Manage Google's Desktop Search Now or Lock It Out (Gartner)

The newest release of Google's desktop search application is fine for technically adept personal users. But the Search Across Computers option should be disabled or heavily managed by enterprises.

Ajax - Week of 02/09/2006 (Analyst Views)

Ajax - Week of 02/09/2006

It was roughly a year ago, with the introduction of Google Maps, that the term Ajax was coined. Ajax, an acronym for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML, is not a technology itself but a web development technique that combines preexisting technologies that have been around for years. A recent report by IDC refers to Ajax as, "A development technique that uses HTML, JavaScript, and often XML to allow Web applications to communicate with web servers and present new information to the user without continually reloading the page." This may not appear on the face to be significant, to many it may be read as 'faster loading web pages,' but it is. The spreading use of Ajax has already raised the bar for Web development; further, there are those that say that Ajax will make desktop applications obsolete. Though IDC does not go that far, they do state that, "Ajax may be the buzzword of 2005, and some of the hype is deserved: it closes one significant gap between Web and desktop applications by allowing Web applications to move away from their traditional, page-based model."

As stated above, one of the first Web applications to make use of Ajax was Google Maps. Google Maps differs largely from prior map programs in that it allows for features such as zooming and rotation without requiring the page to refresh. Prior to this the process was more or less, 'click zoom and wait for the new page to load;' any user of Google Maps will quickly notice its fluidity. Another example of Ajax in action is Gap's (or many other) eCommerce site; here users can get close ups of merchandise or see merchandise displayed in an alternate color without refreshing the page. The NetFlix web site is also a notable user of Ajax; here Ajax is used to present supplemental information about movies when the title is hovered over. This implementation is significant for two reasons, it avoids the need to load all relevant information initially, which would slow the page load, and it does not require the user click on the 'details' link to gain access to such information. Microsoft is also using Ajax in its web-based version of Outlook, as is Google's Gmail. All this shows the power of Ajax on the Web, but what does it mean for the future of desktop applications.

Those that would state that a typical desktop application, for example Microsoft Word, will be replaced by Ajax (or similarly) enabled technologies base the idea, at least in part, on Ajax's ability to store data remotely as it is typed, rather than requiring a user to hit a 'save' or 'enter' key. In this scenario a user could create a document on any PC and have it saved in cyberspace for retrieval from any PC at a later time. This functionality is already available at sites such as Writely.com; it is also the direction that Microsoft Live! is moving in; what Ajax could do is make this possible without an Internet browser.

As far as overtaking common desktop applications there are several barriers that would need to be surpassed for this to happen, at the top of the list are connectivity and code. A true web-based application can only run if the user is connected to the Web with a fast connection; and JavaScript, on which Ajax relies, is not noted for its streamlined code. Despite these barriers, Ajax according to IDC, has already transformed, "Expectations and standards for what a Web application can (and should) do." With the need for desktop applications to be more portable, implementations which allow this will continue to gain in popularity. However, as IDC puts it, "Ajax is hot right now, and many are suggesting that it will make the desktop application obsolete. Remote scripting is worthy of hype and attention, but as with most over-hyped technologies, such claims are extreme. Significant gaps remain between desktop and Web applications."

Here comes Measure Map (Google Blog)

My first post to my blog was a little paragraph about my obsession with cycling, and I remember feeling a little ... let down. Sure, it was remarkably easy. Write. Click a button. Reload. Cool! But then what? It wasn't until someone left a comment that I was hooked. An audience! Someone is reading!

BearingPoint partners with Google to launch Search Solutions Practice (Google)

BearingPoint partners with Google to launch Search Solutions Practice

Fixing Search (Line56)

How IKEA adjusted its online search processes; the whole picture

Schmidt's Google Broadens Gmail Reach (Forbes)

NEW YORK - Troubleshooting e-mail can be pricy for a medium-sized company. So when Google offered Friday evening to host e-mail for private domains belonging to businesses and organizations, the ears of many IT directors perked up.

IKEA Updates Online Search (Line56)

Replacing a bad search process with a good one; kudos, and a look at retail conditions

Blogs reshaping content management tools (InfoWorld)

Blogs and editable Web pages called wikis are gaining popularity with enterprise users, introducing to these organizations a new level of content contribution and participation.

Privacy fears over Google’s new software (FT)

A prominent digital rights group has forcefully urged computers users not to install the latest version of Google’s desktop software, which it says greatly increases the risk to personal privacy.

Lotus Touts Role of Blogs and Wikis (newsfactor.com)

"A lot of what we are doing now is figuring out where this all fits in. These things are not replacements for what we already have," says Duncan Mewherter, development manager for blogs, wikis and feeds at IBM Research. Instead, he describes them as a light layer of collaboration.

IBM/Lotus plans to expand its corporate collaboration tools by adding social relationship, behavior mapping and alerting technology that lets users easily share ideas, data, research and corporate knowledge.

