tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-96935592024-03-12T23:50:17.262-04:00///^\\\ = Martin's Fulcrum MusingsAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01278261442670898730noreply@blogger.comBlogger154125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9693559.post-5055311579636151852013-02-14T11:08:00.000-05:002013-02-14T11:08:28.309-05:00Lancashire oatcakes found!<br />
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Back in 2005 I made a <a href="http://martin-fulcrum.blogspot.ca/2005/03/on-hunt-for-lancashire-oatcakes.html">blog
post about my hunt for Lancashire Oatcakes</a> in the style I remember from my
childhood. The closest I was able to get was a recipe for Staffordshire
Oatcakes.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I tried that recipe, but it wasn't right. I tried
modifications, but failed. My family began to tease me about my various efforts
and failures.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Well, fast-forward to 2013 and the content of the Internet
has greatly expanded.<o:p></o:p></div>
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First, there is a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oatcake">Wikipedia Oatcakes entry</a>. As I
noted earlier, there are distinct regional differences. Currently the article
describes:</div>
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<ul>
<li><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Scottish oatcakes</span></li>
<li><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">North Staffordshire and Derbyshire oatcakes –
two very closely related</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Symbol; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Lancashire oatcakes</span></li>
<li><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Canadian oatcakes</span></li>
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While Lancashire oatcakes are mentioned, there is no recipe.
However, it does say they are: <i>“...</i><i><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">made
without wheat flour or milk, and shaped as an approximate 11-by-6-inch
(28 cm × 15 cm) oval, smooth on one side and rough on the other</span>…”</i>
The physical description is exactly as I remember. The lack of wheat flour and
milk clearly makes a big difference and explains why the Staffordshire oatcake
recipes were not what I was looking for. On the plus side, the fact that there is
no wheat is ideal as some members of my family need to avoid wheat gluten.<o:p></o:p></div>
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But where to find a recipe for the Lancashire style?<o:p></o:p></div>
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The Internet came to the rescue again. Now I have found this
recipe:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Ingredients</b>:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<ul>
<li>450g fine oatmeal (you can grind regular oatmeal in a food
processor if you wish)</li>
<li>2 tsp. instant, dried, yeast</li>
<li>2 tsp. sugar</li>
<li>2 tsp. salt</li>
<li>1 dessert spoon oil</li>
<li>1.5l warm water (about)</li>
</ul>
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<b>Method</b>:<o:p></o:p></div>
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Combine the oatmeal, yeast, sugar,
salt and oil in a large bowl.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Form a well in the centre and add
just over half the water. Stir to combine then keep adding water until you have
a pancake-like batter.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Heat and lightly oil a frying pan
then add 1 cup of the batter and cook for about 4 minutes per side.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Set aside to cool as you finish
cooking the remaining batter. Either use immediately or dry to make 'hard'.
These oatcakes will keep in the refrigerator for several days and freeze well.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I have found the same recipe on <a href="http://www.celtnet.org.uk/recipes/miscellaneous/fetch-recipe.php?rid=misc-lancashire-oatcakes">Celtnet</a>
and <a href="http://lancashire.greatbritishlife.co.uk/article/oatcakes-rediscovering-a-lancashire-tradition-29394/">Lancashire
Life</a>. I usually make a half-sized batch.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The results have been quite good, but not perfect yet. In particular
the appearance is wrong. Details of preparation seem to make a big difference.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The oatmeal needs to be ground very fine – the finer the
better I have found. I use a kitchen machine on a high grind setting for a
minute or so.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The recipe calls for yeast, but there is no mention of
letting it sit first. Most recently I did so for two hours at room temperature,
which seemed beneficial. Overnight in a refrigerator might be even better. I
will have to experiment.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Then there is temperature. At first I tried cooking as I
would a traditional crepe, but the oatcake never seemed to brown properly. I realized
that crepes are cooked at a comparatively low temperature because of the milk
and eggs in them – both of which burn easily. I had much greater success with a
higher temperature; if fact, a very high temperature.<o:p></o:p></div>
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An important distinction of Lancashire oatcakes is that they
are smooth on one side, and bubbly on the other. Reference is made to using a
cast iron griddle or hot stone, not a modern non-stick frying pan of course.
Significant mass to resist cooling as the batter is added should help.<o:p></o:p></div>
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So I was really pleased when I found pictures of the
traditional Lancashire oatcake cooking process. <a href="http://www.oatcakebaker.co.uk/">www.oatcakebaker.co.uk</a> is a gold mine
on the subject:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i>“This
site is about the Holroyd family hotplate bakehouse located at 6 Barkerhouse
Road, Nelson, Lancashire, UK which made oatcakes, crumpets, pikelets and
muffins between 1909 and 1984… The information included in this site is largely
from the family albums and scrapbooks.”<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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A key element was an ‘oatcake throwing machine,’ patented in
the 19<sup>th</sup> century. It is this device that creates the characteristic elongated
shape, and which deals with the tricky issue of spreading the batter in a thin
and uniform layer before it is placed on a very hot, hotplate with a shellac
surface (to prevent sticking).<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="http://www.oatcakebaker.co.uk/img/making/throw.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.oatcakebaker.co.uk/img/making/throw.png" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.oatcakebaker.co.uk/img/making/throw.png">http://www.oatcakebaker.co.uk/img/making/throw.png</a><o:p></o:p></div>
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After the first side is cooked (the side that is smooth), <i>“The oatcake is scraped off the face with a
flexible knife about 40cm long by 5cm wide picked up by hand and transferred to
the second hotplate.”</i> This second plate is cooler, and the oatcakes appear
to be left on it longer as there are 8-10 on it while there is only one on the
first plate at any time.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="http://www.oatcakebaker.co.uk/img/making/finishing.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://www.oatcakebaker.co.uk/img/making/finishing.png" width="217" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.oatcakebaker.co.uk/img/making/finishing.png">http://www.oatcakebaker.co.uk/img/making/finishing.png</a><o:p></o:p></div>
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Reference to the large flexible knife or spatula solves
another issue I found. The oatcakes are very fragile while they are cooking.
Much more so than pancakes and crepes made with wheat – gluten helps bind them.<o:p></o:p></div>
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So I have some more experimenting to do, but I think I’m on
the right track. The good news is that my family likes the recent results well
enough to eat them now.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01278261442670898730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9693559.post-5247676860081688322012-10-12T17:17:00.001-04:002012-10-12T17:17:53.236-04:00Can the Enterprise Strike Back?<br />
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Most people have written-off <b>Research in Motion (RIM)</b> and their <b>Blackberry</b> platform. But then most people take a consumer’s
perspective in making that assessment.<o:p></o:p></div>
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RIM is making a play to its traditional strength – <b>security</b>. But it is considering security for both enterprises
and consumers. Security is a powerful draw for enterprises, but not for consumers
in my experience.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I got to think about this when I attended a RIM Blackberry
event in Toronto yesterday – the <b><i>BlackBerry Enterprise Forum 2012</i></b>.
Clearly aimed to the enterprise, as you’d expect, at least half of the
attendees were from IT departments. And I estimate 95% were male! This is
interesting because the day before I attended a webinar on electronic signatures
and all of the questions came from women. In my experience women dominate the <u>business
</u>side of records and document management efforts in enterprises. The under-representation
of women should have set off alarms. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVPJN-NZCnAnE2q3vnX0Xnbl9WyXfxcTYTMrbS1eaYvZMTOJge4bU-5bAJX6H2DL3bUwHKXzxVVnC039JsgLKuraRpcNQDY-gqmFwoFKGennrNal0Mr42YLgwrLcALo7wHC5M-JA/s1600/Toronto-20121011-00110.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVPJN-NZCnAnE2q3vnX0Xnbl9WyXfxcTYTMrbS1eaYvZMTOJge4bU-5bAJX6H2DL3bUwHKXzxVVnC039JsgLKuraRpcNQDY-gqmFwoFKGennrNal0Mr42YLgwrLcALo7wHC5M-JA/s320/Toronto-20121011-00110.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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RIM is responding to the <b>Bring Your Own Device (BYOD)</b> trend in many organizations. First
they provide tools under the <b>BlackBerry
Mobile Fusion</b> banner to help IT departments register and manage <b>Android</b> and <b>iOS</b> (Apple) devices, in addition to RIM devices. This approach
recognizes that staff, and most significantly, senior executives, are bringing
such devices to work and demanding that they be connected to enterprise resources,
starting with email. But it will do nothing to reverse the trend of people
investing in Android and iOS devices personally.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i><span style="background: white; color: #666666; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">“Blackberry
Enterprise Server improvements will mean enterprises will have one
unified view of their complete mobile infrastructure so IT
managers can have control of every mobile device in their company.”</span></i><span style="background: white; color: #666666; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> – Thorsten Heins <a href="http://www.mobilenewscwp.co.uk/2012/10/11/rim-banks-on-byod-to-help-win-back-share/">quoted</a></span><o:p></o:p></div>
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RIM hopes that <b>BlackBerry
Balance </b>(<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=NI5sbDOt4WE" target="_blank">video</a>),
a key feature that is further built-out in the forthcoming <b>BB10</b> release, might encourage staff to pick a BlackBerry as their personal
device. There is a complete separation of personal and work information on a
device into two workspaces. In BB10 users get a unified interface, but are
unable to copy information from work to personal areas. Certainly IT departments
will like the added security, and this might let them push back on the deployment
of non-Blackberry devices, but there is less ‘in it’ for staff. Perhaps the
best feature is that IT can delete all work information on a device without touching
personal information. I could have benefited from a better separation between
work and personal information on my devices earlier this year (<a href="http://martin-fulcrum.blogspot.ca/2012/02/not-all-users-are-bad-but-they-may-not.html">blog
post</a>). But in the end, for most people, look for the
shiniest, coolest, most fashionable device of the moment, and don't consider their possible future dismissal.<o:p></o:p></div>
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RIM knows this and acknowledged it by highlighting the hot features
of the new camera in BB10 devices and the new intelligent
keyboard. But I doubt it will be enough.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I was left with the feeling that RIM is trying to do too
much in too many arenas. The breadth of their effort was presented as strength:
<i><span style="background: white; color: #666666; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">“No other company
has as comprehensive a platform as BlackBerry,”</span></i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"> </span>said Andrew McLeod,
RIM's managing director of Canada operations and event chair. RIM offers operating
systems, enterprise security and device management, cloud services, and handheld
