I scribble notes on a pad when I conduct interviews for my business. I don’t write many words because I’m trying to understand what people are saying and can’t write and think at the same time. (Half-Polish, can’t chew gum either). My notes are becoming more difficult to reread after a period of time too because my handwriting skills have diminished. Except for my grocery shopping list, I rarely use paper Post Its anymore, preferring electronic versions that are available on most newer PCs and phones. Like most people with Smart phones, I take out mine out frequently so see the reminders often. So this approach works well for me. I do have a paper scribble pad (recycled paper!) that I use every day with a pencil to capture transient bits of information that I use during the day. I throw out the scribbles next day and start a new sheet. This is still more efficient and convenient than a computer based approach.

The way that we read information to acquire knowledge has been gradually transforming. Before electronics, brief communication of information (today’s tweets, text messages or emails) was commonly done via oral interaction or sign images like smoke signals, semaphores, etc. The telegraph and telephone replaced these and has broadened the potential audience. Global electronic networks are the phase that we are in now. These kinds of communications usually only convey relatively small bits of information or knowledge. Think about trying to get a university degree by only reading tweets and text messages. That’s not going to get it done.

The applicability of collaborative space has been spotty. There are some specific successes, but in general this idea has not expanded significantly over the past 20 years. Remember Lotus Notes?

Conveying more complex concepts and ideas, requires a much more structured use of many words than these communication vehicles can easily provide. Most people scan through pages bought up by web search results looking for key words of phrases. They rarely read a page word by word.

So what’s the best medium to read a book or long document? I can tolerate reading no more than 3 pages max word for word on my PC screen. Some days, like today, it’s less than one page. It’s the screen angle and overall brightness that gets to me. You can carry around and tilt paper pages, books and eReaders to accommodate your sitting or standing position. Also, most eReaders have the capability of increasing font size which I often do when my eyes get tired at the end of a day. They also are not overly bright, but have good black/white contrast. Most models can’t be read in the dark. I often print a few pages of information to read and then reuse the paper for scribbling. I don’t keep the printed sheets for very long.

I print fewer items to read than I did last year and think that this is because I am scanning, skimming speed reading more. Everyone seems to be doing this and I’m not sure whether it is good or bad. Are we learning less and just recycling information more?

When paper was king, I read many articles and books word for word then composed my original work. I’m sure I plagiarized some things without giving credit to the proper author, but I (as do many university professors) are seeing many articles, blogs and white papers that are primarily information that has been cut and pasted from other sources and advertised as “original” work.

I think that we have to be more selective in the use of our time to acquire new knowledge. Texting, tweeting, information skimming, social networking and other activities can take away too many hours every day and inhibit our capability to compose original ideas.

Electronic Lab Notebooks / Lab Information Management Systems
Labtronics Inc. has released a Connector for Nexxis ELN that allows the Electronic Laboratory Notebook to connect to any LIMS.
Nexxis ELN makes use of the industry standard integration tool, LimsLink, to provide direct connection with any LIMS. The connection provides bi-directional connectivity allowing the Electronic Notebook to retrieve sample lists from LIMS and report results back to LIMS

A lot of the early projects I implemented concerned the conversion of paper based business operations to computer based. Through these experiences I learned that the biggest obstacle to implementing new processes was peoples’ inherent fear of change. This is a basic characteristic of people that has been developed through evolution. Men are driven by nature to find the highest place for them within a hierarchy and are motivated to protect their position and move up when possible. Women have different motivations which are concerned with social influence. But they too will fight to maintain their position and status.

Fear is an emotional response to a perceived threat. It is a basic survival mechanism occurring in response to a specific stimulus, such as pain or the threat of danger.
I have seen all of the following common reactions to fear in some people when I was trying to introduce change:

• Anger
• Increased blood pressure
• Tightening of muscles
• Dilation of the pupils (to let in more light)
• Increased sweating

If you see that a lot of people are reacting with fear to the changes you are proposing, things have gone very wrong and most likely the program that you are trying to implement is in serious danger of failing. Fear is contagious and will spread rapidly.

