The current economic crisis has caused many problems, not only in the United States of America, but also in countries all over the world. One of the most devastating effects of this current economic crisis is the decrease in the number of employment opportunities. People have been laid off continuously, irrespective of whether they are employed by big firms or smaller ones. The condition had been no better in America, since the employment opportunities had become very scarce. As a result, many immigrants and want-to-be immigrants are worried about the U.S. job opportunities in this current economic crisis.

For all those immigrants who are in a doubt whether there are any U.S. job openings, the answer is – YES! Although the employment opportunities in few sectors have been hit badly by this current economic crisis, there are a whole lot of other sectors that are still going strong and provide many U.S. job openings. So, the U.S.A immigration is still a safe bet for all those people who want to apply for a U.S. work permit in order to find a better career.

Known by many as the land of opportunities, the United States of America offers many employment opportunities to people entering the country via the U.S.A immigration. Some of the sectors that still offer job openings in this current economic crisis include business, finance and accounting, information technology (IT), health or medical sector, engineering, green industries, sales & marketing, renewable energy, security, service industries, and much more.

The immigrants looking to apply

The health department in the United States contributes to the most number of people hired during this current economic crisis. If you are in the health sector and looking to apply for a U.S. work permit at the U.S.A immigration office, then you have made a wise decision. Employment opportunities are aplenty for registered nurses, licensed practical and licensed vocational nurses, physicians and surgeons, veterinarians, and dental hygienists. There are plenty of U.S. job openings for pharmacists, medical and health services managers, physician assistants, medical assistants, health educators, dental assistants, etc.

Teaching is yet another sector that has always been providing excellent employment opportunities during the current economic crisis. Some of the U.S. job opportunities available in this sector are openings for education administrators, kindergarten teachers, middle school teachers, special education teachers, and more. Apart from these areas, many U.S. job opportunities are offered for therapists, counselors, librarians, social workers, air traffic controllers, and much more. In short, there is no dearth of employment opportunities and U.S. job openings in America, for those who wish to obtain a U.S. work permit.

The best viable option for you to make sure your U.S.A immigration is fruitful is to apply for the green card or Lawful Permanent Residence (LPR). The reason is a green card ensures that you are offered legal, unbiased employment by any employer and will not be discriminated under any circumstance. You will be treated just like how any American citizen will be treated and you will be given a fair chance to perform in an American company.

Applying for a green card can be a little complex, but not impossible. Every year many applications for U.S. work permits and green cards are rejected because of errors that occur in the format and the content. It is here USA Green Card will be of help. This organization makes your application process easier by checking your eligibility, reviewing your forms for errors, and also advises on corresponding issues. They will ensure that your application form is free from errors and will submit it to the U.S. Department of State.

Usag

Author Bio

USA Green CArd

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To be strong and to looking good ? these are endless dreaming of human race. Old fables chant the praises of mighty heroes who can modify the fate of the all humanity, powerful supermen are the primary heroes of blockbusters and pop-culture mostly. All that attracts to the ambition we mentioned in the beginning by this article. Naturally, the most people just dreaming about the moment they suddenly become mighty like Apollo or even Hercules but some of them move along and start ACTING. They spend all days in gymnasiums enhancing their physical form and growing muscular structure but one day a moment comes when it becomes clear that it is not enough just very much working for achievement of the object in view. So this is a serious question ? what to do in future? Some people stop bettering and content with the gained results but the most braw pass on and search decision of the problem.

A lot of them opted steroids. I am not going to intellectualize about the stuff like ?Is it good to take them?? I just would like to accept that this is the conscious choice of many people who know very well what they are doing (besides each next generation of anabolics is more effective and less harmful than the previous one). So the following doubt is where to get the necessary superiority drugs in a handiest way. I’ve all the causes to claim that the better way is buying thru World Wide Web because this type of ordering has got numerous advantages. I would like to tell you about a few of them.

First, you don’t need any prescriptions and appointees p

And so using especial secured websites for purchasing steroids and anabolics you save your time, avoid embarrassment and keep your privacy. Now we have a different question: there are a lot of internet websites where you could buy the medicines which assist you become stronger in a relatively short time so which of them should be visited? That?s a very important problem because not only our money but our wellness is concerned as well.

Firstly the internet site to contact must hold in stock all the latest drugs for muscle building and strength sports in general like sustanon, jintropin, stanozolin, proviron, igf , testosterone and a lot of other. The following requirement is perfect service and care about clients. The level of prices is too rather important. After I had pondered over all these data and had weighed all pros and contras I have come to a conclusion that one of the best sources you may purchase anabolic steroids at is www.infofitness.net.

This is a professional mail order service selling and distributing pharmaceutical products for bodybuilders. This company is proceeding the business since 2005 and today it has personal internet site that was created for the better comfort of its clients. Although the managers accept 100s of orders daily they treat each of them as it was the unique one. All orders gets personal attention from a extremely qualified professional person which knows everything about the drugs he deals with.

As the primary goal of the company is keeping its clients healthy and satisfied it provides the highest level of service and never sells fake of fails to deliver an order. The customers privacy keeping is absolute rule for the managers of Infofitness who try to make the service better daily and use the information from the customers for that.

The company all of the time looks for to save customers time and money delivering ordered medications to his (or her) doors at best prices. Infofitness ships drugs to all the countries except those where they are forbidden by law. As usual, the order is delivered within 10-15 working day depending on region. The company works under positive regime of taxation so it has opportunity to sell fairly priced medications. Compare Infofitness prices with all the others and make sure that I am telling you truth.

As for the clients? confidence I may tell you that only information the company stores is customers date of birth which is used for age confirmation and for the possibility of giving presents for the customers birthday.

Now let?s talk about some questions you may want to ask.

A lot of people wonder if it?s legal to buy steroids. It depends on the legal restriction of the area you live in. So you?d better take a legal advice before making your order for the avoidance of doubt.

Because for the process of shipping it works like that: you make an order then confirm it and make payment. (Please, note that you can change your order only not after you already paid for it as we ship the productions directly after receiving the payment). After that the company dispatches the order during three or four business days. Then the only thing you are to do is to wait. Normally ordered drug is shipped in 10-15 workdays. Naturally, it could happen earlier (depends on your point of residence), but seldom later. If two weeks lasted and your order still is undelivered it may be caused by postal service bad efficiency. Luckily, it occurs rarely so you could take advantage of your drugs in at least 15 days after it was ordered.

By the way, you must not pay for delivering because it’s absolutelly free.

How to pay? Well, when you order a medicament the necessity information is provided immediately by email. The better ways of payment are Western Union and MoneyGram.

Amount of orders isn’t limited namely customers could buy one medication or dozens of drugs ? everything is adequate to a client! If the order is large and can’t be hold in one delivery envelope it’s placed into several envelopes and is delivered in that way. The company guarantees that a customer receives all the packages.

As for the country the company ships orders from it depends on the area a client lives because Infofitness has its offices in different states and delivers drugs from the office which is the nearest one to client?s location.

So, this is the answer for the potential questions you may want to call for the company managers. Whenever you’ve some other questions, something remained unclear for you or you feel a desire to express your opinion about the company and its service or you have any suggestion that could (at least, to your thinking) make the company website better and more efficient you may contact Infofitness at info@infofitness.net. Be sure that you will receive a reply within twenty four hours.

Of course, this website is not only source where you can buy steroids. I’d recommend you to visit, e.g., www.bestanabolicstore.com ? an first-class website you could buy any medication you need to keep your muscular structure fit and powerful. Conditions of shipping and level of service are similar to those of www.infofitness.net. It sells and distributes the superiority pharmaceutical productions from the best suppliers ? such as British Dragon, EUROCHEM, Norma, Zambon, Organon, Schering and others. An order is delivered within at least sixteen working days from the moment of order placing. Take into account that a client must be at home when the medicines will be shipped because the companies representatives require adult signature for the drug disposal otherwise they deliver medicines later when a recipient will be able to put his (or her) signature under receipt.

The company I told you about has rich and successful experience of trading, distribution and delivery of newest medicines for bodybuilders and those who come in for strength sports like power-lifting, strongmen series and all the others. Lots of athletes managed to improve their physical form and to get best results by virtue of www.bestanabolicstore.com and www.infofitness.net. Now you could become one of those athletes and to build fast and spectacular progress. So why to wait and hesitate? Allow yourself to be strong and victorious. Accept a deal with any of these two websites and you’ll never sorrow about your choice. Get Apollo stature with them!

P.S. Please, note that the online stores I told you about is provided for buying medicines but it’s not by a blame sight a consulting author which may be considered as substitute for the advice of any doctor or other medical professional. It’s not recommended to apply the information from the websites as prescription or diagnostic tool. Please, read carefully all the data provided on the product packaging regardless of where it is written ? whether on the surface of packaging or on the inside of it. If you are not certain about the drug action on your body you?d better take a medical advice of your physician. I underline that the information provided on the websites www.bestanabolicstore.com and www.infofitness.net is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

Buying drugs in online shops could be the most secure option, moreover when you need to buy Proviron. There exist lots of people who can make use of our necessary advice on d ball steroids. Our authors have summarized all basic information intended to help you avoid embarrassment when buying steroids.

