Articles by Month: December 2003

EContent 100

Breaking news: we've just been included in the EContent 100 list of leading content companies worldwide, in the consulting services category. To quote:

Our group of contributing editors-Robert J. Boeri, Tony Byrne, Mick O'Leary, Marydee Ojala, David M. Scott, Steve Smith, and Martin White-along with no small help from some Information Today, Inc. editors-Paula Hane, Barbara Quint, and Hugh McKeller-set out to sift through a group of contenders both bolstered and weathered by the year passed. Our selection process is not formulaic. Instead, we rely upon our individual and collective experience in various corners of the econtent landscape along with our exposure to both the visible activities of digital content companies over the year and to the scuttlebutt that customers, consultants, and writers might pass our way. The resulting list, I believe, is worth taking a good look at whether you are seeking a specific solution or simply trying to understand the way the pieces of econtent fit together to produce more effective and efficient business processes over all.

Posted by jamesr at 02:43 PM | Permalink
Categories: Content management

CMS Forum

Bob Doyle has just launched a new site: www.cms-forum.org. This is designed to complement the ever-busy CMS list, and I'm sure it will grow into a valuable and comprehensive resource over time.

Posted by jamesr at 08:12 AM | Permalink
Categories: Content management

Seasons greetings to all

This is possibly my last post for the year, as the office is closing today, and then I'm off on holidays for a few weeks. The office will then be re-opening on January 12. (I'm not promising any blog entries until then.)

So, I would like to extend my seasons greetings to all the readers of this blog (both regular and occasional), and especially to everyone I have talked with, or worked with during the year.

Have a great break, and I'll see you all in the new year...

Posted by jamesr at 08:23 AM | Permalink
Categories:

Introductory Usability Evaluation (Canberra, March)

I'm pleased to announce our brand new Introductory Usability Evaluation workshop, to be held in Canberra during March.This workshop will be run by Donna Maurer, the senior usability specialist on our team, who has run over 100 usability evaluations in the last 3 years. (Donna will be well-known to many of those in Canberra.)

Details as follows:

Introductory Usability Evaluation
11 March 2004
Griffin Hotel, Canberra

This one day workshop will introduce you to usability evaluation (also known as usability testing), a technique that allows you to improve your systems and sites by regularly testing them with the people who will be actually using them.

You will learn quick and inexpensive techniques, as well as some fundamental principles that will allow you to check that your target audience will be able to successfully use your system.

The workshop is interactive, practical and hands-on. You will be working in a group to prepare, then run a usability evaluation for an existing site or application.

The workshop is facilitated by an experienced usability professional, and our goal is to make sure that you have sufficient experience to conduct straightforward usability tests the moment you get back to the office.

Posted by jamesr at 02:11 PM | Permalink
Categories: Conferences & presentations, Usability & user-centered design

Seasons greetings from the NSW KM Forum

On behalf of the committee for the NSW KM Forum, I would like to extend everyone our seasons greetings. May you all have a great break over Christmas, and start the new year with renewed enthusiasm for making knowledge management a practical reality.

(There will be no NSW meeting in January, but we will return to our usual 'first Thursday' on 5 February 2004. Details of speakers to be announced in January.)

Posted by jamesr at 09:46 AM | Permalink
Categories: Knowledge management

Links to CSS and web standards resources

Andrew Fernandez has published a site that provides an excellent set of links to CSS and web standards resources. To quote:

Here you'll find a whole bunch of links to some of the vast resources out there. These are places I've have gone to and still visit for help and to learn. As new resources are constantly popping up, watch this space for changes. I've tried to order stuff as logically as possible.

[Thanks to InfoDesign.]

Posted by jamesr at 08:24 AM | Permalink
Categories: Web development

Dialog vs. exposition and saying vs. writing

Jeremy Zawodny has written a blog entry on the process of communicating ideas. To quote:

I realized something the other day. When it comes to explaining things, I really need a good mix of dialog (2 way communication) and exposition (1 way communication) to really get it right. The problem is that I tend to be quite bad at balancing the two. The same appears to be true for the acts of saying something and writing it down. I need to do both.

