I can say with some satisfaction, that we have finally finished producing our special issue, IWR Horizons. Regular readers of the magazine will know that around this time of year we typically combine our July and August issues together. As the powers that be can't have us sitting around twiddling our thumbs for an entire month; we have the opportunity to try out some new ideas and experiment with an extra issue. I'm pleased to say that this year I think that has worked out pretty well.
The premise of IWR Horizons has been to engage with those thought-leaders and decision makers in the information industry, with the summer season in full swing we decided on a more informal, light-hearted edition. What that has resulted in is some candid and insightful opinions about the information industry from the people who play a fundamental role in it.
With Horizons we have got to know some of these people a little better, their favourite read or holiday choice for example. However it was their opinions on the information industry and a little future gazing that is particularly interesting. We were fortunate to receive such honest responses, which to my mind only highlights how much people care about the profession.
There have been contributions from Dame Lynne Brindley from the British Library, Natalie Ceeney, from The National Archives, MD of LexisNexis - Josh Bottomley and Jay Jordan, president and CEO from the OCLC (to name but a few). All of our interviewees made a great contribution to the issue, and I have certainly been given food for thought in reading their responses, (as I am sure you will).
So, apart from an overt plug for our extra issue, and a thank you to those who took part, I wanted to highlight what a positive exercise producing this was. Engaging in a new project or trying a different way to achieve a task, may surprise and enlighten you to new ways of working. Whether you are about to embark on a break or have just returned, perhaps try approaching one aspect of your job from a different way, you never know what you might discover...
IWR Horizons will be available around 12th August
Wednesday, 30 July 2008
Monday, 28 July 2008
Interwoven fights back
In the content management space the debate over the future of Vignette and Interwoven has raged for many years. A flurry of acquisitions in the last two years has seen the market consolidate down to around six major players: IBM, EMC Documentum, Oracle, Opentext, Microsoft and HP - all of which have particular strengths in particular verticals, or functionality which will make them appeal to certain companies over others.
And then there's Interwoven and Vignette, sitting rather uncomfortably sometimes in the middle. While IBM built its products around its background in business process management, imaging and storage, and OpenText's focus is governance, risk and compliance, the two smaller vendors historically approached ECM from the web content management side.
Both have been commonly talked-about as acquisition targets for one of the bigger vendors, given the sound technology solutions they produce, and it's possible that they've been saved so far thanks to SAP's notoriously acquisition-shy behaviour. It would seem crazy that the German software giant doesn't make a move in this space soon though, allowing as it has its archest rival Oracle to shoot ahead in the content management stakes with functionality it acquired with Stellent.
In the meantime then, Vignette has sought to stave off any potential approaches by concentrating on its core competency in the web, adding greater social media and personalisation capabilities. Interwoven meanwhile has been a bit more quiet, bagging an acquisition in the web optimisation space and enhancing current products.
And now it has sought to expand it capabilities into the rapidly growing e-discovery market with an announcement to acquire Discovery Mining, a firm specialising in solutions which streamline the process of discovering e-data relating to litigation. The move makes more than just financial sense - Forrester predicts the north American market alone for e-discovery will more than triple by 2011 to over $4billion - because Interwoven is already strong in the legal space. And with a strong thumbs up in Gartner's recent MarketScope report for the WCM space, the firm seems to be doing a pretty good job of keeping the vultures at bay.
And then there's Interwoven and Vignette, sitting rather uncomfortably sometimes in the middle. While IBM built its products around its background in business process management, imaging and storage, and OpenText's focus is governance, risk and compliance, the two smaller vendors historically approached ECM from the web content management side.
Both have been commonly talked-about as acquisition targets for one of the bigger vendors, given the sound technology solutions they produce, and it's possible that they've been saved so far thanks to SAP's notoriously acquisition-shy behaviour. It would seem crazy that the German software giant doesn't make a move in this space soon though, allowing as it has its archest rival Oracle to shoot ahead in the content management stakes with functionality it acquired with Stellent.
In the meantime then, Vignette has sought to stave off any potential approaches by concentrating on its core competency in the web, adding greater social media and personalisation capabilities. Interwoven meanwhile has been a bit more quiet, bagging an acquisition in the web optimisation space and enhancing current products.
