Articles by Month: October 2003

Putting facets on the web: an annotated bibliography

William Denton has published an annotated bibliography on faceted classification. To quote:

This is a classified, annotated bibliography about how to design faceted classification systems and make them usable on the World Wide Web. It is the first of three works I will be doing. The second, based on the material here and elsewhere, will discuss how to actually make the faceted system and put it online. The third will be a report of how I did just that, what worked, what didn't, and what I learned.

Posted by jamesr at 02:48 PM | Permalink
Categories: Information architecture

Different approaches to KM, same results?

This week I was at the Act-KM conference on knowledge management, held in Canberra. Sitting listening to the presentations, and talking with my peers, something really struck me:

A number of people are conducting what I would call "needs analysis" activities, including myself. A wide range of techniques and approaches are currently being used, including:

• James Robertson (Step Two Designs): reviews focused on the intranet, based on stakeholder interviews, expert reviews and workplace observation. Ends up identifying issues much more broadly than the intranet, including organisational-wide cultural and process problems.

• Robert Perey (Knowledge Index): conducts knowledge reviews builds around complexity theory, fractal models and "soft systems" approaches.

• Kate Andrews (BDO Kendalls): develops knowledge strategies for organisations, using a range of investigative techniques primarily with senior staff.
  

(Apologies in advance for my paraphrasing of Robert's and Kate's approaches.)

What really struck me was that despite the very different approaches, similar results were obtained for our Australian government clients. The same problems arose (such as poor knowledge sharing, lack of formalised knowledge capture, ineffective intranets, the need for greater staff induction), and similar sorts of strategies were proposed to address these issues.

I find this very reassuring, and it gives me greater confidence that we are all finding the real issues with these organisations. Does this mean, though, that we are all converging on a common practice? Perhaps we are currently using different language and terminology, but using the same underlying techniques and approaches?

It would be tremendously interesting to dig beneath my surface observations to find the specific differences and similarities in greater detail, and to gain a better understanding about all of our approaches...

Posted by jamesr at 04:22 PM | Permalink
Categories: Knowledge management

Don't test users, test hypotheses

Avi Soudack has written an article on testing hypotheses as an effective way of conducting usability testing. To quote:

User testing typically consists of a sort of fishing trip. We lower a lure (the user) into the water (the application or site) and see what critters (defects) bite. This is a valuable and time-tested approach. But when we start fishing for defects, we are left with some tough questions. For instance: When are we finished? How many defects do we need to find before we have fully tested the site or application? If we find a defect, how do we know how severe it is, and by what measure? In iterative testing, how do we compare results from the test of the current version with results from testing earlier versions?

A productive way to address these issues and to incorporate user testing into the design process is by articulating, up front, the key issues you are investigating and predicting what users will do in certain situations. Imagine that you have been asked to review the user experience of a consumer shopping website and your first reaction is "They'll never find the pricing page." I'm suggesting that turning that hunch into an explicit prediction or hypothesis will improve the testing and the relevance of the findings for the design team.

Posted by jamesr at 09:33 AM | Permalink
Categories: Usability & user-centered design

QuirksMode

Peter-Paul Koch has published a website on workarounds for browser incompatibilities. To quote:

QuirksMode.org is the personal and professional site of Peter-Paul Koch, freelance web developer in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. It contains more than 150 pages with CSS and JavaScript tips and tricks, and is one of the best sources on the WWW for studying and defeating browser incompatibilities. It is free of charge and ads, and largely free of copyrights.

[Thanks to Simon Willison.]

Posted by jamesr at 08:40 AM | Permalink
Categories: Web development

Controlled vocabularies: A glosso-thesaurus

Karl Fast, Fred Leise and Mike Steckel have published a glossary of terms for controlled vocabularies. To quote:

"There is a singular lack of vocabulary control in the field of controlled vocabularies," Bella Haas Weinberg, professor of library science at St. John's University in New York, is fond of saying.

To help you cut through the maze of verbiage often found in this field, we have created a glossary of terms.

Posted by jamesr at 08:35 AM | Permalink
Categories: Information architecture

Institute for Information Management (IIM) Melbourne presentation

I was pleased to be invited to present to the monthly meeting held by the Institute for Information Management (IIM) in Melbourne on 24 June 2003. The topic was "Rebuilding the Corporate Intranet".

Powerpoint presentation (112kb)

Posted by jamesr at 02:56 PM | Permalink
Categories: Intranets

Open Publish 2003 presentation

At the Open Publish 2003 conference held in Sydney on 28-31 July, I gave a talk on "The future of Content Management Systems".

Powerpoint presentation (50kb)

Posted by jamesr at 02:39 PM | Permalink
Categories: Content management

Interwoven users group presentation

I gave a presentation to the Sydney chapter of the Interwoven Teamsite users group on 10 September on "Making the most of content management". Always an interesting topic, especially when starting with the statement "this talk will not be about technology".

Powerpoint presentation (52kb)

Posted by jamesr at 02:26 PM | Permalink
Categories: Content management

AusSI presentation

I'm just catching up on all the conferences I've presented at recently, and finally uploading the Powerpoint presentations to my weblog.

The first is the presentation for the Australian Society of Indexers (AusSI) conference held in Sydney on 12-13 September. The title of the session was "Ensuring an intranet meets staff needs".

Powerpoint presentation (104kb)

Posted by jamesr at 02:17 PM | Permalink
Categories: Information architecture, Intranets, Usability & user-centered design

Avoiding the web of costly content systems

David Walker has written an article on some of the risks inherent in purchasing a content management system. Unfortunately, while the title was promising, the content is pretty scrambled. (I would've expected better from the Sydney Morning Herald.)

[Thanks to Belinda Lego.]

Posted by jamesr at 09:51 AM | Permalink
Categories: Content management

For Jared Spool, purpose, not personalization, is all

Bill Trippe has published an interview with Jared Spool on personalisation. A good quote:

For Spool, the way to tackle personalization isn't to start with the question, "What can we personalize?" The right questions to ask are, "What does the user need to see right now? What information does the user need?"

Posted by jamesr at 09:25 AM | Permalink
Categories: Information architecture, Usability & user-centered design

User-Centred Design group (Canberra, Australia)

I received the following message from Ash Donaldson:

You are invited to the first meeting of "Interaction Design: The Human Factor" on Thursday, November 6 at North bar in Canberra.

What is it?

We are a group of people interested in designing better products in the IT&T industry by sharing information, theory and practical tips. The group will meet monthly to speak on user-centred design topics, covering the disciplines of usability, information architecture, human-computer interaction and human factors engineering.

Who should come?

Beginners through to experts in: Usability, HCI, Interaction Design, Information Architecture, User Experience Design, and Human Factors. Project Managers, Business Analysts, Software Engineers, and anyone else wishing to create better products.

Please feel free to invite anyone else that you think would benefit from this evening.

Where is it?

North bar
50 Northbourne Avenue
Canberra City

When is it?

Thursday, 6 November, 2003
Meeting at 5pm (for a 5.30pm start)
We have the venue until 8pm

Topic:

"Don't listen to users? Why not? Tips for requirements gathering."

Format of the evening:

Welcome and introduction to the concept of the group;
Interactive session on the topic;
Drinks, nibblies, discussion and networking.

Please RSVP by COB Monday, 3 November so we can provide the venue with numbers.

Best regards,
Ash Donaldson
User Experience Designer

Posted by jamesr at 09:17 AM | Permalink
Categories: Usability & user-centered design

Time for change: Innovation in an era of overtime and budget cuts

Peter Andrews has written an article on supporting innovation in workplaces. To quote:

For most of us, staying busy at our jobs can mean dutifully toiling through to-do lists of required tasks -- performing each in the same old sequence, with the same old methods and maybe even without considering how some tasks might be improved or perhaps eliminated. Even when we all agree that creativity in the workplace is important, how can people begin to dedicate time to innovation so that it becomes part of their everyday lives?

Posted by jamesr at 09:07 AM | Permalink
Categories: Knowledge management

Human factors methods

Thanks to elearningpost, I've become aware of a list of human-centred design methods, published by the Illinois Institute of Technology. The list hasn't been updated in a while, but it does give a very useful overview of a wide range of techniques.

Posted by jamesr at 08:59 AM | Permalink
Categories: Usability & user-centered design

Harvesting knowledge - can we really do it?

Denham Grey has written another blog entry on harvesting knowledge. To quote:

Many companies are climbing on the continuity management bandwagon, riding the demographics as the boomers begin to retire and there are dire predictions of severe erosion of institutional memory and organizational brain drain.

Posted by jamesr at 03:58 PM | Permalink
Categories: Knowledge management

Idea management

Denham Grey has written a blog entry on idea management, a branch of knowledge management. To quote:

Recently idea management has seen attention and activity as a forward-looking component of KM. A focus on sharing ideas, gathering converts, embellishing, vetting and finding champions, monitoring progress, providing feedback and enabling escalation has helped to move companies from sharing existing expertise to fostering innovation.

Posted by jamesr at 03:55 PM | Permalink
Categories: Knowledge management

Atom as a replacement to RSS?

Robin Cover writes about the Atom specification, slated as a replacement to RSS. To quote:

The Atom Project, to the extent that anyone can declare authoritatively what it is, or is quintessentially meant to support, is "an initiative to develop a common syntax for syndication, archiving, and publishing." Sam Ruby (Emerging Technologies Group, IBM) is most often credited for originating the core ideas, and design work spread across several wikis and weblog Internet sites is now being shared by some of the brightest developer minds focused upon the future of Web content creation and distribution.

The developers agree that Atom "will be vendor neutral, implemented by everybody, freely extensible by anybody, and cleanly and thoroughly specified." Atom is sometimes characterized as the successor to RSS (Really Simple Syndication or RDF Site Summary), which is variably used for news headline syndication, website metadata description, and content syndication. Like RSS, Atom is being created through an informal consensus process by volunteers in the Web developer community at large.

Posted by jamesr at 11:13 AM | Permalink
Categories: XML

Blogs on the Google intranet

Stefanie Olsen has interviewed Evan Williams, the creator of Blogger (which has since been bought by Google). Some interesting comments in reference to blogs and the intranet:

How many people blog at Google?
Not sure what the count is, but I know there's a couple hundred or more. It's really interesting to see the network grow from scratch.

Do you use that to get to know one another or to keep up-to-date on projects?
A lot of people use it to keep up-to-date on projects and to share pointers or expertise. I've heard people comment on how it's way easier to know what's going on internally now. You can find out what's going on when you go there or when you're curious about it, but you don't have to be deluged or distracted from your normal day.

Do you think that's a viable area for knowledge management?
It's really interesting for internal communications. The term "knowledge management" has gotten a bad rap, but some people say that's because systems have gotten too complicated. A Blogger-like system is the lowest common denominator to putting stuff up, which may be its benefit. If you can easily search over that stuff or follow topics of interest, I think it could be interesting, but it's not yet well explored.

[Thanks to Simon Willison.]

Posted by jamesr at 12:01 PM | Permalink
Categories: Intranets, Knowledge management, Weblogs

KM Frameworks - do they work?

Denham Grey has written a blog entry on the various knowledge management frameworks that have been published in recent times. To quote:

When last did you delve into a lengthy KM framework document? Been following the progress of Standards Australia's efforts? (BTW you have to buy this one). Are you a fan of the Frid framework from the Canadian Institute of Knowledge Management (V3.0)? Perhaps you have worked your way through Hubert Saint-Onge's "Leveraging Knowledge for value creation - a framework to guide the formulation and implementation of a knowledge strategy"? Maybe IBM's CBI Knowledge Management - a real business guide is your forte? You may be a fan of the European KM Forums, many publications? The KMCI's KLC could be the framework you most identify with?

Posted by jamesr at 11:51 AM | Permalink
Categories: Knowledge management

Faceted classification bibliography

Ping He, Shirley Koh, Karen Lai and Shumin Wang have published an online bibliography on faceted classification, as part of their library studies. To quote:

A faceted classification uses clearly defined, mutually exclusive, and collectively exhaustive aspects, properties, or characteristics (a.k.a. facets) of a class or specific subject (Taylor, 2000). The idea for a faceted classification really began with the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) in which a standard number representing place (location) was appended to a subject number by a device now known as a facet indicator. However, Dewey did not develop the idea further and in the early 1930s, Ranganathan formalized the use of the fully faceted approach with his Colon Classification. Other classification schemes such as Universal Decimal Classification, now provide facets for places, time periods and forms. More recently, work has been undertaken to develop the Bliss Bibliographic Classification (BC2) into a fully faceted classification scheme.

[Thanks to William Denton.]

