Twenty Leaders to See in 2003
By Tony Byrne at 2003-02-24 00:00:00 |
Note: CMSWatch has published its 2004 list as well.
You haven't heard of many of these people. They tend to be real practioners, rather than think-tank commentators. Some write columns that are closely watched by major CMS buyers and vendors alike. Others hold key positions in software companies for whom 2003 will represent a critical year in their impact on the industry as a whole.
But most of them will be speaking at conferences this year-- and if you can't wait that long, just peruse their websites. I encourage you to check them out...
- Steve Arnold, President, Arnold Information Technology
Why does this man look so confident? Because in 30 years of tracking content technologies, there is probably nothing Steve Arnold has not seen. You can label software "Search," "KM," "DM," or even "ECM," but the tools and strategies rarely are truly novel. Steve's real forté, though, is understanding the business side of these industries...
Go to ArnoldIT.com
- Vincent Bénard, Editor, veblog.com
The Francophone world may seem like a parallel universe, but vendors and analysts would be shortsighted to ignore it. By day, Vincent Bénard manages public websites for France's Ministry of Ecology and Sustainable Development. By night, he runs a French-language blog describing the challenges implementing content technologies across large, bureaucratic organizations. One of Vincent's ongoing concerns -- "l'utilisabilité" -- is truly international...
Go to Bénard's "Veblog"
- Bob Boiko, University of Washington
No CMS leadership list would be complete without the author of The CMS Bible. Bob has moved from CMS scribing to the ivory tower, but as always, has insightful things to say about content management. Keep an eye on his latest venture: a student-fueled CMS laboratory...
Visit Bob's Firm, "Metatorial"
- Joseph Busch, Co-founder, Principal Consultant, Taxonomy Strategies
Joseph Busch understands categorization. Along with fellow Interwoven refugee Ron Daniels, Busch has created a small consulting firm to help enterprises who understand the value of taxonomies, but don't know how to get there. Busch also plays a leadership role in the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative, a key driver of several industry and (especially) eGovernment-oriented metadata standards...
Visit Taxonomy Strategies
- Jos Dikhoff, CEO, Tridion
Tridion may be winning the European CMS race (though it faces some stout competitors). The company now faces a key strategic decision: to migrate to North America, and if so, when? Both Day and RedDot offer successful lessons to follow. But Tridion is privately funded, and expansion takes cash. Whether expansion will drive enough revenues soon enough to justify the cost is what CEOs like Dikhoff are paid to decide...
Check out Tridion
- Priscilla Emery, founder, e-Nterprise Advisors
How can you identify an experienced content management hand? They can successfully explain why you need good Records Management. In the end, it is all about records, but of course most enterprises don't want to think that way (and who can blame them?). An AIIM and Gartner alumnus, Priscilla Emery helps vendors and buyers alike get their arms around the entire content lifecycle. Some of Emery's more recent work, not surprisingly, centers around e-mail archiving. Might not sound fun, but someone has to do it...
Visit e-Nterprise Advisors
- Mark Foreman, U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB)
As Associate Director for Information Technology and Electronic Government for OMB, Mark Foreman's mantra has been "simplify and unify." That is, use the web to simplify the citizen's ability to work with government, while unifying redundant IT investments to save as much as US$20B a year. Somehow, content management has not drifted up within OMB's agenda, which is too bad, because we see individual federal agencies going out into the CMS marketplace like lambs to the slaughter. It's possible that OMB could get more involved much later this year, when federal information quality, record-keeping, metadata, and other standards begin to surface more urgently...
Go to the Federal Enterprise Architecture Program Management Office
- Mark Hale, Standards Architect, Interwoven
Dr. Mark Hale grew up in a small Midwestern town but took a PhD in Georgia, so in his voice you can detect traits of a methodical farmer as well as an enthusiastic preacher. He will need both skills to help Interwoven get beyond the technical dead end it finds itself with TeamSite version 5.5. Many Interwoven add-on modules utilize industry standards, but the core product begs help in the form of a major overhaul (reputedly forthcoming in V6). To Hale's credit, he is soliciting talent and energy to these tasks in the form of a re-invigorated developers' network...
See an Interview with Hale
- Roy Fielding, Chief Scientist, Day Software
At one level, Roy Fielding was a great catch for CMS vendor, Day Software. As a co-founder of the Apache Project and a noted theorist on Web architecture, he brings a certain gravitas to the still youngish Swiss company. However, we think Day was already long on vision and principally needs assistance in the form of execution and financing. Will Fielding help them significantly there?...
