Proctorio Legal Aggression

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A Learning Technology Specialist at UBC was rightly critical of Proctorio so the company is suing him. Considering the ethical, technical or other transgressions of automated test proctoring/surveillance tools like Proctorio, it’s worth thinking about how this situation is unfolding. He’s set up a GoFundMe campaign for some support and if successful, proceeds would go to the BC Civil Liberties Association.

There’s a good blog post, In Defence of Ian Linkletter, which explains the situation.

I think it’s worth noting, in Linkletter’s message about the suit, he explains: “This kind of lawsuit, in which a company like Proctorio sues an outspoken critic like me, is sometimes referred to as a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation: or “SLAPP”. SLAPP lawsuits are a threat to freedom of expression.” [emphasis mine]

Software Tools that are Useful for Students & Free

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Completing your university work on time, collaborating with many people, and dealing with cost and other requirements of various software systems is a hassle, which I hope that you can eliminate using some of these tools. I’ve used these and I’d like recommend that people try them out. Following is a brief description of some Office Productivity, Time and Project Management, Mindmapping, Reference Management, Note Taking, and Transcription applications. I’ve included a link to access or download them (all cost-free).  Continue reading “Software Tools that are Useful for Students & Free”

Applications for Reading Ebooks

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Usually when I read electronic books, I use my phone. In those cases it’s often through an app like Aldiko or if I’m forced to, then a monstrosity like Bluefire or Overdrive. Sometimes it’s better at a computer screen though and possibly easier if you need to see something larger or are flipping back and forth between documents. This brief article reviews a few desktop ebook readers for Linux systems. I learned about some options that sound like they’re worth checking out, in addition to my regular choice, Calibre.

Canadian Government WCM Migration Project Failed—It’s for the Best

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Our former federal government (under Harper’s Conservatives) decided to migrate some 1500 government Web sites to a single content management (WCM) system. They chose Adobe’s AEM product and it looks like the project collapsed in failure. As a Canadian citizen, I’m glad the project has not worked out. I can see how such a project could have merit but the software choice was a bad decision in principle and apparently the project planning and management were not undertaken properly. Too bad it didn’t fail sooner to prevent wasting so much money. CBC’s article about the project is here and I’ll point out a few thoughts about why I think the choice of WCM system was bad in principle and raise some questions on project management. Continue reading “Canadian Government WCM Migration Project Failed—It’s for the Best”

Newsblur as an Intelligent Agent Used for CI

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Newsblur (www.newsblur.com) is a Web-based RSS feed reading service. This is a review of how I found the service useful while working on some competitive intelligence (CI). It’s convenient and conducive for tracking issues, trends, commentary, and news.

Newsblur has a set of features that I find make it worth paying for an annual subscription (it also offers a no-cost option). I’ve long used RSS readers, initially preferring desktop readers like Akregator or RSSOwl. The quantity of feeds that I follow is so large now that it can take desktop readers a long time to update, whereas Web services can use their resources more efficiently to deliver the feed content. I currently use Newsblur to follow about 1300 feeds but I’ll just cover a few examples in the context of how it might be used in CI work. Continue reading “Newsblur as an Intelligent Agent Used for CI”

Alfresco ECM in 2013

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I had a chance to hear from Alfresco earlier this year about its direction and some new product features. Alfresco has grown to be a go-to, lower-cost, open source solution excelling in large-scale intranet implementations, corporate file sharing services, and document collaboration.

Alfresco currently has 33,000 customers whose ECM activities are enabled through on-premise, public or private cloud, or hybrid deployments. This is a particularly convenient situation for Alfresco considering there is a good deal of interest in hybrid environments from organizations seeking ECM systems.

You can download my report from this link (it’s free but it does require registration).

Demand Trends of ECM and WCM Buyers

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After aggregating the high-level needs of thousands of people telling Technology Evaluation Centers (TEC) their requirements for enterprise content management (ECM) and web content management (WCM) systems, I’ve put together two reports showing the trends. You can read more about these high-level requirements in TEC’s latest, free ECM market survey report and WCM market survey report.

We found that security is one of the most frequently sought requirements, across the board. Unsurprisingly, many characteristics necessary for managing business processes are high-priorities as were search and indexing in the WCM space.

We also found that while it’s a growing portion of the market, organizations seeking an ECM system that is not on-premise, remain a minority (about 30% of the demand). In the WCM space personalization features were deemed rather important by buyers. I’m guessing that both of these requirements will be even higher in the coming year since both cloud offerings (and hype) have increased and the ideas for experience management are also getting more recognition.

Note that each of these reports are based on a complete year of data from 2011. In 2013, I’ll publish an update using the complete 2012 year data.

Laserfiche ECM and Its Latest Release

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I spoke with Laserfiche about the new version 9 of its Rio enterprise content management (ECM) system. In the latest release the company is really pushing on the business process management functionality. They’re positioning the system more for managing processes without necessarily seeing them as document-centric. You can download the report from the Technology Evaluation Centers site (free).

It covers a lot of the other functionality provided in the Laserfiche products too–things like they handle document acquisition, redaction, workflows, and more.

A Brief on EMC Documentum in 2012

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I’ve published a new report on the EMC Documentum family of content management products and services. Go here to download it (free from the TEC site).

EMC’s path for Documentum has taken it in some promising directions. While this report doesn’t cover everything, it does explain a few of the key areas that EMC has been working on and plans to roll out in 2012. In particular, the report looks at what EMC is doing with mobile devices, governance, and case management.

If you’re in the process of evaluating enterprise content management systems and you’re interested in how Documentum stacks up for your needs, the report includes a (free trial) link to evaluate Documentum in TEC’s online decision support and analysis system.

Profile of MODX WCM

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If you’re looking into selecting a WCM system or are otherwise interested in MODX‘s open source WCM framework, I hope the link to this report is helpful. After pouring over MODX’s Web site, community forums, taking its WCM product for a brief spin, and talking with some of its team, I wrote up this profile on the company and its Revolution product.

It’s available for free download from Technology Evaluation Centers. You can also do a little bit of research on how MODX Revolution’s web content management system would satisfy your requirements, using the TEC Advisor analysis and comparison tool (this link allows you to use it for two hours free).