Articles by Month: July 2005

The CoP support team

Shawn Callahan has written a blog entry looking at the role of a CoP support team. To quote:

Every strategic community of practice has a support team. This small group of people makes life easier for members. Etienne Wenger calls it "enhancing member value for time spent." The support team organises meetings, links members, features new members on the community's website and a myriad of other tasks that help the community to connect and grow.

Posted by jamesr at 06:49 PM | Permalink
Categories: Knowledge management

Search log analysis and the long tail

Lou Rosenfeld has written a blog entry on search log analysis. To quote:

Search log analysis (SLA) is a rational attempt to make sense of these distributions by focusing on those most popular queries. Finding patterns among the popular queries helps us determine how to best allocate resources for improving the search experience. We might, for example, decide to develop best bet search results for the 100 most common queries, and see if we need to plug content gaps for those top 500 queries that retrieve 0 results. In IA terms, a little of this type of effort can go quite a long way.

Posted by jamesr at 06:39 PM | Permalink
Categories: Search tools

Placed vs. dynamic content

Theresa Regli and Christian Donner have written an article that looks at placed vs. dynamic content, in the context of web publishing. To quote:

At a high level, there are at least 2 models for where and how content from a CMS appears on a website, both of which are suitable for different use cases. While one company's requirements might dictate a completely dynamic, database-driven publishing model -- fueled by metadata and made possible by complex queries spread across dozens of templates -- another’s might call for something far more simple, where authors can deliberately choose where content goes on a site.

Posted by jamesr at 03:18 PM | Permalink
Categories: Content management

Problems in navigating online help: clues from user search patterns

Robert Krull and Angela Eaton have written an article on navigating online help, exploring the various issues and suggesting potential solutions. To quote:

Overall, the largest problem our participants had in using the help system wasn't in processing the procedural information in the help, but rather finding the correct help topic, a topic generally unaddressed in the literature on how to write a help system. Specifically, participants had difficulty in searching for topics because their terminology differed from the terminology used by the help system, and they became lost in the unclear structure of the system. Specific results and discussion are provided below.

[Thanks to InfoDesign.]

Posted by jamesr at 11:51 AM | Permalink
Categories: Information architecture

Building your knowledge workshop

Jim McGee has written an article about building your knowledge workshop. To quote:

We are at a point in carrying out knowledge work where we would be well-served by setting aside the quest for the one true tool and turning toward the problem of creating and equipping a knowledge workshop suited to our needs.

[Thanks to Jack Vinson.]

Posted by jamesr at 11:31 AM | Permalink
Categories: Knowledge management

Knowledge Management for Call Centres (Sydney, Australia)

I will be presenting at the next NSW KM Forum meeting on knowledge management for call centres. This should be a good fun talk, with plenty of real life examples and practical ideas. Full details:

Knowledge Management for Call Centres

Important note: If you plan to attend, please RSVP by e-mail to nswkmforum@gmail.com

WHY: Call centres are a uniquely challenging environment, where staff are expected to (accurately) answer calls within 30 seconds, while being monitored on performance and call duration. With call centres increasingly becoming the primary point of contact with customers or the public, the challenge is to provide call centre staff with the knowledge they need to do their work.

WHO: James Robertson from Step Two Designs has conducted a number of call centre reviews, looking at how best to capture and disseminate knowledge. He will share his experiences, and will outline a concrete KM methodology that can be used to research staff and organisational needs. Real-world examples will be used to highlight some of the issues (and potential solutions) within both public and private-sector call centres.

WHEN: 5.30pm for 6pm, Thursday 4th August 2005.

WHERE: Standards Australia, 286 Sussex Street, Sydney NSW 2000. Call James Digges on 0414 191 009 for after hours entry to the building.

HOW MUCH: Free! If you plan to attend, please RSVP by e-mail to nswkmforum@gmail.com

Posted by jamesr at 07:01 PM | Permalink
Categories:

Martin White's CMS workshops (Australia)

We've just finished the first of Martin White's CMS workshops being held in Australia. It was a fun day that had me chuckling at some of the "worst case" stories he used to illustrate his points. This is what some of the other participants thought:

"Very informative, fun and all the information is applicable, relevant and real. I like the relaxed, informal approach."

"Very good seminar, provides an unbiased insight into the CMS industry. Made a dry subject very interesting!"