Posted by jamesr at 11:21 AM | Permalink
Categories: Information architecture

Knowledge searching

Denham Grey has written a blog entry on knowledge searching, based on the "Johari window" model. To quote:

It may be a little passe, but the Johari window in its many re-incarnations, remains a useful reminder when looking at personal or organizational knowledge.

[Thanks to elearningpost.]

Posted by jamesr at 11:14 AM | Permalink
Categories: Knowledge management

Personas: Setting the stage for building usable information sites

Alison J. Head has written an article on personas, as used in developing the information architecture for a site. To quote:

As long as personas are developed with diligence, the planning and development tool has three key benefits for interface design projects of all kinds. First, personas introduce teams to hypothetical users who have names, personal traits, and habits that in a relatively short time become believable constructs for honing design specifications. Second, personas are stand-ins with archetypal characteristics that represent a much larger group of users. Third, personas give design teams a strong sense of what users' goals are and what an interface needs to fulfil them.

[Thanks to elearningpost.]

Posted by jamesr at 03:16 PM | Permalink
Categories: Information architecture

Why personalization hasn't worked

Gerry McGovern has written an article on why personalization hasn't worked. To quote:

Personalization hasn't worked because most people don't have a compelling reason to personalize. It hasn't worked because the cost of doing it well usually significantly outweighs the benefits it delivers. It hasn't worked because managers have seen it as some Holy Grail of content management.

[Thanks to InfoDesign.]

Posted by jamesr at 04:28 PM | Permalink
Categories: Information architecture

Web Design Practices

Heidi P. Adkisson has published a website called Web Design Practices which explores some of the common interface design practices, and their usability. To quote:

This site is an outgrowth of my Master's thesis, completed in December, 2002 at the University of Washington. My interest in continuing my research lead me to launch this site in September of 2003. I also felt that the data I had collected (and plan to collect) would be more accessible in a web-based presentation. I encourage those interested in conducting related research to also refer to my thesis, which can be downloaded at my personal web site www.hpadkisson.com.

The data presented on this site are intended to inform design decisions, not dictate them. Common practice does not necessarily equate with best practice---and the relationship between consistency and usability on the Web is remains a lightly researched area.

This site certainly brings together some useful pointers and samples on a range of practices. Worth a visit.

[Thanks to xBlog.]

Posted by jamesr at 12:06 PM | Permalink
Categories: Information architecture, Usability & user-centered design, Web development

A community effort in building an intranet strategic plan?

I've just finished running the latest facilitated workshop as part of the Intranet Peers in Government community of practice. A lot of fun as usual, with the group very rapidly getting stuck into sharing their ideas and approaches.

The second day started off with the group being given a mini-project of determining their ideal authoring model, and developing a presentation for their "executive" outlining how it would work, what the benefits would be, and what resources (time, staff, money) would be required to see it implemented.

Each of the three tables came up with quite a different approach, although there were some common factors. The outcome of this activity will be published in the next few weeks for the benefit of all.

While I was sitting back, relaxing and watching them work, it really struck me how beneficial it is to have the input of others with different perspectives when developing things like strategic plans. For an intranet, this is currently difficult to obtain without resorting to the assistance of a consultant.

Out of left-field, an idea struck me which goes like this:

Many intranets are in desperate need of a strategic plan, outlining where they are going, why they are heading in that direction, and how it will be made to work.

The intranet manager knows their own organisation, but could often benefit from a fresh perspective, or a different set of skills and experience. A one-size-fits-all intranet strategy also doesn't work, as each organisation is unique in its needs and challenges.

Now, back in the pioneering days when frontiers were being established, little farming villages sprung up in their hundreds. With resources being very tight, the challenge was to grow these communities and to make them sustainable.

Building a barn was a big job back then, beyond the ability of a single farmer. Luckily, the whole community would turn up one weekend, and help to build that farmer's barn. They wouldn't get paid, and would do it simply because they knew that they would need the same help sometime in the future, and this farmer would then return the favour...

This is perhaps an approach that could be applied to intranets in the public sector. The Intranet Peers in Government group already brings together a wide range of hands-on intranet managers.

What if one intranet manager put out the call for some of their peers to spend half a day helping them to develop an intranet strategy?

