The KIT ─ Knowledge & Information Technology
Issue No. 13 - 1 December 2009
In This Issue
BPM: the Missing Link?
Collaboration vs. Institutions
Charting the Semantic Space
SharePlus Web Conferencing
Enterprise 2.0: The Big Lessons
Google Wave: the Book
Ultimate Typing Challenge
Seen Recently...
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BPM: the Missing Link?
Is Business Process Management the long-sought missing link between IT and the business, or is it basically just drawing pretty pictures of boxes arranged in "swim lanes"? The February 2010 issue of the Cutter IT Journal will be devoted to this topic, and Claude Baudoin will be the Guest Editor.
Collaboration vs. Institutions
In a 20-min. 2005 TED Talk, NYU Professor Clay Shirky shows how social media help solve collaboration challenges without creating new institutions. Shirky also started the www.tagsonomy.com collective blog, where one can read great insights on the role of tagging and folksonomies in handling the explosion of information caused by the "amateurization of publishing."
Charting the Semantic Space
Taxonomy seems to be coming of age. A first sign is that the oft- misused word "ontology" is no longer bandied about as much as it was a couple of years ago, and people use "taxonomy" when it is indeed the right word. A second sign is the Taxonomy Boot Camp held in San Jose, Calif., on Nov. 19-20. People are realizing that a good taxonomy is the master data for knowledge management.
SharePlus: Is "Easy Web Conferencing" not an Oxymoron Anymore?
Freeconference.com may have succeeded where so many failed. They've provided free audioconferencing for years: each caller just pays for a regular phone call to the system, and the provider makes money only from premium services like recordings or transcripts. Now they've added SharePlus, webconferencing that's simple, easy to use, and (from a limited test) works like a charm. It is limited to sharing Powerpoint and PDF files, which frankly is most of what one needs. There is a shared annotation capability. No client needs to be downloaded to your PC. The user interface is obvious and uncluttered. The cost is $6.50 per webinar (up to 150 participants) or $9 per month as a subscription for unlimited conferences. Caveat: the confidentiality of the uploaded files is unclear from the provider's FAQ, so use at your own risk.
Enterprise 2.0: the Big Lessons
Dion Hinchcliffe gave the closing keynote talk at the Enterprise 2.0 conference. To read the slides, switch to the "full" viewing mode. Many of his points are similar to my findings in a recent study of enterprise tagging (a.k.a. social bookmarking behind the firewall). Look in particular at the key challenges (slide 19), his points about ROI (slide 22) and key priorities (slide 27).
More About Google Wave
The excitement about Google Wave, the hosted system that merges email, instant messaging and wikis, continues to grow. Gina Trapani's The Complete Guide to Google Wave is a free online book (a print version should also be available by now). The Introduction chapter gives a very clear picture of what Wave is... and it also explains the name (no, it's not because of surfing).
Recreation... or Productivity Gain?
One of the surest ways to be more productive in our modern world is to know how to touch-type. Daniel Guermeur of Metadot wrote: "We just launched the Ultimate Typing Championship. It might be something fun to add to your next newsletter." Done!
Seen Recently...
"If the comments are ugly, the code is ugly. Harsh words, I know, but I've come to believe it's true."
-- Esther Schindler, in an IT World blog post

"Failing to deliver perfection is not a crime. Failing to deliver is."

-- Jon H Ayre, via Twitter ( @EnterprisingA)