devices, while trying to appeal to consumers and enterprises, and also feeding
a developer and partner network across all of these. Apple, Microsoft and
Google each only do some of this, and they are able to devote far more
resources than a diminished RIM. For me, in a fast-paced market, you can only
win when you focus sharply. A fully integrated offering wins when there is
enough time to complete it, which requires competitors make few changes and that there are
no disruptive market entries. That is not the current climate in the mobile device world.<o:p></o:p></div>
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For me the enterprise and cloud security story was the most
compelling, and perhaps it will be the ultimate, surviving asset.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The excitement and enthusiasm of the RIM staff at the event
was palpable. They are believers and are being tested in ‘the fire.’ I tried to
be supportive – I took my BlackBerry and had my Kindle in my pocket (to read on
the subway), but refrained from taking my iPad. But even at such an event for hard-core
supporters, I saw a number of iPhones in use.<o:p></o:p></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01278261442670898730noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9693559.post-21603634730472627632012-02-10T09:34:00.002-05:002012-02-10T09:35:41.387-05:00Not all users are bad, but they may not be paying attentionYesterday, in the <a href="http://martin-fulcrum.blogspot.com/2012/02/as-pendulum-swings-users-vs-enterprise.html">As the pendulum swings - Users vs. the Enterprise</a>, I discussed how the balance between the needs of staff users and those of the enterprise that employs them has recently swung strongly to favor users as a result of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consumerization" target="_blank">consumerization</a>.<br />
<br />
My perspective was that of the enterprise. But even though users are currently in an advantageous position, they may still encounter issues. I found this when I <a href="http://martin-fulcrum.blogspot.com/2012/02/next-phase.html" target="_blank">left OpenText recently</a>.<br />
<br />
I had worked for over a decade in the same company. Outlook/Exchange was the standard email system during that whole period, and in recent years OpenText's own <a href="http://www.opentext.com/2/global/products/products-archiving/pro-ll-emailarchiving-msexchange-archiving.htm" target="_blank">Exchange email archiving solution</a> was implemented internally. I was comfortable that here was robust data protection, backup and archiving with long-term recovery capabilities that I could rely on without thinking. I kept all of my contacts in the system, and was readily able to access them through my laptop, Blackberry and iPad.<br />
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When I left the company, my access to the Exchange server was of course removed. That is when I discovered that I had lost all of my contacts, some ~4,000 in number. In hindsight it was obvious that I had become complacent and was not using the features of Outlook that would have stored my personal information locally. Fortunately, I was able to recover the contact vCards. All would not have been lost, as I use <a href="http://ca.linkedin.com/in/martinss" target="_blank">Linkedin </a>for many contacts, but certainly not all.<br />
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But, I also connected my primary ISP email account (Yahoo) to Outlook so
I could read both work and personal emails. Fortunately, I had configured the mail service to keep copies even after they were downloaded by Outlook, so I still had copies of the incoming emails, though not some of the outbound. There were a few other
emails accounts that I use less often and did not bother to connect so these were unaffected.<br />
<br />
I had kept my personal files separate from my work files on my company-supplied laptop, and my departure from the company occurred over time, so I was able to ensure I had preserved all of these on my personal computer. But had I been required to immediately return all of the company equipment, getting my personal files off the company equipment would have been hard or even impossible.<br />
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So, lesson learned. As I reconfigure my personal 'IT World', I will make it more robust and independent. It will have a redundant blend of local and Cloud storage. I learned that lesson with the dot.com bust when a number of resources I used disappeared without warning. In fact recently, both the Adjix and Unhub sites that I used regularly disappeared.<br />
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<b>But I will also ensure that I can respect the compliance and efficiency needs of any company that I work with in the future.</b><br />
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The merger of personal and social in the information sphere in recent years has been much discussed. But it isn't just enterprises that have to deal with this, so must their staff.<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01278261442670898730noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9693559.post-66458124703222091012012-02-08T14:07:00.000-05:002012-02-08T14:07:51.156-05:00As the pendulum swings - Users vs. the EnterpriseThere have been two traditional enemies of <b>Enterprise Content Management (ECM) </b>adoption:<br />
<ol>
<li>Email</li>
<li>Shared network folders/drives</li>
</ol>
For most users in an enterprise (i.e. staff), it is simply easier to send a file to a colleague through <b>email </b>than it is to first deposit the file and then send a link instead.<br />
<br />
In the early 2000's, progress was made to close the usability gap so that it was nearly as easy to deposit and send a link as it was to send directly. Enterprises were motivated to encourage or even require this user behavior by compliance requirements (e.g. <a href="http://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=sox&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CEAQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FSarbanes%25E2%2580%2593Oxley_Act&ei=scMyT_azJeS00AHStLnmBw&usg=AFQjCNHoe791Ws6yLLD6rBfRx0DqhaIvDQ&sig2=U_KPOsZxJhSQgJqyp6PsUQ&cad=rja" target="_blank">SOX</a>), especially in some industrial (e.g. 21 CFR Part 11 in the life sciences sector) and government sectors. The effort was made feasible by the fact that in the majority of cases, the files were in either Microsoft Office or PDF formats, and that each enterprise typically had standardized email system, often MS Exchange or Lotus Notes. ECM systems provided easy approaches that tied the two together.<br />
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Similarly, with <b>shared network folders</b>, users found it very easy to just create a folder that they needed, then share it with a few colleagues as required. But this is highly non-scalable, even for individual users, who quickly have access to hundreds of poorly named and unmaintained folders and files. The benefits of bringing some standardization to the naming and maintenance of folders and files, with audit trails and version control, became an ECM adoption driver that even many users supported. Enterprises saw the efficiency benefits of making current and relevant information more readily available to staff in support of their work.<br />
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<br />
<b>But in recent year the pendulum has very much swung back in favor of the end user with the <a href="http://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=consumerization%20&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CC8QFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FConsumerization&ei=mL8yT-nfLaS80AGe4aSHCA&usg=AFQjCNG_sFgTM4VelkbL16KaSf5-VSLetQ&sig2=z2s-ynX4XGfH1gFkBKm6mg&cad=rja" target="_blank">consumerization </a>of enterprise IT.</b><br />
<br />
On the <b>email </b>front, most staff have ready access to Cloud email services such as Gmail, even if their enterprise-sanctioned email service goes down. And increasingly staff are creating content in other formats (i.e. not Office or PDF) that are supported by these email services, or other services that provide new types of content such as blogs, microblogs, wikis, videos, etc. And they are often doing this on devices that they personally supply (e.g. smart phones and tablets).<br />
<br />
And on the <b>shared folder</b> front, dedicated Cloud services such as Dropbox and Box.net are making very significant in-roads into enterprises, even if they are not sanctioned. Users simply take the easier and arguably the best way (from a personal efficiency perspective) to get their jobs done. They gain ready access to 'their' files wherever they are and on whatever device they use.<br />
<br />
Clearly the 'pendulum' has swung very much towards the needs of end users in recent years. But the return swing is inevitable. It will likely be driven by:<br />
<ol>
<li>Disclosure disasters to come (think Wikileaks 'on steroids'), that will force enterprises to be enforce processes,</li>
<li>Growing process confusion and inefficiencies as the number of consumer-oriented services used by staff continue to grow, and by</li>
<li>Enterprise software vendors moving to adopt the best features of consumer software to the needs of enterprises.</li>
</ol>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01278261442670898730noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9693559.post-25936258574776999922012-02-01T21:11:00.000-05:002012-02-01T21:12:21.069-05:00My next phaseToday was my first day after I left OpenText. I had a great 11 years with the company that afforded me fabulous opportunities to learn about content management, the enterprise content management (ECM) field and how it relates to business process and enterprise architecture. In recent years our view of content greatly expanded to the digital media perspective.<br />
<br />
On the collaboration side, I had many opportunities to blog - sometimes in this blog, and more often in <a href="https://communities.opentext.com/" target="_blank">OpenText Online Communities</a> and internally within OpenText. I also heavily promoted microblogging in the context of work. After a slow start, it was gratifying to see growing numbers of active participants.<br />
<br />
Personally I am one of those who tend to 'drink from a firehose' of information, even when it threatens to give me a headache. As a believer in the importance of metrics, it was interesting in my studies to find I was subscribed to 40% more internal discussions than the next most active staff member. I was also one of the most active and relevant staff on external social media as shown by internal tracking studies for marketing effectiveness. So my activities had business benefit. But they also had personal benefit. Much has been written about the merger of personal and business life, and this is one clear example.<br />
<br />
As I announced my departure from OpenText, I was contacted privately and publicly through many different channels, which was very gratifying. New opportunities are opening up, in part because of those online social activities. I'm hoping for a wide range of new experiences in the coming months, helping me to broaden my knowledge and to do some things I could not do before.<br />
<br />
The orientation of this blog will change, and hopefully my post frequency will pick up again.<br />
<br />
On to the next phase.<br />
<br />
Meanwhile, if you'd like to contact me directly you can find me on <a href="http://ca.linkedin.com/in/martinss" target="_blank">Linkedin</a>, Twitter (@MartinSS) or email me at MartinSS at Rogers dotcom.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01278261442670898730noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9693559.post-19633607209563440242011-11-21T14:44:00.001-05:002011-11-23T15:11:10.781-05:00Engaging Content. Whether to Embed or Link?Showing a collection of PowerPoint slides pulled from an
<b>OpenText Content Server</b> was the subject of a <a href="http://martin-fulcrum.blogspot.com/2011/11/engaging-syndicated-content-collections.html" target="_blank">recent post</a>. At that time, I used presentations from our
Content World Users' conference of a year ago to show how a collection of related materials from a secure enterprise repository could be embedded in the post using <b>OpenText Widget Services (OTWS)</b>.<br />
<br />
Last week was
the latest <b>Content World 2011</b> conference, which provided me with a rich set of
<u>new materials</u> to show Widget Services' capabilities. Note: All of these presentations are already available individually from <a href="http://communities.opentext.com/communities/cs.exe/open/8985654" target="_blank">OpenText Online Communities</a> (login required)<br />
<br />
<b>Full screen collection</b> – In my previous post the
collection was embedded within the post. You could expand it if you chose. But
there are times when you want to show full-screen off-the-bat. So here are a
collection of presentations related to our eDOCS offering:<br />
<ul>
<li><span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large;">Just click on this
<a href="https://widget.opentext.com/WidgetService/Home/WidgetHome/20?width=100%25&height=100%25&host=https://widget.opentext.com" target="_blank">link</a> to view the collection</span> </li>
<ul>
<li>Select one, get details, view it in a player,
download it, or get the embed code to use elsewhere.
