judith meskill's knowledge notes...

knowledge worker tools...

BUSINESS WIRE :: Kofax Announces New Capio Document Capture Solution for Desktop Information Management

IRVINE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 26, 2004--Industry Leader Launches Professional-Strength Solution for Individuals to Capture, Store, Search and Retrieve Paper Documents
Kofax (LSE:DCM), the world's largest information capture vendor, today announced Capio, a new professional-strength document capture solution for desktop information management. Capio enables individuals to better manage the paper documents that can clutter their desks by quickly and easily scanning, storing, searching and retrieving them.

Capio uses Kofax's patented VRS (VirtualReScan) technology to deliver unmatched image quality and eliminate the need to re-scan documents. This exclusive feature automatically checks and adjusts alignment, brightness, contrast and image clarity, delivering perfect images and ensuring the maximum usability of the scanned documents.

"Our customers and channel partners asked Kofax to make our industry-leading capture technology available for individual use," said Anthony Macciola, vice president of marketing at Kofax. "With Capio, we are pleased to extend VRS beyond production capture and to bring our long-standing expertise in production document capture to individual business users."

Capio is designed to be easy for any knowledge worker to set up "out of the box," without the IT resources that might otherwise be needed to install, train or support a larger document capture product. In addition, Capio's intuitive interface enables quick and easy search and retrieval of documents in the popular PDF format.

"Instead of wasting time digging through file cabinets or stacks of papers to find a document, individual business professionals can use Capio to easily capture and retrieve the information they need to do their jobs better and faster," said Macciola. "Kofax and our channel partners can now address the full range of information capture needs, from complex enterprise-wide business processes down to simple desktop information management."

personal knowledge networks...

Silicon Valley Biz Ink :: e.story Launches LinkedMinds at DEMO 2004

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. and LILLE, France, Feb. 25 /PRNewswire/ -- e.story LLC today announced it is launching the industry's first Personal Knowledge Network at the DEMO 2004 conference. Personal Knowledge Networks (PKN) is knowledge management for the individual knowledge worker. PKNs are forecasted by Gartner Inc. to be the predominant knowledge management channel for individual knowledge workers to help them stay competitive, responsive and improve their productivity.

"Today knowledge workers are experimenting and experiencing computer mediated social networks. e.story's LinkedMinds is the next step by enabling the networking of knowledge and ideas. Personal knowledge networks naturally ride on top of social networks to add value and drive innovation," said
Chris Shipley, DEMO executive producer.

Founded in 2001, e.story is a privately held software company enabling knowledge workers to easily find, share and collaborate on personal knowledge. e.story's LinkedMinds automates functions for search and information collaboration to increase worker knowledge and productivity. The subscription-based product is based on number innovative technologies including an inference engine, automatic thesauri and dictionaries and data visualization.

"We are thrilled to be introducing LinkedMinds at DEMO and will be offering attendees a free one-year subscription to LinkedMinds," said Gerard Chalom, CEO and co-founder of e.story.

Related Links:

Kamoon Connect
Tacit

whatever happened to our 'paperless' future?...

In Computerworld, Michael Conley, eCopy Inc. wonders Are copiers part of the CIO's job?

...many CIOs are starting to realize that one of the biggest problems plaguing office workers doesn't have to do with computers, but rather good old-fashioned paper! Each office worker uses about 13,000 sheets of paper per year through copying, printing and faxing. And 60% of an employee's time is spent working with paper documents. A $30-per-hour knowledge worker will waste an average of $4,500 each year because of lost productivity time due to problems with paper documents. There's no such thing as the paperless office -- e-mail and the Internet have only increased the amount of paper being printed, copied, distributed and stored in the office...

digital aristotle...

In a recent press release - Creating a Digital Aristotle: A Computerized Knowledge System for Scientists and Students - the Project Halo team announces:

...At the core of Halo's knowledge formulation approach is a document-rooted methodology, where domain experts - chemists, biologists and physicists - use existing documents, such as textbooks, to create knowledge modules. Tying knowledge modules to documents establishes the scope, context, and type of questions they can answer, as well as the depth and resolution of their answers. The goal of Phase II is to determine the feasibility of building such tools within a reasonable timeframe and the likelihood of their adoption by the scientific community.

The 30-month Phase II effort will be undertaken in three stages: (1) a six-month design stage, (2) a 15-month implementation stage, and (3) a nine-month refinement stage. Three competing teams have been contracted by Vulcan, each with world-class skills and technology in five primary areas: knowledge representation and reasoning, knowledge acquisition, and intelligent interfaces, including natural language understanding, usability and system integration...

knowledge worker exchange...

In an article for The Star - Many IT Jobs, But Only For The Right Skills, Hariati Azizan writes:

...In an employment survey conducted by recruitment firm Knowledge Worker Exchange Sdn Bhd (KWX), an MDC subsidiary, it was revealed that employment in ICT is expected to grow 23% this year, creating an estimated additional 26.2% job vacancies in ICT in 2004.

KWX notes that the supply of knowledge workers (approximately over 150,000 graduates) in the period of 1998 to 2005 is expected to meet the demand for ICT workers. The good news is that despite the increase in supply forecast, KWX assures that ICT employment opportunities will remain abundant....

boards as knowledge organizations...

Corporate Board Member Magazine :: How Directors Should Redesign Their Job
by Colin B. Carter and Jay W. Lorsch

...Boards are "knowledge organizations," and for such groups the effective response to complexity is to specialize and focus. In that spirit, we believe that each director should be encouraged to build deeper knowledge in a couple of areas that are important to the board's performance. They should be encouraged to take a topic or issue and focus on it in greater depth. The objective is not only to be better informed, but also to be a better contributor to the discussions among all board members. This deeper focus is not to be confused with executive responsibility. That remains management's prerogative...

information work news...

vnunet.com :: Due credit not given to IT
By Jonathan Collins in New York

...The Information Work Productivity Council (IWPC), which was formed two years ago, is part of the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute Technology. It counts IT giants Microsoft, Cisco, Hewlett-Packard and Intel among its supporters.

Its latest findings include initial studies into best practices for customer feedback in product development, IT support for global collaboration, and personal information and knowledge management...

bill gates on knowledge worker infrastructure...

ZDNet Australia :: Electronic paper: just a pipe ream?
By Angus Kidman, Technology & Business magazine

..."As people moved to partially do e-commerce, in some ways it was even more complex because you had the straightforward information passing electronically, but all the exceptions would result in phone calls and faxes and e-mail, and having the understandings that were created in parallel in that knowledge worker side, and getting the back-end systems to understand that sometimes the impedance and the mismatch there even took away the benefit of having a piece of it be electronic," Microsoft's Gates conceded in a speech to CEOs at Microsoft's annual CEO Summit.

Ever the optimist, however, Gates argued that the emerging demand for Web services would help realise the promise of a truly electronic world--and banish paper forever. "When you have these Web services, that you can capture the full richness of what's going on with complete visibility to the knowledge workers, to update those things and be notified appropriately of things, that is where you get real benefit of saying that the paper approach really is completely obsolete."...

theory of constraints...

This evening Jack Vinson's weblog bio inspired me to perform some 'news' research on current implementations of the 'Theory of Constraints.'

I found an article by Adolph A. Mitchell for DCMilitary.com on - 'E-2C cost-wise successes with praise' - explaining that squadron support has increased due to the implementation of the "Relevant Information For Leadership (RIFLe)" philosophy.

...RIFLe incorporates the Theory of Constraints, and works to alleviate the impact of bottlenecks within the operations process. By horizontally integrating stovepipe logistics, RIFLe evaluates procedures at the operational level for improvements that will employ less effort, less resources, and increased effectiveness.

"The results have been outstanding," said Cmdr. Carolynn Snyder, Point Mugu AIMD officer-in-charge. "We have a 50 percent decrease in items waiting for repair, a 75 percent decrease in due-in-from-maintenance items and our average customer wait time has decreased from eight days to one and a half days."...

single points of knowledge...

Computing Canada provides coverage of a roundtable discussion on strategic industry developments of 2003 in: Taking The Industry's Pulse.

A member of this 'roundtable' is one Robert Garigue, chief information security officer, Bank of Montreal. Deep into discussing the answer to a 'Computing Canada' question on "Ensuring a healthy return on technology investments" while substantiating "the ongoing nature of the security spend," Garigue offers:

"You realize you have lots of people, but a couple of them are critical single points of knowledge. That's not good enough anymore. You have to have that knowledge available; it has to be institutionalized, and it can't be just in one individual; it has to be in the team. How do you identify single points of knowledge? When was the last time an audit was done around individuals who are single points of knowledge? We've done that review; we found 47 people that have single points of knowledge and we're putting in place a whole management structure to make sure we're addressing that as part of the HR process, not as part of the security or business continuity process."

Single points of knowledge? Or single points of failure? Or both? Have you taken the 'pulse' of your institutional memory lately?

converged communications...

Rick Luhmann, in an article for CMP Media's Communications Convergence, reflects on his personal 'Misadventures in Viral Marketing.'

