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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: October 2006
Podcast on content management systemsCM Pros has published a podcast on content management, featuring Bryant Shea and Seth Gottlieb talking with CMS Watch CEO Tony Byrne and CM Pros President Erik M. Hartman about how to select a content management system. To quote: Tony gives a lot of tips on how to select a CMS, while Erik talks about CM Pros, CMSML and getting a short list. (The podcast is about 30mins long.) Posted by jamesr at 12:39 PM
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Importance of a good authoring environmentThere's been a bit of discussion recently about the central role of the WYSIWYG editor in a CMS solution, including an original post by Lisa Welchman and a followup by Seth Gottlieb. Considering that the primary purpose of a web content management system is to help staff to write and publish content, the editor has to be front-and-foremost when it comes to selecting a product. And yet, many organisations specify little more than "the CMS must provide a web-based WYSIWYG editor". Now, we've been working with a lot of organisations to help them select a CMS, and we have a uniquely narrative approach which means that the requirements document will be less than 20 pages in length, and completed in 2 days (or less). If it helps, this is what we commonly put for the authoring environment requirements (with variations for each client, of course!):
Sadly, almost half of the individual items are devoted to ensuring that the Word rubbish is correctly removed when cutting-and-pasting. Sigh. If only Word actually created sensible HTML... Posted by jamesr at 12:32 PM
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Selecting a CMSSeth Gottlieb has written an article on selecting a CMS, pulling together quite a few different issues and approaches. To quote: Recently I have been doing a lot of talking (and listening, and reading) about the challenges and strategies of selecting a CMS. On October 25th, Bryant Shea and I hosted Tony Byrne and Erik Hartman in a discussion about CMS selection on the latest instalment of the Malcontents. Then, later in the day, we had a Massachusetts CM Pros Chapter Meeting on the same topic. That, along with countless one on one conversations I have had recently, makes two very obvious points: many people are out there trying to acquire a CMS; and many are struggling with this task. I have written on this topic in the past but it has been a while so I thought I would put some ideas down. Posted by jamesr at 02:18 PM
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More on the Intranet Leadership ForumThe practice of intranets is evolving. Intranets are moving beyond the metaphor of the "internal website" to become a more integrated and effective business tool. To meet these objectives, intranet teams need to have key skills in many different disciplines. The Intranet Leadership Forum is specifically structured to expand the knowledge and skills of intranet teams, to link directly with other intranet teams and to support overall improvements in corporate intranets. Membership of the Forum provides a number of key benefits, including:
Chapters of the Forum will be setup in major cities including Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Canberra and Auckland. More details will be released over the coming weeks and the initial launch will be announced very soon! Contact Catherine Grenfell for more details (catherine@steptwo.com.au or (02) 9319 7901). Posted by jamesr at 07:44 PM
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Survey on card sortingDonna Maurer is running a survey on card sorting, to gather input for her upcoming book. Details as follows: As part of my book on card sorting, I'm running a survey about how you've used card sorting in a way that may be different to the standard technique. I'm sure the book will be great, and you can make it even better by spending a few minutes filling out the survey... Posted by jamesr at 05:35 PM
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Trees in the city lightsThis photo was actually taken late last night, with security lighting giving a good reproduction of sunset. I just love the textures, natural and unnatural... Posted by jamesr at 07:26 PM
Intranet Planning Day (Sydney, 7 December 2006)We've just announced details for our last Intranet Planning Day masterclass for 2006:
(The early-bird rate closes very soon, so you'll want to rush to get your registration in!) Posted by jamesr at 06:44 PM
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Folksonomies and rich serendipityPatrick Lambe has provided a simple model on the use of folksonomies. To quote: What makes folksonomic tagging activity different from "free text" keywords entered into optional metadata fields by publishers of content into content management systems? Why does the serendipity afforded by such (user contributed) keywords seem less powerful than folksonomic tagging? The answer lies in people as knowledge aggregators. Posted by jamesr at 10:44 AM
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A scenario-based approach to evaluating CMS vendorsTony Byrne has written an article on his scenario-based approach to evaluating vendors. To quote: There is no "best" web content management system. I don't believe in magic quadrants, leaders-and-laggards, and other horserace-style evaluation approaches. Neither should you. The best CMS for you is the one that best matches your needs -- your budget, scope, and type of project -- in short, the one that fits best for your web publishing and interaction scenarios. Posted by jamesr at 04:56 PM
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Male: defect!I don't think this was the intended message when the sign was taped to a lavatory door in the World Trade Centre in Rotterdam... Posted by jamesr at 08:25 PM
Give up on using a taxonomy in an enterprise setting?Lou Rosenfeld answers the question: should we give up on using a taxonomy in an enterprise setting? To quote: It might be nice to run a semi-regular feature in Bloug called "WWYD". No, smartypants, that doesn't stand for "What Would Yoda Do?". It's "What Would You Do?". Someone asks me a tough question, I take a stab, blog both question and answer, and seek out additional suggestions (and perhaps critiques of my answer) from Bloug readers. I've done this a few times before on Bloug; thought it might be fun to do it more regularly, so if you have a tough IA question that you'd like to get a variety of opinions on (including my own), send it my way. Posted by jamesr at 12:53 AM
