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A Blog I Like: Haft of the Spear

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Michael Tanji brings a perspective forged in years of intelligence work and a successful stint protecting information in the financial sector.  He is a well published author who focuses on national security issues and is also a thought leader in the computer security domain.

At Haft of the Spear he writes primarily about technology related/enabled national security issues, which includes a heavy dose of information warfare. 

Read HOTS at: http://haftofthespear.com/

Next week I write about Nicholas Carr and his Rough Type blog.

This entry was posted in Computer Security, Cyber Initiative, Cyber War, Disruptive IT, Great CTOs, Information Warfare, Technology Leadership, Web 2.0, Web Services, Web/Tech, Weblogs and tagged .

Social Media and the National Security Professional

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This is an update of an article I published last August in Social Computing Magazine (a great enterprise Web2.0 site edited by Dion Hinchcliffe).   A key goal of this piece has been to encourage more in the national security world to use capabilities like Facebook, LinkedIn, Blogs, and of course Twitter.  If you know someone you would like to encourage to use these sites please feel free to lift from this.  If you know of other sites or capabilities that deserve this sort of tutorial please let me know.

Another key goal of this paper is to enhance the security of our nation, and my thesis is that by getting more senior thought leaders into these web2.0 capabilities we can do just that. 

Social Media and National Security Professionals

24 January 2009

Bob Gourley

Social
Media is a term used to encompass a wide range of technologies used to
enhance shared meaning among participants.  When properly used, Social
Media capabilities also address the information explosion we are all
experiencing.   Social Media includes weblogs, wikis, email, instant
messaging, tagging and broadcast text. Popular social media services
include such familiar names as AIM, TypePad, Facebook, LinkedIn,
Twitter and Plaxo.

This note captures some tips and techniques for the use of social media focused on national security professionals.

First,
for context and background, let me start with the analogy of
traditional media and it’s still significant contribution to dialog in
the national security space.  Great thinkers with something to say
frequently author an editorial submission to news outlets.  Examples
abound, but as a reference let me point out the thought provoking piece
by Mark Lowenthal in the 25 May 2008 Washington Post titled “The Real Intelligence Failure? Spineless Spies.” 
Here one of the more elegant writers in the intelligence community laid
out his personal views and made a contribution to the dialog on the
intelligence community.   This type of article is of value in helping
us collectively think through some key issues.  The article also
underscores that the explosion of social media does not eliminate the
need and value for authoritative voices.

Now let’s discuss how new media helps the dialog.

With
new media, you do not have to be one of the leaders of the national
security domain to publish your thoughts.  You can establish your own
blog.  There are many services that do this. The most popular ones are Moveable Type and TypePad.  I like them both and have used both.  If you are just starting out I recommend you sign up with TypePad.  You can have a blog up in minutes, and with a little more time
you can have your own domain and a blog configured with your own
design.  Having a blog does not mean you are automatically an expert,
but when you have something to say you will have a path to say it.

Part
of the power of new media is that capabilities like blogs give more
people an ability to inject ideas into the dialog, and in many national
security issues more brains with more ideas can be a significant
enhancement to the dialog.  But new media gives even more benefits. 
New media gives others an ability to discover and comment on your
thoughts.  For example, blogs all come with rich commenting and
moderating features so others can share thoughts and endorse, critique,
or add to your original post.  This provides a way to highlight good
ideas from social media.

New media is also known for speed.  The
instant your thought is published you can have it provided to others
via RSS feeds, by e-mail push, and by alerts to Twitter, a micro
blogging site which is also being used by a growing number of national
security professionals.

To see how Twitter works, visit my site at http://www.twitter.com/bobgourley
.  You will see a series of small posts made by me.  Some were
automatically created when I posted to my blog.  Others were either
sent in from my cell phone while I’m on the road or from my computer at
home.    If you desire to “follow” me on twitter all you have to do is
sign up for a Twitter account and click the “follow” button.  Then you
can read those micro posts whenever they are made.  You can also find
other national security professionals to follow on Twitter, and they
will be able to find you as well. For example, from my page, look for
the graphic that shows Lewis Shepherd and click on his head.  You will
see his Twitter site. Or if you don’t remember what Lewis looks like
can click on the list of people I follow and find him there.  
Following feeds like this will keep you informed of key meetings,
conferences and events and of course blog posts.   Producing your own
Twitter feed will provide you with a way to contribute to the dialog.