In a humorous attempt to emulate Morley Safer's depiction of 'semi-super-models' enticing young consumers into 'brand' adoption - in a '60 Minutes' segment on the topic of 'Viral Marketing' - Rick Luhmann contrives an exercise in his own workplace to draw the attention of knowledge workers to the brilliance of an 'Outlook-integrated softphone' on his wireless laptop. His experiment fails miserably with both knowledge workers and marketing types alike.

While there are those of us who are definitely ignited by the promise of improved collaboration through 'IP Telephony' and the associated moves from closed to open systems and from separate to 'converged communications' - Rick points out that the 'phone revolution' thing happened "a long, long time ago."

In conclusion he muses: "I see the process of converged communications as being more evolutionary than revolutionary, oozing slowly over time as new equipment and cost savings put the platforms in place to actually host the next-gen applications whether businesses like it or not."

peter drucker at 94...

Brent Schlender writes an article for Fortune in which 'Peter Drucker Sets Us Straight.' The following is a excerpt from that article, the balance is available by 'subscription' to Fortune's online service.

...You can always count on Peter Drucker to provide a new way of looking at things. After all, he is the man who first recognized that management is a discipline worthy of deep and formal study. Long before anyone else - in the early 1950s, no less - he predicted how computer technology would one day thoroughly transform business. In 1961 he presciently called attention to the rise of Japan as an industrial power, and two decades later he warned of its impending economic stagnation. And we can thank him for coining the concepts of "privatization," "knowledge workers," and "management by objective."

At 94, Drucker is still full of insights that seem to elude others, and he is as opinionated as ever. His interests range from economics to psychology to philosophy to opera to Japanese art; his experiences include consulting with literally hundreds of companies, governments, small businesses, churches, universities, hospitals, arts organizations, and charities. To this day, leaders of all stripes make the pilgrimage to California to learn from the master, who continues to lecture at the management school that bears his name at Claremont Graduate University...

An 'Association of Knowledgework' 'Star Series' Holiday Ballad...

Dedicated to Jerry Ash,
AOK Star Series Leaders 2001-03,
and the Indomitable AOK Community of Participants
by Judith Meskill

'Twas the night before 'Star' time, and all through the halls
Jerry Ash was now pacing and bouncing off walls;
His notes were all tucked on his website with care,
In hopes that AOKers would be there to share;

'Exemplars' were nestled all snug in Lelic's head,
While visions of 'Good Practices' eased Simon's dread;
Crafting 'Stories' and 'Cases' did fill up his cap,
While 'Informal Ontologies' caused him to nap.

In Denham Grey's K-log there was such a clatter,
Of ' Patterns', 'Peer assists', and 'Questions That Matter.'
His thoughts on 'KM Strategy' flew like a flash,
Tore open his computer and typed with panache.

Jack Ring was still pondering on what he did know
To shed some more light on our topical flow,
When, what to our wondering eyes should appear,
But Bob Buckman, and Melissie to help us steer,

Victor Newman was 'Building' our knowledge so quick,
I knew in a moment he'd give us a kick.
Patti Anklam was 'Sharing' much more than her fame,
And she listened so closely and called them by name;

"Now, ASH! now, McELROY! now, ALLEE and DIXON!
On, WIIG! on, SANTOSUS! on, LELIC and NEWMAN!
To the top of the 'Series'! Our knowledge will flow!
Now dash away! Flash away! And reap as you sow!"

As lurkers were listening our ideas did fly,
When met with an obstacle, we'd merely ask why,
From theory to practice our strategies flew,
With the help of dear Jerry, and 'Star' leaders too.

And then, in a twinkling, David Hawthorne did say
"Let me tell you a 'Story' and start it this way."
We drew in our hands, and we all turned around,
Down the chimney Stephen Denning came with a bound.

Next came David Snowden, and Hubert Saint-Onge,
'Organic,' 'Evolutions,' their thinking is strong;
Thomas Stewart in 'Real Time' did pop in to stay,
Charles Savage doing 'Knowledge Turns' followed his way.

Richard Cross on 'Ethnography,' oh so merry!
While Carol Kinsey Goman's 'Ghosts' were so scary!
Frappaolo and Murty and Tucker and Kelly,
Filled a panel with Schoeps and Vinson for 'ELKE';

Sveiby did the 'Tango' and spoke of 'Un-learning,'
While Skyrme shared his 'Insights' and kept our lights burning;
David Weinberger listened and gave us a 'Clue,'
'Manifestos' and 'Pieces' on what we could do.

'Intellectual Capital' we heard him shout,
Nick Bontis that is, I can say without doubt;
Carl Frappaolo was 'Auditing Knowledge Returns,'
While Leif Edvinsson's 'Brainpower' candle still burns;

Debra Amidon, 'Architect,' we were in awe,
Ash Sooknanan turned 'Kafkaesque' into awards,
Dede Bonner talked 'Leadership' and 'CKOs,'
Jerry giving a nod, up the chimney he rose;

Ash sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,
And away they all flew like the down of a thistle.
But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight,
"HAPPY CHRISTMAS 'AOKers', TO ALL GOOD-NIGHT! "

© judith meskill, for all parts that are mine... (^:

can the 'can spam act' can spam?

The New York Times :: Bush Signs Law Placing Curbs on Bulk Commercial E-Mail
by Jennifer 8. Lee

...President Bush signed a highly awaited law on Tuesday to restrict junk commercial e-mail, or spam, which now accounts for more than half of all e-mail traffic.

With the federal legal framework established by the new law, the attention now shifts to enforcement efforts. The Federal Trade Commission and other federal agencies, state attorneys general and Internet service providers will be allowed to take spammers to court, but individuals do not have the right to sue spammers...

pass the pepper please...

Christopher Saunders writes for InstantMessaging Planet on 'Spicing Up Collaboration' with Pepper Computer's flagship collaborative application.

Pepper Computer's founders Len Kawell and Mary Ellen Heinen, have strong backgrounds in collaboration systems. Kawell, with Lotus Notes, and he and Heinen with e-book player Glassbook (later acquired by Adobe.)

Pepper Keeper uses the "page" metaphor. Like sheets of paper in a notebook or journal, once you use the "pages" you need to buy more - pages are "non-renewable" - that is, they're usable once. Christopher Saunders writes: "Pepper Keeper introduces collaboration into the picture by enabling users to share their creations with others. The system relies on AOL Instant Messenger (specifically, the TOC protocol) to link users with friends, via a built-in Buddy List. The applications can be sent to other users as either read-only, or fully editable."

Pepper is available in Windows and Mac versions - and right now it is free.

collaboration taxonomy...

In an article today in Network Computing Asia, Chan Chi-Loong writes about Collaboration Trends and Managing Its Dynamics.

I am including additional references for Collaboration Taxonomy, following this (long) citation from Chan Chi-Loong's article:

...quote...
According to Dr Prabhakar Raghvan, Verity's CTO, the two most important resources a company has can be distilled to just two things: people and knowledge. Creating a knowledge management platform with efficient search functions and a well-defined document management plan can save companies millions - at a fraction of the cost of setting up the system, according to Prabhakar.

...Brian Prentice, senior analyst of Technology Research Services at META Group, strongly believes that collaboration technologies need to be managed more than ever as a profusion of collaboration tools invades the market.

Collaboration technologies are everywhere. A typical organisation might use IBM Domino for e-mail, Microsoft Sharepoint Server for directory services, Plumtree for portals, SAP for resource planning, Siebel for CRM, Oracle for databases, and so on. One of the biggest problems is that these technologies overlap. A shared workspace can be created with the Domino mail server, MS Sharepoint Server, Plumtree portal, and SAP. Besides the redundancy of resources, sometimes these different technologies do not mix that well and end users are inundated with having to learn how to use (or worse, forced to used) all these different applications for different groups. Far from simplifying matters, collaboration technologies actually complicate matters for end users if not properly managed.

Collaboration Taxonomy

One solution to help resolve this from the end user perspective is to establish a collaboration taxonomy. This is a set of guiding principles that correlate business activity and IT solutions with a collaboration focus. By having such a structure, organisations can better identify collaboration needs. This is a starting point for crafting a full-fledged management policy.

Through looking at some of the different aspects of collaboration - individual users, business processes, knowledge communities, intra-enterprises and lifestyle centric processes, a collaboration taxonomy can guide organisations in focusing on the intended returns of each IT investment. From this starting point, it can be extended to see how much work is necessary to integrate each piece into your organisation.

A Collaboration Strategy

META Group believes that a few big vendors like Microsoft and IBM will eventually dominate the market a few years down the road. These vendors were picked because they have strong existing products (e.g. Lotus Notes, Exchange) and a unified strategy for collaboration, rather than singular point products.

"Simplifying things is one of the best ways to empower people to use collaboration technology," says Balaprakash Kasiviswanathan, regional product manager for Asia-Pacific, Microsoft, "and seamless, painless integration from the front-end to the back-end will do this."

Whether META Group's predictions will play out remains to be seen, but there is no doubt that collaboration - e-mail, for example - is one of reasons we frequently employ IT in the first place. Comprising information and people, collaboration is too important to the future of an organisation to be left unmanaged...
...end quote...