Jeffrey Royer

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The Internet is an indispensable tool for employees, giving ready access to invaluable information. On the other hand, distractions loom large for employees given unfettered access to the Internet. The reality of the situation is that the Internet can consume a lot of work time by delivering anything a person wants to their desktop. This can lure employees into time-wasting surfing that leaves an organization with traffic congestion, decreased productivity and even potential legal issues.

Many corporations are taking a tough stance and blocking objectionable sites and or monitoring their employees Internet usage. The issue of Internet usage monitoring must be approached with caution as employee animosity could arise from feelings that the company is infringing on their personal rights. Privacy and personal rights in the workplace are some of the most troubling professional and personal issues of our time. The law does not offer much guidance in this arena and companies must look toward ethical analysis as a guide to decision making. The issue of monitoring employee?s Internet access continues to generate legal disputes and case laws continue to evolve. One point that is clear is that businesses? have an interest in monitoring Internet access to reduce the risk from reduced productivity, legal liability, and confidential data loss.

According to a report by Elron Software about $1.05 billion, or 30% of the 3.5 billion corporations spend each year on Internet access is wasted on recreational surfing. It seems that access to the Internet has replace

Research has determined that 18% of employees will visit the Internet 10 or more times a day for personal use and 25% visit the Internet 3 or more times a day. Of the employees who access the Internet at work, more than 25% think it is extremely likely that their supervisor is aware of there personal use of the Internet at work. A recent survey highlighted the online habits of workers with Internet access: 72% read the news, 40% shop. 37% search for another job, 34% check stocks, and 28% take care of personal issues. Some other popular uses for the Internet include checking sports scores, making travel arrangements, and spending time chatting in rooms or via the various instant-messaging applications (IM). An surprisingly, despite the risks, one in twenty-five employees still visit pornographic sites at work. Furthermore, according to Business Week, a full 80% of workers say the use company e-mail to send and receive personal messages. Most employees are aware that Internet activities not related to work can slow down Internet access for the entire company and can use up costly bandwidth, but persist in the use of the Internet. These activities are detrimental to the workplace and contribute to a loss or productivity as well as hampering mission critical Internet use.

It is important that Employers provide employees with a clear Internet Usage Policies, describing the permitted and prohibited uses of the Internet at work. The Internet Usage Policy (IUP) should make it clear that Internet traffic is not private and that the Employer has the right to monitor Internet use at will. Issues that need to be considered when drafting an Internet Usage Policy include whether the employees will be allowed to use the Internet for personal reasons, when and how often personal use may be allowed, and whether there are different policies for varying levels of the organization. When seeking guidance for these issues a firm should consult its mission statement, company goals or values, and principles. Human resources and Information Technology departments are essential to developing and implementing a high-quality Internet Usage Policy. The input of both departments should be sought to maximize the expertise brought to the table to ensure that all aspects of company policy are taken into consideration when developing the Internet Usage Policy. Once a policy has been approved, it should be made available to all employees and posted in prominent location in the workplace. It should also be distributed during any new employee orientations, as well as on a regular basis for all employees. This can ensure that the policy is relevant to everyone involved and that any issues related to new technologies or changing circumstances can be brought to the forefront and effectively resolved. In addition, it can be very helpful to have employees sign a standard acknowledgement that they have read and understand the Internet Usage Policy. Many corporations post messages reminding users of the Internet Usage Policy during logon or prior to Internet access. It is also important that the employer enforce the policy in a uniform manner following standard company disciplinary norms.

When drafting the Internet Usage Policy, the firm must be aware of the competing interests of employees and employers. The fact that the Employer has a right to manage the work environment of its employees cannot be challenged. Employers need to ensure compliance with laws and regulations, administer employee benefits, and protect employees from hostile or uncomfortable work environments. Additionally employers want to ensure that workers are productive and effective while at work. On the other hand, employees desire to be treated as capable and rational individuals who have the ability to follow company guidelines and make their own decisions. Most employees are interested in the ability to conduct some personal business at work, freedom from the lack of pressure related to monitoring, freedom from monitoring for privacy reasons, and the ability to review and challenge any data that is collected concerning their use of the Internet. Employees believe that when the employer possesses more information about them then the relationship has become unequal and the agreement unfair. If the employer does not allow the employee to have access to the information gathered than employees generally feel at a disadvantage.

An organization needs to attempt to strike a balance between the employee?s right to privacy and the companies goals. The general unease felt by many employees in knowing that every keystroke may be monitored has raised privacy issues in response to employer monitoring. The data gathered could have real consequences for employees. For example, the Dow Chemical Company fired fifty employees and disciplined 200 for using the Internet during company time to view pornography and violent images. In addition, Xerox Corporation fired forty employees for using company resources to browse pornography and shopping related web sites. Few would argue that employees caught viewing offensive content or revealing businesses trade secrets should not be disciplined or terminated, but should employees lose their jobs for using the Internet for personal use while at work. Engaging in activity such as browsing for sports statistics, shopping on web sites, searching for a new job, or any other activity that is neither illegal nor could lead to a hostile work environment does not seem to justify termination. The line between employee?s personal and business lives has blurred as workers conduct personal business in the office and professional business at home. Many workers can connect to their office via the Internet or phone lines to check e-mail and perform other tasks that in the past were limited to the office. The professional of today does not punch a card in the time clock or hand in a time sheet and is often expected to work until the task is completed or unusual hours based on their employers needs. For most of us we do not know when our day is over, it can be argued that we are not to blame if we need to conduct some of our personal business in the office. It seems that employers must be flexible and recognize the amount of time that their employees dedicate to the company.

When an employer unintentionally discovers confidential, potentially embarrassing, or harmful information about its employees through its monitoring, what is the employer to do with this information? What if an employer accidentally captures an employees credit report or medical information, would the employer than be responsible for making sure the information remains confidential? As employees spend many hours at work, the possibility of conducting some of their business via the Internet, such as banking online, making doctors appointment, or changes to Health Insurance may be necessary. The result is that information that employees might prefer to keep confidential may be exchanged over the employer’s network and be captured. These questions serve to give credence to some of the issues that may concern employees in regards to having their online activities monitored. In most cases employees have no recourse but to accept that their Internet activities can or are being monitored. This was not the case in May of 2001 when a group of employees ordered the staff to stop monitoring Internet activity. You may wonder how employees could possibly accomplish such a feat. The employees were actually the judges of the U.S Court of appeals for the 9th Circuit, located in San Francisco, California. Very few employees have the power of federal appellate judges, but as it turns out they too are subject to monitoring. Monitoring of Internet access implicates the 4th Amendment to the Constitution, which prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures, thereby granting all citizens reasonable expectation of privacy. If a person believes that their communication is open to the public than there cannot be any expectation of privacy. If I am sitting in a park having a discussion, I cannot expect that my conversation is private and that if anyone overhears the conversation they are invading my privacy. The core issue in regards to most privacy cases it whether an employee had a reasonable expectation that their web traffic would be private. In general, employees have not had much success suing employers for invasion of privacy when their employers accessed data regarding their Internet activity. This is especially true in cases where the company had a clearly stated Internet Usage Policy in place. Courts have almost unanimously rejected employees? claims for invasion of privacy where the employer had an effective Internet Usage Policy in place. Many state recognize a common law right to privacy. Additionally some states, such as Massachusetts and Rhode Island have broad statutory rights to privacy, while others such as New York and Virginia have more limited statutory rights. The most usual claim relied on by employees is the claim of ?Intrusion Upon Seclusion?, which can occur if there is investigation by examination into the employees private affairs or the use of a service to over see or overhear the employees private affairs. The employee that brings this type of privacy claim must prove that the employer intentionally intruded into the employee?s private affairs and that the any reasonable person would find the intrusion highly offensive. It seems that the presence or absence of Internet policies have had a significant impacts on the courts determination whether an employee had a reasonable expectation of privacy. In addition, an employee?s consent to being monitored is grounds for defense on any subsequent claim for invasion of privacy. In the United States v. Simons, a criminal case where the defendant was charged with receiving and possessing child pornography, the Fourth Circuit Court affirmed a lower courts ruling that a government employee had no expectation of privacy when using the Internet at work, where his employer had a Internet Usage Policy in place that notified him of internal audits and set out guidelines on permitted and prohibited uses of the Internet. Even without an Internet Usage Policy some courts have upheld that the employer did not violate the employee?s rights or privacy by intercepting Internet traffic. In such cases the courts have generally ruled that the company?s interest in preventing inappropriate or illegal activity over its network outweighs any privacy concerns the employees? may have.

Tom Feinberg

Author Bio

Tom Feinberg has spent more than 15 years working as a professor at the University of Maine. Now he spends most of his time with his family and shares his experience about dissertation introduction. Tom Feinberg is a right person to ask about accounting thesis.