Another tool of increasing use by people in this discipline is LinkedIn.  This is a site that lets users add a bio or resume and then helps
them manage their social network.  LinkedIn lets you connect to others
on the site who you know.  You can help out people you know who might
need to meet someone you know and vice versa. This site is very helpful
in learning a bit more about people before you meet with them and in
staying in touch with people when they change positions. LinkedIn also provides simple ways to communicate with others, either all at once or direct person to person and I frequently hear from other CTOs via this path.  How do you
get started with LinkedIn?  Sign up for an account, fill in as much of
your bio as you are comfortable sharing, and follow the instructions to
find people you already know and connect with them. 

A site with a different but somewhat related functionality is Plaxo
and I also recommend you create an account there.  Plaxo specializes in
contact management.  You can keep your entire address book there. 
You can also synchronize Plaxo and LinkedIn so if one of your contacts
changes their information in LinkedIn it will update Plaxo.
Additionally, you can have your blog and your Twitter feed
automatically update Plaxo (many readers in the national security space
prefer to read blogs via Plaxo).   The way to get started here is to
log into Plaxo, create an account and upload your address book to it by
following your instructions.  Is that safe?  It is at least as safe as
having your address book on your own computer.  I’ve never had any
problems doing that.

Another key social media site is Facebook. 
A growing number of national security experts are using Facebook to
stay in touch with friends and associates.   It is also a good method
for communicating. You can send private messages to Facebook users and
can also send open messages to them by writing on their “wall”.  You
can configure Facebook to display your latest blog posts and twitter
feeds.   You can join up with Facebook from their site, and then
Facebook’s “friend finder” will help you find the right people to
connect to.

Now let’s continue our discussion on the article Mark
Lowenthal published.  In this case, if you had an opinion on his
content you could post a note at the Washington Post website, and I
noticed many did.  Because the Post is an old media powerhouse they
seem to publish most comments, which has the benefit of letting you see
a spectrum of thoughts.   You can also post comments in your own
blog.   I published my thoughts on Mark’s piece here. 
My blog automatically sent word to Twitter, Facebook and Plaxo when I
did.  It also automatically pinged some key blog search engines so they
could access my content.  Another friend of mine in the community
posted his views on his blog.  Other friends on Twitter began dialog
with me via that channel.  And other associates began an e-mail dialog
with me on the issues raised by Mark.   So within a matter of minutes
wide swaths of people were engaged in collaboration and discussion on
the topics Mark noted.

Perhaps the greatest power of new media,
however, is when it is used to accelerate new ideas that were not
identified by one of the greats like Mark.  For example, I recently
read a Twitter post from a thought leader in this new space named
Jeffrey Carr (see his Twitter Feed at http://www.twitter.com/jeffreycarr)   
He posted a short comment about a blog entry he wrote and said it
included “3D imaging and Virtual Earth – mind blowing video http://bit.ly/3SxtdA
”   His Twitter post alerted me and I checked out his blog and yes, he
was right.  I saw a YouTube video that was absolutely mind blowing and
of direct relevance to others in the national security space.  And the
video, frankly, could change things more dramatically and in a more
positive way that Mark Lowenthal’s well thought out piece ever could
(Jeffrey you rock!). So I’ll be blogging about Jeffrey and will be
talking about the capability he highlighted when I attend a major
intelligence conference next month.  Jeffrey’s other readers in the
national security space will also be considering the significance of
his posting and the result will likely be an acceleration of a
capability into the fabric of the national security apparatus, thanks
to social media.

