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Sorting a Sea
of Information
I
anaging Gigabytes: Compressing
and Indexing Documents and
Images, Ian H. Witten, Alistair
Moffat, and Timothy C. Bell. Storing,
compressing, and retrieving information
can be challenging and frequently critical to many applications. This book
focuses on the theory, illustration, and
general discussion of this type of information management.
The authors discuss techniques such as block sorting, new
indexing techniques, and new loss-less compression strategies.
They also provide a summary of text and image compression,
indexing, and querying techniques.A history of relevant algorithm development along with a discussion of challenges, pitfalls, and specific solutions is explored.
Information is organized into topics such as compression
and indexing. In addition to diagrams and examples, the
authors use pseudocode to present algorithms in a languageindependent manner.
The book covers text and image compression models, including Huffman, LZW, and their variants; trends in information
management; index creation and compression; performance;
and overall system implementation.
nformation Storage and Retrieval, Robert R. Korfhage.
With a glut of information,
IT professionals are scrambling
for ways to store, retrieve, manage, and dissect it all. This book
tackles the complex problems
facing programmers and system
designers, addressing different
components of the problems; for
example, in addressing querying, the author explores
the familiar Boolean-logic queries along with vector,
weighted, fuzzy, and probabilistic queries. Another
useful section outlines techniques for determining the
similarity of two documents, methods for incorporating user profiles into queries, and nontraditional ways
of presenting query results. The book also presents
measures for rating information retrieval systems.
Other topics include shortcomings in current tools
for Internet searching; an overview of visual information retrieval interfaces; and a discussion of security
issues.The book shows how to handle full-text graphics, video, and audio; and how to distribute these massive databases over networks.
Morgan Kaufmann, San Francisco; http://www.mkp.com; ISBN
1-55860-570-3; 576 pp.; $54.95.
John Wiley & Sons, New York; http://www.wiley.com;
ISBN 0-471-14338-3; 368 pp.; $87.50.
STORAGE
Finding Room
for Gigabytes
SITES
How to Create Effective SANs
D
esigning Storage Area Networks,
Thomas Clark.The sheer volume of
data generated by today’s commercial and academic institutions has created a
storage crisis for IT managers and administrators.
Although larger-capacity disk drives
absorb part of the growing data load, connecting the requisite number of disks to file
and application servers by traditional
means has become increasingly difficult.
Providing the bandwidth to keep up with the users’ requests is
also a continual challenge, as is allocating sufficient time and
bandwidth for backing up data to tape.
Fibre Channel, a standards-based architecture, provides
gigabit speeds over long distances and supports devices in an
extended network. Fibre Channel has become synonymous
with storage area networking because it supports the protocols most optimized for moving data to and from disk and its
inherent networking capabilities.
This book talks to IT managers who are considering
Fibre Channel SANs as a management resource.
Storage area networking represents a major shift from
previous storage models, introducing new networking
products and concepts between servers and storage.The
text does not assume prior knowledge of networking
concepts and discusses the most essential aspects of networking as they apply to SANs. Networking professionals who use SANs as an extension of the local and
wide area enterprise network may also find value in this
book. For these readers, discussions of basic server and
storage concepts should assist in bridging the gap
between networking and storage worlds.
Storage area networking based on Fibre Channel is
relatively new, and this book attempts to achieve a balance between the technical detail required to understand the basic principles of Fibre Channel SANs and
the technology’s most useful features.
Addison-Wesley,Reading,Mass.;http://www.awl.com;
ISBN 0-201-61584-3; 202 pp.; $24.95.
July ❘ August 2001 IT Pro
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BOOKS
KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT
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BOOKS
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WEB
SITES
The Right Knowledge
Tools for the Job
T
he Knowledge Management Toolkit: Practical Techniques for Building a Knowledge Management
System, Amrit Tiwana. Companies are finally realizing that technology alone is not enough—knowledge
is the real sustainer. The author claims it is through
unchaining knowledge in your company, that people,
processes, and experience can best grow and mature.
The author delivers techniques and tools for making KM work in your company.You’ll learn how to use
KM to make sure that decisions are fully informed as
you build on intranet, data warehouse, and project management investments.
The author provides a 10-step roadmap for implementing KM successfully
checklists to help you focus on critical issues, and an interactive toolkit format to guide strategic design decisions. Identifying key intangibles and auditing the knowledge you already have are key parts of the process.
The book also examines how to mobilize subtle, tacit knowledge and how
to calculate and maximize return on investment in KM systems.A Web site at
http://www.kmtoolkit.com, provides you with ongoing support and updates.
