Recently in Gilbane Amsterdam 05 Category

When I first read Frank’s post on the Future of Content Management debate in Amsterdam, it made me want to buy a plane ticket for just this one session. I’ve always liked these kinds of sessions – keynotes with thought leaders, the analyst panel, the “One Minute with a Vendor” panel, etc. I find them spontaneous, “off-the–cuff”, surprising, and real. They let actual users with bonafide concerns put competing vendors and analysts “in the hot seat” -- in a forum without notes, prepared remarks or static research documents. It’s a real-time google of some of the most interesting minds in the business.

Regarding the keynote panel questions, here are some points to ponder IMO. Comment on this post or Frank’s original to submit your questions directly to the Amsterdam keynote panel or vendor panel.

• The portal market is not dead unless you’re an analyst. The “portal” – sans the focus on vendor revenues that often define the “market” – is a concept, a strategy, a (dare I say it?) KM goal – that seeks to improve the productivity of a workgroup or enterprise through a common environment that promotes collaboration, communication, and efficiency within disparate business processes. My corporate interactions over the last year prove indisputably that this “concept” is pervasive throughout business drivers for technology purchases. So, do predictions of portal market death represent a fine example of analyst-vendor-customer disconnect? Does the SOA momentum hint at a portal market re-birth under a different label? Successes from “last pure-play standing” vendor Plumtree suggest that death is premature.
• As I’ve said before, market competition between best of breed versus enterprise suite is alive and well. For an opinion from the vendor trenches, a CMSWatch Point-Counterpoint interview is a good read.
• In terms of the keynote panel’s discussion on “what is a content platform” and Longhorn impact, what about Tiger? It’s been a lot of fun to monitor the headlines over this question. Beyond that amusement, the serious focus on content and search from the OS players is certainly good fodder for the content platform discussion.

With less than a week to go before the conference, I’m still tempted to buy a plane ticket – but that tax refund is long gone. I’ll just have to rely on live-blogging.

A complimentary breakfast seminar and discussion:
"Technology Directions: Driving DITA Adoption in Europe", has been added to next week's conference in Amsterdam on Friday, May 27, 8 – 10:00 a.m. IBM, Idiom and Nokia will present on DITA and its practical applications, while leading an open discussion focused specifically on the adoption of DITA-based publishing initiatives in Europe through establishing regular meetings, networking opportunities and education events. Panelists from Thursday's presentation will be on hand, with the addition of Indi Leipa, senior information architect, Nokia.

Two quick reminders:

• The Gilbane Content Management Conference in Amsterdam (co-located with XTech 2005) is only a week and a half away. See the conference program.
• The call for papers deadline for Gilbane Boston is Monday May 16th. Proposal guidelines are here.

Our opening keynote panel at our Amsterdam conference on 25 May, The Future of Content Management will be looking at strategic technology issues businesses, governments and NGOs need to be thinking about. Our panel is made up of technology executives who are responsible for a huge number of installed tools, and for strategic technology development at their respective firms. There will certainly be strong differences of opinion, but where this panel agrees on something, it will be worth knowing.

Some of the questions (with a few links to some of our views) we expect to ask the panel are:

• There is a lot of debate about ECM (enterprise content management) suites vs. individual content applications. What is an "ECM suite", and which approach makes the most sense, and why?
• The proliferation of content applications and repositories has created a huge integration challenge. How will this get resolved? And when?
• How will blog, wiki, and RSS technology affect content management applications?
• Will taxonomies or "folksonomy" tagging technologies have a major impact on future CMS applications?
• What is a content platform? Is it a repository? an index? a database, a file system? Does the concept of a content platform even even make sense? Will Longhorn's WinFS change the game?
• Are Portals dead for good? If so, what will take their place?
• How will compliance requirements affect content technology, or digital/enterprise rights management products?
• How will open source content management related software affect future content management implementations? How should it?
• Are some open source software technologies more appropriate for enterprise content applications than others? If so, which ones and why?
• Where in the software stack is the best place to provide basic content management functionality, e.g., management of content elements with attributes and metadata?
• What percentage of enterprise content do you estimate is currently stored in XML? How do you see this changing in the next 12 -18 months? How will this affect technology development?
• How will enterprise search and content management technology be integrated in the next 12 - 18 months?
• What will be the most exciting content technology in the next 12 - 18 months?

If you have a question you would like to see us address, comment on this post, or send me an email.