Another example of the power of social media for
national security professionals is in coordinating action and
participation prior to conferences.  How do you decide which
conferences to attend?  I try to pulse experts to see who else is
going.  Once I make up my mind I let everyone I network with know I’ll
be there so they can advise me of their intentions and so we can
arrange side bar meetings as required. This is all so simple in the
world of social media like Twitter, Plaxo and Blogs.

So a key
benefit of Social Media for national security planners is to accelerate
good ideas, whether they be good ideas for policy or good ideas for
technology.  Social Media can also be leveraged to address the
information explosion by enabling people to enlist the capability of
others to seek out and bring the right information to your attention. 
These others can be crowds, random individuals, fields of experts or
trusted friends.  Which of these you leverage can vary from subject to
subject or task to task.

Is there a dark side for national
security?  What are the risks of social media?  Perhaps the greatest
risks are that we not fully engage in the power of these tools,
especially when adversaries are not constraining themselves.   But
there are risks to mitigate in our use of new media.  These include
risks to the confidentiality of ongoing operations and in some cases
risks to personal security.  By identifying these risks and taking
steps to address them now we can accelerate the use of new media faster
through the community.

I have personally encountered several
other examples, but it seems we have just scratched the surface on the
benefit of these capabilities to our nation’s security.  New thinkers
are pioneering paths that are already helping the nation come to grips
with some significant issues. With more participation by thinkers like
you the contributions of social media will likely grow in importance.  
So please, if you have not started engaging in social media sites yet,
jump in now.

Bob Gourley
http://ctovision.com

This entry was posted in Barak Obama, chief technology officer, Cloud, collaboration, CTO, Enterprise, Facebook, LinkedIn, obama, Social Computing, Technology Leadership, The Future of Technology, Web 2.0, Web Services, Weblogs and tagged , , , , , .

CTOvision.com and Facebook Connect: A Request

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Movable Type recently announced an exciting new way for blogs like CTOvision.com to leverage the Facebook Connect API.  I’ve just integrated these capabilities into my blog and have deployed a Facebook application page to act as the hub for these features. I would greatly appreciate it if you would test this out and give me some feedback.

Background:  The Facebook Connect API lets users share their information with third party websites and applications.  Users can dynamically connect their identity information in ways that respect their privacy choices.  Basic profile info, photos and information can be shared.  The current version of this capability offers more trusted authentication, better ways to stay in touch with friends and family, and stronger, more dynamic privacy.    Movable Type has provided plugins and integration guidance to enable blogs like CTOvision.com to leverage these capabilities.

Potential Benefits:  When you log into the CTOvision.com site using your Facebook account, you get the full features of a CTOvision.com account without having to create a new login. If you choose, your Facebook profile name and picture can automatically be shared with this and other Movable Type blogs.  And you will be able to see which other friends of yours are commenting on this site.   Additionally, when you comment, you will have the option of having your comments posted to your Facebook wall. 

The Request:  I would really appreciate it if you would help me test out these features on this site.  Please try logging into CTOvision.com with your Facebook account and after you do, leave a comment on this post.   If you share your comment on your Facebook page that would be appreciated too. 

Please let me know if you have any suggestions/comments/thoughts on ways this can be better integrated into the site. 

This entry was posted in collaboration, Connect, Enterprise, Facebook, Identity Management, innovation, Mashup, Social Computing, Web Services, Web/Tech, Weblogs and tagged .

A look ahead: Some technology developments to expect in 2009

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Flexible_display_rollout
2008 was a year of rapid changes for Chief Technology Officers.  We should expect 2009 to move even faster.  Where will the biggest trends take us?  I offer some considerations below.  Please
look these over and give me your thoughts.   Push back if you have
disagreement.

