This one was just too interesting and I had to mention it... See the story, by Greg Miller from the Los Angeles Times. Thanks to Lieutenant-Commander Mary Gardam for sharing the story.
01 November 2006
01 August 2006
GC Top IT Job Open to the Public
No posts lately - I am enjoying a restful two weeks vacation away from the computer (mostly). :-)
This might interest some readers: the top IT job in the Government of Canada, Chief Executive Officer of the Information Technology Services Branch, Public Works & Government Services Canada, has become available - advertisement 2006-TLN-SVC-APE-09 (indeterminate). The competition is open to the public until August 15th, 2006. It is at the EX-5 level ($151,800-178,700).
This might interest some readers: the top IT job in the Government of Canada, Chief Executive Officer of the Information Technology Services Branch, Public Works & Government Services Canada, has become available - advertisement 2006-TLN-SVC-APE-09 (indeterminate). The competition is open to the public until August 15th, 2006. It is at the EX-5 level ($151,800-178,700).
21 July 2006
Wanted - Legal Adviser in Botswana (e-government)
I'm putting this here for Steven Bilodeau, Crown Prosecutor (Technology & Internet Crimes Coordinator), Alberta Justice - Special Prosecutions Branch:
[cross-posted on slaw]
The government of Botswana has put out a tender for an e-government portal. One of the requirements is for a "Legal Advisor" to advise on legal issues relating to e-government projects and must be a graduate in law with experience handing such projects.Please reply directly to Steven, at Steven.Bilodeau (at) gov.ab.ca
Do any of you know someone who would fit this description? The person putting the tender together wants to approach qualified candidates.
[cross-posted on slaw]
11 July 2006
Update on drupal - Free and Open Source Content Management System
Ever had the feeling, after you bought a new car or a new house, that you made the right choice? Feels good, doesn'it?
That is how I feel towards drupal, a free and open source content management system, covered earlier. Powerful third party recognition keeps adding up:
That is how I feel towards drupal, a free and open source content management system, covered earlier. Powerful third party recognition keeps adding up:
- By Google, in the context of its Summer of Code program;
- By IBM, in the context of its ongoing series of article on Using open source software to design, develop, and deploy a collaborative Web site, drupal was selected over Mambo, Typo3, Movable Type, Wordpress and Text Pattern; noticably taking note of drupal's founder Dries Buytaert desire to focus on simplicity and usability;
- By Forrester Research, listing drupal as a "strong performer".
06 July 2006
Microsoft Adding Office Support for ODF
Microsoft is on a roll! (in right directions)
After introducing a Creative Commons add-in for Office, they are now adding a capability to translate the Open XML Office format into the Open Document Format - see the post by Brian Jones:
After introducing a Creative Commons add-in for Office, they are now adding a capability to translate the Open XML Office format into the Open Document Format - see the post by Brian Jones:
Today we are announcing the creation of the Open XML Translator project that will help translate between the Office Open XML formats and the OpenDocument format. We've talked a lot about the value the Open XML formats bring, and one of them of course is the ability to filter it down into other formats. While we still aren't seeing a strong demand for ODF support from our corporate or consumer customers, it's now a bit different with governments.
04 July 2006
L’absence de blogues civilistes (commentaire)
Comme certains lecteurs le savent déjà, je suis un avocat francophone, membre du Barreau du Québec. Je publie ici et sur slaw en anglais, malgré quelques rares exceptions. Récemment, grâce à un billet de Dominic Jaar sur son nouveau blogue, j'ai trouvé plusieurs blogues juridiques francophones et j'ai décidé de répondre ci-bas à un thème soulevé à plusieurs reprises: l'absence de blogueurs civilistes.
Pour expliquer cette rareté juridico-québécoise-blogique, il faut revoir quelques prémisses, notamment celles à l'effet que les deux finalités d'un blogue juridique sont de (1) partager, confronter avec l’autre; et (2) se faire connaître.
Le blogueur régulier (au moins un billet par semaine) doit être motivé par un incitatif qui va au-delà du simple désir de se faire connaître ou de créer des confrontations ou controverses. Parmi les autres éléments de motivation, on retrouve le simple plaisir d'écrire, d'articuler sa pensée dans une forme suffisamment intelligible et structurée pour qu'elle soit couchée sur clavier.
Tout blogueur régulier se rend rapidement compte du phénomène suivant: plus on écrit à propos d'un sujet, plus on l'approfondit; plus on approfondit un sujet, plus on a envie d'écrire et d'étendre les frontières de sa connaissance. Quand l'effort est sincère et novateur, le blogueur éprouve un plaisir suffisant à simplement "accoucher son billet" (!) Quand l'effort est novateur et recherché, il n'est pas rare (exemple) que plusieurs personnes interviendront pour y ajouter leurs commentaires, critiques et suggestions.
Ceci dit, je crois que la rareté des blogueurs civilistes francophones au Québec s'explique par les raisons suivantes:
Pour expliquer cette rareté juridico-québécoise-blogique, il faut revoir quelques prémisses, notamment celles à l'effet que les deux finalités d'un blogue juridique sont de (1) partager, confronter avec l’autre; et (2) se faire connaître.
Le blogueur régulier (au moins un billet par semaine) doit être motivé par un incitatif qui va au-delà du simple désir de se faire connaître ou de créer des confrontations ou controverses. Parmi les autres éléments de motivation, on retrouve le simple plaisir d'écrire, d'articuler sa pensée dans une forme suffisamment intelligible et structurée pour qu'elle soit couchée sur clavier.
Tout blogueur régulier se rend rapidement compte du phénomène suivant: plus on écrit à propos d'un sujet, plus on l'approfondit; plus on approfondit un sujet, plus on a envie d'écrire et d'étendre les frontières de sa connaissance. Quand l'effort est sincère et novateur, le blogueur éprouve un plaisir suffisant à simplement "accoucher son billet" (!) Quand l'effort est novateur et recherché, il n'est pas rare (exemple) que plusieurs personnes interviendront pour y ajouter leurs commentaires, critiques et suggestions.
Ceci dit, je crois que la rareté des blogueurs civilistes francophones au Québec s'explique par les raisons suivantes:
- Nombre d'auteurs potentiels est réduit. Le Québec n'est pas la France ni la communauté de common law Nord-Américaine: le nombre d'auteurs potentiels est moins important. Par auteur potentiel, il faut comprendre un civiliste québécois qui est réceptif aux nouvelles technologies informatiques et qui pourrait développer le désir d'écrire autre chose que des ouvrages de doctrine et des déclarations et requêtes.
- Audience civiliste réduite. L'un des facteurs qui motive un blogueur à régulièrement prendre sa plume électronique est, avouons-le, le nombre potentiel de lecteurs internet. Or, le nombre réduit d'auteurs potentiels risque de ne pas être encouragé par l'audience réduite que représente les civilistes québécois "branchés" lisant régulièrement des blogues.
- Forme d'écriture plus exigeante. En moyenne, je crois que le civiliste est beaucoup plus cartésien que son confrère de common law. Simplement en comparant un manuel de droit criminel de première année rédigé par un professeur de common law, consistant souvent en un amalgamme de décisions-clés en la matière, et un Dubois; on constate immédiatement la différence... Lorsqu'il rédige un ouvrage de doctrine, une déclaration ou une requête; une partie importante de la réflexion du civiliste consiste à organiser et même découper la matière. Cette forme de pensée, idéale lors de la rédaction de traités, se prête plus difficilement à l'écriture de simples billets ponctuels. Je crois que le blogueur de common law éprouve moins de difficultés à ce niveau.
03 July 2006
Scobleizer Exit Interview
By now, it is fairly common knowledge that Robert Scoble is leaving Microsoft. Robert went on record, a few weeks ago, to put to rest some rumors about his departure. Yesterday, he shared with us the details of his exit interview.
I found this exit interview fascinating, and well worth the read. Employees often have insights about their company that go well beyond their pay scale and position; wisdom comes from everywhere. Exit interviews that are well designed will seek out that wisdom. For example, here are three things that Robert thinks could be done better at Microsoft (full explanations in his post):
I found this exit interview fascinating, and well worth the read. Employees often have insights about their company that go well beyond their pay scale and position; wisdom comes from everywhere. Exit interviews that are well designed will seek out that wisdom. For example, here are three things that Robert thinks could be done better at Microsoft (full explanations in his post):
- "I would incubate more products outside of Microsoft for a longer period of time. (...) I’ve seen lots of things change this industry that were done by small teams of people. Xbox? Two people. .NET? A handful. Live.com? A handful. (...) In fact watch what Google does. They keep teams separate which makes them look chaotic and not strategic but it lets them innovate longer before they get sucked into the “integration” phase. (...).
- I would actually start a new company that’s designed to destroy the old one. Xerox got very close to doing that with Xerox PARC, but the executives weren’t able to pull the trigger. Imagine what our industry would have been like if the executives there HAD pulled the trigger?
- I would put a single person in charge of naming and fire anyone who didn’t listen to the dictator. I’d do the same thing about corporate image. Same with conference planning. Same with advertising. Committees just suck the soul out of the best ideas. On the other hand, I would hate to be that person cause if you screwed up you’d have no one else to blame."
