NorthStarNerd.Org

Tagging Inside the Firewall

My company is cool. In the last 24 hours we've brought online a pilot project which is one of the very first, if not the first, internal corporate social networking / tagging applications. By internal I mean the service and server are running inside our network domain, yet our employees will be able to tag both internal and external content. Although we are working with a company named ConnectBeam, you should also review other tagging solutions as complied by IT|Redux.

Okay, why is this cool? Well ... this application is inside our firewall and will allow our engineers to perform knowledge discovery, research and sharing across the miles ... even if they don't know each other! ConnectBeam works in tandem with our internal Google search appliance. Over the next few weeks we will conduct our final tests before rolling out our application later this Spring. Here are two screenshots that review some basic concepts:

1. Old style search
2. New style search

Click upon any thumbnail to enlarge (some of my prior posts on this topic)
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Cooking for Engineers

Way back in November of 2005, I first posted about "Cooking for Engineers". If you're worried about baking the perfect Hot Cross Buns for Easter, then this is the site for you. You'll find exact measurement details and photos that only an engineer could love!

Why the repeat post? Cooking for Engineers has hit the big time, and is on this month's IEEE Spectrum Radio Show podcast. Michael Chu (the host engineer) gets over 200,000 site visits per month. While I'm worrying about knowledge management, Michael is providing an engineer's analysis to cooking thermometers! I guess I'm blogging the wrong stuff!

Tagging Concepts Screencast / Tutorial

Back in mid February post, I briefly alluded to and linked a great Tagging Concepts Screencast / Tutorial. This morning, while reading an RSS feed from TechSmith's blog, I was reminded of this tutorial. I decided that this screencast was so good, it should have its own post.

If you're not familiar with the concept of tagging, and / or you've never been on the del.icio.us web site, you must watch this tutorial. What makes this tutorial superior is that the author explains and demonstrates concepts, not just software menus and commands. My extreme interest stems not from any love of the del.icio.us tagging service, but rather from how tagging applied by specific groups inside a corporate firewall will greatly enhance knowledge transfer and collaboration.

• Tagging Concepts Tutorial

Technology in World History

Okay ... it's Sunday night in Minnesota. One must ponder heavy questions such as ...

• Why were horses domesticated, but not zebras?

If issues like this have been bothering you for some time, then link (and subscribe) to a delightful podcast from the University of Virginia: Technology in World History. The series is at its halfway point; who knows what you might learn?!

eContent Redesign #2

For the second time in less than two weeks I decided my blog needed a redesign. You will now find a new category in the right hand margin, Web / Corporate 2.0. I recategorized many postings and republished the entire blog.

When I first started this blog over on MSN in early January of 2004, I used the category "pushing the frontier". The term Web 2.0 was unknown. Upon a recent review of my "frontier" category posts, I found most had a Web / Corporate 2.0 focus; thus the change. I've also included the word corporate in my category name because ... if I don't see a potential business application, it won't be in my blog!