First, my overall advice for CTOs in 2009… Just like the new thin interfaces you will be testing in your lab… be flexible.   Now here are some more thoughts on what's in store for CTO s in 2009:

  • Here is a no-brainer: Increasingly CTOs will leverage social media to
    collaborate.  Things are moving so fast that we all like to network to
    seek help on big things and to get advanced warning on what is coming
    next.  More of us will be on Twitter, in Facebook, and writing blogs. 
    And this is a good thing.
  • "Mashups" will still be very
    important as an enterprise objective in 2009 (and beyond).   And the
    company that will help accelerate them into the federal enterprise is
    JackBe.  They do things in a way that enterprise CTO s like.  They build
    in connections to governance, security, identity management.  And they
    play well with the entire ecosystem so you don't have to rework all
    legacy just to use them.  Of course web2.0 will remain a key trend, but mashups takes web2.0 to a new, more mission-oriented level and for enterprise players the mission is what is important.
  • An approach we will all learn to love and follow is "context
    accumulation".   This very important term was coined by Jeff Jonas, and
    I think Jeff is going to have all of us moving out on that in the next
    12 months.   If you agree, visit his blog and by all means help others
    understand why this is really the only way we humans stand a chance of
    surviving/thriving in the onslaught of data.
  • Federal acquisition of IT will still be criticized for all the
    reasons it always has been.  But there will also be an acceleration of
    a dramatic positive change brought about because of open source
    software and a new appreciation that IT acquisition processes
    (RFI/RFP/FAR/DFAR based purchases) do not apply to software that is
    free.  Free software is not being bought, it is being used, for free. 
    The whole reason the FAR exists is to ensure when the taxpayer's money
    gets spent it gets spent wisely.  When things are free the FAR has less
    applicability.  Services for open source are being bought and since
    that uses government money of course the taxpayers will continued to be
    served by the same FAR-type processes that are meant to ensure open
    competition, but that is not for free open source software, that is for
    services to configure and manage the software.
  • Will this be the year of enterprise security?  We have been banking on that for a long long time.  We know the answers on how to make enterprises more secure.  There is a great recap of some of the most important components of security in the CSIS report.  But there are many more things that can be done as well. My goal, as captured here, is to improve security by two orders of magnitude within the next 24 months. 
  • Netbooks, Thin Clients and Cloud Computing will accelerate
    throughout the technology landscape, especially inside the federal
    government.  These trends in both devices and the cloud components are directly related and are also benefiting from the global, unstoppable trend toward open computing
    (open software and open standards).  One to watch in this area:  Sun
    Microsystems    .   But also track the dynamics of the netbooks providers. 
    Dell will get serious about netbooks, but Acer will continue to grow
    market share.
  • A key accelerator of Cloud Computing has been the powerful technologies of virtualization, especially those of VMware.  Open source and other virtualization capabilities are coming fast too.  Trend to watch in 2009 is the arrival of higher order, more elagant capabilities to manage virtualizaiton accross large enterprises.  VMware and Opsware (HP) will continue to evolve to do this, but Appistry, Vizioncore, Xsigo and Sun (and others?) are coming fast.    
  • Increasingly leaders will recognize that concepts of operation that
    require humans to tag and create metadata are sub-optimized.  When busy
    people are tasked with burdensome tagging operations they too
    frequently become tempted to cut corners and rush the process.  Over
    time, meta data generated this way just becomes meta crap.  This
    growing recognition in the federal space will sweep in new technologies
    and new approaches to discovery of content.  One to watch to solve this
    issue:  Endeca, because of their approach to visualizing information and enabling human to computer iterative examination of data. 

    Stainless_steel_foil_display

  • Flexible computers will arrive in production this year for early
    adopters and many CTOs will use them in labs to assess applicability
    for massive deployment in the coming years.   These flexible computers
    are the ultimate thin clients.   Backends/servers/architectures
    developed for the cloud perfectly suit ultra thin, flexible computing
    devices. For more on this hot topic, start at the site of the Flexible Display Center at ASU.
  • Collaboration will increasingly be seen as the means to link human
    brains together.   Collaboration tools that are stand alone stovepipes
    will be a thing of the past.  Users will collaborate using the entire
    technology environment:  voice, video, data, whiteboard, chat,
    application sharing, info discovery will increasingly be integrated
    into a single fabric.  Key players here:  Adobe, Microsoft and Cisco.
  • In a big change for how money is moved in major enterprises, the CIO
    will be given responsibility for the energy budget.  This will encourage
    CIOs to modernize to conserve energy, since money saved from energy
    costs can be invested back in modern IT.  This will be a very virtuous
    cycle, that saves money for organizations, saves energy, and modernizes
    IT.   
  • In a stunning turn, IPv6 will be rapidly adopted, not by enterprises,
    but in homes.  The major home communications provider that delivers
    full IPv6 to home environments (and to cell phones) will have an incredible advantage over
    competitors and will dominate.  The many rich features of IPv6
    delivered to consumers will finally push enterprises everywhere to move
    out on IPv6. 
  • In 2009, as in every year prior and for most into the future, there
    will continue to be bad people using technology to do bad things. 
    Enterprises will move to protect info, but bad guys will keep moving to
    get the data.   And the use of social networking tools by terrorists
    will likely grow.  This is not a foregone conclusion, but I'm not
    personally sure what can be done to mitigate the use of advanced
    technology by bad people, other than to say that we good people need to
    work together more to stop them, and my hope is that we can keep 2009
    safe and secure.

Thoughts/comments/suggestions?  Please let me know what you think.

This entry was posted in chief technology officer, Cloud, collaboration, Computer Security, Connect, CTO, Cyber Initiative, Cyber War, Dell, Disruptive IT, endeca, Enterprise, Facebook, Great CTOs, Identity Management, Mashup, microsoft, Netbooks, Network Security, Open Source, Social Computing, Sun, Sun Ray, Technology Leadership, The Future of Technology, Thin Client, Twitter, Vision, Web 2.0, Web Services, Web/Tech, Weblogs.

What if you could show key Social Media/Web2.0 sites in one graphic?

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Socialmediamap
Overdrive is a company that specializes in helping others leverage the social media landscape.  They produced a great graphic that gives at least a high level overview of the key social media and web2.0 world.  Click on the image here for a larger view download the PDF here: Download social-media-map.pdf (1330.3K)

I really like this graphic for a couple reasons.  One is that like many other people I long for ways that can help me visualize and grasp things in this fast moving space.  I know this does not capture all the social media sites and I know the categories are not as clean as depicted here.  But still it is GREAT context and will be helpful to me in explaining to others some of the fast moving cloud based services out there (note to overdrive: please find room to add a section on cloud services, like cloud based office automation).  

Another key reason I like this is it proves Overdrive's assertion that they are a company that can demystify online tools and help companies leverage these capabilities.  The fact that they are letting any blogger anywhere post this graphic on their site is proof that they understand how these things work.  Companies who want to make it in social spaces should give first then receive later.

How did I find this cool graphic?  Friends at Facebook sent it to me.  I found this cool social media reference through a cool social media site.

This entry was posted in chief technology officer, Cloud, collaboration, Computer Security, CTO, Disruptive IT, Google, SOA, Social Computing, standards, Web 2.0, Web Services, Web/Tech, Weblogs.

The Disruptive Power of Netbooks

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Acer_Aspire_One
The idea of light-weight, low-cost, but very powerful laptops designed for a smaller feature set than traditional laptops has been around for a decade or so.  But all indications are that something has changed in the market place.   Due to a convergence of many factors, netbooks are growing in sales.  These factors include the continual improvement in wireless speeds, the more widespread availability of wifi, the continued drop in cost of hardware, the continued increase in performance of open source operating systems and open source applications, the unstoppable move to more thin-client solutions, and the dramatically increased capabilities of cloud computing services (including the entire web2.0 megatrend and of course the continued innovations of Google in the cloud computing and online applications space). 

I just did a few searches on Amazon and Bestbuy for netbooks devices, and pulled up entries for small notebooks like the Acer Aspire One, an 8.9-inch mini laptop that runs Linux Lite and sells for under $300.00.  It has plenty of capability and is very lightweight.   It comes loaded with applications, including open source office automation packages (I think I would want to download the most recent version of open office if I purchased this).  It also comes with a built in camera and is ready for high end video chat. 

