Tag cloud

Thinking about Search will take you sometime to metadata and tags. It is used in all kind of ways. For example to help you structure your documents in a document management system. Or better said, configure your system with a document structure plan. It is also possible to configure views with it and groups of related documents as if they where grouped in a dossier.
One nice and simple way to visually help the user to keep track of documents or important, often used tags is a 'TAG CLOUD'.



Such a bunch of words tell you a few things: what tags are used and the bigger they, the more they are used. When clicking on that hyperlink, it will organize the documents in a view that are tagged with that term. Fast and efficient.

Tag Clouds are used a lot in publishing sites using BLOGS like this one. (if you like the cloud in this BLOG there is a link to the script used) More and more you will see these kind of techniques appear in the more document management related systems. Not always in this form, but based on the technique itself.

So what has this to do with search? Well think about it. Do you want to search or to find.

Records Management lives in a mixed world

A few days ago I wrote a little piece on Records Management and SharePoint. SharePoint is recognized as a platform that can be configured to fulfill the function as an archive as described in the NEN 2082 Standard (Dutch).

The audit against the standard has been performed by the European Certification Bureau.

Last week I attended at a session where Rubicon demonstrated the standard available functionalities on Document Management that SharePoint provides. The second topic in this session was Rcords Management, SharePoint and the NEN2082 accreditation. For this reason Dick Marijnen from the ECB attended the session to explain a little about the standard and the impact of the standard on documents.

The session was no deep dive into the subject, but only a short introduction. Striking is the assumption in these kind of sessions that a document is still assumed to be 'a piece of text in a digital form'. Say a word document.

In my opinion two major complexities are unexposed:

What is a document?

What is the format of a document?

An document in the historical explanation is a piece of paper with a text or some drawings. Today we are looking in a total different way to a document. It can be a text with some drawing, but also a video or a recording. More complex is when documents are related and combined. For example a set of documents or a text document or a power point presentation with multi media content like an embedded video. About 20 years ago you had to go to a library to look up a document and a related video, go to a video player and so on... It's all there on our fingertips now.
One step further these documents never come alone, there is a reason why they are there. Related documents are dossiers and some of these documents are related to more than one dossier.

If this content is essential for you, your department and later the company or society it becomes a 'record'. Of course this is a VERY simple explanation. Think about it this way. When a document that you produced becomes very important for your company, it is very difficult to find, retrieve and maintain the record if it is located on your hard disk or in your drawer.
When digital, that is the starting-point of the concept of an application providing Records Management support, this will become much easier. True in lot's of ways, but look around. Look around in your own office. Take a look at your desk, think of the way you perform your tasks. Do you use paper during this process? What happens with it? So how digital are we? Or are we still dependent of paper, at least for a part of our life?
I do believe we live in a mixed world of paper and digital content and this is what makes Records Management complex. You can not ignore paper flowing through your organization. Yes you can digitize it as a kind of a remedy. And systems will be able to support the process better. But for the time being Records Management lives in a mixed world.

Hij koemt, hij koemt...

Al enige tijd staat het in de hoek van de Search technologie bol van de geruchten. Microsoft komt met een nieuwe Search engine. Intern bij Microsoft staat deze bekend onder de naam KUMO. Ook al lang geen geheim meer is het feit dat deze search engine onder een andere naam het levenslicht zal zien.

De keuze van Microsoft lijkt op de naam BING gevallen te zijn. Gaan we nu bingen ipv googlen? Het zal er om gaan spannen.

Het tipje van de sluier wat Microsoft oplicht geeft een kleine blik op de technologie. Wat opvalt is dat de resultaten veel 'rijker' zijn dan bij Google het geval is. Zie ik hier de inbreng van FAST?

Invention vs Innovation

About a month ago now Tim Hyer placed a BLOG on Innovation vs Invention (Cheskin). It was about a discussion with Peter E Hart and is innovation consultants of Ricoh Innovations.

invention "creates something new in the world," while innovation "captures value from invention."