This would provide additional resources and experience, and would help to rapidly push forward the effectiveness and value of their intranet. It would be good experience for all involved, would cost little time, and there would be an obligation for the intranet manager to return the favour in the near future...

In this way, we can apply more resources and minds to the very difficult task of creating a compelling intranet strategy document, without costing anything more (in direct dollar terms). This would seem to make a lot of sense across a single government (state, federal), where all agencies are paid out of the same pool of money.

So, is this unrealistic and idealistic, or another way of looking at solving a problem through the use of a community of practice?

Your thoughts and comments would be very much appreciated...

Posted by jamesr at 04:51 PM | Permalink
Categories: Intranets

On four types of moderation

Tom Coates has written a very useful blog entry on the four types of moderation for online communities, which are as follows:

• Pre-moderation
• Post-moderation
• Reactive-moderation
• Distributed-moderation

Posted by jamesr at 01:52 PM | Permalink
Categories: Knowledge management

Presentations on enterprise IA

Louis Rosenfeld has published a number of presentations on enterprise information architecture. To quote:

I've put up a couple of fresh presentations on my site for your enjoyment/perplexment. They're both for the KM World/Intranets 2003 conferences taking place this week in Santa Clara, California.

Thanks Lou!

Posted by jamesr at 11:29 PM | Permalink
Categories: Information architecture

We now have moderated comments

Having been hit by a very unpleasant flood of spam via my blog's comments, I've taken action to put an end to it. Since I didn't want to disable comments altogether, I've implemented moderation for new comments. This is a little more work for me to manage, but should be worth it.

Keep those (legitimate) comments flowing...

Posted by jamesr at 09:37 PM | Permalink
Categories:

Floatutorial

Russ Weakley has published another excellent CSS tutorial, this one on learning to use floats. To quote:

Floatutorial takes you through the basics of floating elements such as images, drop caps, next and back buttons, image galleries, inline lists and multi-column layouts.

[Thanks to Simon Willison.]

Posted by jamesr at 11:34 AM | Permalink
Categories: Web development

Updates to XML standards for news OK'd

A press release today heralded the announcement of updated XML news standards. To quote:

The International Press Telecommunications Council approved version 3.2 of News Industry Text Format, or NITF, and version 1.2 of the NewsML standard. The updates provide more flexibility for suppliers of news feeds and operators of online sites that receive them.

Both NewsML and NITF are used by the major news agencies to deliver their news in XML, or extensible markup language. The updated versions contain new functionality requested by news agencies.

Posted by jamesr at 11:30 AM | Permalink
Categories: XML

Report slams Web personalization

Paul Festa highlights a recent Jupiter Research report on web personalisation. To quote:

The Jupiter Research report, "Beyond the Personalization Myth," assails as expensive and unproductive the practice of Web site personalization, which tailors pages according to information gathered about particular visitors.

Instead of implementing personalization strategies, the report suggests, companies should concentrate on the basics, such as making their sites easy to search and navigate.

[Thanks to High Context.]

Posted by jamesr at 11:25 AM | Permalink
Categories: Information architecture

Content Management Community of Practice

For those in the Australian public-sector who interested in content management, you should definitely know about the community of practice established on this topic by NOIE (the National Office for the Information Economy). To quote:

Managing content on government web sites is challenging. Government agencies have adopted a range of approaches to content management. Agencies need to be able to deliver content speedily and in the format required by the user. Solutions need to be critically examined in light of future requirements.

This community of practice is for government officers. While-face-to-face meetings will usually be held in Canberra, members not based in Canberra are most welcome to join and participate in email discussions and information sharing.

Posted by jamesr at 12:54 PM | Permalink
Categories: Content management

Ten best intranets of 2003

Jakob Nielsen has published the results of their latest Intranet Design Annual, listing their ten best intranets of 2003. To quote:

This year's winning intranet designs emphasized workflow support, self-service content management, and offloading tasks from email to collaboration tools. On average, companies spent three years between redesigns, and one year on the redesign itself.

Posted by jamesr at 10:25 AM | Permalink
Categories: Intranets

The semantic web, today

Juan C. Dursteler writes a brief but very clear article on the promise of the semantic web, and where it is currently up to. To quote:

Nearly three years ago, in number 26, we commented on the promise of the semantic web to convert the Net into a self-navigable and self-understandable space. Where are we today?

[Thanks to elearningpost.]