Additional Collaboration Taxonomy References:

A Taxonomy for CSCW (Computer Support for Collaborative Work) Systems,
Blog of Collective Intelligence: Collaborative Taxonomy Archives,
Clemson University, C.R.E.D.O. Lab, Automation in Design Group,
CSCW-98 Workshop,
Mark Klein's Selected Publications on Collaborative Design,
Underlying principles of an online community: The CSCW framework,
Wherewithal: Collaborative Taxonomy Engine.

open-source knowledge...

ScienceDaily :: Faster, Better, Cheaper: Open-source Practices May Help Improve Software Engineering

ARLINGTON, Va. -- Walt Scacchi of the University of California, Irvine, and his colleagues are conducting formal studies of the informal world of open-source software development, in which a distributed community of developers produces software source code that is freely available to share, study, modify and redistribute. They're finding that, in many ways, open-source development can be faster, better and cheaper than the "textbook" software engineering often used in corporate settings.

In a series of reports posted online, Scacchi is documenting how open-source development breaks many of the software engineering rules formulated during 30 years of academic research. Far from finding that open-source development is just software engineering poorly done, Scacchi and colleagues show that it represents a new approach based on community building and other socio-technical mechanisms that might benefit traditional software engineering.

...Three projects--one by Les Gasser at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and Scacchi, one by Scacchi and John Noll of Santa Clara University and one led by UC Irvine's Richard Taylor--are applying the lessons learned from open-source practices to create new design, process-management and knowledge-management tools for large-scale, multi-organization development projects.

"In many ways, open-source development projects are treasure troves of information for how large software systems get developed in the wild, if you will," Scacchi said.

coplink & knowledge computing...

Yahoo :: COPLINK(R) Crime Fighting Solutions

TUCSON, Ariz., and WIGAN, GREATER MANCHESTER, UK, Dec. 4 /PRNewswire/ -- Every day in the United Kingdom, burglaries, car thefts, assaults, and other more serious crimes like armed robberies, drug trafficking and gang related offences often go unsolved despite the best efforts of law enforcement. But all that could now change with COPLINK -- Knowledge Computing Corporation's critically acclaimed crime-fighting tool that as of today, is available to law enforcement agencies throughout the United Kingdom. Orbitron Technologies, a respected leader in software development and systems integration, will serve as the company's first international distribution partner. The agreement represents Knowledge Computing Corporation's first entry into international markets.

...COPLINK, in use since 1998, is based on knowledge management technology first prototyped by top-ranked researchers in the Artificial Intelligence Lab at the University of Arizona in Tucson through a grant by the National Institute of Justice. The technologies developed at Knowledge Computing Corporation have been tested and proven by law enforcement agencies around the country.

knowledge agents...

Managing Information News :: DSTL Knowledge Services Wins Major Industry Award

...Knowledge Agents at the Defence Science Technology Laboratory (Dstl), part of the Knowledge Services Department, and an Aslib Corporate Member, has been awarded the title of Best Information/Knowledge Team in a Public Sector Environment yesterday evening at the International Information Industry Awards ceremony held at the Royal Lancaster Hotel...

knowledge worker enablement...

CIO-Asia :: The Evolution of IT
By Teo Chin Seng

...The trend to enable knowledge workers to access information pervasively is also influencing a trend in the IT industry: the evolution of the extended organisation through mobility. Information and workflow get pushed out from the enterprise to its employees on the move. Inputs from employees on the move get pushed into the enterprise to enable timely responses. This will enable companies to operate in a real time manner in understanding and reacting to the pulse of the organisation, its marketplace and its customers. We are looking forward to more efficient and affordable products in mobile telecommunications and mobile data terminals convergence....

knowledge workers on slashdot...

Slashdot :: Economic Analysis of the Nanotech Future

...nweaver writes "Economic Historian and Berkeley Professor Brad DeLong has created an analysis on his Web Log on the economic implications of Nanotechnology. His observations are based on what previously happened with the Industrial Revolution (and other economic shifts in general) and using this to speculate what Nanotech will do to the economy: who wins (technical/knowledge workers), who loses (manufacturing), and what changes (costs of products)."...

are knowledge workers ePeople?...

Yahoo NewsWire :: ePeople Announces Certified Integration of ePeople Teamwork With PeopleSoft Enterprise CRM 8.8 Sales

...ePeople is a provider of Customer Interaction Management software for companies that sell, service and support enterprise products and services. ePeople's flagship product, ePeople Teamwork enables managers and knowledge workers in customer support, team selling, strategic account management and professional services to optimize, capture and reuse expert knowledge and the collective skills of an extended team. ePeople Teamwork works with Outlook, CRM, email, IM and the web. ePeople customers, including companies such as Cisco Systems, InstallShield and Openwave Systems, have deployed ePeople Teamwork to realize significant gains in customer resolutions, service quality and productivity. Headquartered in Mountain View, Calif., ePeople is privately held...

knowledge workers and linux...

Entrepreneur magazine :: Powering Up By Mike Hogan

...Gartner gives a thumbs up to Linux desktops for "structured task workers," but not knowledge workers.

Bottom line: Linux is ready for some desktops. Just make sure the desktops you buy are ready for Linux...

personal service builders...

Web Services Journal :: Enabling the High Performance Corporation
by Jonathan Sapir, president of InfoPower, developers of SnapXT

...To quote Peter Drucker: "The most important, and indeed the truly unique, contribution of management in the 20th century was the 50-fold increase in productivity of the manual worker in manufacturing. The most important contribution management needs to make in the 21st century is similarly to increase the productivity of knowledge work and the knowledge worker."

...So what exactly is a PSB? One way to think of it is as a development environment that lets business users create simple applications with techniques such as mind mapping instead of writing code - or depending on IT to write the code. Those business users know their jobs very well. They know what they need to do it better. But unless they've taken programming courses, they've lacked the knowledge of how to translate their ideas into something practical. Now, business users simply need to understand the logic - A follows B follows C - and then map it out with the PSB. The rest happens behind the scenes...

km and fons trompenaars...

VNUnet :: Reap the long-term rewards of knowledge management
by Michael Gubbins

...Knowledge management has previously been a big disappointment for many companies. What's changed now? The big problem with knowledge management (KM) has been lack of focus - lots of grand vision, little practicality. KM strategies now need to built on more secure foundations, says leading expert Fons Trompenaars, of Trompenaars Hampden-Turner.

Knowledge management is enshrining the process in business practice...

text mining promises...

Intelligent Enterprise :: The Word on Text Mining
By Seth Grimes

Mentioned in this article, in order of appearance:

Barak Pridor, ClearForest, Autonomy Systems, Bayesian Statistics, Claude Shannon's Information Theory, Dr. Claude Vogel, CONVERA, RetrievalWare, Inxight Software, Star Tree, SAS, Text Miner, and Enterprise Miner.

...Although still in its infancy, text mining promises rapid advances in the scope of applications and in the effectiveness, comprehensiveness, interoperability, and usability of software implementations. The field won't be mature until commercial tools offer closed-loop analytics, that is, actionable results rather than just visualizations, analytics that are well integrated with data mining, and statistical analysis systems that use all an organization's information assets. Although techniques seem fairly well established, maturity will also bring standardized interfaces and input and output formats, extension to a spectrum of rich media in addition to plain text, the scalability to world-size applications, and predictive capabilities. The implementations available show that researchers and vendors are on the right track...

bill gates on 'knowledge workers'...

eWeek interviews Bill Gates in an article called: Blazing the Longhorn Trail and, among many other questions, asks:

eWeek: Where should companies spend the dollars freed up from lowering costs? And where should they spend new technology funds?

Bill Gates: Web services is the new architecture for new applications. Web services are being used to connect information that is inside the company in different systems. They're connecting people and systems in new ways and connecting across different companies as well. You think of investments for making your knowledge workers more productive. That is the biggest investment companies in almost any industry make.

There are things that are essentially new ways of doing business, such as creating workflows to connect buyers and sellers together. We are seeing lots of interest in taking BizTalk and connecting it up with our XML forms capability called InfoPath. People still want projects that are about five to six months in duration. They don't want a one-year shot in the dark. And they want projects where, if they really look at all the costs, then for a million dollars or less they can be really far along and start to get the payback.

visuos - access to 'knowledge' spaces...

While perusing my 'webstats' I found this reciprocal link from HyDeSign. And directly below the link to my 'knowledge notes' I found this link to an ACM article on visuos: A Visuo-spatial Operating Software for Knowledge Work.

More fodder for my 'Personal Knowledge Mapping' research: (visuos - by clemens lango.)

knowledge worker news...

InformationWeek : IT Employment : The Programmer's Future
By Eric Chabrow, Chris Murphy

...Not long ago programmers were the essence of IT. They were critical knowledge workers before the term gained popularity, and programming was the starter job of many business-technology leaders. Contrast that with today: Companies treat programming as a capability that's best bought on an as-needed basis. In some circles, that's given the profession a bad rap. "Many IT professionals wouldn't call themselves programmer," says senior VP and CIO David Guzman at the medical-supplies distributor Owens & Minor Inc. "It's an anachronistic term with a pejorative context to modern IT professionals."...

knowledge worker news...