Prentice Hall,New York;http://www.prenhall.com;ISBN 013-012853-8;640 pp.;$44.99.
Knowledge Management
Asia 2001
18-20 July 2001
Singapore
F
ocusing on knowledge creation, the conference intends to examine strategies for developing a knowledge organization, emphasizing the use of formal and informal communities of practice.
The accompanying three-day exhibition, which is free, will showcase
advances in KM solutions and applications, and includes 60 vendors/
exhibitors.
Keynote presenters include knowledge creation professor Ikujiro
Nonaka (University of California) who will discuss the limits of knowledge management, creating a dynamic place for knowledge emergence,
and building synthesis capability.
Mark Stone of Arthur Andersen will discuss “The Knowledge
Paradigm,” covering what KM can do for you and how to distinguish
between knowledge and information management.
James Yong and Praba Nair (National Computer Systems Pte Ltd.)
will present their keynote on “The KM Journey: A Singapore
Experience.” They discuss their organization’s early efforts at overcoming initial challenges in dealing with KM.
Dominic Kelleher’s (PricewaterhouseCoopers) presentation, “Using
an Intranet to Capture Tacit and Explicit Corporate Knowledge,”
addresses the question of whether knowledge capture can be automatic
or must involve people, and how knowledge captures relate to existing
work practices.
http://www.kmasia.com/home/default.asp
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IT Pro July ❘ August 2001
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Knowledge
Management
http://www.knowledgemanagement.net
Knowledge management (KM)
consulting has revenues of more
than $25 billion worldwide. Information systems and technology are
some of the most in-demand areas
for consulting services, followed
by training, strategic planning,
change management, and human
resources and compensation.
According to this Web site, KM
is the systematic process of finding, selecting, organizing, distilling, and presenting information in
a way that improves an employee’s comprehension in a specific
area of interest.
Knowledge management helps
an organization to gain insight
and understanding from its own
experience. Specific KM activities
help focus the organization on
acquiring, storing, and using
knowledge for problem solving,
dynamic learning, strategic planning, and decision making.
This Web site provides sections
that focus on topics such as
benchmarking and best practices,
business ethics, change management, corporate governance,
operations management, and
organization development.
Links take visitors to case studies, consulting services, content
management, and other valuable
resources.
The Key Players section provides a link to the KM competitor
resources at Business.com, including lists of companies with
the highest investment growth.
Links to events and trade associations also help keep the KM
worker informed.
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CONFERENCES
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BOOKS
•WEB
SITES
5-10 November 2001
Atlanta, Georgia
T
he Conference on Information
and Knowledge Management
(CIKM) provides an international
forum for research on information and
knowledge management, as well as
recent advances in data and knowledge
bases. The conference identifies challenging problems in developing future
knowledge and information systems,
and solicits and reviews applied and
theoretical research findings. An
important part of the conference is the
workshops program, which focuses on
research challenges and initiatives.
Topics of interest to the CIKM community include application of knowledge representation techniques to
semantic modeling, development and
management of heterogeneous knowledge bases, automatic acquisition
of data and knowledge bases (especially raw text), object-oriented
database management systems, optimization techniques, transaction management, high performance online
transaction processing systems, and
security techniques.
The conference will also cover performance evaluation, unconventional
applications, parallel database systems,
physical and logical database design,
domain modeling and ontology building, knowledge discovery in databases,
and information storage and retrieval
and interface technology.
http://cikm2001.cc.gatech.edu
CONFERENCES
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Making Tacit Knowledge
Explicit, Japanese Style
T
he Knowledge-Creating Company:How Japanese
Companies Create the Dynamics of Innovation,
Ikujiro Nonaka and Hirotaka Takeuchii. In this
book, Nonaka and Takeuchii provide an inside look
at how Japanese companies go about creating new
knowledge organizationally.
They point out the two types of knowledge: explicit
knowledge—contained in manuals and procedures—
and tacit knowledge—learned only by experience and
communicated only indirectly, through metaphor and
analogy. US managers seem to focus on explicit knowledge; the Japanese,
on tacit knowledge.And this, the authors argue, is the key to success—the
Japanese have learned how to transform tacit into explicit knowledge.
The authors illustrate the theory of organizational knowledge creation
with case studies drawn from Honda, Canon, Matsushita, NEC, Nissan,
3M, GE, and even the US Marines.
For instance, using Matsushita’s development of the Home Bakery (the
world’s first fully automated bread-baking machine for home use), they
show how to convert tacit knowledge to explicit knowledge: When the
designers couldn’t perfect the dough-kneading mechanism, a software
programmer apprenticed herself with a master baker, gained a tacit understanding of kneading, and conveyed this information to the engineers.