Customers are hoping that the tools can help revolutionize the way their organizations communicate, share data, and analyze information and work patterns. The goal is to help improve collaboration.

At its annual Lotusphere conference, IBM/Lotus showed off plans to infuse its entire collaborative software lineup with social networking technology such as blogs, wikis and syndication feeds. While those tools are changing the face of the Internet, Lotus is adapting the concepts and features for internal corporate use in much the same way instant messaging was adapted for real-time communication.

Analysts still see fuzzy future for MSN as new chief takes helm (InfoWorld)

Industry watchers question how the portal will fit into Microsoft's Web strategy as the company builds out its new "Live" services brand

Setting up a KM Program (Line56)

A wealth of resources and guidelines

Setting up a KM Program (Line56)

A wealth of resources and guidelines

contentXXL – Business Content Management für den Mittelstand (contentxxl)

contentXXL wurde bereits 2003 mit dem Microsoft .NET Solutions Award im Segment Mittelstand ausgezeichnet und erhielt u.a. eine Anerkennung durch die bayerische Staatsregierung für die damit realisierten e-Government Lösungen. Zu den Anwendern von contentXXL zählen u.a. die Siemens AG, T-Com, das Deutsche Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt, die Swiss Olympic Association, Shuttle Computer Europa, Saint-Gobain Isover G+H AG, die Städte Erlangen und Fürth sowie zahlreiche kleine und mittelständische Unternehmen, Verbände und Kommunen.

SpringCM Releases Version 3.0 of its On-Demand Content Management Solution (Business Wire)

SpringCM Releases Version 3.0 of its On-Demand Content Management Solution; New Functionality Gives Businesses Smarter Collaboration, Adds Version Control for Documents and Files

CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 7, 2006--SpringCM(TM) today unveiled the latest version of its web-based, integrated content management product, which delivers greater collaboration capabilities and content routing for files and documents. The new release underscores SpringCM's commitment to give its customers monthly product innovations.

SpringCM Releases Latest Version of Content Management Solution (Supply & Demand Chain Executive)

New functionality gives businesses better collaboration, adds version control for documents and files

Chicago — February 7, 2006 — SpringCM, an on-demand content management company, today unveiled the latest version of its Web-based, integrated content management product, which it said delivers greater collaboration capabilities and content routing for files and documents.

Gunning For Google (Forbes)

LONDON - The Google guys must be wondering what the hell hit them. For a year or two now, Sergey Brin and Larry Page have been hailed by Wall Street and the press, adored by fiendishly avid users and devoted investors, and all but worshipped by Silicon Valley colleagues and advertisers.

SpringCM to Provide Content Management On-Demand (EContent)

SpringCM has launched as an on-demand content management company for businesses of all sizes. SpringCM provides a way of making sure everyone is on the same document by removing the barriers that businesses have learned to tolerate, such as storage waste, email attachments, and dumb network drives. The company will deliver a suite of on-demand, integrated subscription solutions that incorporates enterprise search, remote storage, collaboration, and content distribution technologies.

Portal Excellence Awards (DMReview)

Each year at DCI's Portals, Collaboration and Content Management Conference, customers and their solution providers compete in the Portal Excellence Awards. At the November 2005 event in Miami, winners were announced in four categories: Best Customer or Partner Portal, Best Employee Portal, Best Content Management System and Best Knowledge Management System.

Microsoft increases funding for computer training (InfoWorld)

Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates announced Wednesday that the company will increase funding for a program that provides basic computer training and job skills to people in countries lacking those services.

Disney's Pixar Buy Will Accelerate Change in Media Industry (Gartner)

The Walt Disney Co.'s purchase of Pixar Animation Studios puts two of the media industry's most effective change-makers under one corporate roof.

Where On Demand Stands (Line56)

Salesforce.com's release of AppExchange offers a chance to examine the state of play

Microsoft to Launch Internet Research Lab (Forbes)

Microsoft Corp. is creating a research lab devoted solely to developing Internet technology, as part of efforts to move products to market faster and better compete with rivals such as Google Inc.

Disney's Pixar Buyout A 'Near-Perfect Strategic Fit' (Forbes)

Merrill Lynch research analyst Jessica Reif Cohen maintained a "buy" rating and $31 price target on The Walt Disney Co. after the media giant said it would acquire Pixar Animation Studios for $7.4 billion in an all-stock deal announced late Tuesday.

The Aging Workforce (Accenture, May 2005)

Companies in developed nations, as well as those in many developing countries, face a major workforce-related challenge: Depending on the industry sector, as much as half of
the workforce will be eligible for retirement in the next five to 10 years. Worse yet, this development is not a short-term problem, as the working-age population will continue to age
over the next 30 to 40 years. This challenge is compounded by the fact that there is a much smaller talent pool coming up behind retiring baby boomers. With workers aging and fewer
people in succeeding generations, companies will experience a significant exodus of talent and experience in the next two decades and a dearth of new employees to step into roles
requiring specialized skills that are in short supply.