I've certainly been having the same experiences as Jeremy. On a good day, the balance of writing and speaking just comes together nicely:

• I use my conference presentations, consulting and Intranet Peers meetings to "trial" new concepts and ways of explaining things.
• When I find a good way to communicate a concept, I write an article.
• I'm finding my shorter 1-page articles are really forcing me to distill my ideas.
• Over time, my writing seems to be getting shorter and shorter, which I think is good.
• What's really neat is when you are struck by a great idea in the middle of consulting. This happened to me two weeks ago, and led to the generation of a new diagram to be used by organisations when selecting a CMS. Lots of (hopefully) good IP here which I've now written up and will be using in coming projects... When I think I've got it fully-developed I'll then release it publicly.

In summary, this is why I'm making sure our growing consulting team do some of all of the following:

• consulting
• speaking at conferences, etc
• writing articles
• running workshops & seminars

Posted by jamesr at 06:17 PM | Permalink
Categories: Conferences & presentations, Knowledge management

Intranet Peers in Government (Sydney, Australia)

This is a final pre-Christmas reminder about the upcoming Intranet Peers in Government workshop to be held in Sydney during February. This is the latest of the series of workshops run quarterly in major capital cities, designed to facilitate the ongoing sharing of knowledge within the public sector. Ask anyone who's attended: it's not to be missed!

Intranet Peers in Government
19 & 20 February 2004
Mercure Hotel, Sydney

This two-day facilitated workshop provides a unique opportunity to meet with other hands-on intranet managers working in the public sector. It will also allow you to share best practice, benchmark your intranet, and find out how other similar organisations tackle intranet issues.

Note that this is not a seminar, but instead an invaluable opportunity to build ties with other intranet managers, and compare stories about successes and failures.

"Showed me a whole range of things I didn't even realise existed."

"An unusual opportunity to meet people who deal with similar problems"

"Very useful discussions and presentations. Not just along the lines of 'we all have the same problems', but here are some possible solutions."

"Fantastic. Haven't enjoyed a course so much in ages."

"I found the course very interesting & valuable. I enjoyed talking to others with similar issues & learned an enormous amount of useful info."

Posted by jamesr at 01:01 PM | Permalink
Categories: Conferences & presentations

RELAX NG now a full ISO International Standard

Michael Smith has forwarded the announcement that RELAX NG is now a full ISO standard (this is an alternative to the W3C schema specification, for those who are into XML). To quote:

RELAX NG was developed under the guidance of Clark and MURATA Makoto (creator of the original RELAX schema language) and the members of the RELAX NG technical committee at OASIS. Work on making it an ISO standard was subsequently taken on by the Document Description and Processing Languages subcommittee of the ISO/IEC Joint Technical Committee 1 (ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 34), as part of a larger project, the Document Schema Definition Language (DSDL).

Posted by jamesr at 08:26 AM | Permalink
Categories: XML

Avoid Santa Claus approach to content management

Gerry McGovern has written a piece on avoiding wishlists when purchasing a content management system. To quote:

The Santa Claus approach to content management creates a content management software wish list. It believes in the magic of technology to sweep away any and every problem. Typically, those who believe in Santa don't believe in defining their processes, or figuring out just why they need a website in the first place.

Posted by jamesr at 08:18 AM | Permalink
Categories: Content management

Squeezing value from KM

Melanie Liew has written an article on knowledge management for Computerworld, focusing on the challenge of providing the right information at the right time. To quote:

Buzzword aside, Hart believes that the intention to roll out a knowledge management project is a decision that should not be based just on a technological solution alone. She said, "KM is all about the way a company and its employees think and act."

Now, more than ever before, KM is necessary because it enables organisations to access all the information that a company has on a particular client or situation.

Posted by jamesr at 08:14 AM | Permalink
Categories: Knowledge management

The ideal CMS -- circa 2004

Tony Byrne has written an article that assembles his ideal CMS from bits offered by all the US vendors. To quote:

At CMSWatch our quest for the perfect Web CMS continues. This remains something of a quixotic venture, because choosing a web content management product forces buyers to face real trade-offs. This is almost inevitable in an environment where enterprises have extremely divergent -- and sometimes conflicting -- business reasons for implementing a content management system. Achieving greater automation will almost always reduce content re-use opportunities, and vice-versa. The more flexible technical platforms usually take the longest to implement and have fewer editorial features "out of the box."

