Book Description
Praise for Service-Oriented Architecture
"This book provides a superb overview of the SOA topic. Marks and Bell provide practical guidance across the entire SOA life cycle-from business imperatives and motivations to the post-deployment business and technical metrics to consider. With this book, Marks and Bell demonstrate a unique ability to take the complex dynamics of SOA, and through an eloquent set of metaphors, models, and principles, provide an understandable and insightful how-to manual for both technical and business executives. This will become a required handbook for any organization implementing SOA."
—Dan Bertrand, Enterprise Technology Officer & EDS Fellow, EDS Corporation
"A fundamental breakthrough in the business and technology perspectives of SOA-this book belongs in every software developer, architect, and IT executive library. Marks and Bell demonstrate a creative and practical approach to building complex, service-oriented systems. I especially liked the hands-on perspective brought to multiple aspects of SOA. A must-have guide in the technology turbulence of the future."
—Ariel Aloni, Chief Technology Officer, SunGard Data Management Solutions
"This outstanding text gets straight to the heart of the matter, cutting through the hyperbole and discussing how to drive real business value through SOA. It will certainly impact my behavior, our governance models, and, subsequently, the successful business outcomes we derive as we continue to embrace SOA. A must-read for battle-scarred SOA veterans and fledgling architects alike."
—Christopher Crowhurst, Vice President and Chief Architect, Thomson Learning
"Too often, SOA has been perceived as 'all about the technology'-standards, technology stacks, operational monitoring, and the like. In this book, Marks and Bell expand beyond the technology to provide a refreshing business-driven perspective to SOA, connecting the dots between business requirements, architecture, and development and operations, and overlaying these perspectives with tried-and-true governance techniques to keep SOA initiatives on track. A must-read for those leading the charge to adopt SOA within their enterprise."
—Brent Carlson, Chief Technology Officer, LogicLibrary and coauthor of San Francisco Design Patterns: Blueprints for Business Software
"Marks and Bell have captured a wealth of practical experience and lessons learned in what has become the hottest topic in software development. In this book, they explain in detail what works and what does not, from procedural issues to technical challenges. This book is an invaluable reference for organizations seeking the benefits of SOAs."
—Dr. Jeffrey S. Poulin, System Architect, Lockheed Martin and author of Measuring Software Reuse: Principles, Practices, and Economic Models
"One of the last things companies often consider when implementing a business solution such as SOA is the impact on people. Marks and Bell provide an in-depth look at 'what has to change' from a process standpoint to make any SOA implementation a success. A great read for those considering to embark on an enterprise SOA and looking for the right mix of people, process, and products."
—Alan Himler, Vice President of Product Management and Marketing, LogicLibrary
SOA is a complex topic and a complex organizational goal
Service-Oriented Architecture: A Planning and Implementation Guide for Business and Technology shows you how to plan, implement, and achieve SOA value through its prescriptive approach, joining the business and strategic perspective to the technical and architectural perspective.
Applicable to all industries, technology platforms, and operating environments, this innovative book provides you with the essential strategies to drive greater value from your SOA and realize your business goals.
Download Description
Praise for Service-Oriented Architecture ""This book provides a superb overview of the SOA topic. Marks and Bell provide practical guidance across the entire SOA life cycle-from business imperatives and motivations to the post-deployment business and technical metrics to consider. With this book, Marks and Bell demonstrate a unique ability to take the complex dynamics of SOA, and through an eloquent set of metaphors, models, and principles, provide an understandable and insightful how-to manual for both technical and business executives. This will become a required handbook for any organization implementing SOA."" Dan Bertrand, Enterprise Technology Officer & EDS Fellow, EDS Corporation ""A fundamental breakthrough in the business and technology perspectives of SOA-this book belongs in every software developer, architect, and IT executive library. Marks and Bell demonstrate a creative and practical approach to building complex, service-oriented systems. I especially liked the hands-on perspective brought to multiple aspects of SOA. A must-have guide in the technology turbulence of the future."" Ariel Aloni, Chief Technology Officer, SunGard Data Management Solutions ""This outstanding text gets straight to the heart of the matter, cutting through the hyperbole and discussing how to drive real business value through SOA. It will certainly impact my behavior, our governance models, and, subsequently, the successful business outcomes we derive as we continue to embrace SOA. A must-read for battle-scarred SOA veterans and fledgling architects alike."" Christopher Crowhurst, Vice President and Chief Architect, Thomson Learning
Customer Reviews:
AN EXCELLENT TECHNOLOGY BOOK .......2007-07-02
This book is an excellent SOA technological introduction that presents major architectural concerns that most architects, team leads, developers, and software modelers struggle with. It addresses fundamental service-oriented challenges and provides viable solutions that IT professionals can employ:
- A service lifecycle that identifies major modeling disciplines
- Introduction to service-oriented analysis, design, and realization
- Introduction to service-oriented technologies
- A service-oriented integration model that provide viable interoperable solutions
- Service reusability model that elaborates on various methods that can facilitate asset reuse in organizations
I'd recommend this book to IT personnel and SOA practitioners that would like to learn more about starting service-oriented projects and achieving effective results.