</li>
</ul>
</ul>
<br />
<b>Collection embedded</b> – Frankly I find the full screen version above more compelling, but there are times when you need to embed in context, much as you might <a href="http://martin-fulcrum.blogspot.com/2011/11/video-at-work-video-services-for.html" target="_blank">embed a video from OpenText Video Services</a>. So here is the <u>same</u> collection
embedded here to illustrate that:<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<center>
<object>
<iframe id='widgetserviceIframe20'
scrolling='no' frameborder='0'
style='width:600px; height:400px;
overflow: hidden; border: medium none;'
src='about:blank'
onload='if(typeof _staticFlag831 == "undefined")
{this.src="https://widget.opentext.com:443/WidgetService/Home/WidgetHome/20?width=600&height=400&widgetInstanceParentId=1047"+"&host="+document.location.href;
_staticFlag831 = true;}'>
</iframe>
</object>
</center>
<br />
<br />
<b>A single presentation in a player</b> – In contrast, here is a
single presentation, this time about Widget Services, opened in a viewer when you click this <a href="https://knowledge.opentext.com/WidgetService/Home/WidgetHome/39?width=100%&height=100%&host=https://knowledge.opentext.com/WidgetService;_staticFlag716" target="_blank">link</a>.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01278261442670898730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9693559.post-5683820233220334322011-11-15T12:33:00.001-05:002011-11-15T12:39:40.730-05:00Video at Work - Video Services for Content ServerI’m a big fan of <b style="color: red;">video </b>for work applications. It’s the best way to get information to staff quickly. As such I’ve been using the <b>OpenText Video Service (OTVS)</b> for some time. In fact, we recently developed a ‘Success Story’ about our own use of the service that will be out soon. We already have over 600 internal videos for staff running on OTVS, mostly made in the last year.<br />
<br />
But while OTVS is easy to use, it really isn’t practical to train everyone in an organization to use it.<br />
<br />
What they need is a simple addition to something they already use, such as <b>OpenText Content Server</b> (f.k.a. Livelink). That’s why I’m so interested in the forthcoming release of a module for OpenText Content Server.
If you’d like a sneak peak, watch this detailed, and somewhat lengthy video (running on the OTVS service):
<br />
<br />
<script src="http://sunnyside.vidavee.com/opentext/trh/embedAsset.js?width=640.0&height=504.0&d=1858985B7F122565EF2FFC864C11FFE9&" type="text/javascript">
</script>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01278261442670898730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9693559.post-82924301033056331522011-11-09T16:13:00.000-05:002011-11-14T09:29:10.468-05:00Engaging, Syndicated Content CollectionsSometimes providing someone with a simple list of choices is not effective because they'll find it boring. Users may have been spoiled by the newer, more immersive online experiences. You need to create a more <b>engaging experience</b>.<br />
<br />
At other times you want to <b>package up content</b> you have in source or original repository and provide it to users through some <u>other</u> website, wiki or blog.<br />
<br />
These two scenarios are common ones that the <b>OpenText Widget Services (OTWS) solution</b> was designed to address. It also gives control of where the content is used, and more importantly, you don't have to renounce ownership rights based on an agreement with service provider.<br />
<br />
A small code snippet is created to be embedded anywhere - much as users have learned for videos with YouTube (and Open Text Video Services) and presentations with SlideShare. But OTWS supports many formats of content, even in one collection assembled from more than one repository if required. In some ways it is like a dynamic, immersive portal.<br />
<br />
There's nothing like an example, so here is a collection of four keynote presentations given at last year's <b>Content World 2010</b> - the OpenText global users' conference. The original files happen to be in PDF converted from PowerPoint, but a wide variety of formats are supported by OTWS as I mentioned. There are a number of different style widget templates - I picked a simple one here.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<center>
<object><iframe id='widgetserviceIframe11' scrolling='no' frameborder='0' style='width:400px; height:300px; overflow: hidden; border: medium none;' src='about:blank' onload='if(typeof _staticFlag249 == "undefined"){this.src="https://widget.opentext.com:443/WidgetService/Home/WidgetHome/11?width=400&height=300"+"&host="+document.location.href;_staticFlag249 = true;}'></iframe></object>
</center>
<br />
<br />
If you've never seen this before, here are a few instructions:<br />
<br />
<u>For the Player </u><br />
<ol>
<li><b>Scroll </b>through the presentation collection using the arrow tabs on the left and right of the player frame</li>
<li>You can go to <b>full screen mode</b> in the widget through the icon on the lower right of the player. Frankly it's much better when you do that as I only put a small player here</li>
<li>Also on the lower right is a share icon (two heads) to download the <b>embed code</b> to be used elsewhere</li>
</ol>
<u>For a Presentation in the Player</u><br />
<ol>
<li>If you <b>click on a presentation</b> you can open it in your browser</li>
<ul>
<li>There are then controls on the bottom to advance slides/pages, as well as to change the size and fit on your screen</li>
</ul>
<li>You can <b>download</b> a specific presentation<b> </b>by clicking on the 'down-arrow' icon </li>
<li>You can see <b>metadata </b>of that presentation by clicking on the 'circling arrow' icon at the top left of the initial view</li>
</ol>
Next week there will be another <a href="http://www.blogger.com/www.opentext.com/contentworld/" target="_blank">Content World</a> event. I'll be providing presentations from that event through widgets to supplement the traditional channel OpenText has provided. I'll use another widget template as well as a thumbnail feature to provide more easily read slide titles.<br />
<br />
The player here is based on Flash, but HTML5 is supported in the OTWS version to be released in a few weeks. <br />
<ol>
</ol>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01278261442670898730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9693559.post-33092880449468857592011-10-28T14:58:00.000-04:002011-10-28T14:58:37.771-04:00The Future of Work<div style="text-align: center;">
"The world is full of people whose notion of a satisfactory future is,<br />
in fact, a return to the idealised past."<br />
<b>Robertson Davies</b>, <i>"A Voice from the Attic", 1960</i></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
I've been thinking about the nature of work. Can there be any doubt that:<br />
<ul>
<li>The nature of WORK is changing rapidly</li>
<li>WHERE you do it</li>
<li>WHEN you do it</li>
<li>HOW you do it</li>
<li>WITH whom you do it</li>
<li>The SPEED at which you do it</li>
<li>What you have to KNOW</li>
<li>What you have to do</li>
<li>And the DECISIONS you have to make</li>
</ul>
...all the while working to meet the demands and expectations of your organization.<br />
<ul>
</ul>
<br />
So it has been interesting to review some of the recent future workplace concepts from <b>RIM </b>and <b>Microsoft</b>. The technology and interfaces are certainly very cool. But in large measure most of the depicted activities are things we already do.<br />
<ul>
<li>I think I <u>could</u> have predicted the developments in mobility we see today
10 years ago. I've been wanting the ability to link my smartphone to
local devices and to create virtual interfaces exactly as shown in these
videos for some time.</li>
</ul>
<br />
What is missing are<b> new styles of work</b>. Those things are much harder to predict and they are what will matter far more.<br />
<ul>
<li>I would <u>not</u> have been able to predict social networking as we know it now 10 years ago. Especially as it has affected B2C and B2B activities.</li>
</ul>
This customer service concept from RIM shows how an idealized version of today's social networking can be used to detect power outages: <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<center>
</center><center><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="225" src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/31211614?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="400"></iframe><br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://vimeo.com/31211614">BlackBerry Future Visions 1</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/user7103735">Evan Blass</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.</span><br />
</center>
<br />
<br />
There are many elements in this Microsoft Office conceptual video, but there is a certain irony that one of these (near the end of the video) is how to use a computer to manage cooking recipes - this was one of the first proposed uses for home computers in the 60's when people could not conceive of the uses we have since discovered.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/a6cNdhOKwi0?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
<br />
<br />
Playing to its strengths in security RIM demonstrates in this video how automated provisioning and de-provisioning could work:<br />
<br />
<br />
<center>
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="225" src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/31211723?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="400"></iframe><br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://vimeo.com/31211723">BlackBerry Future Visions 2</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/user7103735">Evan Blass</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a></span>
</center>
<br />
<br />
I must admit that omniscient IT guy is a little scary. Maybe that's just my perception although I do like how he can provision personal devices to work in an enterprise.<br />
<br />
So while I like these concepts, I'm pretty sure they are missing the killer application that will be the biggest driver of change. I don't know what that will be, but I'm confident there will be one.<br />
<br />
So I'll close with another quotation:
<br />
<br />
<br />
<center>
"The best way to predict the future is to invent it." </center><center><b>Alan Kay</b>
</center>
<br />
<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01278261442670898730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9693559.post-89460345504810920422011-10-19T13:48:00.000-04:002011-10-19T13:52:21.033-04:00It still comes down to user adoptionRecently our business process management group (<a href="http://www.slideshare.net/Global360Inc" target="_blank">OpenText Global 360</a>) released a survey of SharePoint adoption. It's actually the third in a series and so some very interesting and clear trends have emerged (see the SlideShare presentation below). It's worth a look whether you use SharePoint or not, as the results are very similar for other ECM systems.<br />
<br />
The importance of business process management solutions to add to many of these SharePoint sites is documented (<i>slide 29</i>).<br />
<br />
But what caught my eye are the results of the `What are the challenges question - the largest single challenge is <b>user adoption</b> (<i>slide 16</i>; 25% of respondents) closely followed by <b>strategy </b>(16%), and yet 44% of respondents have <u>no training program</u>! It should come as no surprise then that 63% describe the user experience as only `Somewhat adequate - requires in-house redesign` (<i>slide 25</i>). To me that sounds like a technologists response - if users are having trouble, then redesign the interface rather than training them! That said, most respondents describe their systems as being in the early stages of maturation (<i>slide 49</i>), although I suspect they believe that maturity will come with customization not user training or strategy.<br />
<br />
ECM veterans will not be surprised by this - it is true of most implementations, irrespective of the underlying software. But one does wonder why we never seem to learn.<br />
<br />
<div id="__ss_9528844" style="width: 425px;">
<b style="display: block; margin: 12px 0 4px;"><a href="http://www.slideshare.net/Global360Inc/fall-2011-sharepoint-survey-results" target="_blank" title="Fall 2011 SharePoint Survey Results">Fall 2011 SharePoint Survey Results</a></b> <iframe frameborder="0" height="355" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/9528844" width="425"></iframe> <br />
<div style="padding: 5px 0 12px;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i>View more presentations from <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/Global360Inc" target="_blank">OpenText Global 360</a></i></div>
<br />
You can read more on the finding of this survey <a href="http://www.becauseprocessmatters.com/survey-says-lack-of-business-strategy-among-top-concerns-of-sharepoint-deployments/">here </a> </div>
</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01278261442670898730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9693559.post-36784450949388250562011-09-09T12:57:00.001-04:002011-09-09T13:00:57.415-04:00Content Decision Fatigue<div align="left">
If something of value is in short supply you
will tend to conserve it. That turns out to be true of your capacity to deal
with alternatives, make decisions and even to sustain your efforts at
tasks.These finding have profound implications for <b>enterprise content
management</b> (ECM).</div>
<div align="left">
<br /></div>
<div align="left">
Psychologists have recently described the
phenomenon of <b>Decision Fatigue</b>. A recent New York Times article
by John Tierney titled, <i>"<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/21/magazine/do-you-suffer-from-decision-fatigue.html?pagewanted=all">Do
You Suffer From Decision Fatigue?</a>"</i> gave an excellent overview which I
will quote extensively here.</div>
<div align="left">
<br /></div>
<div align="left">
The more you make decisions, the less
capacity you have to make additional ones in a given period. And these decisions do not have
to be hard to deplete your capacity — in fact they can be quite trivial. Once
you have depleted that capacity, you generally respond in one of two ways: you
make impulsive decisions or pick the default; or you delay making any
decision.</div>
<div align="left">
<br /></div>
<div align="left">
The biology behind this process is beginning
to be understood. It turns out that making decisions takes energy; in fact
regions of your brain actually use glucose to fuel decision making. If the
glucose becomes depleted it needs to be restored — typically by taking a break
and having a snack. Until that happens, these brain regions, especially those
involved in impulse control, have lowered activity.</div>
<div align="left">
<br /></div>
<div align="left">
However, overall use of glucose by the brain
does not change, because other regions of the brain, including those involved in
seeking reward, become more active.</div>
<div align="left">
<br /></div>
<div align="left">
An increased tendency to make impulsive
decisions is also associated with a reduction in willpower. People become more
easily distracted and less likely to complete tasks, including completing a
series of decisions required of them. Alternatively, they make take the easy way
out by picking a default.</div>
<div align="left">
<br /></div>
<div align="left">
What does this have to do with enterprise
content management? I think it is very important. Let's consider two
examples:</div>
<ol>
<li>
<div align="left">
Consumer behaviour on a business website —
a web content management (WCM) example</div>
</li>
<li>
<div align="left">
Staff execution of work — a business
process management (BPM) example</div>
</li>
</ol>
<h3 align="left">
Website Consumers</h3>
<div align="left">
One of the studies cited in the New York
Times article compared the degree of decision-making required of online
consumers and the consequences:</div>
<blockquote dir="ltr" style="margin-right: 0px;">
<div align="left">
<i>"...Kathleen Vohs, ...now at the
University of Minnesota, performed an experiment using the <b>self-service
Web site</b> of Dell Computers. <b>One group</b> in the
experiment carefully studied the advantages and disadvantages of various
features available for a computer — the type of screen, the size of the hard
drive, etc. — without actually making a final decision on which ones to choose.