Posted by jamesr at 10:23 AM | Permalink
Categories: Information architecture

Programme for Intranet Peers workshop

I've just finalised the programme for the Intranet Peers in Government workshop, to be held later this week in Brisbane, Australia. It's going to be a lot of fun, and over two days I will facilitate discussions on a wide range of topics:

• Identifying intranet needs
• Increasing intranet usage
• Tools of the trade: Communities of practice
• Knowledge management
• Project: Authoring models
• Metadata
• Developing an intranet strategy
• Site management
• Tools of the trade: Wikis

There will also be an intranet "show and tell" session, where the participants walk us through the posters they've brought, and an extra "hot topic" session will finish off the two days, on a subject of the participants' choosing.

(It's not too late to fax across a registration, if you do so quickly.)

Posted by jamesr at 04:48 PM | Permalink
Categories: Conferences & presentations

Independent-Testers.org

Found via Beth Mazur and IDblog: Independent-Testers.org, an independent community site for testing websites for cross-browser compatability and accessibility. To quote:

As a web site designer an important part of developing the site is testing. To ensure your site can be accessed by as many people as possible, many aspects need to be considered with your testing. You need to test different browsers (including different versions of the same browser), platforms such as Windows and Mac, what it will look like with or without CSS, if the site is accessible by disabled users, to mention a few.

We have put together a panel of independent people who can test web sites for web developers.

An interesting idea...

Posted by jamesr at 11:01 AM | Permalink
Categories: Usability & user-centered design, Web development

Chief knowledge officer key to survival

A recent press release for a book launch promotes the value of having a chief knowledge officer (CKO):

Companies such as Kmart Holdings Corp. could have dodged bankruptcy during the 2001 recession if they had had a chief knowledge officer on staff whose job was to monitor changing trends, a new book contends.

Economist and author Lester Thurow argues in "Fortune Favors the Bold" that the recession was only a tipping point and the reason some companies met their demise in 2001 and 2002 can be attributed to the fact business models changed drastically.

To weather such change, all companies need a CKO, an officer who helps a mature business stay current by closely monitoring trends in technology and new competitors, Thurow said.

Posted by jamesr at 10:56 AM | Permalink
Categories: Knowledge management

CHIplace.org

CHIplace.org, the website to support the computer-human interaction community, has just been relaunched:

Welcome to the brand new CHIplace.org! See the links to your left for your connection to interactivity. In the past three months, we have been creating this site to better serve our Online community. If you have any comments or questions, please contact us at chiplace-at-cs.umn.edu. Questions or concerns may be answered by reading our FAQ page under "About CHIplace." Look below for the newest features and newest posts to our site. Thank you!

[Thanks to Reloade.]

Posted by jamesr at 10:50 AM | Permalink
Categories: Usability & user-centered design

Spam via comments...

I got up this morning to find that my blog was heavily hit by spammers posting fake comments to various (illegal) porn sites. Up to now, I've had one or two of these a week, and I've just gone in and deleted them. Today, it took me almost 45 minutes to go through and delete the flood of spams, all from the one source.

I'm aware that I'm not the only one to suffer from these problems, and it doesn't help that I'm ranked pretty well on Google, as well as having a large archive of past messages...

The question is: what can I do about it? As you can imagine, I have very limited time to deal with all of this. One option is to disable comments on all messages, but that would be a pity.

Any other thoughts or suggestions?

Posted by jamesr at 10:41 AM | Permalink
Categories:

Open-source CMS survey results

Karim Yaici has published the results of the open-source CMS survey he conducted two months ago, as part of his dissertation. There are some interesting results in this, including:

• General Open Source Software Usage
• CMS Distribution
• Organization Sector and Use of FS/OSS CMS
• Reasons for using Open Source CMS
• Problems with FS/OSS CMS

Posted by jamesr at 01:57 PM | Permalink
Categories: Content management

Escaping the organisation chart on your intranet

I'm pleased to report that Donna Maurer (our recent addition to the Step Two Designs consulting team) has written the latest KM Column article on escaping the organisation chart on your intranet. To quote:

At the core of the structure of many intranets is the organisation chart. This is not surprising as many intranets grow organically with little central control. Business teams create their own areas on the intranet, include information about what they do, and disseminate it to their internal clients.