30 June 2006
The Paperless Lawyer-Speaker: Dominic Jaar
Last week, several lawyers from the Office of the Judge-Advocate General converged to Ottawa, at the Government of Canada Conference Center, for a National Retreat on integrated information management. The 3-day retreat opened with a one-hour session on Modern Law Practice led by Dominic Jaar, corporate counsel at Bell Canada. Dominic accepted an earlier invitation posted on slaw.
Dominic treated us with something far better than a vision of a future, modern and paperless lawyer: he simply shared with us how he currently worked and demonstrated his day-to-day practice, including court room practice. From accessing remotely the corporate Practice and Case Management System to sifting, filtering and sorting through thousands and millions of documents in the context of e-discovery in a court room setting; Dominic's demonstration was getting the point across very convincingly: it is well worth the upfront investment to become a true paperless lawyer. Whereas he could manage about 30 to 40 cases concurrently, Dominic estimated he could now manage about 110 to 120 cases, with more ease and pleasure.
He also demonstrated several technologies that are part of his Law 2.0 arsenal:
[cross posted on slaw]
Dominic treated us with something far better than a vision of a future, modern and paperless lawyer: he simply shared with us how he currently worked and demonstrated his day-to-day practice, including court room practice. From accessing remotely the corporate Practice and Case Management System to sifting, filtering and sorting through thousands and millions of documents in the context of e-discovery in a court room setting; Dominic's demonstration was getting the point across very convincingly: it is well worth the upfront investment to become a true paperless lawyer. Whereas he could manage about 30 to 40 cases concurrently, Dominic estimated he could now manage about 110 to 120 cases, with more ease and pleasure.
He also demonstrated several technologies that are part of his Law 2.0 arsenal:
- VPN conduit to the office, enabling him to remotely connect to corporate resources;
- In addition to a Practice and Case Management System, a distinct application to manage, sort, filter, annotate and generally better manage and present evidence in electronic format;
- Whenever authorized by the Judge, automatic voice recognition and transcription of testimonies in his laptop: as witnesses (or anyone for that matter) is speaking in the court room, testimonies and verbal exchanges are automatically transcribed into text;
- Phone service from the computer also, enabling automatic logging of calls into the relevant cases, etc.
[cross posted on slaw]
Creative Commons Licenses Added to Microsoft Office
As you may already know, I'm a fan of Creative Commons licenses, because they allow authors to promote the dissemination of their ideas and their work using one of many carefully designed licenses. One such license is featured on this blog. Instead of publishing under the default almighty "All rights reserved", placing severe restrictions on the reuse and re-purposing of their works; creative commons licenses empower authors and publishers to decide exactly what rights they want to retain as opposed to retaining "all rights".
Microsoft has recently offered the option to embed Creative Commons license in Word documents, Excel workbooks and PowerPoint slide descks; by offering a new Microsoft Office add-in. Great idea!
PS: with this Firefox extension, you can instantly view creative commons licenses embedded in web pages.
Microsoft has recently offered the option to embed Creative Commons license in Word documents, Excel workbooks and PowerPoint slide descks; by offering a new Microsoft Office add-in. Great idea!
PS: with this Firefox extension, you can instantly view creative commons licenses embedded in web pages.
29 June 2006
Metacrap: 5 Years After
About five years, ago, Cory Doctorow published the entertaining reality check called "Metacrap: Putting the torch to seven straw-men of the meta-utopia". Take a look at it. Still valid. A bit extreme, but to counterbalance the huge amount of meta-utopia already published, I would surmise that Cory wanted to get his point across in a way that most of us could immediately relate to.
Such reality checks are useful, especially before embarking on organizational metadata journeys. Highly recommended!
Such reality checks are useful, especially before embarking on organizational metadata journeys. Highly recommended!
28 June 2006
Open Source Software Gaining Momentum: Taiwan, Belgium
The logic of adopting open source software in governments has been recognized in several governments, such as the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Taiwan and Belgium are the latest into the club of governments adopting and promoting open source software, for a number of not too suprising reasons:
- Taiwan (and presumably China is next) are fed up with high licensing fees, most of them paid to Microsoft. The sums involved are staggering.
- Belgium, on June 23rd, 2006, issued a press release confirming the adoption by the Belgium government of the Open Document Format (ODF) in government. An excerpt from the press release follows (my translation): "In the first stage, each federal Department and Agency must ensure that documents in ODF format can be read. A transitory period is planned. This will enable all administrators to take all necessary measures without jeopardizing level and quality of service. Further progress will depend on the impact assessment study and on the existence of appropriate plug-ins for reading and saving documents in ODF format. This decision illustrates the overall federal government strategy of promoting the use of open standards." Thanks to Russell McOrmond for reporting this (GOSLING mailing list).
22 June 2006
Starting With Web 2.0
I am keeping fairly quiet this week, as I am leading a National Retreat for selected lawyers of our Office in Ottawa. One question I keep getting asked: "How can we get started using web 2.0 stuff - wikis, blogs, feeds...?"
Last Fall, I took a University of Toronto course taught by Stephen Abram, VP Innovation at SirsiDynix. I felt overwhelmed by his forward looking horizon, knowledge, and I kept asking myself - "what is all this web 2.0 stuff? how does he keep current with so much?!" I finally asked him. Stephen just said: "start by looking up web 2.0 on google, subscribe to a few blogs... it will come".
He was right.
Eight months later, I read on a regular basis over 100 blogs, I now am fully immersed in that forward-looking horizon. If you feel very new to this, no worries. One year ago, I had no clue of what "web 2.0" meant. It's not rocket science.
In this post, I share some recommended steps to anyone new to web 2.0 and interested to start experimenting with feeds (RSS), wikis, blogs, the whole shebang. Feel free to add comments and other suggested steps and resources.
[cross-posted on G2TT]
Last Fall, I took a University of Toronto course taught by Stephen Abram, VP Innovation at SirsiDynix. I felt overwhelmed by his forward looking horizon, knowledge, and I kept asking myself - "what is all this web 2.0 stuff? how does he keep current with so much?!" I finally asked him. Stephen just said: "start by looking up web 2.0 on google, subscribe to a few blogs... it will come".
He was right.
Eight months later, I read on a regular basis over 100 blogs, I now am fully immersed in that forward-looking horizon. If you feel very new to this, no worries. One year ago, I had no clue of what "web 2.0" meant. It's not rocket science.
In this post, I share some recommended steps to anyone new to web 2.0 and interested to start experimenting with feeds (RSS), wikis, blogs, the whole shebang. Feel free to add comments and other suggested steps and resources.
- Introductory Reading. Before you start experimenting with blogs, wikis and the like; I suggest you follow these links to get a bird's eye view: Intro to Web 2.0 by Joshua Porter, other web 2.0 definitions compiled by Dion Hinchcliffe, wikipedia articles (Web 2.0, RSS, wiki, blog, social tagging).
- Web 2.0 and your Environment. Each field of human endeavour, including yours, will be influenced by the web 2.0 phenomenon, sooner or later. Why? Web 2.0 promotes a participatory web in which ideas are shared, exchanged, debated, online and in full view, instantly connecting all interested parties. Web 2.0 offers alternative modes of expression and lowers the publishing threshold - to be an author once required a literary agent, now; you can open and publish on a blog in mere minutes. The long term wordlwide impact of this information revolution has been neatly encapsulated in the provocative EPIC 2014 movie. Here follows an example of how web 2.0 is increasingly having an impact on the legal profession: Web 2.0 and the Legal Profession.
- Experiment Web 2.0: ClaimID. You cannot develop a good understanding of web 2.0 trends and paradigm shifts without experimenting and using its tools and technologies. So, in the next steps below, I offer a few ways to get you going and experimenting. These experiences may result in you establishing an online presence: before you do so, open yourself a ClaimID page (see mine as example). Check these suggestions too. It is good practice to tie your online presence to a single ID page: I recommend ClaimID for this purpose.
- Experiment Web 2.0: NewsReading. If you want to be able to read syndicated feeds (see links in para 1 above), you will need a news reader. I use GreatNews for desktop based newsreading. There is also bloglines for internet based news reading. If you plan to do your news reading from the same computer all the time, a desktop newsreader is faster and more efficient. Once you have installed the software on your computer (or opened yourself a bloglines account), you are ready to subscribe to your first feeds.
- Experimenting Web 2.0: Subscribing to Feeds. A good starting point to give you an idea of the kind of things you can subscribe to is a recent article by Steve Rubel: 35 Ways You Can Use RSS Today. Standard icons are now used to identify feeds. Do not forget to subscribe to this blog! ;-)
- Experimenting with Web 2.0: Time to Tag. You are going to do a lot of exploration and reading on the net. You need a way to reference pages and sites. The "web 2.0 way" to do this is with "social tagging", so open yourself an account on http://del.icio.us - and start tagging pages as recommended in The Several Habits of Wildly Successful del.icio.us Users. By way of example, you can see how my del.icio.us account has grown to over 1,000 resources in about seven months only, and even when I hit 10,000 resources; I am confident I will be able to retrieve any page I want simply by combining my own keywords. For example, the list of my resources tagged both with "Web2.0" and "Trends" can be accessed witha URL formatted like this: http://del.icio.us/Fidelis1970/Web2.0+Trends ("Fidelis1970" is the name of my account on del.icio.us). Similarly, I know I can retrieve my own list of sites using drupal with the following URL: http://del.icio.us/Fidelis1970/drupal+Example
- Experimenting with Web 2.0: Time to Blog. Ok, you subscribe, you read, you tag; it is now time to become and actor of the information revolution! Open yourself a blog. The easiest, no hassle and free way to do this is by starting at blogger - see also the full explanation.
