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Michael Angeles
http://studioid.com
What they are, why people are using them, making them useful for
knowledge management
Usability Professionals Association
16 September 2003
Making sense of weblogs in the intranet
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Disclaimer
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What this is
A discussion about weblogging for knowledge
management within corporations
A discussion of my organizations role -- how
we view ourselves in terms of providing
weblogging support
A look at our long view -- how were planning
to support webloggers
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Before we get into the nitty gritty of weblogs ...
a very briefandincomplete history of Lucentintranet web publishing
How web publishing has evolved
Whos needs are being met by web-based
publishing
Lets start with a timeline
A history of web publishing in my intranet
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First there was the command line
Pre-web 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003
Technologies
CompanyMilestones
IISMileston
es
Internetprotocols(Archie,FTP,telnet)
LINUS
(Client-server)
NCSAMosaic(11/1993)
Web browser timeline: http://www.blooberry.com/indexdot/history/browsers.htm
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Then came pictures
Pre-web 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003
Technologies
CompanyMilestones
IISMileston
es
Internetprotocols(Archie,FTP,telnet)
LINUS
(Client-server)
NCSAMosaic(11/1993)
NetscapeNavigator 1(12/1994)
InfoView
Digital Library(1994-1995)
Simple sites
proliferate;Hand editted and FTPed;Front Page webmasters(1995-96)
ISG created;
producescustomizeddb-drivenBU intranetsites(7/96)
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Then useful data competed for screen space
Pre-web 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003
Technologies
CompanyMilestones
IISMileston
es
ONSource,
first BUportal(1/1999)
Internetprotocols(Archie,FTP,telnet)
LINUS
(Client-server)
NCSAMosaic(11/1993)
NetscapeNavigator 1(12/1994)
InfoView
Digital Library(1994-1995)
ISG
supports BUportals withindexedcontent(1999)
Simple sites
proliferate;Hand editted and FTPed;Front Page webmasters(1995-96)
ISG created;
producescustomizeddb-driven BUintranet sites(7/96) Business
taxonomydevelopment(1998)
IIS
indexingprocessintroduced(1998)
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The bubble bursts and standards are born
Pre-web 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003
Technologies
CompanyMilestones
IISMileston
es
ONSource,
first BUportal(1/1999)
MyLucent,
Companyportal(7/2001)
Internetprotocols(Archie,FTP,telnet)
LINUS
(Client-server)
NCSAMosaic(11/1993)
NetscapeNavigator 1(12/1994)
InfoView
Digital Library(1994-1995)
ISG supports
BU portalswith indexedcontent(1999)
Portals close;
subdomainsremovedMigration toMyLucentbegins(2000-2001)
ISG
ceases toproducecustomsites(2000)
Simple sites
proliferate;Hand editted and FTPed;Front Page webmasters(1995-96)
ISG created;
producescustomizeddb-driven BUintranet sites(7/96) Business
taxonomydevelopment(1998)
IIS indexing
processintroduced(1998)
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Then the bottom really falls out
Pre-web 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003
Technologies
CompanyMilestones
IISMileston
es
ONSource,
first BUportal(1/1999)
MyLucent,
Companyportal(7/2001)
Internetprotocols(Archie,FTP,telnet)
LINUS
(Client-server)
NCSAMosaic(11/1993)
NetscapeNavigator 1(12/1994)
InfoView
Digital Library(1994-1995)
ISG supports
BU portalswith indexedcontent(1999)
Portals close;
subdomainsremovedMigration toMyLucentbegins(2000-2001)
ISG ceases
to producecustomsites(2000)
Simple sites
proliferate;Hand editted and FTPed;Front Page webmasters(1995-96)
ISG created;
producescustomizeddb-driven BUintranet sites(7/96) Business
taxonomydevelopment(1998)
IIS indexing
processintroduced(1998)
Much of
CIOsupportingMyLucentis laid off(2003)
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And everything old is new again
Pre-web 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003
Technologies
CompanyMilestones
IISMileston
es
ONSource,
first BUportal(1/1999)
MyLucent,
Companyportal(7/2001)
We are hereBlogs appear;Blog-related
services(2002)
Internetprotocols(Archie,FTP,telnet)
LINUS
(Client-server)
NCSAMosaic(11/1993)
NetscapeNavigator 1(12/1994)
InfoView
Digital Library(1994-1995)
ISG supports
BU portalswith indexedcontent(1999)
Portals close;
subdomainsremovedMigration toMyLucentbegins(2000-2001)
ISG ceases
to producecustomsites(2000)