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Presentation: ECMplaza (Rotterdam, Netherlands)I just gave a presentation at the ECMplaza 2006 conference being held at Rotterdam in the Netherlands. The topic for the presentation was "Document management and intranets: control or chaos?", covering:
(You'll note that I'm moving towards a much more visual approach for my presentations, so reading the slides won't give you a fraction of what you'll get if you hear me in person. Sorry about that! But at least they are prettier slides...) Document management and intranets (PDF, 1.1Mb) Posted by jamesr at 12:26 AM
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Why innovation efforts failScott Berkun has written an article on why innovation fails. To quote: Established companies try to retrofit innovation into organizations by things like task forces, committees, portals and suggestion systems. Have you seen these efforts in action? I'd love to hear why you think they worked, or didn't. I'm cynical and here's why. Posted by jamesr at 09:41 PM
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The seasonality of search demonstratedRich Wiggins has published details on seasonal search patterns at a large university. To quote: I spent some time on Saturday reviewing the past year of search queries performed at MSU.edu, the web site of my employer, Michigan State University. It proved a useful way to distract myself while my co-author's alma mater destroyed my Spartans in football. Posted by jamesr at 08:00 PM
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Artwork in an alleywayAmsterdam is a lovely city to walk around. Lots of canals, bicycles and laneways, which combine together in a very pleasing way... Posted by jamesr at 06:22 AM
Intranet manifestoIt has to stop. The current metaphor of the intranet as an "internal website for staff" is crippling us. This metaphor is a direct cause of our unhealthy focus on just the usability, information architecture and content of the "site". We spend endless amount of time working on maintaining intranets, and yet intranets today are little different from the way they were ten years ago. Along the way, the road is littered with burnt out intranet teams, wearied by the struggle to get organisations to finally "recognise the value of the intranet". Instead of the "intranet as website" metaphor, we need to focus on delivering new things. This manifesto focuses on the project management of the intranet, on the steady implementation of new functionality and content (no matter how small). The real challenge is to guide this ongoing process, instead of just trying to sell the desired end goal. This has all crystallised for me in the last few months, and there is much more that can (and will) be written on this. Already we have created a new 6x2 methodology that encapsulates this, and Martin White has introduced the key concept of giving intranets version numbers (3.0, 3.1, 3.2) to emphasise the steady (incremental) delivery of new functionality. Both of these approaches will be refined over the coming months. The time is right for us to stop focusing inwards on the management of the "intranet as website", and to ask: what are we going to deliver to the organisation in the next six months? Posted by jamesr at 06:07 AM
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London BridgeThe lighting of the London Bridge across the Thames makes for a spectacular sight at night. There are lots of other lovely views to be had when walking beside the river... Posted by jamesr at 08:59 PM
Presentation: IBF Live (London)I gave a keynote presentation today at IBF Live in London, on "The various approaches to evaluation and measurement". Topics covered included:
Various approaches to evaluation and measurement (PDF, 1.1Mb) Posted by jamesr at 08:29 AM
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Latin inscription in Highgate Cemetery
The morning that I arrived in London I went for a walk from Highgate across Hampstead Heath. On the way I wandered through Highgate Cemetery, which is pretty amazing. This was part of a Latin inscription on a gravestone. Posted by jamesr at 09:37 PM
Global intranet strategies survey resultsJane McConnell has released the results from the global intranet strategies survey that was conducted a few months ago. To quote: The intranet has entered maturity as a primary information tool. However its value as a productivity and collaboration tool is not yet fully established, and its potential for creating business value is far from being understood. Whereas 52% responded "absolutely" on the first point, a mere 2% said the same for the last point. Posted by jamesr at 07:14 PM
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Intranets must be task-centricGerry McGovern has written an article on task-centric intranets. To quote: A task-centric intranet will work for everyone who comes to the intranet to complete tasks. It will prove challenging, though, to those who are responsible for creating the content and applications that are needed to complete these tasks. Posted by jamesr at 06:56 PM
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Presentation: Oz-IA conference (Sydney)I gave a presentation today at the inaugural Oz-IA conference in Sydney. The topic of the talk was on "Succeeding at IA in the enterprise", covering:
Succeeding at IA in the enterprise (PDF, 1.2Mb) Posted by jamesr at 05:23 PM
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Notes from Enterprise IA discussions (Sydney)I presented at the Oz-IA conference today in Sydney on "Succeeding at IA in the enterprise". I'll share the presentation file as soon as I work out why it won't let me upload the file to my site. In the meantime, here are the rough notes taken during the following interactive session that I facilitated. Just the start of more discussions to come I hope! Roadblocks/challenges standing in the way of Enterprise IA?
What role should enterprise IA's play?
How to raise the profile and increase the resources of enterprise IA?
Posted by jamesr at 04:56 PM
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