ZDNet UK :: 'Dodgy-dossier syndrome' rife in the workplace
by Matt Loney
...Two-thirds of knowledge workers are unaware of the dangers that meta-data contained within their documents can pose to themselves and their businesses, according to new research.
Ninety percent of business documents are adapted from other documents, but 68 percent of people do not know that their work often contains information about the source of the document, the researchers found.
UK software company Workshare, which commissioned the research, refers to the problem as 'dodgy-dossier syndrome' after the infamous UK government report on Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction, a significant portion of which was found to have been copied from a 12-year-old PhD thesis written by student Ibrahim al-Marashi.
More pertinent examples, perhaps, include the European Commission's draft directive on software patents, which was found to contain as its author the name of Francisco Mingorance, who is European director of public policy for the Business Software Alliance -- a prominent lobbying organisation that has pushed for more rights for copyright holders. Mingorance later said he did not know how his name came to be associated with the document, but by then the damage was done.
Workshare's research found that only 6 percent of people think of metadata as data that tracks and identifies changes, while 39 percent think of it as hidden document content. Just over half of respondents -- 52 percent -- think of metadata as being data that describes the document. "There are inherent dangers due to document metadata, which identifies historical changes within a document, author histories and document origins," said the company. "Awareness of the term 'metadata' is low and fewer still know of its dangers."
Furthermore, there is no standard practice when contributing to a document, with 'document anarchy' making management difficult, and only 14 percent of companies feeling that they can control how contributors give feedback to critical documents on time and in the correct format.
More business users are contributing to shared documents than ever before," said Workshare European vice president Andrew Pearson, "and companies are losing control of what happens inside the process. Changes in the way organisations work has made this problem more acute in recent year with restructuring and flattening of the organisation, so brought these problems to the fore."...
GN Online: On Agenda: Powering Dubai's knowledge community with human resources
By K. Raveendran
...Silicon Valley in the US was built around Stanford University. But to say that its Dubai adaptation, the Dubai Internet City-Media City cluster, is founded on the strength of Knowledge Village would be stretching things a little too far.
And yet to the extent that the DIC-DMC community relates to the US innovation facility, Knowledge Village (KV) is aiming to provide what Stanford did for Silicon Valley; not by way of innovation, but in terms of human resources.
Threesomes and foursomes of young men and women, regretfully with cigarettes in hand, sitting around coffeehouse tables and chatting have become a common sight at the eating joints within the cluster and added a new ambience to the community. They are the students of institutions like the American University of Dubai, Dubai College etc., and would soon be joined by those from the Knowledge Village.
And these men and women will be the key resource for the new Knowledge Economy to develop. Already, many of them are undertaking short-term assignments with companies in Dubai Internet City and Media City in a partnership in which both sides benefit. For the companies, it helps cut costs significantly, while for the students it provides both experience and some extra money.
"The Knowledge Economy will be one where human capital is the chief source of economic value and education and training become lifelong endeavours. And this is where Knowledge Village will make a contribution," Dr Abdullah Al Karam, Director of KV, said in a recent interview.
Learning community
The success of the knowledge community has created the need for manpower that matches its requirements and Knowledge Village hopes to serve this need at optimum costs. A majority of institutions joining the Village are from the professional training and e-learning sectors, offering courses in IT, media, finance and are offering a brick-and-click combination of both classroom and web-based courses.
The burgeoning ICT cluster is also providing high-quality business interaction and networking opportunities for the students as well as among the entities, which helps increased knowledge sharing within the community.
The Village includes a Media Academy, an Innovation Centre, research and development organisations, science and technology institutes, and certification and testing organisations as well as incubators. All these are constituents that help in the development of knowledge capital.
The learning community is thus expected to facilitate a rich environment of ideas, creativity and expertise that will stimulate strategic growth for companies located in the cluster. Similarly, placement programmes will enable students to gain access and experience with leading IT and media companies. Industry-academic linkages are expected to be a major driver of talent in the knowledge economy.
Branches of leading international universities and educational institutions offering Masters and PhD programmes in IT, management and media disciplines are among the launch business partners of Knowledge Village. These include the British University and BITS Pilani, one of India's top engineering institutes.
The clusters and sub-clusters within the knowledge community offer vast scope for the talent that is created through these programmes. The dynamic international ICT community of DIC includes around 560 companies, big and small, and some of them represent the top names in the global industry and encompassing a community of over 5,000 knowledge workers.
Similarly, the Media City has nearly 800 companies, engaged in broadcasting, publishing, new media, music, entertainment and event management. Over 10 TV and radio channels are broadcasting out of Media City. With its own teleport providing a one-stop shop for all broadcasting requirements, including up-linking, down-linking and content creation, DMC is a value proposition that global broadcasters can hardly resist.
The author is a UAE-based journalist...