How do you know that?

KM teaser

Microsoft Watch is reporting that the Redmond gang is developing a new 'people and groups' technology called Wallop. It sounds like it could have very interesting KM implications. There's a site up, but it's open for registered users only. What a tease!

posted by Christopher @ 8:37 AM

.net Architecture

I've been looking at the .net Petshop application. It's actually really well done in a lot of ways, and fast. I downloaded the source from Microsoft here.

Oddly enough, I seemed to have located a bug. Go to the app, add a few things to your cart and go to checkout. Try to change the quantity on one of the items and click update. The total doesn't recalculate correctly. I went to look for a forum to note this and there wasn't one.... Hmmm.

posted by Christopher @ 11:38 AM

A twist on AI

If a chatbot is trying to emulate the intellect of George W. Bush, can you call it artificial Intelligence? Anyway, very funny stuff. Thanks John.

posted by Christopher @ 7:51 AM

Way cool use of technology

Volunteer Match.com ... help someone!

posted by Christopher @ 11:36 PM

Microsoft

Robert Cringley takes on Microsoft's inability to understand open source. While I agree with much of what Cringley talks about, but something interesting is revealed. He seems to believe that software development is an art rather than a business (this may be an over simplification).

In many ways, development is an art. But it is definitely a business.

I spent many years as an actor here in New York (no you probably haven't seen me in anything). There's one thing you learn in no uncertain terms. There's a reason they call it show BUSINESS and not show ART! You have to be good at your craft - but you have to meet the needs of the business.

posted by Christopher @ 9:28 AM

KM

Here here... Denham Grey has some good thoughts about KM frameworks. My takeaway... Yes this stuff is very hard, others think so too. Very few, if any, get it completely right.

posted by Christopher @ 7:20 AM

On the other hand...

Andrea found a great artist on the web. Heidi's going to make a plush replica for us. The site doesn't do her justice.

posted by Christopher @ 9:06 PM

Microsoft

... and how to hate them.... Underneath there's the hint that they are trying to say that they've gotten a clue. hmmmmmm

posted by Christopher @ 4:22 PM

Searching for the perfect .net treeview

Yes.. geeky.

obout has a nice one. , but I'm looking for maximum functionality for free.

Microsoft's entry ... is anyone using this?

posted by Christopher @ 9:33 PM

Card Counting in Vegas as KM

Court TV aired a program last night about the group of MIT students that devised a method of team card counting that they used in various casinos throughout the country. This was also written up in a Wired article last year some time.

Brilliant stuff. They worked as a team to count and moderate the bets with amazing success. They had mastered the math of the game and added a series of signals that team members would relay in order to beat the casino.

The KM slant comes with the way the identified the essential information (card count) and came up with a creative way to safely relay it without the casino catching on.

KM also comes into play in the way that the casinos caught and prevented them from continuing the practice.

The casino easily identified the players that the team had given the roll of high roller. This person identity and image were captured by computers and shared amongst the various computers.

Casino security then widened the search in order to look for other members of the team. When the pattern was found the information was shared, in the form of a book that was published with pictures of all of the players.

Apparently card counting is not illegal, but the casinos have a right to request people to leave at their discretion. This was exercised on the known players. Because the identities were shared, the players were effectively blackballed from all casinos nationwide.

Casino security also appeared to track the individuals through travel plans, credit card usage and possibly surveillance. Again, effectively communicating the whereabouts of these 'threats' and alerting other casinos of a possible 'attack'.

intriguing stuff.

posted by Christopher @ 10:20 AM

What's next

We're in the planning zone.

Interesting topic for a few thought cycles. Integrated messaging and it's relationship to KM. Spurred on by this 'too good to be real' report on ridiculous cost reductions by switching to Voice over IP. The mind has to detour to the prospect of integrated messaging. While the prospect of having my email client tell me when I have a voice mail, and then play it for me is very attractive at first blush. I haven't heard too many raving success stories about this yet. Nor have I been paying too much attention.

Bypassing the logistics (bandwidth, storage, security etc.) I'm sure that there are some pretty cool KM things that could be done.

Note to self: Find out what's out there in terms of KM/VOIP integration.

posted by Christopher @ 3:04 PM

Service-Oriented Architecture

A good definition in Roger Session's latest newsletter. I've been reading Roger for about five years now. His views are always clearly stated, informed and spot on accurate.

posted by Christopher @ 9:24 AM

.net - data grid tricks

I am using the asp.net data grid to display search results. The paging feature works great and saves a lot of time, but the default page number display makes it very difficult to identify which page you're on.

Dino Esposito wrote a great article on msdn re how to change the paging display. Essential stuff for a usable app.

posted by Christopher @ 2:34 PM

Search = Commodity

When you go to a law firm's web site what are you looking for? Our stats tell us that most of the time you're looking up a lawyer.

Next question... How do you want to search? First, Last Names, office, practice area, title, law school, place of birth, text in lawyer biography ... How much is over kill?

We're making some changes to our search functionality. Low cost - high value stuff.

posted by Christopher @ 2:29 PM

Hello

Let's pick up where we left off. Or rather, let's redirect. I'm going to try and stick more to the point on KM/Tech issues in this blog. I've started a few others, but they don't really need to cross paths. If you're interested in those topics I'm sure a search engine will bring you there.

posted by Christopher @ 8:22 AM