Keeping the know-how of a retiring generation (FT)

If the average age of the scientists in your company’s R&D department is 48, surely there is no need to worry yet about losing expertise if one of them retires? Wrong, says David DeLong: “I want to know which of the key people are 56, 58 or 60 – who is getting ready to walk out the door.”

Disney in $7.4bn Pixar deal (FT)

Walt Disney on Tuesday agreed to acquire Pixar, the animated film studio, in a $7.4bn deal it hopes will revive its animation department and better position the company to compete in a media industry being remade by digital technology.

Data management: A growing and expensive problem (FT)

Just 20 years ago, everything that meant anything to an organisation would have been in a database, says Phil Tee. In five years time, he says, less than 10 per cent could be there – the rest will be files on employees’ hard disks or corporate storage systems.

Classifying unstructured data according to business policy is a hot topic in the enterprise IT sector, with other small companies such as Kazeon, Arkivio, Scentric and StoredIQ all trying to establish positions.

A powerful idea whose time may be still to come (FT)

How can I squeeze more value from my people using IT?

Magic Quadrant for Integrated Workplace Management Systems, 2005 (Gartner)

The integrated workplace management system
market has evolved rapidly during the past year
with new entrants, consolidations and departures.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
The integrated workplace management system market is
rapidly evolving. Clients should validate vendor financial
health, operational capability and product road maps.
When selecting a vendor, focus on client references, with
an emphasis on customer service, pricing and the
references' installation experience. Pay particular attention
to breadth of functionality, adoption of current Web
technologies such as service-oriented architecture, and
service quality assurance methodologies.

Market Definition/Description
The IWMS market began to emerge in the late 1990s, with
rapid evolution in the past three years. The market is
characterized by enterprise-level software solutions that
integrate four key components of functionality: project
management; real estate portfolio and lease management;
space management (moves, adds and changes [MAC]);
and maintenance management. The software operates
from a single database, and it offers workflow tools,
executive dashboards, and predefined and customized
reporting capabilities. Most suite applications will
interoperate with other enterprise applications, such as
enterprise resource planning (ERP), supply chain
management (SCM) and human capital management
(HCM), via Web services technology.

Microsoft to offer production-ready Vista technologies (InfoWorld)

Microsoft releases 'Go-Live' versions of Web services, workflow software

PIM- und Cross-Media-Lösung von crossbase überzeugt Neukunden (contentmanager.de)

Das hochintegrierte Product Information Management (PIM) auf Basis der crossbase-Datenbank wird für verschiedene Zwecke, z.B. zur datenbankgestützten Erstellung von Print- und Onlinekatalogen oder für die Bereitstellung von Katalogdaten für Handelspartner genutzt.

salesforce.com AppExchange Opens for Business (AMR)

This week salesforce.com hosted the North American launch of its Winter ’06 release in San Francisco and rolled out the new AppExchange, an online directory of applications that partners can use to offer complementary Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications. salesforce.com executives likened it to iTunes for enterprise applications.

GXS Positioned in Visionary Quadrant in Product Information Management Magic Quadrant (GXS)

GAITHERSBURG, Md. — January 18, 2006 — GXS, a leading provider of business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce solutions, today announced that it has been positioned in the Visionary quadrant in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Product Information Management 20051, recently published by Gartner, Inc., a leading worldwide research and advisory firm. GXS was placed in the quadrant based on its ability to execute and vision in product information management (PIM). According to Gartner, no leader will emerge in the PIM market prior to 2007.

Salesforce.com launches AppExchange (CNET)

Salesforce.com on Tuesday announced the launch of AppExchange, an online marketplace for hosted business software applications.

Content Creation, Publishing at Heart of Apple's iLife '06 (Gartner)

The updates to Apple Computer's iLife suite will enable users to easily create and publish digital content. Content providers must not ignore the important opportunities that Apple's efforts represent.

Blogwatch 1/11/06 (Line56)

This week's featured post makes some interesting predictions for 2006

Produktdaten im Griff: Katalogverwaltung mit PIMs (contentmanager.de)

Elektronische Kataloge sind heutzutage neben dem klassischen Print-Katalog Alltag für mittelständische Unternehmen. Denn die Kunden erwarten, dass Ihr Lieferant e-ready ist. Hinter diesem Schlagwort verbirgt sich die Fähigkeit des Lieferanten, seine Produktkataloge
in elektronischer Form zur Verfügung zu stellen, sei es als CD-ROM, PDF-Katalog, Online-Shop oder im BMECat-Format zur Verwendung auf elektronischen Marktplätzen oder Inhouse-Katalogen.

