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Column Two
News and opinion on all things KM & CM |
James Robertson
Step Two Designs
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Written by James Robertson Step Two Designs |
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Articles by Month: June 2005
Intranet Planning Day (Sydney)"Challenging, thought-provoking, the 'why are we doing this' more than the 'how?'" This are a selection of the comments from participants at the recent Intranet Planning Days held in Canberra and Melbourne. We've just announced a new date for a Sydney event, to be held on 19 October 2005. This is what's covered on the day:
It's a packed day, and I guarantee that it will give you a different perspective on how to manage and grow your intranet. Participants also get a complementary copy of the Intranet Roadmap wallchart & booklet (one per organisation). Posted by jamesr at 09:24 PM
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The FAQ - revisitedDenham Grey has written a blog entry on the value of FAQs. To quote: FAQs share many characteristics with patterns & canned helpdesk answers - proven effective solutions to common problems, steps and actions to be taken, 'see also' links to related issues. Good FAQs provide a learning experience and ways to quickly confirm the 'diagnosis' upfront. Posted by jamesr at 12:48 PM
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Content management’s inevitable conclusionsDan Brown has written a blog entry looking at the underlying model behind content management. To quote: These models, the ones we use for content, roles, and workflow, have something in common: an underlying model for business. In a world where content is considered product or commodity, roles are defined as discrete sets of responsibilities, and workflows are perfect processes with specific inputs and outputs, the underlying model is business is a factory. Posted by jamesr at 10:27 AM
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With globalisation, all intranets Are localMichael Pastore has written an article that asks whether there are differences between US and European intranets. To quote: While regional divisions and management often control the local intranets, at some point everyone works for the same organization. We all know intranets differ from one enterprise to another, but what about from country to country? Given the sometimes vast cultural gap, is there a difference between European and American intranets? Posted by jamesr at 02:44 PM
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Introducing SKOSPeter Mikhalenko has written an article that introduces SKOS. To quote: SKOS (Simple Knowledge Organization System), recently introduced by the W3C, is a model for expressing knowledge organization systems in a machine-understandable way, within the framework of the Semantic Web. The SKOS Core Vocabulary is an RDF (Resource Description Framework) application. Using RDF allows data to be linked and merged with other RDF data by Semantic Web applications. SKOS Core provides a model for expressing the basic structure and content of concept schemes, including thesauri, classification schemes, subject heading lists, taxonomies, terminologies, glossaries, and other types of controlled vocabulary. This article will provide some examples for using SKOS and discuss the general principles of building such knowledge bases. The W3C has, in my opinion at least, a very poor record on releasing standards that make sense or can be used. So while I'm prepared to give SKOS a chance, I'm coming from a sceptical starting point ... Posted by jamesr at 09:30 PM
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For CMS vendors: Product costs and license terms
It would seem obvious that customers are looking for prices. Our survey respondents expressed exasperation with the rarity of this simple selling point, and the way their time was wasted.
