Nice article on creating standards based semantically correct html: Semantics, HTML, XHTML, and Structure.

This Fast Company article discusses how some big and small companies are using blogs for knowledge management, information dissemination, and project managment. I’ve been playing around with blogs for a few months now internally at my company and with a couple of clients. My vote is still not in on whether a blog can do a better job then a dedicated project managemet application. And as for knowledge management, well, the term itself tends to mean a lot of different things to different people. I suppose it can fill that role somewhat but I think a blog would have difficulty on a medium to large scale, as well as over an extended period of time. For a short-term, finite knowledge-base, maybe it would work. I’ve setup a blog at my office to manage information about blogs and other social software in corporate environments. I’ll see how well it handles this.

Fast Company | Professionals, Publishing for the Public provides among other things some information on the difference between using blogs and online forums and message boards.

The Corporate Weblog Manifesto Provides 20 rules for would-be corporate bloggers.

VH1 promotes a show. Article discusses how VH-1 setup a blog for internal idea generation leading up to launch of a show and then made the blog public where it continued to have a wide appeal. This would be useful for a client of mine that is launching a new tv series.

Defining Projects is one of many great tips and ideas for personal project management from the David Allen Company website.

I’m STILL trying to figure out what the correct definition of a task is. Is it a single, actionable item such as making a phone call or sending an email? If so, what happens when you create sub-tasks? Does the parent task immediately become a Project?

The David Allen Company - Projects provides a detailed description on what a project is and how it differs from a task or action step. David Allen defines a project as any outcome you are committed to complete that requires more than one action step. He goes on to say that you can’t “do” a project, you can only do action steps.

Objectives/goals are separated out from projects by making the distinction that a project can usually be completed within a few months whereas an objective would be the kind of thing you would usually find on yearly goals. A sample objective is “Increase profitability of XYZ product line.” This objective would then have one or more projects to help achieve the objective/goal.

Sub-projects are touched upon as well with the example project “Reorganize Marketing Division” having subprojects of - Engage outside consulting firm - Complete internal HR survey - Hire new division head. Something particulary smart that he mentions is to “Create a game you can win.” Define the project as something that can really be completed, no matter what anyone else does. For instance, he says not to make a project “Sell Acme Brick the program,” because Acme Brick may decide not to sign. The project is better defined as, “Finalize Acme Brick proposal”.

Another point he makes is to always start project titles with an appropriate verb that clarifies the nature of the work. He provides some sample verbs: Finalize… Implement… Install… Look into… Resolve… Handle… Clarify… Submit… Maximize… Organize… Reorganize… Publish… Ensure… Design… Compelte… Update… Roll out… Set up…

a klog apart has a nice little post on some of the positive aspects of blogging and its differentiation from other forms of posting content including websites and wikis.

My task management system has a problem. It only allows you to create tasks. The problem that I am running into with this is that many of the things I need to represent are bigger than what I consider to be a task. Many of them are projects. And I’m still not sure how to label tasks that lie somewhere in between a project and a task. For example, when I first define a task and then determine that it is actually made up of a few sub-tasks. Is the parent still a task or is it now a sub-project of the parent project? Should a task be indivisible???