"Very knowledgeable - excellent."

"Excellent, good examples to illustrate an issue."

"Informative session. Interesting speaker. Very good."

"Great content and material. Good presenter and facilities."

"Excellent, knowledgeable and open."

It's not to late to see Martin in action, as he will be running workshops in Melbourne (1st August) and Canberra (3rd August).

[Full workshop details]

Posted by jamesr at 06:49 PM | Permalink
Categories:

Final reminder about Open Publish 2005 (Sydney, Australia)

The Open Publish conference is finally here! Starting on Wednesday of this week, there will be three days of web content management, publishing and more. I'll be presenting a half-day pre-conference workshop on selecting a CMS, and then chairing the web content management stream on the first day of the conference.

Not to be missed, and not too late to register...

Posted by jamesr at 04:34 PM | Permalink
Categories:

(No) UX gurus

Lou Rosenfeld has posted a blog entry discussing the absence of user experience gurus, following up on a comment posted by me. To quote:

So back to James' original question: who's a UX guru? I'd say no one. I don't think it's possible for someone to have deep knowledge in each of a broad array of disciplines. Some of us have the depth, some of us have the breadth, but both are impossible to pull off.

Posted by jamesr at 11:51 AM | Permalink
Categories: Usability & user-centered design

Dealing with information overload

Paul Chin has written an article on information overload, from the perspective of managing intranets. To quote:

Have we crossed the line from productivity to inefficiency by the sheer amount of information that we put into our intranets? And I'm not even talking about the extraneous content (content that should never make it onto the intranet to begin with) I'm talking about actual usable content. In an attempt to provide as much information to our users, in as wide a range of topics as possible, have we actually done everyone a disservice by putting in more content than any one person can absorb? But herein lies the point: no one is meant to.

Posted by jamesr at 11:31 AM | Permalink
Categories: Content management, Intranets

Moving information architecture from design to implementation

David Moore has published an interview with Lou Rosenfeld, discussing a range of information architecture topics. To quote:

Information architects used to focus on design. Nowadays, we have to focus as much on how to get our designs accepted and actually implemented. The politics of design acceptance are tricky, and require negotiation skills. And as a profession, we're simply not very good at horsetrading.

Posted by jamesr at 10:41 AM | Permalink
Categories: Information architecture

Welcome to Sarah Owen

Very exciting, another addition to our consulting team: Sarah Owen. Sarah comes on board as another senior consultant, and she brings to the team excellent experience and tremendous energy.

Welcome to Sarah!

Posted by jamesr at 12:18 PM | Permalink
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Search experts: who? what?

Lou Rosenfeld has written a blog entry that discusses who are the search experts in the industry, and what they should know. To quote:

I'd love to know who else is out there (please comment below), but perhaps I'm barking up the wrong tree. Has search grown into such a broad domain that asking for a "search expert" is as silly as looking for a "telephone expert"? Do search engine vendors wield enough power to drown out the independent voices? What exactly would a search specialist be anyway?

Posted by jamesr at 04:22 PM | Permalink
Categories: Search tools

Usable content manifesto

D. Keith Robinson has written a blog entry that outlines his usable content manifesto. To quote:

One of the things I've spent much of my time working with is content, mainly the written variety. How it’s structured, how it's delivered, and how it's designed. As I've talked about recently, content is the hardest part of the projects I work on. It’s also the most important. Without it you're left with a hollow shell that is ultimately meaningless.

Posted by jamesr at 12:06 PM | Permalink
Categories:

Portal governance - the need and preferred model

Brandon Lackey has written an article on portal governance, looking at what's needed to make a portal useful for staff and the business. To quote:

The ability to provide a simple, personalized user interface to many of these applications and reduce development costs by sharing Web services have been the promise of the enterprise portal. Many are finding, however, even portal deployments used to consolidate applications and Web sites can contribute to complexity rather than reduce it. To complicate matters further, some organizations have deployed multiple portals for various requirements without clear direction for how they relate to one another. Gartner reports that many enterprises "find themselves dealing with 'a jungle' of multiple portals that compete for the same resources and audiences and, in some cases, prevent each other from achieving success."

Posted by jamesr at 11:49 AM | Permalink
Categories:

Hotspots and hyperlinks: using eye-tracking to supplement usability testing

Mark C. Russell has published the results of research into the use of eye-tracking to supplement usability testing. To quote:

This article discusses how eye-tracking can be used to supplement traditional usability test measures. User performance on two usability tasks with three e-commerce websites is described. Results show that eye-tracking data can be used to better understand how users initiate a search for a targeted link or web object. Frequency, duration and order of visual attention to Areas of Interest (AOIs) in particular are informative as supplemental information to standard usability testing in understanding user expectations and making design recommendations.

Posted by jamesr at 10:58 AM | Permalink
Categories: Usability & user-centered design

Accessible data tables

Roger Hudson has written an article on how to make data tables accessible for screen readers. To quote:

First, I would like to once again stress the importance of making data tables as simple as possible. Data tables with more than one level of headers are harder to code and much harder for people who rely on assistive technologies to use.

At this stage, it appears that id and headers are the most effective way to make complex data tables accessible. Although id and headers are slightly more difficult to code than scope, the apparent poor screen reader support for scope means that this is probably not an effective accessibility option.

[Thanks to the eGovernment Resource Centre.]

Posted by jamesr at 10:42 AM | Permalink
Categories: Usability & user-centered design

The rising star of corporate anthropology

Rashmi Sinha has written a blog entry on the increasingly popularity of corporate anthropology. To quote:

Unlike the more cut and dried approach of psychology (especially experimental psychology), anthropologists try to get under the skin of the people they are studying. Psychological method shifts the focus to what can be objectively recorded and measured. Anthropology focuses on the complete individual, what drives them, how they work and play, how they think.

Posted by jamesr at 10:27 AM | Permalink
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Kafka Management, the new KM

Mark T has written a blog entry highlighting the Kafka red-tape cutting initiative being conducted by the Belgian government. To quote:

I think this is a great piece of collaborative "knowledge management" that delivered huge savings - about £150mil, I think, just by getting user-focused and asking the populace what pieces of bureaucracy were unnecessarily annoying, and then actually acting upon the results. Shared experience delivering process improvement.

[Thanks to Jack Vinson.]

Posted by jamesr at 01:13 PM | Permalink
Categories:

Focus groups - are they dead?

Dina Mehta has written a blog entry summarising some of the current discussions about the value of focus groups. To quote:

I enjoyed reading two contrasting perspectives on market research and focus groups. Interestingly, both refer to Blink, the premise if which is thin-slicing and rapid cognition, which seems to knock conventional market research on its head.

Posted by jamesr at 12:58 PM | Permalink
Categories: Knowledge management, Usability & user-centered design

Information management: a journey of a thousand steps

A while back, I started a review of information management (IM) and records management (IM) practices within a public-sector organisation. Against my expectations, this has proven to be very interesting, and I thought I would share some of my personal realisations.

Background

I was brought in to conduct a review of IM and RM, within a fairly typical public-sector organisation. The usual problems were being wrestled with: a failed records management system implementation; fragmented file system; reliance on paper; lack of coordination; and cultural issues still being felt after a merger.

The expectation of all involved (including myself) was that the review would identify some clear directions, create an information management strategy (and policies), and bring order in a rapid time period. This has not proven to be the case, and we've ended up taking a quite different approach.

Recommendations

I'm going to use some quotes from the report itself to highlight the approach that we've come up with. Starting with the issue of records management:

While the original driver for this review was the need to meet recordkeeping legislation, this should be addressed as a secondary consideration within the organisation.

Instead, the initial focus should be on document management, with the goal of improving the operational efficiency and effectiveness of the organisation. Once better document and information management practices and policies have been put in place, records management needs can be met with only a small amount of additional effort.

The initial focus on document management recognises that there will need to be widespread cultural and process changes throughout the organisation, and that these can only be achieved if the right "driving factors" can be identified.

While recordkeeping (in a legislative sense) is very important to the organisation as a whole, it has little direct relevance to the day-to-day issues or needs of staff. As such, it is a poor driver for organisational change.

Instead, approaches must be found that directly affect (and benefit) staff in their work, and assist the organisation to meet strategic goals and objectives. As information management as a whole is improved in the organisation, it then becomes possible to implement underlying rigours, such as records management.

The concept of an over-arching information management strategy is then abandoned, replaced instead with a strongly iterative approach:

There is no single "silver bullet" solution or activity that will clarify or resolve the approach to information management and records management within the organisation.