Peter Cappelli, from the Wharton School, and Megan Santosus, Senior Editor for CIO Magazine, warn of the consequences of preparing for a post boomer 'labor shortage' rather than 'knowledge shortage' in the article cited below.

CIO Magazine :: When (or if) the Boomers Say Bye-Bye
BY MEGAN SANTOSUS

Not a Labor Shortage, a Knowledge Shortage

...Peter Cappelli, a management professor and the director of the Center for Human Resources at The Wharton School, conducted research that questioned ... assumptions about the potential economic impact of an aging employee population. Cappelli found that any projected labor shortage caused by retiring boomers is, in fact, a complete fiction.

Ironically, IT is one of the professions that historically has been most at the mercy of demographics because employers have focused on hiring people right out of college. So if Cappelli's theory is right, is there any hope for a rebound in IT employment? Unfortunately, the answer isn't clear-cut. In light of the trend toward the global outsourcing of IT work, companies may not believe they need to fret about retaining skilled workers because the pool of available labor is now a worldwide one.

"The ability to outsource work outside the U.S. gives employers a safety valve," notes Cappelli. "They don't have to find or retain the workers here; they can just move the work to where the workers are." Cappelli prefers to keep his own counsel on whether the millions of IT jobs sent abroad will ever return or whether millions more are destined to go the same way. What that question comes down to is flexibility versus control. If companies want the former, they'll continue to ship work and jobs offshore; if they want the latter, IT jobs will stay put and, perhaps, even return.

The notion of a worker shortage based on aging boomers and flagging birth rates is a seductive one because it's quantifiable and lifts the responsibility for the future from our already overburdened shoulders. After all, you can't fight demographic trends. Que sera, sera, as it were. But as Cappelli reminds us, assuming that the future is out of our control just about guarantees that it will be...

triarchic intelligence...

The Yale Herald :: Ace it with PACE: Making testing actually matter
BY DANIEL LEVIN BECKER

...THE GUIDING PRINCIPLE OF The Yale University PACE Center is what Dr. Robert Sternberg calls the triarchic theory of successful intelligence, which suggests that there are three kinds of intelligence - analytical, practical, and creative - and that each is a crucial element of success in and beyond education. (Mental flexibility, as it turns out, is essentially determined by one's ability to selectively switch between the three modes of thinking in order to best deal with unfamiliar situations.) PACE stands for the Psychology of Abilities, Competencies, and Expertise, and it is the traditional perception of these three things as distinct and innate constructs which the center is committed to defeating; it aims instead to ease transition between them. "You need to be creative to have ideas, analytical to judge them, and practical to get them to work," Sternberg explains. "The logic applies to any field. Let's say you're a writer: It takes creative intelligence to develop ideas for novels and poems, analytical intelligence for the plotting and internal coherence of what you're writing; and practical intelligence to write something people are going to want to read."

The members of the center are busily directing the idea of triarchic intelligence toward research in a variety of academic areas; with the exception of the leadership projects, which are sponsored by the U.S. Army and explore ideas like the development of effective military leaders through explicit and tacit knowledge, PACE's projects are devoted to educational advancements. Its research is focused on creating successful teachers, developing better ways to nurture the talents of gifted students, and improving the overall structures of schools themselves...

knowledge worker news...

ZDNet UK :: 'Dodgy-dossier syndrome' rife in the workplace
by Matt Loney

...Two-thirds of knowledge workers are unaware of the dangers that meta-data contained within their documents can pose to themselves and their businesses, according to new research.

More business users are contributing to shared documents than ever before," said Workshare European vice president Andrew Pearson, "and companies are losing control of what happens inside the process. Changes in the way organisations work has made this problem more acute in recent year with restructuring and flattening of the organisation, so brought these problems to the fore."...

GN Online: On Agenda: Powering Dubai's knowledge community with human resources
By K. Raveendran

...Silicon Valley in the US was built around Stanford University. But to say that its Dubai adaptation, the Dubai Internet City-Media City cluster, is founded on the strength of Knowledge Village would be stretching things a little too far.

And yet to the extent that the DIC-DMC community relates to the US innovation facility, Knowledge Village (KV) is aiming to provide what Stanford did for Silicon Valley; not by way of innovation, but in terms of human resources.

Threesomes and foursomes of young men and women, regretfully with cigarettes in hand, sitting around coffeehouse tables and chatting have become a common sight at the eating joints within the cluster and added a new ambience to the community. They are the students of institutions like the American University of Dubai, Dubai College etc., and would soon be joined by those from the Knowledge Village.

And these men and women will be the key resource for the new Knowledge Economy to develop. Already, many of them are undertaking short-term assignments with companies in Dubai Internet City and Media City in a partnership in which both sides benefit. For the companies, it helps cut costs significantly, while for the students it provides both experience and some extra money.

"The Knowledge Economy will be one where human capital is the chief source of economic value and education and training become lifelong endeavours. And this is where Knowledge Village will make a contribution," Dr Abdullah Al Karam, Director of KV, said in a recent interview.

Learning community

The success of the knowledge community has created the need for manpower that matches its requirements and Knowledge Village hopes to serve this need at optimum costs. A majority of institutions joining the Village are from the professional training and e-learning sectors, offering courses in IT, media, finance and are offering a brick-and-click combination of both classroom and web-based courses.

The burgeoning ICT cluster is also providing high-quality business interaction and networking opportunities for the students as well as among the entities, which helps increased knowledge sharing within the community.

The Village includes a Media Academy, an Innovation Centre, research and development organisations, science and technology institutes, and certification and testing organisations as well as incubators. All these are constituents that help in the development of knowledge capital.

The learning community is thus expected to facilitate a rich environment of ideas, creativity and expertise that will stimulate strategic growth for companies located in the cluster. Similarly, placement programmes will enable students to gain access and experience with leading IT and media companies. Industry-academic linkages are expected to be a major driver of talent in the knowledge economy.

Branches of leading international universities and educational institutions offering Masters and PhD programmes in IT, management and media disciplines are among the launch business partners of Knowledge Village. These include the British University and BITS Pilani, one of India's top engineering institutes.

The clusters and sub-clusters within the knowledge community offer vast scope for the talent that is created through these programmes. The dynamic international ICT community of DIC includes around 560 companies, big and small, and some of them represent the top names in the global industry and encompassing a community of over 5,000 knowledge workers.

Similarly, the Media City has nearly 800 companies, engaged in broadcasting, publishing, new media, music, entertainment and event management. Over 10 TV and radio channels are broadcasting out of Media City. With its own teleport providing a one-stop shop for all broadcasting requirements, including up-linking, down-linking and content creation, DMC is a value proposition that global broadcasters can hardly resist.

The author is a UAE-based journalist...

knowledge management news...

[there are three news stories in this post.]

destinationCRM :: IT Spending Recovery Seen in 2004
by Lisa Picarille

...The planets are finally in alignment and market researchers are now predicting a recovery in IT spending.

For example, Lill says the combination of secure broadband wireless, low-power-consumption mobile devices, and new display technologies will dramatically change a handful of industries, including publishing, media, and advertising...

Business Wire :: Vivisimo Clustering Gains Market Momentum

...PITTSBURGH--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 13, 2003--Vivisimo, Inc., a leading provider of clustering and meta-search software, today announced that a growing number of search sites, enterprises and government institutions have deployed Vivisimo Clustering to organize their search results, leading to almost tripling of revenues, substantial business progress, and the first year of profitability for Vivisimo.

Vivisimo Clustering solutions dramatically increase the efficiency of knowledge workers who need to quickly handle large numbers of search results - from the web or document databases. With Vivisimo, users no longer have to scroll through endless pages of results to find what they are looking for. Vivisimo's Clustering organizes search results into folders on the fly, without requiring any pre-processing of source documents. This new way of handling search results which leads to a vastly superior end-user experience, is seeing rapid adoption and is changing the way people search...

allAfrica.com: South Africa [opinion]: Fez And White Gloves' Elite Still Rules SA Business
by Kevin Wakeford

...THE recent euphoria over the official launch of Chambers of Commerce and Industry of SA (Chamsa) and Business Unity SA (Busa) at Sun City may be as short-lived as the expectations of the Springboks at the Rugby World Cup in Australia.

This level also provides vital knowledge management activities that assist businesses in navigating through the morass of the regulatory environment. More importantly, business representatives can relationship and strike deals on a nonracial basis...

social networking & knowledge work research...

A large portion of my research is at the intersection of social networking and social software solutions, and their capacity to help improve knowledge work. The following three papers may be of interest to others who are working in this space. An abstract for the first paper appears 'above the fold' on my weblog, please continue reading 'below the fold' for the remaining two papers.