- Experimenting with Web 2.0: Time to Wiki. Whereas blogs represent a method for updating pages with regular posts, displayed in reverse chronological order, each posts typically enabling comments; wikis are more in the nature of a collection of easily editable web pages that are interlinked. The most successfull implementation of a wiki the wikipedia. There are places where you can start experimenting with wiki and even to open your own little wiki, such as Peanut Butter wiki. You can also simply register yourself an account on an existing wiki, and start editing and creating topics.
[cross-posted on G2TT]
13 June 2006
Does Anyone Know? How to Create "Web 2.0" Lists?
Does anyone know how to do this?
I would like to:
UPDATE: and after trying the "Google Groups solution", I found out that their group feeds do not validate so I can't subscribe via my news reader...?!
I would like to:
- Be able to send emails to an address;
- Have those emails transformed into a feed (with attachments and full text feed - no one line teasers);
- For free?
UPDATE: and after trying the "Google Groups solution", I found out that their group feeds do not validate so I can't subscribe via my news reader...?!
08 June 2006
G2TT in the Ottawa Citizen | Web 2.0 in governments
The Ottawa Citizen (main newspaper of Canada's National Capital Region) featured today a full two page story in the tech weekly section, written by Peter Hum, on Government 2.0 Think Tank ("G2TT"), a private association dedicated to open source government. This marks the official launch of G2TT.
To the extent you are interested in web 2.0 happening in governments, please publicize this post on your blog and in your own networks. This is the welcome message on the G2TT site:
The first project of G2TT, called Project Eureka, specifically targets web 2.0 and related issues in a governmental context:
I am excited by the potential of G2TT, as it embodies the best of open source software communities in an altogether different context: open source government. For more details, please see the G2TT Association Charter. Digg the article! ;-)
To the extent you are interested in web 2.0 happening in governments, please publicize this post on your blog and in your own networks. This is the welcome message on the G2TT site:
Government 2.0 Think Tank, or "G2TT", is an outlet of participation for those who are passionate about Public Service and want to solve problems in their fields.Thought leadership. Vision. Skill. Comprehensiveness. Common sense. Not only can you find these attributes on G2TT, but you can, and should, contribute yours. You can register and view all content on this site. You can also become a member and participate to G2TT endeavours, including its first project, Leveraging Web 2.0 in governments.
G2TT promotes governmental efficiency. G2TT does not promote any particular viewpoint on any political issue. G2TT seeks to offer quality information to governments and members of the public about improving the way government does business, leveraging an open source community spirit.
G2TT is a private association, made of members drawn from the Global Public Sector ecosystem: Public Servants, citizens - anyone interested in operational issues facing any government, world-wide. Whether you are cynical, dispirited, passionate or just curious; there is no excuse not to get involved: G2TT puts within your reach an architecture of participation in which your voice can contribute to governments moving forward. Join us. We are thought leaders.
The first project of G2TT, called Project Eureka, specifically targets web 2.0 and related issues in a governmental context:
Throughout the world, governments are facing unprecedented opportunities and challenges in how they manage information. For example, the commoditization of Information Technology ("IT"), coupled with Web 2.0 trends and technologies, present a basket of solutions often leveraging Open Source Software and Open Standards. The Information Technology ("IT") landscape is dramatically changing, at a pace that few governments and large corporations are able to keep up with.
While these fundamental changes are occuring on the IT front, the traditional governmental silos of Information Management, such as Records Management, Library Management, Archives, Metadata & Taxonomy, Access to Information & Privacy, etc. are breaking down to make room for an increasingly unified version of information management, reconciled and working with IT.
These major transformational currents will completely reshape the way governments operate and interact with the Public they serve. How these changes will occur, however, is difficult to predict, because few governments entrust the full spectrum of responsibilities related to Integrated Information Management to a single Chief Information Officer (CIO's). Current CIO's are often "Chief IT Officers" as opposed to "Chief Information Officers".
Many public servants possess the necessary knowledge to empower their governments to embrace these major trends. However, they are typically responsible for only one piece of the problem. This is where G2TT comes in.
This is the first association project, seeking to bring Public Servants and any other interested parties to work on a common goal, leveraging open source community spirit: Leveraging Web 2.0 in governments. This project, similarly to other G2TT projects, is designed in accordance with a common set of project principles, in particular, the need to identify a clear, well-articulated deliverable. This project deliverable is a report structured as follows.
(read more)
I am excited by the potential of G2TT, as it embodies the best of open source software communities in an altogether different context: open source government. For more details, please see the G2TT Association Charter. Digg the article! ;-)
06 June 2006
Why Law Blogs ("Blawgs") Are On A Roll
Lawyers like to argue, to write, to publish; that's a known fact. When it comes to blogging, there is something special, something uniquely appealing that ought to be pursued; something that makes the connection between the legal community and society better. And that has been nicely stated by Dahlia Lithwick in The American Lawyer, June 1st 2006 edition:
Thanks to Ian Best (3L Epiphany) for reporting this.
[cross-posted on Slaw]
If you combine a journalist's fear of offering a personal opinion with her even greater fear of boring the reader, the result can be legal writing that is too constrained, while at the same time fixates on the details of the human drama at the expense of explaining the legal dispute. By contrast, legal blogging is wonderfully technical and detailed, but also largely accessible and opinionated. In the blogosphere, the taboo on opinionated legal writing has been lifted. Even better, law professors, who can be exceedingly cautious in print, sometimes become slightly drunk on the Internet's thin air. Whereas legal thinkers once limited their most serious scholarship to law review articles, occasionally nipping out into the dangerous world to write an op-ed, now many of them offer off-the-cuff observations about everything from partial birth abortion bans to their favorite CDs, several times daily. The blogosphere thrives precisely because it exists at the interstices of the ivory tower and pop culture. As a result, it's the most fertile ground for cutting-edge law talk.
Thanks to Ian Best (3L Epiphany) for reporting this.
[cross-posted on Slaw]
04 June 2006
Why Workflow is Not Good Enough
I enjoyed reading this candid take on workflow, especially this excerpt - I'm liberally quoting from James Robertson's Column Two here:
Being a knowledge worker is very different than working on an automobile assembly line. By focusing efforts on developing and maintaining a rich and optimized information environment for their knowledge workers, organizations will get better overall results than by focusing on "business process re-engineering" (BPR).
Mapping business processes has its uses, for example, when the exercise is conducted to a reasonable level of granularity to exemplify information flows. Such maps inform the business systems analyst on what are the information requirements flowing for any given activity performed by a knowledge worker. These mapping exercises, however, should always be complementary to other methods of deriving information requirements, to include, at least; business line analysis and end-user interviews.
Solely relying on workflow and business process analysis is not good enough, as you risk capturing only a subset of the real set of information requirements in the workplace.
Knowledge workers are rarely bound to particular processes. They often acquire and derive knowledge from a variety of sources and activities that are not tied to any process. Information managers should therefore strive to provide their knowledge workers with a rich information environment, maximizing opportunities for knowledge creation, sharing and acquisition. This is done by planning the delivery of integrated information management.
- "Organisations looking for a CMS read vendor marketing materials, and all offer extensive and powerful workflow features. These same features are discussed in many of the industry reports, and included on standard lists of CMS features.
- Organisations naturally assume that this functionality works in practice, and seeing the potential benefits, ask for it in their tenders and requirements lists.
- Vendors see that organisations consistently ask for workflow features, and often very powerful features at that. This forces them to promote their workflow functionality in their marketing materials, and to develop ever more sophisticated workflow features.
- Vendors know very well that workflow isn't used in practice, having only 1 in 50 clients ever making real use of it. The problem is that customers don't believe them, instead responding: "you're just saying that because your workflow features are weak!".
- At so it goes on, in this self-reinforcing cycle, with no opportunity to have a real discussion about best-practice (or even just practical) approaches."
Being a knowledge worker is very different than working on an automobile assembly line. By focusing efforts on developing and maintaining a rich and optimized information environment for their knowledge workers, organizations will get better overall results than by focusing on "business process re-engineering" (BPR).
Mapping business processes has its uses, for example, when the exercise is conducted to a reasonable level of granularity to exemplify information flows. Such maps inform the business systems analyst on what are the information requirements flowing for any given activity performed by a knowledge worker. These mapping exercises, however, should always be complementary to other methods of deriving information requirements, to include, at least; business line analysis and end-user interviews.
Solely relying on workflow and business process analysis is not good enough, as you risk capturing only a subset of the real set of information requirements in the workplace.
Knowledge workers are rarely bound to particular processes. They often acquire and derive knowledge from a variety of sources and activities that are not tied to any process. Information managers should therefore strive to provide their knowledge workers with a rich information environment, maximizing opportunities for knowledge creation, sharing and acquisition. This is done by planning the delivery of integrated information management.
28 May 2006
Why Defining Requirements is Not Good Enough
A recent comment on this blog (thanks James) stimulated me enough to put pen to paper and to explain why "defining requirements" is not enough.
Once upon a time, the mainframe was. The mainframe hosted complex corporate applications that required a very disciplined and sequential approach to requirements definition. In particular, it required requirements to be fully flushed out before coding began. Changing requirements en route was a big no-no and (mostly) constituted a too expensive proposition.
