Michael Sampson

New Blog Address ... currents.michaelsampson.net

Update: This material has moved to the currents.michaelsampson.net web site.

New Blog Address

In line with some other changes, I have finally bitten the bullet and shifted this blog to a new address, henceforth currents.michaelsampson.net.

All of the content on this site has been shifted across ... comments, trackbacks, and all.

This will be the last post here ... from now on the new material will be added at Currents.

I have set the RSS feed to update automagically ... let's see if it works!

Please update your bookmarks!

Industry Watch: RIM Innovates with the Storm

Research In Motion (RIM) took the wraps off the BlackBerry Storm last week. The Storm is the latest device from RIM and it has no physical keyboard, a total departure from every other wireless email device from RIM. Obviously the Storm is designed to fight back against the mind share and growing market share of the Apple iPhone, which also has no physical keyboard, but which is drawing rave reviews in many quarters. Perhaps RIM-aligned customers will be less likely to jump ship to the iPhone now that RIM has an iPhone-like device on offer.

The RIM keyboard has always defined BlackBerry devices, thus RIM has had a tremendous amount of organizational inertia to overcome to get this device to market ("That's not the way we do things around here!"). The RIM keyboard was successful during its fight for market dominance against Palm -- you'll remember that Palm devices didn't have keyboards but relied on special writing for text input, at least until Palm acquired Handspring and started putting keyboards on the Treo devices. I think Palm is still going ... but I know that RIM definitely is.

While RIM has clearly innovated to get the Storm to market, it will need to demonstrate that its on-screen keyboard works better than the iPhone one, but maybe not that it works better than a physical RIM one. I have an iPhone 3G, and I hate the on-screen keyboard (yeah, it's cool and all that, but I actually want something that works for work). While I can type perfectly with two thumbs on the RIM BlackBerry, the best I can get on the iPhone is one finger typing, even in landscape mode. It just doesn't work the same as the BlackBerry. From a use case point of view, I am more than willing to type email messages and blog posts on the BlackBerry, but using the iPhone 3G for that is a revolting thought. And thus I don't do it.

It will be interesting to see how the Storm plays out, and I look forward to trying one in comparison to the iPhone 3G. My sense today is that a real keyboard is still critical, thus I think the BlackBerry Bold is a better next-generation device for wireless email users.

Recommendation
- RIM-aligned organizations can use the Storm as a way to blunt calls for migration to the iPhone 3G.
- A physical keyboard is still critical when using a wireless device for email and text input

More on the "Three Levels": Destination vs. Aggregation

A few weeks ago I wrote about adding connections between the three levels of information management, essentially showing how Step Two's three level model sits in comparison to my 7 pillars reference architecture for collaboration. We need to extend the discussion by considering destination vs. aggregation.

Considering Destination
The idea of destination is that an intranet user clicks through to a certain page (or place) on their intranet, and reads the information that's there, or works with the system that is accessible from there. For example:
- you want to see the current state of a team project, so you click through and open the main page of the project. You see what's up, and create a task for a colleague to do.
- you want to read the latest news from your organization, so you go to the news page.
- you have to fill out a form on the intranet, so you click through to the appropriate place, and fill out the form!

In all cases, you go somewhere on the intranet -- you visit a place. And the place you visit is often linked to the place where the information is stored.

In terms of the three levels, then, you go to the corporate places when you want corporate information, you go to the team, department or divisional places when you want that information, and you work within your own places when you are working on your own stuff. There's a hard line between the various places.

Considering Aggregation
Under the idea of aggregation, information and happenings from across the three levels in the intranet are assembled and brought to the attention of the intranet user. The individual doesn't have to navigate to each individual place to see what's happening ... those changes flow to them. For example:
- you go to the search page and type "competitors" (you start by going to a destination). When the result set is returned, you subscribe for future updates to that search string, and these flow to you automatically.
- you visit the home page for your team project, and subscribe for updates. Whenever something changes, notification of that change comes to you, and maybe even the full text of the change ... so that you don't have to visit at all.
- you want to read the latest corporate news from your organization, so you subscribe for updates. These flow to you as they happen, negating the need to go searching for them.

In all of these cases, you have transitioned from going somewhere to find information or doing something, to having the intranet feed back the information that is of interest to you.

A couple of observations:
- RSS is a key enabler of this aggregation. It's time to give intranet users RSS clients, and to enable RSS on the intranet.
- RSS can be used for subscribing to specific "destination content" (eg, a specific news list or team site), or to "concept content" (eg, a search phase that crosses destinations, or a metadata value that is used across destinations). The difference is simple: the first gives all content from a particular place, and the second gives all content for a particular phrase, irrespective of place. To do this, you'll need an enterprise RSS server that finds content and serves up re-combined content, eg, the Attensa FeedServer.