Enabling Collective Knowledge Work Through the Design of Mediating Spaces: A Framework for Systemic Socio-Informatic Change (ResearchIndex)
By: David Ing and Ian Simmonds

ABSTRACT: We propose a framework for designers of business organizations and designers of information systems that portrays three forms of “space” that mediate social interactions: physical space, social space and informatic space. The framework aids organizational designers and information technology designers to understand some of the complexities of enabling knowledge work, by contrasting the properties of the spaces and their interactions:

* Social interaction enabled by physical spaces is the focus of architects of buildings and urban planners, managers locating individuals and team who work together, and conference organizers who plan events to encourage networking.
* Social interaction enabled by social spaces is the focus of organizational designers who develop supporting social structures such as centers of excellence or practitioner support networks.
* Social interaction enabled by informatic spaces is the focus of knowledge architects and process analysts, who administer and moderate groupware and workflow applications.
In addition,
* Informatic spaces hosted in physical spaces are the focus of Information Technology architects, who ensure appropriate geographical coverage, performance, availability and security through appropriate computer hardware and software (e.g. servers, access points and networks).

Since the ways in which knowledge work can be carried out vary from person to person across a community, and innovations are naturally introduced over time, an enabling infrastructure should be capable of adaptation to those changed needs. We draw on research in general systems theory, architectural theory, and social theory to inform our practices in advising on business design, and methods and tools for information modeling.

Information Retrieval Algorithms For Knowledge Management – The Challenge Continues (ResearchIndex)
By: Elaine Ferneley - E.Ferneley@salford.ac.uk, Brendan Berney - B.T.Berney@salford.ac.uk, and Yacine Rezgui - Y.Rezgui@salford.ac.uk

This paper considers Information Communication Technology (ICT) support for the knowledge creation process that takes place by the interaction of both tacit and explicit knowledge with the knowledge creating entities of the individual, group and organisation (or organisations). Attempts to provide ICT support for this process have tended to focus on two stages in the knowledge evolution cycle, firstly extraction and representation and secondly dissemination. In order to extract and represent knowledge a number of approaches have been used, these include: the use of knowledge bases and ontologies, the use of filtering and categorisation mechanisms to extract key terms and the development of various weighting mechanisms in an attempt to prioritise or cluster related entities. To support dissemination various approaches to user profiling have been used which usually incorporate some form of adaptive information filtering mechanism. This paper presents a critical evaluation of a number of the more well know extraction and representation techniques. It then presents a set of user profiling techniques appropriate for use in intra-organisation knowledge management portal applications.

SMILE Maker: Concept-Orientation in Agent-Based Architectures for Personal Assistance and Collaborative Problem Solving (ResearchIndex)
By: Svetoslav Stoyanov, Neli Stoyanova, Piet Kommers and Ivan Kurtev

The paper presents some experimentally validated design solutions on the groupware module ‘Partner’ of SMILE Maker for mobile and personal support facilities. Three types of scenarios for collaborative problem solving have been tested. Pin-cards, Delphi and BrainMapping modes proved to have a differential effect on learning and collaborative problem solving suggesting concrete design solutions.
SMILE Maker is a web-based knowledge support system promoting with just in time, just enough and just at point of need intelligent support in dealing with ill-structured problem situations. Conceptually SMILE Maker lies in a cross-section area of four recently strongly recognized paradigms: problem solving, concept mapping, collaborative learning and instructional design.
The module ‘Partner’ of SMILE Maker enables a shared group environment for distributing learning resources. It supports externalis ation and sharing the individual potential in terms of formal expertise and tacit knowledge, organised by the personalised meaningful perception of the problem space.

personal knowledge mapping...

If you read my weblog, then you most likely read Dave Pollard. But for those who do not, Dave has posted a 'Business Case for Personal Productivity Improvement' on his 'How to Save the World' weblog. Check it out. It's a great business case and complements my research on 'Personal Knowledge Mapping'. (paper coming soon.)

knowledge management news...

[there are nine news stories in this post.]

CIO :: Analyst Corner - IT Does Matter
By Margaret Tanaszi - Program Manager, IDC

...An interesting debate has been engaging the attention of many in the business community and IT industry, sparked by an article by Nicholas Carr in the May 2003 Harvard Business Review, IT Doesn't Matter. On his website, Carr further explained his argument in the article that IT has become a commodity, and although essential to competitiveness at the regional and industry level, "it is no longer a source of advantage at the firm level - it doesn't enable individual companies to distinguish themselves in a meaningful way from their competitors." (Nicholas G Carr.) The article said,

It is when Carr claims that corporate IT spending studies "consistently show that greater expenditures rarely translate into superior financial results" that he exposes the space in which IT can truly matter. The disassociation between spending and results sheds no light on what was done with the IT investments to lead to those disappointing outcomes. Similarly, Carr cites a 2002 Alinean study, comparing those same parameters for 7,500 large U.S. companies, which found that "the top performers tended to be among the most tightfisted." Again, what is missing is how those top performers used the IT investments to their advantage...

KM Europe 2003 - creating, exploiting and retaining Knowledge

Now in its 4th year and already enjoyed by more than 10,000 visitors, KM Europe is the largest Knowledge Management (KM) conference and exhibition in the world. Growing every year, this event is a driving force behind KM development in Europe. KM Europe 2003 takes place from the 10-12 November at Amsterdam RAI and will be the biggest and best event yet.

TenLinks :: iManage Releases CADLink for iManage WorkSite

...FOSTER CITY, California, November 10, 2003 - iManage, Inc. (Nasdaq: IMAN), a leading provider of collaborative content management software for global enterprises, today announced the release of CADLink for iManage WorkSite MP, a solution that integrates leading computer-aided design (CAD) applications into the iManage platform. Designed to help engineers leverage content management functionality from within their native CAD environment, CADLink for iManage WorkSite MP is being introduced under an OEM agreement between iManage and McLaren Software, the leading developer of content-based enterprise applications for companies in the process manufacturing, utilities and engineering, design and construction sectors.

The introduction of CADLink for iManage WorkSite MP will combine the power of iManage's collaboration content management solution with the CAD capabilities of industry-leading products like Autodesk AutoCAD and Bentley MicroStation. CAD drawings and the intricate network of references between the CAD files typical of complex designs, are all stored, accessed and controlled through iManage Worksite MP, enabling engineers to work concurrently and improve design cycle time. Engineers using the solution can access drawings directly from the iManage repository through the familiar menus of their CAD applications, speeding the adoption of content management practices. Combined with the powerful extranet capabilities and tight security model of iManage WorkSite MP, CADlink enables businesses to collaborate across their value chains on design and construction projects at significantly reduced time and cost...

Business Wire :: OSFI Technology Initiative to Improve Processes, Information Management; Will Aid Regulator in its Role of Overseeing Financial

...The Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI), the regulator of federally registered financial institutions operating in Canada, will implement a new system to streamline, standardize and re-design internal processes and improve the management of information across the organization. OSFI will work with Cap Gemini Ernst & Young (CGE&Y) as its systems integrator for the initiative, and will utilize software solutions from Formark and Open Text(TM) Corporation (Nasdaq: OTEX)(TSX: OTC). The solution will be based on Open Text's Livelink(R) software suite.

Called the Business Systems Integration Initiative (BSII), the project will allow OSFI to enhance its effectiveness in an increasingly complex and rapidly changing financial services industry. The BSII project will provide a new level of automation, so that OSFI employees can quickly and more efficiently manage regulatory processes, improve risk management supervision and speed responses to key stakeholders...

Endeca Announces Formation of Government Advisory Board

...CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 10, 2003--Endeca, the leading provider of advanced search and Guided Navigation(SM) solutions, today announced the formation of a government advisory board. The founding members of the Endeca Government Advisory Board bring long experience and expert knowledge of public sector and government technology applications to the company. Founding members include: Roger Baker, former CIO for the Department of Commerce, Alan Balutis, former executive director for the Federal Government Information Processing Council (FGIPC), and Charles Battaglia, former staff director for the Senate Select Intelligence Committee.

"We are very pleased and honored to have such an experienced and successful trio of individuals form the nucleus of our advisory board," said Steve Papa, CEO and founder of Endeca. "These board members exemplify integrity and public service and have been entrusted to provide leadership across the wide spectrum of government including national intelligence, military, and civilian agencies. Their association with Endeca is further validation of Endeca's potential to revolutionize the way the public sector finds, discovers, and analyzes information, and we plan to augment the board with equally distinguished members in the coming months." ...

Business Standard :: Managing know-how

...Winners of the IMA-American Express "India CFO Awards" write exclusive case studies on how they helped their companies overcome crucial strategic problems. In the last of this series, V Balakrishnan, CFO, Owens Corning India, winner, India CFO Award 2002 for Excellence in Information & Knowledge Management, writes about how he made information management more seamless and aligned it to the company strategies.

In my role as the CFO of the company, I along with my highly-charged IS team, have been able to make information management more seamless than experienced earlier. Some of the initiatives or strategies might look small but these have contributed immensely to the productivity of the organisation...

Yahoo PR NewsWire :: Global Downturn in Profit and Growth to Be Addressed By Pharmaceutical Executives at March 8-9 Forum

...NEW YORK, Nov. 10 /PRNewswire/ -- Executives and high level decision makers from the largest pharmaceutical and healthcare companies along with economists, strategists, and consultants will convene in Chicago, IL to address critical impediments to industry growth and profit, reports Strategic Research Institute.

