Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Principles of email management

The first generally accepted email principle IN THE U.S. is that email belongs to the organization. So let me start with the disclaimer that this is often NOT true outside the U.S. 

But generally speaking, in the U.S. there is more deference to the notion that if the computer, the network, the software, etc. are provided by the organization, anything created with that belongs to the organization, particularly if it's done on the organization's time. To further buttress this argument, many organizations require employees to periodically acknowledge such organizational ownership of content - for example, by signing off on an employment agreement or HR policy to that effect. Others are even more direct and cause a dialog box to appear when the employee logs onto the network or into the email application. The dialog box usually reads something like
By clicking OK and logging into Outlook you agree that SomeCompany owns any messages sent or received and that you have no right to or expectation of privacy while using SomeCompany's messaging systems.
Employee acknowledges and the email client opens. 

Now, there are some interesting cases going on right now in the public sector that question this even when public sector employees are using public sector computer services and even under Open Records Acts or their equivalents. The gist of it is that employees have been caught doing things they aren't supposed to, like taking bribes, having affairs, etc. using their employers' computers. A local activist, newspaper, etc. files an Open Records Act request and the employee (or employer!) contest it on the grounds that the activity in question isn't related to the mission of the agency and therefore does not fall under the Act. Not sure I agree with that interpretation, but I'm not a lawyer. The immediate issue here then is to a) follow the law and b) watch this space carefully!

The next principle is that email is a business tool. Various surveys from AIIM and others indicate that 99+% of organizations use email as a vital part of their everyday business, ranging from sending and accepting payments or contracts via email to collaborating and developing decisions. Indeed, email is a mission-critical application in almost every organization - and if you don't accept that assertion, have your IT staff turn email off for a week. 

Email should be used appropriately. This means of course that it should not be used to send offensive materials like jokes, pornography, music files, etc. It also shouldn't be used excessively for person traffic - for example, sending around chain letters, funny screensavers with dancing elves, requests to support this charity or that cause, and so forth. And many organizations' email policies come from HR and legal and address those types of concerns. 

But email should also be used when it is the appropriate tool - and not when it isn't. Email is not that good a tool for collaboration. Nor is it the best tool for keeping employees informed. We'll talk more about this later in the series. 

Email should be managed according to its value to the organization - and more specifically, according to its contents. That means that different messages will have different value, depending on whether a message is the only receipt for a transaction or whether it lists who will bring desserts to the company potluck - last year. This principle includes a number of corollaries:
  • Email is not a records series. There is no reason to list email on the retention schedule, any more than a schedule would list "microfilm", "Word documents", or "white 24-lb bond". Email is the medium - the content is what determines the value of the message. 
  • Email is more than "correspondence". Sometimes organizations have a general classification or records series for correspondence - but an email that is the receipt for a transaction or the acceptance of a proposal has different retention than cordial correspondence between a CEO or agency head and an industry group.
  • Not all messages need to be saved - and they certainly don't need to be saved forever. This is a challenge for many organizations because of both the perceived risk of destroying messages and the perceived benefit of keeping everything for trending, knowledge management, etc. Storage is cheap, the reasoning goes, so what's the harm? The harm is that the bigger the haystack, the more painful and expensive it is to sift through it. Consider that if the average employee sends/receives 140 messages/day, according to IDC, for a 1,000-user organization that's 140,000 messages/day, or 3 million messages/month, or 35,000,000 messages per year. When, not if, the subpoena, audit, or Open Records Act request is received, how much will it cost to effectively sift through that? The answer is MUCH more than you think. If you don't believe me - ask your legal staff how long it would take to review that body for discovery, and ask IT how long it would take to produce, say, all messages from your senior management from Jan 1, 2007 - June 1, 2008. 
The next principle is that users have to be trained on expectations for these principles. Users must understand that it isn't their email and the potential risk to the organization of keeping everything forever OR of getting rid of email inappropriately. I like to remind users that there really is no such thing as "the only copy" of an email - once it's been sent, it's in a number of places, and once it's been sent to someone outside the firewall the recipient could keep it forever, print it, etc. 

The last principle is that email policies and procedures have to be enforced consistently, all the time, and across the organization. This is not to say that different departments might not have different mailbox sizes or rules regarding attachments. But it does mean that whatever the policy is has to be enforced all the time, not simply when users remember or when it's convenient. It's an old canard in records management but it bears repeating: it's better to NOT have a policy at all - than to have one and not follow it. Ignorance and stupidity can sometimes be excused (and arguably not having a policy today is one or both) - but when adherence to the policy is called into question, it's generally interpreted unfavorably at best and suspiciously at worst. So write a policy that everyone can understand, train them on the policy, and audit compliance with it periodically. 

In the next post we'll look more specifically at some of the business drivers for email management, including operational, legal, and regulatory drivers. In the meantime, if you have questions, comments or concerns, email me. :)

Friday, May 08, 2009

Public service announcement about Twitter

I love Twitter. I use Twitter. I've come a long way from when I didn't like Twitter and didn't get it - to the point that I spoke about it at ARMA Houston on April 28. Don't know yet whether they liked it or not, but it's my favorite presentation at the moment. 

As part of that session and some other related sessions recently, I have encouraged and/or exhorted attendees to join Twitter and follow me. Some of them have done so, but I can't tell it's them because they haven't Twittered enough to get that sense, they haven't updated their bio or photo, etc. 

