Blogs

This is really a two part question. Hmmm, everything comes in twos…

Anyway, the first part of this question:

“Why I blog?”

I was convinced by a colleague back in 2006 to start my blog BetterECM ahead of the AIIM expo and conference that year. She thought it would be a good way to connect with potential customers about the solutions we were building. Well, I can’t thank her enough for pushing me into the blogosphere.

Over the last four years blogging has delivered the following key benefits:

1. I have benefited from some really smart people in the ECM industry and found a rich source of some innovative thinking.  I had not paid much attention to blogs before and needed to see what this was all about so I picked up a great book “Naked Conversations: How Blogs are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers” By Robert Scoble, Shel Israel. I followed their advice to read other blogs, learn from other good bloggers and comment on blog posts you like or disagree with. Essentially jump into the conversation. I now follow almost 50 ECM related blogs and have great respect for many of these authors and their ideas. Here is a link to my ECM and SharePoint feeds list. Right click on the link and choose “Save As” to download.
2. Blogging has really helped me think deeply about the practice of ECM and the challenges we face in effectively managing information. Too often we go through our days reacting to everything coming our way. We all become overwhelmed by the pace of business and change hitting us daily. Blogging forces me to step back and do some research, read others blogs, and then think deeply as I try to write something that makes sense and will be readable.
3. Blogging has connected me with a whole group of people who I would have never met before through traditional 1-2-1 contact. They have shared their comments, suggestions, and ideas and helped enrich my thinking and ideas about how to make ECM better.

Now, on to the second part of the question.

“Why am I Passionate About Managing Information?”

Enterprise Information Management (EIM) is a really big problem. EIM is the development and implementation of architectures, policies, practices and procedures to manage the full information lifecycle needs of an enterprise. This is really hard and I love to solve problems.

Here are some of the reasons I like working on this meaty problem:

• The prize for solving this problem is huge. We have effectively moved from a manufacturing based economy to a knowledge based economy. Information is the new currency and organizations which effectively exploit information will thrive in this new economy.
• Addressing the EIM challenge requires a large cross organization team. I really enjoy working with Legal, Records Management, IT, Compliance, and the business units.
• If I get this right then I have an opportunity to shape this industry – to leave a legacy. I have been advocating for over three years the need for a C-Level position responsible and accountable for the management of the corporation's information assets. Here is a great paper that I highly recommend: “The future of enterprise information governance”.

So there you have it. These are some of the reason I do this – blogging and tilting at the information management windmill.

Now the question is “Why do you the “information management” thing?