A <b>second group</b> was given a list of predetermined specifications
and told to configure a computer by going through the laborious, step-by-step
process of locating the specified features among the arrays of options and then
clicking on the right ones. The purpose of this was to duplicate everything that
happens in the postdecisional phase, when the choice is implemented. The
<b>third group</b> had to figure out for themselves which features
they wanted on their computers and go through the process of choosing them; they
didn’t simply ponder options (like the first group) or implement others’ choices
(like the second group). They had to cast the die, and that turned out to be the
most fatiguing task of all. <b>When self-control was measured, they were
the one who were most depleted, by far</b>."</i></div>
</blockquote>
<div align="left">
Very clearly then the online purchasing
process required a series of decisions that online consumers found fatiguing,
and which reduced their motivation or self control.</div>
<div align="left">
<br /></div>
<div align="left">
The tiresome nature of the process could
cause some consumers to <b>abandon the website</b> without purchasing
the computer, defeating Dell's aim of selling a computer.</div>
<div align="left">
<br /></div>
<div align="left">
But those consumers who complete the process
became <b>more susceptible to impulse purchases</b>. This is
illustrated in another study:</div>
<blockquote dir="ltr" style="margin-right: 0px;">
<i>"Levav... put the experience to use in a
pair of experiments conducted with Mark Heitmann, then at Christian-Albrechts
University in Germany; Andreas Herrmann, at the University of St. Gallen in
Switzerland; and Sheena Iyengar, of Columbia. One involved asking M.B.A.
students in Switzerland to choose a bespoke suit; the other was conducted at
German car dealerships, where customers ordered options for their new sedans.
The <b>car buyers</b> — and these were real customers spending their
own money — had to choose, for instance, among 4 styles of gearshift knobs, 13
kinds of wheel rims, 25 configurations of the engine and gearbox and a palette
of 56 colors for the interior</i>. </blockquote>
<blockquote dir="ltr" style="margin-right: 0px;">
<div align="left">
<i> </i></div>
<i>As they started picking features, customers would carefully weigh the
choices, but as <b>decision fatigue</b> set in, they would start
<b>settling for whatever the default option was</b>. And the more
tough choices they encountered early in the process — like going through those
56 colors to choose the precise shade of gray or brown — the quicker people
became fatigued and settled for the path of least resistance by taking the
default option. By manipulating the order of the car buyers’ choices, the
researchers found that the customers would end up settling for different kinds
of options, and the average difference totaled more than 1,500 euros per car
(about $2,000 at the time). Whether the customers paid a little extra for fancy
wheel rims or a lot extra for a more powerful engine <b>depended on when
the choice was offered and how much willpower was left in the
customer</b>."</i></blockquote>
<div align="left">
These findings could be used to improve the
effectiveness of a website to help consumers make the best decisions to meet
their needs, or to make the most lucrative, near-term decisions to the benefit
of the vendor.</div>
<div align="left">
They also point to the importance of reducing
the number of decisions that are being asked, asking the most important ones
first, and providing default options that ideally are matched to the specific,
expected needs of a given online consumer.</div>
<div align="left">
<br /></div>
<h3 align="left">
Business Processes</h3>
<div align="left">
Many business processes are quire automated,
but typically depend on staff to provide input. This input usually takes the
form of decisions, whether those are to interpret handwriting entries on faxes
or to approve a purchase order.</div>
<div align="left">
<br /></div>
<div align="left">
A design goal for most automated business
processes is to process more items while employing fewer staff. Little
consideration is usually given to the decision-making capacities of the staff, or
the consequences of decision fatigue that will lead to poorer or delayed
decisions.</div>
<div align="left">
<br /></div>
<div align="left">
A study of Israeli judges reviewing parole
application cited in the NT Times article illustrate this very clearly:</div>
<blockquote dir="ltr" style="margin-right: 0px;">
<div align="left">
<i>"Prisoners who appeared early in the
morning received parole about <b>70 percent</b> of the time, while those who appeared
late in the day were paroled less than <b>10 percent</b> of the
time."</i></div>
</blockquote>
<div align="left">
Those are astounding numbers. The effects of
glucose were clearly illustrated:</div>
<blockquote dir="ltr" style="margin-right: 0px;">
<div align="left">
<i>"In midmorning, usually a little before
10:30, the parole board would take a break, and the judges would be served a
sandwich and a piece of fruit. The prisoners who appeared just before the break
had only about a 20 percent chance of getting parole, but the ones appearing
right after had around a 65 percent chance."</i></div>
</blockquote>
<div align="left" dir="ltr">
The safest, default decision for a
judge is clearly to not grant parole. They take the 'easy way out' when decision
fatigued.</div>
<div align="left" dir="ltr">
<br /></div>
<h3 align="left" dir="ltr">
Summary</h3>
<div align="left" dir="ltr">
In my <a href="http://martin-fulcrum.blogspot.com/2011/09/fuzzy-content-for-fuzzy-people.html">last
post</a> I talked about the 'disjunction effect' and how users may fail to
correctly use the categorizations you designed in your content management
system. In a similar manner, the elucidation of 'decision fatigue' has clear
implications on the potential for success of a wide range of content management
solutions.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01278261442670898730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9693559.post-74414482823251833592011-09-06T20:45:00.000-04:002011-09-06T20:46:30.270-04:00Fuzzy Content for Fuzzy People<h2 align="left"></h2><div align="left">Suppose you asked someone to classify some objects such as an ashtray, a painting and a sink, as <u>either</u> "furniture" or "home furnishing". That would seem to be a straightforward task.</div><div align="left"><br />
</div><div align="left">If you also asked them whether the same objects belong in a single group comprised of <u>both</u> "furniture and home furnishings," you would expect that any object that they classified as either one or the other would belong in the combined or parent group. A <strong><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logical_disjunction">logical disjunction</a></strong>.</div><div align="left"><br />
</div><div align="left">Such assignment tasks are very much like those that we require of <strong>enterprise content management system</strong> (ECM) users to assign <strong>metadata</strong> about a content (i.e. digital files) they are adding. Such metadata helps subsequent retrieval through searching and browsing, and potentially supporting dependent business processes (e.g. a triggered workflow).</div><div align="left"><br />
</div><div align="left">There's a problem though. Often people will <u>not</u> make the classification you expect. They may place an object in <u>one</u> of the original categories, but <u>not</u> the larger or parent one if it is the only choice they have! There is a tendency for people to delay making a decision if there might be an outcome they don't know. Apparently this phenomenon has been documented over two decades by psychologists and is referred to as the <strong>'disjunction effect'</strong>.</div><div align="left"><br />
</div><div align="left">I learned about this in a <em>New Scientist</em> article posted yesterday (5 September 2011): <a href="http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21128285.900-quantum-minds-why-we-think-like-quarks.html?full=true">Quantum minds: Why we think like quarks.</a></div><div align="left"> </div><div align="left">The article describes one of the first observations of the disjunction effect:</div><blockquote dir="ltr" style="margin-right: 0px;"> <div align="left"><em>"In the early 1990s, for example, psychologists Amos Tversky and Eldar Shafir of Princeton University tested the idea in a simple gambling experiment. Players were told they had an even chance of winning $200 or losing $100, and were then asked to choose whether or not to play the same gamble a second time. When told they had won the first gamble (situation A), 69 per cent of the participants chose to play again. If told they had lost (situation B), only 59 per cent wanted to play again. That's not surprising. But when they were not told the outcome of the first gamble (situation A or B), only 36 per cent wanted to play again."</em></div></blockquote><div align="left">Traditionally in ECM we have held that it is difficult to get users to add metadata to describe the content they are adding; in essence that users are lazy. We have not considered that the choices presented to users, and any concurrent information presented, will actually change whether they provide the necessary data, when they provide the data, or indeed the actual values they choose.</div><div align="left"><br />
</div><div align="left">ECM taxonomies are built on the assumption that users can make logical decisions to correctly describe content. Typically we present mutually exclusive choices, often organized in hierarchical (parent-child) fashion. But as the <em>New Scientist</em> article notes, people employ a kind of quantum logic that allows for something to be a bit of two exclusive alternatives, and for the context of the classification (the measurement in quantum terms) to affect the outcome. As a result their content classifications are fuzzier then we expect or perhaps need.</div><div align="left"><br />
</div><div align="left">Content is often described as unstructured information. Metadata schemes are commonly applied to impart a structured framework to manage that unstructured content, but the fuzziness of human logic may make this doomed to failure. </div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01278261442670898730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9693559.post-37193615758550128222011-07-18T14:52:00.000-04:002011-07-18T14:52:01.413-04:00What is Content? & Why Does it Matter?One of the problems with the term '<b><span style="color: blue;">Content</span></b>' is that few people outside of the self-designated <b>Enterprise Content Management (ECM)</b> field understand what it means. Ironically most end users have more personal experience with the types of Unstructured or Semi-structured Information that we designate as Content - namely electronic documents, email, pictures and videos - than they do with Structured Information in databases. They create data by their actions (e.g. buying shoes online) but have little sense of what is happening 'under the covers.'<br />
<br />
With the recent growth of OpenText into the adjacent market of <b>Business Process Management and Analysis </b>software through the acquisitions of <a href="http://www.metastorm.com/">Metastorm </a>and <a href="http://www.global360.com/">Global360</a>, I have found myself having to explain the term 'Content' as well as why it matters to organizations. For that reason this new video is very timely:<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/XxDgwO9aAA8?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><br />
Of course you can go into more detail, and specifically you have to talk about how content plays a role in most business processes. I did that last week in <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/msumners/how-do-social-technologies-change-knowledge-worker-business-processes-km-methods-toronto-july-sumnersmith">my talk</a> to Knowledge Managers in Toronto.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01278261442670898730noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9693559.post-10390627189524111072011-07-07T09:56:00.003-04:002011-07-07T09:58:50.058-04:00News on OpenText Online - a new journey blog<div class="MsoNormal">Some time ago we started to use <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">OpenText Online</b> as an umbrella description for a number of external Open Text sites: <a href="http://online.opentext.com/">http://online.opentext.com/</a>. While that name stuck for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Communities</i>, it didn’t for the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Knowledge Center</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">My Tickets</i> (Customer Self Serve or CSS), and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Solutions Central</i> (since been retired).</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">I’m glad to say the pace has picked up again. Now we’ll be merging the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Communities</i> and the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Knowledge Center</i> sites, and linking them more tightly with our <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">WWW</i> site. You may have seen the new look of the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://www.opentext.com/2/oto-sidenav-kc-mytickets">My Tickets</a></i> site if you have a support account.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">There are many ‘moving parts’ to this project. One of these is to merge user accounts and convert the usernames to email addresses.</div><ul><li>The first phase of this work, linking download rights from <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">WWW</i> to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Communities</i> accounts, has already been completed</li>
