From Web 2.0 to Human 2.0

Web 2.0 might be hot today, by some people are already thinking further to the future. Tech futurist Ray Kurzweil in an article reprinted from the New Scientist in yesterday's Sydney Morning Herald fast forwards us to 2040 where he predicts Human 2.0 will emerge.

"we'll have both the hardware and software to recreate human intelligence by the end of the 2020s. We'll be able to improve these methods and harness the speed, memory and knowledge-sharing ability of machines... By the mid 2040s, the non-biological portion of our intelligence will be billions of times more capable than the biological portion."

Even if some of what he says comes true, the next 20-30 years are going to be very interesting...

PS Also check out his new book, Singularity.

Tags: Human 2.0, Ray Kurzweil

Can you trust Wikipedia?

For those of us that have been hanging around "content management" in one form or another it comes as no surprise that some people, like Nicholas Carr (The law of the wiki and Trouble in Wiki Land) might be questioning the quality of Wikipedia content. Afterall, producing quality content needs time and resources regardless of the technology used to produce and publish it.

The UK's Guardian newspaper even goes as far as getting some experts to review a few Wikipedia entries. Still, this misses the point a little - if these "experts" have found something wrong, the idea is that they should change it...

This may of course be where social software of the Wikipedia type falls down since it depends on participation, including the provision of time and resources. What do you think?

Tags: wikipedia

OpenOffice 2.0 launched (or so I'm told...)

I've been an OpenOffice user for at least 18 months, but I'm pleased to see that OpenOffice 2.0 has now been released. The beta releases have shown that its something worth waiting for, but if you're trying to download it right now from the OpenOffice site, you may you may need to wait a bit longer! I think it may be victim of its own success at the moment.

In the meantime you can read about it at various places online. New features includes better interoperability with MS Office, a new database module, advanced XML capabilities and native support for the OpenDocument format.

UPDATE 25 Oct 05: I can get to the site now!

Tags: openoffice

BlackBuried defined

Linked from Euan Semple's blog and originally posted here:

BlackBuried : adjective : The act of instantaneously and superficially reading the content of recently arrived email on a BlackBerry or other type of handheld email device while engaged in some other activity, and thereafter neglecting to go back to read the email more fully at a more conventient time, rendering the email thread otherwise lost.

ex "Yeah, I think I remember seeing that email, mate, but I think I may have I BlackBuried it, sorry!"

Tags: information overload, technology in the workplace

New tag cloud on the ChiefTech Blog

Inspired by Jack Vinson's efforts, I've added my own Tag Cloud to the blog using www.tagcloud.com. To view it you'll need to scroll down the left hand side of the page. If it works well I'll probably move it a little higher up the page but at the time of posting I'm still waiting for the tag cloud to start generating!

UPDATE 19 Oct 05: I've removed the Tag Cloud at the moment because its not working... stay tuned.

ANOTHER UPDATE 25 Oct 05: OK, as if by magic my Tag Cloud has started working. Scroll down to see it on the right hand side. Remember it will only show recent posts.

Tags: tag cloud

Web 2.0 - from commerce to people

I've been meaning to post something on Web 2.0 during the last week, but to be honest the topic is getting plenty of coverage out in the blogosphere and other media. Wired has a good summary of the recent Web 2.0 Conference in the US to get you started.

One thing that has been causing quite a bit of conversation is Tim O'Reilly's "Web2MemeMap" and online article, What Is Web 2.0.

Tags: Tim O'Reilly, web 2.0

Slides from knowledge sharing technologies - pitfalls and risks at UTS

Last night I tag teamed with Cris Townley to present a guest lecture to a UTS MBA class on managing knowledge. My presentation covered the pitfalls and risks associated with knowledge sharing technologies - the slides are available to download (PDF, 241KB).

BTW Because I try to avoid Death by PowerPoint don't expect to find everything I said and what the class discussed in these slides - I suggest you check out these case studies on Ernst & Young to supplement the slides. We also made good use of some cartoons to point out both the challenges and hype associated with KM technologies. I also highlighted how the typical data -> information -> knowledge paradigm is a flawed concept that can result in knowledge sharing technology failure.