So if this is you, and you follow me or my blog, please tell me who you are so I know to go back and follow you! And if this isn't you, but you want more people to follow you, don't follow all the very MLM-like advice out there about how to get thousands of followers. Instead, follow a couple of simple steps: 
1. If you don't have a Twitter account, use your real name for your handle. If your name is common, append a couple of numbers, a middle initial, etc. 
2. If you already have an account, update your bio. It has to be short, and doesn't necessarily have to include specifically identifying details like your employer or exact location, but something like, oh, mine is helpful for folks to understand who you are and if they should follow (or follow you back if you follow them)
3. Update your picture. I'm partial to real pictures of real people for their Twitter ID (and social sites generally). If you don't want to do that, at least put something there other than the default blue googly eyes on brown icon. 
4. Post some updates. Again, doesn't have to be specifically identifying, but if you're interested in records management, post about it. I may have no idea who you are, may never have met you, etc. but if you post stuff about stuff I'm interested in, I'm quite likely to follow you. If you don't post, I probably won't. 

Enough of the soapbox - back to Twitter. Oh, and follow me if you wish at http://www.twitter.com/jessewilkins

Thursday, May 07, 2009

Email Mgt Strategy - why should we care?

I want to begin this series on email management with a look at the strategy behind managing email more effectively. In today's economic climate, nobody implements a new system or process because they have money burning a hole in their pocket - and email management is no different. In order to get an improved process, which might also include technology, we need to determine why it is that we're doing it in the first place. 

So let's start with a definition of email management. This comes from AIIM.
As the de facto standard for business communication, removing emails from the server and saving them to a repository is not enough. Email must be classified, stored, and destroyed consistent with business standards-just as with any other document or record.
Pretty straightforward, right? And if you ask a records manager, they'll generally agree that records management is about the value of the content, not about how it's formatted, transmitted, or stored. 

However, most organizations DO treat email differently from other types of content. We save all email messages for an indeterminate, but pretty long, period of time. Or we delete all email messages automatically after a pretty short period of time, regardless of the content. The challenge is that the volume of email is so much higher than other types of content that it can be difficult to manage in the same fashion as those other types. In other words, the principle is the same but managing email effectively may require different tactics which we'll look at in more detail in a subsequent post. 

The bottom line is that email is "just" another type of content and has to be managed effectively according to its contents and value to the organization. An email that documents a transaction is no different from a TIFF, paper document, or PDF that does the same - and should be treated accordingly. Similarly, an email about this week's potluck or congratulating someone for a promotion is no different from a flyer or announcement on the intranet to that effect, and just as an organization wouldn't keep those as formal records, neither should it keep the equivalent emails. 

In the next post we'll look at some of the basic principles behind email management. Questions? Comments? Concerns? Email me. :)

AIIM Email Management Class in Denver June 2009

Some of you know that I teach various AIIM Certificate Program courses. I am pleased to announce that I am teaching the AIIM Email Management Certificate Program in Denver the week of June 8, 2009. 

The Email Management Certificate Program consists of the following courses: 

Email Practitioner. This course addresses the question, "What is email management?" It covers the concepts and technologies relating to email management, such as classification, retention, governance, security, archiving, backup, tools and technologies. Students who attend the course and complete the online course exam will receive the AIIM Email Practitioner (EMMp) designation. 
Dates: June 9-10, 2009
Location: TBD in NE Denver, will be announced this week
Cost: $1,050 for AIIM and ARMA members, $1,160 for non-members

Email Specialist. This course addresses the question, "How do you implement an email management program?" It covers global best practices for implementing solutions for email management as well as advanced email topics. Specific topics include how to identify requirements for email management, develop an email policy, implement a solution, and alternatives to email such as instant messaging, wikis, and RSS feeds. Students who attend the course and complete the online course exam will receive the AIIM Email Specialist (EMMs) designation. 
Dates: June 11-12, 2009
Location: TBD in NE Denver, will be announced this week
Cost: $1,050 for AIIM and ARMA members, $1,160 for non-members

Email Master Class. This course includes the Practitioner and the Specialist and includes a hands-on case study for students to complete in class. Students who attend the course, complete the online course exam, and complete the at-home case study wll receive the AIIM Email Master (EMMm) designation. 
Dates: June 9-12, 2009
Location: TBD in NE Denver, will be announced this week
Cost: $2,705 for AIIM and ARMA members, $2,980 for non-members

The course registration fee includes access to the online training materials for 6 months; access to the online exam (and case study for the Master attendees) for 3 months; a training manual; a CD with checklists, handouts, and additional resources; and access to the instructor for 1 year. 

I am the instructor for the course. I have developed and implemented email management strategies, programs, and technology solutions for a number of clients. I served on the ARMA Email Management Task Force and wrote the AIIM Email Management Certificate Program and the AIIM Email ROI Calculator. I am an accredited AIIM instructor and my credentials include: 
  • AIIM Email Master (EMMm)
  • AIIM ECM Master (ECMm)
  • AIIM ERM Master (ERMm)
  • AIIM BPM Specialist (BPMs)
  • AIIM MIT
  • AIIM LIT in EDIM, ECM, and ERM
  • CompTIA CDIA+
  • TAWPI ICP
  • Xplor edp
AIIM and ARMA Chapter officers, ask me about the Chapter Leader discount!

For more information about this class, the AIIM Email Management Certificate Program, other AIIM courses, or to register, please contact me at jwilkins13@gmail.com or (303) 574-0749. 

