Archive of posts
Wednesday, September 16th, 2009 by Julian Carver
One of the big challenges for Enterprise Content Management in the last few years has been the sharing of content across different repositories and systems. Traditionally the only way to get sharing/reuse/blending of different content types across different stores was to buy all of the solution components from one vendor. Enter CMIS – the Content Management Interoperability Services standard. Think of it in the same light as the way major database vendors standardised on SQL in the 1980s.
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Tuesday, September 15th, 2009 by Julian Carver
I’ve just been asked to Chair the Brightstar Information Management conference in Wellington in March next year. As such, I’ve consolidated my mental meanderings on IM trends into something a bit more cohesive. Here’s what I’m seeing coming: 1. OpenSource ECM, 2. CMIS will save us, 3. Enterprise Social Networking, 4. Doing Sharepoint wrong, and right, 5. Structured Data, 6. Toes in the mist. First up, Open Source Enterprise Content Management.
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Thursday, September 3rd, 2009 by Julian Carver
I’ve been listening of late to Dave Snowden’s podcasts (mostly keynotes from various KM conferences around the world). In the last year he’s added a strong focus on social computing, as, in inimitable Dave style, he’s in the last three years leaped head first, experientially, into the world of blogging, editing the Wikipedia pages on KM, Welsh Rugby and other topics, and into Facebook and Twitter. Dave suggests the use of a new double loop iteration method using blogs and wikis to develop policies, strategies, and other plans in organisations. I was fascinated therefore, to hear Australian Senator Kate Lundy explaining her use of exactly the same method in her PublicSphere events for consultation with citizenry on public policy issues.
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Monday, August 31st, 2009 by Julian Carver
At the Open Government Data Barcamp this Saturday I was asked to facilitate the closing session. The purpose of the session was to get 160 people to come up with a shortlist of projects to be worked on the next day at the hackfest. Nat Torkington, while not physically present at the event had been looking over our shoulder virtually on Twitter, and had beseech-ed us to leave the weekend with some real things built. How on earth was I going to pull this off?
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Saturday, August 29th, 2009 by Julian Carver
Can politicians embrace social computing in a way that is open, honest and truly participatory, rather than simply cynical bandwagon jumping? Was David Cameron, UK opposition leader wrong when he said that “too many tweets might make a twat”? It seems so. The visit of Senator Kate Lundy to NZ, and the talk she gave to a packed room at Archives NZ on the evening of 26 August, proved, irrevocably, to me, that at least one politician is using social computing in a very powerful and authentic way.
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Friday, August 7th, 2009 by Julian Carver
I’ve just been to the ANZLIC metadata presentation held by Land Information New Zealand (LINZ). ANZLIC is the Australia & New Zealand Spatial Information Council. They provide leadership in the collection, management and use of spatial information in Australasia. Today they presented on the use of their ANZMet Lite tool for creating spatial metadata records.
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Friday, August 7th, 2009 by Julian Carver
As an independent consultant I’ve always worked hard to be technology agnostic. This has meant mixing and mingling with people from different parts of the IT landscape, including free software advocates, Microsoft evangelists, and everyone in between. About three years ago I started wondering whether the next big battle wouldn’t be between Microsoft and Linux, but rather it would be between Microsoft and Google. What’s made me really realise that the space has changed from an idea to a business reality is not the media and large vendor hype. It’s the people, and the business names. I’m seeing a third set of people emerge, they’re not OpenSource stallwarts, or Microsofties, they’re Cloud junkies.
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Thursday, July 31st, 2008 by Julian Carver
Someone recently introduced me to Cuil. It’s a new search engine, founded by one of the architects of Google’s large search index, and a computer scientist from Stanford. Their staff are well qualified, and they’ve got good investor backing. Could they be the new Google? I don’t think so. Here’s the reason.
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Thursday, June 5th, 2008 by Julian Carver
How do you turn an organisation that has, since its inception, focused on the preservation of print records, into a leading advocate for the government’s digital agenda? This is the question currently facing Archives NZ. I’ve been working recently on an Information Systems Strategic Plan (ISSP) for this agency. As a part of this their CIO asked me to write a paper on the way the organisation might use Web 2.0 technologies and approaches to assist in this transition.
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Thursday, May 1st, 2008 by Julian Carver
Requests for Proposals (RFPs) can be awful, appalling, lengthy documents which strike weariness and a sense of the inevitability of an arduous and adversarial process into even the most hardened solution provider. I was therefore most heartened to read Optimal Usability’s latest newsletter, in which they talk about writing usable RFPs.
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