I agree with the outcome of the discussion and the different level of complexity between invention and innovation. But still without the fish learning to fish makes no sense. The fact these two are related makes the total proces of development complex. Succes not only depends on the invention itself but als on the immagination neede to understand the value.

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 en Recordmanagement

NEN 2082 is enige tijd geleden als norm geaccepteerd. NEN 2082 beschrijft de eisen die aan een systeem gesteld worden om voor recordmanagement gebruikt te mogen worden.

of zoals de norm zelf in de titel pagina aangeeft: Eisen voor functionaliteit van informatie- en archiefmanagement in programmatuur.

SharePoint had al een belangrijke audit op dit vlak doorstaan. De amerikaanse defensie stelt op een gelijke wijze eisen aan een systeem en de norm die daarvoor is opgesteld staat model voor een aantal afgeleide normen in Europa en uit eindelijk ook de NEN norm.

Er is wel een kanttekening te maken bij deze certificering. De certificering geldt voor het platform SharePoint (MOSS 2007), maar enkel in combinatie met de zogenaamde DOD 5015 pack.
Een goed recordmanagement is niet eenvoudig en om tot een goed systeem te komen moeten vooral ook aspecten als organisatie, gebruik en beheer meegenomen worden. Dat maakt dat de implementatie ook niet zomaar door iedere implemantatie partner uitgevoerd kan worden.

Certificering volgens NEN 2082 is uitgevoerd door het ECB

Education - does the ability for students to access work and applications from anywhere make sense?

...on 21th of may 2009 Christopher Dawson - technology director for the Athol-Royalston School District in northern Massachusetts wrote:



...it does make a lot of sense for students to be able to access their work and applications from anywhere. Whether they are home sick and simply need to get their homework turned, they lack the resources for a computer of their own, or their schools are looking for a cost-effective way to deliver a standardized desktop with minimal hardware investment...



In his example he is relating the fact of being ill to the ability to still follow lessons. Chris states it is ofcourse an example and not the main reason to use this technology to accomplish the final goal, but still it is usefull. The technology presents a way to respond on these kind of events.

Cloud computing is NOT the holy grail, but a way to fit education to the demands of the future.

Cloud computing in education - does it make sense?

We all like to believe (me and my tech friends) today technology will move to the cloud. The future is cloud shaped. Services, functionality today on our PC or laptop (oh sorry PDA) will be available in the cloud. So no matter where you are and on what time you 'arrive' there, IT will be available.
The tech site of the story has become reality today. However what does it take to help the teachers to take advantage of the technology? Does this inside - out story fit the demands? What are the disadvantages of this development?

Well I do believe it fits more than just the demand, but it will support a future development and a vision on how to deliver education and support learning. Not only it will deliver the content to the student or enable the ability to share mutual content. It will be available to a much broader public. So not only your ideas will be available, but also the brilliant ideas of your colleague can help your students to understand the subject.
Teachers ask themselfs how to envolve the student and her or his parents in the proces. It is a harsh proces to keep a student on the right track without the support of the parents. When a program, the content or the way of communication does not fit the experience of a student he will drift away. But without the understanding of this complexity of the parents it is even harder to accomplish. So keep the parents envolved.
Is using this technology in education necessary? Does it make sense to take content to the cloud, even avoid direct contact? Isn't it a disadvantage to contact each other via internet?

NO we can not afford to ignore direct contact and meeting physical. We do need that personal touch and contact to teach and to learn. Still I do believe the technologie will support the goal and help the fit of the way content is presented to students and shared amongst teachers.

Responsibility

Whenever you decide to start something you've to take care of the consequences. So Ruth showed me in the simple comment on this BLOG.

'I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don't know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often'

In my own opinion it wasn't so special, and this is still my believe. When however people care you become Responsible.

So I decided to publish more often, thank you Ruth.

House of the future at the Microsoft Campus - an impressioin

Short impression of the house of the future at the Microsoft Campus. I've been there March 2009 visiting an EBC. Some very interesting technologies and implementations - not even this far of reality.