IWR Blog

SharePoint splits the field

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 10:49:48 GMT

It's a truth universally acknowledged that Microsoft SharePoint has really shaken up the content management market since it burst onto the scene a few years ago. Well, according to the latest piece of research by independent analyst firm CMS Watch,...

Information professionals guiding you to the best bits of the blogosphere

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 12:46:33 GMT

Andy Powell, the head of development at Eduserv Foundation, thought he would just dip a toe into the blogosphere, but fell head over heels for virtual worlds and e-debates Q Where is your blog? A http://efoundations.typepad.com It's a joint blog,...

Grant application limit for Elsevier Foundation programme approaches

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 14:27:32 GMT

Scientific and technical publishers, Elsevier, are reminding scholars that applications for funding from the charitable Elsevier Foundation are due shortly. The deadline to submit by is September 15th. The Elsevier Foundation comprises of the Innovative Libraries Programme and the New...

TES and social networking

Tue, 26 Aug 2008 09:42:18 GMT

Interesting new research has emerged from an unlikely source around the use of enterprise social networking. The Times Education Supplement's publisher TSL Education released new research from a larger study snappily titled The Digital Staffroom: How Social Networking and...

Criminal data loss

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 13:39:38 GMT

On the 25 June 2008, the Cabinet Office decreed that all government departments would have to encrypt important information held on discs, USB sticks or laptops in its wide ranging review of security practices. This conclusion could be either seen...

How well is Open Access material cited?

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 15:35:06 GMT

In recent weeks the preliminary results from a study carried out at Cornell University has shown that while research made freely available online by its author is accessed more, the Open Access material is not actually cited in greater numbers....

Is Web 3.0 coming?

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 09:59:42 GMT

The problem with writing about technology is that in most cases the vendors we talk to, the products we cover and the trends we predict are quite a long way from reality. Not that organisations today won't eventually catch...

A question of timing

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 15:03:11 GMT

Two conversations this week set me thinking about company information.The first discussion was with a finance director whose company had just posted some semi-decent results. The results partly covered the time before the credit crunch really started to bite. He...

Debating the future of Higher Education

Wed, 13 Aug 2008 13:12:12 GMT

Last week a spokesman from Department for Innovation Universities and Skills (DIUS) got in touch to draw my attention to the ongoing Higher Education Debate his department is currently promoting. Back in February the Secretary of State. John Denham called...

Google stakes its claim

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 10:33:08 GMT

The enterprise search war appears to be hotting up, as analysts and commentators said it would. Google is making serious moves in this area. Not that it hasn't been focused before - but its new Google Search Appliance could have...

In search of a competitive edge

Fri, 08 Aug 2008 17:04:40 GMT

Corporates appear to be sold on the idea of Web 2.0. More than three-quarters of executives who responded to a McKinsey survey say they plan to maintain or increase their investments in technology trends that encourage user collaboration, such as...

Six point six degrees of separation

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 16:46:59 GMT

The results from a Microsoft study into the relationships between users of its MSN messenger service have shown that the theory of there being six degrees of separation between any two given people on the planet is actually not that...

ECM under the hammer again

Mon, 04 Aug 2008 10:04:19 GMT

A few weeks ago, (or was it months, well, time flies in IT journalism) I wrote about enterprise content management and the need for a more accurate term to describe the myriad technologies that are so frequently lumped in under...

Plane silly

Fri, 01 Aug 2008 17:37:19 GMT

Here's a timely reminder for all those high flying company executives who are off on holidays and can't quite tear themselves away from the thrill of work. As you pack the laptop or the BlackBerry ("Honestly darling I probably won't...

Looking towards the Horizon

Wed, 30 Jul 2008 15:19:33 GMT

I can say with some satisfaction, that we have finally finished producing our special issue, IWR Horizons. Regular readers of the magazine will know that around this time of year we typically combine our July and August issues together. As...

Interwoven fights back

Mon, 28 Jul 2008 11:35:40 GMT

In the content management space the debate over the future of Vignette and Interwoven has raged for many years. A flurry of acquisitions in the last two years has seen the market consolidate down to around six major players: IBM,...

Wikipedia rival launched by Google

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 10:21:11 GMT

Knol is Google's attempt to match the success of Wikipedia. The beta version launched yesterday with Google welcoming all contributions. Some of the differences between Knol and Wikipedia is that articles on certain subject areas (or knols) are written...

Let the good times roll

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 11:45:24 GMT

I was at the British Library (BL) last night for their summer drinks bash (the quickest way to a journalist's heart is through the liver) but also to celebrate the St Pancras building's tenth anniversary. The other point of the...

Archiving your IM

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 10:48:41 GMT

By Phil Muncaster A return to the issue of IM archiving that I flagged up a few months ago. New research by enterprise IM vendor ProcessOne caught my eye this week. Alright, some of it might look a little on...

A significant shift in behaviour

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 16:27:05 GMT

Evidence is mounting that professionals are seriously embracing online professional networking. Let me point you to two signs - involving the legal and the accountancy profession on both sides of the Atlantic - that may indicate a trend. The IT...

Protect information or choose to expose it?

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 16:06:17 GMT

When looking back on the year (and I appreciate its still July) I think we will remember 2008 as the time the country sat up and really started to take seriously how we treat our information. It has been a...

The Lords follow-up

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 09:03:39 GMT

Yet another chapter in the ongoing debate over data breaches, government woes and the balance of responsibilities between organisations and individuals, came last week with the official follow up document to the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee's report...

At the heart of the knowledge economy

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 14:13:33 GMT

The 21st century is the era of the information professional. No, not another claim from the editor of IWR after a good lunch (I should be so lucky), but a summary of the prediction of the IBM Data Governance Council....

BLOGOSPHERE Information professionals guiding you to the best bits of the blogosphere

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 16:44:57 GMT

Less than a year ago, Gráinne Conole was sceptical of the whole idea of blogging. But after deciding to suck it and see, the OU's professor of e-learning has found it eminently to her taste Q Where is your blog?...

It's the tone at the top

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 10:17:03 GMT

By Peter Williams Whenever organisations need to change they start to talk about culture. Changing culture has been described as a polite way of telling people to do things which they don't really want to do. A less cynical view...