When two worlds collide

By Graeme Burton

Welcome to the March 2007 issue of Enterprise Information and if this edition seems a little different, that’s because it is.

As of this month, EI magazine will be merged with sister publication Inside Knowledge so, to access all the online content of the merged magazine (available on www.ikmagazine.com), you will need to obtain a password. Please e-mail Robyn Mace, rmace@ark-group.com, for your password. But please retain your EI password until the archives of the two magazines are also merged

The idea of the merger is to cover both converging disciplines distinctly – to avoid falling into the trap of writing solely in terms of vendor packages rather than what both publications have always done, which is to write in terms of what practitioners and end-users are really doing.

We hope you will appreciate this difference but, as always, will need your help to keep us centred on your needs and your concerns. We are always open to suggestions, opinions, criticisms or whatever you wish to write – it all helps to keep us focused on covering the case studies, workshops and masterclasses that you want to read about every month.

And if you have accomplished something truly special at your organisation in the fields of either knowledge management (KM) or information management, then we want to hear from you.

This issue, we feature three case studies instead of the usual two, covering measuring the success of KM initiatives at Unisys, e-learning at BAE Systems and managing information in peacekeeping operations, as well as features on the secrets of intranet management, the changing face of KM and social-media optimisation.

We hope you enjoy the issue and please do e-mail me personally with your correspondence, gburton@ark-group.com.

Features

Case study: United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations This article is for subscribers only
Managing information in any organisation is a challenge, but how about one with a ‘board of directors’ drawn from 192 nations, involved in sensitive peace-keeping operations around the world? By Danny Myint.

Feature: The secrets of intranet success This article is for subscribers only
What tools and methods are award-winning intranet sites using to stay one step ahead in the usability stakes? By Jessica Twentyman

Workshop: Social networking software This article is for subscribers only
Has the boss started blogging? Is the organisation expected to use the CEO’s blog (and podcasts, perhaps) to publicise the company? What’s required is social-media optimisation.

Regulars

Opinion: Engagementisation or personalisement? Free
There has never been a shortage of new technologies and trends to follow on the web. From the early days of Amazon’s personalisation engine, to new search algorithms, podcasts and social networking. They seem to be coming thick and fast, says Lynda Rathbone.

First word: The weakest link? This article is for subscribers only
Worried about information security? The weakest link could be in your IT department, according to the latest research.

By Calum Macleod