Aide-mémoire

Yes it's Caturday but ...

2009-02-28T08:13:00.000+11:00

see more puppies

By Carruthers via Aide-mémoire

Caturday

2009-02-21T10:06:00.001+11:00

This one's not really a joke - to find out more about how to help animals check out WSPA.

more animals

By Carruthers via Aide-mémoire

I know it's really Caturday but ...

2009-02-14T06:40:00.002+11:00

these Shiba Inu puppies are too cute to ignore

By Carruthers via Aide-mémoire

Serious Caturday

2009-02-07T11:12:00.002+11:00

more animals

By Carruthers via Aide-mémoire

This blog is moving ...

2009-02-01T08:00:00.003+11:00

After a number of years using blogspot I've decided to move this blog to my own server. A big thank-you to all you've read and commented over the years. All the old posts have been moved over now.

From 1 Feb 2009 this blog will no longer be updated. I'll be posting over at the new Aide-Memoire and there is a new RSS feed too.

By Carruthers via Aide-mémoire

This blog is moving ...

2009-01-31T14:59:00.001+11:00

From 1 Feb 2009 this blog will no longer be updated. I'll be posting over at the new Aide-Memoire and there is a new RSS feed too.

By Carruthers via Aide-mémoire

Ceiling cat on vacation ...

2009-01-31T10:49:00.001+11:00

more animals

By Carruthers via Aide-mémoire

Has web 2.0 gone mainstream?

2009-01-30T09:01:00.017+11:00

Given the statistics in this 2007 report from Avenue A Razorfish and recent anecdotal feedback from non-geek friends, students and relatives web 2.0 is firmly entrenched in the mainstream.

Ordinary people regularly get their news by checking online newspapers, flick through YouTube when they are bored, share links to online media and upload family photos onto Facebook.

Heritage media is unable to provide fast enough access to news in a crisis. So when events like the recent Mumbai attacks occur ordinary folks turn to social media for their real time news updates.

Since the launch of the iPhone and other smart phones (like my beloved HTC Dual Touch) ordinary people are also discovering that they can access web services via their mobile devices relatively easily.

This all adds up to web 2.0 being mainstream. It also means that it's not just about geeks anymore. This is borne out on Twitter, where recently a bunch of lawyers have been using it to communicate with each other.

It is not a bad thing that the time of the geeks is over for web 2.0, it means that the geeks are moving on to the next big thing. More about that later ...

[Image source: Avenue A Razorfish]

By Carruthers via Aide-mémoire

This blog is moving ...

2009-01-29T14:58:00.000+11:00

From 1 Feb 2009 this blog will no longer be updated. I'll be posting over at the new Aide-Memoire and there is a new RSS feed too.

By Carruthers via Aide-mémoire

Future of the web ...

2009-01-29T09:43:00.018+11:00

This chart from 2007 shows the trajectory of the web future moving in a straight line from where we are now (or were in 2007) to the future of web 4.0 and beyond. But I don't think that the future of the web will such a simple story.

Innovation always comes unexpectedly and from the periphery. What we know will be changed by the next wave of innovation just as our world was changed by web 2.0 and its associated new business models.

What is termed web 3.0 is pretty much here already and is merely being tweaked. But it is the next generation of web that is up for grabs. I'm watching out for the next disruptor. It might not even be a cutting edge technology. Instead it might be an existing technology used in a new way or in a new context. Remember that mobile phone text messaging was old technology that resonated in a new way with younger mobile phone users and generated an entirely new business model.

None of us know what the next generation of the web holds. But we do know that work being done now in artificial intelligence, new interfaces (like Microsoft Surface), wearable computing and semantic computing are all possibilities.

One thing is certain, the next big thing will surprise us in one way or another. Once it is here it will seem obvious, but as usual it isn't obvious until it gets here. That is the way of the future.

By Carruthers via Aide-mémoire

Goal setting is not enough ...

2009-01-28T08:39:00.013+11:00

Many time and productivity experts recommend goal setting and suggest writing down goals to help focus on them. But what is it really that stops us from achieving those goals?

Perhaps we are starting with the externals - i.e. the goals - before looking at the internals? We need to look at our goals in a different way if we really want to make changes in our life.

