Monthly Archives: December 2010

How to Find The Right IT Management Metrics Service

Metrics, in its broadest application, means a definite range of parameters that can be
measured in quantitative terms or numbers. The metrics you use should only be applied within
the field it is applicable in, otherwise you would be misleading yourself as to the
parameters you come up with.

When we speak of IT Management on the other hand, that is a very broad term covering
practically all aspects of Information Technology. So let us focus on a sub-sector of IT
which is Knowledge Management (to narrow down our scope.)

The activities of Knowledge Management (as used in IT departments) may pertain to
sub-categories like social computing, content management, and the software help desk. Thus,
when we speak of IT Management metrics as used in Knowledge Management, it means defining
the parameters by which Knowledge Management (and its sub-categories) can be accurately
gauged.

This may take the form of creating a knowledge mapping process. Under this process may fall
the knowledge audit function which covers identification of what specific knowledge is
available before a knowledge management project begins; the network survey function which
pertains to tagging the specific communities that participate in knowledge creation and
knowledge sharing; and creation of the map itself to be used to show how knowledge assets
influence key business processes.

We say that the IT system enables knowledge management practices within the organization if
it supports the flow of knowledge throughout the organizational system. One commonly used
enabler is the ubiquitous blog which is described as a social computing tool that allows
unstructured knowledge transfer.

So to find the appropriate IT Management metrics service in the field of Knowledge
Management, you may need look no further than your own IT department and their specialists.
In fact, they may provide the most accurate metrics applicable to your organization at the
moment.

Definition of Web 2.0 Tag Cloud

Tags are commonly defined as commands inserted in a certain document. These specify the manner on how a specific document or a portion of it should be layouted or formatted. Meanwhile, tag clouds are visual depiction of the tags generated by users. Typically, tag clouds are the different words used in a certain website in order to describe the overall content of the website. Tag clouds may also listed alphabetically. The more important a certain word or tag is the bigger its size. There are also tag clouds that have hyperlinks leading to certain collection of related tags. The Web 2.0 has also tag clouds.

There are Web 2.0 tag clouds available on different websites. The words included to the Web tag cloud are blogs, wikis, folksonomy, participation, usability, joy of use, social software, recommendation, simplicity, and AJAX. Other words or tags included are design, CSS, affiliation, economy, the long tail, web standards, standardization, microformats, datadriven, and remixability. Some tags in the tag cloud are OpenAPIs, mobility, convergence, video, and audio.

Other than tag clouds, there are also data clouds and text clouds. The data cloud is a visual representation to display different data. It uses the font size or font color in order to indicate the specific numerical value of data. Meanwhile, the text cloud is a visualization of different word frequency. The more that a certain word is used in the website, the bigger it will appear on the image. These two can also be used instead of the Web 2.0 tag clouds.

Three Categories for your Library Metadata

If you are looking into the latest news about data storing, you might have already heard about metadata. Simply put, it is all about information on information about any type of media. This new type of archiving information is really a great way for libraries to be organized – and any kind of library at that! Any item that is part of the library of metadata may be referred to as the individual datum, also known as a content item. This is also a collection of information or data which may also have multiple contents and even some levels and hierarchies. For libraries that are using different kinds of metadata, these may be categorized into three parts.

These categories are often used in order to provide descriptions of the objects that make it up. The first one is the descriptive category. Here, the information which describes the intellectual content of such an object is for cataloguing records as well as finding some aids or same types of schemes. These are often used for purposes that are bibliographic in nature. The second is structural, where the information that is involved with the object may be composed of logical units like pages in a book to come up with the entire thing. And finally, there is the administrative category, which is information for the object or control access based on  how it was scanned and what its storage format is like, which are necessary for long term preservation of these types of digital objects.

Information Technology Management Training Fundamentals

As compared to the managers of manufacturing or service-oriented companies, an Information Technology managers work is more rigorous and detail-oriented. A sales manager, for example, would be more concerned with the marketing details of the product and the management of the sales people under his or her team. On the other hand, an IT manager would need to supervise the work and performance of several technicians and Information Technology personnel. Aside from this, an IT manager needs to deal with hardware, software and network components for a particular company.

To prepare IT professionals for these rigorous tasks, IT management training is recommended. There are management issues which are unique to the IT industry, and this is what these trainings are solely about. The first area of study which will be dealt with in IT management training is staff administration and motivation which is the basic task of any manager who holds a leadership position. There is also the financial aspect of managing the hardware and components within the companys computer network system not to mention the other electronic equipment being utilized. Vendor management and business transformation are two industry-specific terms which is also part of the IT management training program. Another important subject is security and disaster recovery, since the IT industry as a whole deals with an enormous amount of data which needs to be secured. IT project planning, budget, finance, as well as operations, policies and procedures are other essential topics which will be tackled during the IT management training program.