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Regulatory compliance costs firms billions each year. For any organization, much of these costs are spent training employees on regulations, administering these training requirements, and ensuring training compliance is constantly up to date. Numerous learning management technology solutions are available today that almost certainly will reduce these management costs and provide a staggering return-on-investment by improving compliance management efficiency.

Non-compliance has another set of costs, even beyond the obvious large fines and penalties that may occur. Failure to comply may even lead to firings, lawsuits, public censure, loss of supplier contracts, stock devaluation and even bankruptcy. In addition to alleviating many of the headaches caused by manually managing compliance requirements, learning management solutions help mitigate business compliance risks by helping you better monitor employee training status and results.

Register here to Download the Compliance Training Kit

Compliance Training Kit consists of the following articles and webseminars.

1. 10 Steps in Developing an Enterprise-Wide Compliance Training Strategy –

Companies spend millions each year conducting mandatory training. Whether triggered by an audit, the risk of non-compliance, bad PR, or internal training requirements, achieving compliance can be difficult and costly. Enforcing compliance often meets with resistance. Many organizations waste millions of dollars keeping up with training requirements and reporting training data. Even w

2. Learn how Toys R Us Manages Training Compliance of its OSHA Requirements

InFocus: The Virtual Classroom – By Caryl Bohach

In addition to automating course dissemination, the learning management system (LMS) provides data on the number of employees attending courses, and the length of time it takes those employees to complete each course. “We’re transitioning to building a more robust structure that will show, by associate, their required courses, ones they’ve completed and to what proficiency,” says Zahn. “We want to provide district managers with a snapshot of their region.” In the future, Toys ‘R’ Us plans to use the learning management system to trigger annual registration and better monitor OSHA compliance and gaps, which are being tracked through paper. Zahn is optimistic about the system’s continued success: “We’ve had a lot of positive feedback from managers and associates who say the system improves product knowledge and customer-service skills.”

3. Compliance Training Can Be A Matter of Life or Death: DAC

Thinking of safety – Computer-based training makes safer ammo handling – By Tim Mahon

Ammunition technicians in Iraq are accessing the system to bring themselves up to date with current handling and safety techniques while deployed, rather than having to travel to education centers. They also can tailor their learning to suit their individual needs while remaining within the certification system. “The great thing, from our point of view, is we can deliver this training at the cost of $20 per student,” Scott said. And that should mean a lot less undesirable bangs for the expenditure of a few bucks.

4. Making The Business Case for a Learning Management System

Recorded on June 20, 2006

After three years of trying and two failed attempts at making the case for a learning management system, how one learning professional convinced her organization to evolve from data and content management to viewing learning and performance management as a strategic advantage.

Presented by:

Marguerite Samms

Director, Education Services

MultiCare Health System

Marguerite Samms, Director of Education Services for MultiCare, believed that an LMS would complete the alignment of systems for high performance. These systems included workforce development, performance management, operational effectiveness, and learning, which when aligned can offer measurable impact on sustained organizational performance.

Marguerite will show you how she built a successful business case for learning management from a 360 degree perspective: developing an internal support network, understanding what really matters to upper management, and getting past that first (or fifth) “No”.

Topics covered:

* Dealing with the internal decision-making processBeing aware of team dynamics and how they can work to your advantageHelping IT and other departments realize “what’s in it for them” in order to gain their commitmentAnticipating and avoiding setbacks (and how to re-open the conversation after they occur) * What success metrics to establish, not establish and why

Real-life lessons from the trenches on how you can help your organization progress to the next level of learning.

5. Ethics & Code of Conduct Training: Your Critical Role in Compliance

Recorded on March 9, 2006

Presented by:

Shanti Atkins

President & CEO

ELT, Inc.

In the post Sarbanes-Oxley workplace, the ever-evolving world of corporate compliance and risk management has been largely considered an issue for Risk Management and Accounting. The critical need for ethics and “Code of Conduct” training for the entire workplace, however, is changing that viewpoint, placing HR, Employee Relations and training professionals squarely at the compliance table.

During this webcast, you will learn about the legal requirements that mandate ethics and code of conduct training, as well as how to provide an effective and engaging training program for the entire organization.

Topics we’ll cover include:

* Understanding the role of the Code of Conduct * Legal requirements that mandate ethics & Code of Conduct training * Strategies for successful ethics & Code of Conduct training, as well as how to avoid the most common “legal landmines”

ROI for ethics and Code of Conduct training, as well as the risks associated with failing to train

6. Hear from the Author of CA’s Harassment Training Law (AB 1825): The New June 2006 Regulations

Recorded on July 20, 2006

On June 20, 2006, California’s Fair Employment and Housing Commission (FEHC) adopted new regulations for AB 1825 – the state’s harassment training law. AB 1825 requires California employers with 50 or more employees to provide all supervisors with harassment training every two years. While these regulations are not final, they are the benchmark by which employers should be assessing and planning training efforts.

The regulations are extensive and detailed. They have created groundbreaking, stringent requirements for all forms of training, especially e-learning. To be compliant with AB 1825, it is essential to understand the new regulations.

These regulations are expected to heavily influence harassment training standards outside of California. They will also influence broader compliance training mandates, such as the ethics training required for all employers under the Federal Sentencing Guidelines.

This interactive webcast features AB 1825′s author, Sarah Reyes, as well as Shanti Atkins, Esq., President & CEO of ELT. As part of the Special Advisory Committee to the FEHC, ELT has been instrumental in helping to draft the AB 1825 regulations.

You will learn:

* The essential requirements of AB 1825The details of the new FEHC regulations * How to avoid the most common and costly legal landmines associated with AB 1825 compliance.

7. Web Resources

Important links and resources related compliance training, compliance issues, latest news about compliance regulations, group discussion, knowledge sharing and interaction.

Register to Download the Compliance Training Kit

Sumtotal Systems

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By: carolyn


Web filtering is often seen as being a controversial subject with many people arguing as to why we actually need web filtering software. As many people have agreed, content filtering software is a great idea to be used in homes that have small children as well as being used in schools, both primary and senior as it protects children against websites that they are too young to see and also protects them from the prospect of paedophiles.

The one place that always causes a divide of opinions when it comes to web filtering is the suggestion of using it within the work place. This is controversial subject manner that divides managers and employees and leaves many people wondering is it needed in the work place.

The truth of the matter is that more and more of us are being employed in jobs that involve the use of the Internet and due to this many employees are starting to abuse the hours that should be spent working. Around half of all employees within any industry involving the Internet are using their time at work to view inappropriate sites, shop online and download and play MP3’s throughout the day. Due to this employers are becoming more and more concerned with legal liability, productivity and bandwidth use.

Businesses do have the right to monitor and filter the content that their employees are viewing on the Internet; however many employers are reluctant to let employees know that they are being monitored. This is one of the main causes of privacy and trust issues that arise within the work place. It is important that employers pay attention to employee concerns and communicate the idea of introducing content filtering to them so that any issues that either party may have can be talked through.

The main issues that most employers have when it comes to inappropriate use of the internet is sites concerning explicit content, gambling and online shopping sites such as eBay. Socialising sites however, such as myspace and facebook are also top concerns as a waste of employee time.

The way in which many of the web filtering software packages that are out today work are by operating a block list. This block list comprises of all the Internet sites that employees will not be able to gain access to. This list can be updated daily, giving you the freedom to add more sites to the list as you find them or as they come out. This block list doesn’t just work on the website address that you type in; it also monitors search engine results meaning that if employees are searching for material that is inappropriate to the work that they are carrying out, these search results will not be able to be opened. This block list is the most effective method of content filtering that is available and is extremely easy to maintain, giving an employer complete control of what material will be accessible.

It is important to keep in mind that these software packages do not however protect your network or employees from viruses and hacks or instant messenger or email.

carolyn

Author Bio

Helen is the web master of MySpamBin, specialists in all your Web Filtering needs.

Please feel free to republish this article providing this resource box remains intact with a working hyperlink to our site.

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Managing business content is as important to an organization’s viability as managing one’s food supply is to human sustenance. In both cases, ignoring the basics can have dire consequences.

Maslow showed us that basic human needs must be met before we can concentrate on fulfilling our individual potential. To thrive and grow, we need reliable access to quality food that is safe. We won’t tolerate spoilage, broken product seals, or foods with expired dates. Stores with frustratingly empty shelves or hard-to-find goods lose our business.

Shouldn’t we demand the same standards for our business-critical documents, since they are the foundation of our business knowledge and relationships? Documents must be readable, accurate, and tamperproof. Employees must be able to find information pertinent to assigned tasks quickly, without wading through irrelevant material.

