EPSScentral Whats New

What's New - the EPSScentral Reader

4 June 2003

INTERESTING PERFORMANCE SUPPORT TOOLS AND SYSTEMS
The 2003 Performance Centered Design Awards The deadline is approaching!	It's that time again! EPSScentral is now accepting submissions for the 2003 Performance Centered Design Awards! Here's your chance to show your stuff and gain recognition for yourself, your organization, your software, and/or your business sponsor. The PCD Awards will showcase creative solutions that best represents the principles of electronic performance support and performance-centered design in three categories this year: Traditional EPSS - external or extrinsic "EPSS" solutions with designs rooted primarily in the learning and/or reference technologies; PCD Solutions - end-user embedded / intrinsic performer-centered solutions that are strictly focused on task completion (not learning); and Extraordinary PCD Tools - for developing EPSS and any performance-centered systems and functions! Awards will be presented at the 2003 Online Learning Conference and Expo and will be published on www.EPSScentral.com to serve as models for new and experienced EPSS/PCD advocates. Previous winning entries may be viewed here. DATES, DEADLINES, and PRESENTATIONS: Submission deadline is July 15, 2003. No exceptions! Awards will be announced on August 31, 2003 and will be presented during session 413 on Tuesday, September 23, 2003 at the Online Learning Conference in Los Angeles. Award-winning entries will also be on display at the EPSScentral booth at the Online Learning 2003 Expo, September 22-24, 2003. COSTS: All non-refundable entry fees must be accompanied with a check in the appropriate amount payable to EPSScentral LLC or payment can be made via PayPal. Traditional EPSS: US $350 PCD Solutions: US $350 EXTRAORDINARY PCD TOOLS: US $550 SUBMISSIONS & EVALUATION: You are responsible for the costs of preparing your entry. You are required to use the entry template for Traditional EPSS, PCD Solutions, and Extraordinary PCD Tools, respectively. You must also supplementing the online submission with a URL, CD, DVD, or video tape of the live experience so that the judges can experience your offering in as concrete a manner as possible. ELIGIBILITY: Your entry must describe either a particular component or feature of an operational Traditional EPSS Solution, an intrinsic/embedded Performance-Centered System, Performance Centered System Development Tool, or a complete Performance Centered System. Note the word "operational!" - NO design concepts that have not been at least piloted in an operational setting where the business/organizational value has been measured. Traditional EPSS submissions are the "electronic performance support systems" that are external or extrinsic and have learning and/or reference as their primary design bases. EPSS submissions must be grounded nonetheless in business or organizational performance outcomes. While learning or reference design may be primary with regard to design, the system must show a measurable improvement in performance, reduction in conventional training time, and/or reduced time to competency on the task(s) it was designed to support. PCD Solutions are intrinsic or embedded and exclusively focused on the business performance outcome in measurable ways. For example, a PCD Outcome that replaces the interface of an enterprise application such that (a) the frequency of data entry errors is reduced; (b) the frequency of incomplete information entered into the system is reduced; (c) the speed with which data is entered is substantially increased; and (d) the need for any form of learning in advance of doing is eliminated is Performance Centered. On the other hand, an embedded tutorial, online help, field-sensitive help, and the like, are typically NOT Performance Centered Solutions in the same sense. Provided they show measurable performance improvement as described above, such programs should be submitted to the EPSS/Performance Centered Learning category. .Performance-Centered means that there is a measurable improvement in the business outcome (or, if not a business, then a measurable improvement in achieving the organization's goals) with learning NOT a primary goal. Extraordinary PCD Tools are new technologies (tools, products, protocol) that were not previously available commercially or otherwise. Innovative PCD Tools and Techniques are things that facilitate embedding support into other software, act as "agents" to deliver decision support at the time of need, integrate disparate end-user software, help anticipate and resolve performance challenges, use general inference techniques to eliminate complexity, reduce the need for conventional IT support, replace more conventional means of support, and the like. These can be new components of existing PCD Tools and Techniques if they are sufficiently unique. The Awards are open to businesses, government agencies, and educational institutions. Vendors are welcome to submit their work but are strongly encouraged to do so in partnership with their clients. WHAT