Another 2 1/2 Minutes of ALMIS History

3/25/2009:  The video delivery system on Intelink is not working, so the video above will not play.  I will fix link as soon as I can.  Until then, you can find the video here or by clicking on the image below.

If I just shut up and told you to watch the video above, you could see it twice in the five minutes I ask for each day.  You can play it by clicking on the triangle in the center.

But that’s not like me.  Let me take a few minutes to set this up, and then you’ll only have time to watch it once.

I used this video back in December of 2001 for a 2 1/2 minute brief for the Commandant.  The audio was added afterward, but I used the same script I’d memorized for that day.

That functionality was just the beginning of what ALMIS evolved into over the next 7 years, but it was enough to spark some real enthusiasm for having an easy to use application that gave total visibility for all who needed it.

As we incrementally rolled out what we called the Decision Support System, a set of reporting and online analytical processing (OLAP) tools, we started by showing people data they needed to to do their jobs or to make better decisions.  Until we have something new to show people with CG-LIMS, it is going to be challenging to start getting the support we fought for one person at a time with ALMIS. With ALMIS, we were able to make it real for people early in the process. We were able to quickly get tools to the field they could use. That’s going to be a challenge, now more than ever as a major acquisition project, but we’ve got to keep working on it.

I also share it with you to give you a sense of the responsiveness and simple user interface.  Many more functions were added to ALMIS since 2001, but the basic user interface of the Electronic Aircraft (now Asset) Logbook remained constant.

You might look at it and think “gosh, that looks really dated,” but I’d caution you that we were constrained then, as we are now, with being compliant with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act.  That constraint, plus our focus on maintainability, led us to make many design tradeoffs that we’ll find ourselves making with CG-LIMS.

I also wanted to experiment with using the WordPress and iVideo tools at Intelink-U to distribute screencasts.  As we move forward, this may be a useful medium to use as an internal marketing channel.