Simple sites
proliferate;Hand editted and FTPed;Front Page webmasters(1995-96)
ISG created;
producescustomizeddb-driven BUintranet sites(7/96) Business
taxonomydevelopment(1998)
IIS indexing
processintroduced(1998)
Much of
CIOsupportingMyLucentis laid off(2003)
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Really seems like web-publishing chaos
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Our intranet story can best be explained in
terms of people
Diverse set set of user types
Diverse set of needs
Diverse set of technologies used to meet
these needs
Theres a story to be told in that diversity/chaos
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Knowledge workers
Researchers, engineers, sales force
Communities of Practice (CoPs)
Communities organized around projects, products or
topics (e.g. Mobility)
Chief Information Organization (CIO)
Enterprise Information Technology people
Executives
Officers, upper managers
Whos who in intranet web-publishing
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Knowledge workerResearchers, engineers, sales force
"I need to capture and
distribute information about
companies and contracts I'm
working with. Email and the
telephone is usually the fastest
way to do this, but I want to
spread this information
throughout the company."
BackgroundKnowledge workers are closes toour products. Depending on theirrole and Business Unit, typicalkowledge workers might doresearch related to products orprepare contracts for customers.One common need is to documentand communicate knowledge withintheir department.
Goals
Create and share personal orproject-related knowledge.
ToolsHTML editors (Front page,HomeSite, vi) and FTP, Weblogapplications (Radio Userland,Movable Type), Email
Community of practiceGroups organized around specific
topics or projects
"We increase our personal and
group intelligence through
collaboration and knowledge-
share."
BackgroundCommunities of practice are formedaround topics, product lines,technologies, customers. CoPs aretypically interested in collaborationand knowledge-share at a grouplevel.
Goals
Increase awareness and knowledgeon topic of interest to CoP forgroup or personal gain.
ToolsDocument management systems,Groupware, BBS, Wiki, Emaildiscussion groups
ExecutiveExecutive officers, vice presidents
and upper management
"In this tight, competitive
economy, we have to operate
at world-class levels, but we
have to be lean and cut costs
where we can.
BackgroundUpper management is focussed onkeeping the company profitable.One of the popular ways to do thisis to control costs. Management islooking to reduce duplication andleverage resources in order to cutback on unnecessary costs.
GoalsLead organization to profitability.
CIO managerCIO directors and managers
"I satisfy my user demands
using our standard toolbox of
technologies. CIO works hard
to establish the solutions that
deliver the most bang for the
buck"
BackgroundThe CIO organization is interestedin establishing technical standardswithin the company. They arelooking for ways to efficiently meetinformation systems needs in amanner that reflects the budget andresources of the company.
GoalsMeet user needs with standardizedprocesses and informationtechnologies.
Tools
Enterprise portals, documentmanagement systems
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Nardi & O'Day on information ecology
A system of people, practices, values, and technologies at work in a localenvironment.
A healthy ecology is one that is dynamic (changing/evolving), diverse (madeup of different types of people and technologies) and that allows for adiverse set of people and technologies to work in a complementary way.
The new knowledge management
Deloitte: bridging the gaps between people and systems depends on firstcreating the conditions that allow people to participate in KM locally ratherthan enforcing technology-based KM policies. These local activities are
bridged in Knowledge Network systems
Forrester: organizations have begun to move away from single-solution KMpackages
Diversity is a good thing
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Diversity remains the only constant
Our information ecology is diverse
Our needs are diverse
Our web publishing toolbox is
diverse
Analysis of Lucent information ecology
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Database driven publishing -- CMS and
document management
Home grown and low-cost server-based
publishing tools
Desktop personal publishing tools
Groupware applications
Our web publishing tools
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Let's step back a bit and talk about weblogs.