AND WHERE TO SUBMIT: To be considered in this year's PCD Awards, your submission must be postmarked on or before July 15, 2003. Your submission must include: The prepared submission template (Traditional EPSS, PCD Solutions, or Extraordinary PCD Tools) with supplementary URL, CD, DVD, Video or other supporting media/materials to ensure that our judges can evaluate the real experience. You must mail six (6) copies of your submission materials. One copy of the completed and signed Permission to Publish template (hard copy, signed and mailed) that is included with each submission template. Your check for US $350 (Traditional EPSS, PCD Solutions) or $550 (EXTRAORDINARY PCD TOOLS and TECHNIQUES) made payable to EPSScentral LLC. Payment can also be rendered via PayPal. Please write to info@epsscentral.com if you plan to pay via PayPal. Transactions must be completed by the postmark deadline. ALL SUBMISSIONS MUST FOLLOW THE DETAILED GUIDELINES PROVIDED ON THE ENTRY FORMS! All materials must be addressed to: PCD Awards 2003 c/o EPSScentral LLC 6909 Pacific Lane Annandale, VA 22003-5936
Auxilium Performance Group	Auxilium™ Community Builder is a performance support and e-learning portal that provides an outstanding infrastructure that is easy to set up. It is targeted at the right markets, and built by people who know what "performance-centered" means! Allows any size organization to support on-line portal for information sharing and collaboration by harnessing the real power of the Internet. For the first time, Internet server software is truly affordable, easily deployed in under 30 days, and requires no technical expertise to administer.
Nooface	The purpose of this site is to support the exchange of ideas about next-generation user interfaces, focusing on approaches that go beyond the WIMP (Windows, Icons, Menus, Pointing Device) method on which most current user interfaces are based. The goal is to promote out-of-the-box thinking on how user interfaces might evolve to accommodate new classes of users and devices outside of the traditional PC domain.
BOOKS	This link takes you to the EPSScentral bibliography.
EPSS Revisited Edited by Gary J. Dickelman	Available after June 15, 2003 from http://www.ispi.org/bookstore/. EPSS Revisited is an essential reader for students and practitioners of performance-centered design (PCD). Its chapters support each element of the performance-centered systems development lifecycle. From job aids and "bolt on" EPSS to ground-up enterprise performance-centered systems, you will find gems in terms of methodology, industry trends, and a plethora of real-world examples of PCD. EPSS Revisited promises to be the seminal work on ensuring business and organizational performance through human performance in our ever growing world of computer-mediated knowledge work. EPSS Revisited is a select collection of articles from the journal Performance Improvement . The authors in the compendium include Donald Norman, Gloria Gery, Barry Raybould, Burt Huber, Douglas Weidner, Hal Christensen, and Stan Malcolm. In addition, the winners of the annual PCD Awards - those who have created real systems that are in production showing remarkable compression of time-to-competency and day-one performance - are showcased on the book. ISBN 1-890289-15-9. ISPI No. 5118. ISPI/2003 Pre-orders are being taken by 1-800-587-8570 and www.ispi.org.
About Face 2.0: The Essentials of Interaction Design by Alan Cooper and Robert M. Reimann	"In the eight years since this book was first published, the ideas that seemed do radical at first have become standard models across the industry. Many practicioners have adopted them and seen dramatic improvements in their products. This book would not have been possible without the commitment of the many organizations over the past decade that hired Cooper, my design consulting company. They demonstrated a great measure of self-confidence to break from the pack. By the same token, the many brilliant and talented people who have worked at Cooper have pushed the limits of my original thinking far beyond where I started. They have put their professional reputations on the line to prove that there is a higher standard and better ways to achieve it. In this significantly revised and expanded edition of the book, Robert Reimann and I have rewritten and reorganized every page. Together we have: Updated examples to reflect the current state of the art, and included more examples from Cooper design solutions Included references to recent technology and industry developments Added an entirely new section covering Cooper's Goal-Directed Design methods such as personas, goals, and scenarios in detail Added new chapters on visual design, as well as interaction design issues for embedded systems and the Web Added a bibliography of design reference sources Thanks for joining me in the pursuit of better software, happier programmers and designers, more successful businesses, and extremely satisfied users. Sincerely, Alan Cooper Founder & Chairman of the Board Cooper Interaction Design" (From the Amazon.com review.)