Audience interaction will be facilitated via panel and roundtable discussions, specifically in the integration of R&D and performance strategies...

Computerworld Singapore :: Search gets serious
By Cathleen Moore and Tan Ee Sze

...The content management challenges that enterprises face in Singapore are no different from those reported in other parts of the world: the electronic content that enterprises accumulate is growing rapidly and these would require good search solutions.

Moreover, in the Singapore context, enterprises may also have to grapple with a host of other issues. James Lin, chief operating officer of Mustard Technology, pointed out that there may be good technology but what is often lacking is local support in terms of cost-effective consulting and implementation skills. "For the global vendors, it is a challenge to support remote customers," he said.

...One of the growing ways to put search to use is through search-derivative applications, in which core search functionality is pressed into service for specific processes such as knowledge management, marketing, sales force automation, help desk, and training.

Looking towards the future, enterprise search technology will continue to expand beyond its seek-and-find roots, blurring the lines between efforts such as business intelligence and knowledge management in an effort to present a full view of information assets within a company...

Yahoo PR NewsWire :: Virage(R) Announces VS Archive(TM)

...SAN MATEO, Calif., Nov. 10 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Virage, Inc., a wholly owned division of Autonomy Corp. (Nasdaq: AUTN; LSE: AU.; Europe Nasdaq: AUTN) and a leading provider of rich media communication and content management software, today introduced VS Archive, its next-generation software solution to store, categorize, manage, retrieve and distribute video, audio and other rich media content.

In addition, Virage core products and technologies power the solution. The SmartEncode(TM) product line includes the award-winning and market-leading product VideoLogger® for automated indexing, analysis and encoding, and ControlCenter(TM) for monitoring, managing and scheduling multiple source feeds. Virage Solution Server(TM) provides the framework and underlying capabilities for rich media content management using Java(TM) 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE). The capabilities include security, user and group management, asset management, database and storage management, XSL template rendering, SOAP data import and high availability...

knowledge management news...

[there are three news stories in this post.]

Intelligent Enterprise Magazine :: 2003 Readers' Choice Awards

QUOTE...
The Readers Have Chosen: IBM, Microsoft, and SAS take the most laurels

We thank the subscribers who cast their ballots to determine this year's winners. Here are some highlights:

IBM swept the Integration categories, and SAS won more awards than ever.

Ralph Kimball holds firmly onto his reign as favorite columnist.

Informatica edged out Data Junction from its long-running lead in Data Movement & Transformation.

The editors had to make the difficult decision this year to throw out the Supply Chain Management Systems category, for lack of a significant number of votes. We also had an unusual number of categories in which three or more products tied; we called these results a draw.

Your feedback is welcome. Please write to the editors at iemagazine@cmp.com. The winners are as follows:

INTELLIGENCE

ALERTING TOOLS
MicroStrategy
Narrowcast Server

ANALYTIC SERVERS
Microsoft
SQL Server Analysis Services

BI APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT PLATFORMS & TOOLS
Business Objects
Developer Suite

BUSINESS PERFORMANCE MONITORING & MANAGEMENT ENVIRONMENTS
Pilot Software
Pilot BusinessMonitor

CLICKSTREAM-ANALYSIS TOOLS
SAS
IntelliVisor

DATA MINING TOOLS
SAS
Enterprise Miner

DATA MOVEMENT & TRANSFORMATION
Informatica
PowerCenter

DATA VISUALIZATION TOOLS
Visual Mining
NetCharts Server

ENTERPRISE BI SUITES OR PLATFORMS
Crystal Decisions
Crystal Enterprise

FINANCIAL PLANNING, FORECASTING, & BUDGETING TOOLS
Hyperion
Planning or Pillar

GEOSPATIAL ANALYSIS PLATFORMS
MapInfo
various products

MANAGED REPORTING SYSTEMS
Crystal Decisions
Crystal Reports

MULTIDIMENSIONAL ANALYSIS TOOLS
Cognos
PowerPlay

PREDICTIVE MODELING TOOLS
SAS
STAT

SEARCH & RETRIEVAL TOOLS
Google
Search Appliance

UNSTRUCTURED BI APPLICATIONS
SAS
Text Miner

COLLABORATIVE COMMERCE

E-BUSINESS INTEGRATION MIDDLEWARE
IBM
WebSphere Commerce

PROVIDERS OF CUSTOMER INTELLIGENCE, INTERACTION, & RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE
Siebel

INTEGRATION

APPLICATION SERVERS
IBM
WebSphere Application Server

ENTERPRISE INFORMATION INTEGRATION PLATFORMS & PORTALS
IBM
WebSphere Portal

ENTERPRISE INTEGRATION MIDDLEWARE
IBM
WebSphere MQ

MOBILE APPLICATION SERVERS
IBM
WebSphere MQ Everyplace

INFRASTRUCTURE

APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT TOOLS & PLATFORMS
Microsoft
Visual Studio.Net

DATABASE SERVERS
Oracle
Oracle Database Server

ENTERPRISE MODELING & DESIGN TOOLS
Microsoft
Visio

ENTERPRISE STORAGE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS
EMC
Enterprise Storage Networks

ERP APPLICATION SUITES
SAP
mySAP ERP

OPERATING SYSTEMS
Microsoft
Windows 2000

SYSTEMS INTEGRATION/CONSULTING PROVIDERS
Accenture

BONUS

INTELLIGENT ENTERPRISE COLUMNIST
Ralph Kimball for Data Warehouse

MOST IMPORTANT REASON TO BUY STRATEGIC SOFTWARE RIGHT NOW
Capturing Efficiency to Drive Down Costs
...ENDQUOTE

New Zealand News - - Know-how sure to rise
By ESTELLE SARNEY

...Remember how Grandma baked the best scones you've ever eaten? Maybe you got her recipe, but no matter how many times you tried, your scones never turned out as good.

Grandma gave you only explicit knowledge by writing down instructions. What you also needed was her tacit knowledge of how she worked in the butter and milk, how she kneaded the dough. You would get this only by talking to her face to face, watching her, or making a batch alongside her. ...

Snip... Long article on the 'basics' of KM. Opens with scones and ends with some signs to watch for in you organization that might indicate that you need to have a 'knowledge strategy'. ...Snip

...Signs you need better knowledge management

* Decisions aren't made on the best information available...

Byte and Switch :: The Global Site For Storage Networking

...StorageTek supports its Email Xcelerator solutions through its Global Services organization. StorageTek's professional services experts have experience in designing and implementing a cost effective infrastructure to support an e-mail environment, and are adept at helping customers identify best-in-class solutions.

Archive Management: This software/hardware/service-based solution enables companies to better manage e-mail data through its lifecycle. It automatically migrates older e-mail and attachments to inexpensive and, if necessary, compliant media.
Knowledge Management: In addition to the archive functionality, this solution allows both IT and end users to better exploit the knowledge contained in the e-mail archive through advanced search and retrieval capabilities.
Compliance Management: This workflow based solution enables regulated organizations to comply with rules pertaining to review, retention and classification of e-mail messages and attachments.

knowledge management news...

[there are eight news stories in this post.]

MarketingProfs.com :: Between the Pages of Angel Customers and Demon Customers
by Nick Wreden

...How many companies call themselves "customer-centric" while failing to see issues through customers' eyes?

Then the approach grows complex. Using these figures, companies can calculate return on invested capital (ROIC) for each category of customer. The ROIC for each customer segment is used to calculate current and future P/E...

destinationCRM :: Phone Tag: A Costly Game
by David Myron

...Siemens Communications released the results of an online survey outlining how much money British businesses are losing due to phone tag.

Yet, it's the other 20 percent of calls that causes the most difficulty. These need to be answered by a live agent, and quickly. One way to solve the problem, the Collaborative Strategies report claims, is effective expertise management that includes knowledge-sharing and other more efficient ways to answer questions, find expertise, or obtain necessary information in a timely fashion. Companies like ePeople and Kanisa compete in this space. "Enterprises have been slow to adopt knowledge management technologies, but based on the survey results they could clearly benefit," Coleman said in a statement. "There exists a tremendous opportunity for knowledge and expertise management vendors to deliver tangible value to the enterprise."...

TMCnet :: eGain Announces New Release of Data Adapter to Support eService Trade-in Program

...SUNNYVALE, Calif. -- November 4, 2003 -- eGain Communications Corp. (Nasdaq: EGAN), a leading provider of customer service and contact center software to the Global 2000, today announced a new version of eGain Data Adapter to support the eGain SafeSwitch Program. Announced earlier this year, eGain SafeSwitch allows companies that have already invested in non-scalable or obsolete eService systems to safely switch to eGain's proven, best-of-breed e-Service software, trusted by world-class companies to achieve and sustain customer service excellence, while trading in the un-depreciated value of their prior investment*.