Business Focused SOA .......2007-06-26
This book is a must read for the Executive and Architect responsible for transforming their business processes and IT infrastructure from something resembling an anchor to an agile, flexible system that enables corporate progress. This book will show you a process that will help you get off step 0, define the right services, and ensure that your SOA efforts resolve your business and IT challenges. When implementing an SOA, the technology is the easy part, ensuring that services are created in a consistent manner, that they are designed with reuse in mind, that s/w creation, and hence new product development, gets less expensive and takes less time, over time, that's the hard part, that's where SOA Governance comes in, and this book will give you the SOA Governance basics you need to get your SOA transformation off to a good start. Get control of Governance and your 75% there. This book will not provide code snippets, developer advice, or describe technical specifications, if you want these things, get Thomas Url' or Greg Lomow' books. This book is about using a top-down business service analysis, bottom-up implementation considered, iterative SOA design model. Read it to develop or improve your SOA planning capabilities.
Not for a Developer.......2007-05-15
Note: My strong dislike of this book probably says more about me than the book...
As a developer I like books that bridge the technical and the business gap. I need to see, in concrete examples, how things might be implemented -- I want to see code, configuration documents, snippets of policy code etc. I also find it helpful when books build upon a sample application. I wanted to see examples of the technology that enables SOA, walk-thrus of standards such WSPL.
This book has none of that. To me it is a book of high-level lists of lists and every section I've read leaves me wondering what it said. I think they repeat themselves too much and the book seems poorly organized with material half way through a chapter which seemed to me to belong at the start. For all it being high-level, they make an assumption that the reader is familiar with a host of acronyms and/or the technology behind them.
SOA - Pragmatic Advice .......2007-03-05
Much has been written about the promise of SOA and, at the same time, the difficulty in realizing that promise to date. Most of us who work in this field know by now how to address the technical concepts, architecture and services in an SOA. Where this book stands apart from so many others is that it provides both conceptual and pragmatic advice in three critical areas which need attention for SOA to mature, to achieve business buy-in, and to attain the "SOA network effect" as the authors call it. These keys are: shifting focus to identification of candidate business services; SOA governance, organization, and behavior; and a framework for an SOA business case, ROI model and scorecard.
I enthusiastically recommend this book for the authors' lucid, insightful chapters on these three subjects alone. That they are woven nicely into a more complete system of processes and supporting structures to nurture along SOA through critical mass is an added bonus.
A Must Read !!!!.......2007-01-23
"Service Oriented Architecture is a hot topic and will be for times to come however it is often misunderstood topic in the Information Technology field today. Based on the SDN Network IT professionals see the potential of an SOA -- especially a web services-based SOA -- in dramatically speeding up the application development process They also see it as a way to build applications and systems that are more adaptable, and in doing so, they see IT becoming more agile in responding to changing business needs. Not only is SOA a hot topic, but it's clearly the wave of the future. Gartner reports that "By 2008, SOA will be a prevailing software engineering practice, ending the 40-year domination of monolithic software architecture" and that "Through 2008, SOA and web services will be implemented together in more than 75 percent of new SOA or web services projects." Bell articulately describes the concepts, specifications, technical nuisances and standards behind service orientation and Web Services. One primary objective of applying SOA in design is to provide business value to the solutions we build. Understanding the right approach to analyzing, designing, and developing service-oriented solutions is critical. This book is a must read!"
Book Description
Integrate IT with business strategy
Now updated and revised, this Third Edition of Managing and Using Information Systems by Pearlson and Saunders arms you with the insights and knowledge you need to become an active participant in information systems decisions. Taking a strategic approach to information systems, the authors show how to manage information as a resource and use information for competitive advantage.
This brief, yet complete, paperback provides a basic framework for understanding the relationships among business strategy, information systems, and organizational strategies. You'll learn how IT relates to organizational design and business strategy, how to recognize opportunities in the work environment, and how to apply current technologies in innovative ways.
New Features of the Third Edition
* New coverage of off-shoring
* New coverage of IT portfolio management
* Expanded coverage of management of security
* Expanded coverage of Supply Chain Management (SCM)
* Additional cases
Cases are available with Business Extra Select
Custom CoursePacks of cases and readings for each chapter are available via Wiley's Business Extra Select program. Go to www.wiley.com/college/bxs for more details.
Customer Reviews:
Managing and Using Information Systems.......2007-02-16
Book shipped extremely fast and was just as described. Thanks.
Adequate read for IT courses.......2007-01-20
I'm reading this in an MBA MIS course. I'm also an IT manager, so I have a little more experience and perception behind what I'm reading.
