Confessions of an eBiz Junkie

Social Software and CMS

It's been hard to catch up with all of the blogs, tweets, emails, etc that piled up as I traversed the US and made my way to the Golden State. Of course, even when things are 'normal' I find it challenging to keep up with the plethora of nuggets coming from friend and Sr. Forrester Analyst Jeremiah.

Earlier this week, Jeremiah posted an interesting blog around CMS vendors and the opportunities afforded through social software. Thanks for starting this timely and relevant conversation, JO.

As you'd imagine, we've been discussing this topic for some time now (For context, EMC's Documentum Family of products is all about managing enterprise content). We use Documentum to manage hundreds of thousands  of web assets in over 50 locales across our web properties. Information life cycle capabilities ensure information is stored on the most appropriate storage tier, workflows allow information to flow seamlessly both inside and outside the enterprise, object model standards ensure the right information is delivered to the right audience at the right time, content versioning and protection ensures we adhere to regulatory compliance, etc;.

Suffice it to say the information across our web platforms is well managed.

On the other hand, we also have several instances of community offerings running throughout the company. Some part of a centralized effort, others having evolved through organic evolution. In virtually all cases, the data is unstructured. No capabilities to assign information policies, immature workflow capabilities when they do exist, etc;.

As social computing continues to establish footprint within the enterprise, it's become crystal clear that the same opportunities and capabilities afforded through traditional CMS systems are needed within the social landscape.

I look forward to the day when a product team can collaborate on messaging in a Wiki document; engage the community as appropriate through the creation process; once near complete, fire off multi-tiered workflow that runs the asset(s) through necessary review before taking it outside the enterprise for translation; and finally return to complete final review; then automatically be dropped in the most relevant spot online... Oh right, then to set off automated life-cycle policies some time later to re-engage the community to ensure the information is still relevant. The very notion makes me giddy.

I've seen products where 'total integration' means the vendor offers a handful of out of the box plugins. Beyond that, good luck recruiting a small army of IT folks to completely customize your environment to realize integration. I've yet to see the right solution where this is all brought together in a seamless offering.

But, now that I'm here in CA., I've had a chance to work a bit more closely with our Content Management and Archiving team. It's evident to me that these folks have been thinking about this.. a lot. The day I look forward to is much closer than one might think... Count EMC in on your show and tell event, Jeremiah. And again, thanks for starting this conversation.

The Way Back Machine

It's like pulling out your high school yearbook picture and realizing that indeed, you did wear one of those shirts with the giant collar. Looking back in time can be interesting and often humbling.

I was putting together a pitch on web evolution and needed a snapshot from the archives. I tend to use the Way Back Machine every year or two, and thought it worth a blog post for those unaware or who have simply forgotten. From Wikipedia:

"The Wayback Machine is a digital time capsule created by the Internet Archive. It is maintained with content from Alexa Internet. This service allows users to see archived versions of web pages across time -- what the Archive calls a "three dimensional index."

As of 2006, the Wayback Machine contained almost 2 petabytes of data and was growing at a rate of 20 terabytes per month, a two-thirds increase over the 12 terabytes/month growth rate reported in 2003."

If you haven't popped by the WBM of late, it's worth a visit. It's nice to look back at the sites you had your hands in during the late 90's and get an appreciation for just how far we've come.

Some examples

The first public .COM I was involved with... There were earlier rev's (this is from '97), but this is the first that the Way Back Machine had... It doesn't make it through on a static snapshot, but we on the leading edge here with an animated gif. Also, you can sense the approaching apocalypse known as Y2K.

Here's a back to back of EMC.com from 1998 and from today. Just a touch of web evolution in 10 years...

Lastly, some real gems out there... Love the early view into Google in '98.. It's also impressive to see the simplicity of their early interface not that dissimilar from Google today.

And finally, a second (or third) gen of Devanna.com. The first had too many broken images and was far to embarrassing to share ;)

So take a nostalgic trip back in time with the Way Back Machine... It's a great tool to grab snaps of your early sites and include in PPT's as you discuss the evolution of the web in your org.

Social Media 101 by Common Craft

I missed this one while I was on the road, but just picked up the pointer on Jeremiah's blog. Another excellent video from the gang @ Common Craft... Rather complex topics presented in simple and easy to understand terms... Very powerful for helping evangelize in the enterprise. Also of note, Common Craft has opened a store where you can download high-res versions for wider distribution & training.

Twitter as a Business Tool?

From past posts, you may know that we've been exploring different ways to leverage Twitter as a business Tool. We've set up Tweet accounts for EMCCorp, EMCWorld and a few others. We used Twitter as a tool to communicate with attendees at our recent EMC World event. As recently as this morning, I was discussing the validity of Twitter as a business tool with one of our senior executives.