Back to it I hope...

It's been a while again, but I have a good reason. April was a crazy, exhausting month of speaking, travel, and business development. Here are the things that kept me busy: 
  • 3/30-4/2: AIIM 2009 in Philadelphia, 2 presentations and a panel
  • 4/15: ARMA Nebraska Spring Seminar, half-day seminar
  • 4/16: ARMA Central Missouri Spring Seminar - full day
  • 4/24: Foundation Financial Officers Group, panel
  • 4/28: ARMA Houston Spring Seminar, 2 presentations
  • 4/29: ARMA Southern California Inland Empire (SCIE) Spring Seminar, half-day
  • 5/1: ARMA Tri-Chapter (Puget Sound, Bellevue/Eastside, Seattle) Spring Seminar, full day
  • And lots of follow-up with folks from the preceding who asked for additional information, slides, etc. Aside: I publish all of my decks to Slideshare once I have delivered them. You can find them at http://www.slideshare.net/jessewilkins8511
  • Passing Parts 1-5 of the CRM exam
  • Business development and proposal work for a couple of potential clients
I've also been pretty active on Twitter - you can find me at http://www.twitter.com/jessewilkins

And most of my evenings have been spent catching up on Twitter, emails, white papers, and the odd hour reviewing materials for the CRM exam. 

But the speaking season is about done, so I should have more time coming up to go back to the long-form blog posts. In fact, today I begin my oft-cited and never-provided series on email management! 

Anyway, for those of you who still follow me, thanks for reading - I hope your patience will be rewarded. :)

Thursday, April 09, 2009

Upcoming speaking events in April

April's a busy month for many ARMA chapters because April is Records and Information Management Month. That makes it a busy time for me because I get the privilege of speaking at a number of chapters. Here's what that schedule looks like for the rest of the month. 

April 15, ARMA Nebraska Spring Seminar. I will speak in the morning on:
  • "Electronic Records Management: A Checklist for Success"
  • "Identifying and Classifying E-Messages as Records". 
Details can be found here

April 16, ARMA Central Missouri Spring Seminar. I will speak all day on "Electronic Records Management"; specific topics include:
  • "Blogs, Wikis, and RSS: A Gentle Introduction to Web 2.0 Technologies"
  • "Managing Records in the Cloud"
  • "Selecting Email Management Technologies"
  • "Developing an Email Policy"
Details can be found here (PDF). 

April 28, ARMA Houston Spring Seminar. I will deliver two sessions: 
  • "A Gentle Introduction to Microblogging" (Twitter)
  • "Open Topic Question and Answer". This session is a bit different in that I don't have a slide deck or a particular agenda. Instead, I will have some questions with me but I'm hoping the audience will have more and better questions and I will try to answer them. 
Details can be found here

April 29, ARMA Southern California Inland Empire Spring Seminar. I am speaking on:
  • "Records Management 2.0: Managing Records in the Clouds". 
Details can be found here (PDF).

As always, once the presentations are delivered I will post them to my Slideshare account, but if you want the networking, the interaction, and of course the actual audio, you have to come to the presentation. :)

Saturday, March 14, 2009

AIIM: Name Your Own Price!

AIIM has announced that any people who join (or renew? not sure!) as a Professional member between yesterday and Tuesday, March 17 will be able to "name their own price" and pay whatever they feel a year's Professional membership is worth. The only catches I am aware of are that you have to call their membership line at (301) 755-2684 or 1-800-477-2446 and you have to pay by credit card. 

Monday, March 09, 2009

Upcoming speaking events in March

This time of year is always busy for me. The AIIM Conference is at the end of the month and I've been fortunate to be selected again this year to speak. And March and April are busy times for ARMA chapters as well, with a lot of full-day Spring Seminars in the works. So here's what I have on tap the rest of this month. 

March 17 - ARMA South Carolina Joint Seminar. This meeting will be an all-day confab between the four South Carolina-based chapters of ARMA. Doug Allen will open the seminar and I will close it. My topic: "Email Archiving Ain't Records Management: How to Manage Email Messages as Records". 

March 18 - ARMA Louisville/ARMA Frankfort-Bluegrass Joint Meeting. I will be speaking at this one via webinar. This works great for me because I can minimize the travel time out of the office; I think it also works well for the chapter because I don't incur any reimbursable travel costs, and frankly, if I had to travel to it I probably wouldn't be able to justify it. My topic: "Managing Email Effectively".

March 24 - ARMA Dayton Chapter meeting. This is another webinar. My topic: "Identifying and Classifying Messages as Records". The one on the 17th focuses on email archiving technologies; this one is more about determining when a message is a record and then how to deal with it. 

April 1 - AIIM 2009.  I include this with the March events because the AIIM conference opens on March 30. My sessions are scheduled on April 1, though. They include: 
EML01: "How to Manage Your Email Better: By Managing Less of It!"
W2E07: "Blogs & Wikis in the Enterprise"
ECM08: "Stump the Consultant" (panel with the folks at CMSWatch and Lisa Welchman)

And April promises to be even busier. In the meantime, as I get the decks done, I will be uploading them to Slideshare as I have done for all my 2008 and 2009 presentations. You can find all my stuff on Slideshare at http://www.slideshare.net/jessewilkins8511.