No IT book is real life. They're mostly theory. This one does a decent job of integrating theory with recent case studies. It would suffice as an adequate IT training book for anyone who may be managing IT or may encounter those working in the field.
Book Description
Ontologies provide a common vocabulary of an area and define - with different levels of formality - the meaning of the terms and the relationships between them. Ontologies may be reused and shared across applications and groups Concepts in the ontology are usually organized in taxonomies and relations between concepts, properties of concepts, and axioms are typically used for representing the knowledge contained in ontologies. With the growth of information available, e.g. on the WWW, they are popularly applied in knowledge management, semantic web, natural language generation, enterprise modelling, knowledge-based systems, ontology-based brokers, e-commerce platforms and interoperability between systems. This book looks at questions such as: * What is an ontology? * What are the uses of ontologies? * What types of ontologies exist? What are the most well-known ones? * How do I select the best ontology for my application? * What are the principles for building an ontology? * What methodologies should I use to build my own ontology? Which techniques are appropriate for each step? * How do software tools support the process of building and using ontologies? * What language can I use to implement ontologies? * How can I integrate ontologies in a given language? The book presents the theoretical foundations of ontological engineering and covers the practical aspects of selecting and applying methodologies, tools and languages for building ontologies. The applications of ontologies are also illustrated with case studies taken from the areas of knowledge management, e-commerce and the semantic web.
Customer Reviews:
how to automatically extract an ontology?.......2006-10-09
The book shows progress in how ontologies are defined from various data sets. The subject is a natural field of artificial intelligence, in attempting to automated this filling of an ontology. Various example ontologies are presented, along with the markup languages like RDF and OWL in which these are expressed. The progress is visible, inasmuch as just a few years ago, these languages were devised. Now we see non-trivial ontology constructions using them. Good.
A large portion of the book describes the acute problem of somehow extracting meaning in a programmatic manner from data. Because the manual making of an ontology simply does not seem to scale, given the realities of gigabyte databases. We see that there is a natural decomposition of the problem into a linguistic step and a conceptual step. The former is tied to a particular human language. The latter is the nut of the problem. Current methods look promising, but are certainly not the last word.
Excellent survey book on Ontology.......2006-03-09
The book is well organized in introducing the subject in a coherent manner and weaving in all important criteria of ontology together. I especially like to read the comparison of different languagees in light of knowlege represenation and knowlege reasoing. The book is great in terms of getting a broad view (survey) and is also great as a reference. In many pages, there is so much information packed in each sentences. Great book.
A good literature review of current developments.......2005-12-15
The word `ontology' is usually associated with philosophical speculation on the reality of things, and if one checks the literature on philosophy one will find a diverse number of opinions on this reality. Engineers and scientists typically view philosophical musings on any topic as being impractical, and indulging oneself in these musings will cause one to lose sight of the topic or problem at hand. Rather than simplify the problem and make it understandable, philosophy tends in most cases to complicate it by endless debate on definitions and the use of sophisticated rhetoric that seems to have no bearing on the problem at hand. The conceptual spaces generated by these debates can become gigantic and therefore unwieldy, thus making the problem appear more complex than it actually is.
In the information age however, ontology has become a word that has taken on enormous practical significance. Business and scientific research are both areas that have increasingly relied on information technology not only to organize information but also to analyze data and make accurate predictions. In addition, financial constraints have forced many businesses to automate most of their internal processes, and this automation has brought about its own unique challenges. This push to automation usually involves being able to differentiate one thing from another, or one collection of data from another, or one concept from another. Thus one needs to think about questions of ontology, and this (very practical) need has brought about the rise of the field of `ontological engineering', which is the topic of this book.
The authors have given a good general overview of the different approaches to the creation of ontologies. There are many of them, some of which seem "natural", while others seem more esoteric. The reader though will obtain an objective discussion of the ontologies that the authors chose to include in the book. Discussions of the ones that are not included can readily be found on the Internet.
Given the plethora of ontologies that have been invented, it would be of interest to the ontological engineer to find common ground between them. The re-use of a particular ontology may be stymied by the different ontological commitments it is adhering to or it's actual content. In order to use it, it must therefore be "re-engineered". The authors discuss this prospect in the book, and define `ontological re-engineering' as the process where a conceptual model of an implemented ontology is transformed into one that is more suitable. The code in which the ontology is written is first reverse engineered, and then the conceptual model is reorganized into the new one. The new conceptual model is then implemented.
