This week’s announcement from Microsoft that they will be giving away developer software free to students and the BLOG posts on the topic, left me with two very different opinions I wanted to share.   

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Johnny Gee’s recent post on a Migration Dilema describes a client’s reluctance to create a taxonomy when migrating content into Documentum. The argument from the client being, “if the old system didn’t need it, why does Documentum?” I’ve heard this more than once myself and this kind of question is usually followed by a complaint that if Documentum is so expensive, why can’t it do exactly what I want it to. (usually this translates to “make it behave exactly like the product its replacing”)

Before answering the question, as integrators we have to understand exactly what our role is in the engagement. Are we contractors or consultants. There is a difference. (more…)

I was reading Johnny Gee’s BLOG and his article “Why can’t search be more like Google?” and I flashed back to a day in 1998 when several of us were invited to the Demo Room of Building 1 at Documentum. There the ten of us were introduced to Project Alchemy, which would later become the first web client from Documentum. We were given a 45 minute demo of the product and then asked if there were any questions. After a few moments of silence someone in the audience broke the dam and suddenly the questions started flowing, “why this” and “why not that?” Finally our barrage of questions was stopped by another question, “well what does a web UI look like then?” Our combined audience voice replied, “Yahoo!”

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Imaging aside, I cannot point to any other product in the EMC portfolio that can be classified as a content creation tool other than the applet driven WebPublisher. Third party integrations may be on the price list but they are not necessarily part of the product line’s strategic direction. I suppose you could make the argument that the Xforms editor qualifies but that’s not nearly robust enough to manage something like an aircraft maintenance manual. This brings me to X-Hive.

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Well Marko , if you are going to run a marathon - the most important thing you have to do (I’m told) is buy the right shoes. From some of the conversations I’ve heard, you can actually be killed if you attempt the wrong physical activity without proper footware (yes I know it’s misspelled - think about it) This makes a certain sense if you’re rock climbing or skiing but I am amazed at variety of “sport” shoes that are indistinguishable to the unathletic. Running, walking, hiking and the most disturbing of them all - cross training. What is that exactly?

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