On the uber humor site there is a good explanation of the true meaning of that Google search results indicator that you see at the bottom of a search results page.
I thought it was funny, so included it here…
Check out their site for more (& sometimes, not) funny stuff.
I’m going to the FirstDoc User Group (FDUG) conference in Vienna, Europe, this year. (For those that are not familiar with FirstDoc, see the links at the bottom of this post).
Every year CSC hold the FirstDoc User Group conference – first in the US, and then in Europe.
I’m looking forward to it. I’ve been ask to present there so it’s time to put the old thinking cap on, and come up with an interesting way of presenting information. (I don’t want to bore people).
The agenda for the Europe conference hasn’t been posted yet, but the one for the US conference has.
The keynote speech will cover CSC’s Long Term Product Strategy. This will be interesting, as the ECM world is very much a lively, ever-changing thing at the moment, as each large EMC vendor morphs, and adapts to meet the ever-changing environment bought about by such things as SharePoint 2010, and cloud computing.
Next on the schedule is a case study – “Global Deployment”. This will also be interesting as international companies are, and have been for awhile, looking at the challenges of multiple sites, located in disparate locations around the world. The challenges don’t just include the hardware side of distributed systems, but also taxonomies and metadata (ensuring that everyone uses the same vocabulary), etc.
In the afternoon, there will be a panel discussion by representatives of some of the large Pharmaceutical companies on Collaboration, and SPX. SPX is CSC’s technology that allows users to interact with their FirstDoc system from SharePoint. It consists of two parts – SPX web parts, and Wingspan’s DocWay server component that resides on a web service server (see my earlier post for details on this).
I’ve been involved with this technology for the last 4 years, and I am curious what will be covered here.
Later in the day there is also a discussion on FirstDoc Performance metrics.
Now, this is something that I would be very interested in. How do you actually measure the performance of a system, especially when there are so many parts involved? For example, if a user is in SharePoint, and they use SPX to access documents that reside in a Documentum docbase, there is so much going on. If performance is poor, how do you actually pinpoint where the bottleneck is? I know that there are ways to get information back on the activities that occur, but this involves making some changes in the configuration, and is not really a simple thing to do. If I was there, this is one session where I would be scribbling notes. (I know – in these days, I should actually be typing notes into my iPad2).
At the end of the first day there will be a User Only session. In the first FDUG conference 2007, this session caused a little bit of concern. The idea was that the users would have a chance to talk frankly with the users about FirstDoc (at that stage FirstDoc was the name of the company also – it was bought by CSC in 2008.) However, the fact that there was someone from FirstDoc present in the room did not engender a feeling of openness. At later conferences this was less of a problem.
On the second day, there are more strategy, and users sessions culminating in product demonstrations.
Naturally there is also a social event planned, and this really gives the attendees the chance to mix, and get to know the others that are using the CSC products. There is an opportunity to share, and learn, from others who may be dealing with, or have dealt with, similar challenges.
Related Posts
Next Post: FDUG – Europe – Review of the Agenda
The following is an article that was originally posted on PharmaIQ.
The author is Cristina Falcão.
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The world’s most highly regulated industry seems doomed to “forward retreat” tiptoeing into social media. Why? The reason lies on social media’s gist – user generated content (UGC) is the raison d’être but also the main drawback, since the lack of rules on the accuracy of online content (written by the users of websites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn) makes pharma accountable.
Effective guidance, equally issued by the EU and US drug agencies, is urgently needed, before pharma companies can use social media’s valuable contribution in areas such as pharma-vigilance, clinical trials, R&D, and employee- recruitment.
What is the current guidance situation?
Unlike in the US, the European Directive 2001/83 (Community Code) forbids public advertising of “prescription-only medicines”. On the other hand, EU offers little specific guidance on social media (apart from some EFPIA -guidelines on websites, and the PMCPA’s (UK) “Brief guideline on blogs”), and waits for the US approach; however, FDA rules on pharma, internet and social media, which draft was due at the end of 2010, still have not been issued.
Major concerns
Pharma companies are responsible for the contents of a sponsored website (sponsorship can simply be advertising); yet, it is virtually impossible for the industry to control a website’s UGC without undermining the dynamic nature of social media. Adverse events reporting (AER) is a nightmare: the law states pharma companies must report all those events to the respective regulatory agencies, where they are stored in databases to monitor drug safety. It is impossible for the industry to monitor all AER’s, and marketers fear that user-generated content will include complaints about their drugs’ side effects; what makes it even worse, is the fact that FDA’s databases are regularly searched by lawyers for potential class-action suits.
Nevertheless, there are many pharma companies using Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other social media tools; the only way out, is to monitor activity on any social media platform where they are present, using disclaimers, reserving the right to remove unwanted comments and redirecting drug questions to the company’s website.
Clinical trials
Patient-recruiting for clinical trials through social media, grants decreased R&D costs to the industry. However, clinical trials have several types, designs, and sample groups; social media, alone, is not the universal source. It can prove to be a double-edge sword, if patients interact and exchange information before the whole trial is completed; also it does not ensure evaluable data in the end. Patient- recruiting outside the physician’s own pool of patients has high dropout rates; tweeting about a clinical trial may build awareness of the opportunity, but does not guarantee an engaged PI, who will lead the patient through the clinical trial, thus assuring collection of meaningful data.