Also discussed in the book, and of enormous practical interest, is the automation of the ontology building process. Called `ontology learning' by the authors, they discuss a few of the ways in which this could take place. One of these methods concerns ontology learning using a `corpus of texts', and involves being able to distinguish between the `linguistic' and `conceptual' levels. Knowledge at the linguistic level is described in linguistic terms, while at the conceptual level in terms of concepts and the relations between them. Ontology learning is thus dependent on how the linguistic structures are exemplified in the conceptual level. Relations at the conceptual level for example could be extracted from sequences of words in the text that conform to a certain pattern. Another method comes from data mining and involves the use of association rules to find relations between concepts. The authors discuss two well-known methods for ontology learning from texts. Both of these methods are interesting in that they can apparently learn in contexts or environments that are not domain-specific. Being able to learn over different domains is very important from the standpoint of the artificial intelligence community and these methods are a step in that direction. The processes of `alignment', `merging', and `cooperative construction' of ontologies that are discussed in the book are also of great interest in artificial intelligence, since they too will be of assistance in the attempt to design a machine that can reason over multiple domains.
The ontologies that are actually built are of course not unique. This results in a kind of semantic or cognitive relativism between the environments that might be built on different ontologies, even in the same domain. Merging and alignment both address this relativism, along with other techniques that are discussed in the book. The selection of the actual language that is used to create an ontology is also somewhat arbitrary. The authors devote a fair amount of space in the book to the different languages that have been used to build ontologies. Through an elementary example, they discuss eleven different languages, namely KIF, Ontolingua, LOOM, OCML, Flogic, SHOE, XOL, RDF(S), OIL, DAML+OIL, and OWL. The choice of a language is dictated by what one is seeking in terms of `expressiveness' and what kind of reasoning patterns are to be deployed when using the ontology. The authors point to a tradeoff between the expressive power of the language and the reasoning patterns that are attached to the language. The expressiveness of a language is directly proportional to the complexity of the reasoning patterns that are used.
Ontological engineering as it presently exists is still carried out by a human engineer. To create an ontology every time from scratch would be tedious, and so it is no surprise that tools were invented to make ontology creation more straightforward. Some of these tools are discussed in the book, such as KAON, OilEd, Ontolingua, OntoSaurus, Protege-2000, WebODE, and WebOnto, along with assessments as to their utility. The discussion is helpful for newcomers to ontological engineering who need guidance as to what direction to take. The automation of ontology building would of course be a major advance. To accomplish this however would require that the machine be able to simultaneously and recursively construct the knowledge base and reason over it effectively. This is a formidable challenge indeed.
Good overview for beginners.......2005-04-12
The subject of this book is incredibly relevant to today's world of information management. The chapters are presented in a logical and informative way, though some of the book only skims the surface or barely touches on significant developments, tools, and problems. Overall, I found the text too theoretical, with insufficient ties to messy real-world issues.
Very good.......2005-02-18
There are several chapters that I liked and found very useful. The first chapter on theoretical foundations has been well written. Parsing through the various definitions of Ontology has been an educating experience. The other chapters, especially the ones describing the methodologies and languages are very informative. It may not be exhaustive but for a beginner, these chapters give a good overview.
I was disappointed only when I learnt that the book will not cover Ontology learning tools. The author argues for limiting the scope of the book. I feel the book would have been more valuable had it contained at least an overview of the learning tools!
Average customer rating:
- Worthy of a review, let alone a read.
- Knowledge Management - Here, Now and Here's How
- Outstanding review of KM and all of its related components.
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ASIN: 0849302382 |
Book Description
Many organizations are now realizing that their competitive edge lies mostly in the brainpower-the intellectual capital-of their employees and management. To stay ahead of the pack, companies must leverage their knowledge, internally and externally. But it is not enough to develop lessons-learned databases. Experts now believe the current savior of organizations is knowledge management-the conceptualization, review, consolidation, and action phases of creating, securing, combining, coordinating, and retrieving knowledge-in short, the process of creating value from an organization's intangible assets. Jay Liebowitz, one of the leading knowledge management and expert systems authorities in the world, brings together over thirty articles contributed by the top researchers and practitioners to produce what seems destined to become the key reference for this emerging field. With it you will find: · How to create a knowledge-sharing environment · How senior executives can show tangible benefits using methods that value the intellectual capital-especially the "human capital" within the organization · How knowledge management is not the same as information management · How senior management commitment and involvement are essential to the success of a knowledge management system
Customer Reviews:
Worthy of a review, let alone a read........2004-08-27
First of all this a REAL book on knowledge management. This is not a touchy feely book about how employees are afraid of KM because they will lose their jobs although there is a section that contains common org problems. This is however a book for individuals who practice KM or implement KM programs. Basically, without the context of having been through a KM project this book will be useless to most people. This is not the place to start. Try Idiots Guide to KM, which btw is an excellent place to start - I recommend it to my customers all the time, Working Knowledge, or the KM Toolkit all of which will serve as far better primers on the subject. Having led 40 KM projects in the last 3 years I can say this book has been a treasured resource since getting it a few months ago.
