This is a question that most bloggers post, do you need to provide full feeds? or partial ones?

While there obviously is no “right” answer I strongly believe that there is a great service to the reader when the entire post is visible through the RSS feed. This again depends on what your users want, running a short poll might give you an idea of what they’d like to get.

I use both as RSS aggregator as well as email feeds to collate the information i get from multiple sites. It does tend to get a little irritating when you have to click back to the source site to continue reading the article. I feel it robs the user of the continuity of reading the entire article from where he opened it.

As a reader what do you feel?

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Happy new year everyone !! It’s been a while since I’ve blogged and decided that this year I’m going to try to be consistent, again “try” being the operative word. This year will see me writing fewer long winding posts ( which i still do sometimes ) and focus on shorter posts over a wider group of subjects that should hopefully allow me to cover a lot more ground.

Right, now since I’ve gotten that mouthful out of the way lets get down to business. Before we get started on new posts for the year i wanted to list out a few of the more popular ones from the last year.

Some of my more popular posts last year :

1. Wiki’s in organizations

A Wiki is a collaborative platform for information creation that takes online collaboration to a whole new level. Wikipedia is a classic example of how powerful a Wiki can get.

The form that it takes on Wikipedia is of a very open nature, allowing just about anyone to add, edit and delete content. While conventional thinking does give pause to the approach taken, the underlying thought here is that the constructiveness of users far outweighs their destructiveness, and so far this has proved to be true. However there have been a number of controversies  that have sprung up as a result of this, mostly dealing with two opposing views around a subject which after numerous edits and counter edits end up being locked down by moderators.

2. The Great Indian Developer Summit

The Great Indian Developer Summit started with a bang ( from what i gather ). Five intensely packed days involving over 60 speakers and more sessions than you would know what to do with.Held at the prestigious IISC institute in India’s own silicon valley this gathering of over 3000 technically minded people invaded one seminar hall after another in search of new ideas and thoughts.

3.  Service Vs Product Companies

There was a question posted in a Linkedin forum around the subject of Service and Product companies and what the pro’s and cons of working for both of them were.

While it is difficult to group both product and service companies under the same umbrella there are certain factors that come to the fore when taking a decision to work for them.

 4. Microsoft : Pay More

Yahoo filed a three-year plan–a set of slides originally presented in December 2007–with the Securities and Exchange Commission outlining the ways in which the company is worth more than Microsoft is willing to pay at this point. Yahoo expects growth in revenue and operating cash flow of $1.9 billion over the next three years from display and video advertising and $1.4 billion in added search revenue. Caroline McCarthy has more on this topic in her blog post.

5. The Glass Ceiling

The glass ceiling is what I perceive to be the layer between the various management groups within an organization - between workers, managers and the various levels in between.

In most cases the glass ceiling acts as a barrier for good ideas to work their way up the chain to actual implementation. As well as acting as a barrier for true information dissemination from the higher ups to the folks actually involved at the ground level.

 6. Ipod Nano Sparks investigation in Japan

Japan is investigating a possible defect in Apple Inc.’s iPod after one of the popular digital music players reportedly shot out sparks while recharging, a government official said Wednesday.

An official at the trade and economy ministry, which oversees product problems, said a defect is suspected in the lithium-ion battery in the iPod Nano, model number MA099J/A. He spoke on customary condition of anonymity, saying he is reiterating a ministry position.

7. The Tug of war that is process and innnovation

Being part of a couple of medium / large organizations I’ve always felt that my work was governed in some manner or the other by processes.

So, the real question is whether process and innovation can truly co-exist. With an organization focused on process improvement, a large amount of effort goes into improving existing systems. While great, i can’t help but wonder whether this rigid adherence to processes actually impedes creativity.

Here’s to seeing a lot of comments and interactions on the blog going ahead, and a thank you to all the readers in advance.

Cheers!!

Arjun

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Web 2.0 adoption in the corporate sector has been slow, of that there is no doubt. The reliance on traditional information management systems that are heavily process oriented is tremendous. There is very little incentive ( or so a lot of people think ) towards investing in “newer” applications and services.

However there is a slow shift in that line of thought, i read a rather interesting survey conducted by the Mckinsey group on how Web 2.0 is being adopted in large corporates. The indication being that recently there has been a noticeable increase in corporates willing to invest in these new technologies and more importantly the rewards attained as a result of this leap of faith.

On the whole i think it’s a wait and watch game, the one thing you need to understand is that implementing a Web 2.0 application is considered something of a risk as most “corporates” as most do not have the exposure or understanding to realize the benefit it could garner for them.

I’m currently involved in a large project within the company i work for to rollout a large application that encompasses most Web 2.0 features like Wikis, Blogs, Social networking and such. Something that i personally feel has become long overdue and i can already forsee the huge benefit to the employee within the organization.

A decade or so ago the office was a treasure trove of new technologies, today the world wide web gives you a better variety of tools. What organizations need to realize is that most of their employees depend on these tools and services on a daily basis and the flexibility it provides them only strengthens the argument that there are serious drawbacks to the services they have to use back at the office.

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How much does culture contribute to the creation of a knowledge based company? Is this something that can be done easily?

There is a dire need to promote KM in many organizations and I’ve seen first hand the impact it has on people as well as business goals.