Will I buy one?  There are clearly some of these in my future, I just don't know when.  I have a MacBook and I really like it for everything I need in a laptop.  I use it around the house and on travel.  And, although it is over a year old now, it doesn't need replacement.  When it does, however, I'm going to be asking myself why I would want to pay $1000 more for a Mac instead of a couple hundered for a Netbook.  So much of what I do I do on the cloud anyway, and the many things I do locally can be done using the free Open Office.  

If we assume the same sort of trades are being considered by other buyers, a conclusion starts to emerge.  Netbooks are going to be a very disruptive force in the market.

And what is the market saying so far about this trend?  Acer is reporting huge success with their netbooks approach, their sales have been growing significantly.  They just reported a 78.8 percent growth rate over the same quarter in 2007.  And this is during a huge market downturn.  HP and Dell are reporting unit sales growth of 13.5 percent and 10.7 percent, respectively.   Apple is just about flat.

If you are an enterprise CTO, what should you do with this information?  For one, you should consider how to use laptops/netbooks like these in your organization.  If done right, you can enhance the security of your enterprise by moving more of your data and applications to secure clouds, and you can also add security features to your netbooks and field a significant enhancement to your security posture.  And, since the cost of these devices is far less than traditional laptops you can equip more of your workforce and save money at the same time, which is a very virtuous thing in this economic environment.

Note: I've previously written about several devices that qualify as netbooks, including:

Thin Client Laptops: Functionality, Security, Mobility A review of high end, enterprise quality wireless stateless thin clients using the Sun Microsystems approach;

and

The Future Is Changing Again A review of the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) initiative.

I also recommend a recent article at Economist.com called Small is Beautiful. 

And, thanks to a friend on Twitter, I just got pointed to a post at GigaOm titled: Why Netbooks are Greener Than Laptops

This entry was posted in chief technology officer, Cloud, Computer Security, CTO, Disruptive IT, Enterprise, Google, Identity Management, innovation, Netbooks, Open Source, Sun Ray, Thin Client, Web 2.0, Web Services, Web/Tech.

Update on Federal Cloud Computing

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My last several briefings, including one yesterday at the FIAC, have addressed some of the dramatic changes underway in the IT world.   That briefing is attached here: Download FIACGourleyBrief.pdf

The conference had a focus on information assurance, computer security, network security and Chief Information Assurance Officers (CISO) in the federal space.   So I not only updated my briefing with the latest tech trends but changed it to focus on lessons learned from industry on compliance monitoring and automation of remediation and related topics.

Read the rest of this entry »

This entry was posted in chief technology officer, Cloud, collaboration, Computer Security, CTO, Cyber Initiative, DHS, Disruptive IT, DNI, DOD, Enterprise, Facebook, FDCC, General Musings, Great CTOs, Identity Management, Network Security, R&D, Social Computing, Technology Leadership, The Future of Technology, Thin Client, Web 2.0, Web Services, Web/Tech.

The Future of Cyberspace Security: The Law of The Rodeo

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This is an update of my now annual assessment of the future of technology associated with good and evil in cyberspace which was first posted here.

Predictions
of the future of technology are increasingly starting to sound like
science fiction, with powerful computing grids giving incredible computational power to users and with autonomous robots becoming closer and closer to being in our daily lives vice just in computer science departments. Infotech, nanotech and biotech are fueling each other and each of those three dominate fields are generating more and more benefits that impact the other, propelling us even faster into a new world.   Depending on your point of view the increasing pace of science and technology can be good or
bad.  As for me, I'm an optimist, and I know we humans will find a way
to ensure technology serves our best interests.   

Read the rest of this entry »

This entry was posted in AFCEA, CCSA, CERT, chief technology officer, Cloud, collaboration, Compliance, Computer Security, CTO, CTO Principles, Cyber Initiative, Cyber War, CyberTrust, Disruptive IT, DOD, DoDIIS, Enterprise, Great CTOs, Identity Management, Information Warfare, innovation, microsoft, Moore's Law, Network Security, ODNI, Open Source, R&D, Ray Kurzweil, Robots, Social Computing, The Future of Technology, Thin Client, Triumfant, Twitter, Web 2.0, Web Services, Web/Tech, Yahoo.

