Off topic sports posting - Dolphins

This will be the last off topic sports posting - honest !

OK, so we lost to the Giants, 13 - 10, the royal 'we' in this case being my beloved Miami Dolphins. Wracked by injuries, second string QB, pouring rain, and 0-7 going into the game - lets face it it was never going to be like the last Dolphins game at the old Wembley (when we beat the 49ers in a gripping game).

To be honest, it only became really apparent how wet the field was, and how badly it coped when watching the highlights on TV when I got home. The new Wembley impressed me, nice stadium, but then I had a posh " Club Wembley" seat (£125 / $250). We had the hilarious British sporting institution of a streaker, who appeared to be mimicking the acitons of Homer Simpson when he was the 'mascot' for Springfield's nuclear plant baseball team !

I thought the amptmosphere was good, and hopefully the Dolphins are proud of us, as it was a Dolphins "home" game, and Wembley was their 'house' last night ;-) Although I heard one chap saying it was not very loud compared to a 'real' NFL game and the "Brits are too reserved". Not so, but then, the guy behind me giving a running commentary to his 3 mates, from the same rugby team, shows that not every Brit there is a fan of, and therefore knowledgeable on the rule s and the game. This article from USA Today shows that not all the armchair pundit's in the States thought it was a good idea. As for their comment that we were boo-ing the Giants for running down the clock - of course we understood what was going on, but it does'nt mean we had to be happy with it !

All in all, a great night, not a great game, but I hope both teams enjoyed the welcome, we enjoyed having you over !

p.s. to the two young American gentlement who sat next to me; when everyone stands for your national anthem, but you sit down, pick up your beers and start chatting, whilst my fellow countrymen and I actually sing ours, this is exactly the ignorant behaviour that ends up with all Americans being tarred with the same brush - shame on you !

p.p.s I took my binoculars - the Dolphins cheerleaders are HOT ......

Autonomy to purchase Meridio

So here's a consolidation story that took me by surprise !

I am sure anyone from Autonomy will have told your that they are 'more than just a search company' for quite some time, but their agreement to purchase Meridio really confirms that. If you don't know Meridio, their chief product is an electronic document and records management suite.

Now I have never used their product, but they did form part of a bid for the OU ECMS some 2 and a half years ago, and as Meridio are squarely .Net and MS Gold Partner, it formed the guts of the solution with Sharepoint 2003 providing the front end. It was a messy architecture and to be honest after a demo, a couple of us decided if we were confused at which interface we were using at one point in time (and could not figure out which system the metadata was actually in) then the average end user was not going to stand a chance ! I am sure their current version is much better ......

So, Autonomy do deals with MS to integrate their search with Sharepoint (MOSS 07) and then get their hands on an eDRM system with a long history of Sharepoint integration, so I guess they also see Sharepoint as a mile long, ten thousand tonne 'CP Freight train' thats not going to hit the buffers anytime soon !

More off topic sports postings

Well, I know now there are at least two other rugby fans in the ECM industry!

I have met Alan Pelz-Sharpe of CMSWatch before, and thus knew he was a fellow Yorkie (Yorkshireman) by birth, he commented on that which I did not actually mention - the recent drubbing by fellow Yorkies, Leeds of St Helens by 33 to 6 (its difficult to explain the Yorkshire - Lancashire thing to non-Brits, but beating Saints makes us very happy). A far more interesting game ! There was also the recent 'All Golds' (New Zealand) versus the Northern Union (UK) centenary game - 25 to 18 for the great Kiwi team.

Dan from RWD Technologies Inc also commented, looks like Dan played rugby at University. To Dan, all at RWD and indeed all in California, I hope everyone is safe the casualty toll from the fires remains thankfully low.

I had to admit to Dan, although I am a Brit, I have been a Miami Dolphins fan since 1983 ! And boy, we are not having a good season ! I will be going to see the Fins at the new Wembley stadium on sunday - how cool would that be if they could pull off their first win of the season (I am typing with my fingers crossed.....).

Off topic - rugby union world cup

OK, not sour grapes because the UK lost to South Africa, but a comment from a 'northern lad' i.e. a Rugby League fan. Personally I thought Saturdays Rugby Union World Cup final was a sad indictment of the state of rugby union - it was frankly boring.

The super Spring Boks were going to kick our arse - well at least that may have been interesting to watch.

The turn around kings were going to show South Africa a thing or two.... well that too would have beaten watching Johnny Wilkinson score all the points....!

One try, disallowed, only one threat of a try from SA, and as has become the norm in Rugby Union, all the points scored from penalty kicks (by the way, good job I am not Prime Minister or even king, because 3 England players who gave away stupid penalties would now be languishing in the 'Tower'). No wonder I would rather pay to watch the Miami Dolphins play the New York Giants at Wembley....

New ECM 'standard' to be developed - NOT !

OK, sorry, childish intro, but I can't understand all the blog postings or web news articles on the 'new ECM standard' to be devleoped by the British Standards Institute - well perhaps its because thats what BSI used to stand for, and standards was the key word.

However although the BSI Group currently publishes over 2000 standards per year, and their collaborators on this project, The Content Group surely know thier stuff when it comes to ECM, this is not a about standards at all as far as I can see. They are talking about developing a a common definition, which 'Observing Content Management' says would be a good thing. Well, maybe, but as a member of AIIM, I would have to say whats wrong with their definition of ECM ?

What they are developing is a PAS - a Publicly Available Specification, apparently. This is probably a very good idea, and very helpful to prospective customers, but its not a 'standard' ! Well OK, its could develop into a 'standard' specification, but were getting into semantics, and as there is no such thing as a 'standard' business, the PAS should be configured and customised to the particular context of the business which is looking to acquire an ECMS. So, anyway, this is coming across as a bit of a rant, and I certainly do not want to be seen as having 'a go at' The Content Group or the BSI Group, but I do wish people would stop reporting this using 'that' headline......

We're back

from Canada, got our Social Insurance Numbers and our Permenant Resident Cards are in the post (or will be soon !) so we are legally employable in Canada as off now :-)

Been pretty much 'off the air' whilst on vacation, checking the work and private email accounts occiasionally, but lots of blogs to read when I get over my jet lag (never seem to be able to sleep on the plane.....).

Got to look into the Oracle / BEA thing - one vendor with 4 portal products - doesn't sound like a marriage made in heaven to me, but I have to admit more analysis required. Back soon......