Office Document Strategies Blog

WWW For 30 Years

Posted by Lee Kirkby on Wed, Mar 20, 2019 @ 06:03 AM

March 12 2019 was a significant birthday for the current world of communications, promotion, information exchange and research.  It was on this date in 1989 that the World Wide Web was nominally launched and opened to the world.  

Of course in the early years there was limited growth and it was not until the early part of the 1990s that it became available to the general public, although it was starting to be used by academia and some corporate organizations.  Personally I recall the first instances were I was able to access 'the web' by using an account granted through McMaster University and working with a dial up modem over phone lines at speeds around 300 baud.  It was a text based world at that time and you didn't get images or video due to the very low connections speeds.

I migrated to my first personal commercial account through Net Access in 1994 being one of their early customers.  Still access was through pretty slow dial up connections but it could be instant and cover long distances at no additional cost.

Contrast this to the norm for communications in those days with phone, mail and fax being the most dominant forms available.  Before fax became available telex was the key quick communication for governments and larger corporations.  For the public it really was phone and mail which dominated communications.

Two generations now know only the WWW world

As we move from the last part of the second and into the third decade of the twenty first century there are now two full generations who have grown up knowing only the instant world of the World Wide Web and the millions of enhancements it has undergone over its thirty years of existence. 

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Topics: technology tools

From Paper To Digital

Posted by Lee Kirkby on Wed, Jul 4, 2018 @ 07:07 AM

It is over twenty five years ago that our company started to actively work in the field of document management.  In the early days it was called document imaging as the primary technology involved using high speed scanners to scan and capture images of paper documents for long term storage and retrieval. 

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Topics: technology tools, document filing, document storage strategy, Hosted document management, data security, Kyocera Canada, digital filing

Printing Parts For 100 Year Old and One Off Cars | Jay Lenno

Posted by Lee Kirkby on Wed, Feb 21, 2018 @ 08:02 AM

Until the development of 3D Printing when someone talked about printing we all understood it was a two dimensional output, black or coloured toner on a flat piece of paper.  

With the development of 3D printing and its rapid advancement into using many different types of raw product for the printing of three dimensional objects the technology has been pretty revolutionary for all kinds of fields.  One of these is the automobile field, especially for the production of one off parts.

In a recent video I saw produced in Jay Leno's garage a famous place to anyone who has an interest in automobiles he describes how they have used 3D printing to produce parts for cars at the extremes of his collection.  In one case it is product for a 100 year old early generation electric car and in another parts for a special one off concept car that they created.

 

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Topics: technology tools, Printer, digital tools

Tech Trends For 2017

Posted by Lee Kirkby on Wed, Mar 1, 2017 @ 08:03 AM

Each new year brings with it an opportunity to sit back and think about what you are doing and what you might like to do differently in the coming months or years.  This applies to all aspects of a business but never more than to the technology needs which are integral to all businesses.

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Topics: technology tools, cloud computing, network backup, encryption

Technological Change Continues To Alter The World

Posted by Lee Kirkby on Wed, Jan 25, 2017 @ 07:01 AM

At the risk of seeming simplistic it is possible to describe some of the reasons for the latest US Election results and the Brexit vote in the UK as being victims (or successes) of technological change.  Many people who voted did so because they have felt left out of the benefit which a changing society has been bringing forward and sought a shift back to a previous environment.  

Many of the ills that were attacked in the debates during both of these major political events related to the sense of dispossesion that is felt by people who have been affected by shifts in employment patterns which they feel are out of control.

While often the bad guy is classed as globalization the real shift in many instances is the result of significant technology changes as production moves to a more mechanized world through automation and application of newer technologies.

At the latest World Economic Forum meetings in Davos, Switzerland, there were reports given that addressed some of these issues with the impacts of large technology changes as seen as one of the culprits for dispossession.

"Trade is not to blame for job losses." The real problem, according to Kerry, is automation." is one of the quotes attributed to outgoing US Secretary of State, John Kerry.

It appears there was some serious introspection that occurred during the discussions with wide ranging understanding of some of the issues caused by rapid and ongoing technological change while also acknowledging that solutions for dealing with the downsides are not easy to find.  Read through some of the comments and ideas discussed in the link article and you get the feeling that the challenges are going to continue and unrest is not going to go away.

Cyber Security

Another area that was touched was the management of cyber security in organizations and the role that government bodies must take in dealing with these threats.

To help organizations better equip themselves for managing the risks of cyber challenges a new document was released at Davos to help provide guidance and some structure for responses.  Advancing Cyber Resilience Principles and Tools for Boards " the product of an extensive process of co-collaboration and consultation, has distilled leading practice into a framework and set of tools that boards of directors can use to smoothly integrate cyber risk and resilience into business strategy so that their companies can innovate and grow securely and sustainably," as excerpted from its introduction is designed to help organizations grapple with this important challenge.

The Davos conference is billed as a world leadership event designed to permit broad and challenging issues to be discussed by those who can take action to impact them.  

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Topics: technology tools

Wind Power May Have Value Without Subsidy | Microsoft Buy

Posted by Lee Kirkby on Wed, Nov 16, 2016 @ 08:11 AM

Recent announcements about Microsoft contracting for massive amounts of wind generated power to run several of its data centres causes me to think that this kind of  renewable energy just may have a good life without massive government structured subsidies.  

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Topics: technology tools, Canadian Legislation, Environment, Canadian Pricing

3D Printing Is Much More Than We Might Think

Posted by Lee Kirkby on Wed, Nov 9, 2016 @ 08:11 AM

When 3D printing was first talked about what we saw was neat production of small plastic parts that might be used to assembly a toy, a display or some sort of interesting art object. Today this type of use is become pretty mainstream with small 3D printers being introduced for home or office use either for educational benefit or for design display. 

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Topics: technology tools, Printer

Rapid Technology Changes Challenge Government Action

Posted by Lee Kirkby on Wed, Apr 13, 2016 @ 08:04 AM

Everyone knows that we live in a time of rapid technology change.  This is especially true in communication technologies as the mobile revolution has built a whole new way to attack many activities.

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Topics: technology tools, privacy, Canadian Legislation, spam, Canadian IT

Online Sales Compliment Offline Sales

Posted by Lee Kirkby on Wed, Feb 10, 2016 @ 07:02 AM

Canada was predicted to have approximately $26.83 billion in online sales in 2015 representing almost a seventeen percent increase over the previous year.  Of course part of this is fueled by people taking less time to shop, new services being offered by retailers like online grocery purchasing (then pick up on a predetermined time at the store or other location), as provided by Loblaws at their Click and Collect locations and also due to tools for easing returns when products don't match expectations.

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Topics: technology tools, sales, Canadian IT

Office Document Technology Challenges For 2016

Posted by Lee Kirkby on Wed, Jan 6, 2016 @ 08:01 AM

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Topics: technology tools, Document, business processes