That era is gone, although it has been noted that some environments still exact the same sequential and disciplined approach to requirements definition, which dates back from mainframe times. The generally accepted approach in software development now calls for iterative (or evolutive) development. You figure out what you need, then you build some. By building some, you can better articulate further requirements. The cycle continues.
Similarly to the passage from sequential and disciplined requirements definition to evolutive requirements definition; I advocate to go from "specific capability evolutive requirements definition" to "integrated information management planning".
It is not good enough to adopt, as a starting point, "we need a content management system", or "we need a document and records management system". Other starting points are equally not valid: "we need a new records management policy", "we need a new training program". The optimum starting point should be: "we need a sound information architecture promoting integrated information management". Note: I actually believe that integrated information management nicely paves the way to ulterior knowledge management, but this is a contentious issue best left to be discussed at another time.
What of reality? How to achieve "the real thing" - a supportive and compliant information environment?
Here's the recipe. Many of these concepts (including Standard Information Management Frameworks) are fully explored in a new 3-day course offered at the Canada School of the Public Service:
To compare the old and the new, one could say that whereas the old approach saw Compliance (sometimes), the Business Context and User Empowerment (ideally) taken into account to flush out the requirements of a subset of Information Technology (any given IT capability - e.g. Content Management System, etc.); the new approach formally adds Interdependencies, Constraints and Trends & Opportunities into the equation, not only to define "requirements" for a specific IT capability, but to architect the complete IM solution (which is larger than the total IT solution).
In that integrated analysis, one must let himself or herself be influenced by Trends & Opportunities. For example, the ways in which the marketplace is naturally shaping itself into "categories of software" is pertinent. For example, there is a category of solutions catering to documents and records management. Another catering to practice and case management (often in law firms). Another catering to generic web content management. If your "client" has a set of requirements that spans the entire spectrum covered by these three category of solutions; will you ignore these "marketplace facts", or will you structure your Request for Proposal accordingly, by articulating three distinct sets of requirements?
Just defining requirements is not good enough. One must get involved in becoming more knowledgeable in current trends & technologies; one must become more knowledgeable in how the marketplace confirms standard ways to manage information (e.g. wikis, blogs, syndication via RSS, etc.) and, most importantly; one must take a stand on deciding how to best marry a set of business requirements to a set of solutions. If information managers do not do this, who will?
Along that vein, I believe that when these "categories of software" are studied, you become familiar with the good and the not so good. Best features will become apparent. From these best or desirable features, you can build a list of criteria to iteratively assess solutions in a particular category. All of this work and analysis should be done in the spirit of integrated information management, not with any agenda of promoting a specific product.
Now here comes the tough part.
If you have done all the work previously explained, then you can make some judgment calls. And start figuring out your top picks in any given category of solutions. For example, after completion of this kind of analysis; if you come to the conclusion that you require a web content management system; and that the environment in which it needs to be deployed corresponds to features A - B - C being mandatory or desirable; and that such features are best implemented in a particular solution, do not be afraid to take the next step. Do not let the old disciplined and sequential requirements definition process hijack common sense hardly derived from an integrated approach analysis. Go forward. That may take some wrestling with proponents of the old approach, insisting that you stick to "requirements definition" and do not concern yourself with investigating solutions; go forward anyway. And hopefully, in the process, your colleagues will realize that you are doing something potentially novel: implementing a solution that works from all angles. Of course: that solution flows from an integrated approach analysis. ;-)
Once upon a time, the mainframe was. The mainframe hosted complex corporate applications that required a very disciplined and sequential approach to requirements definition. In particular, it required requirements to be fully flushed out before coding began. Changing requirements en route was a big no-no and (mostly) constituted a too expensive proposition.
That era is gone, although it has been noted that some environments still exact the same sequential and disciplined approach to requirements definition, which dates back from mainframe times. The generally accepted approach in software development now calls for iterative (or evolutive) development. You figure out what you need, then you build some. By building some, you can better articulate further requirements. The cycle continues.
Similarly to the passage from sequential and disciplined requirements definition to evolutive requirements definition; I advocate to go from "specific capability evolutive requirements definition" to "integrated information management planning".
It is not good enough to adopt, as a starting point, "we need a content management system", or "we need a document and records management system". Other starting points are equally not valid: "we need a new records management policy", "we need a new training program". The optimum starting point should be: "we need a sound information architecture promoting integrated information management". Note: I actually believe that integrated information management nicely paves the way to ulterior knowledge management, but this is a contentious issue best left to be discussed at another time.
What of reality? How to achieve "the real thing" - a supportive and compliant information environment?
Here's the recipe. Many of these concepts (including Standard Information Management Frameworks) are fully explored in a new 3-day course offered at the Canada School of the Public Service:
- Just as architects need blueprints, general need battle maps and accountants need ledgers; information managers need a standard information management framework from which they can plan, design and develop the optimal information architecture for their Department - Agency - Company. The development of such a framework has been hampered by the lack of recognition of "information management" as a unified management discipline. I will explore these topics in a conference I'm giving at the ARMA Canadian Regional Conference in two days (sessions T31, T41).
- The Standard Information Management Framework answers the following questions: what are the necessary and sufficient components, in order to implement integrated information management? What is necessary to take into account, in order to develop each of these components? How can information management Vision and key Principles be tied to these components? And, last but not least, how can directives and end user guidance be derived from all of this?!
- The Standard Information Management Framework has nine components: information context, information requirements, information resources, information activities, information roles / services / products, information training / education / standards, Recorded Information (includes Data, Records and Library Management), Information Technology and Architecture Optimization. These nine components, when developed and applied to any particular environment, constitute an Information Management Architecture. You need all components. You do not need other components.
- Six areas of considerations need to be taken into consideration when developing the IM Architecture: Compliance (with legislation, regulations, policies, etc.), Business Context, User Empowerment, Interdependencies, Constraints and Trends & Opportunities. Each of these categories need to be populated with relevants "considerations", for example, in any given work environment, a complete inventory of applicable legislation related to information management, and then, for each such Statute, the information manager should analyze what is the impact of that legislation on any, many or all IM Architecture components.
- Vision and Principles need to be taken into consideration when developing the IM Architecture: Each organization, even within a large Department, is unique, and will warrant a distinct information management vision that should be tied to its role and mandate. Selected principles will vary over time; depending on where senior management wants to focus efforts. Examples of principles include Life-Cycle Approach, Accessibility, Security, Accountability, etc.
- The IM Architecture needs to be translated into IM Directives to realize the potential of integrated information management. Directives should be written from end end user point of view and help them do what they need to do, daily (here is a draft example in a particular environment).
To compare the old and the new, one could say that whereas the old approach saw Compliance (sometimes), the Business Context and User Empowerment (ideally) taken into account to flush out the requirements of a subset of Information Technology (any given IT capability - e.g. Content Management System, etc.); the new approach formally adds Interdependencies, Constraints and Trends & Opportunities into the equation, not only to define "requirements" for a specific IT capability, but to architect the complete IM solution (which is larger than the total IT solution).
In that integrated analysis, one must let himself or herself be influenced by Trends & Opportunities. For example, the ways in which the marketplace is naturally shaping itself into "categories of software" is pertinent. For example, there is a category of solutions catering to documents and records management. Another catering to practice and case management (often in law firms). Another catering to generic web content management. If your "client" has a set of requirements that spans the entire spectrum covered by these three category of solutions; will you ignore these "marketplace facts", or will you structure your Request for Proposal accordingly, by articulating three distinct sets of requirements?
Just defining requirements is not good enough. One must get involved in becoming more knowledgeable in current trends & technologies; one must become more knowledgeable in how the marketplace confirms standard ways to manage information (e.g. wikis, blogs, syndication via RSS, etc.) and, most importantly; one must take a stand on deciding how to best marry a set of business requirements to a set of solutions. If information managers do not do this, who will?
Along that vein, I believe that when these "categories of software" are studied, you become familiar with the good and the not so good. Best features will become apparent. From these best or desirable features, you can build a list of criteria to iteratively assess solutions in a particular category. All of this work and analysis should be done in the spirit of integrated information management, not with any agenda of promoting a specific product.
Now here comes the tough part.
If you have done all the work previously explained, then you can make some judgment calls. And start figuring out your top picks in any given category of solutions. For example, after completion of this kind of analysis; if you come to the conclusion that you require a web content management system; and that the environment in which it needs to be deployed corresponds to features A - B - C being mandatory or desirable; and that such features are best implemented in a particular solution, do not be afraid to take the next step. Do not let the old disciplined and sequential requirements definition process hijack common sense hardly derived from an integrated approach analysis. Go forward. That may take some wrestling with proponents of the old approach, insisting that you stick to "requirements definition" and do not concern yourself with investigating solutions; go forward anyway. And hopefully, in the process, your colleagues will realize that you are doing something potentially novel: implementing a solution that works from all angles. Of course: that solution flows from an integrated approach analysis. ;-)
27 May 2006
Why Drupal Would Make Sense in the Government of Canada
Drupal, a free and open source web content management system, represents a very attrative option for managing content online. Here follows a list of reasons why I find it attractive in a federal government context:
[cross posted on G2TT]
- Drupal is free and open source software (FOSS). Treasury Board Secretariat guidelines prescribe Departments and Agencies to at least consider FOSS alternatives, especially when they are viable.