The exponential growth of digital business content ? including email1 ? makes centralization and organization vital. If you’re searching for an electronic document management (EDM) solution, it must be built on a solid foundation. Whether you’re implementing for the first time or entertaining replacement, compromising on the fundamentals can lead to exasperating implementations and disappointing results. Make sure your system addresses:

1.Ease of use – Even the best options can fail if they’re challenging to use. Employees – especially workers who haven’t fully embraced digital document management – benefit from systems that guide them

Does the software have a user friendly interface with customizable work spaces that maximize individual productivity? Is the software browser-based so employees can access work and information securely over the Internet, remotely? Is there single sign-on for all functionality so users don’t have to keep logging on or remembering multiple passwords? Are there easy-to-understand tool tips and help functions to guide users every step of the way as they scan, index, search, and work with digital files? Are online user guides accessible to help minimize technical support? Are web services integration tools available to add behind-the-scenes functionality to the software applications employees use daily? Does the vendor offer appropriate end-user training?

2.Security – Security risks related to changing regulations, poor or inconsistently communicated policies, and at-risk employees are minimized with EDM. Configurable software lets you update permissions as regulations or policies change, knowing they will be enforced immediately. Assigning new job roles or responsibilities can trigger amended authorizations for individuals requesting to search for, access, view, annotate, edit, approve, sign, or otherwise interact with files.

EDM eliminates the risk of compromised security at communal printers, meeting rooms and off-site meetings. It also protects companies from workers who don’t differentiate between public and confidential information. From the moment documents are scanned (or imported from legacy or line-of-business software), permission-based access ensures they are available only to authorized personnel.

3.Searchable content

2008 statistics show organizations lose 7.5% of their documents; an additional 3% are misfiled.1 As electronic documentation grows the risk continues unabated, since digital documents are twice as likely to be unmanaged as paper records.2 Yet with EDM, the loss figure can and should be a zero percent loss. Scanning or importing files into EDM at the point of receipt or creation, and indexing documents thoroughly using classification criteria your users understand, dramatically simplifies search.

Successful search depends on logical, thorough, and consistent indexing:

Are there customizable drop-down menus to make indexing easy and consistent? Are customizable search templates available to standardize search methodology within our organization and make it easier to find documents in a flash? Are full-text and/or enterprise search options included to maximize performance?

Talk with potential vendors’ clients. If the EDM software performs well, customers should verify excellent performance in locating information quickly. Digital documents are only an improvement when they can be found by authorized persons quickly, whenever they’re needed. Occasional file loss is not acceptable.

4.Scalability for current and future needs – Your needs today may look different in a year or two. Organizations that convert to digital document management are increasingly trying to bridge gaps in data content between multiple business areas.3 Maybe your greatest need today is in accounts receivable or human resources, but the greatest long-term ROI emerges when you can leverage EDM and the information stored within it across your enterprise, wherever it’s useful. Ask yourself:

Which types of information are replicated in multiple systems across our enterprise? Which information can be reused? How much will we grow in 3 years? 5? 10? Will the EDM system be sufficient for our needs? What are the vendor’s integration capabilities? Are professional services available, or must we struggle alone?

5.Document retention / records management needs – When regulations require files to be kept but they’re no longer needed for daily business, they should be stored separately. Risk increases if required documentation can’t be located on demand and also when sensitive files aren’t destroyed on schedule. Typically kept in less accessible storage areas, retrieving archived paper documents is cumbersome and costly. By using retention information about each document type, EDM can schedule appropriate migration, purging, or destruction of files. Enabling desktop access to long-term files that are still subject to recall and eliminating irrelevant documents from current storage makes searching easier and more cost efficient. Make sure your retention needs are addressed.

6.Email storage

An extensive 2009 study indicates companies are focusing increasingly on email management.4 It also reveals current business practices are pretty risky. Only 19% of companies surveyed capture important emails to a content management or email management system; nearly half store emails in non-shared personal Outlook folders.

Insufficient email management severely impedes productivity when employees leave and vital information is trapped in personal Outlook folders. Business-critical information buried in messages and attachments that can’t be located on demand compounds corporate risk, especially since electronically stored data (ESI) is now legally discoverable as evidence. Make sure your solution includes an email management component that sufficiently indexes, archives, and searches messages and attachments. Considering the amount of business conducted via email, it’s crucial.

7.Ease of administration and support

Migrating to electronic records is a major undertaking for IT staff. It’s not just a once-and-done project:

Hierarchies change; employees come and go. File access rules must be adjusted. New and amended regulations require system updates so rules are enforced. Integrations of EDM with line-of-business and legacy software require support. New functionality may be added as your organization grows; it must be managed.

Have you considered:

Centralized administration of EDM simplifies management significantly for system administrators? Rather than requiring multiple updates every time changes are made, each update is effective for all components of a suite. This allows quicker project rollouts and upgrades, simplifies changes, and accelerates ROI. Whether the software is user friendly? Tool tips and helpful online guidelines reduce costs by enabling self-serve support. Browser-based EDM that lets your administrator access your system and provide support remotely as it’s needed? Avoid costly waits and downtime.

Quality, timely content, every time

As you search for an EDM system to satisfy daily business needs, don’t settle for anything that could jeopardize the integrity and usability of your information. Make sure your workers have instant and appropriate access to secure, accurate, searchable, and manageable content and a system that is easy to administer over the long haul. You’ll be poised to rise above your daily challenges, ready to focus on reaching your potential.

1 Digital Landfill: 10 Fast Facts About Document Management, www.aiim.typepad.com.

2 2009 AIIM Industry Watch, Electronic Records Management: Still Playing Catch-up with Paper, www.aiim.org/Management-of-Electronic-Records-not-Taken-Seriously.aspx

3 Mark Brousseau, More Growth Ahead for Document Management Technology, September/October 2009 issue of TAWPI’s today ® magazine

4 Email Management, ©AIIM 2009, www.aiim.org.

Laurel Sanders joined OIT as the Director of Marketing in August, 2004 and was named Director of PR and Communications in January of 2008. Prior to working in Germany for eleven years, she served as the executive director of The Muse Machine in Dayton, Ohio, where she was also a consultant in the planning and launching of a collaborative arts education program in Beaufort, South Carolina based on the Dayton model. Business articles by Laurel have been featured regularly in imageSource, Office World News, Today, and ECM Connection.

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Good planning and a systematic approach will allow you to get the best results from your keyword research. It is very important first to fulfill this criteria rather than jumping on to hosting or designing your site. Take the time to think it through and understand exactly what you’re trying to achieve before you start work. People who think about keyword research before jumping in are much more likely to spot and exploit major opportunities.

Organizing your Keyword Research

Why do we need to conduct keyword research? Can’t you just publish useful content? Won’t people find it anyway?

If you simply guess at what people are looking for, you take the very real risk that you’ll be wrong. Why take that risk when keyword research can give you such tremendous insight into what people are really looking for?

What the site developers often overlook is the fact that they never look from the customer’s or visitor’s point of view. To perform keyword research properly you must put yourself into your customer’s shoes. If you do your research properly, not only will you be able to optimize your existing web site content, but you’ll also be able to tap into an endless stream of ideas for new content that you know people will be interested in. You may even uncover valuable niche markets for your existing products as well as some smart ideas for new products.

The aim of keyword research is to help you make more money from the content you’ve got at the moment, and lay the foundations

So what’s the basic approach you should take for a keyword research project? Let us see the approach for this concept.

Step 1: Start with a Good List of Seed Keywords

Seed keywords are the words you use to start a keyword research project. In themselves, they’re not very useful, but the directions they take you in can produce a rich source of money-making keywords.

Suppose we are researching keywords for an information site on the side effects of some dreaded disease like cancer. The words like ‘Chemotherapy’, ‘Radiation’, ‘WBC count’, etc might be a promising seed keyword, because they would lead us to disease of ‘Cancer’ or ‘Malignancy’.

The greater the number of promising seed keywords you have at the start of a project, the more comprehensive your final results will be.

Jotting down notes will get you started, but it won’t give you anything near a full list of possibilities — you’ll need to do something to stimulate your creativity.

Get yourself secluded in a separate room and give some time to think about this keywords.

Read some magazines and articles about the disease and just note down the main points from the articles which are relevant to the disease. Than prepare a list of some words which you think could be the ideal keywords for your research.

Step 2: Find Related Keywords

We’re obviously very proud of the service we can offer webmasters at Wordtracker, because it provides two main types of keywords: ‘related keywords’ and ‘long tail keywords.’

Related keywords are words that are often used in a particular subject area. For example, related keywords for ‘back pain’ would include ‘sciatica’, herniated disc, and ‘spinal problems’; related keywords for ‘home business’ would include ‘weekend entrepreneur’ or ‘working from home’.

Long tail keywords for ‘back pain’ would be ‘back pain treatment,’ ‘lower back pain,’ and ‘exercise for back pain’; long tail keywords for ‘home business’ would include ‘home business opportunities,’ ‘how to set up a home business,’ or ‘home business support. We’ll take those seed keywords that we collected from the magazines and look for ‘related keywords’ for each in turn. You may be tempted to delve into detail, but you should resist this temptation for now. Find as many related concepts as possible — you’re not looking for the first right answer, but for many right answers.

