Writes Business 2.0: "Blogs are also powerful knowledge management tools...Blogging is attractive as a vehicle for personal expression because it's an easy way to capture, comment on, and keep abreast of interesting tidbits of information. The same characteristic makes blogging well-suited to businesses that want to track information about products and markets, or distribute information to employees and customers. You see something interesting on the Web, and within seconds you can put a link to it on your weblog, add some comments, and be on to something else. Naturally, other bloggers are doing the same thing. Over time, your own blog and the other blogs you spend time reading develop into a big, interconnected web of information. It's like a quick-and-dirty, easy-to-use knowledge management system. "

Echoes our line of thinking...we have in fact set up blogs within our (small) organisation.

Slashdot has an interesting discussion as a reader asks: Slashdot | Can We Finally Ditch Exchange?: "With all the innovations going into open source software these days, why do I still need to run Exchange to meet my clients' needs? Even when demonstrating technology like LTSP mixed with any combination of OpenOffice, Star Office, even Codeweaver's Crossover Office running the latest Microsoft suite, the clincher is always over Exchange functionality. I'm aware of Bynari's InsightServer(Coincidentally, I noticed on that page, that their code is for sale) and have started using that as a possible closer, and the cost is much less prohibitive than eXchange w2k server CALs; but why isn't there an open source solution to this problem yet?"

Glenn Fleishman reviews the new Mac OS (v 10.2), codenamed Jaguar. [via Scripting.com]

The UI is what will make a big difference for our Thin Client, and we should see if we can be inspired by Apple's OS X rather than Microsoft's Windows.

News.com asks the question, and adds: "Web services can be implemented in basically two ways--either by exposing an application interface as a Web service or as a "document-based" Web service. One is not as good as the other....The alternate approach of document-based Web services, also known as "messaging style" Web services, provides several capabilities that make it more viable."

While I don't understand the article, I think its important to read and remember.

We’ve all been through the experience. After a long flight, we wait at baggage claim, waiting it seems forever and wondering if the bags will arrive. We check different bags (because they all seem so alike). On especially “bad bag” days, the bags don’t arrive (for a long time) and we go through the horror of imagining their loss! Wouldn’t it be nice if bags could talk with our boarding pass, and send out alerts if (a) they weren’t on the same flight as us, and (b) when they are close to us as they make their way on the baggage conveyor belt. That day may be coming close, thanks to a technology called radio frequency identification (RFIDs).

RFID systems consist of smart tags and reader devices. The tags send out radio frequency signals, which can be picked up in a short range by readers. Unlike bar codes which can carry very limited information, smart tags can store and broadcast object-specific information, giving each item its own unique identify and history. This aspect of RFID systems is creating applications which may today seem like science fiction, but will quickly become reality.

Glover Ferguson, writing in Harvard Business Review (June 2002), provides some examples: