IT Value Stack

Wild West Web

The web has made the world a smaller place. As Jonathan suggests it can mobilise individuals into doing collective good. Sun was certainly at the centre of the internet revolution. As far as I am aware it was the first to consider the concept of the network of things, which will likely change the game even more radically.

The problem is that the internet is also a tool for the bad guys, school-centric cyber bullies through to money siphoning crackers. I feel we have created an eco system without setting the rules and have thus lost control of it.  Eg. Is copyrighted content on YouTube something that they should be responsible for? There are many people who judge web content authenticity on the quality of the page layout. If the page looks authoritative then the content is true.

WWW might as well stand for the Wild West Web.

As always the associated chaos provides opportunity for both good and bad exploitation. My concern is that the 'dark side' will gain the most traction causing the rest of us to abandon the web.

I know policing is not in the spirit of the web, but possibly some mechanism is required, maybe under the auspices of the United Nations. Failing that I am sure it will just be a matter of time before cyber vigilantes fill the cyber law void.

Sorry for seemingly raining on your parade. I am just trying to flag how the web has provided us with a parallel universe (Second Life?) that scales up the good, but also the bad. We need some cyber leadership.

A Law Against Word Pollution?

When Seth Godin points out that people can get "hung up on catch phrases and jargon that work great when everyone understands what we mean, but fail to bring understanding to outsiders. Yelling louder isn't always the answer. Changing your words might work better." I think of technobabble.

The story in his post sounds like a typical conversation between technologists and users. It is natural for the marketing departments of tech companies to create new jargon.

Perhaps a law is needed to restrain such companies from what is in effect word pollution? Words need to be carefully introduced once they have been reviewed by national (eg IEEE) and international committees (ISO) made up of users, technologists and vendors. It might slow down the spurious tech themes that are designed to relieve tech-vulnerable executives from their funds.

Selling Security

Bruce Schneier makes some interesting points in his CIO piece How to Sell Security. 

Selling security solutions is a little like selling fridge lights in that the user value doesn't really come from the item purchased. Thus those selling infrastructure, whether it be security software or router hardware need to bundle it up in something that is intrinsically useful to the buyer. Why security firms bother with marketing and direct sales is a mystery to me. They need to focus their attention on channel relationships with value adding resellers.

But security bundled into a technology solution is not enough. Security is largely about users and not technology. The value adding vendors need to offer a security framework that embraces policy if they are truly interested in meeting the needs of the customer. Not easy to deliver, but not impossible.

Noise on the Web

There is a lot of noise out there on the web. But one man's noise is another man's signal. Generation Y types know how to filter the noise. The rest of us having come from an information scarcity background. Remember the days when we use to file periodicals for future reference? Filtering what you need to know from what looks interesting is critical if we are to avoid drowning in content.

This presents a great opportunity for super niche information aggregators that identify communities that are willing to pay for high signal to noise content.

My Mind-Meld with Chuck Hollis

The latest issue of EMC's On Magazine has a "mind-meld" with Chuck Hollis (EMC's most popular blogger) and me on where IT is today and what it might look like in the future.

Take a look at page 18 in this issue of On Magazine (PDF, 2865 KB).

Mist Computing?

Nick Carr notes:

The metaphor of "the cloud" is a seductive one, but it's also dangerous. It not only suggests that our new utility-computing system is detached from the physical (and political) realities of our planet, but it also lends to that system an empyrean glow. The metaphor sustains and extends the old idealistic belief in "cyberspace" as a separate, more perfect realm in which the boundaries and constraints of the real world are erased.

Bill Thompson raises a warning flag:

Behind all the rhetoric and promotional guff the "cloud" is no such thing: every piece of data is stored on a physical hard drive or in solid state memory, every instruction is processed by a physical computer and every network interaction connects two locations in the real world ... In the real world national borders, commercial rivalries and political imperatives all come into play, turning the cloud into a miasma as heavy with menace as the fog over the Grimpen Mire that concealed the Hound of the Baskervilles in Arthur Conan Doyle's story.

Now there's a metaphor. I'm guessing, though, that the marketers aren't going to allow "miasma computing" into our vocabulary. It's kind of a downer.

Whilst Miasma Computing has a certain high tech marketing-friendly feel to it, I agree that it is unlikely to stick. Cloud computing has an innocence about it that as suggested could lull people into a false sense of security. Given the opaqueness of what is processed where, plus the dark figures that loom in the shadows (school-centric cyber bullies through to money siphoning crackers), I suggest Mist computing.

IBM's 2008 Global CEO Study

IBM's 2008 Global CEO Study has thrown up some interesting themes. Innovation ranks highly as does talented people and technologies that can disrupt business models. The market turbulence is causing many to segue into a cost-focussed mindset.

This study suggests that such a move would be unwise. In fact successful organisations going forward will be those that have a boardroom ready CIO who is focused on innovation and has the skills and charisma to attract and retain short-supply tech talent.

See Irving Wladawsky-Berger's post on the report for more analysis.

Hidden Costs in IT

It is interesting that organisations are willing to support treatments that keep staff in work (eg. flu jabs) but not in those that have no impact on absenteeism (eg hay fever). 

The Harvard Business School Publishing post Hay Fever and the Hidden Corporate Health Care Crisis  highlights that the costs of (what it refers to as) presenteeism are significant because of the associated poor productivity. In fact they are circa ten times the cost of absenteeism. A sobering thought.

Similarly the seemingly minor illness of technology jargon that afflicts many technologists when discussing IT issues with users is another minor ailment that is surely costing organisations inordinate sums. Investment in anti-histamine and anti-tech jargon treatments would appear to be the way forward.

The Pain of IT

Seth Godin writes that "The closer you are to the point of need, the more you can charge. Pizza at the airport costs five times more than pizza on the way to the airport..."

Interesting observation. The IT department could learn from this. Often they are located away from the users, on different floors, buildings, countries and even continents.

IT needs to get in there alongside the users. That is where the pain is. And that is where IT can deliver the most value.

From the Industrial Age to the Information Age

Doc Searles at Harvard Law writes:

"I’ve long believed that the crossover from the Industrial Age to the Information Age will be marked by an awakening to the need by customers to control their own selves, rather than to remain subordinated to the controlling interests of companies. Same thing with citizens and governments..." (see the complete post)

I agree. The time has come for customers, staff and citizens to break their shackles.

Social networking paves the way. Some companies are trying to exert control via their firewalls. The upcoming generation of mobile interfaces will circumvent that. Smart companies and governments will learn how to play the new game despite the odds not being less heavily stacked in their favour.

The rules of employment and leadership/followership are about to take a step change.