Document management

Rambling on, everyware and anyware. Another Türing machine powered information highway road story by Kjell Øystein Arisland, your friendly link to the world of geek.

"Soft-ware, ov-er the rain-bow, bytes so Blue ..." Get any color you like as long as it's Big Blue! (But that was in the -70s)

Be-ware of software, hardware or any-ware. They can get you no-ware, faster than you can say "document management".

Don't get me wrong, Türing power (read: computer power) can get you "virtually" everywhere these days, and there is no limit to what expensive type of -ware you can buy for the ride. But maybe "expensive" is the operative word here.

The best piece of advice I ever give people in my capacity as a three decade computer geek "veteran" ("dinosaur" doesn't sound so good) is: Don't buy it unless you really need it right now. There are many reasons, but the most important is that your kids (or grandkids) will get it in their Happy meal box at MacDonalds next year, and after the fries are gone, you can have it, and maybe even half a hamburger.

Sometimes I like exaggerating, but Moore's law is still kicking after nearly forty years, and that's about hardware becoming ever more powerful and cheaper, exponentially. Software has an even shorter shelf life, or "half-life" for the accountants, because it doesn't cost anything to copy it. In the not too distant future, most companies will give away all their software for the chance to get you on-line, and that's not even exaggerating.

And so I am closing in on the unsuspecting document management theme: Maybe you don't need any dedicated document management any-ware, because maybe your regular file server and the scanner/copier are perfectly capable of satisfying your company's craving for tree-friendly digital documents that can be printed to wall-paper the Albert Hall at the merest click of a mouse-button.

According to Wikipedia (the world's most important website) "Document management and engineering is a computer system (or set of computer programs) used to track and store electronic documents and/or images of paper documents." This means that any file server and the software used to access it, e.g. Windows Explorer (Not Internet Explorer), is a document management system. Whether it does the job to your satisfaction is another matter, but for ninety-something percent of small businesses it largely depends on how well the directories and files are structured.

Enter AINTscience. Go get it, read all about it, or read more articles. Thanks for reading.

The image shows the Rosetta stone, a key document in human history. They don't make documents like they used to.