In the last month, two different social networking communities have popped-up in the ECM space. One is the new Information Zen community sponsored by AIIM. The other is The Content Management Connection created by George Dearing. There are lots of pros and cons, but lets keep it simple…

Critical Mass Goes to AIIM

AIIM already has a larger number of users. With the sponsorship of AIIM, it should easily maintain that lead. The question is, how active will those users be on the site? Numbers mean nothing if people aren’t active. So it all boils down to content.

Information Zen has personal blogs and the ability to add user content and videos. It has a discussion area and the ability for users to add events. It also allows for the creation of groups by individual users and pages for those groups. The only thing missing is a wiki.

Content Management Connection, Bloggers Unite

The one thing I like about Content Management Connection (CMC) over AIIM is the ability for it to auto-post my blog to the site. In fact, the whole community seems focused on blog content. There is a wiki, but it doesn’t look active and I can’t determine how to add to it.

The blogging system has some limitations. The ability to keep my original blog and the copy on CMC tightly linked was poorly explained and didn’t seem to always function as desired. The ability to delete something that I posted is not present. Responses to emails asking for help were non-existent.

Oh, and they edited one of my blog entries without checking with me first. The wanted to make it more timely. If they had asked, I would have done it myself. Next to copying a post and claiming it as your own, editing someone else’s post is right up there as a bloggers pet peeve.

As a whole, CMC has some growth needed technically and managerially. Plus, it will have to work harder than AIIM to hit a critical mass of users.

Information Zen and Community

I am going to focus on Information Zen for now. There is a lot more there and I think that it may be a better platform for developing ECM SOA standards and Design patterns. I also know that the people that I want to reach will either be there or have colleagues that will be there.

The blogging may be more limiting, but the ability to build a community seems stronger. Plus Bex and Jed are already out there.

So remember when I asked you to start collecting those security scenarios for using ECM in the great big world? The place where we will collect those will most likely be on Information Zen. Let me get a few thoughts together on how to best use it and then we can start collecting.

In the meantime, join Information Zen and look for Pie.