In addition, the authors show that, to create knowledge, the best management style is what they call “middle-up-down,” in which middle managers form a bridge between the ideals of top management and the front
line’s chaotic realities.
KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT
Tenth
International
Conference
on Information
and Knowledge
Management
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Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK; http://www.oup.co.uk/; ISBN 0-19509269-4; 304 pp.; $29.95.
Knowledge from a
Smart Perspective
S
mart Things to Know About Knowledge
Management,Thomas M. Koulopoulos and
Carl Frappaolo.This book is aimed at executives who need an introduction to KM basics
but who also desire insight from the folks on the
front lines of the industry. This book tries to cut
through the hype to deliver the basic facts and
necessary information to help you learn how to
take advantage of this aspect of business. The
authors aim to help you position KM at the heart of your business, understand the technologies that support knowledge management, become a
smart knowledge manager, understand how to measure success in a
knowledge-based economy, and make KM work for you.
Capstone Publishing Ltd., Oxford, UK; http://capstone.co.uk;
ISBN 1-841-12041-3; 240 pp.; $16.95.
July ❘ August 2001 IT Pro
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BOOKS
E-COMMERCE
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eWorld
Exhibition
and Conference
2-4 October 2001
Vancouver, British Columbia
T
he eWorld Exhibition intends to present
120 exhibitors offering their latest tools
for B2B Internet e-business solutions.
The exhibit floor will also feature a presentation area, where exhibitors will demonstrate
their latest solutions.
The conference’s strategy sessions will
include a seminar offering small firms a road
map to implementing e-business. These sessions will discuss examples of how small
Canadian companies have begun to automate
their “common business events” and point out
portal sites that can help launch e-business initiatives at low risk and low cost.
Another session will discuss how to formulate
manageable Internet strategy.
A presentation entitled “Internet Marketing
in the New Century” will discuss establishing
an actionable online promotional strategy,
tools and techniques for attracting return visitors, and the risks and paybacks of execution.
“Creating Awareness of Your E-Business”
examines how companies collect Internet
usage data and implement strategic business
decisions.
http://www.eworldex.com/v2001/index.html
Vnunet.com
http://vnunet.com
Vnunet.com is a technology Web
site that provides news, product reviews, and
downloadable software for technology users,
whether at work or at home.
The Web site has operated for six years and
its parent organization, VNU UK, has over 20
years experience producing IT magazines and
information in the UK.
The Web site divides content into seven
areas: e-business, communications, business
hardware, business software, security, personal
computing, and gaming.
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IT Pro July ❘ August 2001
BOOKS
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Selling with Java
P
rofessional Java E-Commerce, by
Subrahmanyam Allamaraju and colleagues. Intended for IT managers and
developers working on e-commerce projects,
this book shows how to design and program
working e-stores and other enterprise Web
applications with Java. A nuts-and-bolts
guide to Java use for e-commerce sites, it also
surveys the management and design issues
that any organization will face in online business.
The first sections give an IT manager’s perspective on integrating e-commerce initiatives into your organization, whether
they’re business to business (B2B), business to consumer (B2C),
or mobile commerce.As well as terms you’ve already heard about,
the team authors also look at B2B2C and C2B2C scenarios.They
cover project planning for successful e-commerce software development and today’s n-tiered architectures.
The book then gives sample source code for a variety of e-commerce applications, beginning with a traditional online store (for
selling computers) with a product catalog and a shopping basket.
Written with simple JSP, the authors later show how to enhance
the basic site with Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB) for better scalability and performance. Hands-on advice for using tools like BEA
WebLogic Application Server will help you apply this knowledge
to real projects.
Wrox Press, Chicago; http://www.wrox.com; ISBN 1-861-00481-8;
1,000 pp.; $59.99.
Making Your
E-commerce Site Work
T
he Complete E-Commerce Book:Design,
Build & Maintain a Successful Webbased Business, Janice Reynolds and
Roya Mofazali. Whether your company is a
startup or well established, this book aims to
help you learn how to plan, implement, and
operate a successful e-commerce site.
The authors start by discussing how to
create a plan for the customer experience
and design an effective interface. They progress to programming
techniques, robust server configurations, site marketing, customer
service, order processing, warehousing, and shipping. The book
offers real-world examples of Web sites to illustrate what and what
not to do.
Besides the technical mechanics, the book also discusses how
to create successful business models, handle outsource, build traffic, and fulfill orders.
CMP Books, San Francisco;
ISBN 1-578-20061-X; 339 pp.; $29.95.
http://www.cmpbooks.com;
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BOOKS
B
2B Application Integration: e-Business-Enable
Your Enterprise, David Linthicum. Making
business applications communicate across corporate boundaries can be complicated, which is why
system architects usually coordinate such projects.
