Mixed by Gregory Culpin (Business Development Officer @ Whatever) in Enterprise 2.0, Enterprise search, Knowledge mgmt, Social software
November
An article originally posted on www.theappgap.com
“Knowledge Plaza is a Web-based platform for enterprise search, social bookmarking, knowledge management, information brokerage and expert identification. Every tile, or piece of information, has its own page like members so you can see all the activity related to the information. You can also send a link to the page so others can see the context around the information. I like this in the same way I think the Mosaic concept adds value. You get the context surrounding information and you can share this context. This concept of providing context is pervasive in Knowledge Plaza and I think that is one of its greatest strengths. It takes knowledge management nicely into enterprise 2.0.”
Read the full article at www.theappgap.com
In my opinion…
Bill Ives wrote up this excellent article about Knowledge Plaza at the App Gap, after only a brief tour of the solution. We’re already looking forward to further interaction and collaboration during his next visit to Belgium. 
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Mixed by Gregory Culpin (Business Development Officer @ Whatever) in Enterprise 2.0, Enterprise search, Knowledge mgmt
November
An article originally posted on www.socialglass.com
“Recent discussions at work have prompted me to re-iterate something very fundamental that often gets overlooked when it comes to Enterprise 2.0. An organization will never adopt a single social productivity tool. Knowledge will ALWAYS be scattered.
Enterprise search will unlock data and increase the propensity for information (and the knowledge workers who create it) to be discovered. Discoverability leads to recognition, and recognition leads to increased participation. Enterprise 2.0 must be approached holistically.
Clearspace doesn’t do this. Thoughtfarmer doesn’t do this. Mindtouch doesn’t do this. There is no “Enterprise 2.0 in a box” solution. Period.”
Read the full article at www.socialglass.com
In my opinion…
I recently stumbled upon Jeremy Thomas who stated a few months back on Twitter that “Data within the enterprise will never be unified in one place i.e. a wiki, community, KM platform” and that “Search is key”. This followed his post on Social Glass which had been followed up by people such as Jon Husband and Chris McGrath with whom I couldn’t agree more on the fact “Enterprise 2.0 is as much a mindset than tools”. However, I guess you realize that closing the door to new potential solutions actually opens a huge one for being challenged?
Search is of course important, but in its current state search alone is insufficient. Enterprise search is as broken as web search: too many different sources, too little context. The fact is although it brings silos together, unfortunately context is either left behind or difficult to homogenize when brought in from this diversity of sources and formats.
The only option left is to then give users the ability to build context themselves around all this information once it’s been discovered and/or retrieved.
Funnily enough Jon Husband mentioned PKM (Personal Knowledge Management) which we’ve believed for a long time to be an essential step towards proper adoption of EKM (Enterprise Knowledge Management) solutions.
“Personally essential, collectively critical” : these are actually thoughts which lead our team to develop a few months back what is being recognized as a very elegant I&KM receipe which gathers any form of information (docs, websites, emails, contacts, search tools), but which more importantly allows users to interact around these items. Not only is all your information searchable, but it becomes contextualised under a single coherent umbrella: “No more silos, just context”. Social interaction and productivity then kick in to give you (what we think is) an all-in-one enterprise-wide solution for EKM.
Either way, I’d be more than glad to share thoughts on this with you guys. We are getting very positive feedback about the platform, but it’s definitely a treat to get dubious people on board and convince them this is actually possible;-)
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Mixed by Gregory Culpin (Business Development Officer @ Whatever) in Enterprise 2.0, Enterprise search, Knowledge mgmt, Social software
October
An article originally posted on scottgavin.info
“In my biased opinion, we’ve delivered the most exciting Enterprise 2.0 social productivity platform on the market. And with new development coming to fruition in the next month it’s just going to get better.
Knowledge Plaza has been developed as a Web-based platform for enterprise search, social bookmarking, knowledge management, information brokerage and expert identification.
The platform allows you to add websites, emails, documents, contacts, references and discussions. Multimedia is on the way. You can tag, annotate and share anything you add. Using workspaces, your network and company facets sharing and finding information is at the core of Knowledge Plaza.”
Read the full article at scottgavin.info
In my opinion…
Scott Gavin’s claims about Knowledge Plaza are indeed very broad, however we stand by them as his post and many others’ reveal e.g. Bill Ives’s recent post.
An authentic knowledge hero’s piece of work!
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Mixed by Gregory Culpin (Business Development Officer @ Whatever) in Enterprise search, Knowledge mgmt
September
An article originally posted on Michael Sampson
“Connecting the Individual and Team Levels : there has to be tight (”seamless”) integration between the team and individual levels. This means that the electronic environment that each user works in must support in-the-workflow integration between individual needs and team needs.
