In today’s world, working with data is a must. Knowing where that data is stored and how to access and share it, however, is where most of us meet challenges on a daily operational basis.

That’s where all of the different “players” for storing knowledge come in: wikis, learning management systems, content management systems, email, Google Docs, etc.  Many organizations use multiple systems for storing and sharing content, but many operational units need access to this data. So, how to make the systems “play nicely” together so different units can have their data but share it and access it too?

I highly recommend reading up on the proposed CMIS (Content Management Interoperability Services) standard. It’s not new (2008), but is now more important than ever in our mobile digital world. Check out the free whitepaper on the topic by EMC2: http://info.emc.com/mk/get/16292_LAND_RL?CMP=KNC-Google. You can also learn more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Content_Management_Interoperability_Services. OASIS approved the standard in May of 2010 and it’s posted on their site here: http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/tc_home.php?wg_abbrev=cmis

Of note, Alfresco uses this standard.