Durch diese verschiedenen Anforderungen werden die Unternehmen jedoch vor große Probleme gestellt, die die Kosten für die Katalogerstellung explodieren lassen und die Verwaltung umfassender Produktdatenmengen stellt sie zusätzlich vor große Herausforderungen. Zur Lösung dieser Probleme werden so genannte PIM-Systeme (Product Information Management System)
eingesetzt.

Google Announcement Sets Stage for Video Marketplace in 2006 (Gartner)

Google announced a video marketplace that leverages search to help consumers find and download content from major TV networks, the NBA and consumer content creators -- and in some cases move that content to their iPods.

Sage buys Verus for £184m in cash deal (FT)

Sage, the UK’s largest listed software company, on Monday said it would expand its US business beyond accounting products with the acquisition of payment processor Verus Financial Management.

Information Fabric: Enterprise Data Virtualization (Forrester/BEA)

Enterprises are facing the growing challenges of using disparate sources of data managed by di.erent applications, including problems with data integration, security, performance, availability, and quality. Business users want fast, real-time, and reliable information to make business decisions, while IT wants to lower costs, minimize complexity, and improve operational e.ciency. New technology is emerging that Forrester has coined "information fabric," a term de.ned as a virtualized data layer that integrates heterogeneous data and content repositories in real time. This technology is provided via middleware components that deliver quality information — "the truth" — when and where it’s needed. Products from several major vendors like BEA Systems, IBM, and Oracle — as well as others from small innovators like Tangosol — are evolving to provide information fabric, but today custom integration is required to weave them together. The potential bene.ts of this technology are so great that enterprises
should develop a strategy to leverage information fabric technology as it becomes more widely available.

Big Returns (Line56)

Here's our coverage of the beginning of the IRS portal revolution, going back to 2002

CES blog: Everyone loves a good tech war (FT)

The early-1980s Betamax Wars are back with the ongoing struggle between the DVD formats. Sony is leading the Blu-ray charge, Toshiba leads the HD DVD army - and the Consumer Electronics Show is the latest theatre of operations.

Gates unveils new range of media players (FT)

Video, whether in high definition or transferred to a hand-held device, took centre stage as Bill Gates delivered the opening address at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

PHP Content Management Vendor Turns Five (NewsForge)

Adam Sackey writes "Anyone who says Open Source can't work as a business model has another success story to counter their claim as this month the PHP Content Management vendor Simian Systems turns 5 years old. Simian are the makers of the PHP CMS called Sitellite, which offers a more business and enterprise-oriented solution than many other Open Source PHP-based systems.

Polaris, Interwoven tie up for content management solutions (DQ Channels)

Polaris will work as an SI for Interwoven products and has trained resources on all products

Polaris Software Lab has entered into a partnership with Interwoven Inc to integrate Interwoven's advanced content management solutions with its products to provide enhanced customer experience to its clients. Interwoven provides enterprise content management solutions for businesses to solve critical challenges across departments, enterprises, or industries. Polaris is a global solutions specialist with a dedicated focus on the banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) vertical.

Software 2006: Changes Ahead (Red Herring)

While software as a service and open source gain more traction in 2006, large software companies will have to adapt and change

Information lifecycle management vision (SUN/InfoWorld)

Information lifecycle management (ILM) has been widely discussed without the formalization of a clear and compelling vision. This white paper offers insights on how to develop a sound overall ILM implementation strategy. Download this white paper featured on the Sun Enterprise Solutions Spotlight on InfoWorld.com:

http://newsletter.infoworld.com/t?ctl=131B69E:1F34237

A Better Understanding of the Enterprise Information Portal Market (Intranet Journal)

The principal Enterprise Information Portal vendors fall into one of seven major
categories. This wide range of players can be explained by the fact that an ...

Sometimes the best things for your computer are free (FT)

It is often said that there is no such thing as a free lunch and, when it comes to software, this is often (sadly) true. Many "free" software programs have limited functionality, come with annoying adware or keep pestering users to upgrade to the full version. Nevertheless, if you are willing to put some time in, there are a few genuinely free programs that are as good as or even better than their commercial counterparts. So, as 2005 draws to a close, I decided to offer up a selection of my favourite free packages.

IBM Buys Bowstreet, Shores Up WebSphere Portlet Capabilities (Gartner)

The purchase of Bowstreet addresses a shortcoming in IBM's portal product, and Bowstreet customers gain needed stability. But IBM and its competitors still face challenges in portlet development.

SMB Hot Spots (Line56)

Yankee Group survey points to some areas of opportunity for vendors in what other another research group says is a slowing marketplace

Keyword: SMB

IBM offering content management for SMBs

IBM is responding to demands from smaller companies for low-cost, ready-to-go software with a new content management offering packaged on its eServer iSeries systems, the company announced last week.