They're the new up and comers in webpublishing on the intranet.
Weblogs are growing in popularity and there
are lot of inexpensive weblog tools to
choose from today.
Enter the weblog
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A web site (usu. of personal/non-commercial origin)
that is frequently updated with information and linksto resources within a particular subject area.
The published information is presented much like a
journal on the web in reverse chronological order.
In 1999 Peter Merholz coins the term "Blog".
Rebecca Blood. weblogs: a history and perspective.
Rebeccas pocket. Essay discussing the emergence
of weblogs. http://www.rebeccablood.net/essays/weblog_history.html
A quick look at what weblogs are
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Personal opinion
Industry & topic specific information &
opinion
Very often meta discussion / revolvearound specific web page content
(URL) -- discussion about something
some else has written about
What do people blog?
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Weblogs allow you to publish a news feed
A news feed can be a data file listing recent
entries from a weblog
Or a data file listing recent news headlines
from a commercial source.
Blog feed formats are in XML format
(specifically RSS or RDF)
Look for these buttons:
Blogging also means sharing
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Aside from being tools to publish and share,
weblogs often offer a mechanism for readingother weblog data in XML feeds
News readers / aggregators
An application that retrieves and displaysnews feeds from multiple sources.
Client application -- runs on PC for
individual use.
Server application runs on a web server
for group use.
Reading blogs in a news aggregator
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Usually HTML form based interface for
creating each blog entry
Really entering a simple database record
Enter title
Body of text
Category (optional)
Author (auto-entered)
Date (auto-entered)
Creating and publishing a blog entry
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Variations of the process -- URL based
blogging
Since a lot of the time blog entries contain
meta-discussion, the starting point is a
pointer to an article someone else haswritten
Blog from an aggregator
Blog from a bookmarklet
Lets see how it works...
Blogging variations
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1. Enter title
2. Enter bodyof blog entry
3. Select category
4. Publish
Movable Type
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Click here to read comments
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Bloggers are often subject area experts
Free-loading on these experts helps grow
the knowledge of individuals and the
organization
Theres advantage in belonging to a socialnetwork formed around research interests
K-logging is about knowledge share
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Fast (and easy): Set up is quick and doesn't
require much expertise.
Cheap: Powerful personal publishing solutions
at low cost.
In total control: The real power in webloggingis that it puts knowledge creation in your
control and also allows you a standards-based
mechanism for pushing/sharing that
information.
Fast, cheap and in total control
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XML feeds of databases
News data
ABI/Inform
Technical documentsAlmost any data set can be mapped to the
standard RSS format
Email discussion groups, CRM, directory ofnew personnel
How we are supporting k-loggers
Wh d i h h RSS
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What our users do with the RSS
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Adding the URL for the RSS feedto your news aggregator.
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In news aggregator view, user sees a story they want to blog
Selecting the POST button copies that story's URL and title to a new blog entry in the editing form.
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S h d f h ?
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Keep close watch of weblogs in the
enterprise
As weblogs profilerate, work on
strategy for making blog data usable
Talk to the bloggers who might benefit
from sharing and finding
So where do we go from here?
C id l i th l
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The natural progression in an information
ecology where k-loggers start to proliferate isto seek a system that pulls together the
disparate k-log data.
The role of the information servicesorganization is to glue together the aggregate
of produced k-log data for its users to
consume.
Consider your place in the ecology
C ll ti bl d t
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How do we do that?
Use metadata to create rich bibliographic
records of each entry (author, publisher,
date, etc.)
Included in the process of recordingmetadata is to help people make sense of
that data by classifying it -- by topic/subject.