- Drupal is a stable, mature and robust WCMS, as confirmed from neutral sources in the book "Open Source for the Enterprise: Managing Risks - Reaping Rewards", see the book review.
- Drupal only requires PHP and MySQL on the server to run. PHP and MySQL are often authorized on governmental intranets and internet servers. This means that you can avoid a lengthy procurement process, it can be up and running in a few days - literally. I have myself deployed a Drupal site in a few hours - and I'm not a programmer.
- Drupal can power sites that are "Common Look & Feel" (CLF). All that is needed is to develop a drupal CLF Theme. This is something we are working on and we can share that Theme with you.
- Drupal can power sites that are fully multilingual, hence, bilingual - for interface and content. I was in Toronto last week and saw a demo of a live, fully developed trilingual drupal site (English, French and Spanish).
- Drupal can support multi-sites. That means that with one installation of drupal, you can maintain a lot (I do not know the limit) of totally different sites, even with different domain names. Very useful when it comes to upgrades and patches - only one installation to deal with and all sites are automatically updated.
- Drupal is fully Web 2.0 enabled, that is, aligned with major trends and technologies worldwide, and incorporates (if and only if these features are "turned on") blogs, free tagging (folksonomies), wikis, automatic syndication, forums, commenting, aggregation, etc...
- Drupal also supports traditional methods of organizing information, such as "categories" that can be assigned to content according to a centrally defined taxonomy. This can be done concurrently with free tagging, in which users decide which tags to add to contributed content.
- Drupal supports custom content types. For example, if you were to build a registry of applications in use in any given Department or Agency, "application" could be defined as a content type and you could further define what kind of information you want to track for each application. Because this is done within drupal, you would automatically benefit from all the other drupal features - the ability to (if you turn these features on) comment on applications, view them differently (sort - filter), etc.
- Drupal supports custom roles and permissions. You can define, for example, an "Administrator" role, "Project Lead" role, and as any roles as you need to differentiate between what some users can and cannot do. This is all done via a web interface.
- Drupal has a modular architecture. You only add / select / enable the modules you want / need.
[cross posted on G2TT]
Bloggers Afforded Protection by US Court
In a recent decision, the Sixth District Court of Appeals (California) has afforded bloggers the same kind of protection usually reserved to journalists. Here is an extract from the judgment:
PS: for the careful reader... you will note that the court used Wikipedia as a reference, in footnote 16.
[cross-posted on slaw]
The trial court denied the motion on the ground that the publishers had involved themselves in the unlawful misappropriation of a trade secret. We hold that this was error because (1) the subpoena to the email service provider cannot be enforced consistent with the plain terms of the federal Stored Communications Act (18 U.S.C. §§ 2701-2712); (2) any subpoenas seeking unpublished information from petitioners would be unenforceable through contempt proceedings in light of the California reporter’s shield (Cal. Const., art. I, § 2, subd (b); Evid. Code, § 1070); and (3) discovery of petitioners’ sources is also barred on this record by the conditional constitutional privilege against compulsory disclosure of confidential sources (see Mitchell v. Superior Court (1984) 37 Cal.3d 268 (Mitchell)). Accordingly, we will issue a writ of mandate directing the trial court to grant the motion for a protective order.The interesting part starts at p. 35 of the judgment, about "legitimate" journalism. The court states:
We decline the implicit invitation to embroil ourselves in questions of what constitutes “legitimate journalis[m].” The shield law is intended to protect the gathering and dissemination of news, and that is what petitioners did here. We can think of no workable test or principle that would distinguish “legitimate” from “illegitimate” news. Any attempt by courts to draw such a distinction would imperil a fundamental purpose of the First Amendment, which is to identify the best, most important, and most valuable ideas not by any sociological or economic formula, rule of law, or process of government, but through the rough and tumble competition of the memetic marketplace.Thanks to Somewhat Frank for reporting this.
PS: for the careful reader... you will note that the court used Wikipedia as a reference, in footnote 16.
[cross-posted on slaw]
20 May 2006
Government of Canada IM Day 2006 | Web 2.0 "Track"
Last week, the planning committee of the Fall 2006 Government of Canada "Information Management Day" (GC IM Day) met, and we flushed out some ideas on what topics to put on the schedule. In our current planning, one track will have the "Leading" flavour, in the sense of leading change, and that one or two sessions under that track will specifically deal with Web 2.0 implementations in the Government of Canada - existing, proposed and suggested.
IM Day is an event planned by Public Servants for Public Servants, held in Ottawa every Fall. It is very well attended by key individuals in information management throughout federal government. There are chances are that our keynote speaker (not selected yet) will be "web 2.0 enabled" this year...
Do you have an example of Drupal deployed in a governmental setting? Please drop me a line, I'm interested in proposing a session describing the capabilities of Drupal as a Free and Open Source web content management platform that is fully web 2.0 enabled. By then, I hope to have completed the development of a bilingual and Common Look & Feel Drupal distribution, suitable for GC sites.
[cross-posted on G2TT and Drupal Ottawa User Group]
IM Day is an event planned by Public Servants for Public Servants, held in Ottawa every Fall. It is very well attended by key individuals in information management throughout federal government. There are chances are that our keynote speaker (not selected yet) will be "web 2.0 enabled" this year...
Do you have an example of Drupal deployed in a governmental setting? Please drop me a line, I'm interested in proposing a session describing the capabilities of Drupal as a Free and Open Source web content management platform that is fully web 2.0 enabled. By then, I hope to have completed the development of a bilingual and Common Look & Feel Drupal distribution, suitable for GC sites.
[cross-posted on G2TT and Drupal Ottawa User Group]
15 May 2006
Drupal Ottawa User Group: Making Web 2.0 Happen
A lot of talk in the blogosphere (see posts by Dion Hinchcliffe, Rod Boothby) about making Web 2.0 happen in corporate contexts, behind firewalls. How can you go beyond the hype and fancy graphs and introduce web 2.0 technologies in corporate and governmental contexts?
One such option is to seriously consider Drupal as a solution of choice when it comes to a fully web 2.0 enabled Web Content Management System. Drupal is Free and Open Source software and is favourably commented upon in Open Source for the Enterprise: Managing Risks - Reaping Rewards. It has a very active and vibrant community as seen from the frequency of recent posts (about a post every other minute), to the point a distinct, related site called Groups.Drupal, fostering geographical and working group affiliations, has been created. Drupal offers community management, forums, blogs, wikis, comments, RSS feeds and aggregation, taxonomy management (categories, free tagging or both), etc...
Are you from Ottawa and interested in Drupal? Consider joining the newly created Drupal Ottawa User Group (guess I thought of you Doug when I created the group) - especially if you are interested in the creation and sharing of a reusable Bilingual, Common Look & Feel compliant distribution of Drupal throughout the federal government; and in corporate / behind the firewall installs of drupal.
Prefer to get to know Drupal by reading? Consider these two books:
As written in the announcement on drupal.org: Written by David Mercer, this book is a complete guide to every aspect of creating a variety of different websites using Drupal. The book has been written against the latest release v4.7. "From top to bottom, Drupal is the type of project that makes the Internet work as a medium for communication" explains author David Mercer. "With powerful and flexible functionality, it is the ideal tool for people to begin creating their own Websites, without being subject to the burden of learning how to program."
From the announcement on drupal.org: "When I first met Dries Buytaert, in February in Antwerp, we discussed the need for a book explaining how to use Drupal. We agreed that such a book would be a great asset to the many people who are becoming interested in our great software. Since I had already decided that it was my goal to write a Drupal book, I expressed this to Dries. (...) The result was a project that lasted until October; writing the first book about Drupal."
I attended last week DrupalCampToronto: I was blown away (and I'm not easily blown away) by the exciting range of capabilities of Drupal. Here are a few things that I have confirmed or found out:
One such option is to seriously consider Drupal as a solution of choice when it comes to a fully web 2.0 enabled Web Content Management System. Drupal is Free and Open Source software and is favourably commented upon in Open Source for the Enterprise: Managing Risks - Reaping Rewards. It has a very active and vibrant community as seen from the frequency of recent posts (about a post every other minute), to the point a distinct, related site called Groups.Drupal, fostering geographical and working group affiliations, has been created. Drupal offers community management, forums, blogs, wikis, comments, RSS feeds and aggregation, taxonomy management (categories, free tagging or both), etc...
Are you from Ottawa and interested in Drupal? Consider joining the newly created Drupal Ottawa User Group (guess I thought of you Doug when I created the group) - especially if you are interested in the creation and sharing of a reusable Bilingual, Common Look & Feel compliant distribution of Drupal throughout the federal government; and in corporate / behind the firewall installs of drupal.
Prefer to get to know Drupal by reading? Consider these two books:
As written in the announcement on drupal.org: Written by David Mercer, this book is a complete guide to every aspect of creating a variety of different websites using Drupal. The book has been written against the latest release v4.7. "From top to bottom, Drupal is the type of project that makes the Internet work as a medium for communication" explains author David Mercer. "With powerful and flexible functionality, it is the ideal tool for people to begin creating their own Websites, without being subject to the burden of learning how to program."