The software, called DB2 Content Manager Standard Edition 8.3, is designed to let small and midsize organizations make better use of important business information that might be spread out among numerous and diverse applications and processes.

Microsoft’s Challenges in 2006 (Red Herring)

Software giant needs to perfect strategy and execution in 2006 if it wants to beat competitors ranging from Sony to Google.

SMB IT Spending Slump (Line56)

Vendors beware, markedly slower growth projected for 2006; could be part of a larger small business issue

Keyword: SMB IT

The E-Business Advantage (Line56)

How information technology can help smaller companies hold their own against larger competitors

Compliance Dominates IT Spending (Line56)

Compliance and governance will claim as much as 15 percent of 2006 enterprise IT budgets, says Gartner

Keyword: SOX (Sarbanes-Oxley)

A great year for design (FT)

FT writers identify winners and losers in 2005, a year when consumer technology dominated.

TNT delivers online (FT)

When you congratulate Peter Bakker, chief executive of TNT, the Dutch postal and logistics group, on the company website’s number one position in the FT’s 2005 Webranking survey, you soon realise it was a personal goal for him.

Update: IBM offers content management for SMBs (InfoWorld)

Big Blue packages new content management offering on its eServer iSeries systems

Stellent Listed In 'Leaders' Quadrant In Enterprise Content Management Magic Quadrant Report From Top Industry Analyst Firm (ECM Connection)

Stellent, Inc., a global provider of content management solutions, announced today it was listed in the "leaders" quadrant in Gartner, Inc.’s "Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Content Management (ECM), 2005" report. Gartner (NYSE: IT) is the leading provider of research and analysis on the global information technology industry. This report is Gartner’s second edition of the Enterprise Content Management Magic Quadrant.

Information On Demand (Line56)

This is how to make information work for your business, according to IBM

Gartner: CIOs should prepare for 'second' Internet (InfoWorld)

During the next year, chief information officers (CIO) should pay acute attention to how technologies such as blogging and podcasting will affect their businesses and be ready for innovation with those technologies by their competitors, Gartner analysts said Thursday.

E-Discovery: Definitions, Advice and Vendors (Gartner)

CIOs, general counsels, IT security professionals, records and e-mail administrators, and operations staff need to understand IT's role in legal discovery. IT plays an important role in how content that becomes evidence is created, preserved, collected and turned over to the appropriate authorities.

Gartner to IT: Place Blackberry deployments on hold (InfoWorld)

Gartner warns enterprises to wait and see if legal woes for RIM will shut down BlackBerry service in the U.S.

Study: Google users wealthier, more Net savvy (InfoWorld)

The longer people have been using the Internet, the more likely it is that they'll use Google, study finds

OpenDocument Tipping Point (Line56)

Sun's perspective on the adoption and momentum of OpenDocument

AP Knowledge Base (Line56)

Introducing a portal and knowledge base for accounts payable (AP) professionals that pools intelligence and best practices

40% IT Shrinkage (Line56)

Expect a major contraction by 2010, says Gartner; "pure IT" dying, but new IT doing fine

SMB Virtual Officer Primer (InfoWorld)

There are millions of small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in North America. Many will never have an IT budget going beyond the purchase of some computers, basic connectivity, and low-level applications. This article, which aggregates information presented on Line56 some months ago, explains how such a company can go from e-mail to basic content management using free online tools.

Sun moves to reinvent itself (FT)

Sun Microsystems took another big step towards reinventing itself as an open source software, systems and services company on Wednesday announcing that key software tools will in the future be provided at no cost to developers and others.

Microsoft set to follow Google on online listings (FT)

Microsoft is set to follow Google into the online listings business, opening a new front in the rapidly expanding competition between the two technology companies and creating a new competitor to other newspaper and internet listings services.

While the idea echoes Google Base, an online listing service which the search engine company launched in beta, or test, form two weeks ago, Microsoft said it had been developing the idea behind Fremont since early this year.

Google Base has become the subject of heated debate among analysts and bloggers, some of whom have been quick to attribute grand ambitions to the new service.

As a structured database that invites internet users to enter information in a prescribed form – for instance, the price of a house would be entered in a box headed “price” on a form specially designed for house sales – Google Base would create a highly organised body of data that could form the basis for a wide range of future services.

Microsoft's Open XML Moves May Stall OpenDocument Format (Gartner)

Microsoft is moving toward making its Open XML file format a true open standard. But enterprises seeking an open document format do not need to delay current projects until they evaluate the Microsoft specification.