If we are researching a web site on buying property overseas, we’ll not only be interested in keywords such as ‘homes abroad,’ ‘property abroad,’ and ‘international property’ but also ‘international mortgages,’ ‘ global real estate,’ ‘property rights,’ ‘buying off plan,’ ‘health insurance abroad,’ and ‘expatriates.’

Always look for niche opportunities. Keyword research is one of the most effective ways to identify niche markets that others have failed to recognize.

This process should give you hundreds of related keywords. You can now test their popularity — how often each word is searched for on average every day. These numbers, together with your own assessment of how important the keywords are for your business, allow you to prioritize your keyword lists.

Step 3: Map out Your Web Content Structure

You can use the keywords to map out the content of your site. Group them into themes — for example, ‘legal pitfalls’ might be grouped with ‘property rights’ as part of a major section on the laws of buying and owning property overseas.

How you perform this grouping task is entirely up to you. You should aim to have groups that reflect your products and services and are targeted to specific target markets. Start with 6 to 10 themes, and then build on this later.

Step 4: Find Long Tail Keywords

Let us go into the details of this subject. The keywords you’ve grouped into themes are the starting point for digging into the long tail. Take each of the keywords you’ve researched in turn and analyze how they’re used in longer search terms. For example, ‘property abroad’ is used in these longer search terms:

property for sale abroad

property abroad

investment property abroad

buying property abroad

mortgages to buy property abroad

mortgages second property abroad

residential property investments abroad

eco investment property abroad

resale property abroad

Next, look at the daily search counts to get an idea of the relevant importance of each term. Using this technique, you can very quickly build up a matrix of hundreds, if not thousands, of keywords.

Step 5: Create Your Detailed Content Plan

Now start looking for specific content ideas. I’ll often go back to my original notes and follow this formula to create content ideas:

Hot issue + Popular keyword = Content Title

If, for example, you know that working with local estate agents and officials is a hot issue, you could combine this with the keyword ‘homes abroad’ to create the content title:

‘Legal pitfalls in buying a home abroad’

Don’t be afraid of highly competitive terms. Include them in your web site copy, even if you have no immediate chance of ranking well for them — you’re laying the foundations for the future.

Good keyword research helps map out a detailed content plan. This means that you won’t waste time on irrelevant content, but will focus on highly relevant content ideas that will bring the traffic you’re after.

Keyword Research Complete? Now that you’ve established your focus, you’re ready to start creating your content. But your keyword research needs to be an ongoing process. Once you’ve published your pages, your need to monitor your performance, make adjustments accordingly, and then systematically expand the keywords that you rank well for. We shall discuss about this in details in our forthcoming articles.

Head SEO, Marketing at AIT India

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By: Alice Pierce
Information technology has improved by leaps and bounds over the years providing people across the globe with multiple options to manage and handle their information and data online. However like any other field the Web is also prone to theft and burglary, called hacking in the IT terminology. It is therefore extremely necessary for you to find out some method of document security online to protect your valuable data and information.

Digital Rights Management (DRM) – an overview

Broadly speaking digital rights management or DRM as it is known as the tool through which as publisher or author of the work will control the rights of the purchaser on set terms and conditions. In fact it is one of the best methods for ensuring regulatory compliance. Rights exercised by the purchaser are effectively controlled under the system.

Traditionally the author of books and publications in the print industry used to regulate the rights of the purchaser using the Copy Rights Act or similar other legal methods. With the digitization of most of the works and publications to day, the focus has moved on to the digitalized control of the user’s rights. The exercise of rights has become more specific and easier with the digital system in place than through the copyrights in the print media.

Change of balance of power

During the last decade there has been a marked change of balance of power throughout the world. In the present day even the web content security has become a major problem which is required to be addressed affectively. In the past you had to find out a publisher to print a copied document. The possibility was remote since the publisher knew pretty well that he would be sued immediately under the copyrights Act. The print industry was physical and there were physical controls available.

The scenario has undergone a complete transformation with the introduction of the digital documents replacing the old time print documents. You can now copy documents on your PC at no cost and there is hardly any possibility of detection. Video and music piracy, stolen documents have become so common that without Digital Rights Management or DRM it may not be possible to protect web contents. File sharing and unlimited transmission facilities on the nets have further compounded the problem.

DRM – A critical feature

Thus Digital right management has become a critical issue in the world of Information Technology to day. So people are now tending to ensure web content security with copy protection software. Especially when you are building up your confidential database or transmitting some important information that you do not wish to be public, the DRM assumes a great significance.

It may be some contact information, legal contracts, analyst’s report, newsletter, or publications, both ordinary and pdf protection is highly essential for you. You have to prevent stealing, burglary and hacking and there is no alternative to digital rights management for you for accomplishment of such critical tasks. Your intellectual property requires protection and DRM provides you just the required capability to protect them.

Web content protection is the greatest concern of creators on the web. For document security or pdf security you should have DRM installed on your computer. To know all about the DRM and copy protection software please log on now to this website that provides you comprehensive information on the subject.

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By: Jeremy Gislason
User-generated content (or “Participatory Media” as some call it) can be a great way to boost the value of your website, and the traffic that’s driven to it.  Many website owners have already found that developing online communities greatly increases their financial bottom lines. Sometimes, as has been the case with YouTube, user-generated content can even be a great business model in itself.

But user-generated content can also be a great source of risk and exposure.  Again, there’s probably no better example of this than YouTube.  YouTube was sued by the Viacom studio in 2007 for $1 billion in damages, for allegedly distributing Viacom’s copyrighted materials without permission.

If you understand the risks associated with user-generated content, you can take steps to reduce your exposure and protect your online assets, while at the same time increasing the value of your website.

What is User-Generated Content?

User-generated content is a broad term that includes any material that a website user posts on the website for others to see.  This can include not only blog comments, but also pictures, videos, articles, or anything else that a user might post in a forum or bulletin board section of your website, or as part of their own personal profile on the website.

What are the Risks with User-Generated Content, and How Can I Address Them?

There are a number of legal issues that you will need to become familiar with if you permit or promote user-generated content on your website.

a. Intellectual property infringement.  There are two primary types of intellectual property infringement issues that you should be aware of.  The first is copyright infringement.  Key elements of liability include knowledge of the infringing activity, inducing or contributing the improper conduct, and attaining a direct financial benefit in the infringing activity when you have the ability to supervise the direct infringer. 

Copyright holders generally try to enforce their rights by means of “takedown notices” that are sent in accordance with the requirements a particular Federal law (the Digital Millennium Copyright Act).  You’ll have to decide what position to take once you receive takedown notices.  Do you evaluate each and respond notice as you feel appropriate?  Or do you simply honor all takedown notices immediately?  It’s a balance between avoiding legal risk of a lawsuit by those who claim to hold a copyright to the material that someone else posted, versus possibly alienating your users if you aren’t giving any consideration to their “fair use” rights in that content.

Trademark law prevents the use of trademarks of others in a manner that creates a likelihood of confusion about the source of goods or services or in a manner that dilutes the value of the trademark. User-generated content sometimes falls afoul of trademark law.

b. Defamation. You should also be aware that there is potential liability for allowing users to post defamatory statements about others on your website.  There is a Federal law (The Communications Decency Act) which can provide some protection against defamation claims based on what your users do on your website, but the scope of the protection is still somewhat uncertain, so you should not ignore the possibility of claims against you based on user generated content.

c. Obscenity and Child Pornography.  The Federal laws that provide protections to website owners generally exclude protections for obscene materials that appear on such websites, even if the materials are posted by users themselves.

How Can I Reduce My Risks?

One common technique for a website operator to reduce their risks of legal liability for user generated content is to not actively monitor the user activities on the website.  While this may seem counter-intuitive, the relevant Federal laws provide a greater degree of protection (through a so-called “safe harbor”) for passive web services that do not actively manage or supervise user content.

If your business model requires you to actively monitor user activity on your website, then you may wish to retain a third party to actually conduct the monitoring.  The relationship with the third party should be properly structured as an independent contractor relationship, which will likely include giving the third party some degree of control over the user generated content, in order to avoid you being held liable for the third party’s actions.

You should also have a mechanism in place for promptly responding to legitimate complaints about user-generated content.  These complaints may come from other users themselves (another reason to nurture your web-based communities; if the members are loyal to your website, they’ll be likely to flag any improper or possibly illegal user-generated content).

It is very risky to allow anonymous visitors to post content (particular pictures or video content).  You should therefore plan to prepare and use comprehensive agreements that submitting users must agree to.  At a minimum, these user agreements should state that users are prohibited from engaging in any conduct that is illegal or would give rise to any legal liabilities, or that otherwise interferes with the operations of the site.  In order to qualify for the Federal law safe harbors, the agreement must also state that repeat offenders will have their website user accounts terminated.