Saturday, March 07, 2009

AIIM ERM Certificate Program Updated and Available

I am pleased to announce that the AIIM ERM Certificate program has been revised and is now live and available! The course was revised by Access Sciences Corporation, a leading Houston-based enterprise content and records management consulting firm. The revision was led by Jesse Wilkins, ERMm, ECMm, EMMm, BPMs, CDIA+, LIT/ERM, edp, ICP. Jesse is an accredited AIIM ERM and ECM instructor, and lead author and accredited instructor for the AIIM Email Certificate Program. 

The course continues with the structure of the previous AIIM courses and consists of the following courses: 
ERM Strategy - identifies the business drivers for implementing or updating an ERM program ("Why ERM?")
ERM Practitioner - describes the concepts behind ERM ("What is ERM?")
ERM Specialist - describes the approach for implementing or updating the ERM program ("How to implement ERM?")
ERM Master Class - combines all of the other courses with a case study to allow students to put their learning to practice ("Putting it All Together")

Here are the details for each class: 

ERM Strategy - instructor-led only
Introduction to ERM
ERM Business Drivers
ERM Today
ERM Roles and Responsibilities
There is no designation or exam for the ERM Strategy Class. Cost for instructor-led courses: $550

ERM Practitioner - online or instructor-led
This course is based on the concepts and processes outlined in ISO 15489-1, ISO 23081, and MoReq2. 
ERMP-1 - Introduction to ERM
ERMP-2 - Creating and Capturing Records
ERMP-3 - Metadata
ERMP-4 - Classification Concepts
ERMP-5 - Developing Classification Tools
ERMP-6 - Classifying Records
ERMP-7 - Search, Retrieval, and Presentation
ERMP-8 - Controls and Security
ERMP-9 - Retention and Disposition
ERMP-10 - Records Management Technologies
ERMP-11 - Records Storage Technologies
ERMP-12 - Digital Preservation
Upon completion of the course and passing the course exam students will receive the ERM Practitioner (ERMp) designation. Cost for instructor-led courses: $1,050 for AIIM or ARMA members, $1,160 for non-members

ERM Specialist - online or instructor-led
This course is based on the concepts and processes outlined in ISO/TR 15489-2, ISO 26122, MoReq2, and the Electronic Discovery Reference Model (EDRM). 
ERMS-1 - Preliminary Investigation
ERMS-2 - Business Analysis
ERMS-3 - Business Case for ERM
ERMS-4 - Requirements
ERMS-5 - Governance
ERMS-6 - Designing the Records System
ERMS-7 - Implementation
ERMS-8 - Post-Implementation
ERMS-9 - Discovery and Disclosure
ERMS-10 - Enterprise ERM Issues
ERMS-11 - Emerging Issues in ERM
Upon completion of the course and passing the course exam students will receive the ERM Specialist (ERMs) designation. Cost for instructor-led courses: $1,050 for AIIM or ARMA members, $1,160 for non-members

ERM Master - Instructor-led only
Day 1 - ERM Strategy and ERM Practitioner
Day 2 - ERM Practitioner
Day 3 - ERM Specialist
Day 4 - ERM Specialist and Case Study Exercises
Upon completion of the course, passing the course exam, and completion of the at-home case study, students will receive the ERM Master (ERMm) designation. Cost for instructor-led courses: $2,705 for AIIM or ARMA members, $2,980 for non-members

All instructor-led courses include continental breakfast, catered lunch, and breaks every day as well as the training manual, a supplemental manual that summarizes each module, and an extensive list of handouts, templates, and additional resources.

Access Sciences has scheduled ERM courses for May 11-14 in Boston and June 8-11 in Los Angeles. I will also be teaching classes later in the year in Denver, Houston, and select other locations. 

For more information on the AIIM ERM program, the other AIIM programs, these specific classes, or anything else, please contact me directly at jwilkins13@gmail.com or (303) 574-0749. 

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Update to EMM vendors list

After having heard from a number of the more traditional ECM vendors, I want to clarify. The list in the previous post is of vendors that focus on the email management space. There are no full-suite ECM vendors on that list. 

So let me stake out my position on EMM and ECM this way: An ECM vendor that does not have a credible story to tell about email management, and at a minimum some type of email archiving solution, is not providing a credible ECM suite. It's only been possible to make this case in the last couple of years, but I think an ECM vendor that cannot manage email effectively is not a good solution for the overwhelming majority of organizations. I'm willing to debate it if you disagree, but as email is such a big part of the corpus of content in an organization today, you're gonna have to pack a lunch to do so. 

Friday, February 13, 2009

List of email management vendors

Per request from the RECMGMT-L list, here is a list I maintain of all the email management vendors. A couple of key points: 
1. This list includes many more than you'd expect because "email management" is more of an umbrella term that covers everything from email archiving to policy enforcement to litigation support and email security.
2. My inclusion of a vendor on this list is not a recommendation, nor is a solution not listed to be taken as a negative. The email management space continues to be in significant flux and it's hard to tell the players any week without a program. 

3. Many of the traditional ECM players have also moved aggressively to develop or acquire EMM technologies - for example, IBM FileNet acquired Yaletown Technology Group and its EMM solution a couple of years ago. So if you already have an ECM or ERM solution in place, you may want to talk to your sales rep or integrator to determine whether you might either already own that capability or have ready access to it by dint of already owning the core technology. 

