As discussed in this space in the last issue, AIIM
E-DOC Magazine will become Infonomics with the September/October
issue this year. While not a blockbuster along the lines of upcoming releases of
Sex in the City (or, my current favorites, Kung Fu Panda and
The Dark Knight
), we anticipate
that the change will generate positive reviews for us. We are in the home
stretch of preparing new columns and a new, more appealing and readable
design. The final dimensions aren’t all determined yet, but Infonomics
will visually be leaps ahead of the magazine you currently hold in your hands.
Better yet, new departments, columns, tighter features and more focused case
studies will make the content we deliver to you even better.
So, please remember that when this “new” and attractive
thing called Infonomics shows up in your stack of magazines that that’s still
us. Crack us open and read away. As always, this issue is full of information to
help you sort through your
content issues:
- For a comprehensive overview of issues to consider and
steps to
take as you develop a records retention plan, turn to page 26.
- SharePoint can be either bane or boon for office productivity and IT
planning. A discussion of two basic approaches to including SharePoint as
part of your ECM strategy on page 47.
- Too often, companies overlook the planning that needs
to take place, including making sure all of the right people are correctly
assigned, before beginning implementation of an ECM (or any) project.
Get started right by turning to page 40. And remember,
Infonomics = AIIM E-DOC Magazine<
/EM > . Only better. Read and
enjoy
Bryant Duhon
editor, AIIM E-DOC Magazine
bduhon@aiim.org
301-916-7182
Comments, criticism, and witticisms welcome.
What’s in a Name?
Well, that’s the $64,000 question, isn’t it? With the September issue, we will
begin a new era for this magazine. A new
design. A renewed focus on the management
issues associated with managing
content, records, and documents. A lot
more features on the key people involved
in shaping the futures of their companies
and organizations. An electronic distribution
strategy to make the magazine a true
global voice for our industry.
We discovered in the process of thinking
about rechristening the magazine that
there are people out there who are official
“namers”—people whose job it is to think
of cool names for things.
Much as I might like a gig like this—hey,
how hard could it be?—my wife assures
me that it would be a terrible fit. Her
evidence?
After 12 years of living in the same
house, I cannot accurately identify all
the people who live in our neighborhood
(there are 12 houses, and she maintains at
a rate of one name per year I should have
it down by now).
I do not know the names of any of the
roads in our development. I usually give
directions like this: ”Go to the road at the
top of the hill. Go down a while and make
a right on whatever that
road is, but make sure you
don’t take the wrong one.
Go to a tall tree that has
flowers on it sometimes
and make a left.”
As a matter of fact,
I am not really sure of
the actual name of the
development we live
in. In my defense, I
do know that all of
our yards are equal to
about a quarter of an
acre, and the development
has some sort of landed gentry
name appropriate to country estates that
are usually measured in square miles.
As we wrestled with the name for the magazine, we went
through the usual steps. How about a made-up name? How about something named
after a Greek god? How about a Latin word? How about mashing two words together
to make a new one? How about a name completely disconnected from the focus of
the magazine? (AIIM E-DOC Magazine
editor Bryant
Duhon has been pitching “Spiky Katfish”
for as long as I’ve known him.)
Once you get a name you like, other
challenges arise. Small ones like whether
anyone else is already
using it. And the
increasingly challenging
question of whether
the URL is available. I
am convinced there are
only 26 still un-owned
URLs, except for the
goofy ones with suffixes
like .tv or .xxx.
So as they say on
the Academy Awards,
could I have the envelope
please?
And the winner is—Infonomics
.
The reasons can perhaps be best
summed up by this definition from
Wikipedia—with the usual caveat that the
definition may have changed by the time
you actually read this article. But we liked
it. Infonomics is defined as the intelligent
management of information. It is about
the interrelationship between people and
organizations, on the one hand, and information,
on the other.
And I guess that about says it all. Get ready for
Infonomics
.