MiramarMike: Blog

I've previously talked about it seems to be harder to find information (and therefore work) inside an organisation than outside of it. For example, my Dad can find more relevant information quicker than I can ... and he's not being paid, or using dedicated systems designed (!) to give me the information I need to do my job. Accenture recognised this issue and seem to be working towards brining in the experience being used by my Dad and the rest of the consumer world into their organisation, namely tagging, online collaboration and social networking. And not just bringing in the functionality but emulating the experience - it has to be as easy, nice and as quick as it is on the whole of the Internet - don't make me think!?!? Extract courtesy of Julian on Software via my del.iciou.s network received in my reader this morning - that's how easy it should be find information: Accenture also has visual, context-assisted search capabilities already up and running. Ripper

Despite the figures (who really made these up) I agree with the sentiment: "We zeroed in on a central disconnect," said Francis, in San Francisco. "Only 44 percent of people can find what they need on a corporate intranet, [whereas] 87 percent can find what they want on the Web. … The consumer Web has shown us a better way with Flickr, where you can always find the right image, or YouTube, where you can always find the right video. So why is it so hard to find corporate information?" source: eWeek.com: Salesforce.com Quietly Acquires Content Management Company Koral And so, why? Why is it easier to search/find the whole Internet for "non structured" info than it is in every (tell me if I'm wrong) organisation. I'd love to know how easy it is inside Google!?!? My view - it's easier because the 'available and 'findable' components of information has had to be pared back to the absolute basics. There is search (normally Google), there

Following on from an excellent article by Stu over at fanboygeeks titled Prince Charles and those pesky DVDs I add this wee nugget from the Harvard Business School article Feature Bloat: The Product Manager's Dilemma : As anyone who has bought a cell phone over the last couple of years can tell you, manufacturers love to cram as many capabilities into a product as possible—cell phones are now also cameras, music players, and game platforms. Why the rush toward "feature bloat"? Because consumers perceive value in this Swiss-Army-Knife approach and will pay for the added utility. The problem comes when the buyer actually starts to use the product. The increased complexity makes for a very unhappy consumer, who will look to return the product or look for another vendor in the future. Interesting eh! We want it* to do oodles of things and will even gravitate to the one that has it all - and then we hate our lives because it's too cluttered and isn't usable. And that