Adobe http://www.adobe.com
ArcMail http://www.arcmailtech.com
Atempo http://www.atempo.com 
Athena http://www.athenaarchiver.com
Autonomy Zantaz http://www.zantaz.com/ 
Avalon Business Systems  http://www.avabiz.com
AXS-One http://www.axsone.com/
Barracuda Networks http://www.barracudanetworks.com 
C2C Systems http://www.c2c.com
CommVault http://www.commvault.com
Computhink http://www.computhink.com
Dell MessageOne http://www.messageone.com
Electric Mail http://www.electricmail.com
Email Systems http://www.emailsystems.com 
Estorian http://www.estorian.com 
Exclaimer http://www.exclaimer.com 
Forensic & Compliance Systems http://www.cryoserver.com/
GFI http://www.gfi.com 
Global Relay Communications http://www.globalrelay.com
Goodmail http://www.goodmail.com 
Google Postini http://www.postini.com 
Group Technologies http://www.group-technologies.com
HP http://www.hp.com 
InBoxer http://www.inboxer.com 
Integro http://www.integro.com
Intradyn http://www.intradyn.com 
Iron Mountain http://www.ironmountain.com
IronPort http://www.ironport.com 
Jatheon http://www.jatheon.com 
Lexbe http://www.lexbe.com 
LiveOffice http://www.liveoffice.com
Lucid8 http://www.lucid8.com 
MailArchiva http://www.mailarchiva.com 
Marshal http://www.marshal.com
MessageGate http://www.messagegate.com 
Message Partners http://www.messagepartners.com 
MessageSolution http://www.messagesolution.com
Messaging Architects http://www.messagingarchitects.com
MetaLogic http://www.metalogic-inc.com 
Microsoft http://www.microsoft.com 
Mimosa Systems http://www.mimosasystems.com
MX Logic http://www.mxlogic.com
NorthSeas http://www.northseasamt.com
Orchestria http://www.orchestria.com 
Overtone Software http://www.overtonesoftware.com 
Permessa http://www.permessa.com 
PivotStor http://www.pivotstor.com 
Privacy Networks http://www.privacynetworks.com 
Proofpoint http://www.proofpoint.com 
Quest Software http://www.quest.com
Recommind http://www.recommind.com
Sherpa Software http://www.sherpasoftware.com
Smarsh Financial Technologies http://www.smarsh.com 
Sonian http://www.soniannetworks.com
Symantec http://www.symantec.com 
Tangent DataCove http://www.datacove.net 
TeraText http://www.teratext.com 
Titus Labs http://www.titus-labs.com
Trend Micro http://www.trendmicro.com 
Tumbleweed http://www.tumbleweed.com 
Waterford Technologies http://www.waterfordtechnologies.com
Weird Kid Software http://www.weirdkid.com
ZL Technologies (formerly ZipLip) http://www.ziplip.com 
Zylab http://www.zylab.com 

Those of you who want more information on any of these, I encourage you to: 

1. Visit the vendors' websites. Many of them have pretty good, not-too-sales-y white papers. I'll single out CA and Mimosa Systems here because both of them have good books on email archiving and EMM - Mimosa's in particular is not at all sales-y and a pretty entertaining read ("Email Archiving for Dummies"). 

2. Consider reviewing CMSWatch's excellent report on email management and archiving solutions. Full disclosure: I contributed a tiny bit to the report. I didn't and don't get paid anything for it however; and it is a pretty pricey report at c. $1500. There are other reports out there, but most of them are either significantly MORE expensive or significantly less valuable. http://www.cmswatch.com

3. Attend the AIIM Email Management course, specifically the Practitioner course or Practitioner Module 10, Technology. More disclosure: I developed and teach the course. But in that module we talk about the different types of technologies available for managing email more effectively including examples for each. Attendees also get a number of handouts including a list similar to this one of the major providers. 

If anyone wants more information about any of this feel free to contact me off-list at (303) 574-0749 (direct) or jwilkins13@gmail.com. 

Update 2/14/2009: Added Avalon Business Systems. 

Thursday, February 05, 2009

RWW: Rise of the Goverati

Mark Drapeau has an article on ReadWriteWeb today about Government 2.0 called, appropriately enough, "Government 2.0: Rise of the Goverati". First, nice play on literati, Twitterati, etc. and much better than e.g. governscenti. From the article:
What is the goverati? It is made up of people with first-hand knowledge of how the government operates, who understand how to use social software to accomplish a variety of government missions, and who want to use that knowledge for the benefit of all.

The goverati includes not only government employees, but also people from think tanks, trade publications, and non-profits. And it includes high-profile thinkers outside of the government who have an interest in a more open, transparent, and efficient government; people such as Joe Trippi, Craig Newmark, and Tim O'Reilly. Using formal and informal social networks, the goverati is networking, sharing information, and changing how parts of the government interact with each other and with citizens.

 

Read the entire article at http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/government_20_rise_of_the_goverati.php.

Saturday, January 24, 2009

OT: Bacon Apple Pie (updated to credit Rachel Ray)

This is NOT an original recipe, but I can't seem to find where I found it. Regardless, I made it tonight and it was EXCELLENT. 

Update: Here's the finished (and partially eaten) pie:


Update 2: As a commenter noted, this appears to be a recipe originally published by Rachel Ray. As such, it's probably copyrighted, and I have therefore decided to remove most of the recipe itself and redirect to that one. Cheers!

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Resolutions and plans for 2009

2009 is going to be an amazingly busy year for me - lots of stuff either confirmed, planned, or hoped for. 

