Future of Productivity: Five questions #HOC #HOC11

Thursday June 16th I will seek for the answer on five questions during the HOC (Het Outsourcings Congres). A congres focussed on outsourcing with the theme The Cloud. I will guide the discussion on the subject: Documents to The Cloud: don't forget unstructured data. Five questions will be leading.

Five questions

1. What is a Document?
Paper as a information carier has changed. The Concept Document is chaning rappidly too. Wikipedia describes the document as: a work of non-fiction writing intended to store and communicate information, thus acting as a recording. Strinking in the following is the way a document is described in classic types like a thesis, a whitepaper, a brief or an invoice. Nowhere a describtion of the claim: ...and communication information.

2. Do Documents support collaboration and interaction?
...intended to store and communicate information. I agree on the idea that a document is intended to communicate information. I have a hard time to believe that a document is meant to store information and thus degrade the information to data. Storing data or documents is not a goal. The goal is finding usefull information and get informed.

3. Can The Cloud support productivity?
Doing your job in a knowledge intensive environment demands information, which has to be processed. Only than it could become knowledge. Interpretation of information, the processing and use to complete a task. A lot of data is very structured, much more is stored in an unstructured manner. Previously, borders as time and place were important limiting factors in the accessibility of information. The Cloud supports the removal of these restrictions and has the potential to improve productivity.

4. Will The Cloud structure our non structured data?
Finding relevant information is essential when it comes to productivity. Compartmentalized bins do not contribute to obtaining an overview. The world of structured data has not been proven as a route to the paperless office, also adding document repositories brought but limited lighting. Cooperation and interaction between people ask apparently an other kind of information. More natural you see for example this support from a platform which is developed towards a social (peer) network support. It is not or - or but the added value of and structured, and unstructured ... and the man himself. The factor that YOU and I together. WE are the power of the community enabling the better finding of valuable information.


5. Does The Cloud change information?
Information needs, giving a value judgement, the form in which this information is distributed and found is changing. The Cloud, social media hypes, the power of the community finds its basis in the sharing of information and searching and setting up collaborations. Knowledge is power includes the fear of a data security model, sharing is power, however, the belief that data only gets its value when we turn it into knowledge together.