I can certainly appreciate the complexities of introducing new tools, especially when adoption of said tool is quite high - perhaps beyond expectations. However, I've been experiencing more and more issues of late. Yes, I've been following the Twitter blog - and I know the team is working it. However, it's becoming increasingly difficult for me to tout Twitter as a relevant and legitimate tool while such issues continue to plague. I've seen the infamous 'over capacity' screen at least 5 times this morning.

Our EMC World experiment with Twitter was a good one. Twitter adoption among attendees wasn't as high as I would have expected, but there were enough to make the experiment interesting. We were fortunate not to experience any major issues during the week long event... But, if things had been as unstable as they seem to have been in recent days, I'd have considerable egg on face and would be backing away from my attempts to legitimize the tool in the enterprise.

The current state of the state may be fine for casual users... But really needs to tighten up if enterprise adoption is a desirable outcome for the team.

 

Sunny California

After a seven day drive across the US, here I am in Sunny California.

I spent some time Friday / over the weekend catching up on the 872 emails that accumulated during my trip. Network access was spotty in the middle of the US and there was little time to keep up with mail while pacing 10 - 12 hour per day drives.

Suffice to say I'm here and very much looking forward to plugging into the Bay Area 2.0 community. Any pointers for a newbie around events / dinners / get togethers /etc; is more than appreciated.

Twitter was quite valuable during the trip. The most constant connection I had to the world was my iPhone. Granted the simple text message interface is somewhat limited, but still a great way to pose questions to my network during the trip... Whether it be where to get lunch in Omaha, NE. or which route to take to traverse the Rockies... it was nice knowing that I could instantly pose a question to hundreds of people and usually get a response within 20 seconds.

Just wanted to let the world know that I'm plugged in again and looking forward to getting things back up to speed.

Movin' Right Along

Hi there...  This blog is going silent for the next week or two. I'm moving shop across the US and will be working out of our Pleasanton, CA office moving forward. Still with EMC and still in the same role... I think the folks in MA have simply had enough of me. ;)

When possible, I'll be Tweeting and blogging the adventure. So as not to cloud the content here, I've set up this blog in the event I find a wifi hookup to post from. At a minimum, expect some pics from the iPhone as we go.

Talk to you soon!

Alltop Part II - I'm a fan

Two posts - same topic - one day... Yup, Alltop.com grabbed my interest. I've spent a bit of time exploring the different categories. I've found some amazing blogs and my NetNewsWire subscription list has doubled.

Of most recent note - a fantastic blog by author Debbie Weil called BlogWrite for CEOs. Some great content and insight.

One of Debbie's posts pointed me to something you have to check out - Searchme.com. Still in beta, Searchme.com feels like a cross between Google and Apple's Cover Flow. Excellent interface and pretty solid results at first glance... Check it out.

Alltop - All of the Top Stories

Friend and fellow blogger Adam Cohen turned me on to Guy Kawasaki's latest project, Alltop. Alltop's tag line - "We've got all of the top stories covered all the time". I'd describe the service as a user friendly aggregator of relevant blogs organized around high level topics.

A screenshot of the main page:

Getting added as a source was as simple as drafting up an email with a brief description of who I am and what my blog's all about. The folks @ Alltop are very much open to feedback as they look to evolve existing categories and build out news ones. Once identifying a category that's of interest, you can jump right to it by going to (subject).alltop.com - In my case, Socialmedia.alltop.com.

An interesting approach on aggregation. Guy has a long track record of delivering interesting and innovative thinking. Thanks to the folks @ Alltop for being so responsive and for being open to suggestions for other future categories... Alltop.com is definitely something to watch.

Designing a Social Media Team

Much like the traditional web property, organizations will soon recognize the need to build a team around their Social Media offering. It will be interesting to watch how this plays out as there's not a 1 to 1 correlation of skill sets when you move from a 1.0 to a 2.0 model. You'll likely focus more on the social capabilities of the team and less on more traditional web responsibilities (HTML, production, editorial, etc). You'll need individuals who understand the very nature of community engagement and social interaction.

I've been thinking a bit about the team I'd like to pull together as we evolve our social offering and thought I'd share for input and comment...

EMC World Begins

Today's the big day. Following a concert by the Goo Goo Dolls last night, EMC World kicks off in full swing this morning with an action packed agenda over the next few days. I'll be watching activities in real time via Twitter and following thoughts from employee and attendees alike via #EMCWorld @ Hashtags.org.

Some neat media is starting to surface. This one caught my eye and I thought you'd enjoy it. more to come over the course of the week. Of course, many more cool vids available over at the EMC Channel on YouTube.