tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18039313949168419452012-01-31T16:03:50.023-05:00Discussion of current and upcoming information and communication technologies (ICTs) and their applications for end-users as well as organizations. Special focus on challenges and opportunities in the areas of Online Communities; Web Engineering ; Web 2.0 Technologies; Web Services; Social Media; Enterprise 2.0, and Business Intelligence.Umar Ruhihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01715477691856991554noreply@blogger.comBlogger221100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1803931394916841945.post-17865261353708448342011-12-09T18:07:00.012-05:002011-12-09T18:21:39.775-05:00

In the newly introduced (Thursday, Dec. 8th, 2011) online interface for Twitter, there an interesting feature that facilitates easier embedding of tweets into other online websites and blogs. The idea is pretty similar to embedding YouTube videos through HTML snippets that can be copied and pasted into a third-party website.  I had to initially look around for the embed options... they're

Umar Ruhihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01715477691856991554noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1803931394916841945.post-84476447932091344322011-12-06T19:19:00.007-05:002011-12-06T21:20:52.031-05:00

Note: The slides for my talk are available here (PDF format with annotations). To view the annotations, you'll need to download the file to your computer (your browser PDF plugin may not render the comment annotations). I recently gave a talk on the use of social media in academia. Most of the audience comprised colleagues from various faculties across the University of Ottawa and their extent

Umar Ruhihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01715477691856991554noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1803931394916841945.post-63623334085005664922011-10-07T13:18:00.004-04:002011-10-07T15:51:00.233-04:00

Ever feel the need for a project management tool that would help you manage other project management tools you’re currently using? I know the feeling all too well. Whether it’s a software development project where you’re allocating tasks, managing revisions, tracking milestones & deliverables, or a collaborative publication project where you’re using wikis, emails, and to-do-lists, things get

Umar Ruhihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01715477691856991554noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1803931394916841945.post-45701316516595965952011-09-01T14:10:00.004-04:002011-12-01T14:52:15.910-05:00

I started a bookmarks list for Business Analytics: http://www.diigo.com/list/informatician/business-analytics Prominent themes that I've caught up on this month include maturity models for business analytics, real-time business intelligence, and collaborative decision making. Tag Cloud for Business Analytics Digest (August 2011)

Umar Ruhihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01715477691856991554noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1803931394916841945.post-23421673968325708942011-09-01T08:45:00.001-04:002011-12-01T14:53:08.650-05:00

I created a bookmarks list for Social Media & Enterprise 2.0: http://www.diigo.com/list/informatician/social-media Prominent themes that I've caught up on this month include best practices, adoption frameworks, technology and strategy roadmaps for various types of social media and enterprise 2.0 initiatives. Tag Cloud for Social Media & Enterprise 2.0 Digest (August 2011)

Umar Ruhihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01715477691856991554noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1803931394916841945.post-82730936900513162632011-08-29T15:22:00.005-04:002011-09-15T15:21:04.416-04:00

I attempted to use Storify to compile some tweets about JCrew's stores launch in Canada and the backlash from its customers about the higher prices in Canada. Here is the "Story" <a href="http://storify.com/informatician/jcrew-stores-in-canada" target="_blank">View "JCrew, Canada & Social Media" on Storify</a>

Umar Ruhihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01715477691856991554noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1803931394916841945.post-25802671943650695722011-06-21T23:04:00.002-04:002011-06-21T23:07:24.227-04:00

In what may be the biggest development concerning Internet address spaces to date, this week, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) announced its plans to approve new top-level domains (TLDs) to expand the current set of domain suffixes like .com, .net, .org, as well as country code suffixes (such as .ca .us .uk). A request can be made for any custom suffix that you

Umar Ruhihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01715477691856991554noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1803931394916841945.post-57987822005112030442011-05-29T13:42:00.003-04:002012-01-31T16:03:50.033-05:00

While business use of social media has flourished over the past few years, there still is a hesitation on the part of many small and medium sized organizations in adopting enterprise 2.0 tools. I usually get asked about my recommendations for such firms who are interested in getting started with enterprise 2.0 but don’t know where to begin. Based on a recent conversation with a CIO of a medium

Umar Ruhihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01715477691856991554noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1803931394916841945.post-14003597885180502952011-03-04T19:20:00.003-05:002011-12-01T09:47:55.786-05:00

Over the past three months, I’ve started using Twitter a little more regularly than I used to. It’s grown on me and I’ve figured out the use-cases that fit my objectives as an academic. While upping the frequency of my tweets, I’ve also developed some familiarity with the conventions and terminology used on twitter. In this post, I’m summarizing these conventions and terminology. Hopefully, you’

Umar Ruhihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01715477691856991554noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1803931394916841945.post-26331405783721518672009-12-16T14:21:00.002-05:002010-03-24T13:52:58.324-04:00

Continuing my series of blog posts on Mashups, here is the next installment... this time, I've decided to create a screencast providing an overview of Tarpipe and a tutorial demonstrating the creation of a fairly simple mashup that uses an email message to trigger a workflow that links Flickr and Twitter. Let me know what you think... *Update: I just re-did the screencast using Camtasia (

Umar Ruhihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01715477691856991554noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1803931394916841945.post-7599649309376130392009-04-14T00:10:00.016-04:002009-04-24T23:11:05.718-04:00