FileNet Named to Leader Quadrant in Enterprise Content Management Report

COSTA MESA, Calif., Nov. 30 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- FileNet Corporation(Nasdaq: FILE), the leading provider of Enterprise Content and BusinessProcess Management solutions, today announced it has been positioned in the"Leader" quadrant by Gartner Inc., a premier industry research and advisoryfirm, in its 2005 Magic Quadrant assessment of Enterprise Content Managementvendor offerings.(1)

In 2004 the Content Management Analysis Showed That the Combined Software License Industry Was Worth $1.3 Billion, but by 2011 It is Expected to Reach

DUBLIN, Ireland--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 29, 2005--Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c28576 ) has announced the addition of Content Management - Market Opportunities, Strategies, and Forecasts, 2005 To 2011 to their offering.

Enterprise content management solutions are industry specific and may span several different product sets. Market growth of the content management market segment is tied to the transfer of the paper-based enterprise to an enterprise that manages all information electronically. Publishing information to the Web is a small part of the total content management markets.

Enterprises try blogs, but fear remains (InfoWorld)

Companies are realizing that blogs work well for collaboration but fear losing control of sensitive data

Predicts 2006: The HPW Will Influence Users' IT Choices

High-performance workplaces make workers more effective in supporting business goals and adding value. Web-based technologies are becoming part of the HPW environment, as users influence the configuration of their tools. In 2006, it will be important to define guidance and governance best practices.

Imperial vision may reshape the net (FT)

You have found two old, faded photos in your attic and you want them revived digitally. You do not want to buy an entire photo-editing package for such a small task, nor do you want to take the photos to a digital photo laboratory and pay heavily for such a small job. Surely there is another solution?

John Darlington and his team at the London e-Science Centre, based at Imperial College’s Department of Computing, believe that there is – or at least soon will be. They have developed a prototype business model in which the developer of an application such as photo retouching or picture compression would offer it as a chargeable service over the internet.

Consumers would chose which service they want, upload their image to the service and pay – typically via Paypal – when the modified image is returned. In this way consumers get a direct and simple means to access precisely the application they require, without having to buy it.

The concept has been developed and funded over the past two years as part of the UK’s multidisciplinary e-science programme – Prof Darlington is director of the London end. His team has developed working pay-per-use mechanisms and demonstrated them using examples from three-dimensional rendering – creating an image from 3D design data – for 2D and 3D design optimisation and even for access to large research telescopes.

The telescope image service, demonstrated at a UK e-science event in September, was based on a telescope in Hawaii. A live camera showed the telescope slewing round to the correct position before taking the specified image. “Our demonstrations have been very successful – at least when it wasn’t raining in Hawaii,” says Jeremy Cohen, a member of Prof Darlington’s team. Last week there was a demonstration of the system at SuperComputing 2005 in Seattle.

The team’s business model is a novel twist on a concept with a long history in computing and many different names and interpretations – service computing. This seeks to separate the users of a computer application from its originators and providers.

The Imperial team’s approach to the concept is fundamentally different. Underlying the provision of chargeable services would be a new approach to the internet, in which its existing structure is reformulated as a series of open markets.

This would comprise service providers, execution providers that would provide the computing power necessary to carry out the work, and brokers who would scour the net to find the best service for users and negotiate terms on their behalf (see panel). In the full model everything required to complete a task – software, execution environment or data – would be available as a use-on-demand, pay-per-use service.

This revives, in a different form, the Network Computer vision of the late 1990s, in which consumers were to use stripped-down terminals to access their documents and software over the internet, tapping into remote processing power. That concept foundered on lack of bandwidth and worries over security if data were to be held remotely.

Prof Darlington believes the time could now be right for service computing. “There are issues with the internet as it is now,” he says. “A lot of rubbish is being traded over it – this is a clear example of Gresham’s Law in action. Where buyers cannot reliably assess the value of goods being offered, prices and the quality of goods traded are forced down. The low-value stuff crowds out the higher-value goods.”

The fact that this does not happen, however, when large and trusted organisations such as eBay or Amazon are conducting trading, convinced Prof Darlington that similar organisations, with a high level of public confidence, could provide the foundations and necessary inter-relationships for a service computing market to flourish.

The Imperial team’s service computing concept, if widely adopted, could have big implications for the entire IT chain. Separating execution from application development would free software developers to exploit their work commercially, without worrying about losing control of their intellectual capital or investing in the infrastructure that would link them to potential customers and get the work done.

It would also provide a fillip to companies offering utility computing facilities to provide processing power on demand as a service. Sun Microsystems, for example, let the Imperial College team use its Sun Grid service for execution on the demos. Conversely, the new approach might be bad news for Microsoft as individual users’ computers could run with much simpler operating systems.

The challenge now is to get the service computing market started in earnest. “How much demand will there be?” asks Prof Darlington. “That’s the $64,000 question. But my bet is that it could be massive. We have our eyes on the mass market of the global internet to provide a market for both consumers and producers of services.”

He is tempted to start a commercial service before the end of the year with something “amusing and harmless”, and is encouraged by the success of trivial services, such as ringtones and football scores, in the mobile phone market. “Once you get something on to the internet, the dynamics of the web can take over and the throughput could be enormous,” he says.

