From KMWorld.com’s e-letter NewsLinks: 

Most IT managers are stumped when it comes to capturing the right IT metrics and then effectively conveying their relevance to management. Decision makers tend to focus on the one metric they understand: The cost of IT and how to reduce it.

This new Forrester White Paper reveals the five essential metrics for effectively managing IT.

Download this White Paper to learn:

• How to align IT investments to business goals
• Strategies for capturing the right metrics
• Tips for translating the value of IT contributions

Check out this interesting article on “how Web 2.0 technologies, agile project management and strong IT governance are enabling the CIA to share more information inside the enigmatic, controversial agency and collaborate more effectively with its 15 intelligence agency peers.”  For example the CIO of the CIA (don’t you love the nice ring of all those initials?), Al Tarasiuk, talked about “more efficient and effective information sharing by using Web 2.0 technologies, such as the CIA’s Wikipedia-like Intellipedia that’s used across the U.S. intelligence community.”   “The current director [of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) established in 2004], J.M. “Mike” McConnell, is taking great pains to replace the “Need to know” culture with “Responsibility to provide” among the organizations. (The shift is significant because it replaces knowledge hoarding with knowledge sharing.)”   “What’s happening at the CIA is really representative of what’s happening governmentwide, where you have a number of agencies with antiquated systems, and the challenges in front of them and the opportunities we have are requiring a lot more flexibility, speed and agility,” says Lena Trudeau, a program director at the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA), an independent Washington, D.C., government advisory group. Trudeau studies how collaborative technologies can help solve the U.S. government’s complex problems, which “require [the government] to act in a different way than a lot of these legacy systems and processes allow.”

The end of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing (thanks again Google for your wonderful doodles) is signaling for me the fast approach of the fall, a busy conference time — a time for learning, sharing knowledge, celebrating accomplishments with colleagues, netowrking with new people, and gaining new insights.  KMWorld & Intranets 2008, September 23-5, as well as Enterprise Search Summit West , September 23-4 and Taxonomy Boot Camp 2008, September 25-6 will soon be held in San Jose.  Internet Librarian 2008, the 12th annual conference (amazing isn’t it?), October 20-22 in Monterey will again bring together leaders in information technology, information management, and information services as well as those hoping to be leaders in their organizations.  Hope to see you there.

Some cools stuff in this article but my favorites are:

Print Shop to Go, Printstik PS910

Forget about waiting at a Kinkos to print out that hard-copy report. Planon’s Printstik PS910 is a go-anywhere print shop. At 1.5 pounds and powered by a lithium ion battery, the PS910 easily fits into a notebook bag, yet it can print from a smart phone, handheld or notebook, either through a USB cable or wirelessly via Bluetooth. The US$300 printer uses thermal technology; a package of three rolls of thermal paper costs US$25. It means that you only get monochrome documents, but if you need a quick sales letter, a map or a proposal, this could be just the thing.

Power Central, Mini Surge Protector with USB Charger

So much work, so few power outlets — it’s the nomad’s nightmare. Belkin’s Mini Surge Protector with USB Charger turns a single AC outlet into three, delivering electricity to you and those around you (sharing that outlet may get you good karma, or even a free latte). It also provides a pair of USB ports for charging phones, handhelds or media players. At 6 ounces, the Mini Surge Protector is worth its weight in batteries, and it rotates so that it won’t block the second outlet on the wall. The device costs US$25, but is well worth it — not the least because it carries a $75,000 warranty against damage from a power spike.

Check out this great strategic planning guide on the Treasury Board of Canada’s website.  It “provides practical advice and best practices for departments and agencies on developing Information Management (IM) or Information Technology (IT) strategic plans.”  Nice approach.

Isn’t great to see so many young athletes have an opportunity to represent their countries in Beijing at the Summer Olympics?  Belonging to an athletic family who lives to watch the games, it is an exciting time.  As were the Ontario Summer Games this past weekend in Ottawa where my daughter coached an under 16 women’s field hockey team to a gold medal.  I’m thinking that this Google doodle has a field hockey stick in the net, what do you think?

To have a look at more of the wonderful Google doodles for the 2008 Olympics, look here.  What’s your favorite?  It’s hard to pick one, I love the basketball, ping pong, swimming, rowing, badminton — well, all of them really!  Thanks Google.

