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June 30, 2005
Collaboration and Metadata
Over the past year, we have been contributing to an effort known as Collaborative Computing which allows multiple users to update, post, and manage content in the online environment. The interesting thing is the major role metadata is playing in the various components of collaboration. Lists and Document Libraries have been redefined by the addition of metadata. The point is not the details of value-add but the fact that metadata is changing the way people think about collaboration which is exciting. By the way, collaboration may be the next success story in the history of metadata.
Posted by Todd at 3:47 PM
June 29, 2005
Expanding Functionality
How do know when you should buy additional software or upgrade your current environment. How do you know when you Information Architecture is appropriate? How do you know if you products within the collaborative space needs expanding?
Simple! Let the customer tell you. While there are many other ways, the customer is really the one that drives your technology decisions (Customer and the Business are the Same Thing). If no one is complaining about your application then focus on deployment not functionality. If 100% of your customers are complaining then focus on the functionality, the ship is sinking. Ideally, I would like to see around 20% of the customers complaining in order to alter my product or service portfolio. 20% complaints seems high, not really. There will always be people that complain and look toward the cynical side of the world. And by complaining, I don’t mean screaming that the system is down or not doing what it is suppose to do. I am saying expanding the functionality requires the buy in from the customer community.
Apply this rule to Information Architecture, Enterprise Metadata, or Collaborative Computing, you will see it works equally well an any area.
Posted by Todd at 12:47 PM
Rant of the Day
My two rants for the day...
1. Beware of Perfect Data
Vendors routinely demonstrate their products over perfect data; data that was specifically designed to demonstrate the features and benefits of the application itself. Data, like business itself, is not perfect. Error rates with data are tolerated and as long as the bill gets to the customer why worry if the address or street is spelled correctly? Addressing the data quality is an enormous task that many of us fail to recognize.
2. Beware of the Demonstration
When I attend a conference and find myself in the vendor booths, I am amazed at how many representatives are hanging around eagerly wanted to show me the product of the day. However, the fact that you have to show me how the product works leads me to wonder how many people within the organization are going to be able to us the product. Systems have evolved to the point that they should be self evident and usability must be addressed on the front end. I want to own products that can be used by the masses not by the few elite IT professionals.
Posted by Todd at 12:01 PM
June 28, 2005
McDonald-izing Information Technology
Why has McDonalds been so successful in the last 40 years? Why would someone like myself that doesnt really like McDonalds choose it over nice and seemingly classy local organization when traveling? The answer is obvious; we fear a bad experience much more than the dream the possibility of a positive one. What is currently happening within the Information Technology field (Globalization) isnt about engaging organizations that are far better than our own but rather ones that can deliver a consistent and standardized product. Hence, the highest number of CMM organizations are not in America.
Posted by Todd at 1:28 PM | Comments (1)
June 27, 2005
Math and Politics
Ok, I dont say much on politics since I am not an expert in any form or fassion. However, I do believe our public education system isnt doing its job. Case in point...
In a comparison of a 1973 algebra textbook and a 1998 "contemporary mathematics" textbook, Williamson Evers and Paul Clopton found a dramatic change in topics. In the 1973 book, for example, the index for the letter "F" included factors, factoring, fallacies, finite decimal, finite set, formulas, fractions and functions. In the 1998 book, the index listed families (in poverty data), fast food nutrition data, fat in fast food, feasibility study, feeding tours, ferris wheel, fish, fishing, flags, flight, floor plan, flower beds, food, football, Ford Mustang, franchises and fund-raising carnival.
Posted by Todd at 5:21 PM
June 26, 2005
Blog Codes?
This is the first time I have seen this. In order to post to David Allans blog you must type in a code which prevents Spam Blogging. I wonder how well it works and more importantly, should we do this?