Instead, there are hundreds of individual (and generally small) decisions and actions to be taken. Collectively, when aligned with an overall strategy, these will progress the organisations towards more effective and consistent information management practices.

It must be recognised that there are some problems that are "too hard" to address in a single step. Instead, a conscious decision needs to be made to put some of the biggest (and most difficult) activities "on hold" until the organisation is better placed to address them.

This is not to say that long-term objectives should be ignored, quite the opposite. A clear perspective needs to be kept of the overall direction required, while making many specific changes and improvements day-to-day.

A single "information management policy" is therefore never developed. Rather, individual managers are empowered to take the actions required to address recognised needs.

The message to me was this: no amount of thinking will "solve" all the information management problems within an organisation. In order to escape "analysis paralysis", the organisation needs to be empowered to make many individual improvements, all adding up to the long-term objective.

In this way, the organisation learns as it goes, and benefits from learning in the wider marketplace. As each step is completed, the next step becomes easier (and possible). So it's not about creating strategies, it's about making lasting organisational change, one step at a time.

Posted by jamesr at 02:50 PM | Permalink
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The world is ready for usability. Is usability ready for the world?

Kathy Straub has written an article that looks at the changing state of the usability market, and the challenges for usability professionals in keeping up. To quote:

Executives have discovered the value of usability. You hear the word "usability" in elevators all the time. It's clear from those overheard conversations that executives who understand that usability can be a strategic differentiator don't always grow the practical details of what is involved. But that's not important. All the gurus agree (!) that the first step in making usability routine is getting the support of an executive champion. If the executives will back it -- blink! -- Usability matters.

Posted by jamesr at 05:07 PM | Permalink
Categories: Usability & user-centered design

Geographical information systems (GIS) and knowledge management (KM)

Fulvio Iavernaro has written an article on the relationship between GIS and KM. To quote:

GIS are universally recognized as decision support systems that help users in problem solving activities related to geo-referenced applications thanks to their ability of organizing and processing information both geographically and logically together with a powerful visual representation of data. For this reason we can easily consider GIS as knowledge management platforms.

Posted by jamesr at 03:16 PM | Permalink
Categories: Knowledge management

Conducting successful SME interviews

Jennifer Lambe has written an article on interviewing subject-matter experts (SME's). To quote:

Interviewing subject matter experts (SMEs) is one of the most common and useful methods for obtaining the information needed to create quality documents. Successful SME interviews require careful research and preparation in advance. During the interview, good listening skills, critical analysis, and the ability to maintain control of the range and depth of the interview with appropriate tact are crucial to successful outcomes. After the interview, give prompt attention to notes and any required follow-through. When working with hostile SMEs or those with poor communication skills emphasize the strengths of the relationship and develop strategies to work around any weaknesses.

[Thanks to the eGovernment Resource Centre.]

Posted by jamesr at 10:55 AM | Permalink
Categories: Intranets, Knowledge management

Collaboration sessions: How to lead multidisciplinary teams

Sasha Verhage has written an article on the role (and benefits) of collaborative sessions during the design phase of user-centred design projects. To quote:

The process should not be "design by committee" but rather design for common understanding. When the designers provide solutions during the meeting, these are meant to foster discussion, not offer a final solution The focus should not be on granular elements like interface widgets or pixels. If you are debating whether something should be a drop-down or not, then you are wasting people’s time.

Posted by jamesr at 02:43 PM | Permalink
Categories: Information architecture, Usability & user-centered design

Enterprise Content Management: An Introduction

ICFAI Press have just published a new booked titled Enterprise Content Management: An Introduction. This is an anthology that draws together material from a range of authors, including an article that I wrote on "successfully deploying ECM".

This is a valuable introduction to the field of content management, and it presents many valuable perspectives on the real-world needs and issues in the field. It can be ordered directly from ICFAI Press.

Posted by jamesr at 02:24 PM | Permalink
Categories: Conferences & presentations

The worst thing about best practices

Michael W. McLaughlin has written an article about the issues with "best practices", from a marketing perspective (but relevant for all). He identifies four main problems:

• They rarely work
• It's a follower's strategy
• Change comes from within
• They don't come with a manual

[Thanks to elearningpost.]