While matching the organisational structure is often the easiest approach for an intranet, it doesn't serve the needs of many staff.

This article outlines practical ways to move from an intranet based on the organisation chart to one that is more intuitive and allows people to complete their tasks more easily. It does not describe a full intranet redesign process, but focuses on those issues that are most likely to occur if you wish to break your organisation chart.

Posted by jamesr at 12:31 PM | Permalink
Categories: Information architecture, Intranets

The importance of staff induction

My latest CM Briefing is on the importance of staff induction, from both a business and knowledge management perspective. To quote:

CM Briefing 2003-20: Staff induction is vital in getting staff up to speed, and ensuring they are productive. Yet most organisations have inadequate or ad-hoc processes in place.

Posted by jamesr at 12:17 PM | Permalink
Categories: Intranets, James' articles, Knowledge management

Why use DITA to produce HTML deliverables?

A number of IBM folk have jointly written an article on the Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA), one of the XML-based formats for managing content authoring and publishing. To quote:

The Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) is an XML-based format for structuring and authoring technical content. This article explores advantages DITA provides for producing HTML content -- including easy global changes, portability through standards, superior linking and Web management, conditional processing, content and design reuse, and better writing through focused content. DITA consolidates all of the benefits in a consistent, overall information architecture that can evolve and grow along with your product information needs and delivery modes, and with the evolution of standard tools for delivering XML as the presentation mechanism.

Posted by jamesr at 11:54 AM | Permalink
Categories: Content management, Information architecture, XML

Clinical governance: lesson cards

The UK National Health Service (NHS) has published a series of lesson cards looking at how to modernise the service. For example, one of the cards is titled mistakes are opportunities:

An ambulance service trust wanted to find a different way of handling clinical incidents. Previously these resulted in disciplinary action and most incidents went unreported. Following discussions, the Trust Board approved a new debriefing process. Individuals are now talked through the incident to find out how to prevent it recurring. An experienced colleague gives support to the individual through the debriefing.

An example: a paramedic inadvertently gave a double dose of analgesia
to a patient. During the debrief, it was discovered that the error
had occurred because there was similar packaging for different doses.
Work is now in hand to tackle this issue. Staff are now more
comfortable reporting incidents. The number of reported incidents has
increased.

[Thanks to David Gurteen.]

Posted by jamesr at 11:50 AM | Permalink
Categories: Knowledge management

Semantic anchors for XML

Uche Ogbuji has written an article about semantic transparency in XML, that is, actually conveying information between two parties, not just XML tags. To quote:

XML syntax is just the foundation for data interoperability. The next step is semantic transparency. Some groups are working to address this by defining entire document formats to be adopted wholesale, while other groups are working on ways to express common terminology and concepts at a more granular level. In this instalment, Uche Ogbuji looks at XML Topic Maps Published Subjects and Universal Data Element Framework (UDEF), two ideas that take the granular approach by seeking to provide anchors in the semantic stream.

Posted by jamesr at 11:27 AM | Permalink
Categories: Information architecture, XML

Thinking of knowledge

Denham Grey has written a blog entry on the different knowledge management epistemologies. To quote:

Part of the problem with KM is we tend to have very different assumptions, beliefs & views on the nature and properties of knowledge that really matter, in short, we have different epistemologies.

In the article, he identifies a number of different ways of looking at knowledge:

• Knowledge as object
• Knowledge as process
• Knowledge as relationship
• Knowledge as interpretation

Posted by jamesr at 10:47 AM | Permalink
Categories: Knowledge management

Knowledge management is a business imperative

Gretta Rusanow has written an article on knowledge management as a business imperative, looking specifically at the legal profession. To quote:

Law is a knowledge based profession. Knowledge management -- the leveraging of your organization's collective wisdom by creating systems and processes to support and facilitate the identification, capture, dissemination and use of your organization's knowledge to meet your business objectives -- should be key to your practice and business. However, for many lawyers, knowledge management remains a narrow theoretical concept.

Regardless of whether you are a large law firm, solo practitioner, in-house counsel or a lawyer in the public sector, knowledge management is about understanding what knowledge you use in your practice and in your business -- and how you can leverage that knowledge -- to achieve your business objectives.