Another solution may be to use a third party service for the user generated content.  By this, we mean allowing users to post direct links to, or by using “plug-in” players for, videos that are hosted on YouTube, MetaCafe, Vimeo, or any of the other services available.  You are less likely to receive the takedown notices – since the content isn’t actually hosted by your website, the notices would be sent to the entity actually providing the videos.  But you also lose control over whether the videos are actually taken down, and you aren’t the sole source for that user generated content – people can also view it by going directly to the hosting entities website, and other people are likely to link directly to that other site as well.  Again, it’s a balancing act between your business objectives and the legal risks.

Other Issues to Consider.  Apart from the purely legal issues, if you make a strong push to user generated content then you’ll have to consider bandwidth issues as well.  If there’s a chance that any particular post will generate a very large amount of traffic to your website, you should have a plan for what to do if the traffic crashes the server, or exceeds that bandwidth that you are paying your hosting company for.  You may want to consider capping the amount each registered user can upload in a day or month. 

The possibilities for user-generated content to boost your website are great, as are the risks.  If you take steps to understand the legal issues and reduce your risks, then you be able to maximize your business gains while still protecting your online assets.

Discover how to protect yourself & your business from the devastating financial and security risks you face every day your website is online here: http://www.ProtectYourOnlineAssets.com

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By: Linda Balboul
Moving Beyond “Knowledge for Knowledge’s sake”

Quick ± in 25 words or less, define knowledge management. Can’t do it? You’re not alone.

    There are an assortment of disciplines that have influenced the field of Knowledge Management (KM) thinking and praxis – the most prominent are philosophy, in defining knowledge; cognitive science (in understanding knowledge workers); social science (in understanding motivation, people, interactions, culture and environment); management science (in optimising operations and integrating them within the enterprise); information science (in building knowledge-related capabilities); knowledge engineering (in eliciting and codifying knowledge); artificial intelligence (in automating routine and knowledge-intensive work) and economics (in determining priorities). As a result, there are enormous working definitions of KM and emergent philosophies circulating in the literature and around corporations of the world.

            One cannot get a clear understanding and definition of what KM is without studying the various concepts of knowledge and information (including data), as well as the tacit, implicit, and explicit knowledge dimensions. Much of the still existing confusion that surrounds the topic of KM is based on the varied scholars’ interpretations and suggestions distinguishing the terms information and knowledge as well as the terms tacit, implicit, and explicit.

 What is knowledge?

             Some authors appear to try to avoid the epistemological debate on the definition of knowledge by comparing data, information, and knowledge. However, von Krogh et al. (2000) or Kakabadse et al.’s (2003) understanding of knowledge as ‘justified true belief” goes back to Michael Polanyi’s original work (we know more than we can express) (Polanyi 1958), an epistemological position which is acknowledged to have grown out of Plato’s discourses (Meno, Phaedo and Theaetetus). This definition has been particularly adopted by Western philosophy (Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995), which provides a comprehensive taxonomy of knowledge models, Plato’s concept was also debated from Aristotle, one of his students, throughout continental rationalism, as well as from German philosophy (Kant 1965; Marx 1976; Hegel 1977); British empiricism (Locke 1987) to twentieth-century philosophers (Dewey 1929; Sartre 1956; Habermas 1972; Tsoukas 1996; cited in Kakabdse et al. 2003, p. 77).

            The above discourse implies that knowledge itself is a very multifaceted concept with many different variations and definitions. Based on the fact that the nature of knowledge is widely acknowledged on differing epistemological stands taken from the individual contributors, but led ultimately to the following definition of ‘knowledge’:

            “Knowledge is a fluid mix of framed experience, values, contextual information, and expert insight that provides a framework for evaluating and incorporating new experiences and information. It originates and is applied in the minds of knowers. In organisations it often becomes embedded, not only in documents or repositories but also in organisational routines, processes, practices and norms.” (Davenport and Prusak 2000, p. 5).

Knowledge: Tacit/Implicit/Explicit

            ‘Tacit’ knowledge is not expressible and can in no way be made directly explicit or in other words codified into rules and formulations (e.g. the way a project manager behaviourally interacts or communicates during a conflict-solving process). In other words it has to do with an individual’s aptitude for doing things or even cognitively thinking about things.

            ‘Implicit’ knowledge is expressible and by applying appropriate knowledge management practices it has the chance to be made explicit. Thus, implicit knowledge is then transferred into explicit knowledge in a direct way. This process of transferring can be observed through the propagation, application, the amalgamation or the interpretation of explicit knowledge. Interestingly, from time to time, the terms ‘tacit’ and ‘implicit’ are used interchangeably..

            ‘Explicit’ knowledge is expressed implicit knowledge. There is enough evidence from the literature as well as from practice, suggesting that the two terms ‘explicit knowledge’ and ‘information’ have exactly the same meaning. In other words, explicit knowledge should be regarded as implicit knowledge, which when expressed becomes information. However, whereas the management of knowledge is mostly understood as the management of the processes, which can support the conversion of employees’ individual knowledge into overall organisational implicit knowledge, the management of explicit knowledge is understood as the management of knowledge-objects typically held as information in the organisation’s information base or systems in form of data records or documents.

The history of KM

            Knowledge management (KM) is currently receiving significant attention, from both academics and practitioners, and is being addressed by broad range of academic literature and popular press. The study of human knowledge has been central subject matter of philosophy and epistemology since the ancient Greeks and western philosophers. Eastern philosophers, Tzu and Confucius in China and their contemporaries in India, have an equally long and well-documented tradition of emphasising knowledge and comprehension for the conduct of spiritual and secular life. The first attempts at KM, such as capture, storage and retrieval, began with the Cuneiform language in about 3000 BC.

            A number of management theorists have contributed to the evolution of KM, among them such notables as Peter Drucker, Paul Strassmann, and Peter Senge in the United States. Drucker and Strassmann have stressed the growing importance of information and explicit knowledge as organisational resources, and Senge has focused on the “learning organisation,” a cultural dimension of managing knowledge. Chris Argyris, Christoper Bartlett, and Dorothy Leonard-Barton of Harvard Business School have all examined diverse aspects of managing knowledge. In fact, Leonard-Barton’s well-known case study of Chaparral Steel, a company which has had an effective KM strategy in place since the mid-1970s, inspired the research documented in her Wellsprings of Knowledge. 

            The 1980s also saw the development of systems for managing knowledge that relied on work done in artificial intelligence and expert systems, giving us such concepts as “knowledge acquisition,” “knowledge engineering,” “knowledge-base systems, and computer-based ontologies. Knowledge management-related articles began appearing in journals like Sloan Management Review, Organisational Science, Harvard Business Review, and others, and the first books on organisational learning and knowledge management were published (for example, Senge’s The Fifth Discipline and Sakaiya’s The Knowledge Value Revolution).

            By 1990, a number of management consulting firms had begun in-house knowledge management programs, and several well known U.S., European, and Japanese firms had instituted focused knowledge management programs. Perhaps the most widely read work to date is Ikujiro Nonaka’s and Hirotaka Takeuchi’s The Knowledge-Creating Company: How Japanese Companies Create the Dynamics of Innovation (1995).

            By the mid-1990s, knowledge management initiatives were flourishing, thanks in part to the Internet. Knowledge management, which appears to offer a highly desirable alternative to failed TQM and business process re-engineering initiatives, has become big business for such major international consulting firms as Ernst & Young, Arthur Andersen, and Booz-Allen & Hamilton.

What is KM?

            Murray E. Jennex (2005) tells us that during a conversation he had with a fellow engineer, he made the comment that it was too bad we could not get back to the moon. Murrray, of course, agreed and expressed the desire that the government would allocate funds for it. His friend then surprised him by saying it was not money that was the issue but that what really prevents the US from getting back to the moon is that they do not remember how to build Saturn V rockets, Apollo capsules, and Lunar Modules. It seems after the end of the Apollo programme; management ordered all the plans put on microfiche and all but a few of the paper copies destroyed. This was done, however, when there was talk of going back to the moon and engineers went to retrieve the plans, the usable paper copies could be found, and everyone who knew how to build the rockets, capsules, and modules were either dead or retired. Additionally, when the younger engineers began to reverse engineer these components, they were stymied because they did not understand the technology from that time; technology had advanced so much that the engineers had not been taught some of the fundamental issues faced by engineers of that time. In other words, they had forgotten the knowledge from the experience of solving the problems that prevented moon flights.

            The above does in fact show that the space program is an example of failed KM. They attempted to store relevant knowledge but when it came time to retrieve it, it could not be retrieved and applied to the current decision- making activity due to media volatility and a lack of capturing the relevant context that makes the critical knowledge usable.

 Why do we need KM?    

            Why do we need knowledge management? We need KM because we need a proper process to help organisations identify, capture, store, and retrieve critical knowledge. We need KM processes to help organisations deal with changing storage strategies. We need KM to help us deal with the transience of knowledge workers. We need KM processes to help organisations manage a glut of knowledge. Ultimately, we need KM to help organisations make sense of what they know, to know what they know, and to effectively use what they know. The whole point of knowledge management (KM) is to make sure that the knowledge present in an organisation is applied productively for the benefit of that organisation.