Collecting blog data
M ki bl d t fi d bl
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Make the aggregate of collected blog entries
available by publishing it
Make searching and browsing of indexed blog
entries possible
Our organization already does a lot of the textparsing, classification and republishing that is
needed to make a Blog aggregator fly
Offer varying means of use and notification when
new relevant data comes in. Email alerts, etc.
Making blog data findable
O r process
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Our process
Data from external feedsare loaded into server
Machine algorithms do someclustering and auto-classificationusing subject taxonomy
Human indexers review auto-classificationand correct or add index terms
Classified data is stored
Start: Raw feed from various sources(vendor data, internal databases, weblogs)
Finish: Classified data is served throughweb server requests
One way you could do it
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The brute force method
Use an aggregator (e.g. Radio or Drupal)
Get humans to blog and classify the blogs
One way you could do it
Web based aggregator (brute force) example
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Web-based aggregator (brute-force) example
Web based aggregator (brute force) example
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Web-based aggregator (brute-force) example
Other ways you can do it
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Just use search software with automated
classification
Consider our hybrid approach
Other ways you can do it
Success
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Its important to note that the success of KM
depends on the willingness of individuals toparticipate by using tools that will integrate
seamlessly with the organizations knowledge
network.
Deloitte suggests that while localized KM
efforts may not require knowledge networks in
small organizations, the advantage of
knowledge networks becomes manifest whencommunities express the need to re-use that
localized knowledge.
Success
Sustainability
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Another important factor is sustainability
If you plan on doing automated classification
of data human resources will be needed at
some point to set up taxonomies
If you plan on a hybrid machine and humanaided indexing process, full time staff might be
needed
Sustainability
Closing thoughts
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Weblogs are really not different as a
technology, although they put control ofpublishing closer to users
Classifying weblog data can be difficult and
requires human resources, but some searchapplications can help
Value diversity and above all, support users
needs
Allow users to produce organizational
knowledge using whatever tools they choose
Closing thoughts
Further reading on info ecology and KM
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Bonnie Nardi and Vicki ODay. Information Ecologies:
Using Technology with Heart. First Monday. http://
www.firstmonday.dk/issues/issue4_5/nardi_contents.html
Robin Athey. Collaborative Knowledge Networks:Driving Workforce Performance Through Web-enabled
Communities. Deloitte Consulting. http://www.dc.com/Insights/research/cross_ind/ckn_workforce.asp
Joshua Walker. The New Knowledge Management
Landscape. Forrester Research. http://www.forrester.com/ER/Research/Brief/Excerpt/
0,1317,15338,00.html
Further reading on info. ecology and KM
Further reading about k logs
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John Foley. "Are You Blogging Yet?" InfoWorld. Discusses the
value of using weblogs in the enterprise. http://
www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20020719S0001
David Weinberger. The 99 cent KM solution. KM World. http://
www.kmworld.com/publications/magazine/
index.cfm?action=readarticle&Article_ID=1337&Publication_ID=76
John Robb. A simple approach to KM. K-Logs discussion group.http://groups.yahoo.com/group/klogs/message/313
K-Logs discussion group. Email discussion group that discussions
klogging for KM. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/klogs
A Klog Apart. Phil Wolff's klog about klogging. http://www.dijest.com/aka/
Further reading about k-logs
Where to get software
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Weblog software
Weblog publishers. Open Directory Project. http://dmoz.org/
Computers/Internet/On_the_Web/Weblogs/Tools/Publishers/
RSS news reader client software
News Readers. Open Directory Project. http://dmoz.org/Reference/
Libraries/Library_and_Information_Science/Technical_Services/
Cataloguing/Metadata/RDF/Applications/RSS/News_Readers/
Server-based news aggregator software
AmphetaDesk http://www.disobey.com/amphetadesk/
blagg. http://www.oreillynet.com/~rael/lang/perl/blagg/
Drupal. http://drupal.org
Radio Userland. http://radio.userland.com/multiAuthorWeblogTool
Where to get software
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Thank you :: The end