“Global Recession” happens to be the most daunting of words these days, and online e-commerce sales are taking a hit as a result of the current economic crisis, but perhaps it’s true that With Crisis Comes Opportunity. The online business model of Ztail may indeed be emblematic of such an opportunity, and on the outset, my preliminary review of the site’s offering indicates that it may be a

Umar Ruhihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01715477691856991554noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1803931394916841945.post-47211210501529257802009-03-28T12:03:00.008-04:002009-04-26T00:30:11.826-04:00

I often get asked by my students about my favorite search engines, my favorite help sites, my favorite e-commerce information pages etc. - so, I thought this might be an opportunity to share my bookmarks with not only my students – but the world at large.In searching for a good bookmarking service, I came across Speedtile.net – a visual bookmarking service which is just freaking awesome! and with

Umar Ruhihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01715477691856991554noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1803931394916841945.post-51909461883759584842009-03-24T19:35:00.017-04:002009-04-25T00:01:10.922-04:00

Like many other people I know, I’ve been waiting anxiously for Google Street View to be launched in Canada. It seems that Google has had some difficulty in complying with the federal privacy legislation in Canada, and that’s the primary reason why the service hasn’t made it here just yet.The main issue here is the high-resolution personal images and other identifiable information (e.g. car

Umar Ruhihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01715477691856991554noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1803931394916841945.post-21295305770604887342009-03-18T14:22:00.004-04:002009-03-21T15:47:55.517-04:00

It seems like B-School are being bashed left right and center this past week, and MBA programs are being blamed for the current financial mess that we’re in. I’ve also read various opinion editorial pieces and heard interviews of faculty members who have commented on the role business schools have played directlyor indirectly in leading to the current financial mess. Notably, the academics who’re

Umar Ruhihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01715477691856991554noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1803931394916841945.post-43223831504647857922009-03-13T12:27:00.010-04:002009-03-13T12:47:49.737-04:00

I recently offered a graduate seminar course on Mobile Commerce at the University of Ottawa, and it was pretty surprising to see how many mobile end-users still don’t use third party applications and services that exist outside the realm of their service provider’s portfolio. This end-user behavior is highly representative of the Canadian mobile services landscape where our industry structure is

Umar Ruhihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01715477691856991554noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1803931394916841945.post-36187044208428549842009-03-12T15:27:00.013-04:002009-03-13T11:02:10.286-04:00

There’s no denying that traditional print newspapers are slowly becoming a thing of the past – but a “new” initiative by the MediaNews Group, the fourth-largest newspaper chain in the U.S., seems all primed to take us even more into the past… say around 1939.According to a recent article in the NY Times, the MediaNews Group is planning to test market its new idea of having household readers print

Umar Ruhihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01715477691856991554noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1803931394916841945.post-89094056665592242452009-02-03T08:05:00.003-05:002009-03-09T10:53:33.284-04:00

Recently I had the opportunity to write a book review on Academici for a new book titled "Enterprise 2.0". I thought I just as well post the review here too. The original review appears here: http://www.academici.com/blog.aspx?bid=5676CITATIONCook, N. (2008). Enterprise 2.0: How Social Software Will Change the Future of Work. Hampshire, England: Gower Publishing Limited. DETAILSAuthor: Niall Cook

Umar Ruhihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01715477691856991554noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1803931394916841945.post-6738698389146248442008-12-29T15:00:00.001-05:002010-03-24T13:49:45.034-04:00

This is the third installment in my series of tutorials on building mashups using tools such as dapper for data mapping, and yahoo! pipes for data processing.

Umar Ruhihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01715477691856991554noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1803931394916841945.post-64475791980402126032008-12-14T10:56:00.007-05:002010-03-24T00:37:46.677-04:00

Update: The Popfly site was discontinued in August 2009, and this article is only been keep for archival purposes. This blog post follows from a previous one where I experimented and mulled over the functions provided by the content mapping and mashup functionality provided by Dapper. In my first trial run, I created a mashup for an online discussion forum in which I participate on a regular

Umar Ruhihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01715477691856991554noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1803931394916841945.post-37846801665982521192008-12-10T01:28:00.007-05:002009-03-08T01:53:13.465-05:00

This is the first blog post in what I plan to be a series of posts to share my experiences with various mashup building applications online.Over the last couple of days, I’ve been playing with the data mapping and mashup functionality provided by Dapper. Overall, my experience has been rather pleasant, and I would definitely suggest the service to someone who’s just getting started with mashups.

Umar Ruhihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01715477691856991554noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1803931394916841945.post-21897002113687489372008-09-19T18:28:00.001-04:002009-03-07T18:38:51.074-05:00

So I take it that many of you have now heard that Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin's Yahoo! email account was broken into a couple of days ago. I’ve now read through a few news stories and also gone over the actual chronology of the incident by reading the online post of the person who has claimed responsibility. The guy claiming responsibility posted his story on an online

Umar Ruhihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01715477691856991554noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1803931394916841945.post-7987158983258297682008-09-07T20:00:00.013-04:002009-03-09T10:28:39.131-04:00

Key Definitions:Informatician: someone who practices informaticsInformatics: the art, science and human dimensions of information technology ; the interdisciplinary study of the design, application, use and impact of information technologySubject Matter of the Blog:My intention in starting this blog is to discuss and learn about current and upcoming information and communication technologies

Umar Ruhihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01715477691856991554noreply@blogger.com0