Let the Games Begin, The 2010 AIIM CMIS Demo

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As promised, here is the “official” announcement of what the iECM Committee is doing this year for CMIS demo at the AIIM Expo.  This year we are trying to create a reference application that we can actually use for a long time and grow with new functionality.

We are looking for participants to help us out.  Read through and see if you would like to contribute.  There is also be a formal presentation on the demo scheduled for the AIIM Conference, and there will most likely be a panel discussion like the one held last year.

Here we go.  I copied it here, but you can download the PDF version if you prefer.

“Mission Statement”

To analyze and evaluate the CMIS standard in terms of it usability and the benefits of employing CMIS in the development of new services and applications which leverage one or more existing ECM systems; and to develop experience reports that capture best practices in the use of CMIS and CMIS compliant products.

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The AIIM CMIS Demo: Looking Back at 2009 and Ahead to 2010

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I’ve published a lot on the Content Management Interoperability Services (CMIS) standard since it’s initial public announcement in September of 2008.  One problem is that a lot of that content is spread out in multiple blog posts.

Demo Picture Well Thomas Pole, the AIIM iECM Committee chair, and I have written a whitepaper talking about the demo that the committee built for the AIIM Conference last year.  It talks about the ups and downs of designing and building the demo.  It classifies the demonstration using the three  fundamental CMIS use cases that I crafted this past summer and talks about what the upcoming demonstration is going to achieve.

If you want to read it, you can download the PDF version right here.

Did I mention that it has pretty pictures?

The section talking about the future is excerpted below.  There will be a more detailed post on that shortly.

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The AIIM iECM CMIS Demo, 2010 Remix

Last year, AIIM‘s iECM Committee put together a demonstration of the proposed CMIS 1.0 standard for the AIIM Conference in Philly.  Well, we are at it again for a bigger and better demo.

How is it going to be better?  I am glad you asked.  Here is what we are aiming for this year:

  • More vendors:  Last year we had three vendors (Alfresco, EMC, and Nuxeo) participating.  This year we already have four vendor commitments and we haven’t started groveling for more participants yet!
  • More CMIS scenarios:  Last year we only showed CMIS in the Federation scenario.  This year we are going to be showing TWO Federation scenarios AND, as a bonus, an Application to Repository scenario.  That’s right, we are going to be switching our front-end application between the different repositories ON THE FLY!
  • Real-world use cases: Okay, maybe not “real” world, but we are going to be using the Health Care Industry as a basis for this year’s demonstration.  Our meta-data model and use cases will focus on the management of content of a patients health care record.  Things will be simplified, this is a CMIS demo after-all, but you will be able to see a real-world application for CMIS that doesn’t involve a generic ECM interface.
  • CMIS Version 1.0: This is really just for me.  Last year everything was draft this and beta that.  I’m expecting a much more streamlined development process this year.

You want more?  How about this…there is going to be a session on the demo at the AIIM Conference this year presented by myself and Thomas Pole, the iECM Committee Chair talking about the demo and a whitepaper that will be developed in conjunction.

In the next few days, you will see a more detailed description of this year’s demonstration and a whitepaper that Thomas and I have written about the status of the standard, the story of last year’s demo, and what we are planning for this year.

Exciting times people, exciting times.

I Want YOU to Speak at EMC World!

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I have a confession to make…I’m a fraud.  I may know a lot about Documentum and ECM, but when you get to pick your discussion topics, it is easy to look smart and knowledgeable.

imageMany of you know a lot about implementing successful ECM projects with Documentum, SharePoint, Alfresco, Nuxeo, or any number of systems.  You have all learned things that I’ve never even considered when planning for a project.

And the number of things I don’t know about Documentum is mind-boggling.  There are new components every few months and there is no way that I, or anyone for that matter, can keep up with it all.

So I am asking for your help.  Please think about the projects you have worked on in the past year or so.  Did you learn a few things?  Did you run into a few hurdles to over come?  The odds are that the project wasn’t perfect.  Even if it went well, there are things that you would do differently.

Share what you learned with me.

Share it with everyone!

Speak at EMC World!

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ECM or Document Management?

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imageI’ve been working to help re-define ECM these days.  It has been a matter of using the term Enterprise Content Management versus creating a new term.  My theory is use the term that a lot of people know and don’t start the education process over.  John Mancini, the president of AIIM, talked the ECM label on his Digital Landfill blog.

A more important question has arisen…is ECM even relevant as a concept?  CMS Watch really kicked this thought process off by saying that the term should be reserved for that rare breed of big, complex, and typically very expensive platforms that actually merit such a grandiose term.  For other systems that may aspire to ECM, but aren’t there, Document Management is the term.

I’m thinking Yes and No.

Before we look at Document Management, let’s look at ECM as a platform.

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Review: Enterprise 2.0

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Enterprise 2.0, New Collaborative Tools for Your Organization’s Toughest Challenges

Andrew McAfee

I’ve been following Andrew on Twitter for a while and have enjoyed his posts.  So when I heard that the author of the term “Enterprise 2.0” had written a book on the topic, I was initially skeptical of the value to me.  How much new stuff would there be in the book for someone who, while not an expert, was very familiar with the topic?  After hearing about some of the hype, I decided to give the book a try.

I am glad that I did.

Aside from having a handy book that I can hand people to learn about Enterprise 2.0, the book helped me crystallize my understanding of Enterprise 2.0 and helped me think of better ways to explain it to people.

So money well spent, but what did I learn?

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10 Years in the Mountains of Documentum

Ten years ago on the tenth of January in 2000, while many people were trying to determine why Y2K didn’t end civilization, I was starting a new chapter in my ECM life.  That day was the day I first started using Documentum.

It is a simple day to track as it was my first day at Infodata Systems.  I went to Infodata for simple reasons, I was tired of traveling to Omaha and Infodata was located one block from my apartment.  I was going to get to stay in what was becoming the ECM space, though I was going to have to learn this thing called Documentum.

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Documentum Renewal: Wrapping it up with a Bow

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This is an important post.  This is all about pulling it together and helping everyone to understand the thought process behind this series of posts.  Before I do that, here is the list of links to each post:

My Christmas Gift to EMC

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Documentum Renewal: Simplify and Bundle

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This next in the series is actually not technical in nature.  It is much more complicated than architecture and features.  It is all about money.

One of the biggest issues I have when working with clients is helping them understand what they have purchased and helping them figure out what they might need to purchase.  As I make zero on software sales, I do not even take a perverse joy in telling them about the fact that they need one MORE, or more than one, product.image

Then there are the times when I point to an item, usually between the 15th and 20th item on the list, and ask them what they planned to do with that component.  They look at it and don’t even know what it does.

The price list for Documentum related products is well over 100 items.

Problem.

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Documentum Renewal: Architecting Content Applications

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Of all my posts in this series, this is the one that is probably the least needed.  I say this because it looks like EMC is some of this now.  It does need to be said though, just so EMC know that we still care, and in case I am guessing wrong.  The themes for the Architecting of Content Applications is closely related to the Application Separation topic and in many ways, is the complement to the Focus on the Core edition.

I’m going to stay away from some specific feature requests for applications.  I would want to do complete run-downs on any app before I did that.  I want to be a little more strategic in my advice.

As always, please feel free to add/comment.

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