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{ Author Archives } Barry Campbell

Barry Campbell is an experienced technical communicator and process analyst. With over 17 years of experience in information technology, much of it in a consulting role, Barry has written technical documentation and marketing materials, developed new business proposals and RFPs, and prepared and delivered presentations targeted to all levels of management. Barry has held senior staff positions at Capgemini and Summit Systems, and as an independent consultant his clients have included IBM and GlaxoSmithKline (formerly GlaxoWellcome.)

Barry maintains the Knowledge Worker Free/Open Source Toolbox, a document that lists freeware and Open Source equivalents to commercial software used by knowledge workers.

“I’m a Mac, I’m a PC”

Apple’s “I’m a Mac, I’m a PC” ads (starring John Hodgman and Justin Long in the US) are running in other markets too, with local actors playing the Mac and the PC.
I don’t speak a word of Japanese, which is one reason I may find the Japanese ads the best.
The UK ads are pretty good, […]

2007 01 30 Marketing Comments (1)

The online malware market

Microsoft says its new operating system, Windows Vista, is the most secure in the company’s history. Now the bounty hunters will test just how secure it is.
When its predecessor, Windows XP, was released five years ago, software bugs were typically hunted by hackers for fame and glory, not financial reward. But now software vulnerabilities — […]

2007 01 30 Knowledge work
In the News Comments (0)

How to Jumpstart Your Career

Careers are easy to neglect. If the paychecks keep coming and the boss is tolerable, most people get into a routine and direct their attention elsewhere.
While that’s an adequate way to put bread on the table, it probably won’t win you any big raises or promotions.
So, whether you’re hoping to stay at your current employer […]

2007 01 11 Knowledge work
In the News Comments (0)

Immigration economics 101

Foreign-born entrepreneurs were behind one in four U.S. technology startups over the past decade, according to a study to be published Thursday.
A team of researchers at Duke University estimated that 25 percent of technology and engineering companies started from 1995 to 2005 had at least one senior executive — a founder, chief executive, president or […]

2007 01 04 Knowledge work
In the News Comments (0)

Forecast 2007: The Outlook for IT

ComputerWorld brings us Forecast 2007: The Outlook for IT…
“What you need to know about this year’s hot skills, top technologies, and spending trends.”

2007 01 02 Knowledge work
In the News Comments (0)

Tech Pros Unconvinced IT Boom Will Last

Most IT professionals believe that the current IT boom has little juice left, according to a monthly report on the state of the tech job market published Dec. 4 by New York-based Dice, an IT careers site.
Sixty-two percent of respondents said they don’t have confidence that the current IT boom would last much longer. Thirty-two […]

2006 12 12 Knowledge work
In the News Comments (0)

Smashing the clock

[Best Buy, the] nation’s leading electronics retailer, has embarked on a radical–if risky–experiment to transform a culture once known for killer hours and herd-riding bosses. The endeavor, called ROWE, for “results-only work environment,” seeks to demolish decades-old business dogma that equates physical presence with productivity. The goal at Best Buy is to judge performance on […]

2006 12 07 Knowledge work Comments (0)

Cracking the BlackBerry

…or “Hacking the CrackBerry,” etc.
The security model of that BlackBerry on your hip isn’t holding up very well to third-party scrutiny.
According to a white paper by John O’Connor, a researcher on Symantec’s security response team, hackers can pay $100 for an API developer key that can open doors to the theft of data from Research […]

2006 12 02 Tools and techniques
In the News Comments (0)

Give away the razor, sell the blades

“Give away the razor, sell the blades” is shorthand for a marketing strategy that means taking an upfront loss in order to guarantee a recurring revenue stream. It’s useful to remember that the expression comes from an actual marketing strategy executed successfully by people who made razor blades… and that the strategy is still in […]

2006 11 29 Marketing Comments (0)

The return of the online grocery

Webvan, a grocery delivery service, was one of the most colossal and expensive failures of the dot-com boom.
But quietly, in the last few years, there have been some interesting success stories in local delivery of groceries ordered online.
Carrie and I are enthusiastic and frequent customers of FreshDirect, the NYC-metro online grocery service, and there’s a […]