Any questions? Add a comment!

Tags: knowledge management

Consumer tech seeping into corporate IT

This is something I've been talking about a lot this year (most recently in my last IDM article about mobile knowledge management) so its satisfying to see a big analyst firm like Gartner - as reported in Computerworld - now saying the same thing that I've long suspected - corporate IT needs to keep an eye on the consumer technology innovation.

According to Gartner there are five key reasons for keeping an eye on consumer technology:

• Consumer technology impacts employees;
• It can provide clear cost advantages over traditional corporate hardware and software;
• Potential employees will know all about it;
• Customers will already be using it; and
• If you try to stop your employees using consumer technology for work, it will backfire.
  

Tags: business and technology, social software

VoIP - Security Reality Check

Here is a bit of a wake up call from CIO magazine, who warn us that "CIOs ready to take the plunge with VoIP need to understand that data firewalls alone won't protect them." They recommend:

• Encypting VoIP traffic;
• Avoid soft-phones;
• Seperate voice and data traffic;
• Install a VoIP firewall; and
• (The one we often forget about) Ensure physical security.

Don't say you've not been warned!

Tags: voip

Two events this week...

There are two equally interesting events this week, one in Wollongong (NSW) and another in Sydney:

IT Governance with Graeme Philipson
ACS South Coast Chapter Meeting, Wednesday, 5th October, 2005
"IT Governance is an integral part of Corporate Governance, which is at the forefront of most organisations' minds nowadays. But too many people regard governance and compliance as a burden, and ignore the opportunities it offers. It Governance in particular can be used as a means to fulfil the ultimate aim of the IT function - to align IT with business strategies, and ultimate to greatly improve the performance of both the IT department and the organisation." Event and registration details can be found on the ACS website.

Getting People To Talk To Each Other and Knowledge Management Made Easy?
NSW KM Forum, Thursday 6th October, 2005
Featuring Marcus Gibson (Lend Lease Corporation) and Steven Layer (Weblogics) with Lauren Allen (HLA Envirosciences). Free to attend, but you need to RSVP.

Unfortunately due to other commitments I won't be able to attend (again!).

Tags: it governance, knowledge management

The Write Stuff

Nancy White provided a review of Writely, a Web-based word processing application, so I thought I'd sign up and give it a go. As well as giving people the power to collaborate on a document you can also post directly to blogger. Signing up for an account is nice and quick, so why not give it go.

My only complaint is that it was a little slow, but that may be the fault of my slow Aussie broadband connection. Also, a non-US spellchecker would be nice too ;-)

Tags: writely

Are you mashing?

If you're interested in social software, then the idea of "mashing" or "mash-up" is an important concept to understand. The Economist provides an introduction and discussion of the future direction in social software mashing. They explain mashing as:

"The term mash-up is borrowed from the world of music, where it refers to the unauthorised combination of the vocal from one song with the musical backing of another, usually from a completely different genre. Web mash-ups do the same sort of thing, combining websites to produce useful hybrid sites and illustrating the internet's underlying philosophy: that open standards allow and promote unexpected forms of innovation."

I've mentioned a number of examples of social software mash-ups on this blog, including:

• The Katrine Information Map
• Foundcity

Tags: mash-up, social software

Dazed and confused about IT jargon

A survey by a UK recruitment firm reports that "Over two thirds (67%) of office workers feel 'bewildered' and 'inadequate' due to not understanding IT professionals' 'tech jargon'". Apparently the use of analogies is the most effective way of helping people who are not IT literate grasp how technology works.

Tags: technology in the workplace

The BBC's low-tech KM

A few months ago I posted a brief blog about Euan Semple from the BBC. Semple continues to attract interest (such as on excited utterances) with his knowledge management work at the BBC. His approach, which is apparently making good use of blogs and wikis, is described in this new short article by David Weinberger in KMWorld.