<li>Soon the <i>Knowledge Center</i> accounts will be merged as well</li>
</ul>From that point on you should only have one account with OpenText.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">There’s lots more that will be happening and we thought you’d like to follow along. You’ll be able to get the best out of the sites when you understand what’s happening. You may also learn a few content management tricks along our journey ;-)</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">So we created a new blog:</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 18pt;"><a href="http://blogs.opentext.com/blogslist/resolver.vcarp/blog/1.11.722/OpenText_Online">The OpenText Online Blog</a></span></b><span style="font-size: 14pt;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Presently you can find it here: <a href="http://blogs.opentext.com/blogslist/resolver.vcarp/blog/1.11.722/OpenText_Online#">http://blogs.opentext.com/blogslist/resolver.vcarp/blog/1.11.722/OpenText_Online#</a>, but it will soon be syndicated elsewhere.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">There will be many contributors and content will be added on a regular basis.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Oh – there’ll be lots of videos. I think you’ll enjoy the first one from my colleagues Karen Weir in her first post:</div><ul><li><a href="http://blogs.opentext.com/template.PAGE/blogslist/resolver.vcarp/?javax.portlet.ctx_vca=article%3D1.26.913%26apptypes%3Dblog%26appmodes%3Darticle%26returnLink%3DH4sIAAAAAAAAAIWQv07EMAyHYeBRjjH_iq7qUCHEIcSCOrCf3NQp5dIkSnzVsfFAvBrvQHJMdLnRn_39ZPv75-qGrr948JHA8jQR8t76MXHCOVggZN3D89Mfs1MiHjF5u2Bki4YY-P0HLHBixbdITNNpnxsthECfAdOm2hV1o7aZzH44k5IDkSZtc6m254FqJ5mUrFbq9n8ihURt0wspqmqQKHszNLUypjKmuWugFoMAsXJCDPtLSuuO80s-MnUYOxixbCDyNvoYIzoq6NUXuMrucXwE_Y5v_tBqP7NlGh1S_pMulPwB3cpAN1wyfgHDOEnfhwEAAA%253D%253D%26blog%3D1.11.722&javax.portlet.tpst=9b01033d1e1bfd972ff3ff949a70d0a0&javax.portlet.begCacheTok=com.vignette.cachetoken&javax.portlet.endCacheTok=com.vignette.cachetoken">The Blog T<wbr></wbr>o End All <wbr></wbr>Blogs</a></li>
</ul><a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=9693559&postID=1039062718952411107&from=pencil" name="_MailAutoSig"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"></span></b></a><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black;"></span></b> <br />
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</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01278261442670898730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9693559.post-80872763557912090872011-06-03T10:09:00.001-04:002011-06-03T10:34:45.278-04:00Making Connections in an EnterpriseThe value of social media to an enterprise is still being proven in many organizations. Since most such 2.0 technologies employ a 'pull' or 'opt-in model', getting staff engaged can be a challenge at first.<br />
<br />
I recently developed a <b><span style="color: blue;">10-step approach</span></b> to effective enterprise social networking specifically to use within OpenText.<br />
<ul><li>The <span style="color: blue;">first step</span> is to add a <b>picture </b>of yourself, not an avatar or the default icon.</li>
<li>The <span style="color: blue;">second step</span> is to add information to your <b>profile</b>.</li>
</ul><br />
In support of these two steps I developed the following two-minute video which we have deployed on the login page of our Intranet systems.<br />
<ul><li>It isn't supposed to be super-professional as we are also encouraging staff to make more videos - if they think they need professional production for every video they'll never get started.</li>
</ul><br />
Anyway, here's the video. It shows screen shots of our internal <b>Content Server</b> system called <i>Ollie</i>, and specifically some of the features of the <b>Pulse </b>social networking offering.<br />
<br />
<center><script src="http://sunnyside.vidavee.com/opentext/trh/embedAsset.js?width=480.0&height=360.0&d=E38649F47C0D31B0564CED241B3CFD35&" type="text/javascript">
</script></center><br />
<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.opentext.com/2/global/products/products-collaboration"><b>Pulse</b></a> combines the style of microblogging or status posts made famous by <b>twitter</b>, together with Content Updates. Comments associated with newly added content (digital files) are shown in a 'stream' and other users can add additional comments or 'like' the item.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01278261442670898730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9693559.post-35734373221974514992011-05-05T11:30:00.010-04:002011-05-06T18:00:29.570-04:00How Coupons led to Social Commerce<div class="MsoNormal">A colleague asked me for my take on <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Social Commerce</b>. This seemed like a good reason to delve into very a hot area.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">I decided to look from a historic perspective – what preceded modern social commerce? A very good case can be made that <u>social commerce had its origin with the first coupons</u>. The story involves both technological changes in how content is presented, as well as how various types of social interactions are enabled. There are fascinating parallels with the rise Enterprise Content Management (ECM) and the interplay between <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">push</b> and <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">pull</b> models of distribution. I’ll likely make several more posts on these topics.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">First the historic perspective.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><h2>Coupons Appear for Physical Stores</h2><div class="MsoNormal">The vast majority of today’s coupons are <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">paper</b> and therefore <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">distributed</b> by print media and mass mailings, typically by manufacturers of consumer packaged goods and by retailers. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asa_Griggs_Candler">Asa Griggs Candler</a> who acquired Coca-Cola (Coke) in 1888, is credited with the <a href="http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/10/pl_protoype_cocacola/">invention of the modern coupon</a>. In its first year, only nine glasses of Coke were sold on average each day. By 1913, Coca-Cola had redeemed 8.5 million “free drink” coupons.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.wired.com/magazine/wp-content/images/18-11/pl_prototype_cocacola2_f.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="168" src="http://www.wired.com/magazine/wp-content/images/18-11/pl_prototype_cocacola2_f.jpg" width="320" /></a></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Coupons are a way for manufacturers and retailers to selectively offer <u>discounts to price sensitive shoppers</u> who might otherwise go elsewhere. Price sensitive shoppers are those most likely to make an extra effort to receive a discount. The distribution of coupons also enables the list price, which will be paid by less price-sensitive shoppers, to be increased! It is sobering to realize that if you don’t use coupons then on average your purchase costs will be higher because you have been identified as someone prepared to pay more!</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Coupons also enable various forms of market research and segmentation.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The ubiquity of coupons today is demonstrated by <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://tlc.discovery.com/videos/extreme-couponing-videos/">Extreme Couponing</a></i>, a popular television series that profiles people who manage to pyramid coupons to acquire merchandise with little or no cash outlay.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><h2><a href="http://thelaunchblog.com/wp-content/uploads/mobile_coupon1-300x264.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://thelaunchblog.com/wp-content/uploads/mobile_coupon1-300x264.jpg" /></a>Distribution</h2><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal">Initially all coupons were distributed in paper form, typically in periodicals and mass mailings. The Internet created a new distribution channel enabling the downloading and <u>printing</u> of <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">electronic</b> coupons to paper. From that point on though the printed coupon is treated in the same way as any other paper coupon and taken to the physical point of purchase.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">With the recent widespread adoption of mobile devices, it has become possible to carry an <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">electronic image</b> of a coupon to the point of sale and have that scanned, obviating the need for paper coupons. For this to be effective, widespread ownership of mobile devices such as smart phones, even among price-sensitive shopper, is obviously required.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><h2>Tying Coupons to Commerce Systems in Stores</h2><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal">Whether in paper form or electronic images, coupons to be used in physical stores are tied to <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">electronic commerce systems</b> by scanned bar codes. Products have <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">UPC bar codes</b>, as do the coupons that can provide discounts. Product and coupon UPC bar codes are similar, but not identical. At the time of purchase the point-of-sale (POS) computer decodes a product family code from the coupon bar code and matches it to any item purchased from that product family (identified by the product bar code), derives a value and sends a discount amount to the cash register (<a href="http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/gadgets/high-tech-gadgets/upc2.htm">details</a>).</div><div class="MsoNormal"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://static.howstuffworks.com/gif/barcode4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="191" src="http://static.howstuffworks.com/gif/barcode4.jpg" width="320" /></a></div></div><h2>Internet Coupons for Online Stores</h2><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal">When the point of sale is <u>not</u> a physical environment, but rather an <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">online store</b>, then an alternate approach is commonly used – <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Internet coupons</b>. These are typically numeric or text strings entered by the customer in a web form at the time of sale. They are referred to by a variety of names such as “promotional codes”, “discount codes”, “key codes” or something similar. In this case the electronic commerce system is an integral part of the online store.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Once coupons and coupon codes became available online, an opportunity was created to consolidate them on <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">coupon services</b> sites like <a href="http://www.couponcraze.com/">Coupon Craze</a> (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlIovkubPGo">video overview</a></i>). The top ten coupon services sites have recently been <a href="http://online-coupon-service-review.toptenreviews.com/">reviewed</a>. Couponers can see a very large variety of available printable coupons and/or online coupon codes from many stores, pick up the necessary coupon code and be redirected to the appropriate online store. These sites are generally <u>centered on individual consumers</u>, but do have limited social support – for example by providing a link to send an offer to friends by traditional email or social networks.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><h2>Social/Collaboration</h2><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal">At times there have been attempts to limit the trading of coupons, but these have generally failed. Since coupons have inherent value to those prepared to go to extra effort, and this value can be exchanged or traded, people committed to using coupons (i.e. "couponers") have formed coupon exchange clubs – <a href="http://couponing.about.com/od/groceryzone/ss/smallcoupclub.htm">typically meeting</a> in residences, churches, club facilities, etc. to exchange physical coupons. These coupon clubs are prevalent in <u>geographic</u> regions where coupons are especially heavily distributed and build off existing in-person, social networks. They also have the potential to create new social relationships based on shared goals.