Knowledge Management - Here, Now and Here's How.......2000-03-28
This book is truly a great resource regarding Knowledge Management. It is a compendium of information concerning knowledge and the management thereof. This Handbook is divided into five sections of high level information: Strategy, People and Measures, Elements, Knowledge Technologies, and Applications. Within each section real world experts provide sound foundations of the methodologies, techniques, and practices in this field. Many concepts discussed throughout this handbook are presented in an bulletized manner for easy assimilation. I found the numerous figures and diagrams in this text-like book complex but full of valuable information as to the relationship of Knowledge Management definitions, concepts and issues.
Knowledge Management is about the "brainware' or "human capital" that exists in a corporation. Today a corporation must invest in their human capital through certification programs, training and education courses, forums and knowledge sharing sessions to maintain and keep their competitive edge. Some believe that 70 to 80% of what's learned is through informal means versus formal methods like reading books, brochures and documents. None the less, all knowledge must be captured and managed effectively and efficiently.
Outstanding review of KM and all of its related components........1999-09-19
I am currently using this book as a reference for completion of my dissertation in the area of knowledge management. The book takes a no nonsense and factual look at this new and exciting area. Organizations who do not understand these concepts will soon loose their competitive edge. This book will provide all of the necessary insight to begin a knowledge management program within your organization.
Book Description
The rise of the "information society" offers not only considerable peril but also great promise. Beset from all sides by a never-ending barrage of media, how can we ensure that the most accurate information emerges and is heeded? In this book, Cass R. Sunstein develops a deeply optimistic understanding of the human potential to pool information, and to use that knowledge to improve our lives. In an age of information overload, it is easy to fall back on our own prejudices and insulate ourselves with comforting opinions that reaffirm our core beliefs. Crowds quickly become mobs. The justification for the Iraq war, the collapse of Enron, the explosion of the space shuttle Columbia--all of these resulted from decisions made by leaders and groups trapped in "information cocoons," shielded from information at odds with their preconceptions. How can leaders and ordinary people challenge insular decision making and gain access to the sum of human knowledge? Stunning new ways to share and aggregate information, many Internet-based, are helping companies, schools, governments, and individuals not only to acquire, but also to create, ever-growing bodies of accurate knowledge. Through a ceaseless flurry of self-correcting exchanges, wikis, covering everything from politics and business plans to sports and science fiction subcultures, amass--and refine--information. Open-source software enables large numbers of people to participate in technological development. Prediction markets aggregate information in a way that allows companies, ranging from computer manufacturers to Hollywood studios, to make better decisions about product launches and office openings. Sunstein shows how people can assimilate aggregated information without succumbing to the dangers of the herd mentality--and when and why the new aggregation techniques are so astoundingly accurate. In a world where opinion and anecdote increasingly compete on equal footing with hard evidence, the on-line effort of many minds coming together might well provide the best path to infotopia.
Customer Reviews:
Read the 1/5 about deliberation, leave the rest........2007-06-14
In the 1960's, legal scholars discovered what the rest of us always knew: that pure legal scholarship is really, really boring. Law and economics demonstrated that a multidisciplinary approach could breath fresh life into the corpse of law. Then, suddenly, all the rock star law professors were interdisciplinarians. And along with this devaluation of pure legal thought came a general loss of intellectual rigor. By the 1990's, celebrity law professors were becoming like journalists with really good grades, each writing outside of his or her area of competence with an astonishing self-confidence. Richard Posner, who was on relatively solid ground in economics, crowned himself an expert on military intelligence. Lawrence Lessig wrote a whole series of books without any thesis or logical argument. And this new breed of scholar seemed to be in a race to publish as much as possible as quickly as possible, without regard for quality.
I have always thought that Cass Sunstein epitomizes the worst of this trend. He seems to rush a book into print every couple of years, and with each new work drifts further and further away from "law." But after hearing him on Russ Roberts' fantastic EconTalk podcast, I was genuinely dying to read this book. The topics chosen are all fascinating, and no one has really treated them all under one roof before.
The problem is that, once again, Sunstein has given short shrift to these topics. All of them, with the exception of group deliberation, has been covered better elsewhere. Where Sunstein is not stealing the limelight from people like Robin Hanson (prediction markets) he is rehashing the pop science books of people like James Surowieki (statistical group judgments).
The reason this book gets three stars instead of zero is that the material on bias in group deliberation is genuinely insightful and original. In brief: deliberative bodies make very poor decisions, due to a whole slew of biases and feedback loops. When Sunstein suggests that we reform deliberative bodies, generally, to incorporate anonymous voting and minority voices, he is offering something genuinely useful. (Interestingly, at one point in the podcast mentioned above, Sunstein all but admits that this was initiated as a book about deliberation and that the project was changed to incorporate the other topics in media res. This explains a lot.) Read it for the bits on deliberation, but be prepared to be bored and underwhelmed by large portions.
