My Thoughts on, "Collaboration: know your enthusiasts and laggards", article from Cisco

Last week I spent some time reading an excellent and very interesting piece from Cisco, "Collaboration: know your enthusiasts and laggards".

I encourage you take a look at the results of the study Cisco undertook into the factors linked to successful adoption of collaboration via networked tools: instant messaging, wikis, shared workspaces, video conferencing, forums and discussion boards etc.

Whilst reading their interesting findings a couple of things struck me.

On page one of the article was the sentence,

"You can use the study results to maximize your return on investment from collaboration tools. One way is to implement business practices shown to lead to more enthusiastic collaboration."

This struck me as possibly being another way of saying: if you have already purchased tools to allow collaboration you can enjoy a return on that investment by putting in place an environment which will encourage collaboration using these tools. Please correct me if I'm wrong but this sounds a little too close to the assumption that collaborating is an end in itself, not a means to an end.

To my mind, collaboration is very important in many walks of life and many types of organisations can benefit from doing a lot more of it. Some of it will come via software; much of it should come through face-t0-face chats, discussions and more formal meetings. None of it will, I think, lead to a return on investment in and of itself. If I asked a CEO how their business was doing in these hard times, I wouldn't expect them to say, "We're doing well, we're collaborating so much more than before."

For me, the key to a return on investment from collaboration is controlling that collaboration. Knowing what the business goals and objectives are and making a conscious decision to use collaboration as a technique to help achieve them. Also important is the monitoring of the collaboration taking place and then linking the collaboration efforts to the outcomes of the collaboration.

Collaboration can have a very specific goal, "We have a project to deliver and two teams in different cities need to collaborate, in these ways, to successfully deliver that project."

Collaboration can be less concrete, but no less valuable, "We have a group of people over here, and another group over there, who would benefit from talking more and understanding each other - their jobs, their day to day issues and how they go about solving them. We're not sure what will exactly come from this but we will set up collaborative spaces, monitor them, get feedback from the collaborators, and look at how these groups do their jobs one month, three months, six months, after the collaboration was established. We'll then analyse how collaboration contributed to getting a, b, and c done, learn from the experience and build on it.

Rather than saying, "We collaborate therefore we succeed", I'd like to be able to say, "We had a business need, problem or corporate goal, we put a number of collaboration techniques in place and we achieved our goals or fixed our problems. We also saw where and how our collaboration contributed to our success."

Collaboration is a tool to use to achieve an objective, not an end in itself. Return on investment comes from what results from collaboration, not from collaboration alone.

For many people and organizations the goal should be to achieve results through targeted collaboration, not to just collaborate more.

I hope we all succeed because we know how to collaborate, we know why we're doing it, we know what we get from it, and we know how it contributes to our goals and objectives.

Ian

Accessing Useful Knowledge: musings from a train carriage

Sitting on a train, slowly trundling through Hertfordshire, my thoughts turned to the challenges of knowledge and information sharing.

I was minding my own business, surrounded by other similar people, also minding their own business and I started to think that if I had a need for knowledge and information, what would be my best course of action? What would be the most efficient and effective way to obtain, share and distribute information and knowledge?

Pondering this question produced some interesting thoughts.

If I needed a particular newspaper, document or magazine article, that I'd forgotten to bring along with me, my best bet was to stand up, forget I was English, and ask my fellow travelers whether anyone had a copy. A long shot I know, but a direct request for specific information was my best chance.

On the other hand, if I had a less structured knowledge and information need what would work best?

If I wanted to exchange information and knowledge regarding how to get people to share their knowledge in a work environment, and how to persuade them, "not to panic" and convince them that knowledge sharing, "is a good thing", my best bet is not to ask a specific question out loud, or to call, tweet, or email the people in the carriage. My best bet is to try to get a conversation going between all the people in the train carriage.

Back in the real world, persuading a bunch of strangers to talk to each other on a train is only going to happen if the train grinds to a halt and all the lights go out - otherwise, forget it.