Connecting Team and Corporate Level Information to the Individual Level : the concept of “What’s changed that may impact me?” is a key question that drives a lot of our information-related activities. We read the newspaper to see “what’s changed?” We watch the TV news, read blogs, follow Twitter, etc. for this same purpose. And it’s my contention that this same fundamental idea needs to apply in our Intranet environments.”
Read the full article at www.michaelsampson.net
In my opinion…
In this post, Michael Sampson aims at matching his seven-pillar model with James Robertson’s three-level model of how information is managed inside a company. He also sketches a representation of these levels centered around an employee.
Giving employees the ability to be aware of “changes which impact them” not only helps for effective collaboration, but moreover it allows them to make better choices.
Just check out Michael’s draft as a basis for asking yourself “Which levels in my company does information flow well through (or not)?”
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Mixed by Thomas Moreau (Head of Training @ Whatever) in Enterprise search, Trends
August
An article originally posted on Alt Search Engines
“The more razzle dazzle you slap on a key word indexing system, the more storage, bandwidth, CPU cycles, and plumbing you will need. The way key word indexing can bring an older Pentium computer to it knees when it runs Google Desktop Search or another “free” desktop search system provides a real-life example of how search usurps resources. Even the simplest keyword indexing requires a large part of a computer’s resources when indexes are updated and rebuilt. The more users and the more content you process, the more plumbing you need. When you slap on additional content processing, you are in a poker game that you cannot win. The computational odds are stacked against you. The fix is to process less content or turn off features. Believe me, even the big guys do this. Google and Microsoft, for example, have priorities for their indexing.”
Read the full article at altsearchengines.com
In my opinion…
Very interesting (but not that optimistic) post from Stephen E. Arnold about Search and its (no) future.
Though we might agree on some points, we believe in the future of enterprise search (I suppose you had guessed it).
I chose this extract just to say that indeed, search tools should have to process less content. And considering the enterprise as a community, the content itself should be defined by the end-users themselves. They know what is valuable. They have expertise. They should be able to share only what they think might be relevant to others. This, in my opinion, could be the fix. Sharing and indexing only what is valuable. ‘Turn up the signal, wipe out the noise’.
This would also reduce users’ dissatisfaction, and increase their engagement.
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Mixed by Gregory Culpin (Business Development Officer @ Whatever) in Enterprise search, Trends
July
An article originally posted on arnoldit.com
“The most interesting point in Ms. Foley’s essay was: “SharePoint is a collection of six servers that provide document collaboration, portal creation, enterprise search, enterprise content management, electronic forms creation and management and business intelligence functions (analysis and publication of business information).”
Now we know. SharePoint is complicated. Perfect for SharePoint consultants and Microsoft fans in information technology departments. SharePoint can be slightly less satisfying for users who want to use a system that is transparent, snappy, and easy to customize.”
Read the full article at arnoldit.com
In my opinion…
Sharepoint is a well-known product, yet its complexity to be implemented in a corporation (large or small), as underlined by Mary-Jo Foley’s essay and reinforced by Arnold Stephen’s follow-up, is very often under-estimated by IT departments and further up the ladder.
In reality however, the huge amount of effort, time and money which has to be invested before getting a decent customized/usable platform now haunts many of those who have had the guts to try and get the monster truck on track. Getting it to roll in the initially wanted direction is another matter altogether!
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Mixed by Thomas Moreau (Head of Training @ Whatever) in Enterprise 2.0, Enterprise search, Trends
July
An article originally posted on Alt Search Engines
John Conroy looks at 75 alternative search engines in 14 categories, naming a “Top Dog” in each category.
See the full list at cmswire.com
In my opinion…
Hey! Look who’s the Top Dog in Enterprise Search! How great. Though we might beat, we don’t bite. So do not hesitate to come and see us!
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Mixed by Patrick Rácz (Developer @ Whatever) in Enterprise search, Trends, Web search
June
An article originally posted on TechCrunch
“Is Microsoft’s vision to compete in search and reinvent itself as an advertising company nothing more than an attempt to get back into its familiar position as Top Gun? Should Microsoft, Google and everyone else just give up on search and outsource to Google? That’s what Tim O’Reilly argues in a blog post today, and I don’t think he could be more wrong.”
Read the full article at www.techcrunch.com
In my opinion…
Starting from what seems like a misunderstanding, both Tim O’Reilly and Michael Arrington exchange interesting views on the importance of competition in the search market.
I agree with Michael that competition is important in the sense it drives innovations otherwise unexpected in a monopolistic situation. However I personally think this competition could come from an outsider as evolving technology is making search engine building easier and easier. In a near future competition will only be about innovation - provided you have sufficient ressources to implement it.
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