At the International Federation of Library Assocition 74th conference in Quebec City, the KM Section is presenting a session with the Information Technology and Library and Research Services for Parliaments on Social Computing Tools & Knowledge Sharing.  David Gurteen ccompared old KM practices and KM 2.0 which uses today’s social tools.  Slides available here.  He then talked about his use of tools: the 6,000 pages on his website, newsletters, RSS, email feeds, media player, and more.  Lots of ideas for libraries — embedded google map on the contact page, inspirational quotes for people tot use, clock with time zone, twitter what’s happening.  He talked about Dopplr — a new tool that allows you to find other people in your current location, one you can embed on your webpage.  He recommended the audience check out TED talks (podcasts available from iTunes) if they hadn’t already.  He also mentioned Pamela, which allows you to record on Skype.

Moira Fraser, Director, Information & Knowledge, New Zealand Parliament and former National Director, KM with Ernst & Young, talked about how it is difficult for parliaments to talk about “anything” with “anyone.”  However they use storytelling a lot and do use social tools — examples include links from Chile’s Parliamentary library to Facebook and YouTube; TheyWorkForYou.co.nz (private site about NZ parliament) which does use social tools to present NZ parliament; Wikipedia vs parliamentary websites for members; UK parliament twitter feed and OpenAustralia twitter feed;  UK parliament on Facebook as are many individual members; Chilean parliament on YouTube; New Zealand parliamentary library on Flickr; epetitions are new ways to work with the community.  Building trust, she says, will allow more use of social tools between parliaments and their constituents.

Mary Lee Kennedy, Director, Knowledge & Library Services, Harvard Business School and former Director Knowledge Network at Microsoft, showed tools being used at HBS -Working Knowledge; quotations and threaded discussions with faculty, NanoHub, IMD’s “tomorrow’s challenges” which becomes research agenda for the university based on practitioner input, clincial puzzles — ideas from faculty and doctoral students about where research is going, global community in the business world — sharing knowledge about models, what’s happening in parts of the world, and relationships.

Patrick Danowski, Project Manager, Statsbibliotek su Berlin talked about making sure that the content that you share can be retrieved out of the system;  emphasized that we need to reuse and not reinvent the wheel by using free licenses and creative commons; and encouraged the audience to try the tools to feel how powerful they are, and recommended Helene Blowers approach to learning 2.0 — 23 things.

At long last, here is Jane’s presentation to the Spring 2008 conference Ontario Library Service-North held for its incredible public library clients. We so enjoy working with the public libraries in northern Ontario; in this discussion Jane talked with them about “applying and learning web 2.0 tools in 15 minutes/day”, originated by Helene Blowers at Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County.

Learningtalk Jane For Olsn Spring 2008

View SlideShare presentation

Thank you Michael Stephens!! Once again you’ve “tamed the web” for me <wink>. Michael’s blog links to Brian Solis’ work on a “conversation prism” that “charts online conversations between the people that populate communities as well as the networks that connect the Social Web.” It’s very cool. Not only does it help us identify myriad ways we and our clients and communities are talking, listening and conversing (often very different - many of us “talk” without ever “listening” <grin>), but Solis also shows the current tools enabling each venue. So the prism will have to be updated regularly - but what a great start!

An interesting concept. Apparently the US Department of Defense has a definition of PM in one of its manuals; and many public relations firms offer PM as one of their services. According to David Baldacci in an author’s note in his recent book, The Whole Truth:

PMs are not spin doctors because they don’t spin facts. They create facts and then sell them to the world as the truth. An that, to quote then venerable Mark Twain (who wouldv’e had a field day with the PM guys), is the difference between the lightning bug and lightning…..by using these methods, a major untruth can be established so quickly and overwhelmingly across the world that no digging by anyone after the fact can make a dent in the public consciousness that it actually isn’t true at all. And that’s precisely what makes it so dangerous.

Thanks, David, for a great summer thriller and illustration of how the net can further PM in a nanosecond. Discerning what is true (facts) and finding quality information will always be a challenge and information professionals will always have a role in the process and in teaching others to beware.

I heard David speak at a conference in 2005, and was very impressed and when I learned about his foundation, Wish You Well Foundation, and all the good work he does, I was even more impressed. Not only a good writer with great reads (love his books), he is a good man. Check him out.