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The differences between societies often manifest themselves in online social communities. For example, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuangou">Tuangou</a>, is a shopping strategy that originated in China. People connect over the Internet in order to haggle with a vendor as a group. They benefit from group leverage to get a larger discount and the vendor increases their volume. Haggling is of course a Chinese shopping tradition. There is no intermediary in the transaction and the social bartering groups have to organize themselves, typically using online forums.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">In contrast, in Europe and North America, where consumers expect most prices are fixed (with the notable exception of automobiles and houses) unless a coupon can be used, intermediaries are the norm. The group-buy, or “<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_deal_a_day">deal a day</a>” leaders are <a href="http://www.groupon.com/">Groupon</a>, <a href="http://livingsocial.com/deals/how_it_works">LivingSocial</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BuyWithMe">BuyWithMe</a>. In essence a special price is offered for a limited time on <u>one</u> product or service to an entire group in a given geographic location. While deals are distributed by RSS feeds and email, an essential social element of these sites is the targeted use of online forums which encourage consumers the share their questions, opinions and experiences with the product or service on offer.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjmo_w10bKw680nBzszVMUxZRXc4YDuqFZSKnbOVKWho8FISEWvs7gywwn31Y93h2VEuzTDkXsQ7iQ916CQXGCblfyxVipF2clWhC7WGWp5avf5Bly6sjcbf47HHX_jXLESfh7Kw/s1600/Groupon.GIF" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="196" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjmo_w10bKw680nBzszVMUxZRXc4YDuqFZSKnbOVKWho8FISEWvs7gywwn31Y93h2VEuzTDkXsQ7iQ916CQXGCblfyxVipF2clWhC7WGWp5avf5Bly6sjcbf47HHX_jXLESfh7Kw/s320/Groupon.GIF" width="320" /></a></div> While services like Groupon were preceded by other deal-a-day sites, such as <a href="http://www.woot.com/">Woot</a>, those only supported online transactions. The newer sites appeal to a much wider range of merchants as they are able to offer deals for any type of product or service (i.e. not just consumer packaged goods), especially tailored to specific geographies. They are of interest to smaller merchants and local services like restaurants, sports activities and spas. It should be noted that group members actually purchase a coupon or voucher that is redeemable with the merchant, typically at a physical location (i.e. not usually online). Deal sharing using email and social media outside the subscribed group is actively encouraged, and there are direct benefits for assisting in recruiting others (i.e. referral rewards).</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The success of Groupon has both attracted suitors to buy the company at elevated prices of up to $6 billion (e.g. Yahoo! and Google), as well as motivating existing major Internet players to replicate it – notably <a href="https://www.google.com/offers/">Google offers</a> and <a href="http://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CCAQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fblog.php%3Fpost%3D446183422130&rct=j&q=facebook%20deals&ei=fcHCTeTTBOLL0QGavODtAw&usg=AFQjCNEHmhgIjAL3uWIXBjuh6QK_KF30Yw&sig2=sOOFvg2Xz0YItl1eeEjiqg&cad=rja">Facebook Deals</a>.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><h2>Parallels to Enterprise Content Management</h2><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Content</b> – In many ways coupons have followed the same historical path as more classical content types such as <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">documents</b>, moving from paper form to electronic – first on PCs and later on mobile devices. However, whereas documents are key elements in <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">business-to-business</b> (B2B) commercial transactions, coupons support <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">business-to-consumer </b>(B2C) interactions, where the business party may be a manufacturer or retailer, as already noted.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Collaboration/Social</b> – In a similar fashion, for much of their history, the primary coupon-related interactions were pushes from the vendor or manufacturer to individual consumers - much as business have interacted with employees (B2E - see an<a href="http://martin-fulcrum.blogspot.com/2011/04/where-is-concept-of-employee-to.html"> earlier post</a>). But consumers have discovered that they can realize greater benefits if they work together using both generic social tools as well as purpose-built tools. Given the flood of coupon and discount opportunities consumers have also started to favour <b>pull </b><u>instead</u> of <b>push </b>mechanisms - which are increasingly perceived as spam.</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01278261442670898730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9693559.post-60288612914861434832011-04-26T14:21:00.000-04:002011-04-26T14:22:12.201-04:00The tipping point for social and push technologies in the enterprise<em>"I don't have time for social media at work!" </em>A colleague made that comment to me recently.<br />
<br />
My response was: <em>"You have to replace something you already do. It isn't about squeezing yet more time out of an already busy work day, but of finding when a social media tool <u>better</u> suits some task you are <u>already</u> performing."</em><br />
<br />
Some people have suggested that one or more social media tools will <strong>replace email</strong> in the workplace. Unfortunately a direct one-for-one technology exchange is <u>not</u> always possible. This becomes clear when you consider the range of use cases for which an existing technology is used.<br />
<br />
Here's a common business use case:<br />
<ul><li>You want to share an interesting webpage or video that you have found with colleagues. It may be about a competitor, a market trend, a new technology, a new regulation, etc. and you expect that it may be useful to the recipients.</li>
</ul>In recent years a typical approach would have been to <strong>email</strong> a link (or even an attachment) to the six people you think might be interested. Likely you will forget three others who would have been interested, and maybe there are a couple of others you didn't know would be interested. So the approach would <u>always</u> have been flawed since you could not or did not completely predict who would value the information.<br />
<br />
In addition, another problem has grown in recent years: namely <strong>email overload</strong> and developing <strong>user resistance</strong>. In the above example, of the six actual recipients, maybe two will resent the intrusion and consider your email spam. The issue here with email is that it is a <strong>Push technology</strong> - recipients get it whether they want to or not - and it also has a narrow reach, going initially only to those people you define.<br />
<br />
So if the original solution always had a limitation, and over time is becoming less effective, is there a better alternative? Currently the best technological alternative for this example use is a <strong>Pull technology</strong>. You post the information and users decide whether they want to follow you and/or a specific topic.<br />
<ul><li>A good example of a Pull approach is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_bookmarking">social bookmarking</a>. To share an interesting website, you could instead have used a bookmarklet installed in your browser to automatically post the link and your comments to an internal collaboration site.</li>
</ul>While this approach is effective in reducing the perception of span, it is limited because others might not be aware that you are someone they should follow, or may not yet have learned and adopted the technology.<br />
<br />
<strong>Pull technologies have an inherent <u>entry barrier</u> that limits their usefulness and can be hard to overcome. Most social media are pull technologies. This is a critical problem for organizations looking to use social media tools effectively.</strong><br />
<br />
In the above use case there is an expectation of benefit if the information is shared widely, but it is seldom critical. What if the aim is circulate 'critical' information to the widest possible audience?<br />
<br />
In most current enterprises, if the organization wants everyone to be informed about something they will send an email to 'all staff' on the assumption that it will reach everyone and be read. In reality this assumption is increasingly false for a growing proportion of staff - they don't bother to read, don't have time or have even set email filters so they don't see such emails! An alternative is to post the same information to a stream that users can watch, but in most organizations usage has not yet achieved a level that the post will reach most staff.<br />
<br />
So email pushes are increasingly ineffective, while social pulls have yet to achieve sufficient adoption to take their place as workplace tools. It seems there is a growing <strong>communications chasm</strong> which will create a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tipping_Point"><strong>tipping point</strong></a> to drive adoption of social media in enterprises at some time in the future.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01278261442670898730noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9693559.post-7969844407512367582011-04-20T15:37:00.004-04:002011-04-21T13:37:36.030-04:00Where is the concept of Employee-to-Employee (E2E)?Organizations are struggling to understand the relevance of social networking tools internally. You can see the lack of maturity in this field by looking up <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E2E">E2E on Wikipedia</a>; of the several interpretations of E2E, none refer to <b>Employee-to-Employee</b>.<br />
<br />
Other X2X concepts are better documented:<br />
<ol><li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B2b">B2B</a> - Business-to-Business</li>
<li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business-to-consumer">B2C</a> - Business-to-Consumer</li>
<li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business-to-government">B2G</a> - Business-to-Government</li>
</ol>These three all have aspects of commerce for the provision of products or services <u>between</u> different parties.<br />
<br />
A more recent, fourth X2X entry is <b>B2E - Business-to-Employee</b>, recognizing what goes on <u>within</u> a given organization rather than its external interactions. As the Wikipedia<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B2E"> entry notes</a> (2011-04-20):<br />
<blockquote>"Business-to-employee (B2E) electronic commerce uses an intrabusiness network which allows companies to provide products and/or services to their employees. Typically, companies use B2E networks to automate employee-related corporate processes.</blockquote><blockquote>Examples of B2E applications include:<br />
<ul><li>Online insurance policy management</li>
<li>Corporate announcement dissemination</li>
<li>Online supply requests</li>
<li>Special employee offers</li>
<li>Employee benefits reporting</li>
<li>401(k) Management"</li>
</ul></blockquote>The traditional 1.0-style of Intranet is one of the tools used by businesses to provide information to their employees, so it can be regarded as a B2E platform. Typically the provision of information is controlled in a top-down manner.<br />
<br />
With the newer 2.0-style of Intranets, employees are able to contribute, either by adding documents and other forms of content, or by participating socially. But B2E tools are ineffective at supporting social interactions. <b>It isn't about what a business tells its employees, but rather what the employees tell each other.</b><br />
<br />
Social interactions within an organization typically enable the execution of a wide range of critical business processes that aid commerce. Workers requesting input on a task, or notifying the next performer that they are finished, engage in social interactions that increasingly use mediating technologies such as email, instant messaging, telephone, fax, workflow, online discussion, videoconferencing, online web meeting, etc. Seen in that light the more recently available social tools such as wikis, blogs, microblogs, communities, ideation sites, expertise location, etc. just provide more choices to increase the effectiveness and timeliness of those critical, internal social interactions in support of commerce.<b> </b><br />
<br />