Performance XPress	The June 2003 issue of Performance XPress is now available from the International Society for Performance Improvement! Questions or comments should be directed to Gary Dickelman at EPSScentral or April Davis, ISPI's Director of Periodicals at april@ispi.org.
INNOVATION	This is a new section of the EPSScentral Reader and web site devoted to the general topic of innovation - in business, organizations, and content domains. Innovation is at the root of performance, hence the ideas presented in these articles are seeds for PCD.
Fast Company	How Pottery Barn Wins With Style Feature Plenty of companies compete on price and features. How do you keep demanding customers coming back for more? Pottery Barn's secret for growth in a brutally competitive business: "Our brand is a state of mind," says one top executive. "And customers can make it their own." The Soft Stuff Is the Hard Stuff, and Other Lessons From Iraq Feature The metaphor that equates war and business is about as wrong as you can get -- unless you know what similarities to look for. For business leaders who are studying the war in Iraq, here are five lessons worth learning. The People Who Win The Wars Feature No matter how brilliantly the big brass plans wars, the outcome depends on the people who fight them.
The Innovation Network	Innovation DNA This framework was created by Fellows of InnovationUniversity and is available for use by anyone ... simply do a right click and download from the above link.
USABILITY	This link takes you to previous articles on this topic linked from EPSScentral.
Convincing Clients to Pay for Usability by Jakob Nielsen	Professionally run design agencies user test their designs to increase the value they deliver to their clients. The challenge is getting clients to understand the benefits of a solid development methodology.
Usability Basics from the National Cancer Institute	Besides Usability Basics, the National Cancer Institute applies them to a variety of its issues and devices. New Usability Lessons Learned: Delivering Cancer Information to PDAs and Other Wireless Devices Learn more about a practical application of the usability engineering process in our Lessons Learned section. Featured in this section are lessons learned from providing cancer information on handheld wireless devices and the challenges they pose to designers and usability professionals. This report is one of a series of studies performed by the Communication Technologies Branch to determine how various types of emerging technologies can be used to access cancer research available through NCI Web sites. For more information: Lessons Learned: Delivering Cancer Information to PDAs and Other Wireless Devices
Usability Is Next to Profitability	Software companies have finally grasped the value of easy-to-fathom programs, and they're pouring resources into the task.
DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT	This link takes you to previous articles on this topic linked from EPSScentral.
Akiva's New Offerings Focus on the New Face of Collaboration	ChatSpace, the product, was one of the earliest names in the online community market when it was launched by ChatSpace, the company, in 1998. Five years later, many of the other names in the space are long gone and ChatSpace, the company, now goes by the moniker Akiva. ChatSpace the product has just gone to Version 4, which aims to make the chat, instant messaging and message board technology a more out-of-the-box package for those building online communities. In the meantime, Akiva has expanded its collaboration offerings to include WebBoard, a message board tool that comes in several editions, and ideaCenter, a full-fledged virtual workspace. In April, Akiva released WebBoard Meeting, an online meeting application to compete in a rapidly changing market that includes WebEx and Microsoft's Placeware.
Drupal: Powerful and Free, But Some Assembly Required	The more pieces of information you have, the more messy they're likely to become. This is why content management systems are essential. By the time you've got hundreds of documents on your intranet, you're going to end up with an awful lot of mess — unless you have a way to organize them. Content management system vary in features and price. A simple one will store your articles, news bulletins, and let you edit or delete them at a later stage. A more complex system will manage your entire site, from forums to newsfeeds to e-mails. A further advantage of such a system is that no knowledge of programming is required to add or edit the articles on your intranet, so staff with limited computing knowledge can feel at ease. This series will take a look at a number of open-source content management systems that are available online, and help you decide which is the most appropriate for your intranet or Web site.
