It’s no secret, I am an ECM geek, and with good reason. ECM continues to evolve in powerful ways, and permeates every aspect of every business and our personal lives as well. Ok, let me repeat, as I have in many previous blog posts, I apply a very broad – but realistic – definition to ECM. You may not all call it ECM, but the intersection of “content”, community and context (i.e. ECM) – no matter the application - is ripe with endless and amazingly powerful (and mundanely useful) possibilities. [Note, I placed the word content in quotes because (another popular Frappaolo mantra), the definition of content expands and morphs with each passing day in this e-based world.]
Ok, so I have said this before, so why all the excitement today. This ECM geek is jazzed because over the last few weeks I have encountered several “real world” examples of cutting edge ECM practices; taking the stale perspective of ECM as the domain of the corporate librarian and/or IT database admin, and catapulting it into the 21st century. Take a look at the links below, and I dare you to NOT agree with me that ECM is cool, sexy, and exciting.
Let’s start with the delivery of content, a subject I blog on frequently. Dynamic content, content in context, repositories of intelligent “content chunks”, intelligently managed contextually and delivered via integration with slick highly portable wireless “readers”. What does that look like? Take a look at this video from Corning. As you marvel at the way glass can/will be used in a variety of powerful applications, keep a critical eye out for how ECM is the power behind all of this. We are on the brink of seeing this technology become an integral part of our everyday lives. Not just for the techno and ECM geeks of the world, but for the “average person.”
While on the subject of delivery devices, how about ECM delivery systems that produce in 3-D. I have blogged about this before as well. What is the state of this technology today? Take a look at this video to see a real world example, of “content” representing something as real as a bicycle, being “printed”. Challenge your notion of what is content. And while you are at it, take a step back and recognize that as this is occurring the related technologies surrounding content (Security, revision control, records management, not to mention collaborative product development, are/must evolve to keep pace with these new forms of “printed content”.)
Still thinking this is more science fiction than science? More future than now?
Read this interview, published just this week, with Dr. Daniel Kraft, a visionary medical doctor. This interview is not written from the perspective of an ECM geek, but that of a healthcare professional, contemplating the feasible application of technology on health care. Yet, it is ripe with examples of ECM: intelligent search ala “Watson”; social networking and collaboration; portal-like information dashboards, and yes – 3-D printing.
While all of this is circling in your brain, causing wonder and excitement, I again ask you to consider the more “mundane” background applications of ECM that exist behind these scenes as well. (In deed, the medical article referenced above mentions the challenge of HIPAA compliant communication (Can you say e-records management).
These applications root the ECM visionary back to the realities of the ECM day-to-day, many of the challenges I face as an ECM and knowledge management practitioner. But it is fun to simultaneously view the future unfold.
Happy New Year