The absence of price information can make customers suspicious of vendors' motives:
Vendors should give a clear statement or summary of license terms and product costs. Some products need extensive installation or customisation, but it should still be possible to give indicative figures for different kinds of installations, with appropriate disclaimers. This is rare, even on sites with clearly marked 'pricing' pages. Such pages often only give sales contact information. Helping potential customers make informed decisions, and not wasting their time with products that are out of their price range, may create goodwill for the future when larger scale CMS solutions are required. Site comparisons Two-thirds of sites gave no price or license information at all. An honourable mention goes to those sites that directed smaller customers towards their lower cost products. Some sites included price information in their PDF media sheets or fact sheets, but did not have it available online. These sites received some recognition for effort, though it seems a poor strategy to rely on customers downloading, printing and reading documents to find prices. Past entries:
Posted by jamesr at 01:28 PM
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The meta data support modelR. Todd Stephens has written an article on a metadata support model, to ensure that metadata is useful and maintained. To quote: How well are you doing in supporting your meta data environment? You have purchased the software, hired a staff and got a few customers on board. Now, you're asking yourself how will you keep moving forward to handle more data, more customers and more engagements while continuing to expand the value delivered by the repository collection. This month's article will review the different elements of a support model, especially how the model can be applied to an online environment. The first two areas will be discussed this month while the final three will be described next month. Posted by jamesr at 11:21 AM
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Common industry standard for usability reportsAlan James Salmoni has written a blog entry about the common industry standard for usability reports, being developed by ISO. To quote: The Common Industry Standard is an open standard for how usability reports should be structured. Similar to the academic style of reporting, there are nonetheless important differences. For academics wanting to get up to speed with how the industry would like their information, this article should help. Posted by jamesr at 10:42 AM
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Program released: Open Publish 2005 (Sydney)The program has been released for Open Publish 2005. I'll be co-chairing this conference, and there's some excellent presentations covering web content management, along with XML and publishing. Hope to see you there! Of particular note is the keynote presentation by Martin White, who will also be running a series of workshops for us (Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne). Posted by jamesr at 06:11 PM
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Take breaks! A simple way to improve your heuristic evaluation resultsLaura Faulkner has written an article that encourages usability professionals to take breaks when conducting heuristic evaluations. To quote: The moral of this story? You may find yourself more effective in performing heuristic or expert evaluations if you divide them into sections and take breaks between to refresh your thinking. The approach used in the studies was to divide the heuristics themselves into sets. Using those smaller sets of criteria per session, work for an hour, then get away for 30 minutes or more, whether on a complete break or simply to another type of task. You may find that each time you begin it is with the freshness of mind of a whole new evaluation. Posted by jamesr at 10:51 AM
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Beginner's guide to moderating a usability studyKevin Cheng has written an article on moderating a usability study, aimed at those new to usability. To quote: Here are some considerations and steps I usually take when I'm moderating a usability test. For those who are experienced, I encourage you to add your thoughts. For those of you who are learning, I encourage you to ask questions of the other readers here. This article does not discuss the screening for candidates, setting up the test scenarios, nor the reporting of the data. If this type of article is helpful to you, do let us know and we’ll do more of them. Posted by jamesr at 10:00 AM
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Free industry briefing: Improving Intranet Search (Sydney)As part of our ongoing efforts to bring intranet teams from different organisations together, we'll be presenting a free industry briefing in Sydney on improving intranet search. This will held on 31 August 2005 at the Mercure Hotel in Sydney, conveniently located next to Central station. Topics covered in the afternoon session include:
Note: numbers are strictly limited, and all participants must register in advance. Book now to avoid missing out on this unique afternoon! Full event details (186k PDF) Posted by jamesr at 08:59 AM
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How to support knowledge creation in new product developmentMartin Hoegla and Anja Schulze have conducted research into knowledge creation in new product development. To quote: Knowledge management methods need to be selected depending on the purpose for which knowledge is 'being managed'. In this article, purpose is considered in terms of encouraging knowledge creation in new product development (NPD) projects. Given that companies have started to deploy a number of knowledge management methods in support of NPD efforts, the central aim of this research is to investigate how ten such methods support knowledge creation during the development of new products. We provide evidence from a survey of 356 responses of members of 94 NPD projects on the utilization of (and satisfaction with) 14 knowledge management methods. [Thanks to elearningpost.] Posted by jamesr at 10:44 AM