Slash / Slashdot	Slashcode is the site for All Things Slash. Slash is the source code and database that was originally used to create Slashdot, and has now been released under the GNU General Public License. It is a bona fide Open Source / Free Software project. Use this site to get the Slash source, read the latest Slash news, and participate in Slash discussions. Slashcode is run by the good folks at OSDN, but like all good open source projects, depends on the community. Thanks for your continued support, and let us know what we can do to make the site better.
Cooper Interaction Design Newsletter	5 Ways to Get the Most from In-House Designers by Kim Goodwin Over the last two years, we've heard from increasing numbers of executives who want to bring interaction design in-house because they've realized how critical it is to product success. There are plenty of challenges involved in doing this, including hiring and training the right people. One of the challenges companies may not expect, though, is in deciding how to use those resources once they've been found. Critic to Creator: Recognizing Good Design by Steve Calde What's a well-designed product? As strange as it sounds, Interaction Designers often come up blank when posed with this question. Why is it so much easier to focus on the bad than the good in design, and how can we avoid this?
ONLINE LEARNING	This link takes you to previous articles on this topic linked from EPSScentral.
Up With People (DUH)	From the Internet Times Blog archives.
The new Training Magazine	Online Learning and Training magazines are now one...and this is the subscription link. Back articles are available here.
Learning & Training Innovations	Cover Story: Finding the Middle Ground Having trouble with your computer or your Internet connection? Go ahead and call your vendor's technical-support hot line. Mind your blood pressure, because you're likely to face a maddening battle with an automated voice-menu system that mocks you with assurances of the company's love and devotion while it thwarts your every effort to speak to a live human.
E-Learning Magazine from the Association for Computing Machinery Feature Story	eLearn magazine is published by ACM, a not-for-profit educational association serving those who work, teach, and learn in the various computing-related fields. Founded in 1947 as the Association for Computing Machinery, ACM's stated mission is to advance the arts, sciences, and applications of information technology. It is the oldest and most respected organization of its kind. eLearn is ACM's first Web-only publication. It will build on ACM's reputation by serving as the most accurate and unbiased source for news, information, and opinion on the now-flourishing field of online education and training. It also offers a community hub for e-learning professionals on the Web, providing a wealth of public forums for the free exchange of ideas. Content is culled from two distinct sources: News and features written by professional journalists with expertise in education and technology, and columns and tutorials by industry leaders and stars of academia. Our targeted readership includes both providers and consumers of online learning, with a special emphasis on teachers, managers, and administrators working to develop educational programs or classes on the Web. Hot on the Trail of an E-Learning Career By Lisa Currin, special to eLearn magazine You can almost see the tumbleweeds blowing through the once-vibrant e-learning job market. Some of the most promising storefronts have been boarded up, and even those companies still turning a profit seem hesitant to hang out the "Help Wanted" sign. It's not a great time to be looking for a job in e-learning. Of course, it's not a great time to be looking for a job in any other field either. But, perhaps because e-learning's star shone so brightly a couple of years back, its fall seems especially stunning.
KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT	This link takes you to previous articles on this topic linked from EPSScentral.
Meet the Experts: Nelson Mattos IBM Distinguished Engineer and Director, Information Integration	Nelson Mattos, Ph. D., is an IBM Distinguished Engineer and the Director of IBM Information Integration. In his current role, Dr. Mattos is responsible for establishing IBM's leadership position in the emerging information integration market. He collaborates with standards bodies and IBM customers, Business Partners and development teams to help businesses integrate digital information assets and leverage the value of those assets across the enterprise. Capitalizing on his strong research background, Dr. Mattos is responsible for the strategy, marketing, and development for such products as DB2® Information Integrator, DiscoveryLink®, replication, and Relational Connect. Dr. Mattos will be presenting on "Business Integration and the Role of Data Management" on June 4, 2003. After the Webcast, you will have the opportunity to chat with him. Register now for that Webcast (or the replay).
