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May 2009
Friends,
 Another month,
and here is the second issue of this newsletter. So far
the subscriber list is slowly growing, though no feedback is
being received. This, of course, accords with the fact - well
known to anyone involved in micro-publishing and computer
supported collaboration - that the great majority of people
will be lurkers, reading and keeping quiet. Not that there's
anything wrong with that... it's just a reflection of human
nature. As long as you aren't complaining...
:-) Enjoy!
In this issue
News: Israel KM Forum taking the next
step
Reflection: Is Info Overload
sector-specific?
Introducing... Semantinet
What's New
Israel
KM Forum taking the next step
The Israel
Knowledge Managers forum has been around since 2001, when
it was launched by Yigal
Chamish. It had the distinction of getting a group of
interesting and committed practitioners to meet and exchange
views with none of the complications, membership fees, and
formalities that larger organizations involve. It was fun and
lightweight - and small.
Well, small no more.
The forum is now growing to the next stage: a new
interactive website has been created, dozens of new members
have joined, and there is a plan to incorporate it as a
formal non-profit.
If you're in Israel (or at any rate
read Hebrew) check it out at http://knowledgeil.ning.com/
; if you're also into KM, join (it's still free!) and
influence!
Observations, reflections and
opinions
Is
Info Overload sector-specific?
I was discussing
Information Overload with someone the other week and she
pointed out that this was, she assumed, a problem specific to
one population - people in the Hi-Tech sector. I told her she
couldn't be more wrong.
And believe me, I know.
I started addressing this problem at Intel - definitely
Hi-Tech - in 1995, but in 2001 I shared my work outside - and
since then it's been a continuing dialog with scores of
organizations worldwide that were suffering from IO's
devastating impact; and these came from four continents and
from all sectors: Hi-Tech and Low-Tech; Fortune 500 (and 50,
and 5) and tiny companies; schools and non-profits and
universities and governments, churches and art studios... all
repeating the same woeful tale.
Certainly the
details can vary, depending on the organization's dynamics
and toolkit; but the general problem is the same. It is
interesting to note that I've met many people who fail to
realize that it isn't about Hi or Low tech; the only
pre-requisite to IO is that people use computers as a primary
means of communication; and people - notably managers - do
that in every organization, be it a computer vendor, a bank,
or a charity. How can we solve this universal problem unless
people accept its universality?
Introducing...
Semantinet
In my
new career (and in the old one, for that matter) I meet
and assist many Startup companies; the pleasure goes beyond
mere business, since it allows me to interact with some very
intelligent and interesting people. In this newsletter I hope
to introduce to you some of these hotbeds of
innovation.
And for starters, a startup I've been
working with for some time now: Semantinet.
Semantinet
is an experienced Israeli startup: two years, 20 people, a
working product in the hands of the public. Its strength is in
its mastery of Semantic Search technology, which powers its
product, headup.
Headup is a Firefox
browser add-on that enhances one's surfing experience by
offering additional information on a variety of items on the
pages you browse; these can be people, places, artists,
companies, and so on. The information appears in a small
pop-up window and includes not only general information like a
company's financials or a band's albums, but also personal
info like which of your friends works in this company or what
mutual interests and friends you share with that person. How
does it know? That's where the semantic magic comes in...
basically it pulls in the public data from Facebook,
Linked-In, Last.fm and many other social sites to understand
your social network, interests and connections, and correlates
it all to serve you with serendipitous "Aha!" moments:
"Hey, I didn't realize that my friend Jeff is a fan of this
very Sci Fi author I admire!"
Headup keeps
improving and morphing every week - after years in a global
corporation, I find it hard to believe how fast on their feet
the folks at a startup can be. You can see a demo video and
try out the latest free beta version at http://www.headup.com.
Let me know what
you think!
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Things to Do
- Visit
our web site - Forward
to a friend - Give
feedback - Get
Coffee - Subscribe to
this newsletter - Read
previous issues
Recently blogged
- Tesseract
- an action comic
for the ultimate
geek
- More
waste of time
- Tiny
phone, humongous software
Snapshots of
Ingenuity
Kaufmann's Posographe is a
mechanical computer that computes six-variable functions with
nothing more than a bunch of levers. One look at its inner
works makes any engineer gasp with amazement...
[Read more]
The Monthly Factoid
Shortly
after Intel invented the microprocessor for Busicom, the
Japanese firm offered to relinquish its exclusive rights to
the chip to Intel for $60,000. At the time there was much
debate at Intel about the wisdom of this deal. One argument
that helped the decision to go for it was the notion that the
CPU chip would help increase Intel's memory chip sales...
The lesson: sometimes the right decision is
made for totally wrong
reasons!
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