Here is another good example of how weblogs are being used in a class on Enterprise and Distributed Computing

Hong Kong Journalism Class Weblogs [Dan Gillmor's eJournal]

Weblogs are being used with education with great effect.   A friend teaches a class on epublishing.  You can take a look at his weblog.   Each student keeps a log that teachers can comment in.   It is a great way to interact.  http://epub491.blogspot.com/

Disease Management Companies

This is an excellent list of companies that participate in this market with links to their websites.

Google Fight!
You put in two words to see who gets the most results


http://www.googlefight.com/

Googlism.com will find out what Google.com thinks of you, your friends or anything! Search for your name here or for a good laugh check out some of the popular Googlisms below.

I am in the midst of my job search, working daily on finding a new job.   My primary objective is to continue to work in knowledge management while continuing my interest in integrating knowledge with learning objects, and work processes.   I examining the following areas in my job search:

Community Service, Foundations, and Philanthropic Organizations

Bridgespan, Foundation for Informed Mhttp://www.healthdialog.com/0foundation.htm#Mulley edical Decision Making

Consulting Firms, Management and Information Technology

Accenture, Mckinsey, Bearing Poing, IBM Global Services, Bain & Company, Boston Consulting Group, EDS, CSC, TCS, First Consulting, Mars, SAIC, Monitor, Deloitte Consulting, Booz, Allen, Roland Berger

Healthcare

Vitivity, Health Dialog

Pharmaceuticals

Aventis, Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Merck, Millennium, Infinity

Law firms

Jones Day, Skaden Arps

High Technolgy and Information Technology

Hewlett Packard,SAP,  Oracle,  Sun, Intel, Microsoft

Marc Canter ruminates about Tools for the Mob, following up on Justin Hall's Moblog column for The Feature. [Werblog]

I like Justin Hall's comments about Moblogs, but I think that weblogs can be just as immediate.   I could be sitting in a cafe with my computer writing about current events.   A cell phone with a camera may be a bit more immediate, but I can't imagine making entries with my thumbs.   Maybe sending in email posts from a mobile phone could work if you have time, but the immediacy would be complicated by the user interface.

Infoweek Column Disses KM via Weblogs.

From Ron Lusk's Radio Weblog

CIO article on Blogging. Got the link from The FuzzyBlog!].

What a crock. One of the big ideas about the combination of weblogs with aggregators is that you only get information about blogs that YOU decide are interesting, not the writer.

Everyone needs to find hours per week to stay current. But, if people subscribe to newsfeeds for the journals, a single reader can filter out the relevant articles and post them to their weblog. I subscribed to over 50 newsfeeds for biology journals. I could browse over 300 articles in less than 1 hour, posting the important ones to my blog to be read later. That is right. Browse and make posts. I could then link to the article when I had the time. It was incredibly efficient, especially compared to reading each journal TOC individually. Others could then get to the important new literature quickly.

John Robb posts a response to this guy who wrote the article that Ron Comments on here

Most of my career has been spent managing knowledge and I am really impressed with weblogs.  The comments and stories posted with links provide context for the link that often is not communicated well in a knowledge management system. 

Google Relatedness

http://www.squarefree.com/google/relatedness.html

This is another google application written to demonstrate the relatedness of two words.   Also see the book:

Develop Your Own Applications Using Google

With the Google Web APIs service, software developers can query more than 3 billion web documents directly from their own computer programs. Google uses the SOAP and WSDL standards so a developer can program in his or her favorite environment - such as Java, Perl, or Visual Studio .NET.

Everything floats to the surface.  I have been looking for this application so I can potentially add it to my site.  Link here to an application that Rael Dornfest wrote based on the Googleshare concept that Steve Berlin Johnson wrote about recently in his weblog.

Johnson Weblog Emerges [Dan Gillmor's eJournal]

http://stevenberlinjohnson.com     This guy is an excellent writer.   A blog that is a pleasure to read. Honestly this is the find of the night for me.

Law Grads Online, Bar None. A pioneering -- and maligned -- Internet-only law school debuts its first graduating class. Despite the school's lack of bar association accreditation, its grads look forward to practicing law. By Julia Scheeres. [Wired News]

Education needs to move even faster to embrace technology, especially communciations technology like email, and web logs, so that conversation and learning can occur when and where people want.  I don't think the quality of the educational experience will suffer.   The tools will imbed much more context into the experience over time.

