Here is some open source software that you can use for your program:

• Open WorkBench (used by over 100,000 PMs) – this is free project management software… but you’d never guess it was free
• Google Apps – This is Google’s counter to Microsoft Office. I love this because it makes sharing super easy, and you always have access to your documents, no matter what computer you are on.
• Twiki - This is a wiki designed for enterprise use. A wiki is an incredibly powerful way to share knowledge in your organization.
• Hopefully one day I can add a data quality and profiling tool here, as well as a good meta-data repository

I hope you’ve learned a little bit about the Open Source movement. I’m a big believer and supporter in this methodology. If you are new to it, give Firefox a try, I bet you won’t go back to Internet Explorer!

• Web 2.0 on Wikipedia
• Web 2.0 defined on O’Reilly

Web 2.0 sites that you’d recognize are:

• Flickr
• YouTube
• Wikipedia
• WordPress (blogging platform, which this blog uses)

The reason I’m posting on web 2.0 is because the value of its principles and technologies can really improve projects and programs at your organization. I’ve talked about how it would really be great to incorporate your metadata into a wiki so that it would be easier to keep up to date, and I also think the the portal and collaboration tools would help with keeping people involved (instead of just a once a week meeting).

In addition, I imagine you won’t be surprised to learn that I have a Data Governance blog on the intranet for our organization. This keeps council members up to date with the day-to-day activities of the Data Gov Office. The feedback from that has been great.


I encourage you to think over the next week or two how you can use your intranet and collaboration technologies, such as Sharepoint, to really turbo charge your Data Governance Program.

You want your intranet site to be updated often with news, minutes, updates, and other relevant and timely information. If you keep your site up-to-date, you can ensure that your audience will return often to stay in-the-loop.

You probably already know I’m a huge fan of the web 2.0 stuff – from wiki’s to blogs and portals, I love all that stuff and think it applies nicely to project management, and especially well for data governance. If you have Sharepoint then you already have many of the tools you need to make it easy to keep your site up to date. A blog is a great idea, and really easy to implement. You don’t need to be wordy or heavy-handed, just a few sentences fairly often to fill people in is perfect.

My intranet site consists of Data Governance:

• Blog
• Meeting Minutes
• Upcoming Meeting Schedules
• Projects in Progress
• Completed Projects
• Our Successes
• Lessons Learned
• Document Repository (link to folder on LAN)

Some of the standout features in my mind were Michele Koch from Sallie Mae, Bonnie O’Neil from Project Performance, and Chris Bradley with Donna Burbank from IPL and Embarcadero (respectively).

Michele talked about her experience in starting the Data Governance Program at Sallie Mae. It was interesting to hear her talk about how the she got involved because some execs wants to fix a few data elements. She figured that was a good prototype to start DG, and once everyone liked the progress they were making, she introduced it as DG and proposed it be an ongoing program. Needless to say, they jumped at the chance because of how successful the prototype was.


Bonnie O’Neil spoke a few times, but the one that I liked most was about integrating web 2.0 into a successful Data Governance program. I must say, this session was unfortunately under-attended – those that didn’t attend really missed out on the value of this. I’m a huge follower and believe in Web 2.0. If you don’t know what that is, it is a set of internet based social ‘tools’ and sites that make sharing and community easier. The tools would include blogs, wikis, and portals.

Think of a Wiki as a book that anyone can edit. If you use Wikipedia, but haven’t followed what its all about, you may be interested to know that ANYONE can edit ANYTHING on wikipedia (just look for the edit button on the bottom). I think wiki’s are a valuable tool for any project or program, and you should really investigate how they might work for your program.


Blogs and portals are another very important tool that you should really consider using. Think about being the first person to start using a new technology at your organization that is soooo good, that every other project begins to do it…. you want to be that guy or girl.

Chris Bradley spoke with Donna about his success with gas giant BP in building the Data Governance Program. BP is a huge company, so they have more like a 10 year plan than a 1-2 year plan, but he’s growing the program by leaps and bounds. He uses Embarcadero’s E/R Studio and was showing some of the cool things that his team has done with it, including linking a wiki to the meta-data so that the business can update the meta-data themselves (how cool is that?).

Here are a few pics from the trip….