I'm just not sure my boss would ever be convinced in the results of this story. I personally have a difficult time accepting that up to 20% of the time in the office is acceptable for surfing the Internet for fun. However, I do agree that visiting non-work sites between tasks does help recharge the brain.
Last week, Socialtext's Eugene Lee forwarded a link on Twitter with SharePoint as the focus of the article. The SharePoint article is titled, SharePoint 2007: Gateway Drug to Enterprise Social Tools and the author discusses the frustration enterprises and site developers have with the Microsoft product. There is some truth in the article as I've heard from many people discussing their concerns about SharePoint lacking quality Enterprise 2.0 features or causing vendor lock for their organization. However, the article borders slightly on the side of a rant on SharePoint and I've allowed it remain in a tab on my browser for quite awhile while I pondered what I wanted to take from the article.
I think the frustrations the author describes about SharePoint isn't a SharePoint problem. And the author describes the issue very well without recognizing it's just not SharePoint that drives organizations crazy.
SharePoint does some things rather well, but it is not a great tool (or even passable tool) for broad social interaction inside enterprise related to the focus of Enterprise 2.0. SharePoint works well for organization prescribed groups that live in hierarchies and are focussed on strict processes and defined sign-offs. Most organization have a need for a tool that does what SharePoint does well.
This older, prescribed category of enterprise tool needs is where we have been in the past, but this is not where organizations are moving to and trying to get to with Enterprise 2.0 mindsets and tools. The new approach is toward embracing the shift toward horizontal organizations, open sharing, self-organizing groups around subjects that matter to individuals as well as the organization. These new approaches are filling gaps that have long existed and need resolution.
The problems identified with SharePoint can easily be said about many enterprise applications out there. Many of the enterprise suites provided to the market traditionally offered turn-key solutions in an effort to deliver a single integrated solution for the customer. These integrated suites can and do create "vendor lock" but that isn't the sole goal of enterprise products being delivered by such companies as Microsoft, IBM, and Oracle. The customers asked for efficient and effective enterprise solutions and the big software companies responded by providing the expected tightly controlled software platforms (historically a good thing) along with terms of licensing, predictable pricing, training, and infrastructure support.
The United States federal government finally appoints the country's first Chief Information Officer. For a bureaucracy that is having a difficult time handling a President that wants a computer in the Oval Office and a Blackberry in his hand, I'd say the new CIO has his work cut out for him.
The U.S. government's first CIO, Vivek Kundra, introduced himself today as someone who will act aggressively to change the federal government's use of IT by adopting consumer technology and ensuring that government data is open and accessible.
Dries Buytaert announced on his blog that a set of Drupal modules are available for integrating Drupal with Alfresco.
Alfresco and Optaros, in conjunction with Acquia, have made available a set of Drupal modules that integrate Drupal with Alfresco using the CMIS APIs. See the CMIS module and the CMIS Alfresco module on drupal.org.
A recent article in ComputerWorld discusses observations made by a Denmark-based analyst regarding wikis in the enterprise. The analyst points out that wiki technology alone won't deliver if the organization cannot overcome obstacles in its own culture as well as the lack of true content management in a wiki.
One issue is the hype surrounding wikis or the blind faith with which they are approached, said Jespersen. "People often look to Wikipedia as a free form where everyone is contributing, and why could we not do the same with our organization?," she said, having observed wikis entering the scene to compensate for an intranet that has fallen to the wayside. But, she said, technology alone won't resolve that issue.
Jespersen lists three myths surrounding wiki implementation that might make some organizations rethink the expectations they've built around their platform.
The three myths given about wikis in the enterprise are:
Myth three is of special interest to me. The analyst points out that although search is a selling point for wikis...the search capability found in wikis are often not as good as those found in content management systems. She goes on to explain that given there is little structure built into wikis, "it is difficult to
structure this information to make it findable the next day even."
Make no mistake, Wikis provide an organization with a fantastic tool for employee's in an organization to learn how to collaborate. I believe organizations often underestimate the paradigm shift needed in their own culture for their employees to properly contribute to a centralized knowledge base. Wikis and other social publishing tools have proven to be a valuable tool for the collaboration component needed in information systems. However, eventually wikis fall short of what a more well rounded content management system can provide an organization.
"From an IT executive’s perspective, social networking isn’t about giving the millenials a place to play, rather it’s about how to improve the flow of information throughout an organization, using collective knowledge to solve problems, respond to customer needs, or exploit new business opportunities faster than ever before."
-Irwin Lazar, "The Rise and Fall of the Millenials?", Enterprise 2.0 Blog, January 29, 2009
Although Firefox is my choice for Internet browsers, I do use Microsoft's Internet Explorer from time to time. Yesterday, I installed the release candidate of Internet Explorer 8.
I can't say I'm a big fan of their "Web slice" approach as it feels like I'm ramming Google Desktop via RSS feeds down the browser's favorites bar. Who know though, perhaps the slice approach will grow on me. However, I am a big fan of Microsoft creating a more compliant and less buggy browser and IE8 seems to fit the bill. If IE7 was a good step in the right direction then IE8 gets Microsoft's users pretty close to the destination.
Meanwhile, my rant to all the IE6 users. I can't believe that about a third of Microsoft Windows users are still using IE6. Shame on you if you are still using that insecure, buggy, and non-compliant browser. Microsoft doesn't even want you to use that browser...and yet you're still stuck in the stone ages. I have a theory that IE6 is symbolic of the problems of complacency at Microsoft and those companies/users that are still on that browser. IE8 arriving on a modern Windows desktop near you and you're still on IE6? Give me a break!
I seem to collect a number of books each year. A few of the books I receive from publishers with intent to review or as appreciation for my involvement with events related to content management systems. Other books just peak my interest so I can't help but buy them for my personal library. The following are five books I plan to read in 2009 and are available in CMS Report's Amazon Store.
Drupal Multimedia by Aaron Windborn
Every year, there are some key information technology people that make mostly sound and trustworthy predictions for the coming year. I'll be updating this page through the week with links to these visions of what we may expect in 2009. My own thoughts and vision for 2009 and CMS Report will come later in another post (I am not worthy to place my own comments here).
Content Management and Social Publishing Predictions
Dries Buytaert (Drupal Project Lead) - Drupal, Acquia, and Mollom