<b>E2E seems overdue for recognition.</b><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: 8pt;">Syndicated at <a href="http://conversations.opentext.com/">http://conversations.opentext.com/</a></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01278261442670898730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9693559.post-24317646618629572642011-03-07T12:14:00.000-05:002011-03-07T12:14:57.722-05:00The Implicit Value of Content is Realized Through Business ProcessAs I have noted before, much of the historic discussion in the document management field has concerned the <strong>cost</strong> of <u>producing</u> content, or the <strong>cost</strong> of <u>finding</u> existing content.<br />
<br />
But the <strong>value</strong> of a document, or any other piece of content, is seldom the same as its cost of production.<br />
<br />
I was chatting about this the other day with my colleague <a href="http://conversations.opentext.com/experts/james-latham">James Latham</a>. He used an invoice as an example of a piece of content that may be managed by an <strong>enterprise content management (ECM)</strong> system. James noted that, <em>'There is inherent or explicit value in an invoice'</em>. In fact the value of an invoice is fairly tightly linked to the cash it represents.<br />
<br />
A $10 bill has an <strong>explicit value</strong> of $10. Likewise a delivered invoice for $10 has a value of about $10 to an organization. Arguably it is not quite as valuable as $10 cash given the delay and perhaps uncertainty of payment, but it is close enough in most cases and will be treated as such in an accounting system.<br />
<br />
There is a case where a $10 bill is <u>worth much more</u>: if it is a rare, old $10 bill, it may have a lot of <strong>implicit value</strong> (e.g. to collectors it may be worth hundreds of dollars) above its explicit value of $10.<br />
<br />
Tangible value (explicit plus implicit) is established by sale of the item itself or the recent valuations of comparable items. But it is hard to think of invoices, especially electronic invoices (i.e. digital content), as having any implicit value.<br />
<br />
Are there other kinds of enterprise content besides invoices that clearly have implicit value? I think so. Here's a good example: documents that support a patent application for a product with large market potential may have huge implicit value that greatly exceeds their cost of production and their explicit value at a given moment. This implicit value may become more explicit over time with the issue of a patent, together with product and market advances. At some point an intellectual property sale could attribute very significant tangible value to the documentation.<br />
<br />
In this patent documentation example, the <strong>application of process over time</strong> helps to create tangible value. In ECM discussions we often speak of the context of content as helping to give it meaning, but clearly we also need to consider how process can give it value.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01278261442670898730noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9693559.post-31181007800558229062011-02-18T14:45:00.001-05:002011-02-18T14:51:35.357-05:00Enterprise Content Architecture - my take on the Metastorm acquisitionI'm particularly excited by today's <a href="http://www.opentext.com/2/global/press-release-details.html?id=2467">announcement</a> acquisition of <a href="http://www.metastorm.com/">Metastorm</a> by OpenText, but not perhaps for the same reasons as many others.<br />
<br />
What excites me is the potential of Metastorm's strengths in <b>Enterprise Architecture (EA)</b> and <b>Business Process Analysis (BPA)</b>. As noted in the release:<br />
<blockquote dir="ltr" style="margin-right: 0px;"><i>"Metastorm is a leader in both BPA and EA as recognized by Gartner in the </i><a href="http://www.metastorm.com/news/2010/030110.asp"><i>Gartner Magic Quadrant for Business Process Analysis Tools</i></a><i>, published February 22, 2010 and the </i><a href="http://www.metastorm.com/news/2010/110410.asp"><i>Gartner Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Architecture Tools</i></a><i>, published October 28, 2010."</i></blockquote>These capabilities play to both the 'Enterprise' and 'Content' in <b>Enterprise Content Management</b> (ECM).<br />
<br />
Organizations depend on a growing proportion of <b>knowledge workers</b> as I discussed in a previous post (<a href="http://martin-fulcrum.blogspot.com/2010/09/value-for-knowledge-workers.html">Value for Knowledge Workers</a>), but as noted in the McKinsey study I covered (<a href="https://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Organization/Strategic_Organization/Boosting_the_productivity_of_knowledge_workers_2671">Boosting the productivity of knowledge workers</a>), most organizations do not understand how to boost the productivity of knowledge workers or indeed the barriers to that productivity. As I noted:<br />
<blockquote dir="ltr" style="margin-right: 0px;"><i>"What struck me in reading the article is that while an increasing proportion of staff in companies are knowledge workers, it is not clear what knowledge work is and how to best enable it to drive productivity gains. Given that, it is hardly surprising that people struggle to define the value of those software tools best able to support knowledge management."</i></blockquote><b>Content</b> is the currency of knowledge work. It supports the exchange of knowledge during business processes, and is very often the work product of such processes (e.g. a market analysis report, an engineering drawing or a website page). Too often in the past discussion of the value of content has centered on either reducing the unit cost of producing, finding or using content, or mitigating compliance risks created by poor content management.<br />
<br />
This is not a new theme for me, indeed last August I expressed my enthusiasm for why <a href="http://martin-fulcrum.blogspot.com/2010/08/content-matters.html">Content Matters</a>. I noted:<br />
<blockquote dir="ltr" style="margin-right: 0px;"><i>"It's no surprise to people that you can understand a business by <b>'following the money'</b> or <b>'following the customer'</b> and that is the basis for ERP and CRM systems. On the other hand most people are only just coming to realize that <b>'following the content'</b> is just as important, so while we've talked about content management for many years, that conversation is starting to be important to business."</i></blockquote>The potential to apply <a href="http://www.metastorm.com/products/provision_ea.asp">Metastorm's <b>ProVision</b></a> tool set to elucidate and illustrate the critical role of Content to the achievement of Enterprise Goals is an exciting one which offers new value to our customers.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01278261442670898730noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9693559.post-46820196619603278602011-02-11T13:03:00.001-05:002011-02-11T18:48:15.194-05:00Blocked Community Arteries<h1 align="center"></h1>Online communities can form around many different technologies. But once they have formed, they can be very difficult to update, convert or move. The problem is not one of technology conversion, but rather user habits and preferences, which seem to become more solidified the longer the community has existed.<br />
<br />
I've been reminded of this as I started to get involved with some online automotive forums. Recently I purchased an old car that I am refurbishing as a hobby. There are now fantastic online resources, with detailed illustrated procedures that are far better than the factory manuals.<br />
<br />
You can also ask for help and people respond almost immediately, <u>provided</u> you don't violate the many customs and expectations. The most important of which is that you <u>must have searched first</u>. Since the forum I use has been around for a decade and the cars it covers are from 16 to more than 30 years old, most issues have already been covered in previous posts, often many times. This also means the veterans are intolerant of people asking the same old questions. So I search really carefully first and only if I don't find what I'm looking for make an apologetic posts along the lines of: <i>"I have searched, but can't seem to find out how to..."</i><br />
<br />
The community is very centered on classic, threaded discussions and search. Just how centered was recently illustrated by a post by a brake vendor offering to provide free brake pads to the person who posted the best explanation of why they should get free brakes, as judged by 'like' votes on Facebook. The resulting furor was really fascinating to watch.<br />
<br />
There were a succession of 'Fail' posts. The first started:<br />
<ul><li><i>"I don't have a <span class="highlight">facebook</span> account so can't enter. Don't you have your own business website?"</i> </li>
</ul>Others chimed in with incrementing posts; very quickly 18 negative votes were posted. The comment about a business website certainly illustrated that the poster has missed out on current trends. Other anti-Facebook comments included:<br />
<ul><li> <div><i>"Rarely use the FB. Don't Like"</i></div></li>
<li> <div><i>"What's a <span class="highlight">facebook</span>?"</i></div></li>
<li> <div><i>"I have no plans on signing up for <span class="highlight">facebook</span> at all, ever"</i></div></li>
<li> <div><i>"C'mon, without FB how am I going to check out all the girls that wouldn't date me in 1985 and feel better now about the bullet(s) that I unknowingly dodged?"</i></div></li>
<li> <div><i>"I don't "do" <span class="highlight">facebook</span> either, and it might be a long, long time before I find a reason to sign up for it."</i></div></li>
<li> <div><i>"I have some semblance of a life..."</i></div></li>
<li> <div><i>"I am worthy of getting the brake pads for the simple fact that I don't use <span class="highlight">facebook</span>."</i></div></li>
<li> <div><i>"No interest in joining MyFace or any of the other ones. I'm waiting for the 'winner' to emerge. This one is probably just another fad like parachute pants and jackets with zippers all over them. Boy am I glad I passed on those."</i></div></li>
<li> <div><i>"News feature today mentioned employers and now banks using FB and twitter to help evaluate the qualifications of business/job/loan candidates."</i></div></li>
</ul>One poster was particularly incensed that the vendor had posted on more than one such site (which is a typical social marketing approach):<br />
<ul><li> <div><i>"When he posted this I went to his FB page and was pretty put out that it looked like they spammed every car forum out there with the same offer. Needless to say, I didn't "Like" this."</i></div></li>
</ul>After this tirade, there was a tentative response from a few Facebook users. I was one of the first to point out that there was a Facebook page dedicated to this particular car, but supposed they would not be using it, which was quickly answered with an, <i>"uhhhh... no."</i> There were actually a couple of positive posts:<br />
<ul><li> <div><i>"I actually love <span class="highlight">facebook</span>. It is a very useful way for me to stay in contact with many friends that I would have otherwise lost due to lack of free time. I have re-connected with old friends and use it to schedule real life get togethers. It's actually a pretty amazing site."</i></div></li>
<li> <div><i>"Wasn't saying anything negative about FB, I'm on there entirely tooooooo much."</i></div></li>
</ul>One of the final posts directed to the vendor was spot on (if sexist):<br />
<ul><li> <div><i>"Don't worry (not that you were) about the crotchety old hags on this forum somehow connecting your company to the terror threat of FB. Its just new and different, and not many here are early adopters."</i> </div><div></div><div><br />
And the last one:</div></li>
</ul><ul><li> <div><i>"I found this funny on a forum dedicated to owners of 16-34 year old cars."</i></div></li>
</ul>So they are not open to change. Which is a pity because there are newer technologies that would actually help the community:<br />
<ol><li>The illustrated procedures would be far better in a <b>wiki </b>format that could be refined over time, rather than depending on original posts with some threaded discussion additions that are hard to follow</li>
<li>Likewise, some of the threads are really just social conversations that have little to do with the subject car. A <b>microblogging </b>application would be far more suitable</li>
</ol>This well-entrenched community is very much wed to a traditional, content-centric model (threaded posts and search) and most members don't understand the people-centered, social model of collaboration. Although comprised of technically-savvy people, their preferred technology is old, as are their cars. I don't think this community is ready to change.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01278261442670898730noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9693559.post-27155080054074219312010-09-21T15:34:00.000-04:002010-09-21T15:35:15.484-04:00Attacking ECM complexity<div style="display: block;"><div class="fcBlogMessageTitle"></div></div><div class="fcBlogBody" fcevents="click" fcid="feedrow"> In my <a href="http://martin-fulcrum.blogspot.com/2010/09/content-managment-systems-as-cities-i.html" target="_blank">last post</a> I discussed the inherent <strong>complexity</strong> that develops as ECM systems are used for an increasing range of business applications, and more importantly, as they are shaped by growing numbers of users and groups with differing <em>perspectives</em>. Another source of complexity is technology itself.<br />