Free search engine software.  Thunderstone Webinator.   All it takes to build a powerful knowledge sharing network:

Weblog software:  Radio or Manila

Search engine:  Thunderstone or the Google appliance

News aggregator:  Radio [John Robb's Radio Weblog]

SAIC Employee Knowledge Network

Posted by Vincent Outlaw, 3/19/01 at 10:53:31 AM.

Or, for short, The EKN (Employee Knowledge Network).

SAIC's business is Knowledge.  SAIC employees are the quitessential Knowledge Workers (46% Masters degree or higher, 46% Scientific Degree Disipline, 77% Technical Professional). Knowledge workers thrive when knowledge is continually searched out and expanded upon.  Knowledge aggregated into a Knowledge Network can be easily searched for and expanded upon. Knowledge Networks build relationships between Knowledge Workers.  Relationships build Knowledge.  Knowledge is SAIC's business.

The Employee Knowledge Network (EKN) enables SAIC employees to easily produce, publish, and syndicate knowledge using web-enabled tools and technology.  Employee, project, organization (and other category) template-based web sites maintained by any employee featuring fully-realized original content and value added commentary expanding on the knowledge of others.  The EKN Home aggregates (groups, indexes) content on EKN web sites enabling internal sharing, extension, grouping, and discussion of SAIC knowledge.  EKN content and EKN members are published to the SAIC Public Site to enable Knowledge Relationships with non-SAIC employees to build and grow, making SAIC the hub of an Internet Knowledge Network.

3 Major Components/Paradigms

1. Individual and Group Journals of Original and Value Added Knowledge.

• Weblog model, template architectured web-sites. Examples of creative, knowledge weblogs include Scripting News, Robot Wisdom, Tomalak's Realm and CamWorld.
  
• Postings can be both self (metadata) and auto (search index) categorized and classified. Essential to knowledge sharing and organization.
  
• XML, RSS standard for syndicating (sharing) links and value added knowledge

2. Knowledge Workers Networked.

• Weblog aggregator periodically scans all weblogs for new/changed knowledge postings. Why: What is the new knowledge in the EKN? Model: My.Userland (http://my.userland.com).
  
• List of Updated Weblogs. Why: Who is adding to the EKN? Model: Weblogs.com (http://weblogs.com/)
  
• Most popular (linked-to) weblogs. Why: Where are other SAIC Knowledge Workers getting their knowledge from? Model: Hot List at Weblogs.com (http://weblogs.com/hotList)
  
• Most updated (active) weblogs. Why: Who is sharing the most knowledge with the EKN?  Model: Local Update at Weblogs.com (http://weblogs.com/updates)
  
• Customized Knowledge Channels.  EKN members can personalize  their own customized view(s) of the Weblogs they want to follow (and hopefully learn from/collaborate with). Model: My.Userland Channel Chooser (http://my.userland.com/choose)  Model: SalonHerringWiredFool.com (http://salonherringwiredfool.com/, please read the About)

3. Knowledge Workers Networked with Knowledge Seekers. Ride to Increased Profits on The Cluetrain.

• Public view of ENK, featuring non-proprietary or semi-proprietary (teaser) links and value added knowledge. A channel of SAIC EKN knowledge that flows to the Internet through other aggregators, like My.Userland.Com, and directly to other Knowledge Workers that begin relationships with SAIC Knowledge Workers and build business.
  
• SAIC ENK channel on http://www.SAIC.com
  
• Employee-Customer Relationships Created. Read The Cluetrain Home Page!

I have been looking for good examples of a company using Weblogs to facilitate communication and knowledge sharing in companies.   Here is a good example from SAIC (although it is a little old.  I would like an update)

Amazon hires algorithm guru
The online retailer lures a former chief scientist at Yahoo to become its chief algorithms officer, just as the holiday-shopping season is beginning.

Udi Manber, who also will become a vice president at the online retailer, worked at Yahoo for four years and previously taught computer science at the University of Wisconsin and the University of Arizona. Manber, who has focused on search technology and algorithms, is the author of "Introduction to Algorithms--A Creative Approach."

