b.cognosco

I wonder how many of Matt Mower's points are covered with Traction Server, and how easily Traction can be integrated with other, larger systems? Also, with the work David Gurteen is doing in Lotus Notes, and Trellix now including weblogging functions, how long will it be before most KM systems include basic blogger functionality?

Integrating klogs with Big-KM.
In order for klogging to be successfully I think it is going to have to come to an understanding with Big-KM.

Example: BigCo has invested half a million dollars in a big knowledge management system for their world-wide operations. This kind of investment can become a lode-stone around any other systems neck. For klogging to thrive here it is going to have to integrate.

Here's one idea I have for how this could work.

Extend Big-KM System-X so that it can aggregate RSS feeds like Radio, MT and others do now.

Extend your klogging software to allow per-post meta data. (liveTopics does this for Radio)

For each project in System-X define a set of topics that will act as trigger phrases for that project

Get the kloggers to use those topics when they want to involve a post in a particular project

Now subscribe System-X to every klog in the organization and watch as it indexes and archives all that information. Each project grabbing only those postings that are appropriate (by use of the trigger phrases)

This means that the klogs add value to the big-KM system. Suddenly it doesn't just have the dry dusty project documention, but all the live vibrant stuff that people are really doing!

Now extend System-X to generate a per-project RSS feed.

If I am on the project I can subscribe to this feed. Now instead of receiving email from System-X or having to go to an arbitrary web page, I get all the "official" project stuff (new documents, forms etc...) delivered in my RSS stream.

Closing the loop between the big-KM and the klog so that they both add value to each other.

Just an idea... [Curiouser and curiouser!]

The First Remote Post

2:36:09 PM

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Yahoo! This is the first Radio post from a remote computer using the Remote Access settings via my new router and firewall (listen carefully and you can hear the Pointer Sisters singing I'm So Excited in the background.)

I have to say that over a dsl line at both ends this works about as well as locally. I could get to like this. It's still not quite as nifty as having Radio deployed on my laptop (where I could work regardless of connectivity) but it's pretty darn good. Now, next step is to figure out how to make a VPN.

Failing Badly

12:44:26 AM

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My friend Scott Walker pointed me to an excellent article on Homeland Insecurity in the current Atlantic Monthly. The article is based on interviews with cyber-security expert and author Bruce Schneier. The article covers a lot of ground, but it really points out the need to consider failure as a standard process. Here's what Scott wrote:

There's an interesting article in the current Atlantic Monthly about the likelihood that stricter security systems will make Americans less safe than they'd be otherwise. In it, one of the foremost experts in the world on cryptography talks about how certain systems fail badly -- by which he means that when they fail, as they inevitably do, the consequences of the failed system are worse than the consequences of never having had such a system in the first place. The full shutdowns and total rescreenings of passengers following airport security breaches are one of his examples -- when these systems fail, they do so in a way that is extremely costly and painful. Interesting in its own right, and unquestionably true. It got me to thinking about the broader implications of failing badly -- that a really well-designed system fails well, and that that might be a source of compelling competitive advantage in business -- that one's systems are designed such that the inevitable failures in any given component are isolated and prevented from causing more widespread and costly failures. While I haven't even finished the article yet, it seems that systems that fail well are designed so that components are modular, with responsibility for only one small area of functionality, and that surrounding systems are designed to catch and isolate the consequences of any failure.

Now, neither Scott nor I have really thougth this through, but it seems likely that failing to adequately consider the consequences of failure is at the heart of all sorts of major screw-ups -- ranging from California wildfires started by the Forest Service to the Worldcom debacle.

I wonder how often a failure point is observed but not noted by someone in a company, and I wonder if the open use of klogs within a company could broaden exposure to those failure points, thereby hardening the system and improving competitive advantage?

Factory Tours -- BN.com

12:23:15 AM

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One of the great things about my job is the chance to go into some very cool places (at least they're cool if you like huge, sophisticated machinery running incredibly complex, automated tasks. If you've never been into a major daily newspaper printing plant you have no idea what you've missed.

This week I went into the Barnes & Noble distribution center in Memphis, TN. I've been there before but it still amazes me -- 300,000 sq. ft. of space housing a $12 million automated book handling system that guides human pickers with RF-based scanners and then transports, sorts, matches, packages, weighs, stamps, and ships 10s of thousands of packages a day -- error free. It's one of the most incredible things I've ever seen.

The level of software integration they have achieved is incredible. Sometimes orders are processed in the warehouse within an hour or so of being placed on the web. This really is the future of book sales.

Untethered -- Going Wireless and Seeking Remote Access

12:15:28 AM

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I went to Best Buy tonight and they had a deal on D-Link's DI-614+ AirPlus Wireless Network Hub. I've been working slowly toward remote access for Radio but I just couldn't seem to get it working with my old D-Link 701 router. I thought a more modern router might help. PLus, I wanted something a little more sophisticated for trying VPN connections and such.

The 614+ has a much nicer router with built-in web page for admin, plus 802.11b and enhanced 22Mbps wireless. It was only $119 with a $20 mail-in, and a PCMCIA card was just $59 with a $10 mail-in.

I haven't tested the remote access yet, but it sure was easier to configure. And the wireless is way cool. I haven't really played with WiFi before, but it was a cinch to configure and get access. Now I need to find some of those war chalking places and log in, tune in, and turn on.

Browser Wars

12:06:26 AM

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I give up -- I can't use Mozilla, I refuse to use MSIE, Netscape is deplorable. I'm going back to Opera even if I can't read pages that use Marc Barrot's activeRenderer.

I got started on this browser kick because some of my favorite blogs starting using activeRenderer for archive pages, blogrolls, and such. I can't read them in Opera -- it doesn't support some DOM and Javascript functions that Barrot uses to create the collapsable menus.

Mozilla supports them, but it just does not run on my system -- not v1.0, or any of the v1.1 Betas I've tried. Besides, it's full of other bugs and anomolies (at least on my Win2k system.)

So I'm stuck. I can't read a number of the very nice blogs I've been reading until Opera gets with the program and supports DOM. I hope that is soon -- it's the only real weakness it has.