Professional work
I expect to continue doing consulting and business development at Access Sciences, but this year a significant part of my focus will be on developing our training business and in course delivery. We will be doing a lot of training this year in a number of areas - watch this space and the Access Sciences website for more information. 

Speaking engagements
As has become my custom, I am doing a lot of speaking in 2009. I have confirmed the following engagements: 
1/13 ARMA Central Kansas webinar
3/19 ARMA Frankfort-Bluegrass + ARMA Louisville joint meeting/webinar
3/24 ARMA Dayton webinar
3/30 - 4/2 AIIM 2009, 2 sessions + possible preconference
4/15 ARMA Nebraska Spring Seminar
4/16 ARMA Central MO Spring Seminar
4/29 ARMA Inland Empire Spring Seminar
5/1 ARMA Puget Sound Spring Seminar
5/30 - 6/2 ARMA Canada Region, Tuesday keynote

And I am still looking at possible speaking engagements for a number of other ARMA chapters as well as MER and ARMA 2009. 

School
As I noted in my previous post I really am ready to go back to school. My schedule, finances, and interests are pulling me towards two programs: the Emporia State MLIS at their Denver campus and the San Jose State University MARA (Master of Archives and Records Administration). Of the two, the latter looks like a more applicable curriculum to me, but I'm open to being convinced otherwise....Next step: Get the app together and in the mail, get the FAFSA paperwork started, and start studying for the GRE. Grrr.

Professional development
As of about three hours ago I have submitted my package for candidacy to sit for the Certified Records Manager exam. Assuming my candidacy is approved, I expect to take Parts I-V in either the Spring or Summer exam cycles, with Part VI the cycle following. My goal therefore is to complete the CRM completely during 2009. 

I also plan to complete the AIIM Enterprise 2.0 Master Class and I may try to complete the others - not sure if there is anyone else out there yet with the original ECMP + all 6 Master designations just yet. 

Association work
I expect my ARMA association work will continue the same. I don't currently plan to run for President-Elect, meaning that 2009-2010 will be my last year on the BOD. I could be persuaded, but frankly I'm not sure I have that kind of time available to me, personally or professionally. A better bet might be the ICRM Board of Regents. In the meantime, I do want to get a bit more involved in the local ARMA chapters (Mile Hi Denver and Northern Colorado) if I can make the time available. 

If I can complete the CRM this year, I will immediately volunteer for the ICRM in the area of exam development. I gots me some questions itching to get out & on the exam. :)

I've also applied to serve as an ANSI certificate accreditation committee member and should find out in the next month or so whether I was selected. 

Publishing
I co-wrote, with Patrick Cunningham, an article on Web 2.0 that should appear in the January 2009 issue of ARMA's Information Management. I will also finish my book treatment and start writing my book on Web 2.0 for information management professionals. And hopefully I'll find some time to write more about email management and social networking in the form of articles or white papers. 

So it's a very busy, Type-AAAAAA type year in store. Hopefully I can look back a year from today and report most of it back as complete. 

Friday, December 26, 2008

Education v2

Nope, not a Buzzword 2.0 post. :) I am looking at finally getting back to school sometime this year. I'm looking at a couple of different dynamics and welcome any comments. 

Background: I spent my formative years in the United States Marine Corps. When I got out at the tender age of 25, I didn't really know what I wanted to do but I liked politics, and I liked the money I thought that politicians made. I also knew that most politicians are lawyers, and I like arguing as I imagined lawyers did. So I set my sights on a pre-law program, consisting of as much legalish stuff as I could find at my alma mater. I ended up taking a lot of political science, history, economics, criminal justice, and philosophy. 

During my tenure at Metro I switched fields from local government to software. More specifically, I was hired by Information Management Research (IMR) as a software tester. Their flagship product was classified as "Integrated Document Archiving and Retrieval (IDARS) at the time by Gartner and included capture, CAD viewing, searching, and COLD. My interest grew as my experience and expertise did; the problem was that I was also still in school full-time, by then majoring in political science with a history minor. As an aside, let me thank the folks at IMR for giving me the flexibility to complete my degree in only 4 1/2 years; some of those classes were offered one semester a year at one time and you either took it or missed it. I took them thanks to IMR. 

Anyway, I considered my options - computer science? Business? Or....finish the original degree ASAP, so I could point to my BA, and then move on to the next phase of my professional development and education later. I chose that path, completed the BA, and kept on keepin' on. 

Later, I tried to go back to school several times. I started a program at what is now RMIT University in Melbourne Australia called the Master of Business in Information Innovation, but for a number of reasons I couldn't get it done before the program was canceled. I did complete a graduate certificate in document management, but that's it. Later I enrolled in the distance MBA program at Regis University, but that, too, didn't pan out. 

So now it's time. On the one hand, I have the time available to some extent. I will still be working full-time plus as a consultant, and client work will always be the priority. And I have a toddler at home. And I have association responsibilities. What that means is an online program. Period. If there is some small residency requirement I can probably make it, but in the main I need an online program. And there are tons of them out there. 

Here's what I need help with in my deliberations. 
1. What program? The immediate options are: 
  • MBA
  • Master of Library Sciences/Library and Information Studies/Etc. (MLS/MLIS)
  • JD
Other options? Not sure. I'm not interested in a M. Ed, M. KM, etc. Make me a case for something else and I'll consider it. :)

2. Which program - in other words, which school? ALA accreditation for MLS/MLIS is interesting but not necessarily relevant. I'm not worried about changing fields at the moment and I figure my work experience will be MUCH more relevant than whether I went to an ALA-accredited program or whether my MBA school was Tier 2 or Tier 3 (I know I can't afford e.g. Thunderbird). Same thing with the JD - I *know* only CA accepts them for purposes of bar admission. I haven't decided if I want to be a lawyer yet. 