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User centered design: strategy or movement?Michael Andrews has written a blog entry that asks the question: is user centered design a strategy or movement? To quote: I believe it is a good thing that people are making money out of UCD, since business is the major engine of change in much of society. So when I question whether UCD is "strategic," I am not questioning that it holds important, commercial value. Rather, I am questioning how UCD is introduced in business. Posted by jamesr at 05:36 PM
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Now 3,600 internal blogs at IBMNeville Hobson has posted a blog entry indicating that there are now 3,600 internal blogs at IBM. To quote: Through the central blog dashboard at the intranet W3, IBMers now can find more than 3,600 blogs written by their co-workers. As of June 13 there were 3,612 internal blogs with 30,429 posts. Internal blogging is still at a stage of testing and trying at IBM but the number of blogs is growing rapidly -- and they are appreciated, with everything from water cooler talk to discussions about IBM's business strategies. [Thanks to Charlie Wood.] Posted by jamesr at 10:51 AM
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Debunking five common intranet mythsPaul Chin has written an article to debunk five common intranet myths. To quote: There's no shortage of myths in the corporate world either --- most of which are based on a lack of understanding. Over the years I've received many e-mails from readers with some pretty wild, and even dangerous, misconceptions about intranet development and management. In this article I'll take a look at five of these common intranet myths. Posted by jamesr at 10:43 AM
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International conferencesLooks like I'm going to be on the road for a bit at the end of this year, having been lined up to present at two conferences:
I'll post more details on these events when they become available... Posted by jamesr at 06:28 PM
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Conceptual blending in content managementDan Brown has written a blog entry on the interesting concept of conceptual blending in content management. To quote:
This parallels my thinking regarding the difference between workflow and task management. Posted by jamesr at 09:53 AM
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Workflow feeds with RSS and AtomClint Combs has written a blog entry outlining the use of RSS for workflow notification. To quote: Most people use RSS feeds for reading weblogs or downloading podcasts, but I'm experimenting with other uses. I've started integrating RSS feeds into a Java-based workflow application and the results look promising. [Thanks to CMS Watch.] Posted by jamesr at 11:14 AM
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Ask Tony: CMS early adoptersTony Byrne has written a column on CMS early adopters. To quote: Are there demographics you can generally attach to this market? Are there certain industries who were early adopters or who are now jumping on board? Anything you can provide would be greatly appreciated. Posted by jamesr at 11:15 AM
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For CMS vendors: Product demos and samples
Product demonstrations and samples provide an opportunity for customers to get a sense of the functionality of the product before contacting the company or committing to a purchase. Given the interactive nature of the web, and the eagerness of customers to try things out, this is a chance to sell the product that vendors cannot afford to miss. Customers value a sense of how the system works in practice, which enables them to gauge how well their technical and non-technical staff might receive it. Over three-quarters of our survey respondents rated demonstrations as important or very important and they had strong opinions about how accessible they should be. Respondents disliked demonstrations that needed scheduling, one respondent saying: "The worst is when you have to schedule a demo. Most of the times I want my demos NOW!" Site comparisons "I have gone to CMS vendor Web sites that have demos that are either not working or too limited." We awarded low scores to sites that included some non-interactive multimedia walk-through of the product, such as screenshots and descriptions. Nearly a third of sites did not get even get this rating, relying instead on sales contact. From the customer comments in the survey, this may be a less than successful strategy. "I'd much rather have an online demo than to have to schedule a visit from a sales person. If we like the demo, we might do a site visit later, but let me have a look at the product. Even better is a downloadable demo." Some of the tours on offer need help from a usability consultant. They seem to have been devised by the developers, and as a result they move through functions with the speed and familiarity of experts, only succeeding in making the product interface look extremely difficult. Some sites included presentations that did not run on all platforms and browsers, one even crashing the browser. The best tours and demos were careful in providing the necessary technical information (and download buttons) so that they ran successfully. Better-ranked sites offered a variety of demonstration options, stopping short of a full evaluation copy of the software. Many of these sites required customers to register and give a lot of details before they could access the demonstration material. This is fairly unpopular with customers. Best practice Highly-ranked sites in this category were those that offered a downloadable evaluation copy, or fully functioning demonstration site for customers to log into. Customers need to have an idea of why they would take the time to download the evaluation copy, so sites that failed to provide supporting descriptions were marked down. Past entries:
Posted by jamesr at 06:17 PM
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Google creating information architecture XML format?Joshua Porter reports that google has published a new XML format for site maps. To quote: Google is trying out and releasing to the world (via Creative Commons license) a new XML format for site maps. This new format is an XML representation of your web site that Search Engines would read upon entering your site, much like they read the robots.txt file now. Posted by jamesr at 05:58 PM
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Still fragmented, after all these yearsTony Byrne has written a blog entry commenting on the continued fragmentation of the CMS market. To quote: As I've said repeatedly, the number of viable Web content management vendors continues to expand. It turns out, for example, that the 72 systems seeing use in Denmark (population: 5.4m) has now jumped to 121. This is certainly the case in Australia. We maintain a list of all products in the local marketplace, and this has steadily grown to now include over 100 vendors. Posted by jamesr at 02:01 PM
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Do all web sites need usability testing?D. Keith Robinson has written a blog entry that asks the question: do all web sites need usability testing? To quote: Recently I've been working on sites where I've done little in the way of formal user testing. From what I can tell, while not perfect (what site is?) these sites have come through rather well in the absence of formal testing. Posted by jamesr at 11:02 AM
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Web Essentials July CSS Workshops Series (Australia)Passing on details about an upcoming workshop series on XHTML and CSS titled Web Essentials. To quote: Practical knowledge of the techniques of standards based web design using XHTML and CSS, together with an understanding and appreciation of accessibility and user experience is vital to anyone involved in web development today. Web Essentials Workshops offer world class training for industry professionals with a tight focus on exactly this need. Dates have been organised for Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne and Brisbane. The workshops are being run by Russ Weakley and John Allsopp, both well known in the web standards industry. Posted by jamesr at 08:24 PM
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Welcome to Tudor GoodeIt's always great to bring fresh blood into the business, so I'm excited to announce today the addition of a new senior consultant: Tudor Goode. Tudor has 10 years of experience in the industry, with in-depth knowledge of information architecture, usability, instructional design, and interface design. Tudor will be located in our Sydney office. Welcome to Tudor! Posted by jamesr at 01:02 PM
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Global IA questionsPeter Van Dijck has written a blog entry that lists a lot of good global IA questions. To quote: In the spirit of "look for the right question, not the right answer", what are the big questions around global IA? Here are a few to get started. Posted by jamesr at 11:35 AM
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For CMS vendors: Website usability and accessibility"They need to organise the information better so people can find what they need." Websites, especially those produced by sophisticated content management systems, should be functional on a range of platforms and browsers. They should also be clear and consistent in their design and navigation, and easy and inviting to read. Evaluation in this category did not include detailed examination of accessibility to disabled customers, although this is an important consideration in many countries at present. "Generally quite complicated, so the information one is looking for is not always easy to find." Functional design, testing and quality control are crucial to the production of a usable website. While fashions in navigation methods and design may change, a customer should still be able to reliably navigate through a site, easily read the text, and quickly locate the information needed. "Take notice of the search/information questions of your (segmented) target groups." We evaluated sites using three browsers, and many sites were messy or unclear in one or more of these. If the site remained usable in all three, we gave one star, but it is clear that vendors are assuming their customers all use the same browser, and optimise for that. If this assumption extends to their products, it could prove costly for their customers. Site comparisons "Take a more user-centric approach. CMS still means so many different things to different people." Three sites included in the earlier review received no stars in this category, mostly because the site, or very significant aspects of it, did not work in a major browser. On one site, the search did not function, and on another, the major Flash presentation did not work. Usually these faults were accompanied by other usability problems: illogical presentation of material, basic typographical and formatting errors, or the use of extremely small fonts and low-contrast colours. One site seemed designed for developers rather than customers, and a number of links took the reviewer, without warning, into development sites from which it was difficult to get back. More than one-third of sites received one star for basic functionality. These sites often had some other usability problems: on one, for example, the fonts used became paler as they got smaller. As a result, the main body font, which the customer had to read most, was extremely low-contrast, and