However, the thought emphasised for me that often the best means of communication is face-to-face. The best way to exchange knowledge and information in order to meet a range of needs is to get a group of people to sit in the same physical space, and with a clear idea of the boundaries and objectives of the meeting, to talk to each other in the real world.

Other forms of more distanced communication, email, phone, etc have their place and are very popular and useful, but in this world of technology let's not lose track, let's not forget, that having a discussion with a real person is often the best way to communicate.

Ian

Search Solutions 2009

I recently attended the Search Solutions 2009 one day conference. For an excellent summary of a very interesting day take a look at Karen's recent blog post

For me, 'a star of the show' was Dave Mountain's enthralling discussion, "Location-Based Services: Positioning, Geocontent and Location-Aware Applications". Dave looked at location based services, their current uses and future possibilities. One aspect, which sparked heated debate over coffee, was the very real security implications of having your position pinpointed to a couple of metres. Location Based Services will I think continue to grow and meld together with social applications such as Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, e-commerce and mobile devices. We will increasingly know where the nearest coffee shop is to our location in terms of direct route, time taken to get there etc. Add to this the possibility that everyone else will know where you are in real time and what you're doing and you have a world of many information and privacy challenges. I wonder whether we'll end up with people paying a surcharge to cloak themselves from all this information gathering?

If you want to know more about the world of Geocontent and Location Aware Applications Dave Mountain is a great person to talk to.

Ian

This post was previously posted on Taxonomy Watch

Image Findability: Improving through Tags

Take a look at my recent article on Image Findability on FUMSI - bit.ly/LQ3UP

My article outlines the options open to tag images for a business need - selling, sharing, reducing duplication of effort etc. It assumes an image focused audit or assessment has already understood the creation and use of image content and the need is to choose from a set of options in order to create a tagging plan, with a set of rules, guidelines and success metrics.

Need to Create Good Work Fast? Simple - Get a New Computer

I have a problem. I have six pieces of work to write in a couple of weeks and I'm under pressure. I need the work to be spot on, of the highest quality and created in the shortest space of time.

The answer to my problem? Buy a new computer.

Does this sound strange to you? Can you see how improved output comes from a new computer?

I was sceptical, but the Sales guy said a new computer was the answer. I asked him to explain and he told me how the time I was wasting messing with my old computer was at the heart of my problem. All those lost minutes fixing crashes, worrying about blue screens, battling with slow performance, scanning for adware, spyware and worse. Forget all that was the message I was getting, move to the promised land of a newer, faster computer and your problems are solved. After a bit more chat I was sold. My new computer would save me time and that extra time would be spent devoted to my key tasks, which in turn would lead to better quality work and faster work at that. Saving time was even money in the bank for me to set against the cost of the computer - so it wasn't even as expensive as I'd thought.

At this point I excused myself, had a coffee, and thought it through one more time. Did it make sense that a new computer was my solution? The light quickly dawned, of course it didn't. A new computer wasn't the solution and time saving was not my key issue. How did the Sales guy know that time saved would be time I'd actually spend on my document tasks? How did he know the processes and tasks I'd been performing with my current computer were not valuable experiences - not to be lightly ignored. Why did he make no attempt to understand me and my circumstances and simply sell me the one size fits all Sales line that so many people still hear today?

I soon realised than I'm better off assessing my goals and objectives. What is it I need to do? For whom? Why? And when? Then I need to ensure I'm prepared and enabled to achieve them. Is my broadband connection operating? Is it fast enough? Is the right software up and running? Can I access the libraries I need?

I would also benefit from improving my time planning and management skills. I need to focus on my key tasks. What is it I need to do? What problems am I having here? I also should not forget my deliverables. What do I need to produce and how do I get there?

All these areas, when addressed in the right way, will enable my tasks and improve my outcomes. Granted, this is a little harder to sell than a new computer equals better work and a wonderful life, but surely I'm worth that extra effort and it's certainly what I need to hear.