I added it to my syllabus immediately.......2007-06-07
I originally bought this book as a birthday present for my brother, a philosopher, and then immediately stole it from him. (I gave it back after I bought my own copy.) The book paints a frightening picture of how group processes can lead us very, very astray. In many ways, it reads as a sequel to his book on Punitive Damages, which documents frightening trends for experimental jury pools to assign harsher damages than the individual jurors planned to assign in pre-deliberation surveys.
I quickly added the chapters on group deliberation failures to the syllabus for my class on psychology and economics. My only trepidation was that I am also assigning sections of Punitive Damages and Laws of Fear, so there's now an entire unit on Cass Sunstein's work. But he does an excellent job of exploring in readable prose the societal consequences of psychological influences on choice. As such, his books offer a very accessible mirror into aspects of bounded rationality or heuristics & biases that we study in economics. I figure the marginal contribution of this book, in terms of class discussion and actual post-exam take-aways, exceed the contribution of a few more technical empirical papers.... At least, I hope that turns out to be the case!
A thoughtful consideration.......2007-05-25
Of when and why these techniques (polling, prediction markets, blogs, wiki, FOSS) work -- and when they don't.
Despite the title this isn't a collection of breathless prose, but a thinking through of the underlying principles e.g., prediction markets don't work for supreme court justice picks because real information about the choice is highly concentrated.
Which is exactly the type of thought process that is necessary if you want to put one of these techniques to use.
Complements Wikinomics, Solid but Incomplete.......2007-01-17
I was initially disappointed, but adjusted my expectations when I reminded myself that the author is at root a lawyer. The bottom line on this book is that it provided a very educated and well-footnoted discourse the nature and prospects for group deliberation, but there are three *huge* missing pieces:
1) Education as the necessary continuous foundation for deliberation
2) Collective Intelligence as an emerging discipline (see the Innovators spread sheet at Earth Intelligence Network); and
3) No reference to Serious Games/Games for Change or budgets as a foundation for planning the future rather than predicting it.
In the general overview the author discusses information cocoons (self-segregation and myopia) and information influences/social pressures that can repress free thinking and sharing.
The four big problems that he finds in the history of deliberation are amplifying errors; hidden profiles & favoring common or "familiar" knowledge; cascades & polarization; and negative reinforements from being within a narrow group.
Today I am missing a meeting on Predictive Markets in DC (AEI-Brookings) and while I regret that, I have thoroughly enjoyed the author's deep look at Prediction Markets, with special reference to Google and Microsoft use of these internally. This book, at a minimum, provides the very best overview of prediction markets that I have come across. At the end of the book is an appendix listing 18 specific predictions markets with their URLs.
The author goes on to provide an overview of the Wiki world, and is generally very kind to Jimbo Wales and Wikipedia, and less focused on the many altneratives and enhancements of the open Wiki. It would have been helpful here to have some insights for the general reader on Doug Englebart's Open Hypertextdocument System (OHS) and Pierre Levy's Information Economy Meta Language (IEML), both of which may well leave the mob-like open wiki's in the dust.
Worthy of note: Soar Technology is quoted as saying that Wikis cut project development time in half.
The book draws to a close with further discussion of the challenges of self-segregation, the options for aggregating views and knowledge and for encouraging feedback, and the urgency of finding incentives to induce full disclosure and full participation from all who have something to contribute.
This book excels in its own narrowly-chosen domain, but it is isolated from the larger scheme of things including needed educational changes, the importance of belief systems as the objective of Intelligence and Information Operations (I2O), the role of Serious Games/Games for Change, and the considerable work that has been done by Collective Intelligence pioneers, who just held their first convergence conference call on 15 January 2007.
Final note: the author uses NASA and the Columbia disaster, and CIA and the Iraq disaster, as examples, but does not adequately discuss the pathologies of bureaucracy and the politicization of intelligence and space. As a former CIA employee who also reads a great deal, I can assert with confidence that CIA has no trouble aggregating all that it knew, including the reports of the 30 line crossers who went in and then came back to report there were no Weapons of Mass Destruction. CIA has two problems: 1) Dick Cheney refused to listen; and 2) George Tenet lacked the integrity to go public and go to Congress to challenge Dick Cheney's malicious and impeachable offenses against America (see my reviews of "VICE" and of "One Percent Doctrine" on Cheney, and my many reviews on the mistakes leading up to and within the Iraq war). See also my reviews of "Fog Facts" and "Lost History" and Gaddis' "The Landscape of History."
To end on an upbeat note, what I see in this book, and "Wikinomics" and "Collective Intelligence" and "Tao of Democracy" and my own "The New Craft of Intelligence: Personal, Public, & Political," is a desperate need for Amazon to take on the task of aggregating books and building out from books to create social communities where all these books can be "seen" and "read" and "understood" as a whole. We remain fragmented in the production and dissemination of information, and consequently, in our own mind-sets and world-views. Time to change that, perhaps with Wiki-books that lock-down the original and then give free license to apply OHS linkages at the paragraph level, and unlimited wike build-outs. That's what I am in Seattle to discuss this week.