And now it has sought to expand it capabilities into the rapidly growing e-discovery market with an announcement to acquire Discovery Mining, a firm specialising in solutions which streamline the process of discovering e-data relating to litigation. The move makes more than just financial sense - Forrester predicts the north American market alone for e-discovery will more than triple by 2011 to over $4billion - because Interwoven is already strong in the legal space. And with a strong thumbs up in Gartner's recent MarketScope report for the WCM space, the firm seems to be doing a pretty good job of keeping the vultures at bay.
Thursday, 24 July 2008
Wikipedia rival launched by Google
Knol is Google's attempt to match the success of Wikipedia. The beta version launched yesterday with Google welcoming all contributions.
Some of the differences between Knol and Wikipedia is that articles on certain subject areas (or knols) are written by named experts, whether they leave their articles open to edit by others like wikis or moderated is up to them. Rather than appear in single website, articles will appear as single web pages which Google believe will improve search.
More of the story at ZDNET.
Some of the differences between Knol and Wikipedia is that articles on certain subject areas (or knols) are written by named experts, whether they leave their articles open to edit by others like wikis or moderated is up to them. Rather than appear in single website, articles will appear as single web pages which Google believe will improve search.
More of the story at ZDNET.
Wednesday, 23 July 2008
Let the good times roll
I was at the British Library (BL) last night for their summer drinks bash (the quickest way to a journalist's heart is through the liver) but also to celebrate the St Pancras building's tenth anniversary. The other point of the evening was to highlight the release of the institution's annual report which this year has been complemented with an online version of library users waxing lyrical about the service and what they get out of it. Its quite fun way of presenting it actually...
Statistics that the assembled team of BL staff were keen to point out show that the 2007/08 year has been a winning one for the library. It has on the whole, successfully played the role of 'honest broker' in the ongoing IP debate and got most of what it wanted from the Gower's review. The last 12 months have also been fruitful for a number of other reasons too, for example Reading Room satisfaction rates come in at around 93%. The religiously themed Sacred: Discover what we share exhibition drew in nearly 200,000 visitors which the library say is its most successful event yet. Complementing that, its online presence has attracted six million unique visitors to its website. With the Government agreeing not to make any cuts to the BL's annual budget and with a saving of £18 million made in an efficiency drive, it is perhaps unsurprising that Chief Exec Dame Lynne Brindley appeared in the 2008 honours list.
(You can find out more about Lynne in our special summer issue IWR Horizons next month)
Meanwhile tomorrow will see the launch of a new website that will bring different sections of the world's oldest bible (The Codex Sinaiticus) together. The Codex Sinaiticus website will unite the four parts of the bible held at institutions in Germany, Egypt, and Russia and of course the UK's British Library. Using the web to reunite the ancient document in its entirety is significant because parts of it have rarely been viewed than by clerics of the highest level.
All in all I'd say that was a pretty good year for the library.
Statistics that the assembled team of BL staff were keen to point out show that the 2007/08 year has been a winning one for the library. It has on the whole, successfully played the role of 'honest broker' in the ongoing IP debate and got most of what it wanted from the Gower's review. The last 12 months have also been fruitful for a number of other reasons too, for example Reading Room satisfaction rates come in at around 93%. The religiously themed Sacred: Discover what we share exhibition drew in nearly 200,000 visitors which the library say is its most successful event yet. Complementing that, its online presence has attracted six million unique visitors to its website. With the Government agreeing not to make any cuts to the BL's annual budget and with a saving of £18 million made in an efficiency drive, it is perhaps unsurprising that Chief Exec Dame Lynne Brindley appeared in the 2008 honours list.
(You can find out more about Lynne in our special summer issue IWR Horizons next month)
Meanwhile tomorrow will see the launch of a new website that will bring different sections of the world's oldest bible (The Codex Sinaiticus) together. The Codex Sinaiticus website will unite the four parts of the bible held at institutions in Germany, Egypt, and Russia and of course the UK's British Library. Using the web to reunite the ancient document in its entirety is significant because parts of it have rarely been viewed than by clerics of the highest level.
All in all I'd say that was a pretty good year for the library.