Here are a few hints on how to minimize the fear reaction.

A person trying to introduce change must first of all be likeable and unthreatening. This is much more important initially than extensive explanations about why the change will be a good thing for all. You can be likeable when you sincerely try to learn about people whose job scope will be affected. Be a friend; don’t push your agenda too hard at the beginning.

For many people change will mean making some information that they currently control more public. They will cease to be the exclusive “go to” person. This is the “I know something important that no one else knows” power position. Their new role will be to manage the life cycle of the information collection assuring that it is complete and up to date. If they are the information authors the new process should advertise that they are the “inventors” and will fortify their position.
Explain this to them. It may take a little while to sink in, but most of them will get it.

There will always be a few people whose fear level will be too high to overcome initially. However, after they see that others are not afraid they will come around.

Iron Mountain Incorporated has expanded its partnership with InterVision to allow the Santa Clara, Calif. IT firm to offer users of NetApp and Microsoft Exchange Iron Mountain’s newly-acquired NearPoint(TM) solution for archiving, accessing and protecting email. InterVision’s customers can now enjoy high performance, manageability and lower operating costs by combining leading technology from NetApp and Iron Mountain in a single integrated solution for managing Microsoft Exchange.

ELN / LIMS
In order to minimize disruption to their existing processes and procedures, Novozymes chose to develop their own, custom-built ELN solution. By taking their lab processes digital, Novozymes saves the time it takes for teams of scientists to assemble and authorize paper-based documentation. Through the ELN, documents proving scientific discovery and product inventions (which are later used in patent applications) are approved and trusted via standard digital signatures, and made electronically available to an unlimited number of researchers from remote locations, for years into the future. The potential benefits of enhanced collaboration and document control influenced Novozymes’ decision to base their ELN solution on a SharePoint foundation, a document management platform which they were already using for various other business processes. The addition of digital signatures to the ELN makes the entire solution electronic through-out.

A common definition of a signature is: a mark or sign made by an individual on a document to signify knowledge, approval, acceptance, or obligation. I recall when I was in my 30’s creating a distinctive, artsy signature like you see on the U. S. Declaration of Independence. I employed this bold signature for many years with gusto. It was huge and overflowed all boundaries. Over the years the number of times that I had to write my signature decreased substantially. E-mail, banking on line and document work flow software contributed to this. I also became aware that very few people even looked at my signature except for over eager seasonal retail clerks. In fact, one recently questioned why my 6×2 inch signature on a receipt looked different from the 3×0.5 inch one on the back of my credit card. Duh!

I’ve noticed that more and more retail stores have installed hardware and software that has eliminated signatures on paper. After you swipe your credit card, you make your mark on a touch screen with a special “pen”. The legibility of my signature has virtually disappeared, but it doesn’t matter. Making the mark signifies acceptance of the transaction and is legally binding.

The E-Sign Act validates electronic contracts in interstate and foreign commerce. The act does not apply to certain types of documents, including wills, Divorce notices, and documents that are associated with court proceedings.

A digital signature is based on cryptography, which uses mathematical formulas, or algorithms, to scramble messages. Using encryption and decryption software, the sender can scramble the message and the recipient can unscramble it. To affix a digital signature to an electronic document, a signer must obtain electronic “keys.” The keys are assigned in pairs: a private key and a public key.

A person creates his keys using a software program. The digital signature is affixed to the electronic document using the private key. The “signer” types in a password, similar to a personal identification number for an automatic teller machine. The private key then generates a long string of numbers and letters that represent the digital signature, or public key. The recipient of the message runs a software program using this public key to authenticate that the document was signed by the private key and that the document has not been altered during transmission.

It is mathematically infeasible for a person to derive another person’s private key. The only way to compromise a digital signature is to give another person access to the signature software and the password to the private key.

Will name signatures eventually go away? Probably not for awhile. But the act of composing the name certainly will. We seem to be moving towards electronic signet rings and away from hand signed signatures.