So What?
Offering aggregation capabilities on the intranet means that users can stay connected to what's happening in the areas that impact or interest them, without requiring them to visit the appropriate destinations.

More importantly, the interests and navigation patterns of other users within the intranet can be used to reason out potentially interesting content to bring to the attention of specific users. In this way the social habits of intranet users as a collective can be used to benefit the individual.

Recommended Resource: Intranet Innovations 2008 (by Step Two Designs)

For the second year running, Step Two Designs have run the Intranet Innovations Awards programme, which seeks to recognize not innovative intranets as a whole, but rather individual innovative ideas and concepts. Last month Step Two released the report for the 2008 awards programme, and I have a copy ... and I recommend that if you are involved with intranets, SharePoint and collaboration, you should buy a copy for your place of work (US$189).

Trying to judge a complete intranet is a daunting task, but beyond the challenge of judging is the bigger challenge of readers being able to apply those ideas. With the road taken by Step Two, however, the reader of the report is able to read ideas that they could apply to their own intranets, or to have the ideas in the report spark off new ideas that would be helpful. I think the main benefit a reader gets from this report is the sense of what's considered 'world class', and thus a good plumb line for their own work.

I said above that if you were involved with "intranets, SharePoint and collaboration" you should buy a copy. Although the report is focused on "intranet" innovations, one of winners ... Transfield Services from Australia ... won for its entry about governance of SharePoint team sites for collaboration. If you are rolling out SharePoint team sites, you owe it your future to read Transfield's approach.

James Robertson of Step Two asked me for a review paragraph, and I sent him this:

"James Robertson and the team at Step Two Designs have discovered a fantastic approach to giving credit to people doing innovative work on their intranets, while simultaneously facilitating the sharing of innovative ideas with the wider intranets community. I have just read the 2008 edition of the Innovative Intranets Awards report, and I'm delighted to see the ideas that have been profiled this year. Given the stepwise increase in innovative ideas from 2007, I look forward to reading the 2009 report and observing how far we have collectively come. This report should be mandatory reading for every intranet team across the world."

Gone Fishing ... back October 13

The printed edition of Seamless Teamwork is done, KMWorld has come and gone, I've recovered from my US trip ... so it's time for a vacation. The New Zealand countryside awaits, and more importantly, so does my family.

I'll be back on the 13th. Grace to you.

Check out the size of that Wacom ...

120cm x 80cm Wacom, per W700 page on Lenovo.

Isn't that supposed to be "mm" not "cm"??

Michael's Application for the ACIS 2008 Doctoral Consortium is Accepted

I received notice last night that I can attend and present my PhD work at the Doctoral Consortium at the ACIS 2008 Australasian Conference on Information Systems in December (here in Christchurch).

Is there a single word in the English language that simultaneously conveys the sense "hurray" and "gulp"??

Bag Troubles (Take 2): Victorinox Rolling Trevi

I was absolutely stunned when one of the handles of my Victorinox Rolling Trevi came away when I lifted it down some stairs in San Francisco on Friday. This is not a cheap bag, and I expected a lot more from Victorinox, but there was a huge difference between how the handle was sewn on at the front of the bag (two lines of stitching) and on the back of the bag (4 cm x 2 cm rectangle of stitching, plus an X of stitching in the middle of the rectangle). It was just poles apart.

I have owned this bag for less than three months, haven't used it all that much, and have not been rough with it. It's gone back to the shop for repairs ... but it has shaken my perception of Victorinox bags.

Have you experienced anything similar? Is there a more robust bag I should have purchased instead?

Martin says "Samsonite" (October 1)
Email from Martin earlier today:

"The thing about Victorinox is that they do not make their own bags – they make penknives and have jumped on the luggage bandwagon

My large Samsonite suit carrier lasted 18 years and some 30 countries, I have a carry-on which has lasted eight years and a shoulder bag that has been all over the place and lasted four years. The stuff never wears out and they make it all themselves so spares and repairs are easy. And it rhymes with Sampson! What more do you want?

Go buy!!

Regards

Martin"

Bag Troubles (Take 1): Targus Urban Messenger

Since I was taking three laptops to the US for my presentation last week, I needed a slim-line laptop bag to fit within the airline guidelines for taking 2 carry on pieces. I looked around a number of shops, and of the bags I surveyed, the Targus Urban Messenger looked the best fit.

But it was not to be. Within 20 hours of purchasing it ... and 15 hours of those sitting on a plane (thus it getting very little use), one end of the handle broke off when I reached San Franscisco (see above). Needless to say, I was not a happy camper. So I lugged a malfunctioning bag around California for a week, and then returned it for a refund yesterday.

My take: Don't buy this bag.