Many of us encounter this scenario frequently. How many times have you watched a Sales presentation built around saving time? Usually a calculator is involved and sometimes members of the audience are asked to volunteer key pieces of information - "How much time do you spend searching for information in a day?", "What's your hourly rate?", "How hard do you find tracking down the information you need?" "Could you be more productive if you saved some of this time?" Very often 'time saved' is then calculated and that 'time saved' directly equated to business advantage. Very often there is little or no thought put into the needs or objectives of individual businesses or any injection of common sense into the Sales pitch.

A Dow Jones information assessment looks for the real issues and pain points our clients experience, and works with them to solve their problems and enable improved outcomes. If you have an information management issue you need assistance with, speak to us and let us work with you to get to the heart of your needs. You never know you might even save enough money to afford that new computer you've always wanted!

Ian

This post first appeared at the Synaptica Central blog

Passionate Geographers

I noticed a very interesting initiative recently Project Geograph: Photograph Every Grid Square.

This project is working towards collecting and making available images depicting the geography of every square kilometre of the British Isles. This ambitious project seems to be progressing very well, with many good quality images loaded to the website.

Already over 8,900 contributors have submitted nearly 1,500,000 images, with an average of 5 images associated to each geographic square across England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. This is a great resource, preserving in amazing detail what the British Isles looked like at the start of the 21st Century. This is also a wonderful way to learn about the geography of these amazing islands and to dig deeply into their hills, valleys, towns and villages. This is also a superb source for genealogists looking at how a particular part of the British Isles looks today.

Back in 2007 I attended the Blogs and Social Media Conference 2.0 in London. One presentation which has stayed in my mind since then, was Lee Bryant's, "Engaging with Passionates". In his exceptional presentation Lee described a ground-breaking social networking case study and talked about the energy that can be released when organisations successfully tap into a group of people who are truly passionate about a given topic.

I think you'd be hard pressed to find a better example of the power of passionates than the Geograph Project. Looking at the number of contributors, the amount of the British Isles covered, and the quality of the photography and metadata created, makes a clear point - find people who are passionate about a topic, people who are committed to a hobby or interest, engage them in the right way and they will deliver time and again.

I wish everyone associated with the Geograph Project all the luck in the world, may they stay passionate and committed to what they do, and may their project benefit from their commitment.

Oh, and if you like what you see, submit a photograph, or start a similar initiative.

Ian

This post first appeared in the Synaptica Central Blog

Report from Digital Asset Management (DAM) Conference - London, 1 July

I spent Wednesday 1st July at the Henry Stewart DAM Conference in London.

In my slot I talked about, "Tagging Images for Findability - Making Your DAM System Work for You." I used my 30 minutes to raise the issue of organising images using metadata and controlled vocabulary to connect the images to the people who want to use them. I spent a little time looking at the ways to use text to categorise images and the advantages and disadvantages that brings. I devoted a lot of the presentation to raising issues to watch out for when tagging images, in particular specificity and focus in image depictions, abstract concepts and image 'aboutness' and the deceptive simplicity of visually simple images.

A far braver presentation than mine was given by Madi Solomon. Madi ditched the PowerPoint presentation to facilitate a refreshing debate on metadata. Questions from the floor came thick and fast. Madi did a great job of presenting 'on the edge' and drew out the experiences of many of the attendees and the challenges they were facing.

Also of note at the conference was a very informative presentation from Theresa Regli on 'Evaluating and Selecting Technologies' and a stimulating piece from Mark Davey on the old chestnut of ROI and Digital Asset Management Systems. Mark took a pretty dry subject and a slot directly after a good lunch and succeeded brilliantly in making it entertaining, informative and practical. Take a look at his excellent presentation Digital Asset Management ROI - the basics. I think this is a key resource for anyone interested in return on investment in the DAM space and it's fun to watch too.

I had a great day at DAM London and I hope my fellow delegates found the presentations as helpful and enlightening as I did.

Ian

This post first appeared on the Synaptica Central blog