Autonomy Corporation plc announced the availability of Autonomy Social Media Governance, the industry’s first solution designed to monitor, govern, and protect organizations across social media channels. Autonomy Social Media Governance extends Autonomy’s market-leading supervision, policy, and compliance platform – used today by the world’s leadto enable businesses to maintain compliance with new regulatory requirements for employees engaging on social media sites.

Iron Mountain Incorporated announced its Mimosa NearPoint™solution is the first email archiving solution to be certified for the Dell™ DX Object Storage Platform. The newly launched Dell DX Object Storage Platform is an integrated hardware and software solution designed to efficiently access, store and distribute billions of files and other digital content. With the NearPoint solution, the unified content management offering will help organizations reduce the costs and risks of managing unstructured data from Microsoft® Exchange®.

ELN / LIMS

Rescentris, Inc. announced iPad and iPhone platform clients to extend mobile use of its award-winning CERF Electronic Laboratory Notebook (ELN). CERF is a scalable, cross-platform software solution that helps life sciences and other R&D organizations migrate away from paper-based recordkeeping to increase efficiency and collaboration.

It’s been a long time since I didn’t have an electronic information device that I carry around in my pocket, not counting calculators. I recall that I bought my first credit card sized Personal Information Manager called the REX in 1998. This marvel could store detailed information about family, friends and business associates, entered by plucking with a stylus. It was possible to synchronize with information from Outlook or Lotus Notes. But that was flaky and often resulted in loss of data. The Palm Pilot appeared shortly thereafter and had apps that enabled one to synchronize reliably with Outlook/Notes as well as other kinds of information from your PC like Microsoft Office documents and PDF files.

The first cell phones that had some PDA capabilities appeared beginning in 1996 with the Nokia 9000 but their capabilities did not come close to those that the Palm had. So I carried the smallest “plain” cell phone available in my pocket along with the Palm. As the cellular networks became more sophisticated, the ability to surf the net became possible. Phones as well as the Palm picked up the capability to connect to a wireless network. I kept my Palm Tungsten until it died a year ago. Why? Mostly because I could sync Quicken financial files with my PC as well as PowerPoint presentations. I can’t do that as well with my Droid phone. The Palm was easier to use and gave me updated files to review after each sync. I think that smart phones will improve, but they are not there yet

The introduction of GPS to the phone opened up a host of apps that not only navigate the road but bring in other information based on where your location is at the time. Nice! Garmin and Tom Tom may soon be a memory.

I also have had an eBook reader since 1998 (Rocket then, Sony now). Can’t carry this in your pocket. Yes you can read stuff on a large screen smart phone, but the eBooks are a much better. It’s like the camera in your phone. Great for quickies, but for good quality pictures, you really need something closer to an SLR.

Back to the point of portable electronic devices making your information management better. In order to make your smart phone more effective as an information resource, there has to be more apps that let you download/download your PC files and view/edit them. More of these are starting to appear in the last few months. The whole idea when you are away from your PC is to whip out your smart phone to review things you are currently working on. If you not away from your PC for very long, this is a moot point.  I should comment about the iPAD device. Tablet PC’s have been around for a long time. In the past they were best suited to replace a clip board in industrial applications. It will not fit in your pocket, so I look at it as an eBook reader that has extended capabilities. It will not replace my 3 pound laptop and is a little glitzier that my Sony eBook reader. I’ll pass on it for now

What’s new?

Records Management / Archiving
Gartner, Inc. has recognized EMC with a positive rating in its report entitled “MarketScope for E-Discovery Software Product Vendors.” EMC strengthened its position as a leader in the e-discovery and e-disclosure markets with the release of EMC SourceOne and its acquisition of Kazeon, a leading e-discovery vendor.

EMC Corporation announced that Documentum Records Manager6.5 has achieved Department of Defense (DoD) 5015.2-STD version 3 certification for both standard and classified records. In addition, EMC has extended the certification beyond electronic records management through the pairing of Records Manager with EMC SourceOne Email Management and EMC Centera content addressed storage system to provide customers with a certified e-mail records management solution.