This book explains approaches that system architects
can take to get application A to talk to database B
and Web site C, without allowing hackers in for a
look around. The author surveys technologies and
products that implement these approaches.
The author explains competing technologies—for example, Electronic
Data Interchange (EDI) and Extensible Markup Language (XML)—side
by side. There’s very little code included, other than the barest examples
for illustrative purposes. This is a book for architects and planners, not
implementers.
The author also discusses middleware, remote procedure calls (RPC),
message queuing, XML, RosettaNet, Microsoft BizTalk and Java 2
Enterprise Edition (J2EE).
Addison-Wesley, Reading, Mass.; http://www.awl.com; ISBN 0-201-709368; 407 pp.; $39.95.
E-commerce Summit
6-7 September 2001
Rome
T
he Summit will focus on e-marketplaces, private exchanges, and
products and services for e-procurement. The conference’s overarching theme is the fact that to compete for business today and
maximize profits, companies need to identify, attract, and retain their
best customers. It is not the one-time sale that gives value to customer
relationships but the number of times the customer comes back.
Keynote speakers include Roy Ayliffe, director of professional
practice, The Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (CIPSUK). With 28,000 members, CIPS is one of the largest purchasing
organizations in Europe.Also presenting will be Yves Barbieux, chair,
CPGmarket.com (Switzerland); Willem A. Boomsluiter, vice president corporate purchasing, cosmetic division, Henkel (Germany);
and Carlo Di Gregorio, executive director, ADACI Associazione
Italiana di Management degli Approvvigionamenti (Italy).
One seminar, “XML in the Network: Securing and Controlling B2B
Traffic on the Internet,” discusses the Internet economy’s emergence
and the new standards of communication that are developing. XML
(extensible markup language) is a universal format for structured documents used to share information on the Web. XML permits the sharing of important business information like order entry, pricing, and
inventory levels—dramatically improving efficiencies and reducing costs.
http://www.e-commerce-summit.com/
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E-commerce
Degrees and
Certifications
http://www.
ecommercedegrees.s5.com
This Web site is simply a list of e-commerce colleges, degrees, and Internet
universities. Organized alphabetically,
the listing is a product of the
Global Federation of E-Commerce.
Entries include North Carolina State
University, with e-commerce concentration as part of master degree programs in management (College of
Management) and computer networking (College of Engineering).
Also, Universita Cattolica del Sacro
Cuore offers a program leading to a
masters of management in the network economy, aimed at producing
managers who can work with the
emerging digital economy.
The University of British Columbia
offers over 50 seminars and workshops on the Internet, including certificates in programming, publishing,
systems administration programming,
multimedia studies, Internet marketing, and software engineering.
Carnegie Mellon University has the
Institute for E-Commerce, a joint program of the Graduate School of
Industrial Administration and the
School of Computer Science. It also
includes affiliated faculty from the
H. John Heinz III School of Public
Policy and Management.The Institute
offers a 12-month master of science
in electronic commerce (MSEC).
Bond University on the Gold Coast,
Australia, offers a bachelors of electronic commerce and a masters in electronic commerce. Bradford University
details four main components to its ecommerce BSc: mobile communications, networking and the Internet;
software engineering, computing and
programming; business studies and
management; and personal transferable skills.
July ❘ August 2001 IT Pro
E-COMMERCE
Powering Your Business
and Enterprise
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CAREER/TRAINING
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Visit
IT Training
Ongoing
Great Britain and Scotland
http://www.
train-net.co.uk
V
IT Training magazine is a UK source
for IT training news, views, and information. Audited circulation statistics
indicate that the magazine reaches over
15,828 corporate IT training buyers. It’s
also the official journal of the Institute
of IT Training and goes to all IITT members.
The magazine’s goal is to keep business professionals up-to-date with the
latest IT skills issues. The Web site contains IT training news and information,
including comment and columnist articles from industry analysts, and coverage of developments in IT training, such
as Web-based, self-paced, and computer-based training. It also tracks
course and certification news, career
profiles of industry-leading professionals, training-course reviews, and books.
There’s also a marketplace section
that lets buyers reach training companies more quickly using a reader inquiry
service.
isit is a leading recruitment exhibition in the UK, offering
vacancies in systems and IT. This organization puts companies under one roof for easier communication.
The program lets you present yourself face-to-face to hiring companies, cutting out agencies, headhunters, or other intermediaries.
Visit events run all year, covering national and European locations. You can decide when to submit your resume and to whom,
at whichever exhibition you choose to attend.
