It seems you can't go to a conference these days without seeing a strong focus on the cloud, mobile and social media. They are having a profound impact on technology in general and on content management in particular. Yet people seem to struggle with these concepts and the relationship that exists between the three technologies. 

The cloud in particular seems to confound people, but when you link information in the cloud, it makes it possible to get your content from any device anywhere and that's very powerful for users (if a bit scary for IT). From a content management standpoint, it means that content isn't always on premises or always under your control and you have to find ways to deal with that.

As for mobile, it means supporting a myriad of devices from iPhones, to Android phones, to BlackBerries and many more. It's mind boggling trying to support so many devices and operating systems (and it's one of the reasons Open Text bought weComm this week). In addition to phones, we have tablets. Of course, the iPad has had an enormous impact on computing already and there are many similar devices from other companies already on the market or on their way, creating another level of complexity around screen sizes and operating systems.

Finally social media is the glue holding it all together, allowing us to share and discuss all of this information. Yet social in itself, whether internal in the enterprise or externally on the web generates a whole different set of information and content management problems. Internally, it generates a ton of useful content, which could be used as a de facto knowledge management system, but it requires a way to sift through the noise to find the useful nuggets.

At AIIM/info360 this week, you'll find a number of tracks devoted to these very subjects where you can hear some real-world perspectives and get beyond the hype to find out how you can put these trends to work for your organization. 

Knowledge is truly power and when you understand these concepts, you can use them to your advantage.

For more information, check out these tracks at AIIM/info30:
- Cloud computing
- Mobile content management 
- Enterprise collaboration & social media