PS Also, have a look at this interesting argument/conversation linked from Semple's own blog about blogging and marketing. Also worth reading, from another BBC blogger Tom Coates, is his related response "to the rhetoric of weblog marketing".

Tags: euan semple, knowledge management, social software

Knowledge and Innovation - 21st-23rd Nov. in Sydney

I'll be presenting at the Ark Group's Knowledge and Innovation conference in November on the use of collaborative tools in facilitating innovation in the corporate environment, including:

• Understanding the role of collaboration tools;
• Examining the different forms of social software; and
• The future of collaboration tools: blogs, wikis and instant messaging.

The conference also includes two half-day workshops - one from David Rymer (former Director of Know-How at Minter Ellison) and another by Optimice. As part of the conference, Optimce will also be using their Accelerated Networking approach help people network more effectively.

Tags: innovation, knowledge management

More from Tom: Why Office Design Matters

Following on from Tom Davenport's special presentation for the NSW KM Forum, you can read an excerpt from his new book on the HBS Working Knowledge site that discusses his thoughts on the link between the physical work environment and knowledge worker performance.

Davenport comments that while there "is a good deal said about this topic, but not much know about it". His own argument on the subject focuses on the observation that while knowledge workers prefer closed offices, they seem to communicate better in open ones.

If you enjoyed this, you might also enjoy some of Davenport's CIO magazine columns, such as Serenity Now!, Putting It All Together Again and Withering Heights.

PS While you're on the HBSWK site, also have a look at another article in the same edition that looks at the future impact pervasive high(er) speed broadband access is going to have.

Tags: knowledge management, tom davenport

In the Know And On The Move

My July/August Image and Data Magazine article, In the Know And On The Move, is now available for download from my IDM article archive page.

"It has been said that knowledge knows no boundaries. But as knowledge workers begin to access technologies like personal area networks, wireless broadband, Voice over IP and 3G, can we finally say the same about knowledge management and make it truly mobile?"

Tags: mobile knowledge management, mobile social software

The VoIP Advantage

Technology analyst and Supernova organiser, Kevin Werbach, has been writing for a while about the impact of wireless and VoIP technology.

I like the ideas in his VoIP-for-dummies article from this month’s Harvard Business Review, titled Using VoIP to Compete. It reflects my own thoughts on VoIP that the long-term value of VoIP won’t be about cheap long distance calls, but will be about using next generation networks for competitive advantage.

Werbach provides a good overview of VoIP from a business perspective and explains why he believes that unlike earlier telecommunications innovations, like the telegraph, VoIP “will become more strategically overtime”.

Tags: voip, business & technology

Tom Davenport on Thinking for A Living this Wednesday

Thanks to the efforts of Matt Moore, one of my favourite gurus Tom Davenport (who is in Australia to present a master class) will be speaking about Thinking for A Living to the NSW KM Forum on Wednesday 14th September (yes, that's this Wednesday). There is no ticket cost but we will be collecting for the Red Cross Hurricane Katrina appeal ($15 for an employed person would be appropriate). Visit the forum's Website for full details and how to RSVP.

Unfortunately, I won't be able to make it :-(

Tags: tom davenport

Board of IT

A few months ago HP and Aussie law firm Mallesons Stephen Jacques released the results of an independent survey on IT governance of 155 large organisations. From this survey they concluded that in many cases IT strategies are not regarded as an integral part of business strategies because of the separation of the overall corporate governance strategy.

An MSJ partner commented:

"This lack of alignment between corporate governance and IT governance policies is surprising. Technology underpins the day-to-day operations of almost every significant business in Australia and is also essential to creating financial statements on which the market relies. Ensuring business continuity and the integrity of financial statements should be key elements of all corporate and IT governance policies and on the agenda for directors, CEOs and CFOs of all listed Australian companies. This is another instance where complying with legal obligations should result in a positive business outcome."

Good point but what interested me more was that apparently 78% thought that time costs and resources were the biggest barrier to compliance. Could it be what they are really saying is that they don’t really understand IT enough to manage it at a board level?

Tags: IT governance