Web 2.0 and ECM

Yesterday EMC announced Documetum ECM 6.5... Despite the 6.5 label, this is much more than a point release. From my POV, it represents a fundamental shift in the ECM space.

While there's no shortage of cool new tools under the hood of 6.5, it's the marriage of Web 2.0 with the more traditional ECM capabilities that I believe to be most exciting. As noted in a previous post, my world consists of two very different landscapes... There's the world of structured data - object models, content policies, versioning, etc;. In this world, things are easy to find - Everything is organized and categorized - It's a nice place to be. In fact, one might consider a relaxing little vacation here. Think a nice week in Hawaii.

Just down the road is a world of unorganized and unstructured information... Content comes from all over the place. No rhyme or reason - virtually anything goes. Anyone can contribute what they want, when they want, and they make up their own rules as they go. The information here is invaluable... Some of the best knowledge you'd want to get your hands on. But, it can be difficult to find what you need. Likely, there's a few of these little places all disconnected from each another. While it's invaluable info, the masses may have have difficulty consuming the information. Don't get me wrong... It's a really cool place too - it's just different. Think New Orleans during Mardi Gras.

Screenshots from CenterStage

The new Documentum helps bring these worlds together - leveraging the strengths of each. CenterStage enables easier contribution and collaboration among teams (There's a beta sign up here). Federated search and mobile connectivity are among the new offerings. "My Documentum" enables knowledge workers to access and work on their information in offline mode. Media WorkSpace was designed to help global teams collaborate on rich media assets. This is but a sample of what's new in 6.5.

As someone responsible for the overall online ecosystem at a large global company, this is big. It's going to change the ways companies create, collaborate on and consume information.

As you can imagine, there's much buzz around the launch. Some relevant links -

Perspective from Mark Lewis. President of EMC's CMA Division
EMC Software Architect Craig Randall's POV
The Knowledge Worker Blog on EMC Developers Network
Peter Hagopian of InformationWeek

Comments

[DCTM as Facebook for the Enterprise?]

Does DCTM's new release have features around showing content connected to individual users?

[sayen]

Yeah, my thoughts too.But these days ECM should be more under the covers and servicing lots of enterprise needs and apps.