3. Anything else? I am looking at all programs in all areas noted above. HBUC? Not an issue. Outside the US? Not necessarily out of consideration if the program is good and one I can look up. Cost? Lower the better. Right now the top of my list is the NCCU MLS (online). Slight pref to schools with no GRE/GMAT/LSAT requirement, but I'm a good test taker if needed. 

Thanks in advance for any responses I receive!



2008 - my year in review (personal/professional)

Here is the first in a series of posts reviewing 2008 and looking ahead to 2009. This first post will focus on what I did in 2008 and will serve as sort of a baseline. 

Overview: I am still a principal consultant at Access Sciences, a Houston-based enterprise content and records management (ECRM) consulting firm. I still work out of my home office in Denver, CO. 

Project work
This year I worked on a number of client projects, including but not limited to completing the AIIM Email Management Certificate Program and the AIIM Email ROI Calculator. Some of the other project work I did is in progress, so I can't talk about it; for most of the other projects my role was to provide quality assurance on the deliverables. I don't really claim those as projects because I didn't do much of the work. :)

Publications
I wrote several articles and white papers this year, including two really long ones: 

I also wrote a shorter article for AIIM called "Get Started on Compliant Collaboration". It originally appeared in the Jul/Aug 2008 issue of AIIM E-DOC Magazine (now Infonomics). 

And I have another long article coming out next month, but I can't link it until it's published. Here's a hint - I cowrote it with Patrick Cunningham based on a discussion we had on the RECMGMT-L listserv. 

Speaking
This was a really busy year for me in terms of public speaking. In 2008 I gave 22 separate presentations ranging from 30-min webinars to full-day seminars. They included 4 full-day seminars, 4 major conference presentations, 10 ARMA chapter presentations, 1 ARMA region presentation, and 2 major webinars.Here's a list of all of them, with links to the presentations on Slideshare.net

1/16 - ARMA Tulsa, "IT and RIM: Bridging the Gap"
2/12 - ARMA Chattanooga web seminar, "Managing Your Email - By Managing Less of It!"
2/22 - ARMA San Antonio, "Effective Email Management for the Organization"
2/22 - ARMA San Antonio, "Instant Headache: Managing Your Instant Messaging"
3/3 - AIIM 2008 Preconference, "Email Management Practitioner Course" (no link available - it's a PAID course y'know :) )
3/4 - AIIM 2008, "Enterprise 2.0: Compliant Collaboration"
3/13 - ABA Techshow, "Nuts & Bolts of Records Management:  Avoiding a Rube Goldberg System" with John Montana
3/13 - ABA Techshow, "Records Management Technology: It's a Small World After All" with Dave Bilinsky
4/10 - ARMA Bismarck/Mandan Spring Seminar, "Email, IM, Wikis, and Blogs – Oh MY!"
4/17 - ARMA Gaithersburg Spring Seminar, "Implementing an ERM Program: The Issues, Challenges, and Strategies"
4/18 - ARMA Northern Colorado Spring Seminar, "Emerging Electronic Records Management 2008: Compliance and the Cloud" Part 1 Part 2
4/23 - ARMA Houston Spring Seminar, "Managing Your Email - By Managing Less of It!"
5/1 - ARMA Triangle Chapter, "Making the Case for Active Email Management"
5/13 - ARMA web seminar, "Compliance 2.0: How to Manage Enterprise 2.0 Tools" (ARMA members only at the moment)
5/15 - ARMA Central Iowa Spring Seminar, "Messaging Issues and Strategies"
6/3 - NARA e-Records Forum, "Compliance 2.0: How to Manage Enterprise 2.0 Tools"
6/8 - ARMA Northeast Region keynote, "The Impact of Enterprise 2.0 Tools in Records & Information Management"
7/9 - AIIM web seminar, "Making Email the Right Place to Work". Wanted to link from AIIM's site but it doesn't seem to be out there anymore. 
8/21 - Government Educator teleconference, "Email and Records Management for Government: What You Need to Know" Not sure if I can make this presentation available, but I have many email-related decks if interested. 
9/9 - RACO 2008 Atlanta, "Compliance 2.0: How to Manage Enterprise 2.0 Tools" - no presentation because it was more of a panel discussion but it was based heavily on the 6/3 presentation above. 
10/20 - ARMA 2008, "Enterprise Blogging"
10/22 - ARMA 2008, "Enabling and Managing Wikis in the Enterprise"

