January 2008, [Vol 17, Issue 1]

Features

Beyond enterprise portals

Enterprise portals are a dead end. But before you start throwing daggers, stop and think about the reason we have enterprise portals in the first place. Web browsers (aka thin clients) don't have the programmatic sophistication to support the complex business logic, content management, security and integration features necessary to build sophisticated desktop quality applications. Enterprise portals work better than Web browsers alone, but have also failed to deliver desktop quality applications. If we have to move beyond the enterprise portal, what if we went back to the Web browser?

KM PAST AND FUTURE: Web 2.0 kicks it up a notch

The primary technologies that support knowledge management (KM) are well understood and widely used, but have been limited in the past by lack of flexibility. Incorporation of social networking capabilities derived from Web 2.0, however, is now enhancing those foundational solutions and adding greater interactivity into the KM environment.

2007 KMWorld Promise and Reality Award Winners

Each year, the technology and solutions nominated for these awards become increasingly sophisticated, on one hand, and increasingly intuitive on the other. Nearly gone are the days of complex and cumbersome deployments—those very factors that even a decade ago gave knowledge management a bit of a black eye. And although our panel of judges, who include colleagues, analysts, integrators and sometimes competitors, had a tough job narrowing down the award finalists, we all agreed that this year's winners exemplify what can only be described as a new era of knowledge management, KM 2.0.

Leveraging SOA for Business Value

Service-oriented architecture provides services, both simple and complex, that can benefit users of a broad range of business applications, and enhance productivity.

CEO Vision: NetDocuments

News Analysis

Business analytics SaaS expands

Business analytics software as a service (SaaS) is gaining attention and traction in the market. Successful on-demand software vendors have been instrumental in educating the marketplace on the benefits of accessing software functionality through such a model. More and more business analytics software providers are moving to address increasing market demand for software that is updated frequently, hosted off-site and purchased on a subscription basis. Several factors will spur growth for business analytics software offered as a service...

Digital natives, immigrants and others

My friends and colleagues John Palfrey and Urs Gasser are writing a book about the difference between "digital natives" and "digital immigrants." John and Urs are both at Harvard Law's Berkman Center for Internet & Society, and both are excellent thinkers, writers and researchers. This is likely to be a book that starts a long and well-grounded discussion. It's also likely to be a big hit.

Urban myths, legends and the FRCP

The Future of the Future

The Future of the Future: Boundary-less living, working and learning

Competing in a billion-mind economy means totally rethinking how you live, work and learn. That applies to you as an individual as well as to the organizations to which you belong. In the enterprise of the future, living, working and learning environments are converging in an unprecedented way.