Naturally, then, vendors make choices about where to focus their products, often driven by the requirements of their major clients (or industry focus). A vendor may market its product (or "suite") as a universal tool, but most CMS packages are beginning to fall into identifiable niches.

So herewith is the 2nd Annual "Ideal CMS," based on package versions in production as of November, 2003.

Posted by jamesr at 11:03 AM | Permalink
Categories: Content management

Paradigm dissonance: A significant factor in design and business problems

Jason Withrow and Mark Geljon have written an article on paradigm dissonance, and how it relates to the business environment. To quote:

How often do we want to simply make our point, instead of bringing our opinions together to reach consensus? Wouldn't the world be a much better place if we looked beyond our own limited perspective to understand other beliefs, thoughts, religions, passions, and goals? Leaving the issue of world peace to others, we think that this same behavior pattern is happening in design and business. Look at all the PowerPoint presentations and slick brochures: we want to tell our view, instead of listening to others. We want our opinion to be heard. It is precisely this desire to have our opinions be heard and to advance our own perspective that fuels issues of "paradigm dissonance" as attempts to resolve conflicting paradigms that demand compromise and collaboration. Identifying paradigm dissonance as a source of problems isn't new (for example, look at the fifth highly effective habit), but creating a framework for dealing with this problem in a business and design environment moves this idea in a new direction.

Posted by jamesr at 06:23 PM | Permalink
Categories: Knowledge management

Building a vision of design success

Christina Wodtke has written an article on the importance of building a vision when redesigning a site. To quote:

A common view of vision is that it's something handed down by a leader to the troops. When a redesign goes awry, the troops complain, "There was no vision." Sometimes there was a vision, but the leader didn't communicate it, or more commonly, no one bought into it. Then the leader complains the troops didn't obey. But the problem goes deeper than either scenario; the problem is that there was no shared vision. A shared vision is born of collaborative conversations, articulated in a form that is digestible and memorable, and then internalized and personalized by every member of the team. The power of the shared vision is that it is shared---it is held within every member of the team (or organization) and thus needs no leader to carry it forward; every action of the team helps make the vision real.

Posted by jamesr at 06:19 PM | Permalink
Categories: Usability & user-centered design

Static content generation

Simon Willison has written a blog entry on the benefits of static publishing out of a CMS. To quote:

In a static publishing system, HTML pages are pre-generated by the publishing software and stored as flat files on the web server, ready to be served. This approach is less flexible than dynamic generation in many ways and is often ignored as an option as a result, but in fact the vast majority of content sites consist of primarily static pages and could be powered by static content generation without any loss of functionality to the end user.

(This is a topic that I covered in my most recent article titled Dynamic or batch publishing?.)

Posted by jamesr at 06:16 PM | Permalink
Categories: Content management

Hong Kong law firm KM publication

Excited utterances has linked to a KM publication published by a Hong Kong law firm. To quote:

BiziLaw launches the first issue of Knowledge Management for Law Firms. Part 1: The Role of Technology in Knowledge Management

Posted by jamesr at 06:11 PM | Permalink
Categories: Knowledge management

Architecture of the World Wide Web

The W3C has released a working draft on the architecture of the World Wide Web, which provides an overall vision for developing and using the web. To quote:

The World Wide Web is a network-spanning information space of resources interconnected by links. This information space is the basis of, and is shared by, a number of information systems. Within each of these systems, agents (people and software) retrieve, create, display, analyze, and reason about resources.

Web architecture includes the definition of the information space in terms of identification and representation of its contents, and of the protocols that support the interaction of agents in an information system making use of the space. Web architecture is influenced by social requirements and software engineering principles, leading to design choices that constrain the behavior of systems using the Web in order to achieve desired properties of the shared information space: efficiency, scalability, and the potential for indefinite growth across languages, cultures, and media. This document reflects the three bases of Web architecture: identification, interaction, and representation.

