Document Management / Knowledge Management in Small Departments with Limited Funds

I have been so focused on document sharing (including: text, audio, video, etc) over the last 5 or so years, I've forgotten how difficult enterprise-type document management can be.

There are no lack of resources for document sharing (even the text kind). Scribd is one of the best. However, when it comes to a product that stores (all sorts of files), organizes (both keywords and indexed search), keep version histories, and provides a closed, shared workspace for group collaboration is a tough find. Oh yeah, did I mention that I can't afford enterprise licensing for a small English language education department? The options are truly limited and frustrating in this case.

I don't see that the larger, opensource Content Management Systems (CMSs) do this. Drupal, Joomla, and the like are focused on structured organization of content, but not large scale document repositories. If I'm wrong, please comment below. I'd appreciate the help.

Then I started looking toward knowledge management (KM) systems. There are essentially two kinds: (1) is post-centric and (2) document-centric. I'm looking for the latter and it wasn't easy. Post-centric could really be done in any CMS, but document-centric views are hard to come by. In this area, I'm going to try KnowledgeTree. It's paired-down community build is free and looks pretty good. Of course, the coolest features are enterprise and expensive :) It looks like it has everything that I need as well as much that I don't (document routing, check-in/check-out, etc).

Another service, Alfresco Share (http://www.alfresco.com), is an opensource project (with commercial supported version) that does a pretty good job with documents. It is not necessarily a KM application, but rather a online collaborative workspace. Unfortunately, I think that it's overly difficult, which may be it's kiss of death. IU isn't very good; therefore, it times a long time to learn and a longer time to internalize the functionalities. It took me forever to find a document in a folder of less than 30 files. All I wanted to do was to find the most recent and there was no easy way to do it (fail). However, I've since learned to search for them, which makes it much easier.

Really, and I'll be struck dead for this by Microsoft-haters, MS SharePoint is the best I've seen for this. It is really document-centric, which is exactly what I need for this project. It's free, too (if enterprise is already using Server 2003 or beyond). Problem is that few people know how to administer it and I don't think that anybody in my current organization will do take on that chore. The drawbacks? It's Microsoft and all that entails. It can be overly difficult to accomplish tasks, user management is difficult (and somewhat locked down), and it can be really slow. Oh, yeah. And it requires Internet Explorer for full functionality. Again, I'd love to hear other opinions on SharePoint. My experience with it was over 4 years ago and things tend to change quickly.

Is college worth it?

Is college worth it? -- chicagotribune.com

This is a great article in that it brings home something that many educators have been saying for years, "Why go to college"?

This isn't to say, at the article also states, that there aren't great reasons to go to college, including broadening horizons, meeting people from diverse backgrounds, and a little something called education. However, the return on investment isn't what it once was. They often cite salaries of people who go into business-related fields, but not those in social services. Those in business are easily making $50,000+ relatively soon after graduate. They will pay off their debts. Those other professions, though, make much less and will likely need to get advanced degrees to bridge the gap even slightly.

We need students to begin making these calculations on their own. Return on investment isn't just about money, but to be in debt for 20 years is a terrible existence. This is beginning to drive lower-cost alternatives and will change the educational landscape over the next decade (yes, that soon).

As I near the end of my formal education (I swear I'm done after this phd), I have to say that it's been pretty good to me. I'm comfortable, I'm saving a little money, and I have a generally rosy outlook on life. In order to get this, though, I've had to go through years of graduate studies that was bartered with office and teaching work at the universities I attended.

I wish someone had sat me down when I was 17 and laid this out for me. I can't say that I would have done anything differently (I just wanted to party after high school and college was the best place to do it), but it might have saved me (more so my parents) a little money by making different decisions. By the time my own son is preparing for post K-12 life, I don't even think this will be an issue. It will be part of a well-worn system by then. At least I hope so. Having 2 of "the talks" is just too much.