From the announcement on drupal.org: "When I first met Dries Buytaert, in February in Antwerp, we discussed the need for a book explaining how to use Drupal. We agreed that such a book would be a great asset to the many people who are becoming interested in our great software. Since I had already decided that it was my goal to write a Drupal book, I expressed this to Dries. (...) The result was a project that lasted until October; writing the first book about Drupal."I attended last week DrupalCampToronto: I was blown away (and I'm not easily blown away) by the exciting range of capabilities of Drupal. Here are a few things that I have confirmed or found out:
- The internationalization module (Drupal Module i18n developed by Jose A Reyero) has been successfully implemented on several site to achieve fully mulilingual sites - see for example telecentre.org
- The Liquid Wiki module (Liquid Wiki Module developed by Sören Petersen) is working with Drupal version 4.7, as evidenced by this test site by Bryght - thanks to Boris for his excellent review of the features and potential of this module
- The rich set of information that can be derived from a Drupal web site incorporating CiviCRM, as explained Phillip Smith from communitybandwidth.ca in his tour of admin features associated with one of his recent sites (kleercut.net).
12 May 2006
Building a Drupal Community Website
As I'm sitting in my first session of DrupalCampToronto (12 May 06), "Introduction to Drupal" by Khalid Baheyeldin, I'm realizing the incredible momentum powering Drupal worldwide. Over 60,000 pieces of content (not counting comments) on drupal.org, 59,000 registered users, over 64,500 web sites running drupal, the NDP is using it, and so many more... Even Foreign Policy magazine, a NATO web site and Tim Berners-Lee web log - the father of Internet!
Khalid first covered the basics of Drupal (what is is, core Drupal vs modules and themes, its history...) and showed us next how to install it from using shell access. Note that this is not necessarily needed - this site, for example, is hosted by Siteground, and Siteground offers automatic installs of many Free and Open Source Software packages (including Drupal) through the Fantastico utility in the C-Panel. Unless you comfortable using shell access to a server, I suggest using a hosting company that automates or offers the installation ofdrupal. If you prefer to to it yourself, it's not that complicated - I have done it to install a multi-site configuration (many sites running off the same drupal install).
Next, we covered the basic decisions and choices and how to configure drupal settings accordingly: menus, blocks, primary and secondary links, extra modules such as TinyMCE (used on this web site), etc... Thanks Khalid!
[cross-posted on G2TT]
10 May 2006
Books for Hungry Minds
I just obtained a suggested reading list from Bain McKay, CEO and Chief Scientist of Kayvium, who gave a very-forward looking presentation on the semantic web in the context of a desktop application being capable of establishing and navigating semantically meaningful links between information sources.
Here's the list:
Semantic Technology
Here's the list:
Semantic Technology
- Brian Nosek, U. o. V. (2005). Project Implicit. Internet, Harvard
- University , University of Virginia,University of Washington: Web Site.
- Daconta, Michael C. Obrst, Leo J. Smith, Kevin T. (2003).
- TheSemantic Web, Wiley Publishing Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana
- Coveney, Peter and Highfield, Roger (1995). Frontiers of Complexity - The Search for Order in a Chaotic World, Fawcette Columbine, New York
- Cummings, R. C. a. D. D. Minds, Brains, and Computers - The Foundations of Cognitive Science - An Anthology - Blackwell Philosophy Anthologies, Blackwell Publishers Inc, Mass.
- Gottdeiner, M. Postmodern Semiotics - Material Culture and the Forms of Postmodern Life, Blackwell, Oxford UK & Cambridge USA.
- Institute, S. M. (2005). Protege. University of Standford , California.
- Holland, J. H. (1995). Hidden Order - How Adaptation Build Complexity, Addison-Wesley Publishing Company.
- Sowa, J. F. Conceptual Structures - Information Processing in Mind and Machine, Addison-Wesley Publishing Company.
- Monica Crubézy, S. U. S. M. I. (2005). The PSM Librarian tab plugin for Protégé, Internet.
- Sowa, J. F. (2000). Knowledge Representation - Logical, Philosophical and Computational Foundations, Brooks/Cole Thomson Learning.
- Sun, R. (2002). Duality Of Mind - A Bottom Up Approach TowardCognition, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers London.
- searchWebServices.com (2005). "BPEL." Internet.
- Terry Schurter, B. G. C. A. (2005) Standards, Methodologies and Frameworks Volume, DOI
- Advisor, E. (2004) Business Process Trends. Internet Volume, DOI (in pdf)
- Brown, A. S. (1987). Maximizing Memory Power, Stephen Kippur, John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
- Blum, Kenneth, PhD, Payne, James E. (1991). Alcohol and the Addictive Brain, The Free Press, A Division of Macmillan Inc, New York
- Bly, Benjamin Martin, Rumelhart, David E. (1999). Cognitive Science - Handbook of Perception and Cognition - Second Edition, Academic Press, New York
- Dennett, D. C. (1991). Consciousness Explained, Little, Brown and Company, New York
- Flesh, R. The Art of Plain Talk, Collier Books.
- Kotulak, R. Inside The Brain - Revolutionary Discoveries of How the Mind Works, Andrew and McNeel - A Universal Press Syndicate Company, Kansas City.
- LeDoux, J. (1996). The Emotional Brain, Simon & Schuster, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, 10020.
- LeDoux, J. (2002). Synaptic Self, Penguin Group - How the Brain Becomes Who we Are.
- Leiberman, P. Human Language - and Our Reptilian Brain, HarvardBusiness Press, New York
- Miller, J. G. Living Systems, Mcgraw-Hill Book Company.
- Penrose, Roger (1989). The Emporer's New mind - Concerning Computers, Minds and the Laws of Physics, Vintage, , Oxford University Press, London
- Pierce J. Howard, P. D. (2000). The Owner's Manual for The Brain - Everyday Applications from Mind-Brain Research, Bard Press.
- Pinker, S. The Language Instinct - How the Mind Creates Language, Harper Perennial.
- Richard M. Restak, M. D. (1979). The Brain - The Last Frontier, Warner Books.
- Rumelhart, B. M. B. a. D. E. (1999). Cognitive Science - Handbook of Perception and Cognition - Second Edition, Academic Press.
- Talbot, Michael (1991). The Holographic universe, Harper Perennial, New York
- Turkle, S. The Second Self - Computers and the Human Spirit, Simon and Schuster, New York.
- University of Massachusetts, A. (2005) Reinforcement Learning Repository.
- Allison, S. K. a. M. A. (1999). The Complexity Advantage, McGraw-Hill.
- Davies, PAul (1995). About Time, A Touchstone Book, Published by Simon & Schuster, New York
- Davies, Paul and Gribbin, John (1992). The Matter Myth - Dramatic Discoveries Challenge Our Understanding of Physical Reality, A Touchstone Book, Published By Simon & Schuster, New York
- Dawkins, Richard (1999). The Extended Phenotype - The Long Reach of the Gene, Oxford university Press, New York
- Dawkins, Richard (1989). The Selfish Gene, Oxford University Press, New York
- Deutsch, David (1998). The Fabric of Reality, Penguin Books, 1998
- Ferguson, Marilyn (19800. The Aquarian Conspiracy - Personal and Social Transformation in the 1980s,J. P. Tarcher Inc, Los Angelos
- Gleck, J. (1987). "Chaos - Making A New Science."
- Gleick, J. (2000). FSTR JMS GLCK, Vintage Books - A Division of Random House. Inc New York.
- Hofstadter, Douglas (1979). Godel, Escher. Bach - An Eternal Golden Braid - A Metaphorical Fugue on Minds and Machines in the Spirit of Lewis Carroll, Vintage Books, A Division of Random House, New York
- Hofstadter, Douglas (1995). Fluid Concepts and Creative Analogies - Computer Models of the Fundamental Mechanisms of Thought, BasicBooks, A Division of Harper Collins Publishing, New York
- Johnson, Steven (2001). Emergence - The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities and Software, A Touchstone Book, Published by Simon & Schuster, New York
- Kanter, R. M. The Change Masters - Innovation for Productivity in the American Corporation, A Touchstone Book - Published by Simon & Schuster.
- Kim, Jaegwon and Sosa, Ernest (2002). Metaphysics - An Anthology, Blackwell Publishers Ltd, Malden, Massachusetts
- Kordis, D. L. a. P. (1988). Strategy of the Dolphin, Ballintine Books.
- May, R. E. N. a. E. R. Thinking in Time - The Uses of History for Decision Makers, The Free Press.
- Asimov, Isaac (1984). 'X' Stands For Unknown - Sixteen Fascinating New Essays on the Mysteries of the Universe, Avon Books, New York
- Berlinski, David. (1995). A Tour of Calculus, Vantage Books, A Division of Random House Inc, New York
- Chaitin, Gregory (2005), Meta Math - The Quest for OMEGA, Pantheon Books, New York
- Freiberger, D. M. a. P. Fuzzy Logic - The Revolutionary Computer Technology that is Changing The World, A Touchstone Book - Simon And Schuster, New York
- Feynman, Richard (1997). Six Not So Easy Pieces - Einstein's Relativity, Symmetry and Space-Time, Addison-Wesley Publishing Company Inc, Reading, Massachusetts
- Gullberg, Jan (1997). Mathematics - From the Birth of Numbers, W.W.Norton and Company, New York
- Kahanm B. Peter (19900. Mathematical Methods for Scientists and Engineers - Linear and Nonlinear Systems, Dover Publications Inc, Mineola, New York
- Lamport, Leslie (2003). Specifying Systems - The TLA+ Language and Tool for Hardware and Software Engineers, Addison-Wesley, New Yorks
- Messiah, A. Quantum Mechanics - Two Volumes Bound As One, Dover Publications Inc, New York.