            An organisation’s emergency preparedness activities might involve collaborative efforts between various entities. A vital activity is responding to an actual crisis situation that hits one or more of the member organisations/entities. For some organisations, responding to a crisis situation in done within a consortium environment. Managing knowledge across the various entities involved in such efforts is critical. This includes having the right set of information that is timely, relevant, and is governed by an effective communication process given such organisational structures, and the need to manage knowledge in these environments through effective Knowledge Management Systems (KMS).

            KM efforts typically focus on organisational objectives such as improved performance, competitive advantage, innovation, the sharing of lessons learned, and continuous improvement of the organisation. KM efforts may overlap with Organisational Learning and may be distinguished from that by a greater focus on the management of knowledge as a strategic asset and a focus on encouraging the sharing of knowledge. KM efforts can help individuals and groups to share valuable organisational insights, to reduce redundant work, to avoid reinventing the wheel per se, to reduce training time for new employees, to retain intellectual capital as employees turnover in an organisation, and to adapt to changing environments and markets.

 Implications of Global cultural diversity on KM

            Global cultural diversity has profound implications for the effective design and implementation of knowledge management (KM) projects. Thus, the view on global cultural diversity recognises the existence of different organisational contexts and great care must be taken when making assumptions about patterns of organisational performance and innovations (Avgerou, 2002). For example, the wide gap in the availability and use of ICT across the world, and the influences ICT exerts on globalisation, raise questions about the feasibility and desirability of efforts to implement the development of ICT through the transfer of best practices from Western industrialised countries to developing countries, and whether organisations can utilise such ICT in accordance with the socio-cultural requirements of the contexts (Avgerou, 2002).

            Reliable research concludes that diversity and local context does matter, and that the global techniques employed in western industrialised countries should not be implemented mechanically in developing countries without consideration for the local context. Further, gender considerations have been shown to be of great importance in the successful adoption of ICT.

The Arab region Knowledge Evolution

            Recently, there have been a couple of noticeable groundbreaking models pursued by Dubai and Qatar to transubstantiate the region’s population into a ‘‘knowledge society.’’ Both of these initiatives deemed human development a central goal and targeted narrowing the knowledge gap between the Arab region and the rest of the world. At the latest Middle East World Economic Forum, held in Jordan in May 2007, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, launched an endowment of ten billion US dollars for an avant garde foundation called the ‘‘Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation’’ to promote knowledge in the region.

            The second major initiative occurred in Qatar, where the government gathered leading world university representatives into a center for knowledge-creation called ‘‘Education City,’’ which is headquarters for the ‘‘Qatar Foundation.’’ The main objective is to form the most powerful educational and research hub in the Middle East.

             One of these efforts may lead to Beit Elhikma II or may produce distinguished geniuses such as Averroes (ibn-Rushd) (1126-1198), who created the first domestic and exotic knowledge hybridisation model that is not only admired, but also accepted, by Western societies. Averroes published his commentaries on Aristotle based on the epistemic fundament that ‘‘knowledge is the conformity of the object and the intellect.’’ The comeback of the Arab mind in a systematic ‘‘brain gain’’ program is needed as happened in India.

            To align the intellectual capacities with new business requirements, the region must work on different fronts to invest in expatriates, to leverage its strategies to reverse the ‘‘brain drain’’ and to fill the knowledge gap at both intra- and inter-regional levels. To keep the momentum of the ‘‘Knowledge Society” paradigm, the sustainability of the paradigm needs uninterrupted diffusion and infusion of innovations and continuously relevant knowledge, which may need restructuring at the organisational level.

            The chimera of ‘‘epistemic sovereignty’’ is an outmoded self-centeredness that is not acceptable in the current globalised marketplace. More pointedly, epistemological pluralism is required for success in the realm of the ‘‘knowledge society’’. A ‘‘co-opetitive’’ relationship is considered crucial to build the ‘‘knowledge society’’. The Arab world can revert from the status of ‘‘knowledge entropy’’ to the former ‘‘golden age’’ of Islam – if the principles of modern knowledge are effectively leveraged and crossbred with traditions to result in a lucrative ‘‘knowmadism’’.

Knowledge transfer and social capital: the case of Corporate Egypt

            Most of the knowledge related initiatives in Egypt have been at the country and community levels with limited emphasis at the organisational level. According to the World Development report for Africa, Egypt needs to work fast in order to increase its knowledge base, to invest in educating the people about knowledge management, and to take advantage of the new technologies for acquiring and disseminating knowledge. The report emphasises the importance of (1) instituting policies that enable them to narrow the knowledge gaps that separate poor countries from rich countries; (2) promoting collaborations among the organisations—governments, multilateral institutions, nongovernmental organisations, and the private sector—in order to work together; and (3) nurturing a knowledge sharing culture.

            A study performed on 41 public/private organisations in Egypt using Hofstede’s (1980) cultural dimensions highlights the need for a change in network relationships and efforts to build the relational dimension of social capital. While the structural and cognitive dimensions are already in place, the insubstantiality of the relational dimension and the focus on individual achievement are curtailing members from sharing their expertise. It is apparent that the lack of trust in getting credit for the information they share makes it hard for them to volunteer their expertise unless instructed to do so and unless they feel the risk of not obeying commands.

            It was concluded that the initiative has to start at the top in order for knowledge workers to have confidence in the system and to be able to cross the cultural gap between a knowledge-hoarding and a knowledge-sharing environment. The initiative must define several processes in order to enable the cultural transition. The study showed that the development of social capital as an infrastructure for knowledge transfer is a critical facilitator of knowledge transfer within organisations. Combining members’ knowledge resources can lead to collaborative knowledge creation that has the potential to limit the economic and knowledge gaps that exist within Egyptian organisations.

Knowledge sharing / lessons learned / storytelling

            U.S. Army has installed knowledge sharing as a standard part of its work in both training and real duty in the form of its well known after-action reviews. No effort is considered complete until it has been reviewed and its lessons obtained, including the lessons learned from failures.

            During the U.S. military efforts in Bosnia, lessons learned were distributed on a frequent basis. Because such observations as, “avoid snow-covered roads with no vehicle tracks, as they are probably mined” were credited with saving lives, members of other cooperating armies frequently requested a copy of the latest “lessons learned.”

            Openness builds confidence and sharing stories openly builds confidence in employees and in the organisation as a whole. This openness also leads to the development of trust that can support innovation. This is done by individuals using stories to build confidence in themselves, the direction of their team or the future of the company. In these cases the moral of the story could be “We did it before and we can do it again”, or “Look how bright the future can be.”

            Companies can further develop the organisation and its employees if people are given the opportunity to reflect on both the positive and negative realities of their workplace. Learning from each others past mistakes or successes through stories can build awareness, skill and confidence. The “glory days” tales or “war stories” you hear informally or formally throughout a company present learning opportunities without having to actually go through the experience. This is what NASA did to convey the culture of excitement around advancing space exploration to a young generation.

            Texas Instruments is a company that is extremely serious about encouraging re-use of ideas and design by its engineers. To encourage this process Texas Instruments periodically holds a contest within the company to collect the best story based on “We didn’t build it here but we used it anyway.” Teams within Texas Instruments scramble to come up with the best story on design re-use. They then share the story with others at an awards dinner. The stories and the activities of the company serve to foster their knowledge-sharing culture. In a well known example, Texas Instruments has achieved $1.5 billion in additional wafer fabrication capacity as a result of their knowledge-sharing program.

 Knowledge work and knowledge workers

            Early literature on knowledge work tended to take a Taylorist view, separating ‘thinking’ and ‘doing’ and comparing it with the fundamentally different but more familiar, type of manual work or blue collar work (Drucker, 1999; Schultze, 2000). Task performance within knowledge work cannot be compared with the sequential prescribed performance of manual work, by claiming that knowledge work is the exact opposite. Contemporary concept of knowledge work integrates doing and thinking and involves an uninterrupted cycle of re-use and creation of knowledge, which can be compared to a process of learning by doing. It involves a large amount of tacit knowledge (Schultze, 2000).

             A knowledge worker in today’s workforce is an individual that is valued for their ability to interpret information within a specific subject area. They will often advance the overall understanding of that subject through focused analysis, design and/or development. They use research skills to define problems and to identify alternatives. The term was first coined by Peter Drucker (1959), as one who works primarily with information or one who develops and uses knowledge in the workplace. Toffler (1990) observed that typical knowledge workers (especially R&D scientists and engineers) in the age of knowledge economy must have some system at their disposal to create, process and enhance their own knowledge. In some cases they would also need to manage the knowledge of their co-workers. Knowledge workers engage in ‘’peer-to-peer’’ knowledge sharing across organisational and company boundaries, forming networks of expertise.

 Knowledge Management (KM) Strategy

            Two philosophies for managing knowledge have evolved over the past decade. Firstly, the codification or explicit-oriented approach, which aligns strategy with information management efforts, such as embedding knowledge in documents, which can be stored and reused. Secondly, the personalisation strategy or tacit-oriented KM style emphasises the human and hence more complex part of tacit or implicit knowledge. Attempts to externalise and transfer this type of knowledge are based on communication strategies, both faceto- face and technology supported, by facilitating informal networks.