The internals really need to be aligned to achieving the goal otherwise it is just a struggle. Here are some of the things I do:

Look at the goal and check if it aligns to personal values & desires.
Identify habits of thought or behaviour that help or hinder achievement of the goal, work out how to reinforce the positive ones and minimize the negative ones.
Define the required action steps for achieving the goal, set target dates, write them down & tell other people about them (that makes it harder to weasel out later).
Ensure that the goals are S.M.A.R.T.
Monitor progress and adjust plans accordingly.
Use affirmations to reinforce goals and new habits.
Don't give up, be persistent.

The key here is aligning internals - values, desires, thoughts, habits and behaviour - with the goals and linking them to structured plans of action.

Another important thing to realise is that we are unlikely to achieve mastery of new ways of thinking or doing immediately. There is evidence that expertise can take up to 10,000 hours to achieve. So there will be stumbles and failures at first. It is important to persist through these - and this is where the affirmations come in handy.

But what matters most in achieving goals is persistence, as Calvin Coolidge once said:

“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan "press on" has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race”

By Carruthers via Aide-mémoire

The User Revolution & IT ...

2009-01-27T10:20:00.016+11:00

Caught up with Tom Austin at the Gartner conference in Sydney in late 2008 and he shared his perspective on the web 2.0 user revolution and its impact on IT.

Tom started out by asking how organisations fell so far behind user & internet trends. He noted that in business attention follows budget. And the IT budget is focused on delivering SLAs and applications that support the business, keeping the lights on not on innovation.

According to Tom businesses are not seeking out richer more sophisticated 'bleeding edge' technology that enables people to get new & better jobs. Then he asked the question "Where is real innovation happening?"

He argued that maximum innovation happens at grassroots with users in how they apply technology. Commenting that maximum innovation happens at the periphery and not at the centre, which is the space occupied by enterprises. From Tom's perspective "web 2.0 catalyzes consumerization and five major mutually reinforcing discontinuities". The discontinuities, that mutually reinforce each other, are:

open source

SaaS

global class

web 2.0

consumerization

The buzzword arc that reflects this includes: on demand, IT utility, Saas, and cloud. He noted that "users are doing this [i.e. buying access to web 2.0 applications or services] on their corporate cards as if it is a lunch" or are using things like using iPhones instead of following the corporate standards.

Also once users start using "global class systems" like Amazon or eBay where they don't care what browser or OS you are using it changes user expectations of what corporate IT should provide.

This is major disruption that is enabling users to access global class systems outside of the IT department. So Tom sees IT departments as competing against the great entrepreneurial wave that is seeking to be the next Google.

This all means that IT is changing, and the changes are in the operational tempo of IT departments:

enterprise v internet
project cycles = years v hours
project life spans = decades v months

According to Tom (and I agree) "most IT organisations cannot do both of these well - CIOs need to realise they can't do it all". There is generally nothing more fatal than a corporate IT department that thinks it gets web and web operational needs.

Some more gems from Tom include:

"demographics is destiny"

"you can predict for groups of people how they use technology "

"decision makers are the 60 year old group"

"rabble rousers are the 23 year old group"

"with democratization of the technology it means that the 2nd group can now get their own technology and know how to use it"

"even in companies with 2000 or more than 15% of knowledge worker use their own notebooks at work"

"data shows that IT & non IT staff use web 2.0 technology also "

"75% end users are using web 2.0 applications from work"

"77% IT pro users are using web 2.0 applications from work"

"both groups report they think only 40% of other staff using same"

All of this is real food for thought for corporate IT. Trying to hold back this tide of user empowerment might make them seem a little bit like King Canute.

[Picture: King Canute]

By Carruthers via Aide-mémoire

Cloud Computing - are we there yet?

2009-01-26T10:45:00.007+11:00

Way back in the early 1990s Sun Microsystems had a slogan "the network is the computer". It did not make sense to any of us back then. However, today it is a different story. Today we are rapidly moving our personal applications into the Cloud sometimes perhaps without even realising that it is happening.

Here's some examples of how we're already using cloud computing in our personal lives:

Gmail & Google Calendar for all your email and appointments
Facebook for all your friends
LinkedIn for all your business contacts
Blogger, Wordpress or another hosted blogging platform for your diary

It might be time to make a backup of some of that info that you've got floating around in the cloud. Only a few months ago I was unable to log into Gmail for 3 days. And recently there was a total data loss for JournalSpace blogging platform, where all blogs going back about 5 years were wiped out. What price then cloud computing?

There is some way to go yet before we can really trust the cloud. But rest assured it is coming. In the future people will laugh at the quaint idea that we once had stand alone computers and storage.

By Carruthers via Aide-mémoire

This blog is moving ...

