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I'm trying to get a pulse on a couple of movements that have been around for
a few years in Corporate America:
Knowledge pools (my term) is the first. In my world it's trendy to talk
about "Knowledge Management," the idea of making available for the common
good--in an intelligent way that makes retrieval simple--documentation
written for specific projects that could be used more widely. People who
want to collaborate on documentation sometimes use products that enable them
to store their working documents in a public place for collaborative
purposes using a check-in/check-out process to enforce version control
(using, for example, Livelink, Keyfile, or PCMS). Now I've learned of a site
on the Web that provides this service to the general public
(http://www.mydocsonline.com).
Part II of my question involves the ISO and the lesser-known (as far as I
can tell) SEI certification drive. I wonder whether these standards include
guidelines or specifications on how documents are stored for public use or
collaboration during production.
I am working on a service that may help in these areas and was just trying
to get a feel for the market. How badly do companies want to solve these
problems, or do they care? Are they aware of the financial losses they incur
from lack of organization in these areas, for example?
I hope that's not too vague, but I am prepared for the windfall of varying
responses it may incur.
