The New Ways of Work: Topics

Reinventing User Experience with Web 2.0

User experience has been widely recognized as a pivotal element in web site design during the last decade, and it’s now a critical enterprise application consideration as well. Individuals accustomed to contextual and communication-extended experiences with consumer-oriented Internet services now seek similar capabilities in their workplaces, and the onus is on IT to deliver. Combined with fundamental changes in productivity applications, the new user experience model will result in the biggest information worker changes in the last twenty years. This topic will explore:

• The influence of consumer-oriented services from vendors such as Facebook and Google on enterprise solutions
• The characteristics of next-generation user experience, including personalization and contextual communication/collaboration
• User empowerment: self-service and user satisfaction through improved user experience
• Human factors and design considerations
• New user experience-focused platform alternatives including Ajax, Adobe AIR, and Microsoft Silverlight

The Information Architecture Renaissance

A fundamental market transition is taking place among the many software product categories related to enterprise database and content management, addressing databases, documents, files, images, messages, records, and web content. Previously treated as multiple product categories, technology trends and market dynamics are combining to rapidly consolidate information architecture into a new and different architectural model. This topic explores new enterprise content and data life cycle realities, including trends such as:

• The convergence of structured and semi-structured information, with SQL and XQuery
• The influence of hypertext and the Internet information model
• The role of SOA and data services
• E-discovery challenges and opportunities
• Content-related standards such as XML Schema, XQuery, and the Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA)
• New opportunities due to the advent of robust XML data model management in database management systems

The Business Value of Social Software and Enterprise 2.0

Social software, including blogs, wikis, and tagging/bookmarking systems, are moving from the edge to the center of the infrastructure model for communication, collaboration, and content management. Rather than simply being a “Facebook for the enterprise,” social software plays a key role in domains ranging from attracting “net-generation workers” to passing on the institutional knowledge of a retiring workforce generation. It has the potential to ultimately make all organizations more productive and responsive. This topic will discuss social software challenges and opportunities, including:

• Where to find business value among the techie-driven Enterprise 2.0 technologies
• Real-world applications of blog, wiki, and tagging technologies
• How social software augments traditional enterprise messaging and collaboration tools
• Organizational blockers and enablers
• Social responsibility and etiquette for effective social software collaboration
• The role of social software in “Web 2.0” and “Enterprise 2.0”

New Realities for Data Management

Enterprise data management is in the midst of a revitalization phase, with new database management system (DBMS) capabilities, major advances in XML data management (with emerging standards such as XQuery), and pervasive business intelligence and analytics opportunities. Enterprises are also grappling with new data management challenges, such as the massive databases and data streams associated with web sites and sensor networks. This topic explores and explains the new data management realities, including:

• The power and implications of robust XML data and document management in leading DBMSs
• The “one-size-fits-all” database debate, and the expanding roles for specialized, non-traditional alternatives such as column-oriented DBMSs and XML data management systems
• REST, Atom, and other developments influencing data publishing and syndication
• How data management trends are reshaping the business intelligence market landscape
• The pivotal role for conceptual data modeling, along with new data modeling techniques and tools
• Superplatform competition dimensions, especially among IBM, Microsoft, and Oracle

The Next Generation Application Platform

Multiple forces will fundamentally alter the platforms we use to build and operate application systems. It’s still unclear what the next generation application platform will look like. How will SOA, SaaS, and social software alter the picture? As monolithic applications are transformed into shared services, will we still think of applications in the same way? As new user interface technologies emerge, will that fundamentally change the way people interact with and execute business processes? Will the boundary between productivity applications and business applications finally fade? This topic will address the following questions:



• Is Java the new COBOL?
• Will ESBs replace application servers?
• Will mashup servers replace portals?
• Will Windows Server 2008 replace Unix?
• Do social software services trump deep/broad feature lists?
• Are Microsoft Office and/or Google Apps the next information worker application platforms?
• Will Google become the next superplatform titan?

Software as a Service (SaaS)

New financial and architectural realities have promoted SaaS to a first-class application delivery model. Already popular for collaboration and customer relationship management (CRM) applications, SaaS solutions are now available for almost any type of application or functional service. And leading indicators tell us that this market will continue to grow. The SaaS model engenders a number of benefits that can make these solutions preferable to in-house hosted solutions. This topic will discuss the risks and rewards of SaaS, including:



• Quick time-to-value and pay-as-you-use subscription model
• Easy integration derived from their service oriented nature
• Built-in collaboration capabilities (becoming a major differentiating feature)
• Legal realities related to service level agreements, identity and privacy, security, eDiscovery, and regulatory compliance
• The disruptive impact of emerging SaaS solutions from Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, and IBM