Messed Up By Norton Clean

So I got this message on my computer that it’s time to run Norton Clean.

Oy, what a mistake. 

This tool is not ready for prime time. 

It’s supposed to optimize memory and clean up duplicate and residual files.

But in my experience, it swept up more good files than junk files. 

And I ended up having to pull my files back from the trash and manually restore them to their file structure. 

What a pain in the you know what!

Artificial intelligence–not way the I see this utility/tool. 

If you don’t pay attention, you can lose a lot of important information. 

Yes, it gives you a chance to review the files, but then what do you really need this cleaning tool to begin with. 

Maybe you have a different experience, I can only speak for myself. 

But a little human intelligence goes a long way to sift through the wheat from the chaff–that’s what your files really need anyway. 😉

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Records Manager Appreciation Day!

Records Management is not about 45s, 33s, or 8-track music collections, but managing key document and electronic records.

It’s critically important for an organization to be able to archive and access needed information for managing their business, and enabling transparency and accountability.

Managing records saves us time and money in the long run

Moreover, as information workers in an information economy, information is power! And we need to be able to get to information, whenever and wherever we need it.

While records may not be sexy unless you’re Lady Gaga or Madonna, information is the lifeblood of the 21st century, so say thank you to your records management and information access professionals today! 😉

Getting It In Writing

So this is funny, this company, Knock Knock makes witty office supply products.

This one is a picture of file folders that say, “Useless documents to provide appearance of importance in meetings.”

They have another set of folders with, “Papers to shuffle endlessly thereby accomplishing nothing.”

These reminded of the importance of getting things properly documented, in writing.

Otherwise you get the unfortunate scenario that goes something like this when coming to agreements with others:

– Person #1: “If it’s okay, can I get that in writing?”

– Person #2: “You have my word. Don’t you trust me?”

The end result is an undocumented verbal agreement, and this is invariably followed, at some future time, by a disagreement, as follows:

– Person #1: “Well we agreed [fill in the blank].”

– Person #2: “I don’t recall that. Do you have it in writing?”

When someone refuses to give it to you in writing that is a clear warning sign, and bells and sirens should be going off in your head–loudly–that there is a problem.

The lesson is:

– Get it documented in writing, period.

– Documents are not useless even if some people use them to look important or they get caught in paperwork paralysis.

– Verbal agreements are a he says, she says losing game.

– Avoid getting caught without the documentation that spells it all out–and you can put it in one of these cool folders too. 😉

Note: This is not a vendor or product endorsement.

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

When Requirements Go Awry

You may have seen this before–it is a great comic strip on how requirements can go awry.

When you look at how product or service requirements look from each person’s vantage point, it is easy to see how they can be misunderstand, misinterpreted, or misrepresented.

Getting clarity of the tire swing before we start can save a lot of wasted time, effort, and money on building contraptions that no one wanted or needs.

Get the business and technical requirements spelled out in as much detail as possible from all parties; document, document, document; and have the customer approval and sign off on these.

Build to specification, on time, and within budget and make sure it meets the operational mission needs and strategic vision of the organization.

(Source Photo: here with attribution to tamingdata.com)

Cyberwar–Threat Level Severe

!This video is of an incredible opening statement by Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX), Subcommittee Chairman on Oversight, Investigations, and Management on the topic–Cybersecurity Threats to the United States.Some of the highlights from his statement:- America’s computers are under attack and every American is at risk.

– The attacks are real, stealthy, persistent, and can devastate our nation.

– Cyber attacks occur at the speed of light, are global, can come from anywhere, and can penetrate our traditional defenses.

– In the event of a major cyber attack, what could we expect? Department off Defense networks collapsing, oil refinery fires, lethal clouds of gas from chemical plants, the financial systems collapsing with no idea of who owns what, pipeliness of natural gas exploding, trains and subways derailed, a nationwide blackout. This is not science fiction scenarios. (Adapted from Richard Clark, former Senior Advisor of Cyber Security)

– It is not a matter of if, but whena Cyber Pearl Harbor will occur.  We have been fortunate [so far]. (Adapted from General Keith Alexander, Director of the NSA).

I believe we must address these threats and our vulnerabilities in at least five main ways:

1) Increase research and developmentfor new tools and techniques–both defensive and offensive–for fighting cyberwar.

2) Establish a regulatory frameworkwith meaningful incentives and disincentives to significantly tighten cybersecurity across our critical infrastructure.

3) Create a cybersecurity corpsof highly trained and experienced personnel with expertise in both the strategic and operational aspects of cybersecurity.

4) Prepare nationwide contingency plansfor the fallout of a cyberwar, if and when it should occur.

5) Create a clear policyfor preventing cyberattacks by taking preemptive action when their is a known threat as well as for responding with devastating force when attacks do occur.

With cyberwar, just as in conventional war, there is no way to guarantee we will not be attacked, but we must prepare with the same commitment and zeal–because the consequences can be just, if not more, deadly.

>Document Management and Enterprise Architecture

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Years ago, we heard the mantra that paper was going to go away and we were entering the age of the paperless society.

But this vision has not come fully to fruition.

Public CIO Magazine, August/September 2008, reports that “everyone figured the electronic processes were going to wipe out paper, but that never happened. One possible reason is that printers kept getting faster and cheaper.” (Ralph Gammon, editor and publisher of the Document Imaging Report).

Paper is plentiful in the public sector as well.

Despite the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, “which requires the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to report to congress on the paperwork burden imposed on the public, the feds are allowing the overall burden to grow.”

“The OMB’s latest report, Information Collection Budget, FY 2007, reports the burden increased from 8.24 billion hours in fiscal ’05 to 9.92 billion hours in ’06, a rise of more than 8 percent.” This amounts to an average of 39 hours in 2006 for the average adult in the U.S. to complete government paperwork.

Why is the government not cutting back on paper in lieu of digital solutions when communicating with the public?

“We realize that not everyone has access to a computer and not everyone is technology savvy. So we end up using paper as the lowest common denominator to communicate with a lot of external people.”

Over time, as technology continues to permeate our society, the necessity for paper solutions for the masses will decrease.

Even now with federal tax submissions (which account for roughly 78% of the total paperwork burden on the public), electronic submissions are available and being used by more and more taxpayers:

“Electronic Tax Filing begain in 1986, with the transmission of 25,000 refund-only individual income tax returns, [and]…as of October 19, 2004, more than 63 million individual returns had been filed electronically – 42 million from tax professionals!” (http://www.irs.gov/efile/article/0,,id=120353,00.html)

In enterprise planning for electronic document solutions for our organizations, we need to work towards ever more sophisticated solutions for the creation, storage, handling, search and retrieval, retention, and disposition, collaboration, and security of information. These solutions should provide for a feature rich electronic document environment including: document management, version control and workflow, record management, imaging and optical character recognition, and overall content management.

Through implementation of electronic document management solutions, we can continue move our enterprises toward enhanced worker productivity, reduced burden on our customers/partners/stakeholders, cost savings, better access to information and hence better decision making capability, and compliance with mandates such as the Paperwork Reduction Act, Government Paperwork Elimination Act, Federal Records Act, and Freedom of Information Act.