The eGain SafeSwitch Program is available to replace email management, knowledge management, live web collaboration and web self-service systems from existing and acquired vendors such as Kana, ServiceSoft, Firepond, Brightware, eAssist, Delano, Divine, Melita, Webline, Cisco and others. Several enterprises, including leaders in industry sectors such as outsourcing, manufacturing, retail and government, have already made the switch eGain's trusted solutions...

MCADCafe :: NGRAIN Software Brings 3D Capabilities to Product Knowledge Management

...Enhancements to NGRAIN Knowledge Module and Mobilizer deliver improvements in the way companies capture, manage and communicate product knowledge for training, maintenance and service applications.

"NGRAIN has extended its knowledge-capture capabilities and - for the first time - allows users to integrate NGRAIN 3D graphics content directly into familiar applications like Microsoft(R) Word and PowerPoint(R). With these capabilities, users can easily access and understand product knowledge, wherever and whenever they need it - in the classroom, on the factory floor or out in the field," said Gabe Batstone, General Manager, NGRAIN Product Knowledge Management...

Business Wire :: Convera Selected for Technology Modernization Program at Customs and Border Protection Within U.S. Department of Homeland Security

...VIENNA, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 4, 2003--Convera (Nasdaq:CNVR), a leading provider of search and categorization software for enterprises and government agencies, today announced RetrievalWare has been selected as the search technology for the Customs and Border Protection Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) handbook. The new contract for Convera is worth approximately $2 million.

Within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) developed for Customs and Border Protection will be used to increase critical information sharing among the 22 Department of Homeland Security agencies. An important component of ACE, the electronic handbook helps create a new high-tech trade system to streamline import operations and offer greater efficiency for Customs and Border Protection staff and the international trade community...

Silicon Valley Biz Ink :: Verity Named a 'Top 100' Company by DM Review for Second Consecutive Year

...SUNNYVALE, Calif., Nov. 4 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Verity Inc. (Nasdaq: VRTY), a leading provider of enterprise software that helps organizations maximize the return on their intellectual capital investment, has been cited as a 'Top 100' company for the second consecutive year by DM Review, a foremost publication for business intelligence and analytics, in the most recent issue of the magazine...

PAHO :: Scientists Review Advances in Scientific Research in the Americas

...Washington, DC, November 3, 2003 (PAHO) - Scientists from throughout the Americas opened a meeting here Monday to review the current status of scientific research in the region.

Van West Charles also said that PAHO is working strongly to transform the traditional way in which knowledge is regarded. "We have to learn to share knowledge, using existing technologies and understanding it as a tool for action. We're also working to better organize the collection and analysis of data, attain knowledge, and evaluate the impact of scientific research in the region," he noted...

Yahoo :: Stanford University Licenses Ingenuity Pathways Analysis, Collaborates on Systems Biology Solutions

...MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Nov 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Ingenuity is pleased to announce today that the Stanford Genome Technology Center at Stanford University has licensed Ingenuity Pathways Analysis, a new web-delivered application that enables biologists to discover, visualize, and explore therapeutically relevant networks significant to their experimental results.

In addition to licensing the Ingenuity Pathways Analysis application, Ingenuity and the Stanford Genome Technology Center are collaborating on the development of new functionality to further extend the application's capabilities and the state of the art of systems biology...

knowledge worker news...

[there are four news stories in this post.]

The New York Times :: Hold That Thought. Change That Look.
By CLAUDIA H. DEUTSCH

...TWENTY-ONE years ago, Thomas J. Peters was a little-known consultant at McKinsey & Company with some unconventional ideas about how corporate management should operate. Make what customers want to buy, not what you manufacture best? Heresy. Fraternize with your company's hoi polloi? Unthinkable. Recognize that corporate loyalty is an archaic concept? Nonsense.

And if presented energetically, with passion and caring, old ideas can be news. After all, Peter Drucker was writing about "knowledge workers" 50 years ago, but it still feels like a fresh concept. Marketers may know that women spend lots of money, but the old white guys in management - and don't kid yourself, old white guys still rule the world - must be reminded to put women on boards and in management so that their attempts to sell more to women aren't seen as exploitative. Middle managers may realize that they probably won't stay with the same company forever, but they need to be reminded to undertake some visibly innovative projects to put on their resumes...

CNEWS Canada - Workforce improved between '71 and '01: StatsCan

...OTTAWA (CP) - University graduates invaded not only high-tech industries, but also a variety of high-knowledge jobs in the 30 years between 1971 and 2001, a Statistics Canada study indicates.

-Growth in knowledge-based occupations has occurred in all regions of the country...

New Zone Labs Integrity 4.5 Strengthens Network Security Policy Enforcement for Today's Borderless Enterprise

...Zone Labs(R), Inc., the most trusted provider of endpoint security solutions, today announced Zone Labs Integrity(R) 4.5, a new version of the company's best-in-class, centrally-managed endpoint security solution. Available later this month, Integrity 4.5 offers the broadest standards-based support for enterprise-wide policy enforcement for today's borderless enterprise. In addition to more complete integration with network access devices, increased scalability and further security hardening, Integrity 4.5 allows enterprises to secure employees' use of public instant messaging services to reap the productivity benefits of instant messaging (IM) without having to invest in proprietary solutions.

Unlike traditional approaches to IM security which require proxy servers or use firewall-like rules to block IM traffic, Zone Labs takes a client-centric approach to protecting PCs using IM. As a result, enterprises can easily add IM protection to their existing security infrastructure, retaining the benefits and flexibility that public IM services provide while eliminating the need for costly retraining or installation of proprietary IM solutions. Integrity 4.5 enables central management of encryption for instant messages, content filtering, usage controls, unsolicited communication blocking, as well as usage and event reporting...

Bangkok Post :: Advocates see no progress on reforms
by Ampa Santimatanedol

...Education reform is heading nowhere because authorities are concerned only with keeping power and fail to chart new education courses and set new goals, reform advocates said yesterday.

"Children are left on their own because teachers cannot give them advice. Now both students and teachers seem to know nothing," Mrs Ratchanee said.

Anuj Arbhabirama, a Thailand Research Fund researcher, said education reform failed because there were no goals. Western countries or Japan were turning out knowledge workers to invent high technological products but Thailand could not produce and sell technology like them, Mr Anuj said.

"We need to have goals. We need to think what we we want our rural children to be," he said.

Mr Anuj said Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra tried to make teachers know what teaching reform was about by teaching students at Samsen Vidhayalai school himself, but changing teachers would never be easy.

"The prime minister does not understand teachers. To change them, he must empathise with them. He must know what is going on in the heads of those teachers. He may understand the police but he does not understand teachers," Mr Anuj said.

Mrs Ratchanee said some local communities were fed up with waiting for the Education Ministry and had started alternative education programmes themselves...

knowledge worker news...

[there are five news stories in this post.]

The Globe and Mail :: Workers better educated, StatsCan says

...OTTAWA - University graduates invaded not only high-tech industries, but also a variety of high-knowledge jobs in the 30 years between 1971 and 2001, a Statistics Canada study indicates.

Growth in knowledge-based occupations has occurred in all regions of the country...

AScribe :: Personal Web Usage in Workplace Offers Benefits for Employees, Employers, New Book Concludes

...PHILADELPHIA, Oct. 29 (AScribe Newswire) -- More and more employees are surfing the Web for personal reasons during work hours, and according to Saint Joseph's University's Dr. Claire Simmers and Drexel University's Dr. Murugan Anandarajan, it could be beneficial for employees and employers. In a new book entitled "Personal Web Usage in the Workplace: A Guide to Effective Human Resources Management" (Information Science Publishing), they explore the constructive side of personal Web usage.

Founded by the Society of Jesus in 1851, Saint Joseph's University advances the professional and personal ambitions of men and women by providing a demanding, yet supportive, educational experience. One of only 137 schools with a Phi Beta Kappa chapter and AACSB business school accreditation, Saint Joseph's is home to 3,900 full-time undergraduates and 3,400 graduate, part-time and doctoral students. Steeped in the 450-year Jesuit tradition of scholarship and service, the university challenges students to exceed their highest aspirations, fosters the mature development of values and deepens a desire to help shape the world...

allAfrica :: South Africa: Number of Full-Time Telecommuters Doubled Since 2000, Says Meta Group

...Teleworking policies continue to change as cultures and technologies mature, providing the framework for expansion from the travelling salesperson to the enterprise knowledge worker. Currently, more than 90% of enterprises use dial-up services to support such workers. However, functionality requirements for knowledge workers include the ability to access all relevant corporate and customer information, which demands reliable broadband access via cable modems, DSL, and other always-on Internet solutions for the remote workstation portfolio.

"By 2004, 40% of Global 2000 (G2000) companies will have an always-on broadband services policy that encompasses acceptable use, sourcing, payment/reimbursement, and service-level expectations (to include required quality of service for VOIP) for small, fixed remote sites and teleworkers. By 2006, 60% of G2000 organizations will have adopted such technology policies," added Ussher. "Among the reasons enterprises are considering convergence (eg, voice, data, video) are remote access by telecommuters to telephony features (including voice mail and station-to-station dialling) and access to non-telephony applications (eg, corporate applications), underlining the need for an enterprise-wide telecommuting strategy to include support."...