ELN / LIMS
ArtusLabs, Inc. announced a partnership with the David H. Murdock Research Institute to enable research at the North Carolina Research Campus (NCRC). DHMRI’s partnership with ArtusLabs focuses on the use of the Ensemble Electronic Lab Notebook™ (E2LN™) platform.

Patent filed for ELECTRONIC VOICE-ENABLED LABORATORY NOTEBOOK
WO 2008151144 20081211
Inventors: Joseph Fanelli, San Diego, CA; Samuel Beckey, San Diego, CA; Lane Walters, Raleigh, NC.

Infosys Technologies Limited announced that it will design and implement the Research Informatics System (RISe) at Elan Pharmaceuticals, Inc, to accelerate discovery research using a path-breaking co-creation engagement model that leverages Infosys’ existing intellectual property in this field.

Charlie Sodano, PhD

Founder – eOrganizedWorld
Phone: (925) 229-1688
Cell: (925) 231-5909
email: charlie.sodano@eorganizedworld.com
www.eorganizedworld.com

The other thing I liked about Richard’s post was the last three paragraphs, which echo some thoughts that have appeared on this site:

Learning how to tell better stories, not just write good narratives, is something all researchers should learn how to do. But, whereas there is a real premium put on writing good papers, there is little pressure to speak well before a group.

That is why the best places to be at scientific conferences is usually not at the presentations but at the bars and pubs frequented by the conference goers. We get the real story there because every human being knows how to trade stories with others, even when the group is just a bunch of researchers.

Now if we could just get more researchers to adopt this approach to their public speaking trips, we might affect some real change.

In addition to the Blogroll, there is a link on the Information Resources page (in the LIMS section) to the Aggregated LIMS Blogs, Articles, News & Events page provided by LIMSfinder.com.

The Industry News page on TheIntegratedLab.com contains Google News feeds on laboratory integration topics.

Take a look at these blogs; I know the authors will welcome your visits and feedback, and please let me know if any other relevant blogs that should appear here.

As an extension to this, and slightly away from the laboratory, I’ve just finished reading Bad Science by Ben Goldacre; actually, it’s the second time I’ve read it.  Ben Goldacre is a writer, broadcaster and doctor, known for his Bad Science column in the Guardian newspaper which is presented as a  weblog.  The book attacks the misuse of science, primarily in the field of medicine and nutrition.  If you work for a pharmaceutical company, it could make for some uncomfortable reading, but the underlying principles of data-based decision making and risk management will be appreciated by any scientist who has squirmed at some of the nonsense that is fed to the public at large.  And it is very funny……

The definitive study of technology adoption is the book, ‘The Diffusion of Innovations’, by Everett Rogers , originally published in 1962.  In the book Rogers presents a distribution model as follows:

• Innovators 2 – 3 %    Technology Enthusiasts: want to be first to try new technology; want one of everything.
• Early Adopters 10%    Visionaries: able to align technology with strategic opportunities; willing to take risks; horizontally oriented.
• Early Majority 36%    Pragmatists: cautious with risk and money; loyal; vertically oriented.
• Late Majority 36%    Conservatives: opposed to discontinuous innovation; believe in tradition rather than progress.
• Laggards 15%    Sceptics:  negative attitude towards technology; identify discrepancies between what’s promised and what’s delivered.

This study formed the basis of the proposal by G.A. Moore in his book ‘Crossing The Chasm’. Moore identified a gap, or ‘Chasm’ between the early adopters and the mainstream market.

The categories to the left of the Chasm represent a relatively easy market.  Targeting them initially in the roll-out of a project is important, but the next phase of the marketing strategy must get the buy-in from the conservative and pragmatic majority.  The early adopters can play a central role in this.  They have a pivotal role not only in articulating the rationale for the project, but also in providing training and on-going support to the conservative and pragmatic majority.  In this way, help and support is immediately to hand.  Identifying the early adopters is quite straightforward; they are typically the people in the lab everyone turns to when they have a computer-related problem.  Almost by default, they have the respect and authority that is necessary to heighten the chances of success of the project.

Moore’s book describes offers a really good approach to technology adoption, and the distribution curve is regularly featured in presentations about systems’ deployment.