Posted by Todd at 6:43 PM
Fast Company Article
The current issue of Fast Company has a disturbing article by Marshall Goldsmith titled The One Skill that Separates. Basically, the article follows the old saying of how to differentiate between the good and the great. In a conversation, the good will lead you to think they are the smartest person in the room while the great will make you think you are. I have such a long way to go in order to understand the differences.
Posted by Todd at 6:42 PM | Comments (3)
July Book Comments
Excellents Reads...
A Whole New Mind - Daniel Pink
For some reason, I liked the Free Agent Nation much better. This book is a follow up text on how we are progressing from the information age to the Conceptual age. The text in the early part of the book on Asia, Abundance and Automation is right on and really helped me gain a greater understanding of my own predictions. The later sections of the book seem to drag but a good read non the less.
The Dream Society - Rolf Jensen
As you can tell, this month's reading material had a common theme. The Dream Society is a book that seems to have a dual purpose. First, the book attempts to define the future of work, employment, and the society at large. The second is describing the element of change that will be required in the future. By analyzing the trends in the global world, the author forces the reader into analyzing where they fit into the new economy both from a personal and business perspective.
Posted by Todd at 1:32 PM
New Content Posted
Finally got the newest slides posted for the DAMA International Symposium and Wilshire Metadata Conference, the DAMA Atlanta Spring Session, and the Inforums Marketing Science Conference.
2005 Speaking Sessions
Posted by Todd at 1:11 PM
June 24, 2005
Information Design
I am stuck on the importance of metadata, information architecture, usability, repositories, etc to major organizations. While I have been writing on these topics for some time now, I haven’t really gotten it all together. In other words, I am in the game but not too sure if we are winning the war on information overload. One term came to mind as I listened to a topic on tape discussion this morning on design. While the author was not speaking on Information Technology topics, my mind has wondered down a rabbit hole labeled Information Design. Is information design more than modeling, IA, usability, etc? Is Information Design about collaboration? What is information design?
Posted by Todd at 7:05 PM | Comments (3)
Blog Censorship
Recently, I noticed more and more blogs are editing the content posted. In other words, before an opinion is posted they want to review the content and ensure the validity and context (Also no vulgar posts). This will certainly keep put the Blog Spam that I get on a weekly basis. Personally, I review the comments on a weekly basis to delete the spam and obscene comments which are very few. While it is their right to do so, some blog hosts are keeping out valid criticism and squelching comments. I read a post where the author was presenting references to publications on his topic of choice. The authors were all working for him or seemingly had a close relationship. One reference hadn’t posted anything since 2002 on their web site. I posted a comment about adding references to people who are doing and writing about their experiences but were not close consultants. The comment never emerged nor was the included references added. Hey, I am all about controlling the brand but when folks offer free help embrace it.
Posted by Todd at 11:41 AM
June 22, 2005
Search Integration
Vertical search aggregation allows sites to become known for particular topics and attain search engine visibility. To this end, it uses microformats as a glue to integrate blogging and folksonomy tagging.
Microformats are pre-agreed, human friendly ways of formatting web posts so that machines can process them. Microformats exist for calendar entries, reviews, tagging web posts, and tagging links in link blogs. In brief, microformats are like templates in Microsoft Word but aimed at the open format world-wide web.
Posted by Todd at 2:22 AM
June 21, 2005
Daily Rant...
Got a call from a vendor not too along ago that wanted me to review their product. The sales person directed me to their web site where they quoted the benefits of advanced technology like OWL. I asked the gentleman what OWL stood for and his response was telling. No, I don’t know what it means. Well it means Web Ontology Language and 99.9% of your customers are not going to know or understand what it means. Stop killing our profession with Acronyms that you can’t explain. Vendors better start learning to sell to business people and not technology professionals. Soon they won’t be any IT folks left in the sea of outsourcing
Posted by Todd at 6:55 PM
Mid-Year Reviews
Not sure where the bolt of lightning came from but a few weeks I realized the most obvious of thoughts. “Talent competes on a global scale while Labor competes on a local scale”. Our world is changing and shrinking. True talent develops skills that can compete on the global stage where millions will evaluate your every move. The mid-year period brings on a time, for us still employed in large corporations, where our management will try to give us career advice based on a 20 year old model. These people will share their wisdom on our careers even though they only think about it twice a year. You should think about your skills each and every day and ensure that you are developing talent. True talent understands that the new career model that is based on
Posted by Todd at 12:59 PM
June 17, 2005
Online Article
Part 2 of the review of the Metadata Support Model which takes a deep review of how the Metadata Services Group should organize around the basic questions of the customer.
