Case study - helping employees help each other via Intranet social networking

Prescient Digital Media has published a case study on the adoption and success of Intranet social networking and other Web 2.0 technologies at Sabre, the company that runs most of the world’s airline flight reservation systems.

Sabre custom-built a solution that supports employees in discovering and sharing information between staff, leading to six-figure direct cost savings and improving the information flows throughout the organisation.

In fact the solution was so effective (with over 90% of staff now participating) that Sabre packaged their custom solution and are now selling it to other organisations.

Read full post...

View summary...

The future of the internet - and how to stop it

Jonathan Zittrain's new book, The future of the internet - and how to stop it, presents a compelling picture of how the internet has evolved from the 'sterile' and unchangeable computer systems of the 1960s and 70s into a 'generative' environment, enabling individuals around the world to freely develop applications and services and distribute them widely.

The book then looks at what may come next - the impacts of security and privacy holes and the increasing attempts to limit innovation in order to solve these issues.

It provides a compelling view of where we might be headed if we do not take steps at politic and managerial levels to change the direction.

The book is available freely online, notated by readers in an innovative collaborative approach to exploring the written word.

Jonathon has also presented many of the key themes of the book in various lectures, such as the one below.

Read full post...

View summary...

Review of Google Chrome beta

I've spent about four hours putting Google Chrome through the wringer and overall are impressed with the browser, despite some rather large functional gaps.

In checking a range of Australian government sites I did not observe any significant usability or display issues - none more than users of Safari (which uses the same renderer, WebKit) already experience.

I did notice a security issues with Medicare Australia's forms, such as the example below. However this crosses into other web browsers as well.



This is a beta - like many of Google's products - and I expect some of these issues to be resolved before they announce the first final release.

However some of the gaps are larger than I would have expected, making me feel that Google rushed out the browser to address the threat Internet Explorer 8 posed.

For instance, java, shockwave and silverlight do not work within the browser as yet, making a number of sites unusable or severely limited (including the Microsoft site).

Also it's not possible to search within text boxes inside web pages - a far more major issue if, for example, you're editing HTML in Blogger (another Google product).

I've not managed to crash the browser as yet and found the way it renders Web applications in standalone windows very effective, particularly when using Gmail, Google Analytics or Last.fm (which isn't Google owned!)

On the plus side, texts have demonstrated that Chrome is significantly faster at running Javascript than other web browsers - making it an effective operating system for the web.

And if you're not convinced that Google is aiming Chrome straight at Microsoft Windows (rather than Internet Explorer), try typing about:Internets into the Chrome Omnibar.

Read full post...

View summary...

California considering allowing online voter registration

Online voting has already become reality in some parts of the world, with the Estonian online election heralding the possibility of using the speed of online to expand citizen franchise from electing representatives every three to eight years, to voting on major legislative changes on a far more regular basis.

As reported in a Sign On San Diego article, Calif. may allow online voter registration, California is considering the first step of the shift to online elections, looking into allowing online voter registration, at least for voters who have signatures on file with the Department of Motor Vehicles for driver's licenses or identification cards.

Given the low participation in US elections, California sees this as both a cost-saving and a participation raising activity.

Here in Australia, where compulsory voting has resulted in an complex and increasingly expensive voting framework (which does work very well), we've not yet taken a serious step into online voting - however I expect it will only be a matter of time.

Read full post...

View summary...

Collaboration doesn't have to equal cost and complexity

A mistake I've seen many organisations make when considering online staff collaboration systems for staff is trying to achieve perfection at the get go - building systems from scratch or investing in high-cost branded technologies that requires significant time to implement and can be expensive to operate and develop.

More prudent, in my view, is to find a cheap way of satisfying the basic requirements while delivering quickly.

This helps get collaboration (the goal) underway and allows the organisation to progressively develop its understanding of what staff need with a low upfront investment and instant benefits. In other words, a low cost pilot - helpful in the development of detailed business requirements for a future system.

So how can organisations achieve this without expensive servers, months of development and hordes of testers?

In many cases organisations have strict 'environmental' rules - restricting the applications staff can use and websites they can access. These rules are in place partly to protect internal data and partly to protect an organisation from its own staff and their possible activities, introducing malware or other nasties into the organisation.

Using a web environment it is possible for even business users to configure several low cost servers and provide access to tools - within or outside the firewall - while shielding the network from harm.

The tools themselves are low cost or free, drawing from open source communities (tools such as MediaWiki and PhpBB), public online tools (such as Blogger and Ning) and fully featured solutions (such as Wordpress or Confluence - available via Govdex).

So if your organisation needs a quick solution for a blog, wiki or other collaboration tool, consider whether it is possible to run a low cost pilot before investing in a long-term solution

Read full post...

View summary...