- Mlodinow, Leonard (2001). Euclid's Window - The Story of Geometry from Parallel Lines to Hyperspace, A Touchstone Book, Published by Simon & Schuster, New York
- Pappas, Theoni (1999), Mathematical Footprints - Discovering Mathematical Impressions All Around Us, Worldwide Publishing, Tetra, San Carlos, California
- Singh, Simon (1997). Fermat's Last Theorem, Fourth Estate, London
- Sticker, Henry (1945), How To Calculate Quickly, Dover Publications Inc
- Turner, Jonathan H. (1988). A Theory of Social Interaction, Stanford University Press, Stanford, California
- Wolfram, S. A New Kind Of Science, Wolfram Media Inc.
- Zek'dovich, Ya. B, and Raiser, Yu. P. (2002). Physics of Shock Waves and High-Temperature Hydrodynamic Phenomena, Dover Publications, Inc, Mineola, New York
- Adler, M. J. (1940). How To Read A Book, Eleventh Paperback Printing, 1964.
- Byrley-Alen, Madelyn (1982). Listening - The Forgotten Skill, John Wiley & Son, New York
- Gini Graham Scott, P. D. (1987). Mind Power, Prentice-Hall International, Inc. London.
- Gladwell, Malcolm (2005). blink - The Power of Thinking Without Thinking,Little, Brown and Company,New York
- Kepner, Charles H.,Tregoe, Benjamin B. (1973). Problem Analysis and Decision Making, Kepner-Tregoe Ltd, Princeton, New Jersey
- Kepner, Charles H.,Tregoe, Benjamin B. (1965). The Rational Manager - A Systematic Approach to Problem Solving and Decision Making, Kepner-Tregoe Ltd, Princeton, New Jersey
- Sampson/Marthas Group Process for the Health Professions - Second Edition, John Wiley and Sons.
- Scott, Gini Graham, PhD. (1987). Mind Power - Picture Your Way to Business Success, Prentice-Hall Inc, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey
- Wycoff, J. (1987). Mindmapping, Berkley Books, New York.
- Bahan, Yogi PhD, Kalsa, Gurucharan Singh PhD. (1998). The Mind - Its Projections and Multiple Facets - 3 Functional Minds, 9 Aspects, 27 Projections, and 81 Facets, Kundalini Research Institute, Espanola, NM
- Capra, Fritoj (1999). The TAO of Physics - The Exploration of the Parallels between Modern Physics and Eastern Mysticism, Shambhala Publications Inc, Boston
- Ching, Tao Te (19630. Lao Tzu, Penguin Books, New York Glenn, Jim (1996). Scientific Genus - The Twenty Greatest Minds, Saraband Inc, Rowayton, CT
- Hawkins, S. On The Shoulders Of Giants, Running Press, Philadelphia, London.
- Russell, Bertrand (1985). ABC of Relativity, Unwin Paperbacks, London
- Russell, Bertrand (1987). Russell's Best, Unwin paperbacks, London
- Shapiro, Robert (1986). ORIGINS - A Skeptic's Guide to the Creation of Life on Earth, Summit Books, New York
- Whitehead, Alfred North (1938). Modes of Thought, The Free Press, MacMillan Publishing, Co inc, New york
- Griffith, S. B. SUN TZU - The Art of War, Oxford University Press.
- Covey, S. R. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, A Fireside Book - Simon & Schuster.
- Covey, S. R. Principle-Centered Leadership, Summit Books.
- Drucker, P. F. Innovation and Entrepreneurship - Practices and Principles, Harper & Row, Publishers, New York.
- Drucker, P. F. Management - Tasks. Responsibilities. Practices, Harper & Row, Publishers.
- Drucker, P. F. Post-Capitalist society, HarperBusiness.
- Micheal LeBoeuf, P. D. GMP - The Greatest Management Principle in the World, Berkley Books.
- Mintzberg, H. (1979). The Structuring of Organizations - The Theory of Management Policy Series, Prentice-Hall, N.J.
- Notron, R. S. K. a. D. P. The Balanced Scorecard - Translating Strategy into Action, Harvard Business School Press.
- Peter S. Pande, R. P. N., Roland.R. Cavanagh The Six Sigma Way, McGraw-Hill.
08 May 2006
La pratique du droit | Comment exploiter les technologies web 2.0?
Dans l'article "A to Z: 26 trends for the legal profession", à être publié dans la prochaine édition du National de l'Association du Barreau Canadien, 26 tendances affectant présentement la profession juridique sont examinées par Jordan Furlong et Mélanie Raymond. Plusieurs de ces tendances sont directement reliées au phénomène web 2.0.
Les auteurs remarquent avec justesse, à la fin de leur article, que ces tendances ne sont ni hypothétiques, ni futuristes: ces tendances se concrétisent maintenant, à chaque jour, qu'il s'agissent de juges qui bloguent, de savoir juridique qui se "wikéfie" (wikéfier. verbe. de l'anglais "wiki", ou "wikify") - voir Wex et WikiLaw, d'avocats analysant l'impact des wikis - blogues - fils RSS et autres technologies sur la profession, et même de l'Université Harvard qui a déjà mené une conférence sur le phénomène juridico-blogique...
Les cabinets d'avocats devraient-ils tenter d'exploiter ce phénomène et les nouvelles technologies s'y rattachant? Je suggère ci-après quelques pistes de réflexion sur ce sujet.
Premièrement, il est utile de comprendre le fameux phénomène web 2.0. Web 2.0 ne s'agit pas d'un mouvement technologique, mais social. Web 2.0 représente un ensemble de nouvelles façons pour les internautes d'utiliser Internet de façon beaucoup plus interactive. L'internaute peut dorénavant publier régulièrement et facilement (les blogues), il peut modifier facilement une foule de pages internet inter-reliées (wiki), il peut recevoir le contenu de ses sites favoris dans un seul lecteur de nouvelles (fils RSS et agrégateur de nouvelles), et ainsi de suite...
Ces nouvelles pratiques entraînent:
Un cabinet d'avocats peut tirer des bénéfices appréciables du pénomène web 2.0, si l'analyse suivante est complétée:
En donnant en exemple ces quatre étapes, j'espère transmettre le message suivant: avant de mettre un place un effort concerté visant à déployer de nouvelles capacités de technologies d'information, il est essentiel de poser et répondre à plusieurs questions fondamentales et de clairement visualiser la situation avant et après cet effort concerté.
Une fois cette vision clairement établie, chaque milieu, chaque cabinet aura une façon différente de procéder - par exemple, dans un milieu gouvernemental où il y a beaucoup d'avocats:
La clef de la réussite, dans ce domaine, consiste à définir avec soin l'environnement d'information optimal en fonction des facteurs énoncés ci-haut; à doser les efforts consacrés en fonction des bénéfices espérés et, surtout; faire en sorte que ce nouvel environnement d'information soit utile et apprécié par les utilisateurs finaux: les avocats!
[article aussi publié sur slaw]
Les auteurs remarquent avec justesse, à la fin de leur article, que ces tendances ne sont ni hypothétiques, ni futuristes: ces tendances se concrétisent maintenant, à chaque jour, qu'il s'agissent de juges qui bloguent, de savoir juridique qui se "wikéfie" (wikéfier. verbe. de l'anglais "wiki", ou "wikify") - voir Wex et WikiLaw, d'avocats analysant l'impact des wikis - blogues - fils RSS et autres technologies sur la profession, et même de l'Université Harvard qui a déjà mené une conférence sur le phénomène juridico-blogique...
Les cabinets d'avocats devraient-ils tenter d'exploiter ce phénomène et les nouvelles technologies s'y rattachant? Je suggère ci-après quelques pistes de réflexion sur ce sujet.
Premièrement, il est utile de comprendre le fameux phénomène web 2.0. Web 2.0 ne s'agit pas d'un mouvement technologique, mais social. Web 2.0 représente un ensemble de nouvelles façons pour les internautes d'utiliser Internet de façon beaucoup plus interactive. L'internaute peut dorénavant publier régulièrement et facilement (les blogues), il peut modifier facilement une foule de pages internet inter-reliées (wiki), il peut recevoir le contenu de ses sites favoris dans un seul lecteur de nouvelles (fils RSS et agrégateur de nouvelles), et ainsi de suite...
Ces nouvelles pratiques entraînent:
- Des changement importants des modèles d'affaires des compagnies opérant dans le domaine virtuel;
- Des changement fondamentaux dans la création, la gestion, la diffusion, la catégorisation, le repérage, la gestion et l'archivage de l'information - incluant aussi l'information juridique;
- Une migration des logiciels vers l'internet (voir l'article "Software as a Service" de Wikipedia) - par exemple, AjaxWrite disponible en ligne qui reproduit assez fidèlement l'interface de Microsoft Word). Voir aussi la rubrique "Ajax's Disruptive Influences" dans cet article de Dion Hinchcliffe;
- Des possibilités intéressantes concernant le déploiement de communautés virtuelles, fondées sur des principes éprouvés "d'architecture de participation". Il faut comprendre cette dernière expression comme un moyen de promouvoir une expérience virtuelle stimulante, qui encourage les gens à participer sur le web.