The Metadata Support Model Part 2
Posted by Todd at 11:29 PM
June 15, 2005
Open Source Repository?
It’s time that we in the metadata world need to encourage an effort to move the development of a universal repository to the open source community. If they can build an operating system (Linux) and a web server (Apache) then building a open source repository based on the semantic layers should be a piece of cake. It’s time we move on this.
Semantic Layer Metadata Environment
Posted by Todd at 2:09 PM
June 10, 2005
Information and Data Architectures
Recently, I had the pleasure to attend a conference session that was titled Enterprise Architecture where the author presented Information Architecture as Data Architecture. Most of us know that the two disciplines are not the same and have many different goals and objectives. But, I am interested in the convergence of these technical disciplines, especially in the world of information management. In our world, we seamlessly move between data and information architecture and try to deliver a common value to the end user. This value-add delivery may be in the form of repositories, collaborative environments, and web based applications. As standards and automated processes continue, the true architect will need to master all architects and deliver them in a single point of value.
Posted by Todd at 1:23 PM | Comments (2)
June 8, 2005
Great Article in HBR
Think we have reached the end of outsourcing? Do not read the June 2005 Issue of Harvard Business Review article by Thomas H. Davenport. The coming commoditization of processes will enlighten you to a whole new dimension and possibilities. Also, a good friend is mentioned in the article; Brett Champlin and his collection of Capability Maturity Models. Brett has collected over 180 models, and the Metadata Maturity Model is number 130. My favorite quote from the article:
Eventually these costs and benefits will be so visible to the buyers that outsourced processes will become a commodity, and prices will fall dramatically. The low costs and low risks of outsourcing will accelerate the flow of jobs offshore, force companies to look differently at their strategies, and change the basis of competition.
Welcome to the new world where talent competes on a global scale while labor competes on a local scale.
Posted by Todd at 12:03 PM
June 7, 2005
New Definition of Metadata
Enterprise metadata has received a lot of attention and press over the past few years, as many organizations have attempted to push data warehouse success to the enterprise level. In many ways, Enterprise Metadata is converging technologies into a comprehensive field that can provide universal value across the entire technology community. Enterprise metadata brings together many of the following technologies:
- Enterprise Architecture and Governance
- Data Architecture
- Information Architecture
- Reuse and Portfolio Management
- Enterprise Metadata Methodology
- Collaboration and Knowledge Management
The Business of Metadata understands that embracing all of these technologies will enable a long term investment in the management of information
Posted by Todd at 1:50 PM
June 6, 2005
Metadata Quality
Does everyone know how important metadata is to the success of their business model? For example, I recently jumped on a web site that defines its business model as a single point of contact to look up business information. Sounds like a great business plan, surely this company would understand the importance of quality metadata. I jumped on the site a placed a search for a local church with under the denomination of X. The search result returned 16 churches. The average distance from my home was 22 miles with the longest distance was 65 miles. The closest was 6 miles but where in the result was this close church? At the top, right? Nope, this church was 16 of 16 and located at the bottom of the list. Now for a quality check, I know that there are 4 churches under X denomination. Maybe they were not in the database I was searching which would excuse the poor results. No again, I searched on the other three churches by name and all three were located in the database. The question remains if we have a metadata issue, location calculation error or a miss-classification issue.
Posted by Todd at 1:03 PM