Infotopia - .......2007-01-10
I have an interest in development of creative ideas and themes by small groups. I read this book to expand my knowledge.
On the high side, I was fascinated with the Jury Theorem and outcomes of statistical groups. I derived the formula on page 234 and played with different probabilties and group sizes to understand sensitivities. Lots of fun. I can see why political strategists would want to identify and slant a campaign to a (probably) small percentage of people to sway an election.
I was a little disappointed in the chapters about deliberations and problems in groups which seemed to apply to larger group sizes. Much seemed to be common sense not worthy of a lot of theoretical research - my personal interest is different. In my own career, I found that understanding personalities and agendas was extremely important because my arguments could then be tailored so others could best hear.
I played a prediction market game (MIT Technology Futures) for a while, but drifted away because I had no vested interest. Winning a TV set didn't turn me on. It seems to me that the prediction market must have real significance to succeed and be useful. If the emotions aren't there or are negative (eg. DOD predicting wars), it may not draw a large and informed crowd.
I am a casual user of Wikis and find Wikipedia useful especially in math and science. The soft stuff takes me a lot of time to understand writers' viewpoints, true also for blogs that I occasionally run across. That certainly stretches my critical thinking, but sometimes I don't want to think - I just want the answer or an answer from someone I trust.
Regarding the author's bottom line, I certainly agree that markets and democracy rest on the belief that many minds can be trusted. I would like to see the author make the jump from his theoretical world to that of real people working in small groups.
Book Description
According to virtually every business writer, we are in the midst of a new "information age," one that will revolutionize how workers work, how companies compete, perhaps even how thinkers think. And it is certainly true that Information Technology has become a giant industry. In America, more that 50% of all capital spending goes into IT, accounting for more than a third of the growth of the entire American economy in the last four years. Over the last decade, IT spending in the U.S. is estimated at 3 trillion dollars. And yet, by almost all accounts, IT hasn't worked all that well. Why is it that so many of the companies that have invested in these costly new technologies never saw the returns they had hoped for? And why do workers, even CEOs, find it so hard to adjust to new IT systems? In Information Ecology, Thomas Davenport proposes a revolutionary new way to look at information management, one that takes into account the total information environment within an organization. Arguing that the information that comes from computer systems may be considerably less valuable to managers than information that flows in from a variety of other sources, the author describes an approach that encompasses the company's entire information environment, the management of which he calls information ecology. Only when organizations are able to combine and integrate these diverse sources of information, and to take them to a higher level where information becomes knowledge, will they realize the full power of their information ecology. Thus, the author puts people, not technology, at the center of the information world. Information and knowledge are human creations, he points out, and we will never excel at managing them until we give people a primary role. Citing examples drawn from his own extensive research and consulting including such major firms as A.T. and T., American Express, Ford, General Electric, Hallmark, Hoffman La Roche, IBM, Polaroid, Pacific Bell, and Toshiba Davenport illuminates the critical components of information ecology, and at every step along the way, he provides a quick assessment survey for managers to see how their organization measures up. He discusses the importance of developing an overall strategy for information use; explores the infighting, jealousy over resources, and political battles that can frustrate information sharing; underscores the importance of looking at how people really use information (how they search for it, modify it, share it, hoard it, and even ignore it) and the kinds of information they want; describes the ideal information staff, who not only store and retrive information, but also prune, provide context, enhance style, and choose the right presentation medium (in an age of work overload, vital information must be presented compellingly so the appropriate people recognize and use it); examines how information management should be done on a day to day basis; and presents several alternatives to the machine engineering approach to structuring and modeling information. Davenport makes explicit what many managers already know in their gut: that useful information flow depends on people, not equipment. In Information Ecology he paves the way for all managers to build a more competitive, creative, practical information environment for their companies.
Customer Reviews:
When a change is needed.......2004-06-17
This book offers great insight into creating an information envionment within the company. I think that the numerous examples for real life companies provide credibility to his claims. However this is for people who are building and IT strucutre for scratch or are looking for a paradigm shift in how they do IT? If your IT envionment is not producing results this is a great place to start. It provides the theory to apply to real life situations. Understanding the necessity of Information Technology is essential for implementing results oriented systems.
Useful and informative book with new insights.......1998-01-12
I found this to be a useful and informative book with new insights, especially in the area of developing a wholistic view of an information enterprise. Most previous books seem to be limited to just MIS departments and ignore the fact that managing information is not something that just happens in a vacumn. I also found the diagnosis section to be useful and grounded in real work versus the "blackboard" consulting suggestions that sometimes comes from academics whose ideas are not grounded in real world experiences.