Although ‘social media’ is the overhyped buzzword of our time, for pharmaceuticals it will be a treacherous route: regulations will undoubtedly limit (further) interaction with the public, but increase accountability – it not being worth the effort or risk.
All we know for sure is that the debate has only started.
Click on this image for the original post
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Related Posts:
When I started blogging, it was because I had been inspired to “write down” what I was doing. Just as a way of keeping a personal record. I just wanted to start…something.
At the same time, I discovered that I was actually having to “think” more about things. I found this really inspiring.
A post at the end of last year, by Bjørn Furuknap, led me to question this. In his post, Bjorn stated that if a blogger was offering no real value, then he/she would be better off doing nothing. (I wrote a post about this, that you can read here.)
To be honest, Bjorn’s post (as well as older post by Laurence Hart, aka @Piewords), make me think seriously about the posts I write.
On the one hand, I didn’t want my posts to fall into the “might as well just shut up” category, but I still wanted to use them as a way that I could record my thoughts, or offer tips, or advice.
In fact this conflict, would often prevent me from actually writing anything. I would start, but then doubt would enter my mind, as I tried to work out whether the post was indeed too much of the “just shut up” type.
Thanks to a tweet by @BizTeam lead me to a small video in which Seth Godin, and Tom Peters, talks about blogging. Seth commented that a blog is free, and it doesn’t matter if nobody reads it. What matters is the humility that comes from writing it – the “thinking” about it.
Wow – when I heard these words, it really brought me back to my original “purpose” for writing. It’s something I mention in that earlier post – I blog so that I am forced to THINK about things.
Have a look at the video, and let me know what your thoughts are…
[vodpod id=Video.2215350&w=425&h=350&fv=%26rel%3D0%26border%3D0%26]
Seth Godin was once asked about the value of social networking for business.
In response to this Seth discussed the “value” of having so many “friends” on Facebook, or “followers” on Twitter.
I want to have a solid connection with someone based on something more than just the effort it takes to click on a button.
He goes on to question whether these people would go out of their way to help you. One interesting example he gives is that he knows people in NZ that, if he needed it, would give him a place to stay. He’s never met these people, but a strong relationship has been built up online because they have helped each other at some stage. They have taken the time to do something for the other.
Seth’s comment really resonate with my thoughts on relationships in Social Media. I don’t want to have hundreds of “Friends”, or thousands of “Followers”. I don’t want to be a LION (LinkedIn Open Networker).
I want to have a solid connection with someone based on something more than just the effort it takes to click on a button.
————————————————————————————————————–
Watched a documentary today about how social media is being used in public protests.
In the UK the police have a tactic called kettling where they drive everyone into an enclosed area, and just leave them. The idea is that, eventually, the excitement dies done.
The problem is that innocent people can get caught in this “kettle”. The police themselves tweet to let people know when areas are safe, and not safe, and there is even an app that helps protesters avoid these areas.
Anyway – this evening I discovered this slideshare presentation, which presents some very intersting information:
[vodpod id=Video.5949013&w=425&h=350&fv=]
I was trawling the web looking for posts/articles that would make me smarter (a long process) when the post “10 New Twitter Tools That Will Make Your Life Easier” caught my attention. I’m really getting into the whole Twitter thing, and anything that makes my life easier, must be good.
One of the tools that the post mentions is “ManageFilter”, and describes it as a tool that allows you to “unfollow Twitter accounts that don’t follow you back“.
My first reaction to reading this was “what a bloody passive-aggressive thing to do”. Sort of “Huh – if you won’t follow me, I’m not going to follow you.”
My second reaction was “Why do you follow someone in the first place?”
For me, it is because I am genuinely interested in what the person is tweeting about. I follow some really first class people, and I learn a lot from them.
I know that Twitter “etiquette” dictates that it if someone follows you, it is polite to follow them back. I say “Screw that“. Don’t get me wrong, I am really happy when people start following me, but I really want to get value out of the people I follow.
Every day I get notified that “someone” has started following me. When I check their profile – sometimes with a photo of a beautiful girl, but often no photo at all – I often see that the particular “person”: is following a lot of people; has maybe tweeted 5 times; and might have a small number of followers (I’m guessing that these are people who have followed back automatically). And, if not followed back, unfollows after a very short amount of time
As I mentioned, I am more than happy to have people follow me. And I also try to add value. I try to share with others in my “area of interest” things that might be of value to them. I admit that, sometimes, I tweet something totally “off-topic”, or something with a bit of humour, but generally I keep to a relatively narrow area of interest.
However, if it is obvious that someone has followed me, just so that I will follow them back…well, sorry, but I have to disappoint you.
Here are the 10 Twitter Commandments according to John Antonios
And…his guide to following people on Twitter:
Some of my other Twitter related posts.