Wall Street Crisis, Enterprise Technology and Cloud Computing

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I just read a great overview on "The Tech Fallout from the Wall Street Crisis" posted by Rich Miller at the Data Center Knowledge site.   Here are four of the six key points Rich makes:

  • North American financial companies will slash their IT spending
    27.3 percent to $17.6 billion next year, down from $24.2 billion in
    2007, according to updated projectionsfrom
    the Tabb Group, which tracks technology on Wall Street. The vast
    majority of that decline will be spending reductions due to the
    failures of Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers and the sale of Merrill
    Lynch, Tabb predicted.

Read the rest of this entry »

This entry was posted in chief technology officer, Cloud, collaboration, Computer Security, CTO, Cyber War, Disruptive IT, Enterprise, Google, Gourley, microsoft, Social Computing, Sun Ray, Technology Leadership, The Future of Technology, Thin Client, Verizon, Vision, Web 2.0, Web Services, Web/Tech, Weblogs.

Is Your CTO Making You Stupid?

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Nicholas Carr writes in ways that makes people think.  I really enjoyed reading his latest in the Atlantic titled "Is Google Making Us Stupid?"  This article covers some rather significant trends that IT is pushing into the global social fabric.  The changes he talks about are disturbing.  They are infecting people like a fast spreading disease. 

There is a chance you are suffering some of these symptoms yourself, so by all means read the article. 

Or if your attention span is going, here is how Nicholas Carr describes the symptoms : 

" Over the past few years I’ve had an uncomfortable sense that someone, or something, has been tinkering with my brain, remapping the neural circuitry, reprogramming the memory. My mind isn’t going—so far as I can tell—but it’s changing. I’m not thinking the way I used to think. I can feel it most strongly when I’m reading. Immersing myself in a book or a lengthy article used to be easy. My mind would get caught up in the narrative or the turns of the argument, and I’d spend hours strolling through long stretches of prose. That’s rarely the case anymore. Now my concentration often starts to drift after two or three pages. I get fidgety, lose the thread, begin looking for something else to do. I feel as if I’m always dragging my wayward brain back to the text. The deep reading that used to come naturally has become a struggle. "

I hope you dive deep into the Carr article for more details, but if you have the disease yourself you might not.  So here is a gist of key points:

  • Google and others have made research simple and fast and easy.

  • Almost all data can come into your head via your browser.

  • People read fewer (or no) books.

  • People are loosing the ability to read and retain info from long articles.

  • The Internet, through your browser, is the medium of choice.  Newspapers and print are on the out.  TV is heading out fast.

  • We also write through the web, and that is changing the way we think.

  • We too frequently are relying on computers to mediate our understanding of the world.

What do we do with this cautionary info?  One immediate think all of us should do is remember to carve out time in the day, every day, to read, write and think.

But if you are an enterprise technologist you should also consider what this means for you and your organization.  Some ideas:

  • The systems you are designing, developing and fielding to your workforce may serve your workforce better if their interfaces are more intuitive and less textual.  People will want to interface with enterprise systems they way they interface with the Internet (present your applications through browsers and summarize results and seek rapid human feedback on what they like or don't like about the results).

  • To the greatest extent possible, build systems that present fast results.

  • And present information in ways that let humans interact with it.

  • And present information in ways that ensure the humans are in charge of the process and in charge of assessing the relevance of results.

  • Don't stop innovating. 

  • Stay on the net yourself so you can track where it is going.

  • Get engaged in social media (if you are not already).  That means Facebook, Plaxo, LinkedIn, and Twitter (especially Twitter– it really changes your mind).

  • Translate those many lessons into the enterprise technology you field.

If you can do that and if you can stay focused on the mission all your users will thank you, and in many ways I think you will be helping make your organization smarter.  If you don't do that then the odds are great that you will just be part of the noise.   You may even be contributing to making your organzation stupid. 

Any thoughts/comments/suggestions on that topic?

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