Posted by jamesr at 11:38 AM | Permalink
Categories: Knowledge management

Taking the pulse of XML editing

Kendall Grant Clark has written an article on the current state of XML editing tools. To quote:

When I got a chance recently to attend a one-day conference of authoring and editing vendors, my only question was whether the conference was pitched to developers or managers. I would ordinarily avoid a conference pitched to managers because, well, I'm not a manager. But in this case it was important because I wanted to check my views, hunches, and surmises about what's natural and simple about creating XML against the views, hunches, and surmises of people who are interested, invested, but not expert in XML.

In the rest of this column I do two things: first, I describe the interesting bits of the most interesting vendor presentations I saw at a one-day conference in the Washington, DC, metro area earlier this week; second, I offer some impressions and opinions about the state of XML tools represented by these vendors.

Posted by jamesr at 05:43 PM | Permalink
Categories: Content management, XML

Intranet Peers in Government website

Most of you are probably aware of the Intranet Peers in Government group, established as a community of practice for hands-on intranet managers across the Australian public sector. This group continues to prosper and grow, due to the enthusiasm and generosity of its members.

I'm glad to announce that the group now has it's very own website.

This provides some introductory information for those interested in the group, with more to come in the future. (All in the Australian public sector are welcome to join, and feel free to spread the word.)

Posted by jamesr at 05:39 PM | Permalink
Categories: Intranets

Four words to improve user research

Mark Hurst has written an article on the value of a listening lab as usability technique. To quote:

The method is the "listening lab": a more open-ended version of the traditional usability test. Listening labs generate strategic findings - not just tactics - and point the way to measurable business results - not just usability results like task success or time-on-task.

[Thanks to Tomalak's Realm.]

Posted by jamesr at 05:36 PM | Permalink
Categories: Information architecture, Usability & user-centered design

Email updates six degrees theory

Technology Review summarises the results of recent Columbia University on the six degrees of separation theory. Some interesting results:

The main reasons for choosing the next person in a message chain were geography-and work-related, and those people tended to be acquaintances rather than friends.

The results could improve knowledge bases and peer-to-peer network design, according to the researchers.

[Thanks to John Robb.]

Posted by jamesr at 05:16 PM | Permalink
Categories: Knowledge management

Growing with knowledge management

Antony Satyadas has written an article about the relevance of knowledge management for small businesses. To quote:

The concept of knowledge management has been around since the early '90s, but only recently has its role as a key to business success received widespread acceptance. Although many IT managers recognize the benefit of knowledge management, its value to smaller businesses isn't always as obvious. However, the importance of a knowledge-management solution is just as vital for small and midsize businesses.

[Thanks to elearningpost.]

Posted by jamesr at 11:01 AM | Permalink
Categories: Knowledge management

Why content management systems are like relationships

Gareth has written some very amusing points on why content management systems are like relationships. These are just the first three of his points, visit his page for the rest:

• There comes a point in your life when you feel that you really should be in one.
• They're expensive up front, and you never stop paying for them.
• People who are already in them tend to be a bit superior about being in one.

[Thanks to Brendan Quinn and Ian Peter.]

Posted by jamesr at 12:14 PM | Permalink
Categories: Content management

Balancing visual and structural complexity in interaction design

Henrik Olsen has written an excellent article on the difference between simplicity and usability. To quote:

Usability is based on principles such as "Less is more" and "Keep it simple, stupid". But there is more to simplicity than meets the eye. By reducing visual complexity at the cost of structural simplicity, you will give your users a hard time understanding and navigating the content of a web site.

This is a a tremendously useful article, that explores many of the current design myths (such as the old 7 +- 2 rule), and gives links to the latest research. Well worth a read.

Posted by jamesr at 10:23 AM | Permalink
Categories: Usability & user-centered design

CMS Directory

Johan Klein has established a new site on content management called CMS Directory. It's very early days, so the amount of content is limited, but I expect it will grow rapidly from here.

Posted by jamesr at 05:00 PM | Permalink
Categories: Content management

Serving customer communities online

Lee LeFever has written a blog entry on serving customer communities online, in which he provides some practical advice and tips. To quote:

A while back I wrote about "What is an Online Community?" in terms of understanding the basic concept of online communities. The theme was that online communities are "communities" first and "online" second -- meaning that the "online" part is secondary to the real-world community that is using the web site.

Posted by jamesr at 11:53 AM | Permalink
Categories: Knowledge management