Posted by jamesr at 03:50 PM | Permalink
Categories: Web development

Impediment no barrier

Eric Wilson has written an article on the Disability Discrimination Act and how it applies to e-learning in Australia. To quote:

New extensions to the Disability Discrimination Act, aimed at improving education and training, will soon affect online learning and computer training generally. After seven years of unproductive consultations with the states, the Federal Government is set to act unilaterally next year, with regulations enforcing training accessibility for disabled people. The move is likely to cause the re-engineering of e-learning systems and curriculum, and modification of face-to-face software application courses.

It will apply not just to government- funded education, but commercial education as well.

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

Driving performance through training

Eve Drinis and Amy Corrigan have written an article on organisational learning, focusing on how to obtain measurable business benefits. To quote:

The goal of good training programs isn't to get butts in the seats, but to get results. The first step is to know what your organization's goals are. Management is probably well aware of these goals. They might even have published them for the employee population. If not, write them down. Is it a key business goal to increase sales? Increase market share? Improve warranty compliance for dealers? Sell more service agreements? Sell more parts? Improve close rates with an existing telemarketing staff? Improve call resolution rates with an existing tech-support staff?

[Thanks to elearningpost.]

Posted by jamesr at 09:09 AM | Permalink
Categories: E-learning, Knowledge management

Intranet authoring models

At the last Intranet Peers in Government event we ran in Brisbane, the group was given a mini-project on appropriate authoring models for an intranet, and how these could be managed. The results have been captured in the following file:

Intranet authoring models (871kB PDF)

(See the website for more information on the Intranet Peers in Government group.)

Posted by jamesr at 01:24 PM | Permalink
Categories: Intranets

Top Scottish firms pool know-how on KM project

Kieran Flatt reports on how Scottish law firms are sharing knowledge. To quote:

The firms are sharing their know-how across most legal practice areas and are feeding it into a shared content management system (CMS) hosted and managed by Legal Data Solutions.

The shared CMS then feeds all the information beck to the law firms' individual websites, rebadged as the firms' own content.

[Thanks to excited utterances.]

Posted by jamesr at 08:10 AM | Permalink
Categories: Content management, Knowledge management

Five pillars for leading the client-focused organization

Joseph Neubauer shares his experiences of leading a client-focused organisation. He presents five principles:

Surrounding yourself with good people

Investing in your people

Listening to your people

Aligning culture and mission through leadership development

Keeping your commitments

[Thanks to elearningpost.]

Posted by jamesr at 09:13 PM | Permalink
Categories: Knowledge management

The intranet gets serious: Part 3: publish what you can manage

Gerry McGovern has published another article on intranets, looking at the content management processes. To quote:

There is a view in some organizations that an intranet is only for staff, so you can publish what you want. Quality content matters as much on an intranet as on a public website. Get your content right to begin with. Keep it right by removing out-of-date content.

Posted by jamesr at 11:01 AM | Permalink
Categories: Intranets

Simpler content management

Following on from a recent blog entry of mine, Simon Willison relates his experiences with simpler content management solutions. To quote:

I've worked on my fair share of content management systems (in fact I'm helping develop one at the moment) and out of all of the ones I've been involved in, the one I got the biggest kick out of took the shortest time to develop. It was based on Tavi Wiki, and consisted of a password protected Tavi install for the back end and a slightly modified separate install for the front end. Both installs pointed to the same database, but the front end was altered to disable all editing features and make the site look less like a Wiki. You can see the end result here.

Posted by jamesr at 03:28 PM | Permalink
Categories: Content management

Perls of wisdom in a sea of site mismanagement

David Walker has written an article on content management systems, outlining the current state of affairs. To quote:

The great surprise of the past five years of content management is that, despite all the hundreds of systems, no clear winners have emerged. Instead, there's a growing dissatisfaction with the ongoing technical burden that such systems impose.

Some influential voices are starting to argue that many sites should, in effect, wait out this immature phase of website management. For the moment, they should content themselves with limited automation.

Unfortunately, another article that presents problems, but no solutions...