Un cabinet d'avocats peut tirer des bénéfices appréciables du pénomène web 2.0, si l'analyse suivante est complétée:
- Tous les cabinets juridiques obéissent à la même logique en matière d'organisation de l'information. Celle-ci est généralement divisé en trois domaines:
- Les dossiers des clients, typiquement organisés par client, puis par dossier ("client / matter");
- L'information de référence, incluant tout document ayant caractère de précédent ("material of precedential value"), représentant l'information juridique collective du cabinet; et
- L'information administrative - finances, ressources humaines, etc.
- En prenant pour acquis que le cabinet gère de façon optimale ses dossiers clients et ses dossiers administratifs, c'est dans le domaine de l'information de référence que les technologies web 2.0 peuvent avoir l'impact le plus positif.
- Le cabinet est-il organisé en domaines de pratique ("practice groups")? S'il ne l'est pas, c'est à faire... Voir les arguments à cet effet sous la lettre "P", dans l'article A to Z: 26 trends for the legal profession.
- Pour chaque domaine de pratique, le degré d'efforts à déployer pour créer un environnement d'information soutenant la pratique du droit est fonction des facteurs suivants:
- Complexité. S'agit-il d'un domaine exigeant régulièrement des recherches fouillées et que l'exercice est laborieux à chaque fois, puisque le domaine est spécialisé (e.g. propriété intellectuelle et brevets); ou s'agit-il d'un domaine à haut volume (e.g. droit criminel en première instance pour les infraction mineures) - où l'avocat possède généralement et subjectivement toutes les connaissances voulues pour exécuter son mandat? Dans le premier cas, le cabinet a tout avantage à favoriser un environnement dans lequel le partage du savoir subjectif est encouragé, facile et récompensé. Dans le dernier cas, il n'est pas avantageux de déployer des outils de collaboration. Un simple registre d'expertise peu satisfaire les exigences minimales de gestion du savoir.
- Accès. Les avocats ont-ils un accès libre et facile à des sources d'information juridique afférente à leur champ de pratique (e.g. Lexis-Nexis, doctrine)? Dans la mesure où ces sources sont satisfaisantes, le besoin de déployer un environnement de partage d'information de référence est moins grand. Dans le cas contraire, un environnement où l'information juridique spécialisée est facilement repérable à l'interne procurera un avantage compétitif réel au cabinet.
- Nombre d'avocats. Le domaine de pratique est représenté par combien d'avocats? S'il y a seulement quelques avocats et qu'ils sont colocalisés, la "gestion du savoir" se fait et continuera de se faire par osmose, au gré de la pratique quotidienne; s'il s'agit d'une pratique nationale, un environnement optimisé pour le partage d'information de référence soutiendra efficacement la gestion du savoir dans ce champ de pratique.
En donnant en exemple ces quatre étapes, j'espère transmettre le message suivant: avant de mettre un place un effort concerté visant à déployer de nouvelles capacités de technologies d'information, il est essentiel de poser et répondre à plusieurs questions fondamentales et de clairement visualiser la situation avant et après cet effort concerté.
Une fois cette vision clairement établie, chaque milieu, chaque cabinet aura une façon différente de procéder - par exemple, dans un milieu gouvernemental où il y a beaucoup d'avocats:
- Plusieurs directives de gestion d'information peuvent être nécessaires (exemple);
- Plusieurs facettes du cabinet peuvent être à revoir (exemple) - incluant la gestion des renseignements consignés (exemple);
- Plusieurs technologies d'information peuvent être nécessaires (exemple);
- Et bien sûr, un plan doit être élaboré, communiqué...
La clef de la réussite, dans ce domaine, consiste à définir avec soin l'environnement d'information optimal en fonction des facteurs énoncés ci-haut; à doser les efforts consacrés en fonction des bénéfices espérés et, surtout; faire en sorte que ce nouvel environnement d'information soit utile et apprécié par les utilisateurs finaux: les avocats!
[article aussi publié sur slaw]
Canadian Bar Association | The National | Web 2.0 Trends
In the next issue of the Canadian Bar Association magazine ("The National"), Jordan Furlong and Mélanie Raymond publish an excellent article titled "A to Z: 26 trends for the legal profession" (thanks to Simon Chester for reporting this).
Under "Z", we find "Zero Hour":
This final entry means, simply, that time’s up. These preceding 25 trends aren’t way off in the future somewhere: they’re happening today, and no law practice can afford to be unaware of or uninterested in them. These are 25 forces that are already shaping the legal profession, and they will continue to do so, with escalating force, in the years to come.The authors are very alive to web 2.0 trends, selecting Blogs under "B", RSS for "R" and Wikis and Web 2.0 under "W". The entry under "K", for knowledge management, takes the cake:
What can you do to stay ahead of this fast-moving curve? If your law firm doesn’t have a Chief Strategic Officer in charge of mapping out trends in the lawyer and client marketplaces, consider appointing one. Bring your younger lawyers into the strategic
planning loop and get them to advise you on the changes they see. If you’re in a small firm, match the trends that most affect your narrow focus and track them closely.
If you read “Knowledge uprising” in our January/February 2006 issue, you already know how important KM is becoming to law firms of all sizes. Knowledge management allows lawyers to access a vibrant, constantly refreshing database of information, experiences, trends and wisdom, individually and collectively drawn from their colleagues.The key in making Knowledge Management tick in a meaningful way for end users is to build a solid Information Management foundation. It is then far easier to leverage that foundation for the purposes of knowledge management. See also a review of Web 2.0 and how it applies to the Legal Profession in another context.
Lawyers are part of the 21st-century vanguard of “knowledge workers” who will revolutionize the global economy. The problem is that lawyers are among the least efficient and effective knowledge workers around, thanks in large part to how they’re managed and how they sell their services.
07 May 2006
G2TT In Pre-Launch Period (May 2006)
Government 2.0 Think Tank, or "G2TT", is currently in its pre-launch period during the month of May 2006. Here follows the current text of the home page of the new Drupal-powered association web site.
G2TT is an agent of social change in the way governments operate, particularly in how they manage their information.
G2TT promotes governmental efficiency. G2TT does not promote any particular viewpoint on any political issue. G2TT seeks to offer quality information to governments and members of the public about improving the way government does business, leveraging an open source spirit, one project at a time.
Throughout the world, governments are facing unprecedented opportunities and challenges in how they manage information. For example, the commoditization of Information Technology ("IT"), coupled with Web 2.0 trends and technologies, present a basket of solutions often leveraging Open Source Software and Open Standards. The IT landscape is dramatically changing, at a pace that few governments and large corporations seem to be able to keep up with.
While these fundamental changes are occuring on the IT front, the traditional governmental silos of Information Management, such as Records Management, Library Management, Archives, Metadata & Taxonomy, Access to Information & Privacy, etc. are breaking down to make room for an increasingly unified version of information management, reconciled and working with IT.
These major transformational currents will completely reshape the way governments operate and interact with the Public they serve. How these changes will occur, however, is difficult to predict, because few governments entrust the full spectrum of responsibilities related to Integrated Information Management to a single Chief Information Officer (CIO's). Current CIO's are often "Chief IT Officers" as opposed to true CIO's.
Many public servants possess the necessary knowledge to empower their governments to embrace these major trends. Unfortunately, they are typically responsible for only one piece of the problem. This is where G2TT comes in.
G2TT provides an architecture of participation in which members can become contributors on specific association projects, resulting in the production of Association Reports. These reports are built in a comprehensive and self-contained format, addressing the complete range of issues for any given set of problems, in an "open source community" spirit. They are drafted in an open and collaborative environment (for contributors).
The association will launch in early June. Stay tuned for further developments.
G2TT is an agent of social change in the way governments operate, particularly in how they manage their information.
G2TT promotes governmental efficiency. G2TT does not promote any particular viewpoint on any political issue. G2TT seeks to offer quality information to governments and members of the public about improving the way government does business, leveraging an open source spirit, one project at a time.
Throughout the world, governments are facing unprecedented opportunities and challenges in how they manage information. For example, the commoditization of Information Technology ("IT"), coupled with Web 2.0 trends and technologies, present a basket of solutions often leveraging Open Source Software and Open Standards. The IT landscape is dramatically changing, at a pace that few governments and large corporations seem to be able to keep up with.
While these fundamental changes are occuring on the IT front, the traditional governmental silos of Information Management, such as Records Management, Library Management, Archives, Metadata & Taxonomy, Access to Information & Privacy, etc. are breaking down to make room for an increasingly unified version of information management, reconciled and working with IT.
These major transformational currents will completely reshape the way governments operate and interact with the Public they serve. How these changes will occur, however, is difficult to predict, because few governments entrust the full spectrum of responsibilities related to Integrated Information Management to a single Chief Information Officer (CIO's). Current CIO's are often "Chief IT Officers" as opposed to true CIO's.
Many public servants possess the necessary knowledge to empower their governments to embrace these major trends. Unfortunately, they are typically responsible for only one piece of the problem. This is where G2TT comes in.
G2TT provides an architecture of participation in which members can become contributors on specific association projects, resulting in the production of Association Reports. These reports are built in a comprehensive and self-contained format, addressing the complete range of issues for any given set of problems, in an "open source community" spirit. They are drafted in an open and collaborative environment (for contributors).
The association will launch in early June. Stay tuned for further developments.
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