Web 2.0/social networking
Lots of stuff going on here this year. 
Blogging. This blog suffered this year due to work commitments, other writing commitments, and Twitter (especially Twitter!). I will end the year around 60 posts, down from 2007's 129 and even 2006's 72. I'm going to try to up the blog usage next year, though not sure yet whether that will be through Informata, an Access Sciences public blog, through one or more associations, or ??? But watch this space - and did I mention Twitter? :)
Wikis. I've lost track of how many wikis I have accounts on, including Wikipedia, TuneWikiLyricWiki, The Holy Church of Bacon, and a number of private wikis. I used wikis this year to collaborate on white papers, articles, and presentations, to develop the AIIM Email Management Certificate Program, and to push out a huge amount of marginally useful knowledge related to 80s lyrics, beer, and chocolate. I've also come to believe that a) wikis are not the best tools for collaborating on presentations and b) we need a PPT equivalent of EditGrid or SocialCalc
Twitter. I returned to Twitter this year and really started to see the value to it. As of the end of the year, I follow some 188 people and services spread across my various interests. I have 179 people following me and I've done almost 1500 updates plus a number of direct messages. If you Twitter, you can find me at http://www.twitter.com/jessewilkins. I've tried a lot of the tools, both desktop and iPhone, and I keep coming back to the Twitter web interface. I am using Tweetdeck more recently, but still not as much as the web. 
Social networks. I'm still pretty active on LinkedIn and Facebook (though much more on LinkedIn than FB). I still see connection requests come in from Plaxo, but I just don't use it enough to put the effort into it. And this year I'm really starting to use some more enterprise-y/white-labeled networks. Most of the ones I use are based on the Ning platform and include AIIM's Information Zen, Records Management 2.0, GovLoop, and Friends of Alchemy Document Management, which as an aside is a really good example of what happens when you get people together who are passionate about something. 

Association stuff
I continue to serve as a Director for ARMA International. In that capacity I also serve as the Vice-Chair of the ARMA Elections Management Committee. I also joined ASTM International in order to serve on the E36 Committee on Laboratory and Inspection Agency Accreditation and its subcommittee E36.30 on personnel certificate programs. I remain a member of AIIM International, though I am not as active as I have been in recent years due to my commitments to ARMA. And I have let lapse my memberships to CompTIA, TAWPI, and Xplor as they are not as relevant to me as they have been in the past. 

So all in all a pretty busy year. I'm not going to do an industry roundup; instead, in a couple days I will look through all my feeds for other folks' roundups and post a massive linkfest here. My next post will be a look ahead at 2009 through the same filter as this post. 

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

OT: Christmas brunch

The menu for tomorrow's Christmas brunch chez Wilkins:

Bellinis
Ham + cheese strata
"Rolled up pancakes" (aka crepes)
Maple citrus salad
Maple-glazed bacon
Yogurt w/ honey, nuts, + berries
Panettone
Hash browns
Kona coffee

Merry Christmas and happy holidays to all of you and all the best for 2009!

Sunday, November 30, 2008

Tim O'Reilly: Why I Love Twitter

Great article from Tim O'Reilly on the power of Twitter. It resonates with me because like Tim I was a Twitter skeptic. Highlights: 

1. Twitter is simple - it does one thing really well.
2. Twitter works like people do - extended discussion of "friending" vs. Twitter's following. 
3. Twitter plays well with others.
4. Twitter transcends the web - and Tim alludes, but I'll make explicit, Twitter transcends the browser. 
5. Twitter is user-extensible. Tim cites @ for users, #hashtags, and even $ for financials. And other people built those, not Twitter. 
6. Twitter evolves quickly. 

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

GovTech: Governing in the Age of Web 2.0

Bill Schrier, CTO for the City of Seattle, offers the following ways government can benefit from Web 2.0 tools:
1. Social networking for community-type groups
2. Blogging - though he espouses moderated blogging, which is very difficult to do and not have the results moderated into pabulum
3. YouTube-style video and image posting, for example of places to see or dangers to the community
4. Interactive surveys. He notes that they are fairly easy to "game" - and not sure I'd consider them Web 2.0 anyway. 
5. Internal wikis, especially as knowledge bases
6. External wikis - for the same reason. He gives as an example "How do you recycle a computer?". Let the community, many of whom are either in the business or have gone through the process, provide feedback (and especially where these intersect with government-provided services). 
7. External wikis again - this time for "deciphering" how government works. 
8. Mashups, particularly geo-mashups. 
9. Next-gen 911, potentially including uploading of pix of crimes, etc. 
10. Customer service/feedback using blogs and wikis. He doesn't mention the TSA blog, but I think it's an excellent example of getting feedback (though not sure I agree with most of TSA's responses). 

He then lists some of the challenges associated with Web 2.0 and government, including
  • the citizen uberactivist, now with even more ways to interact with/pester government
  • Digital divide
  • Information overload, particularly for employees and ombudsman types
  • Offensive content and its flip side, censorship
  • Balancing concerns of activists with needs of the populace at large
Yes, there are some other concerns around FOIA or your version of it, effective usage and transparency, and others. But on balance I thought it was a pretty good article and getting this type of thinking into GovTech's target audience is a very good thing. 

Read the entire article at http://www.govtech.com/gt/385126.

OT: Recipe: Thanksgiving

Not exactly - just using the recipe header to group cooking-related posts. Here's the draft menu for this year's Thanksgiving celebration chez Wilkins. 

Pomegranate mimosas
"Traditional" crudites - Cheez Whiz-stuffed celery, gherkins, cornichons, and jumbo black olives
Roast turkey with apple-cider glaze and gravy
Cornbread, pecan and apple stuffing
Cranberry sauce with port
Southern-glazed sweet potatoes with streusel topping
Asparagus amandine
Honey-glazed carrots
Ambrosia salad
Pumpkin cheesecake with bourbon-butter sauce

Still on the fence about whether to make sugared cranberries and what breadstuffs to serve - leaning towards frybread but not sure I'll have the time/stovetop space. 

Most of these are not my own recipes, but I am happy to forward them on upon request.