KM World News	CSC goes BPM Develops pact with Metastorm - Posted 5/28 Hummingbird acquires LegalKey Technologies Augments software and solutions offerings - Posted 5/28 Tacit ships ActiveNet 1.0 Customer-driven design for enterprise collaboration - Posted 5/28 Diligence done PlanAnalytics develops new report - Posted 5/19 DKS, meet KPS Deep integration plannned - Posted 5/19 Wireless learning Knowledge Anywhere makes it easy - Posted 5/19
INTRANETS, PORTALS, AND THE WEB	This link takes you to previous articles on this topic linked from EPSScentral.
Intranet Journal	Managing Content Gets Easier, Despite Big Challenges Content management is getting easier with the advent of new commercial CM packages, vendor alliances, and some industry standards. Jacqueline Emigh surveys the current content management scene and reveals several key considerations to take into account when choosing a CM solution. CodeCharge Studio 2.0: Here's What's New If you're wondering whether or not you should upgrade your rapid application development tools, we've got the lowdown on the top new features in Yes Software's CodeCharge Studio. Content Management Q&A with Matthew Berk To help sort out the enigmatic world of content management, Intranet Journal picked the brain of Matthew Berk, a senior analyst with Jupiter Research who covers content management and site technologies. Brainstorming and Planning Using MindManager MindManager is project management software that allows you to brainstorm and capture project ideas more intuitively and visualize your project in a way that is more in tune with how people actually think and create.
ENTERPRISE APPLICATION INTEGRATION	A new category on EPSScentral.
EAI Journal	Features The Democratization of Integration The perceived wisdom that web services is a concept that will eliminate the integration market is plain wrong. But they will herald a new era where integration gets democratized so that mass integrations become feasible and put applications control and creativity back into the hands of the people that matter ·the business users. By By Thomas A. Joseph First Impression: Mercator Vertical Solutions We overview the vertical solutions for Mercator Inside Integration in financial services, healthcare, and manufacturing retail and distribution. By Ellen Silverman Software Ecologist: EAI Lifestyle Evaluation Check out your organization's EAI maturity with this checklist based on the five best-practice domains. Are you leading the way or jeopardizing future projects? By John Schmidt. Getting the Balance Right Integrating your IT infrastructure requires a large investment, so it is important that the solution meets the business needs of the organization. The selection process is not simple, but this article provides some models and guidelines to make it easier. By Cakular and van Wajingaarden
CONFERENCES, WORKSHOPS, PRESENTATIONS, ETC.
	Online Learning 2003 Events - forUse 2003 Edward Tufte Courses Human Factors International Usability Professionals' Association Hypertext '03
Jupitermedia Events	Conferences covering a range of topics, including Instant Messaging, Voice XML, Search Engines, Enterprise Portals, Ultrawideband, and more.
REPORTS and STUDIES
A Basis for an Assembly Process for COTS-Based Systems (APCS)	Abstract: This paper describes a generic process framework for developing software systems based on commercial off-the- shelf (COTS) products. The framework is based on Barry Boehm's familiar spiral development process. However, it is primarily intended for projects that make significant use of commercial components and other pre-existing software as elements of the system to be fielded. The aspects of the process that are most affected by this reliance on COTS components lie in the area of requirements, and the description of the process is most extensive in that area. The necessity of using system prototypes as the major vehicle for reducing risk is assumed, as are parallel and interleaved periods of gathering and refining knowledge about the system to be built. Each element of the process is first described and then depicted in several models, using Integrated Definition modeling technique (IDEF0). The paper describes how the interactions between the candidate COTS components, the stakeholders' implicit and explicit needs, and the context in which the system will operate all provide interacting constraints on both the process and the resulting system.

Review previous What's New pages.