Lost!

So, what is Content Management Interoperability Services (CMIS) anyway? This term exploded onto the Content Management Scene this month (late last week, actually) and every major ECM solutions provider from Microsoft, to EMC with Alfresco in-between are worked up over this. Heck, even the almighty IBM has jumped in!

Even though this story broke weeks ago, I wanted to wait a bit to research the true impact of this agreement as well as how the community felt about it instead of being another blogger recycling news stories (I REALLY try to not do that, but it happens on occasion.) On top of that, work has turned into one of those jobs where you come home and stare at the wall for “fun” at night, so this is a little late…

CMIS: What is it?
CMIS is actually two things:

Content Management Interoperability Services
Common management information service

Interesting how they chose an acronym that already talks about computer shtuff eh?

So, how does it work? Well, I’m not going to actually going to tell you… I’m going to point to someone that has done a great job of explaining how the system works. Craig does a great job of explaining how things work, how things inter-operate and it even has pictures for those of you that hate to read…

Preview of the Next Blog Post: Why Cloud Computing Isn’t There Yet:
As Microsoft and others start releasing more and more “Cloud Computing” environments, the “chatter” on the internet gets higher and higher. But, in the end, what is cloud computing and how does it, or will it, effect you? Are the applications and Operating Systems starting to go that route or are we at a point in broadband to were we can successful, and reliably, use a Cloud Architecture?

I’ve been around CMS solutions for awhile now, I’ve even been around ECM solutions like Sharepoint for a bit as well. It seems, when ECM started getting popular, a term term sprouted out of the internet ectoplasm called “Knowledge Worker”. Honestly, I don’t see what all the hub-bub is and it actually annoys me to see the term used.

Now, according to the great and all knowing Wikipedia (You thought I was going to say Google, right?), a Knowledge worker is:

Knowledge worker (also referred to as as intellectual worker or brain worker) is someone who is employed due to his or her knowledge of a subject matter, rather than their ability to perform manual labor. It includes those in the information technology fields, such as computer programmers, systems analysts, technical writers and so forth. The term can also refer to people outside of information technology but who are hired for their knowledge of some subject, such as lawyers, teachers, and scientists.

Wikipedia’s entry on the subject goes on to talk about the term showing up way back in 1959, but I had honestly not heard it until a fellow Sharepoint freak was talking about it in the office. Why not say “User” or “Customer”? Heck, why not just say “Worker”? What’s the point, other than acting like you know what you’re talking about, to saying “Knowledge worker”? Some of these ECM solutions are so simple that even a ditch digger could use them and, according to the definition, he doesn’t apply as a “Knowledge worker”.

Oddly enough, I even saw a reference online while researching the term and saw a new word. Not surprising since everyone is trying to coin the newest word all the time… Anyway, I ran across “Kworker” today and that just dumbfounded me. If “Knowledge Worker” is too much to say, then stop saying it because it’s a generic term, at this point in time. The only difference between a knowledge worker and someone thats not is the computer usage. Yes, there are some people out there that simply refuse to touch a computer, even today. Would those people not be considered knowledge workers because they use machinery or shuffle papers back and forth all day?

Sorry, but seeing blog posts with it, or the occasional person - especially someone giving a class, spouting off this needless term just annoys me. The term Knowledge Worker was originally for people that were REALLY smart with years of schooling- now it applies to anyone that can use their brain. Nice.

Preview of the Next Blog Post: Content Management Interoperability Services - CMIS:

So, what is Content Management Interoperability Services (CMIS) anyway? This term exploded onto the Content Management Scene this month (late last week, actually) and every major ECM solutions provider from Microsoft, to EMC with Alfresco in-between are worked up over this. Heck, even the almighty IBM has jumped in!

I just received an email, actually - 4 email to various addresses, that contained an Exclusive invite to Alfresco’s North American Community Conference.

My problem is that Alfresco tends to spam their mailing list with some pretty interesting stuff. Thunderbird marked each email as spam, blocked the HTML content and they even used a third party for their mailing list instead of using…an open source package… At least Spam Assassin didn’t throw it away before it got to me. Unfortunately, this company may be getting funding and customers, it still does not have the professionalism that one might require.

While I could attend the gala, I’m not spending the required amount for an international flight from Frankfurt to San Jose to cover a company that I continually beat up. One of these days, I really hope I have something good to say about them.

Oh, and yes, I am working on a bigger Alfresco story - glad you asked.

I’ve been sitting back for a bit scheming on how to make money since being unemployed. Currently, I’ve got a business plan going for a website, but it’ll be a few months before it’s even Alpha. But, within the last few weeks, several things have happened to slow down progress on that project: ECM projects that actually pay real money…

There are several ways to get noticed, but the easiest way I’ve seen is Monster. If you have an ECM background with SharePoint etc, it’s very easy to get noticed by recruiters around the globe and even Microsoft. I’ve personally gotten emails from Microsoft asking me to apply to their SharePoint team. (In that situation, I actually got an email from the Internal MSFT PM, not to mention nearly every recruiter in WA.) I’ve noticed that if you update your resume every Continue reading…