Monday, 21 July 2008
Archiving your IM
By Phil Muncaster
A return to the issue of IM archiving that I flagged up a few months ago. New research by enterprise IM vendor ProcessOne caught my eye this week. Alright, some of it might look a little on the self-serving side - i.e. three quarters of respondents agreed with the suggestion that IM could provide their organisation with business benefits around increased collaboration. You don't say. But after all, this is a vendor-sponsored survey, and there were actually some more interesting findings than that.
The survey of IT decision-makers in sectors such as financial services, manufacturing and retail and distribution, found that nearly 90 per cent were concerned about the security risks of allowing public IM use in their organisation, while nearly three-quarters banned usage because of this. Security fears, of course, in this instance primarily refer to losing sensitive information through the firewall, rather than being subject to IM-borne malware.
But it was the stats around IM audit trails that were most interesting. Unsurprisingly 88 per cent said they did not keep an audit trail of IM messages sent by employees using public IM tools. But 8 per cent said they don't bother with the archiving and IM management process because it is too complicated, while a surprising 10 per cent said they didn't know they needed to keep audit trails.
In industries like financial services, where regulations are among the tightest there are in mandating the storage of electronic communications, it seems amazing that IT managers don't know that they need to maintain audit trails. And then there are legal requirements - the infamous Sarbanes Oxley legislation, for example, requires firms listed in the US to implement audit trails.
Perhaps the reason for these results is more down to internal silos and the priorities of IT leaders, who are under increasing pressure to keep the lights on, while at the same time contributing to more strategic, innovation-driving projects. Despite the penalties for non-compliance, it could be the business managers, the data owners, who aren't communicating seriously enough the importance of IM archiving. Perhaps there need to be more prosecutions or high profile cases like Societe Generale (where fraudster Jerome Kervier was found to have been using MSN to carry out covert IM conversations), to make organisations sit up and take notice. Otherwise, issues of a more tactical, mission -critical bent will continue to dominate the technology agenda.
A return to the issue of IM archiving that I flagged up a few months ago. New research by enterprise IM vendor ProcessOne caught my eye this week. Alright, some of it might look a little on the self-serving side - i.e. three quarters of respondents agreed with the suggestion that IM could provide their organisation with business benefits around increased collaboration. You don't say. But after all, this is a vendor-sponsored survey, and there were actually some more interesting findings than that.
The survey of IT decision-makers in sectors such as financial services, manufacturing and retail and distribution, found that nearly 90 per cent were concerned about the security risks of allowing public IM use in their organisation, while nearly three-quarters banned usage because of this. Security fears, of course, in this instance primarily refer to losing sensitive information through the firewall, rather than being subject to IM-borne malware.
But it was the stats around IM audit trails that were most interesting. Unsurprisingly 88 per cent said they did not keep an audit trail of IM messages sent by employees using public IM tools. But 8 per cent said they don't bother with the archiving and IM management process because it is too complicated, while a surprising 10 per cent said they didn't know they needed to keep audit trails.
In industries like financial services, where regulations are among the tightest there are in mandating the storage of electronic communications, it seems amazing that IT managers don't know that they need to maintain audit trails. And then there are legal requirements - the infamous Sarbanes Oxley legislation, for example, requires firms listed in the US to implement audit trails.
Perhaps the reason for these results is more down to internal silos and the priorities of IT leaders, who are under increasing pressure to keep the lights on, while at the same time contributing to more strategic, innovation-driving projects. Despite the penalties for non-compliance, it could be the business managers, the data owners, who aren't communicating seriously enough the importance of IM archiving. Perhaps there need to be more prosecutions or high profile cases like Societe Generale (where fraudster Jerome Kervier was found to have been using MSN to carry out covert IM conversations), to make organisations sit up and take notice. Otherwise, issues of a more tactical, mission -critical bent will continue to dominate the technology agenda.
Friday, 18 July 2008
A significant shift in behaviour
Evidence is mounting that professionals are seriously embracing online professional networking. Let me point you to two signs - involving the legal and the accountancy profession on both sides of the Atlantic - that may indicate a trend. The IT Faculty of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales (ICAEW) has launched a new professional development portal called IT Counts to help institute members to keep up to date with IT issues that impact their working lives. The ICAEW hopes to roll out more interest-based communities to its 132,000 members. You may have heard of IT Counts because it won Incisive Media's inaugural Web 2.0 innovation awards a few weeks back.