"Algorithms are what make our site run, (and) such a unique place to shop. It's through algorithms that we're able to do things like make recommendations and tell you what customers who bought this item also bought," said Amazon spokeswoman Patty Smith.

I love it, I will have to put this on my wish list.

MIT wants to build a super database for research papers.  Earth to MIT, give everyone a Radio weblog.  Let them post notes and documents to an Intranet.  Get Google's search appliance and convert all of the documents to HTML.  Save yourself a bundle, let alone the revenue producing discussions browsable open access would enable.  Geeze.  Lead a horse to water schooled in the arts of big cos logic and they will inevitably die of thirst. [John Robb's Radio Weblog]

I like the fact that John Robb is an extraordinary advocate for Radio weblog, but I think that the Dspace archive is a good idea.   There is an extraordinary amount of data that needs to be collected and presented.  Even in a blog you want to refer to content stored in other formats in repositories.   Blogs are great for narrowing a persons view on the entire universe of stuff.   I have linked to archival material in my blog.   It also seems to me that documents should be converted to XML not HTML.

Bioinformatics.Org is an international organization which promotes freedom and openness in the field of bioinformatics. This is done by providing free and open resources for research, development and education so that such resources can be further developed. The Organization is non-profit and maintains an Internet site by the same name where these resources can be accessed. Bioinformatics.Org hopes to lower the barrier to entering and participating in the field of bioinformatics, as access to cutting-edge resources can be prohibitively expensive for those working individually, in small groups, at poorly-funded institutions or in developing nations.

Connecting people to XML.

Structured editing of schema-controlled XML data is a hard challenge to meet. Tools that would make the task easy and natural are nowhere in sight. [John Udell]

Maybe John Udell still hasn't seen Xopus. I can't blame him. We (Q42) don't have a marketing department, and our Xopus site looks like we don't want you to use it. But Xopus does seem to be what John Udell is looking for.

All actions in Xopus are schema controlled. If the schema doesn't allow it, the user can't do it. This doesn't stop with structural actions, like 'can you add one or more Authors to a Book', but markup is also restricted by the schema. Can a user only add bold and italic, or also lists and tables? And if the user can add links, is he then allowed to add a target attribute? This is a big issue for CMSs, where the site designers want to give the site a consistent look and feel, but where the editors keep messing things up.

Another issue is usability and discoverability. Users know how to work with Word. And so Xopus provides the standard Word-like interface, like toolbars, context-menus, and some (not too many) dialogs. But a user must do more than edit some XHTML. For example, the University of Groningen allows teachers to edit course descriptions and other course related data using Xopus. The two options they had before were either teach the teachers to use an XML editor, or build huge amounts of html forms more or less by hand.

But Xopus allows the university to take a much easier approach. The webpages of each course were already built from the XML data with XSL transformations. Xopus uses these XSL files to show the XML data in exactly the same way, only this time the content is editable. So the teachers now have a familiar user interface to edit their data in a familiar layout. And that's not all.

The teacher doesn't even have to know the storage structure of the CMS. If he wants to edit his course, he fires up his browser and he surfs to the webpage of the course. And because the system can recognize the teacher, an extra link appears to edit the course. When clicked, the Xopus toolbar slides in and the course data becomes editable. (Not the whole page is editable, just the parts specific to the course.)

At Q42 we're very proud of this product, and we made it open source and freely downloadable. It works in IE5.5 and up, and we know we can make it work in Mozilla. Only we're missing the financial support to do this. Everybody who knows Xopus thinks this is a shame, and we really want to do it, but the reality of running a business doesn't let us. Just one link to end this story: the online demo.

Fast ROI
********
Providing reviews of software products and services which are capable of
delivering a fast return on your investment.
Recent reviews include :-

Softek Storage Manager - http://www.it-analysis.com/fast_roi_listing.php?id=18
TrueComp - http://www.it-analysis.com/fast_roi_listing.php?id=16
eXtensible Information Server (XIS) -
http://www.it-analysis.com/fast_roi_listing.php?id=13
VERITAS Foundation Suite - http://www.it-analysis.com/fast_roi_listing.php?id=15
Via Vistorm - http://www.it-analysis.com/fast_roi_listing.php?id=14

e-Government adoption soars: Not in the UK
==========================================
The march towards a true eGovernment suite of services is gathering steam
according to the latest study from Taylor Nelson Sofres. Unfortunately the UK is
not one of the countries that can claim impressive rates of eGovernment
adoption.
http://www.it-analysis.com/article.php?id=2727

Blog Day at Yale.