The Financial Express :: Not Limited To Consumer Space
by S SADAGOPAN

...Microsoft InfoPath is a neat application to capture business process re-engineering. MS One Note is a convenient tool that permits knowledge workers to capture multitude of bits and pieces of information, particularly using Tablet PC features. On the server side, Share Point Server has been fully integrated with MS Office permitting collaboration, publishing and controlled distribution available to ordinary users without having to learn/install additional pieces of software. To get the full benefit of Office System, one should have many of the server products installed too. In a sense, this upgrade of MS Office targets organisations (in fact, large organisations) that are focused towards productivity, process improvement, performance improvement, scalability and security...

ebizQ :: Informatica Aligns With IBM, webMethods

...Informatica Corporation, a provider of data integration and business intelligence software, has reached an agreement with IBM under which the two companies will jointly integrate, market and sell business intelligence solutions worldwide. The agreement will help Informatica more tightly integrate its entire product line with key IBM hardware and software platforms, "enabling customers to significantly speed development, increase effectiveness and reduce the cost of their integration and business intelligence environments," Informatica says.

The new agreement enhances the companies' existing relationship, and will enable collaborative solutions to be implemented as an integrated whole. "This will empower customers to more efficiently utilize their full range of information assets, deliver comprehensive business intelligence to wider sets of knowledge workers, and respond more quickly and intelligently to business opportunities and change," Informatica notes...

knowledge management news...

[there are eight news stories in this post.]

PrimeZone Media Network :: Northrop Grumman Recognized for Development of Time- and Cost-Saving Knowledge-Management Tools

Mentioned in this article, in order of appearance:

Northrop Grumman Corporation, American Productivity & Quality Center (APQC), Tacit, Air Products, Honeywell, Intel Corporation, and Schlumberger.

...EL SEGUNDO, Calif., Oct. 30, 2003 (PRIMEZONE) -- Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) has been selected as a "best-practice partner" by the American Productivity & Quality Center (APQC) for its leadership in developing software tools that allow the expert knowledge of its employees to be shared effectively throughout the company.

APQC's study, entitled "Expert Locator Systems: Find the Answers," recognizes Northrop Grumman for its development of XRef, a Web-based software tool that stores the expert skills and knowledge of company employees in a database accessible by employees. XRef allows Northrop Grumman employees to locate, at the click of a mouse, other employees who possess the expert knowledge or skill sets required for a new product development, project team or market research activity. APQC also recognized the company for its work with Tacit ActiveNet, a commercial knowledge-management product...

IT-Director.com :: Open Text doubles its size with the acquisition of IXOS

...Consolidation amongst Enterprise Content Management vendors proceeds apace. Following EMC's recent announcement of its acquisition of Documentum, Open Text has announced it is to acquire IXOS in a business combination agreement for approximately 200M Euros.

The acquisition of IXOS puts Open Text firmly on the European map as well as making it the largest, purely software based, enterprise content management vendor. Following the merger the combined company will have approximately 2,000 employees and a total turnover of about $320 Million...

m-Travel :: Xybernaut expands mobile/wearable computing

...Under terms of the teaming agreement, Cap Gemini Ernst & Young and Xybernaut are already working together to develop and deploy mobile technologies for customers in various industries. Initial units of Xybernaut wearable computers have been sent to the Cap Gemini Ernst & Young Mobile Solution Center for integration with Cap Gemini Ernst & Young wireless networking and mobile workforce solutions.

"Xybernaut mobile/wearable technologies are becoming an integral component of our aircraft maintenance and repair processes," said Kevin Allen, systems engineer, Information Services for ATA. "Our ability to be competitive is directly related to aircraft reliability and efficiency of our technical teams. We have upgraded through several generations of Xybernaut devices since 2000 and have realized tangible results in several key areas of our operations. Most notably, increased technician productivity, higher accuracy in technician data gathering and delivery, greater knowledge management for decision makers and shorter turn-around times for aircraft during regular maintenance."...

CORDIS: FP6 poster session: Poznan, Poland

...A Sixth Framework Programme (FP6) projects poster session will take place from 21 to23 April 2004, in Poznan, Poland.

The session, which will be held during an international conference on business information systems, is aimed at providing potential project proposers with an opportunity to present their early stage projects and obtain technical support and advice from leading experts in the field.

The main goal is to help individuals or organisations search for partners, with a view to developing consortia capable of building an FP6 proposal in the area of information science and knowledge management.

For further information, please contact:
E-mail: a.bassara@kie.ae.poznan.pl...

Business Wire :: Thinkpath Announces the Award of a Contract Worth Approximately $1M US

...TORONTO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 30, 2003--Thinkpath Inc., (OTCBB:THTHF), a global provider of technological solutions and services in engineering knowledge management, including design, build, drafting, technical publishing, and consulting, announced new commitments exceeding $1 million US with an existing client for engineering work on land-based combat military vehicles.

"We are delighted to have received this award from a long standing client with whom we have had many years of service. Thinkpath's business is increasingly expanding and we are meeting the challenge as demand grows. It is especially gratifying to gain this new business while simultaneously improving our margins," stated Declan French, Chairman and CEO of Thinkpath Inc...

Business Wire :: Prophet 21 Releases Knowledge Management Center 3.5 for CommerceCenter

...YARDLEY, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 30, 2003--Don Ireland, president of the Terre Haute, IN-based Industrial Supply Co., knows the importance of accurate, timely business information.

"To stay competitive in today's economy, businesspeople must access, analyze, and respond to information in seconds," said Chuck Boyle, Prophet 21 president and CEO. "Knowledge Management Center 3.5 will help distributors make key business decisions as the market changes." ...

The Times of India :: Straight Answers
by VANDANA SHUKLA

...Research scholar of Vedantic philosophy Amit Kinikar speaks on training the young in Vedantic philosophy.

Vedanta is nothing but the truth of life, the higher values of life which when followed lead to higher identity and happiness. When you are evolved, your dependence on external gadgets is reduced. The young need to be told that the insignia of life is action, they need to be pitched up to higher ideals of life that gives sustained stamina. I talk to the young in their idiom and they lap up the concept. You cannot talk to the young in the language of dos and don'ts. You have to appeal to their reason, and leave the judgment to them...

eWeek :: Cash for Code: Does it Work?
By Sunil James

...In August 2002, iDEFENSE announced its unprecedented and controversial Vulnerability Contributor Program (VCP). Established to meet market need, the VCP protects the critical information infrastructure within organizations of all sectors against an unprecedented incidence of cyber attacks. The model was designed because there was - and for the foreseeable future will be - a need for timely and proactive solutions to prevent damage before it occurs.

To date, the VCP has been very successful; the program has unearthed more than 200 new vulnerabilities that have been submitted by dozens of contributors around the world. As the number of vulnerabilities increases each year, today's technology-only approach, i.e. the use of firewalls, intrusion detection systems, and anti-virus software, will not suffice. The VCP offers a window on the evolution of information security solutions, providing a fair and responsible program that allows for the disclosure of new vulnerabilities. It is a cornerstone of tomorrow's multi-tiered security platforms and knowledge management frameworks - providing cutting edge intelligence to defend organizations, increasingly important as zero-day exploits loom on the cyber security horizon...

can knowledge be reaped?...

if you aspire to
reaping a knowledge havest
switch your metaphor...

haitech haiku™
©2003 judith meskill

read denham grey's harvesting knowledge - can we really do it? post...

knowledge management news...

Hold onto your socks - there are fourteen knowledge management 'stories' in this post. From iPhrase's One Step application, to Kent State's collaboration with Sheffield University, United Kingdom, to Line56 Media and Plumtree Software's new survey results, to articles on Content Management, the UN, Document Management, to the release of new enterprise suites by both Hummingbird and Generation21 Learning Systems, Global Knowledge's new CEO, Primus' first profitable quarter, and the list goes on... Enjoy...

SearchCRM.com :: A better search creates a site for sore eyes
By Barney Beal

...The difference between a frustrated customer slogging through a maze of site links and one quickly finding the necessary information can be the difference between a sale and someone logging off.

Analysts say Verity, Inc., Sunnyvale, Calif., and Autonomy Systems, San Francisco, are two of the bigger players in the overall enterprise-search arena...

Yahoo :: Kent State University's CEED and United Kingdom's Thinktank Collaborate to Bring Global 'Best Practices' to the Business Sector

...KENT, Ohio, Oct. 24 /PRNewswire/ -- The Center for Executive Education and Development (CEED) at Kent State University announces an exclusive collaboration with ThinkTank Consortium, an Action Learning Consortium working with Sheffield University, United Kingdom. This first-time alignment between the two consortiums will launch a new block of training programs and global best practice initiatives never before available to businesses. The combination of practical knowledge and implementation strategies created by this venture is unprecedented. Businesses will have the opportunity to access these global best practices through new programs and initiatives offered by CEED. Courses will begin January, 2004 with curriculums such as Innovative Thinking for Management, E-Business: Global Best Practices, Knowledge Management Fundamentals and Process Management for Healthcare. A complete course schedule is available at: ThinkTank Consortium: Partners in Best Practice.