Recently Mike Herrick asked a question on his blog about what formats should be supported for Form Data and storing Content for archival. James McGovern appears to have misinterpreted the question and asked which of these formats ECM Vendors should support and why they can’t convert between formats out of the box. His question has merit, so I am going to address both.
Month: July 2007
ECM Standards Flurry
Hadn’t planned on this post today. Saw a post out there by Bex Huff that I wanted to comment upon. Bex basically rants in his post. I’m not being dismissive, he states that he is ranting. I like a good chunk of what he says, but I have two comments.
First, a Correction
In regards to universal connectors created by third parties, Bex states that they were bought up and shut down by Documentum. This is not accurate in the least. There were two major players at the time in the US market and another in the European market. Here is what really happened.
Tips: Render Me This
Time for one of those posts that I originally thought would be more dominant in my blog, using Documentum Technology. After all, it doesn’t matter how well your system interacts with the outside world if it falls on its face when it is used.
It is time to talk about renditions. A heavily used feature that people rarely actually think about. For most, it is just a way to have a PDF version of your favorite Word document for review or publishing. For some, it is a critical piece of a Digital Asset Management solution. However, it can also be an easy way to create a relationship.
Why ECM Standards?
There has been a lot of new discussion on ECM Standards of late. I’m pretty excited about it. I don’t agree with it all, but discussion is good. I can’t respond to everything in one post. Well, I can, but that will take a lot of time. So I am going to respond to lowest level observation. When I say “lowest level”, I mean that if you don’t buy into this detail, the rest are irrelevant.
Some have stated that ECM standards aren’t practicable. These reasons vary from the shifting technology to the fact that serving-up the lowest common denominator of functionality provides a nearly useless standard. These are valid concerns. The question that we need to ask is, What problem are we trying to solve?
4th of July Special
Nothing technical today. Today is about perspective. 231 Years ago, a bunch of colonist told the most powerful nation in the world that they were sick and tired and weren’t going to take it anymore. Five years later, they finally won their independence on the field, though it would be two years until a treaty was signed and another four years until they put an effective means of running it in place.
Think about that. Some of the brightest minds of the time took 11 years to go from declaring themselves ready for independence to actually realizing the dream of the United States. Every man that signed the Declaration of Independence knew that they were committing treason. They did it anyway, because the dream meant that much to them.
They didn’t agree on every issue. One issue in particular almost erupted into a small civil war in 1832 before erupting into an actual Civil War almost 30 years later. They got past it and our country came out stronger and better prepared for the next century.
In today’s world, we focus so much on what is happening now that we don’t always appreciate what has happened before. Lives have been sacrificed for the principles of the United States. Today isn’t about fireworks or the Star Spangled Banner. It is about remembering what it was that the 56 signers of the Declaration saw when they looked out their windows upon this land. A place for dreams. A place were all men are created equal, that they are endowed, by their Creator, with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.
Do you think you know enough about our country? Try this sample exam at MSNBC. If you don’t get at least an 95%, you need to hit the books. It isn’t enough to know what is going on in today’s world. Everyone should know what happened to shape our world and give us the freedoms that we take for granted.
Meanwhile, I’m going to go work on that whole pursuit of Happiness bit. Enjoy the 4th!
Choosing a Target for Standards
Reaction to my previous two posts revealed two simple things about the Universe. Enterprise Architects want/need ECM standards now. Enterprise Content Management people don’t think that the ECM world is ready for them. They are both right, so let the fighting begin.
Brian “Bex” Huff wrote about the lack of useful ECM standards and how writing a standard to the lowest common denominator would leave it all but useless. He raises some excellent points, but I think there is an important thing here. If an ECM system doesn’t support a minimal level of functionality, is it really Enterprise worthy? If it isn’t ready for the Enterprise, do we care if it can’t integrate with everything else? I’m thinking No on both counts.
Evaluating EMC’s Content Management Certification
So, I’ve now taken two of the exams offered in this space by EMC. I wanted to post some thoughts on the program as it has been applied to Documentum. I’ve been through more than one IT certification program in the past (including a Microsoft one that expired years ago), so I’m not new to this process. First, an overview of the EMC Proven Professional program.
Word of Pie 