2009-01-25T14:57:00.001+11:00

From 1 Feb 2009 this blog will no longer be updated. I'll be posting over at the new Aide-Memoire and there is a new RSS feed too.

By Carruthers via Aide-mémoire

Why not give peace a chance?

2009-01-25T09:12:00.016+11:00

During our busy lives it seems to me that we often let the chances for peace pass us by. And how does this happen?

It happens with our reactions to things, to events, to words and actions by other people. For example, the snappy response to a question asked when we're busy, or the angry outburst when things don't go as expected. The responses we make to these things can often lead to friction or bad feelings.

One of my old bosses used to tell me that I needed to act not react. His idea was that reaction was an instinctive, visceral and almost unthinking response. While he believed that action was a considered response to a particular person or situation.

Just think about this for a moment:

What would happen if we decided not to react instinctively to people or situations?
What would happen if we decided not to protect ourselves before it was necessary?
What would happen if we took a few breaths before acting instead of simply reacting?

Would this give peace more of a chance to grow in our lives? I'm going to give it a try, it's a simple change that will cost nothing and it might just make the world a slightly better place.

By Carruthers via Aide-mémoire

Itteh bitteh Caturday

2009-01-24T10:47:00.000+11:00

more animals

By Carruthers via Aide-mémoire

This blog is moving ...

2009-01-23T14:45:00.005+11:00

From 1 Feb 2009 this blog will no longer be updated. I'll be posting over at the new Aide-Memoire and there is a new RSS feed too.

By Carruthers via Aide-mémoire

Hope is not a strategy, so what are we going to do?

2009-01-23T10:05:00.018+11:00

It was very interesting to watch the 2008 US election campaign with all its talk of hope.

Checking Wikipedia, a definition of Hope "is a belief in a positive outcome related to events and circumstances in one's life."

But hope is not a strategy by which one can achieve change. So it makes me wonder what concrete actions Obama will take to bring about change. And how he will do this in the face of the multiple challenges facing the US and the world.

Some the challenges for the US and the world include:

wars on several fronts
continued terrorism
economic crisis
growing unemployment
growing divides between rich and poor
high expectations from diverse supporter groups
shifting relationships on international stage

Hope is not going to save us. Nor is focusing only on the problems. The real challenge will be in harnessing the hope and turning it into energy directed towards positive change.

This is where ideas of resilient and sustainable local communities really come into play. Just like we've heard for many years it is time to think global (in terms of hope) and to act local (in terms of positive actions).

Hope is not a strategy, and hope without meaningful action plans is merely wasted energy.

By Carruthers via Aide-mémoire

Is it time for a new approach to management?

2009-01-22T10:23:00.014+11:00

The traditional approaches to managing organizations have been optimized so much that there little improvement that can be made. At the same time there are huge changes in society and how people want and expect to work.

With the growth of collaboration technologies such as web 2.0 and entry of generation Y into the workforce things are starting to change.

The time has come to ask if the real change for organisations is away from the centralised bureaucratic model of the early twentieth century?

If that is the case, then what should our new model organisation be modelled on? Everyone knows that somebody has to be in charge - or do they? What would happen if:

... we decided to trust people to do their jobs?
... management became a dialogue instead of a monologue?
... collaboration and collective intelligence was the order of the day?
... we used technology to enable all of this?

None of this is to say that quality is unimportant, or that meeting business targets is unimportant. By the way, who says that quality cannot be built in using trust and collaborative work practices?

But for all of these changes listed above to work it is necessary that there is two-way communication, clarity of & responsibilities, clarity of strategic purpose and tactical execution. The principles of agile software development and scrum exemplify this approach. All of these changes call upon better management practices than we often see in a command control environment.

Most of all these changes work from a presumption of trust. I've worked with organisations where the mere idea of trusting the staff is horrifying to managers.

The important thing for managers to remember is that the control you have is only an illusion anyway. Nothing a manager achieves is done without the participation of others. Imagine how much more could be achieve if the others were actively engaged in the process rather than just along for the ride.

[Image source: USDA Farm Service Agency]

By Carruthers via Aide-mémoire

American burgers - now I get it!

2009-01-21T10:18:00.018+11:00

For many years I have thought that American friends were delusional when they rhapsodised about their burgers.

After all I had eaten at McDonalds so I knew what an American burger was like.

However, at the urging of several friends I tried some real American burgers on a recent trip to San Francisco.

The burger places recommended were Jeffrey's and In-n-out, both of which I valiantly tasted in my attempt to find a great hamburger.