<br />
The term ‘Enterprise Content Management’ was developed to try to describe the result of the convergence of a wide range of previously distinct technologies – document scanning, records management, document management, workflow, collaboration, archiving, etc. This convergence was a result of technology and market maturation, and the fact that these technologies generally addressed common business needs and dealt with the key digital files (i.e. content) that have value to enterprises.<br />
<br />
Enterprises need to treat content in standard ways and make it available to their users irrespective of technology. Since all of the component technologies cannot realistically be re-written, they must be made to work together. This need was the genesis of the <strong><a href="http://www.opentext.com/2/global/sol-products/sol-pro-open-text-ecm-suite.htm" target="_blank">Open Text ECM Suite</a></strong> released today.<br />
<br />
On the face of it, adding more features increases complexity. However, sharing resources and services counters that. Making available a better tool also reduces the necessity of warping a simpler application to serve a requirement for which it is not suited.<br />
<br />
ECM Suite not only provides a wider range of capabilities, but also updates the interfaces of some core elements, especially including the new version of <strong>Open Text Content Server</strong> – version 10. This version (of a product once called <em>Livelink</em>) includes a modernized interface, which is simpler. When you are trying to drive user adoption, simpler interfaces are better if they enable users to learn how to use a system quicker. But simplification can remove things that veteran users have come to rely on, and you need to guide them through the changes as I <a href="http://martin-fulcrum.blogspot.com/2010/09/job-one-in-upgrade-of-major-ecm-system.html" target="_blank">discussed previously</a>.<br />
<br />
I’m looking forward to the new things that are now enabled with the Suite. I’ll be embracing reduced technical complexity while accepting potentially greater operational complexity. Other people have other <em>perspectives</em> (<a href="http://mimage.opentext.com/alt_content/binary/ot/newmedia/ot_flash/ecmsuite2010/index.html" target="_blank">video</a>).<br />
<br />
<span xmlns=""><span style="font-size: 8pt;">Syndicated at <a href="http://conversations.opentext.com/">http://conversations.opentext.com/</a></span></span> </div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01278261442670898730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9693559.post-58338079569819727672010-09-20T10:40:00.000-04:002010-09-20T10:40:37.377-04:00Content Managment Systems as Cities - I feel like a Mayor!<div class="fcBlogBody" fcevents="click" fcid="feedrow">I recently realized that large <b>enterprise content management</b> (ECM) systems are like a <b>city</b>, but most ECM practices treat them as if they were a <b>building</b>. There’s a big difference in complexity that impacts the operation of an ECM system.<br />
<br />
Architects can design a building to suit its intended purpose and building management can maintain it. In the same manner an ECM expert can design a system to manage digital content in support of particular business processes. Much of the ECM literature talks of the benefits of clear <b>system architecture</b> and <b>good governance</b>.<br />
<br />
As an ECM system is deployed across an organization the breadth and number of applications grows rapidly – often into the hundreds – with many different business sponsors and champions! It becomes increasingly hard for any one person to understand all of the different ways that a system is being used, and to exert any effective control. The flexibility accorded users through collaborative, social tools further increases the heterogeneity of an ECM system.<br />
<br />
Not all ECM application deployments meet with equal success or longevity. In many ways the applications in an ECM system resemble buildings in a city – different sizes, different ages, different investments and different degrees of success. Some buildings are abandoned and some never get off the drawing board!<br />
<br />
No one designs cities – they are just too complex. Sure there are examples of attempts to do this – the initial design of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazilia" target="_blank">Brasilia</a> or the redesign of the center of Paris by <a href="http://www.mtholyoke.edu/courses/rschwart/hist255-s01/mapping-paris/Haussmann.html" target="_blank">Haussmann</a> – but over time the efforts and activities of many other people determine how a city develops. In fact cities are very much an expression of human behaviour, culture and society.<br />
<br />
Overall city management falls to the Mayor and City Council, and their most important tools are Building Regulations and Permits, Ordnances, etc. While you can’t and shouldn’t control everything in a city, you can nevertheless provide some direction and minimal standards. The architects of the many buildings need to get approval for their plans before a building is constructed, and the building operators need to comply with other standards.<br />
<br />
When ECM was a new concept, the focus was on how to best design and operate a first application for the new system – a new ‘building’ standing in a ‘green field’ if you will. <b>As ECM matures we need to think about how to operate large, multi-application systems</b>. For me a better role analogy for the person with overall system responsibility is Mayor, not Architect. It’s not that we don’t need ECM Architects – in fact we need many of them – but we also need a Mayor and Council to provide a framework for oversight and long-term strategy. And we have to accept at least a degree of disorder that results from the activities of many different people that are only loosely coordinated – Mayors are necessarily politicians, unlike Architects!</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01278261442670898730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9693559.post-88794017087284330692010-09-16T17:01:00.001-04:002010-09-16T17:07:55.573-04:00Value for Knowledge Workers<span xmlns=''><p>Demonstrable value goes a long way to supporting the deployment of new software tools.<br /></p><p>For <strong>structured business processes</strong>, return on investment (r.o.i.) is comparatively easy to estimate. Where unstructured or semi-structured digital <strong>content</strong> items (e.g. documents, spreadsheets, faxes, etc.) enable a given structured process (e.g. accounts receivable) their contribution to the overall value created is also typically quantifiable.<br /></p><p>Where the process itself is <strong>unstructured</strong> the measurement of value is much harder. Perhaps the largest class of unstructured processes in a company fall in the category of <strong>knowledge work</strong>. The difficulties organizations have in understanding knowledge work is highlighted in an article just published in the <a href='https://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/'>McKinsey Quarterly</a> entitled: <a href='https://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Organization/Strategic_Organization/Boosting_the_productivity_of_knowledge_workers_2671'><em>"Boosting the productivity of knowledge workers"</em></a>. <br /></p><ul><li><span style='font-size:10pt'><em>Aside</em>: Unfortunately a subscription is required to read the full article – hopefully you have one.<br /></span></li></ul><p>The article starts with the proposition that few senior executives can answer the question: <span style='font-size:12pt'><em>"Are you doing all that you can to enhance the productivity of your knowledge workers?"</em> This is unfortunate because, <em>"Organizations around the world struggle to crack the code for improving the effectiveness of managers, salespeople, scientists, and others whose jobs consist primarily of interactions—with other employees, customers, and suppliers—and complex decision making based on knowledge and judgment."<br /></em></span></p><p>The authors, Eric Matson and Laurence Prusak, describe five common <strong>barriers</strong> that hinder knowledge workers in more than half of the interactions in surveyed companies:<br /></p><ol><li>Physical<br /></li><li>Technical<br /></li><li>Social or Cultural<br /></li><li>Contextual, and <br /></li><li>Temporal<br /></li></ol><p><strong>Physical</strong> barriers include geographic and time zone separation between workers, and are typically linked to <strong>Technical</strong> challenges – where workers lack the necessary tools to overcome the physical barriers that separate them. As the article notes, there are a many software tools available that can help – these would include the various collaborative and social media tools, as well as the more classic document management applications that are encompassed in the broadest definitions of Enterprise Content Management (ECM). <br /></p><p>Of course the availability of software tools does not guarantee that users will use them effectively; indeed, <strong>Social</strong> (e.g. organizational restrictions, opposing incentives and motivations) and <strong>Contextual</strong> barriers (e.g. not knowing who to consult or to trust) play a large part in hindering adoption.<br /></p><p>The fifth barrier is <strong>Temporal.</strong> Time, or rather the perceived lack of it, is also a critical factor. In my experience knowledge workers do not consider time spent using social media and collaborative tools as important as other activities. Under time pressure they will stop using these tools if they need to spend more time on other activities they perceive as "real work".<br /></p><p>What struck me in reading the article is that while an increasing proportion of staff in companies are knowledge workers, it is clear that what knowledge work is and how to best enable it to drive productivity gains is not clear. Given that, it is hardly surprising that people struggle to define the value of those software tools best able to support knowledge management.</p></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01278261442670898730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9693559.post-19843843186285676042010-09-08T16:44:00.001-04:002010-09-08T18:09:26.077-04:00Job One in the upgrade of a major ECM system<span xmlns=''><p><em>"Upgrade it and they will run away!"</em> is a risk scenario with any major upgrade of a business-critical, enterprise system, including an <strong>enterprise content management</strong> (ECM) system.<br /></p><p>Often the people promoting an upgrade are technologists who are almost always 'early adopters', but many staff just want to get their job done and will often be confused by, resent or even resist changes – telling typical users that they will get a whole bunch of 'cool, new features' isn't likely to make them enthusiasts. <br /></p><p>Here's a typical persona of such a user:<br /></p><ul><li>Doesn't read corporate communications (newsletters, emails, etc.)<br /></li><li>Doesn't like technology<br /></li><li>Couldn't care less about the product or site provided it 'works'<br /></li><li>Just wants to 'do their job' without external disruption<br /></li></ul><p>One of the big challenges is to ensure that when such a persona comes to work on the Monday after a major upgrade that they don't say, <em>"What the *#% happened to the site,"</em> especially when the interface has changed.<br /></p><p>I'm struggling with these issues in advance of a major ECM system upgrade. The system is called <strong><em>Ollie</em></strong> and has been in production for 15 years. It now has over 5.5 million objects and 4,000 users – 93% of whom use the system every month. It's actually the main internal Enterprise Library of Open Text and is pretty much an un-customized version of the product we sell now called Content Server.<br /></p><ul><li><strong>Content Server version 10</strong> is just about to be released. It is the latest iteration of a product first called <strong>Livelink</strong>, and provides the underlying shared services of the <strong>Open Text ECM Suite</strong>.<br /></li></ul><p>Without doubt the newer version provides a better, more modern interface that will be preferred by most users – once they learn what's different and how to use it. I know most users will prefer it as it has undergone extensive usability testing – but I also know that you can't please all of the people all of the time and most people don't like surprises at work.<br /></p><p>So 'job one' is to create a short, effective video that overcomes the shock of the unexpected, since no matter how good our communications strategy is, many people will be surprised. The video also has to smooth the way for further change, because while some of the benefits of the new version will be available on Day One, others depend on subsequent work by knowledge managers using new capabilities that become available after the upgrade.</p></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01278261442670898730noreply@blogger.com2