How service computing works

The core technology that would enable the Imperial team’s vision of service computing to become reality is available and in use now.

It is web services, the set of standards based on XML (extensible mark-up language) that can be used for sharing applications over the internet without having to link incompatible IT systems.

In a nutshell, the chargeable services such as photo compression would be “wrapped” in a web service which would be used to move the work between the various brokers, service and execution providers. The main issue for the Imperial team has been to find mechanisms to provide this mobility and to ensure that everyone involved gets paid.

The user would be unaware of the series of interactions and verifications that are initiated by his or her starting the process by sending a request to a broker which might include the maximum he or she is prepared to pay, or the time to wait, for the service to be carried out.

The broker would go to a registry of services available, or straight out on to the web to find what was available, then contact service providers and execution providers.

Having negotiated a price, the broker would send the work to the execution provider, which would access the service provider’s software online, carry out the work and send it back to the broker. The latter would send it on to the user.

For payment the broker would verify that the user’s account was sufficiently in credit and then request a payment token that would be used to pay the execution and service providers through their Paypal accounts.

In the final step the broker would take payment from the user’s account. read

Workplace Magic Quadrants and MarketScopes, 2005

Gartner's most recent Magic Quadrants and MarketScopes show that companies are putting workplace technologies to new uses. Thus, vendors have more chances to differentiate themselves, even as markets consolidate.

FileNet P8 Enterprise Content Management Solutions (Gartner)

P8 is FileNet's strategic platform for enterprise content management. It will appeal to enterprises that have settled on Java as their standard. read

Microsoft making RSS a two-way street (InfoWorld)

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Google in plan to put world culture on internet (FT)

Google has thrown its weight behind an ambitious and potentially controversial US-led project to put the world’s cultural memory online.

Open content opens doors to opportunity (InfoWorld)

Group launches portal that provides access to free educational courses offered by MIT, Johns Hopkins, others

Google supports Library of Congress online effort (InfoWorld)

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Microsoft to give Office access to rivals (FT)

Microsoft will on Tuesday announce it is opening up access to its Office file formats to competitors, as part of a move to ensure the software giant does not lose lucrative government markets for its Office software.

Hummingbird Positioned in the Leaders Quadrant in 2005 Enterprise Content Management (ECM) Magic Quadrant (Hummingbird)

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Integrated E-Learning

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Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Content Management, 2005 (Gartner)

The 2005 Magic Quadrant for enterprise content management assesses the ECM vendors and their products' completeness, maturity and interoperability. As companies build out their content infrastructures, these considerations, as well as the vendors' future market viability, will be critical.

Google's Stumble

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SAP CEO Kagermann looks to expand in banking software sector (Forbes)

FRANKFURT (AFX) - SAP AG chief executive Henning Kagermann told Switzerland's Finanz und Wirtschaft newspaper that the business software giant wants to increase its banking software sales by expanding its presence in North America and major Asian markets.

Managing Next-Generation IT Infrastructure (Forbes/McKinsey Quarterly)

In recent years, companies have worked hard to reduce the cost of the information technolgy infrastructure--the data centers, networks, databases and software tools that support businesses. These efforts to consolidate, standardize and streamline assets, technologies and processes have delivered major savings. Yet even the most effective cost-cutting program eventually hits a wall: the complexity of the infrastructure itself.

SOA Web Services and Enterprise Content Management (it.sys-con.com)

New business requirements are leading companies to change the way they deploy enterprise content management (ECM) data and applications. Faced with the limited interoperability and/or scalability of conventional ECM platforms, developers are turning to Web services as a way to realize ECM functionality and real-time content wherever they are needed within an organization. While this approach is still relatively new and more work remains to be done to improve the effectiveness, it already shows promise as a better way to think about ECM technology.

Factiva Partners With System Integrators to Develop Customized Integrated Information Solutions

NEW YORK, Nov. 1 /PRNewswire/ -- Factiva®, a Dow Jones & Reuters Company, today announced the expansion of its Partner Network with the introduction of its Systems Integrator Partner Program. Broadening the Partner Network to include systems integrators generates opportunities to target key vertical industries and roles within the enterprise while creating new collaborative solutions and a new sales channel for Factiva. Factiva's Partner Network includes leading enterprise software companies that simplify the integration of Factiva's high-quality news and business information into Enterprise Information Portals (EIP) workflow productivity solutions and vertical applications.

Vitrium Systems Introduces protectedpdf(TM) and protectedpdf.crm(TM), the First in a Suite of Breakthrough Software as Service Digital Rights Manageme

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Nov. 1 /PRNewswire/ -- Vitrium Systems, a
provider of Software as Service (SaS) digital rights management (DRM)
protection technology, today announced the launch of two breakthrough SaS DRM
PDF protection products, protectedpdf and protectedpdf.crm.  Vitrium's
technology blends security, value, and ease of use in a way not yet seen in
this marketplace.