More recently a US-focused survey found that almost 50% of attorneys are members of online social networks and over 40% believe professional networking has the potential to change the business and practice of law over the next five years. The Networks for Counsel Survey conducted by Leader Networks and commissioned by LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell claims to be the first survey to examine social networking practices among the legal profession.
Leader Networks noted that the legal profession is traditionally slow to adopt new technologies so attorneys' readiness to use online networking tools represents a significant shift in behaviour. LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell certainly thinks that the legal profession is ready to embrace social networking as a serious work tool. It is looking to take advantage by launching a global network for the legal community later this year. This research was part of an exercise to assess what exactly lawyers wanted. Up to now social networking usage falls among older professionals but these guys aren't daft. If they see the benefit they'll learn.
Many professionals say they are finding it increasingly difficult to do the meeting and greeting necessary to find and keep work. Online professional networking tools offer the promise of an efficient and effective way of making and keeping contacts, especially in a global context. The professions are beginning to see that these online tools are now fit for a serious business purpose. It looks likely that online professional networks are coming of age.
More recently a US-focused survey found that almost 50% of attorneys are members of online social networks and over 40% believe professional networking has the potential to change the business and practice of law over the next five years. The Networks for Counsel Survey conducted by Leader Networks and commissioned by LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell claims to be the first survey to examine social networking practices among the legal profession.
Leader Networks noted that the legal profession is traditionally slow to adopt new technologies so attorneys' readiness to use online networking tools represents a significant shift in behaviour. LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell certainly thinks that the legal profession is ready to embrace social networking as a serious work tool. It is looking to take advantage by launching a global network for the legal community later this year. This research was part of an exercise to assess what exactly lawyers wanted. Up to now social networking usage falls among older professionals but these guys aren't daft. If they see the benefit they'll learn.
Many professionals say they are finding it increasingly difficult to do the meeting and greeting necessary to find and keep work. Online professional networking tools offer the promise of an efficient and effective way of making and keeping contacts, especially in a global context. The professions are beginning to see that these online tools are now fit for a serious business purpose. It looks likely that online professional networks are coming of age.
Wednesday, 16 July 2008
Protect information or choose to expose it?
When looking back on the year (and I appreciate its still July) I think we will remember 2008 as the time the country sat up and really started to take seriously how we treat our information. It has been a year when too many organisations both public and private, have let us down in their responsibilities in safeguarding it.
Perhaps most sinister of all were Government plans (announced earlier in the year) to create a database holding details of every email, phone call, text message and internet record the population makes.
It was therefore heartening to hear the Information Commissioner Richard Thomas say such a database would "be a step too far". Transparent debate and careful consideration on the idea is what's needed he said.
Thomas is of course right, the implications for running such a database (if it ever were to exist) are significant for society and so would be the role of the information workers tasked with handling such a behemoth.
In the latest issue of IWR Tim Buckley Owen writes about the opportunities info pros have to blow the whistle on state wrong-doings. Based on Tim's Justin Arundale memorial lecture to the Association of UK Media Librarians he suggested information professionals with access to such information should reveal all if ever encountering something that it is very much in the public interest to know. I would think they also have the responsibility to prevent leakages.
As Tim points out information professionals are uniquely placed to know how and what kind of information to look for, that can put them in a privileged and particularly responsible position, one with more power than they could ever have realised.
Perhaps most sinister of all were Government plans (announced earlier in the year) to create a database holding details of every email, phone call, text message and internet record the population makes.
It was therefore heartening to hear the Information Commissioner Richard Thomas say such a database would "be a step too far". Transparent debate and careful consideration on the idea is what's needed he said.
Thomas is of course right, the implications for running such a database (if it ever were to exist) are significant for society and so would be the role of the information workers tasked with handling such a behemoth.
In the latest issue of IWR Tim Buckley Owen writes about the opportunities info pros have to blow the whistle on state wrong-doings. Based on Tim's Justin Arundale memorial lecture to the Association of UK Media Librarians he suggested information professionals with access to such information should reveal all if ever encountering something that it is very much in the public interest to know. I would think they also have the responsibility to prevent leakages.
As Tim points out information professionals are uniquely placed to know how and what kind of information to look for, that can put them in a privileged and particularly responsible position, one with more power than they could ever have realised.
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