Knowledge Changes with Context
"One key concept considered in the interview was the value of tags, and their usefulness in organizing knowledge. It seems clear that tags are the shifting fulcrum around which transient views of knowledge depend, and people change the tagging dynamically as they add in the relationships between source and consumer. This brings us back to the fluid relationships enabled by Web 2.0 tools, seeming to spell the death of traditional KM hierarchy."
The Forces of Long Tail Software and Services
"Whether it's building a business, consumer or social application, the tools for developing software applications have come a long way. RAD tools such as Ruby on Rails and Microsoft Access 2007 enable data-driven applications to be created without writing a lot of code. Furthermore, hosted application builders from startups like Coghead and Longjump provide hosted tooling and application runtime environment so that application developers can be productive immediately and do not have to worry about deploying their applications. Using mashups platform like Popfly, Web enthusiasts can easily create Web applications that overlay data and services from multiple sources. The current version of Sharepoint designer simplifies the tasks of building composite applications by producing application templates and Web part components that can be composed with other software modules to create custom business applications. In addition, Sharepoint designer's integration with Office Live enables custom business applications for small medium businesses to be designed, built and deployed quickly. No more fussing with the complexity of coding and deploying three-tier Web applications.
"This point should need no further elaboration - the improvement in application development tools is key to the wide selection of software choices we have today, and the tools are getting even better as we read on."
Choosing the Right Platform for User Experience
"Rich Application or Web Application? ASP.NET or Sharepoint? Regular ASPX controls or AJAX?
"In sessions at conferences (most recently TechEd in Barcelona), I've been discussing the many choices that architects and developers face every day, especially when it comes to user experience. To help get across the point, I put together a tool that helps you think about platform selection, called UXIQ. It’s a small WPF app with a set of slider controls that you can set various criteria for user experience, and in turn be presented with recommendations for the technology or platform that is the closest fit."
The Costs of Understaffing Call Centers
"From three different perspectives -- the customer (service delays), the agent (higher occupancy), and senior management (higher telephone costs and abandoned calls) -- you can see that a simple staff reduction may not save you any money. In fact, it may cost you much more in terms of poor service, productivity and morale."
Simplify Your Contact Centers!
"Yet ContactBabel's findings indicate that movement to unified systems remains slow. 'In most cases where complex, multiple applications are used, they are necessary for the agents to do their jobs,' the report notes. So, rather than looking at new systems, these centers tend to look at training agents to switch more quickly among the existing multiplicity of applications."
In 2008, Hacker Methods May Vary, But Target Will Not
"Here is some of what you can expect in 2008:
- Continuing a trend of increasingly sophisticated phishing attacks, cyber criminals will target their victims more precisely with personal information.
- The availability of phishing toolkits will make these kinds of scams much easier for cyber predators.
- As individuals become savvy to widespread attacks, phishers will target their victims more precisely with highly researched, personal information.
- With the upcoming presidential election, security personnel expect to see more political phishes in 2008.
- Recent security breaches at Salesforce.com and Monster.com are examples of what will be a growing trend in attacks of online applications, which can be a veritable goldmine of valuable identifying information.
- Attackers will increasingly use sites such as Facebook and MySpace to distribute malware.
- Threats with keystroke logging capacity will continue to be a leading threat for fraudulently acquiring confidential information.
- The the wake of the Storm Worm, security researchers expect to see a number of PC-turned-bots in the upcoming year.
- Increased gold farming and in-game spam, tricking people into giving away financial information indicate a trend that more security threats will likely come in the virtual world for 2008."