Visit Roy's Page at the Apache Software Foundation
- Gerry McGovern, Author, Speaker
Lest you forget that good content lies at the soul of good content management, Gerry McGovern is there to remind you. Few people have done more to quantify and promote the value of web content than Dublin, Ireland-based McGovern. Software vendors hate his message, but you should consider it, because information quality is something you can fix without spending a single punt on a CMS package...
Visit Gerry's Website (you can still catch his Australian tour)
- Jason Meugniot, Content Management Practice Lead, Guidance
Real implementation challanges on tough projects often fall to systems integrators, but mid-sized integrators often can't build a critical mass of experience in specific practice areas. One exception is southern California firm, Guidance, who has built a substantial content management practice under Jason Meugniot. Meugniot's team has implemented Day, Percussion, and other upper tier packages, but is stepping out as a leading implementer for Microsoft CMS 2002 in the region...
Check out Guidance's CMS Practice
- Jean Paoli, XML Architect, Microsoft
Jean Paoli has opened the lockbox. Can he keep it open? As the evangelist behind opening up Office 11 to the XML standard, Paoli (an SGML guru since the mid-80s and a co-creator of the XML 1.0 standard) may have done more than any other individual to bring structured authoring to the masses. We think Microsoft did this to save Word's pre-eminence, but Office 11 is not yet in production, and a lot could go wrong -- or get locked up again -- before then...
Find out more about Office 11
- Paul Prescod, XML software developer, trainer, and consultant
Why is it that some of the deepest thinkers on XML come from Canada? Perhaps it's that country's long-standing goal of "peace, order, and good government" applied to the messy world of data and content. Canadian Paul Prescod is co-author of the XML Handbook and sits on the W3C XML working group. Paul's notion that a services-oriented, XML-powered web does not need to be tied directly to the success of Web Services standards (e.g. WSDL, SOAP) is a powerful message that many CMS and syndication vendors are taking to heart...
Visit Paul's website
- Lee Roberts, CEO and chairman of FileNet
FileNet has a brief window of opportunity to surpass Documentum before the latter truly unifies the varying architectures underlying all the different products it acquired last year. FileNet scoffs at Documentum's attempt to combine disparate user interfaces, and argues that its own "P8" line offers the first truly integrated, "enterprise" content management system. We're not so sure, but ultimately, it's the CEO's job to make sure that a company's developers have actually delivered on any promises its marketing team is about to make. Many software CEOs fail at this. Will Roberts seize the opportunity this year?...
Learn more about FileNet's P8 Suite
- James Robertson, Managing Director, Step Two Designs
How many Australians does it take to educate an entire subcontinent about key KM, Intranet, usability, and CMS issues? Well, just one, actually. James Robertson, consultant and prolific blogger, participates in a slew of information-intensive projects. Then he writes about them, and the world learns...
Visit Step Two Designs
- Bill Rogers, President and CEO, Ektron
More than any other company, Ektron is responsible for bringing rich-text HTML editing to the browser. Driven by the vision of founder Bill Rogers, the company is now offering WYSIWYG XML editing tools that rival those from desktop competitors. Even with the coming of Microsoft's new Office 11, at least some the world is going to want to edit XML in a browser. Rogers and Co. have a year to prove that this demand should find its way first to Ektron...
Check out Ektron
- Bill Trippe, New Millenium Publishing
Don't let his coffeehouse-dilletante visage fool you -- Bill Trippe is a practical guy, amid a sea of XML theorists. A longtime SGML veteran, Bill has the keen ability to size up (and write about) opportunities with XML that can only come from someone who actually writes DTDs and schemas for a living...
Visit New Millenium Publishing
- Lisa Welchman, Senior Consultant, CMSWatch
Lisa was part of the team that selected and implemented Interwoven TeamSite 1.0 at Cisco Systems in the mid-1990s. She has been leading CMS implementations -- on a variety of platforms -- ever since. Now Lisa works with CMSWatch to help clients develop winning strategies and select appropriate technologies. "No product is ever perfect," notes Lisa, "but every implementation should start out with the right tools." Amen...
Read Lisa's Article on Selecting a CMS Vendor
- Martin White, Managing Director, Intranet Focus Ltd.
You can easily find scores of Intranet consultants, but few of Martin White's depth and experience. Based in West Sussex, UK, White is joining a select handful of consultants who are beginning to look beyond the typical "Intranet" to critically examine the role of collaborative technologies more generally within workgroups, departments, and entire enterprises...
Check out Intranet Focus