Slow going this week as I spend time gathering receipts, filling out travel reimbursement forms, and preparing for Friday's Revenge of the Blog conference at Yale University. Hope to see you there.

[The Shifted Librarian]

I want to attend, but I would prefer if it were webcast.   This conference is sponsored by:

"The Information Society Project (ISP) at Yale Law School is an intellectual center for the study of a new age in which telecommunications and intellectual property are central determinants of the structure of society, the development of human culture and democratic legitimacy".

Mitt Romney's Transition Team

I had trouble finding the list of Mitt Romney's transition team.   The Boston Globe published it last week.

A Taxonomy Primer:  "Taxonomies�thesauri�classification systems�synonym rings. We�ve heard all of these terms in the context of the Web. As Web sites expand, the task of organizing them has become increasingly problematic and complex".

Taxonomies are a critical part of an information architecture.  Organization of large sites requires thoughtful categorization and the creation of a controlled vocabulary that minimizes the variability of terms used to classify topics.   This is often the most difficult part of creating a website with organized content that does not confuse the user.  The author does a good job of explaining this.

CambridgeDocs

Guerrilla Knowledge Management": the art of growing Communities of Practice (CoPs). Here on the front page you'll find my news weblog on CoPs and online community.   Topics include CoP & KM events, case studies, as well as a fun photo gallery and useful directories of thought leaders and real-world CoP projects. Become a GuerrillaKM Member and add your tips, research, or photos! -- Greg Searle

Interesting site.   I prefer the acronym Community of Interest Networks (CoINs)   We used the term CoINs to signify that collaboration and knowledge sharing had real value.

The CIO Upgrade
11.15.02, 7:00 AM ET - Mark Lewis      Now that information technology (IT) is taking over the world, CIOs increasingly are considered corner-office material.
In the past, the CIO often was viewed as a technology geek confined to the management farm team. Not any more. Renee Arrington of AT Kearney Executive Search, a unit of EDS (nyse: EDS - news - people ), says that the CIO has gone "from being the person to call when the network's broken, to a peer on the leadership team."

This was a TOP STORY in the Mercury News today

CIA searching out technologies to boost national security
The Central Intelligence Agency has come to stay in an area near you. In 1999, the CIA opened up a venture capital firm, In-Q-Tel, on Sand Hill Road -- the heart of Silicon Valley's venture capital community.

There's a new urgency within the CIA to find technology that makes sense of all the unstructured data floating around on the Internet and elsewhere. The agency can't train analysts quickly enough.
By Matt Marshall / Mercury News

Johanna Woll, who is a consultant at the Cap Gemini Ernst & Young Center for Business Innovation, has helped me understand biotechnology and the firms that participate in this industry.   Johnanna works with Chris Meyer and Stan Davis, both of whom are currently writing a new book on adaptive enterprise and the parallels to the natural world.  Bioinformatics and commercializing drugs are my particular interest because there is a significant information management component of the work which is my expertise.   Finding relevant scientific content for drug development and discovery, and being able to share knowledge quickly can accelerate problem solving.  Adopting the right collaboration and electronic work in process environments are important too, because labs are freqently decentralized.  Teams need to work asynchronously as well as in real time across great distances.

Click through to get the answer and see the debate.   These polls are published on Information Today's site.   They are publishers of the following magizines:

Top Ten List: What Employers Want

by James M. Citrin  Spencer Stuart
 
1. Leadership and integrity. In an era when public confidence in business leaders is at the lowest point in a generation and talented employees are highly demanded (regardless of the challenging economic circumstances), nothing is more sought after than people�at all levels�who can inspire a group of people to accomplish important and challenging goals. This will be done by living with integrity and leading by example, displaying a passion which spreads rapidly, and putting what people do in the context of meaningful work.