Thursday, October 04, 2001

>>>> Daniel Berlinger replies to my K-Logs article (Knowledge management Weblogs).  Daniel says he has used Weblogs in corporate environments before.  I would like to see more info on that.  Daniel thinks that employee Weblogs will be quickly filled with junk.  I disagree.  One thing about employee Weblogs (as opposed to externally focused personal Weblogs) is that they are reflection of what you do at work.  If you fill them with junk, it will become quickly visible that what you at work is probably junk too. 4:28:08 PM    Comment_ Trackback []

>>>> Dody Gunawinata.  Blogging away on his perspective from Indonesia. 3:59:37 PM    Comment_ Trackback []

>>>> US to launch an humanitarian offensive in Afghanistan.  Killing the Taliban with kindness.  Good move.  Of course, people who hate the west will find a way to say that this is another act of American arrogance. 3:48:00 PM    Comment_ Trackback []

>>>> DavosNewbies.  I posted an analysis of why we are going to have a very bad downturn in our economy over the next year (hopefully it is limited to that).  3:43:19 PM    Comment_ Trackback []

>>>> Mark Pilgrim:  Are knowledge management tools social engineering?  Nah.  They are merely tools that can be used to improve the management of a knowledge-centric company.  Remember, many of the rules we use to run companies were designed in the 40s and 50s.  By design they impose a massive (although relative to earlier efforts more efficient) overhead requirement on large organizations.  Tools that empower people to effectively collaborate and share information lessen the need for that overhead and make the organization flatter.  E-mail is a great ad-hoc tool for doing this, K-Logs (knowledge network Weblogs) are a more formal tool that will allow greater levels of improvement.  1:06:38 PM    Comment_ Trackback []

>>>> Clay Shirky.  Web Services don't represent a revolution.  I agree with Dave on this, Clay doesn't understand the practical impact of Web services.  From my personal experience in the trenches over the past 6 years two things come to mind: 1) New technology often looks uncompelling.  Remember the simple Web sites of 1995?  Remember the first stock price pages and weather pages in 1997?  At the time, the people who understood what it represented were really excited.  However, many people poo pood the implementations by saying:  this will never be as good as a great client interface on a Windows app or my Bloomberg machine is light years better than this.  How wrong they were.  Unfortunately, Clay has fallen into this trap.  We are at the same point with Web Services as we were with the Web in 95-97, don't underestimate their impact downstream. 2) In 1997 and 98 my previous company began to build new Website functionality for our customers.  Many of these features relied on external data sources.  We had two choices: 1) either we bought the data, spent days cleaning it, and put it into our own database, or 2) we bought an expensive "feed" of the data that was built on very difficult to understand proprietary technology.  Both options were expensive in terms of time and infrastructure.  Today, with Web Services we could do much of what we did then through simple coordination.  My advice: don't underestimate the desire for people and companies to save time and money.    12:16:05 PM    Comment_ Trackback []

>>>> Lance Knoble correctly points out that McKinsey was behind the corporate crash of Swissair.  11:06:46 AM    Comment_ Trackback []

>>>> Knowledge World (a myjamby site).  Dutch civil servant dismissed for not observing three minute moment of silence for US victims.  This makes sense to me.  Sympathy for the terrorists and hostility to their victims isn't something people will put up with.  We don't do it with the Nazi's, the KKK, or other groups that terrorize(d) and kill(ed) innocents.  10:21:49 AM    Comment_ Trackback []

>>>> Andre Durand, of Jabber, talks about use of multiple software licenses to rationalize a need for revenue with a commitment to open source.  10:13:15 AM    Comment_ Trackback []

>>>> A great military overview by Richard Kidd (USMA at West Point '86 and Yale's SOM -- almost the same track I took, cool).  (Courtesy JD) Also on JD's site:  Pacifist bashing isn't cool.  I agree.  Pacifism isn't something that we should bash.  It is a noble sentiment that most people I know aspire to (but is often, like all absolutes, very difficult to apply to the world in which we live). However, what I don't like and will "act negatively towards" is America bashing.  All this talk about how bad we are, how we deserved this attack, how our commercial system is evil, and how our culture is corrupt is inane, hurtful, and something I will not tolerate.  I don't tolerate other negative sentiments about race, gender, or religious preference.  I won't tolerate similar sentiments against our nation, commercial system, and culture.  Things have changed for me and I think for most Americans. America is a great place full of opportunity and freedom.  The West has a great commercial system that brings great wealth and a intedependent national defense network that provides personal security to many, many people.  Sure we have problems, but what system doesn't.  I am willing to talk about improvements to our way of life, but I will not now, or ever, concede that it is at root evil.   We are now, for better of worse, in an interdependent world.  In the end, there will be one system, with local modifications, that spans the globe.  That system will provide freedom, security, and opportunity for wealth to all.  There isn't any going back.  There isn't any room for 16th century feudalism and religious wars.  So, my advice to those that want to continue the West (and America) bashing of the cold war years:  get over it.  9:29:22 AM    Comment_ Trackback []