Seamless Technology Inc., a Holding Company for e-Learning and Internet Commerce Operations Completes Entry into Public Marketplace (Business Wire)

Seamless Technology Inc. (Pink Sheets:SLSX) (www.seamlesstech.com), today announced the completion of its merger with Fingerware Corporation, a publicly traded technology company, As part of the merger, the controlling shareholders of Seamless Technology have taken control of Fingerware Corp, and the name of the company has been changed to Seamless Technology Inc. As part of the merger, Seamless has received a $700,000 net equity infusion from the existing cash reserves of Fingerware.

Onafhankelijk onderzoeksbureau wijst Tridion aan als marktleider (Tridion)

Tridion offers retailers “the most robust catalogue and campaign management features along with strong personalization capabilities”

Amsterdam, Netherlands – 11 October 2005 – Tridion, a recognised European leader in content management solutions, today announced that Forrester Research has positioned Tridion as a leader in Web Content Management (WCM) solutions in the retail industry in Forrester’s Wave: Web Content Management For Retail Q3 2005 (August 2005). Forrester assessed nine WCM vendors in the areas of current offering, strategy and market presence. The report places Tridion as one of only three companies in the “leader” category. Earlier this year, Tridion was cited as a leader in Forrester’s April report: “The Forrester Wave: Web Content Management, Q1 2005”.

FT.com / Home UK / UK - The difficulty of managing workers who know more than you

FT.com / Home UK / UK - The difficulty of managing workers who know more than you

The difficulty of managing workers who know more than you
By Simon London

Published: August 31 2005 03:00 | Last updated: August 31 2005 03:00

It is 30 years since Peter Drucker hailed knowledge worker productivity as the great management challenge of the 20th century. By the 1960s we knew plenty about how to organise factories and logistics systems. But as the great sage of management observed, we understood next to nothing about how to get the most from doctors, lawyers,designers or marketingexecutives.

The century ended with the challenge still unmet. As Tom Davenport points out in Thinking For A Living, even today we lack "measures, methods and rules of thumb" for managing know­ledge work.

This is not to say that the needs of knowledge workers have been ignored. Far from it. Knowledge management, one of the biggest management ideas of the 1990s, aimed to provide knowledge workers with the information they needed when they needed it. Similarly, investment in information technology ranging from simplee-mail to complex "customer relationship management" systems have been justified in the name of knowledge worker productivity.

But do the hours we spend answering e-mails make us more productive? How can this be measured? Is there a definition of "productive" that takes into account not only the quantity but also the quality of our output?

No wonder, remarks Davenport, that many employers resort to HSPALTA: hire smart people and leave them alone. The professor of management at Babson College, Massachusetts, is well placed to survey the ways in which organisations might get beyond HSPALTA.

In a career spent flitting between academia and consulting he has been involved in research projects studying everything from office architecture to information systems management.

Along the way, he wrote the first book on business process re-engineering (Process Innovation, 1992) and one of the best books on knowledge management (Working Knowledge, 1997, co-authored with Larry Prusak).

In his latest book he says that knowledge workers tend to share certain characteristics. Either highly educated or experienced, they hate being told what to do. They are reluctant to share knowledge. They usually have good reasons for working in the ways they do, although these are likelyto become apparent only after detailed observation.

In sum, they are a management consultant's worst nightmare. This explains why bone-headed attempts to re-engineer knowledge work always end in failure. It also explains why know­ledge management systems, customer relationship management systems and other technology-driven "tools" are often ignored.

This is not to argue that knowledge workers cannot be managed, just that managers need to be much more egalitarian and participative than is the norm in industrial settings. Hard as it may be, managers must accept that their notional subordinates probably know more than they do.

Thinking For A Living then looks at some of the factors known to have an impact on the productivity of knowledge workers, including the way their work is organised, the information technology systems they use and their socialnetworks.

One of Davenport's virtues as a management writer is a refusal to over-claim or boil down complex topics into simplistic formulas. For example, he asks whether process improvement techniques from manufacturing, such as Total Quality Management and Six Sigma, can be applied to knowledge work. His answer is that with certain types of knowledge work, such as call centres, it can help.

But he knows from experience that independent-minded professionals will resist vigorously the idea that their jobs can be reduced to a series of "process steps".

There is the rub: knowledge work comes in many different varieties. Call centre operators are knowledge workers. So too are management consultants, software engineers and teachers. What works in one context may backfire terribly in another.

Davenport's willingness to address the complexity of the topic makes this book worth reading. It also helps explain why such an erudite author has never achieved the superstar status of many lesser writers. Thankfully, in business book publishing, as in software engineering or brain surgery, quality still counts for something.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008

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TCO of On-Demand Applications (TEC/Yankee Group)

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