagues are."

As I commented back on Mark's blog, while some people are only just begining to understand the importance of presence in next-generation networks, clearly "place" is going to be just as important.

BTW Mark's company Locatrix also sounds interesting - according to the Website blurb they provide "a suite of wireless application solutions and mobile device clients for use by wireless operators, enterprises, software developers and solution providers. The products integrate seamlessly over any cellular or WiFi networks and derive a single 'view' of a subscriber's availability, status and location. This is what we call a 'Locatrix', and unobtrusively sharing this information with colleagaues and friends creates opportunities for contact, collaboration, productivity and innovation."

Tags: gps, next generation networks, wireless

CNETAsia.com: Embrace collaboration tools or fall behind

CNETAsia.com report on some comments from Gartner about the importance of embracing collaboration tools such as instant messaging, blogs, wikis. Gartner say that:

• These collaborative tools are already prevalent because people have been very adaptable to these technologies, except in places where the organization does not understand their business value and impact.
• Companies have to tread a fine line between managing new tools that improve work productivity, and limiting the number of new technologies the IT department needs to deploy and manage. Otherwise, they could face disruptions if their IT infrastructure is not flexible enough to adopt these new applications.

Hmm. Sounds a lot like what I've been saying... so why are you paying so much for Gartner to state the obvious? ;-)

Tags: collaboration

Computerworld Emerging Trends: Blogs

Sorry in advance for linking to a bunch of old media stories on blogging, but if you're not a regular reader of Computerworld in Australia I thought you might be interested in the following from the June 8 edition:

• Blogs build business appeal - an interview with Maarten Tentij from Crux Cybernetics who I blogged about in Industry Update No.4 (incidentally Maarten will be presenting at the Sydney PMI Chapter on 22nd June, 2005).
• Blog tools speed package-tracking project - case study where software developers use blogs to generate project updates and provide a record of the work that was done.
• Vendors jump in, but few users (US version) - while major IT vendors are encouraging employees to start blogs, there aren't many IT managers blogging about big-picture technology issues.

IDG writer, Rodney Gedda, also announced the launch of his own blog but I'm afraid he has a little way to go in his transcendence to the new world...

Tags: Weblogs

Enterprise blog, wiki and RSS Survey results

The Gilbane Report have been running an ongoing survey on the use of Blogs, Wikis and RSS in the enterprise. When I last looked they only had 67 responses, so I'm not sure if the data holds much weight but some of the comments, such as, "My IT staff doesn't bother with new ideas", are quite revealing about who is driving the adoption of this technology.

In their blog entry they provide the following commentary:

• Although most respondents are using one of the technologies, only half of them have official IT support.
• Knowledge management, internal information dissemination (portals!?), and project collaboration are all closely grouped as the leading applications.
• Shockingly, only a third use RSS!*
• Almost a third are using one or more of these for content management.

*I'm not sure why they are shocked about the poor use of RSS. Perhaps people have nothing to syndicate into, but unfortunately the survey didn't ask about the pervassiveness of RSS readers.

Looking for the Intranet Imperative? Read Part 1 and Part 2 below.

Tags: social software

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.