Posted by jamesr at 02:30 PM | Permalink
Categories: Knowledge management

What's the big idea?

Peter Andrews has written an article that looks at how to put new ideas into practice. To quote:

It may be odd, aggravating, attractive or frightening. It may make perfect sense or none. It may even come from that mysterious place called intuition. Whatever it is and wherever it comes from, an idea is worthless until it has been developed into something you can communicate to other people. Somewhere between a gleam in your eye and a full-fledged value proposition is the real work of developing and defining an idea.

[Thanks to elearningpost.]

Posted by jamesr at 02:23 PM | Permalink
Categories: Knowledge management

Tagging for fun and finding

Thomas Vander Wal has written an introductory article on tagging. To quote:

So is tagging worth the effort? Yes, it adds another layer to get to the information and aggregate information. These tools and services around tagging, including Technorati Tags, are another means of finding and sharing information. Tagging in general works well when the terms being used for tagging are used for aggregating like items. Tags can be helpful when the work used for the tag is even in the information or object being tagged, it is more helpful when used to on information and objects where the word does not appear. It is often said Google will show you what you want, but folksonomies (including general tagging) will show you what you did not know you wanted. Tagging in this sense leads to planned serendipity.

Posted by jamesr at 11:10 AM | Permalink
Categories: Information architecture

Making libraries more delicious: Social bookmarking in the enterprise

Michael Angeles has written an excellent case study outlining the use of folksonomy on an intranet. To quote:

The idea to take the concept of social bookmarking and turn it into more than just a bookmark saving service came as the result of several different types of requests we've gotten in the past. One type of request was for a way to clip or save articles found on our site digital library site. We aggregate a wide variety of diverse sources. The most relevant databases include vendor news (e.g. feeds from Factiva for newspapaers and journals) and internal databases (e.g. internal news publications, technical documents repository)

Posted by jamesr at 10:59 AM | Permalink
Categories: Information architecture, Intranets

Top 5 CMS selection pitfalls

Tony Byrne has written an article that outlines the top 5 CMS selection pitfalls. To quote:

Buying major software applications can be stressful. The impact of your choice will reverberate across your company, and switching costs can become prohibitive. Yet, it can seem hard to know in advance whether you're picking the right solution.

This is all excellent advice, based on Tony's years of hands-on experience working with organisations to help them select a CMS. The message can be perhaps be distilled down to: lose a lot of the complexity of CMS selection processes, to allow you to focus on the things that matter (the product and the vendor).

Posted by jamesr at 10:44 AM | Permalink
Categories: Content management

Announce list for papers

This is just a quick reminder that a good way of ensuring that you don't miss any of the articles that we publish each month, you can add yourself onto our announce list. (We already have over 1,700 subscribers and growing.)

Posted by jamesr at 10:05 AM | Permalink
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Intranets: losing the language of enforcement

My second CM Briefing for July encourages intranet teams to lose the language of enforcement when dealing with authors. To quote:

All too often, centralised intranet teams find themselves battling with decentralised authors to enforce consistency and quality standards. Not only is this fighting ultimately fruitless, it can be very damaging for the morale of all participants, and potentially crippling for the future of the intranet itself.

In these situations, intranet teams need to find a new approach, and new ways of working with their decentralised authors. The first step is to lose the language of enforcement.

Posted by jamesr at 06:56 PM | Permalink
Categories: Intranets

What to include in intranet search results

The first of my CM Briefings for July looks at what to include in intranet search results. To quote:

While there is much that can be done to improve the effectiveness of intranet search, a good starting point is to improve the design of search results pages. The first question to ask is: what to include (and what not to include) in search results?

This briefing is designed to provide a simple checklist that can be used to assess (and then redesign) intranet search results pages.

Posted by jamesr at 06:49 PM | Permalink
Categories: Intranets, Search tools

Five intranet reviews, five different results

Our KM Column article this month is a case study that looks at the results of five intranet reviews. To quote:

Over the past few years, we have conducted a number of intranet reviews across a wide range of organisations, and the results have always been fascinating.

This case study presents the findings from five different intranet reviews, with the aim of exposing some of the issues being confronted across different organisations. These reviews also show that even within seemingly-similar organisations, the intranet issues can be quite different.

Posted by jamesr at 06:41 PM | Permalink
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