difficult to read. Some multi-language sites had links that unexpectedly took the viewer to pages in other languages. Others were marked down for excessively long scrolling pages, confusing sitemaps or particularly jargon-heavy text. Almost half of all sites reviewed fell into the two-star category. However, even these sites had navigation that was sometimes confusing, and not entirely consistent. Many sites do not give a clear idea of where the reader is, particularly important when readers are viewing long, scrolling pages with complex information on them. Such long pages are very common, indicating that more work needs to be done on adapting documents for screen reading, by breaking up information and using links and sub-pages. Another common problem was quality control for content. A large number of sites included copy that was grammatically incorrect, poorly-proofed, incorrectly formatted, or badly written. This highlights one of the major issues in CMS implementation: the quality of the content being managed. Best practice: As the list of issues in the previous section shows, many CMS vendor websites have a long way to go in terms of usability and content. It is a statement of the obvious that these websites should clearly demonstrate the benefits of having a CMS: a well-structured and up-to-date site. If vendors cannot deliver on this promise on their own sites, it reflects poorly on their ability to support their customers. Vendors should therefore ensure that:
Past entries:
Posted by jamesr at 11:28 AM
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The Federal Web Content Managers ToolkitI have just become aware of the The Federal Web Content Managers Toolkit, a resource for those involved in managing US Government websites. To quote: The Federal Web Content Managers Toolkit is a practical guide to help you manage your agency's website. Everything you need to know as a web content manager is here, including: It's always nice to see these sorts of resources published, as they can be of value beyond just the organisations involved... [Thanks to the eGovernment Resource Centre.] Posted by jamesr at 03:54 PM
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The Records Management ReportCMS Watch has just published a brand new report by Priscilla Emery, titled The Records Management Report. To quote: The Report provides a comprehensive overview of Records Management solution providers and best practices. The bulk of the report entails comparative evaluations of 23 Records Management solutions offerings, including in-depth, 6- to 9-page reviews of 8 major providers, along with 1- to 5-page profiles of 15 specialty/niche vendors. It's great to see activity in this field, when things have been so quiet for such a long time... Posted by jamesr at 10:34 AM
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The intranet imperativeJames Dellow has written a blog entry on the evolution of intranets. To quote: The nature of intranets is changing. In fact the term intranet itself is rapidly losing meaning as the Internet interpenetrates organisations through a mixture of business-to-business marketing, extranets, hosted application services and of course personal use of the Web at work. The traditionalist view of intranets, one that concentrates on static information built around an impregnable information architecture, creates a risk for organisations that may be oblivious to the rise of collaborative and dynamic “application-nets” that connect users to people, places and things. Posted by jamesr at 04:55 PM
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Why records management?Priscilla Emery has written an article that answers the question: why records management? To quote: To some, managing records represents one of the most boring and onerous business functions that anyone could possibly undertake within an organization. Of course, most people don’t even understand what records management is -- making it easy to malign an activity that is so misunderstood. Posted by jamesr at 10:41 AM
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Spending patterns during CMS implementationMy second CM Briefing for June looks at the spending patterns during CMS implementation. To quote: There are three clear phases to the adoption of a content management system, of which the initial implementation is just the first step. The activities and spending patterns during these phases needs to be understood, to ensure that sufficient time and resources are made available for the project as a whole. Posted by jamesr at 06:24 PM
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Intranets as the first source of informationThe first of my CM Briefings for June argues that intranets should be the first source of information. To quote: All too often, intranets become a dumping ground for "second-hand documents". Information is sent out via email, or other mechanisms, and then stored on the intranet as an afterthought. Where this is the case, intranets deliver few real benefits, while still shouldering the full cost of maintaining an increasingly large collection of pages and documents. Posted by jamesr at 06:17 PM
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Intranet teams: survey results and key findingsThis month's KM Column article will be of great interest to anyone involved with intranets, as it provides the results of a survey into intranet teams. To quote: By definition, intranets are located within organisations, unseen by the outside world. As a result, little is generally known about corporate intranets, the teams that produce them, and the processes they use. In particular, questions often arise about the size and composition of intranet teams, where they sit within the organisation, and the skills they have. The survey revealed a number of very interesting results, including:
Posted by jamesr at 05:59 PM
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