Good theme but more buzzwords and bull than practical advice.......1997-09-05
I was disappointed by this book. While its central thesis (that MIS should include human and political considerations, not just technical ones) is valid and needs championing, I found the text repetitive, lacking in clear advice, and full of buzzwords used to restate the obvious. Mr. Davenport is clearly an expert on how to run MIS at large companies. Unfortunately, I found it difficult to glean applicable lessons from his book
Book Description
In today's de-layered, knowledge-intensive organizations, most work of importance is heavily reliant on informal networks of employees within organizations. However, most organizations do not know how to effectively analyze this informal structure in ways that can have a positive impact on organizational performance. Networks in the Knowledge Economy is a collection of readings on the application of social network analysis to managerial concerns. Social network analysis (SNA), a set of analytic tools that can be used to map networks of relationships, allows one to conduct very powerful assessments of information sharing within a network with relatively little effort. This approach makes the invisible web of relationships between people visible, helping managers make informed decisions for improving both their own and their group's performance. Networks in the Knowledge Economy is specifically concerned with networks inside of organizations and addresses three critical areas in the study of social networks: Social Networks as Important Individual and Organizational Assets, Social Network Implications for Knowledge Creation and Sharing, and Managerial Implications of Social Networks in Organizations. Professionals and students alike will find this book especially valuable, as it provides readings on the application of social network analysis that reflect managerial concerns.
Book Description
This new book approaches knowledge management (KM) from several perspectives: it spans electrical engineering, artificial intelligence, information systems, and business. Comprehensive yet clearly and concisely written, Knowledge Management is simultaneously strong in managerial, technical, and systemic aspects of KM, providing readers with the right combination of theory, technology, and solutions. Organized coherently into four sections, Knowledge Management covers the principles, technologies, capture systems, sharing systems, and application systems of KM. An excellent handbook for business executives, especially chief information officers, IT directors, and chief knowledge officers.
Customer Reviews:
Knowledge Management and KM Software Package.......2007-03-31
Excellent book! A must have for your library on the topic of KM. Gives you a good overview of the basics.
Good choice!.......2007-01-09
Good book, well organized and packed with useful information for inside and outside the classroom.
Book Description
The vision of the MIT Process Handbook Project is the creation of a systematic and powerful method of organizing and sharing business knowledge. Organizing Business Knowledge: The MIT Process Handbook presents the key findings of a multidisciplinary research group at MIT’s Sloan School of Management that has worked for over a decade to lay the foundation for just such a comprehensive system. It does so by focusing on the process itself. The book proposes a set of fundamental concepts to guide analysis and a classification framework for organizing knowledge, and describes the publicly available online knowledge base developed by the project, which includes a set of representative templates and specific case examples as well as a set of software tools for organizing and sharing knowledge.
Organizing Business Knowledge: The MIT Process Handbook includes twenty-one papers, some previously published and some appearing for the first time, that have come out of this decade-long project. Together, they form a comprehensive and coherent vision of the future of knowledge organization. The Handbook is organized into five parts: an introduction and overview; the presentation of a theory of process representation; "Contents of the Process Repository"; "Process Repository Uses," which gives examples from both research and practice; and a conclusion, which maps the progress so far and the challenges ahead.
Book Description
Knowledge Networks: Innovations Through Communities of Practice draws on the experience of people who have worked with CoPs in the real world and to present their combined wisdom in a form that is accessible to a wide audience. CoPs are examined from a practical, rather than a purely academic point of view. The book also examines the benefits that CoPs can bring to an organization, provides a number of case studies, lessons learned and sets of guidelines. It also looks at virtual CoPs and to the future by asking 'what next?' This book is a resource for all people who work with CoPs - both in academia and in the real world.
Customer Reviews:
A Rich crop...Well harvested..........2004-04-06
The management of knowledge is a diverse field of study and within the field new crops of ideas are constantly emerging. One of the most resource-rich crops is that of community of practice. Sometimes generic, often hybrid and capable of being genetically-modified they have vast potential in supporting knowledge ecologies.
The agricultural metaphor lends itself well to the nurturing of knowledge. Of course, this is not the first time it has been used nor will it be the last. My own particular interest in the metaphor is how it not only lends itself to communities of practice but also to the process of learning.
For the last three years, I have been involved in teaching a module entitled "Knowledge Management" to students Mastering in Information and Library Management at a University in the North East of England. During those three years, communities of practice have emerged as a significant tool in understanding the creation, capture and transfer of knowledge within and between organizations.
The method of teaching involves lectures (theory-based) and seminars (case study-based) with the use of specific tasks to link the two areas.
This collection of papers is, perhaps, the single most useful text to emerge for teaching the concept of communities of practice, how they relate to managing knowledge within organizations and how they are cultivated and developed. It is abundant in well-researched and relevant commentary, which avoids the jargon of other works. The case studies are particularly useful to information management students trying to understand the relationship between information and knowledge management.
Congratulations to the editors for their conceptualization of the structure and identification of appropriate areas of content and to the individual authors for the quality of their contributions.
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