So what differentiates a Knowledge Based company from a “normal” one?

I think the most noticeable difference would be a cultural shift in the thought processes of a company’s leaders. A collaborative work environment that has rich social networks and intense knowledge sharing is driven when the organization makes it part of its work ethic. While it is true there are always pockets of collaboration I’ve noticed most “innovative” companies have one thing in common. A commitment to knowledge sharing and collaboration by its leadership team, which is then trickled down through the corporate rungs to the grass root level.

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There was a question posted in a Linkedin forum around the subject of Service and Product companies and what the pro’s and cons of working for both of them were.

While it is difficult to group both product and service companies under the same umbrella there are certain factors that come to the fore when taking a decision to work for them.

Using the stereotypical definition of service and products company i think the benefits would be:

Product companies tend to be a lot more innovative. Most of their employees seem to work in a very focused area unlike service companies which are all over the place ( there are very few service companies that stick to a particular technology or industry domain ). Product companies tend to give there employees a lot of flexibility in terms of breaking new boundaries, though they do follow standards.

With a service company you tend to experience a variety of technologies and industries ( quite the opposite of a niche product player ). The high levels of quality and process standards that seem to drive a services company ensure that discipline in maintained and there is a “right” way of doing things. The focus seems more towards meeting SLA’s than trying to do anything different.

In a nutshell both have their long list of pro’s and con’s and lets not forget that the culture of the company plays a huge role in this. At the end of the day it boils down to what you are looking for in an employer.  Happy hunting!

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The Great Indian Developer Summit started with a bang ( from what i gather ). Five intensely packed days involving over 60 speakers and more sessions than you would know what to do with.Held at the prestigious IISC institute in India’s own silicon valley this gathering of over 3000 technically minded people invaded one seminar hall after another in search of new ideas and thoughts.

This is what the sponsors have to say about this event.

“Whether you are a veteran or a newcomer to the world of .NET, Java, or the Rich Web, the Great Indian Developer Conference at Developer Summit 2008 presents a unique opportunity to learn and assimilate technology know-how, augment executive decision-making, understand best practices and case studies, and absorb the innovation excellence of experts from India, Europe, US, and Asia Pacific, in focused settings. All this besides being involved as a key stakeholder in one of the largest developer markets in the world.

With a conference program put together by technology visionaries, creators, authorities and industry watchers from the media, Great Indian Developer Summit features three co-located conferences, with two parallel tracks for each conference, which that will offer incisive insight through keynotes, power panels, break-out sessions, Birds of Feather (BoF) discussions, and hands-on workshops” And from what i saw i would whole heartedly agree.

I entered what i can only call a melee on the third day. Being a passionate Enterprise 2.0 promoter i felt that the Rich Web section of the summit might be something i could understand and while I’m not a developer i did feel that the summit could offer me some enlightenment.

For a person hoping to be reasonably impressed i was completely blown away by the key note speech. Jesse James Garrett is widely regarded as one of the worlds foremost technology product designers. His opening address on user experience and product trends couldn’t have set the stage for the rest of the day any better.

The rest of the day was spent jumping from one lecture hall to the other since they had 4-5 sessions running in parallel, the only down side to this summit. Then again it did allow for a tremendous amount of diversity that wouldn’t have ordinarily been possible in a serial arrangement of seminars.

Some of the sessions held on the Rich Web “day” were as follows, Enterprise 2.0 and the New Age Weapons, Ajax and Comet: Implementing the Real-Time Web and Mashups vs Composite Applications to name a few.

All in all, a great way for me to have spent a Wednesday. The biggest takeaway would have to be the numerous seeds of possibility that were sown as a result of this massive collaborative effort.

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The glass ceiling is what I perceive to be the layer between the various management groups within an organization - between workers, managers and the various levels in between.

In most cases the glass ceiling acts as a barrier for good ideas to work their way up the chain to actual implementation. As well as acting as a barrier for true information dissemination from the higher ups to the folks actually involved at the ground level.

Does it really mean that just because you are younger and more inexperienced your contributions aren’t valued? Not really. To drive innovation you need young fresh blood, tempered with experience only people years in the industry can give you.

I have been fortunate to have worked with very open minded groups of people in all the organizations I have been a part of (yes, I have been counting my blessings). This has prompted a much faster increase in my learning and subsequent career direction than would have been otherwise possible.

A good manager is one who understands the boundaries of the corporate world, yet allows his team to experiment and test these boundaries.

If you have experienced this glass ceiling, were you the one enforcing it or trying to break through?

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Spending time with family and friends over Christmas does make you reminisce over the year gone by.I feel doing multiple things, and exploring new avenues of learning, opens up a world of possibilities. This blog being a prime example, i started out in February of this year with the intent of focusing on a particular area of interest, Knowledge Management. However, as with life, things change.

While i am KM person at heart my passion for all things technology lead to the blog branching out in this direction.

This post marks a personal milestone for me, having crossed the 240 mark.
I know i’ve said this before, a big thank you to my readers. I hope you had a great Christmas and the new year brings in more success in both your personal and professional lives. Do leave me comment now and then if the topic in question interests you.

I hope you continue reading my posts next year, even if it is once in a while.

Cheers,

Arjun Thomas.

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