            Traditionally, organisations tend to focus on the tangible part of knowledge, introducing information and communication systems to capture and document knowledge, even though these efforts might never have been explicitly termed a ‘KM strategy’ or aligned with organisational strategy. In recent years, however, KM researchers have realised that human KM is the challenge, which has revived the notion of social networks.

            Some other knowledge management strategies for companies include:

rewards (as a means of motivating for knowledge sharing) storytelling (as a means of transferring tacit knowledge) after action reviews knowledge mapping (a map of knowledge repositories within a company accessible by all) communities of practice best practice transfer collaborative technologies (groupware, etc) knowledge repositories (databases, etc) measuring and reporting intellectual capital (a way of making explicit knowledge for companies) social software (wikis, social bookmarking, blogs, etc)

 KM (CoPs) Strategy: A success story

            Communities of practice (CoPs) are designated networks of people who share information and knowledge. Community members exchange ideas, collaborate, and learn from one another in both face-to-face and virtual environments. For example:

            Caterpillar, Inc. is the world’s No. 1 producer of earthmoving machinery and a leading supplier of agricultural equipment. The organisation’s strategic driver for communities was just-in-time learning. In the past, Caterpillar employees attended in-class training on topics they might or might not find relevant to their daily jobs. By constrast, CoPs provide a platform through which employees can obtain timely answers to current issues or problems. Communities at Caterpillar are very narrowly focused in order to maintain a direct relationship between community activities and daily work. Communities are a way for Caterpillar employees to connect with the organisation’s global partners, customers, or teams in a virtual environment. Caterpillar currently has approximately 3,500 CoPs with about 40,000 unique participants. Approximately 7,000 Caterpillar dealers also participate in the organisation’s CoPs.

Knowledge management as “doing the right thing” (effectiveness) instead of “doing things right” (efficiency).

            The relatively stable and unchanging environment of the past allowed the luxury of predicting, pre-defining and pre-determining the future based on past data. Businesses could once define their business models, business practices and business value propositions – thereafter, the key challenge remained that of optimisation for increased efficiencies: of ‘doing things right’.

            However, changing customer trends, competitive products and services and changing societal and governmental pressures make the existing business models, business practices and business value propositions obsolete. Most of us are aware of the bloodbath in the desktop computer industry that eliminated many companies competing for business worldwide. However, some companies realised that the only performance outcomes that matter are the ones the customers really care about. They have been savoir-faire in tailoring and growing their customer value propositions around what the customers really needed rather than what they wanted to sell to customers. Dell has been an agile player that has been able to refine and play the game of ‘doing the right thing’ again and again, first in desktops and later in web hosting, printers, PDAs and storage. In the longer run, companies that can figure out the ‘next right thing’ and prepare well in advance to ride the next wave will be more effective in the longer run. However, it goes without saying that ‘doing the thing right’ also matters once you have figured out what the next cash cow will be.

            One central measure of organisational effectiveness is the creation and continuance of a measurable competitive advantage. Many broad initiatives such as efficiency, core competency advancement, actualisation of customer-centric products and services, and limitation of the fixed costs of doing business can help to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage within the marketplace. Thus, the effective management of knowledge understandably has the capacity to deeply impact the way a firm does business from the minor details of daily operations to the broadest strategic decision-making processes. 

Organisational Learning/Learning Organisation

            Argyris (1977) defines organisational learning (OL) as the process of “detection and correction of errors.” In his view organisations learn through individuals acting as agents for them: “The individuals’ learning activities, in turn, are facilitated or inhibited by an ecological system of factors that may be called an organisational learning system”.

            Huber (1991) considers four constructs as integrally linked to OL: knowledge acquisition, information distribution, information interpretation, and organisational memory. He clarifies that learning need not be conscious or intentional. Further, learning does not always increase the learner’s effectiveness, or even potential effectiveness. Moreover, learning need not result in observable changes in behaviour.

            Moreover, by taking the view of the organisation as a learning system, Senge contributed meaningful new insights. In his highly cited publication ‘The Fifth Discipline’ (1990) he argues that the organisations that will truly excel in the future will be the ones that discover how to tap people’s commitment and capacity to learn at all levels within an organisation. Senge believes that the ‘five component technologies’ are converging to create learning organisations: Personal Master – Shared Vision – Team Learning – Mental Models – Systems Thinking

            In his work ‘Disciplines of Organisational Learning: Contributions and Critiques’, Easterby-Smith (1997) argues against most scholars’ attempts to create a single framework for understanding and explaining the management of OL. By reviewing the most meaningful literature in the field he identified the following six disciplinary perspectives: psychology and organisational development, sociology, management science, strategy, production management, as well as cultural anthropology.

            Ang & Joseph (1996) contrast Organisational Learning and Learning Organisation in terms of process versus structure. They define OL as the ability of an organisation to gain insight and understanding from experience through experimentation, observation, analysis, and a willingness to examine both successes and failures. However, the managers’ role in the Learning Organisation, Senge (1990) argues, is that of a designer, teacher, and steward who can build shared vision and challenge prevailing mental models. He/she is responsible for building organisations where people are continually expanding their capabilities to shape their future — that is, leaders are responsible for learning.

Implementation of KM: The Xerox Case

            Xerox was set out to be as educated as possible about knowledge management (KM). The organisation has spent considerable financial resources and time to codify the collective knowledge through its research, consortium work, and sponsorship of research.

            During a study on its representative’s behaviour, Xerox noticed that most of the causes of breakdowns in the machines they sold couldn’t be found in any of the firm’s record of cases.

However representatives, thanks to their own knowledge and the knowledge they shared among each other during lunch breaks, were able to solve those problems.

            The solution, called Eureka project, was the creation of: An electronic database, in which they stored best practices, ideas and solutions; an intranet for representatives to make knowledge accessible to the whole company and facilitate the information sharing.

            The validity of the KM Eureka project’s implementation is strictly linked to the economic resources that it succeeds in recovering and saving up. In that perspective, the project Eureka made the Xerox Corporation save about the 5-10% on the job developed from the representatives and about $10 million on the cost of pieces or replaced machines.

Poor Knowledge Management can kill

            On September 30, 1999, a nuclear criticality accident occurred at a uranium processing plant operated by JCO Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as JCO) in Tokai village, Ibaraki Prefecture. A solution of enriched uranium in an amount several times more than the specified mass limit had been poured directly into a precipitation tank bypassing a dissolution tank and buffer column intended to avoid criticality. This action was in contravention of the legally approved criticality control measures. Three JCO plant workers were exposed to high levels of radiation in the accident. This has resulted in the death of two of the workers making this an unprecedented nuclear accident in Japan which has developed nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.

            Except for what are sometimes called ‘Act of God’, any problems arising at a nuclear plant originate in some way in human error. However, unless there is a sufficient set of vulnerability causal factors and one or more triggering causal factors, neither an instance of human error nor a consequential event occurs. Based on the systemic analysis of the criticality accident, it was proved that its root cause was inappropriate knowledge management – combination of (1) inadequate risk awareness by the top management and (2) “kaizen” (production improvement) drives.

Conclusion

            Today’s more balanced view of KM is therefore a combination of managing explicit information resources as well as managing the working environment and people so that tacit knowledge is more readily developed, shared and exploited. KM is well beyond the “fad” stage – from previous surveys that showed two thirds of senior managers regarded KM as a fad, today it is recognised as fundamental and a contributor of value. It does add value to an organisation’s bottom line, and though difficult to prove directly, new measuring instruments have helped stakeholders identify the sources of value more clearly.

            KM becomes more pervasive, a knowledge ‘lens’ and KM perspective are being applied to wide range of management and business processes. Total quality management, customer relationship management and risk management are examples of where such approaches have given stakeholders new insights and methods improves through the fusion of existing methods with good KM practice.

            KM was very much a practitioner led discipline and only belatedly has the academic community caught up. However, there are now several business schools with active programmes of research. We are constantly learning more about KM in different contexts. KM is also considered a side-show until it is fully integrated into the strategic planning and decision processes of an organisation, which means the explicit recognition of knowledge, and KM in the corporate strategy and a clear articulation of its contribution to the business bottom line (including non-financial objectives).

            Both the literature on organisational learning and knowledge management has been growing over the past years. While OL primarily aims to identify the underlying processes of learning by clarifying critical issues like the content, agents and levels of learning, KM takes a proactive role of explicitly providing guidelines for active intervention into the organisation’s knowledge base. Both perspectives have their merits. OL provides a theoretical framework for analysing changes in the organisational knowledge base. This framework can be used to hypothesise and explain cognitive and behavioural changes within organisations over time. KM serves as a manager’s framework for improving the OL’s potential. By guiding managerial intervention into the organisation’s knowledge base, KM serves as a management tool of one of the most critical resources of organisational success.

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