This is the final part of a five part series on how enterprise 2.0 tools can work for an enterprise of one, myself in this case. To start the process I mapped out my business workflow. Then I looked at the tools I currently use for each major step before thinking about any further moves into the enterprise 2.0 space. Since I write for multiple blogs and provide blog consulting services to businesses, my work flow in very content heavy. I also enlisted the help of Gil Yehuda, former analyst at Forrester Research. When I first spoke with Gil, he was the analyst at Forrester focused on Enterprise 2.0. And now as this is being published he’s his own “Enterprise of One”, like me. But I’ll note that he was generous with his time and very knowledgeable about this topic.
I decided the three main sections are one: content monitoring, two: content collecting, assembling, and creation, and three: content publishing and archiving. Step two then reaches into both step one and step three for new content.
This step brings me back to Web 2.0 as my blogs are my personal knowledge management system. I do have a desktop backup through Word and iPhoto and my desktop is backed up through Mac’s Time Machine. However, there are truly backups and the blog platforms serve as the active, searchable archive.
I have Google Site Search on my blogs and go there often. I also set up categories and browse them at times. My main blog, Portals and KM, is approaching its fifth anniversary and I find it a valuable record for me, even if no one else reads it. I only wish I had started it even sooner so I could have the same rich content store for prior years. If there is anything I truly want to save and have access to, I put it on my blog.
I use Typepad for my own blog and recommend it to clients unless they are very technical. I also use Word Press for several of the group blogs that I write, including the AppGap and FastForward. The Wordpress admin is easy to use but I found the setup to be largely undocumented and required more technical knowledge than I am interested in fooling with.
I publish my blog consulting content in Word. I archive my content in Word and iPhoto, as well as the other Office applications. I have not yet seen a reason to shift to a cloud solution now that I have the Time Machine hard drive backup. I can also search and/or examine Twitter, Techrigy, Filtrbox, Feedburner, Typepad, and Google Analytics for historical data related to my work and web presence. In addition, I store content in Mac mail folders as I did in the past with other email systems. I think this covers the essentials. So there is a mix of cloud and desktop solutions here but I try to keep the numbers of tools to a minimum. I am reminded of what Tom Davenport said about knowledge workers. They were more effective by being power users of a few tools trying out many different tools for different functions.
This concludes the five part series on how enterprise 2.0 tools can work for an enterprise of one. Here are links to the four prior posts. Please let me know if you have any additions and suggestions.
Enterprise 2.0 for an Enterprise of One – Introduction Enterprise 2.0 for an Enterprise of One – Part Two - Content Monitoring
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