There is no admission fee, and only one full year of IT experience is required. These events occur from July through November
2001 in London, Manchester, Edinburgh, Copenhagen, Prague,
and the Thames Valley.
Among the exhibitors at July’s event will be Cap Gemini, Ernst
& Young, IBM UK, Marlborough Stirling, CMG Admiral, and
British Airways.
http://www.visit.haynet.com
Professional Exchange
Ongoing throughout year
US
A
s the competition for qualified professionals from technical and other disciplines intensifies, this organization has
emerged to offer companies and candidates recruiting
events held all over the US.
With over 80 career events planned for 2001, this organization
sponsors events ranging from general recruitment for college students and recent college grads to specialized areas such as technology, health, science, biotech, and diversity.
Founded in 1986, Professional Exchange became a part of The
New York Times Company in September 2000. It has over 65,000
active candidates in its growing attendee database and a roster of
over 1,500 client companies.
Professional Exchange has the promotional benefit of several
strategic newspaper partners including The Boston Globe, The
Baltimore Sun, The Philadelphia Inquirer & Daily News, The
New York Times, The News and Observer (Raleigh, N.C.), The
Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune, The Houston
Chronicle, The Orange County Register, and The San Diego
Union-Tribune.
Guide pages for career fairs are posted as information becomes
available and remain on the Web site for 30 days after the event. If
the date is highlighted blue, then it is an active link.
Company advertisements are posted as they arrive in the office.
All advertisements are usually up by the Friday before the
show date.
http://www.professional-exchange.com
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IT Pro July ❘ August 2001
TechEmployment.
com
http://www.
techemployment.com
This job-posting Web site helps companies recruit and hire technical professionals directly, and aims to avoid the
cost for traditional recruitment advertising or headhunting fees. The site
offers its services free to job candidates.
A Web site community also provides
a resource for job seekers and employee
hunters.
TechEmployment.com also offers free
e-mail, newsletter, tech-community, estore, IT help desk, resume writing, college degree(s) information, global IT
resources, career assessment, and advice
on background checks.
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http://www.kwork.org
At the Association of Knowledgework (AOK),
people from many specialties cross professional,
cultural, economic, and hierarchical barriers to
learn together. This site aims to provide a virtual
home for those who work with knowledge.
The free visitor center affords access to a member-tested public library, which contains the best of
the pages they’ve found among 11 million Web sites
on knowledge management and knowledge work.
Visitors are welcome to “kick the tires” without
joining AOK, become a member of the AOK
Public Library for free, or have a preview of the
member-only section.
The site owners are also busy building and maintaining other resources: the library, bookstore,
white papers section, seminars, and an expert
panel they call K911.
Nine good reasons why
close to 100,000 computing
professionals join the
IEEE Computer Society
Transactions on
■
Computers
■
Knowledge and Data Engineering
■
Multimedia
■
Networking
■
Parallel and Distributed Systems
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Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence
■
Software Engineering
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Very Large Scale
Integration Systems
■
Visualization and
Computer Graphics
One-Stop IT
Professional
Shopping
O
perationIT launched its Resume Flash program,
which offers IT professionals a new vehicle to
reach IT recruiters.
When you become a member of Resume Flash you are
not just emailing your resume to recruiters. You become
part of the OeprationIT.com network. Your resume,
based on what you choose will be available for thousands
of recruiters find you. You will also be eligible for special offers and opportunities that present to registered
members. If you are looking for an IT career, OperationIT is your one stop full service web site.
Resume Flash service is unlike other resume blasting
services since OperationIT focuses exclusively on IT
recruiters. In addition, these recruiters are members of
OperationIT and are actively seeking qualified IT professionals right now.
Candidate fees range from $39.99 to $79.99, depending on level of service.
RECRUITING
Association of
Knowledgework
•
http://www.OperationIT.com
E-cruiting
New Talent
E
ZRecruit attempts to capture recruiting’s best
practices and brings them to you in one cohesive,
easy-to-use e-cruiting system.
A search tool scours the Web for qualified candidates
and brings their information to you. Once you identify a
candidate, EZRecruit can automatically present the
opportunity, ask screening questions, and give online
technical testing.You can even specify a reference-checking mode.
A proprietary algorithm determines sourced candidate ranking, making it faster and easier for recruiters
and hiring managers to identify the most suitable candidates. Capture passive candidates using EZRecruit’s
Web-based interface. Use outside vendors as collaborative partners in your search by giving them passwordprotected access to the system, letting them post resumes
as well.
A demo CD is available from the Web site.
http://www.ezrecruit.com
computer.org/publications/
July ❘ August 2001 IT Pro
59