Posted by jamesr at 09:21 AM | Permalink
Categories: Content management

Expert forum for knowledge presentation

Our goal is to provide a structured forum to define common goals, formulate strategies, and develop collaborative action leading to improving the performance of communications and developing an agreed upon knowledge base that serves and defines the field.

[Thanks to InfoDesign.]

Posted by jamesr at 08:44 AM | Permalink
Categories: Knowledge management

On Search: XML

Tim Bray has written another article on search, this time on searching XML. To quote:

Back when people were doing the initial sales job for XML (and its predecessor SGML) one big part of the pitch was how this was going to make search so much better: "Searching in the context of a <title> or <product-name> or <metaphysical-paradigm> is going to be ever so much more precise and powerful than boring old brute-force full-text search." And in principle, it should be.

But there are a couple of things wrong with this picture. First, people don't want to compose queries and do flexible, powerful structure-sensitive searches. As I've written here previously, people in general want to type the minimal number of keystrokes into a search window and say Go, and have the system figure it out for them. Secondly, descriptive markup is a form of metadata, and there is no cheap metadata, and XML is no exception. If your text inventory is in Word or HTML, XMLifying it in any useful way is going to be very, very expensive. Which is to say, XML may not be cost-effective strictly in terms of making search run better.

Posted by jamesr at 10:55 AM | Permalink
Categories: Search tools

the Diemen Repository of Interaction Design Patterns

The Diemen Repository of Interaction Design Patterns is starting to collect together design patterns for creating websites and other interactive interfaces. To quote:

Patterns help us solve design problems - problems that occur time and time again, and are being solved time and time again by designers. Patterns describe practical solutions to these problems and how to apply them in different situations.

With this Interaction Design pattern collection we are creating and extending patterns for screen design, with a focus on Interaction Design and Usability.

[Thanks to InfoDesign.]

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

Selectutorial - CSS selectors

Max Design has published another excellent tutorial, this time on CSS selectors. To quote:

Selectors are one of the most important aspects of CSS as they are used to "select" elements on an HTML page so that they can be styled.

Find out more about selectors including the structure of rules, the document tree, types of selectors and their uses. There is also a step-by-step tutorial showing how selectors are used in the process of building a 3-column layout.

[Thanks to the Web Standards Project.]

Posted by jamesr at 08:20 AM | Permalink
Categories: Web development

Dynamic or batch publishing?

My KM Column for this month looks at the differences between dynamic and batching publishing in a CMS. To quote:

There are two main publishing models used by content management systems: dynamic and batch publishing, and each has its strengths and weaknesses.

It is important to understand the issues around these publishing models when evaluating a CMS, to ensure that a product is obtained which meets the requirements and technical environment of your organisation.

This article explores each publishing model in depth, and outlines a set of business requirements which can be used to assess the publishing capabilities of content management systems.

This will be the last set of articles for the year, so have an excellent festive season, and watch this space mid-January...

Posted by jamesr at 12:39 PM | Permalink
Categories: Content management, James' articles

The difference between usable and useful

I've just released my latest CM Briefing on the difference between usable and useful. To quote:

CM Briefing 2003-21: A redesigned site can be easy and quick to use, and perfectly structured, and still be useless. For a site to be useful, it must meet user needs, and there are a range of techniques for identifying these.

As ever, comments or feedback would be very gratefully received...

Posted by jamesr at 12:11 PM | Permalink
Categories: Intranets, James' articles, Usability & user-centered design

How to create a know-it-all company

Lauren Gibbons Paul has written an article on knowledge sharing in the corporate world. To quote:

Even in the best of times, it's a battle to convince employees to participate in knowledge management programs. But in tough times, the tendency is for employees to horde what they know. Here's how some companies convinced individuals to share best practices.

[Thanks to elearningpost.]

Posted by jamesr at 11:30 AM | Permalink
Categories: Knowledge management

KM pickings

Denham Grey has written a weblog on what has been delivered by KM over the last ten years. He lists:

• Yellowpages
• Lessons learned
• Best practices
• Peer assists
• Communities of practice

Posted by jamesr at 11:27 AM | Permalink
Categories: Knowledge management