2006 11 22 In the News Comments (0)

BusinessWeek: Jeff Bezos’ Risky Bet

Intriguing story in this week’s BusinessWeek about how Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com plans to use spare computing and network capacity, coupled with physical assets like warehouse space and hard-to-quantify intangibles like logistical know-how, to go into the infrastructure and BPO business in a big way.
Excerpt:
Bezos wants Amazon to run your business, at least the messy […]

2006 11 06 Knowledge work
Tools and techniques Comments (0)

Perils of KM

I think it’s safe to say that, in my 20+ years in Information Technology, I have been involved in my share of Knowledge Management (KM) initiatives.
(For the uninitiated, “knowledge management” is the capture, collection, organization, and storage of information within an organization, together with a mechanism for allowing this information to be shared easily. And […]

2006 11 03 Knowledge work
Tools and techniques Comments (0)

Intelligence community goes Wiki

The U.S. intelligence community on Tuesday unveiled its own secretive version of Wikipedia, saying the popular online encyclopedia format known for its openness is key to the future of American espionage.
The office of U.S. intelligence czar John Negroponte announced Intellipedia, which allows intelligence analysts and other officials to collaboratively add and edit content on the […]

2006 11 01 Technical communications
Knowledge work
Tools and techniques Comments (0)

ITIL Must Embrace the Collective

The change that threatens the OGC (the UK’s Office of Government Commerce; owners of ITIL) is the new Internet revolution—Web 2.0, the wisdom of crowds, collective intelligence—call it what you will.
It is so new the world has not settled on a name for it yet. It is an emergent characteristic of the Internet, a rising […]

2006 11 01 Process improvement
IT service management
Knowledge work Comments (0)

Why Microformats - Introduction to Microformats

Microformats are small and gentle syntactic touch-ups for your web pages.
They have one major purpose: to make your data readable by both man and machine. They are the technical diplomats of the Web; allowing the same piece of data to be shared among many applications and people.
Why Microformats - Introduction to Microformats

2006 10 27 Knowledge work
Tools and techniques Comments (0)

Capitalism’s Next Stage

The rise of big business is one of the seminal events in American history, and if you want to think about it intelligently, you consult historian Alfred D. Chandler Jr., its preeminent chronicler. At 88, Chandler has retired from the Harvard Business School but is still churning out books and articles. It is an apt […]

2006 10 26 Knowledge work Comments (0)

Grammar-based peptide fights bacteria

As a language geek, I can’t tell you how much I dig this story:
Using grammar rules alongside test tubes, biologists may have found a promising new way to fight nasty bacteria, including drug-resistant microbes and anthrax.
Studying a potent type of bacteria-fighters found in nature, called antimicrobial peptides, biologists found that they seemed to follow rules […]

2006 10 18 Knowledge work
Tools and techniques Comments (0)

Toy or Tool? Google Docs & Spreadsheets Reviewed

Computerworld reviews Google Docs and Spreadsheets, formerly known as Writely, and concludes “good concept, but far from ready for prime time”:
Looking for a free word processor and spreadsheet? Google’s newly released Docs & Spreadsheets suite that offers just that, but in this case you get what you pay for. While the number-crunching power of Spreadsheets […]

2006 10 16 Tools and techniques Comments (0)

Reliable data on H1B visas, offshoring not available

A sobering report issued last month by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Industrial Performance Center criticized the U.S. government’s ability to develop sound economic policy due to the extreme lack of data available concerning the offshoring of American jobs. The MIT report was released just three days after the Washington State Democratic Congressional delegation […]

2006 10 11 Knowledge work Comments (0)

The Insecure American

Pressured by foreign competition and impatient domestic investors… employers broke the post-war “work contract” with employees under which they had shared the gains and risks of the post-war economy. As a result, more of the risks were shifted onto employees. Under the old contract… “workers received job security, guaranteed benefits, and good pay,” while “employers […]

2006 10 02 Knowledge work Comments (0)