In an earlier post (“Let’s Share“) I discussed the benefits of sharing information in the workplace.
One of the ways to do this is be using ESS (Enterprise Social Software). This includes employee’s blogs, wikis, and micro-blogging.
However, just providing the tools does not mean that will be used.
Murali Sitaram, (Vice President and General Manager for Cisco’s Enterprise Collaboration Platform Group), has written an excellent post in which he describes ESS, and the value it can have in the workplace.
I would like to borrow a few paragraphs from one particular section in his post in which he discusses strategies for User Adoption:
- Make it personally valuable:Enabling employees to post, tag, bookmark and share information enables them to create their own personal learning environment and build relationships with peers based on similar interests. Adoption will not be driven directly by what processes they are involved in, or any other formal activity that directs their role. Instead, their use of ESS is influenced by their own goals – which might tie to career development, recognition of their expertise, or professional networking.
- Make it a community effort:People often enjoy helping others and collectively co-creating something of value. Adoption can be facilitated by posing challenges for employees to overcome. For instance, inviting employees to participate in solving some of the more pressing issues facing the company (products, markets) or their department (customer service, data quality) can tap into the goodwill of employees to contribute.
- Make it the new way of working:Over the years, companies have changed the means of production by deploying office productivity tools, or automating work activities by deploying various business applications such as CRM. Employees had to change the way they worked as the work itself changed in terms of its tooling. In some cases, we can change the work itself such that people blog instead of creating documents, or share information via wikis rather than email. As people become comfortable using tools for their daily routine, they can become more comfortable using the same tools to voluntarily participate in communities and professional networks.
These points describe excellent ways to not only encourage the use of social media tools in a company, but to also bring about a change in the culture of a company in a way that is not “thou shalt, or else!” way.
I really encourage you to read Murali’s post. You can find it here.
John Mancini, President of AIIM International was kind enough to make a zipcast of his info360 keynote presentation slides. This allows him to do “present” his slides. I am very, very grateful that he did this, as I was not able to attend the conference. I was really impressed by John’s comments. I made some “rough” notes. (I call them “rough” because they don’t capture all of John’s message – If you want, scroll to the bottom of this post to see the link to his zipcast.) ============================================================ Rough Notes made from John Mancini’s keynote at Info360 We are in the middle of an interesting technology inflection point —————————————————————- We have been through many phases, each with its content management focus.
Effectively what we have done is just taken the old world of paper-based records, ledgers and transferred it to the next phase of technology. This may the the source of some of the challenges that we have. The next iteration after the Internet will be “Social” – a focus on interactions and conversations. The content management focus will be capturing and managing these. John mentions that companies can’t just put a social layer on top of their current processes. They will need to think about the social layer and how they embed it in all of their processes and push it back through our web presences and information repositories so that everything connects up. A system of engagement that just has a front-end social process and nothing else behind it is not enough. John also points out that we need to avoid pushing just old world concepts into this social world. We will need to adapt these ideas, and ways of doing things. The old transactional ideas had to do with control, auditing and securing. This won’t be always possible in the new way. Implications ———— CIO’s will need to approach things differently.
The end of the email era John did an analysis of his e-mail:
His point was – we need to think differently about e-mail. This is compounded by the fact that the people coming into the workforce are from the “social” phase, while the people making the decisions are from the “PC” phase. The End of IT autocracy.
Implication of Compounding
Why we should care ——————-
============================================================== Link to John Mancini’s Zipcast ———————————————–
John Mancini, President of AIIM International was kind enough to make a zipcast of his info360 keynote presentation slides. This allows him to do “present” his slides. I am very, very grateful that he did this, as I was not able to attend the conference. I was really impressed by John’s comments. I made some “rough” notes. (I call them “rough” because they don’t capture all of John’s message – If you want, scroll to the bottom of this post to see the link to his zipcast.) ============================================================ Rough Notes made from John Mancini’s keynote at Info360 We are in the middle of an interesting technology inflection point —————————————————————- We have been through many phases, each with its content management focus.
Effectively what we have done is just taken the old world of paper-based records, ledgers and transferred it to the next phase of technology. This may the the source of some of the challenges that we have. The next iteration after the Internet will be “Social” – a focus on interactions and conversations. The content management focus will be capturing and managing these. John mentions that companies can’t just put a social layer on top of their current processes. They will need to think about the social layer and how they embed it in all of their processes and push it back through our web presences and information repositories so that everything connects up. A system of engagement that just has a front-end social process and nothing else behind it is not enough. John also points out that we need to avoid pushing just old world concepts into this social world. We will need to adapt these ideas, and ways of doing things. The old transactional ideas had to do with control, auditing and securing. This won’t be always possible in the new way. Implications ———— CIO’s will need to approach things differently.
The end of the email era John did an analysis of his e-mail:
His point was – we need to think differently about e-mail. This is compounded by the fact that the people coming into the workforce are from the “social” phase, while the people making the decisions are from the “PC” phase. The End of IT autocracy.
Implication of Compounding
Why we should care ——————-
============================================================== Link to John Mancini’s Zipcast ———————————————–