At In-n-out I went for the 'animal' style cheeseburger with fries and a chocolate shake - as my friends had told me it was a very tasty burger. It was in fact a completely different kind of food that perpetrated on me previously as a burger by other purveyors.

But then someone said that Jeffrey's did an even better burger. So off I went (through the worst traffic on El Camino Real) to share a burger lunch with IdaRose.

Again I picked the cheeseburger, but this time added chilli cheese fries (a meal in themselves) and a chocolate shake. The burger was great, the chilli cheese fries amazing, and the shake was the best one I've ever had.

Now I know why my American buddies rave about their cheeseburgers. These real burgers are a tasty meal. They are nothing like the plastic shams that are perpetrated on the rest of the world.

Seriously if you find yourself in Menlo Park grab a Jeffrey's burger and if you see an In-n-out drop in there too.

[Image source: me this is my burger plus chilli cheese fries at Jeffrey's in Menlo Park CA]

*Note: Neither Jeffrey's nor In-n-out have given me anything (yet) but I am amenable to free burgers when next I visit the US.

By Carruthers via Aide-mémoire

How Resilient is Australia?

2009-01-20T16:28:00.007+11:00

Reading this book at the moment - Reinventing Collapse: The Soviet Example and American Prospects by Dmitry Orlov. It is very interesting to consider how Australia would manage.

Orlov considers America and its current situation in the light of a possible economic and social upheaval. He compares the American situation against Russia performed during its collapse after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Orlov brings a fresh view of the US and his ideas (which I hope are all totally wrong) are food for thought.

The big question for me is how different or similar is Australia to the US in this context? What are the factors that give us resilience? What kinds of things can be do to build up our resilience in the face of upheaval?

By Carruthers via Aide-mémoire

Why do we wait until funerals to say positive things about someone?

2009-01-19T07:07:00.000+11:00

There is one thing that I've often thought was sadder than a funeral itself. It is the way that everyone stands around saying what they liked about the deceased when they are no longer around to hear it. Sometimes it is even sadder to hear that they never told the person in question.

Why is it so hard for us to say positive things to each other?

It certainly seems easier to be critical and to say negative things. And when you think about this it does start to make sense.

Saying positive things opens us up and makes us vulnerable to the other person and to rejection. While saying negative things closes things down and seems to keep us safer and more distant from the other person.

One change I can make this year is to say positive things to people when I get the chance. Not suggesting to make stuff up, just to speak truth. I'm not waiting for another funeral to say a positive thing about someone. And if that opens me up to rejection then c'est la vie!

[Image source]

By Carruthers via Aide-mémoire

Obama talks about continuing the grassroots involvement

2009-01-18T14:50:00.006+11:00

How spooky! Just after I posted this morning with some thoughts about Obama and change I received an email from him (as did many others). His email linked to a YouTube video, which is also on my.barackobama.com.

In the video he talks about change and the need to build on the grassroots movement that helped him to get elected. He also announces a new movement called Organizing for America to fight for change in "your local communities". It will be interesting to see how this develops.

By Carruthers via Aide-mémoire

Will there be a real change in the US with Obama?

2009-01-18T09:42:00.001+11:00

Having recently visited the US it is interesting to consider if there will be real changes in how the US operates along with the change in government.

Not everybody wanted Obama to win. So now we have the some people, mainly the centre and conservatives, feeling disenfranchised. and regrouping for next time, as indicated by these stickers on the right.

And on the other side we have the liberals or progressives hopeful for change as exemplified in the video below.

Also we have Obama faced with the greatest number of crises and threats to the US on multiple fronts since the the 1929 Depression & Second World War. For example, we have the:

economic crisis,
environmental crisis,
increased instability in the middle east and India-Pakistan,
increased terrorist threats,
breakdown in infrastructure in the US,
social fragility in the US,
etc.

That is a mammoth list of issues for anyone. And it includes important domestic and foreign issues to manage. I suspect that Obama will need to govern from the centre to maintain legitimacy across the diverse groups for whom he must govern. But he will also need to find a way to work differently with the rest of the world. The US government cannot afford to just invade anyone of whom they disapprove any longer.

How he handles all of this is critical for the US and for the rest of us. One thing is certain, the old and well tried approaches might not be useful in these times.

Can Obama lead towards a real change?

By Carruthers via Aide-mémoire

It's Caturday again ...

2009-01-17T10:04:00.000+11:00

see more crazy cat pics

By Carruthers via Aide-mémoire