- Another view of architecture
- Getting integrated.
- Something moves out of bête. Time to set certified
links for 2006-06-15
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Monthly Archives: June 2006
links for 2006-06-14
Ed Brill: Noise-to-Signal Ratio
I wouldn’t normally focus in on a single blog, especially when I’m being critical, but this time I feel different. I have for some time been frustrated with writings of Ed Brill. It’s taken me a little while to work out why though and then it occurred to me – it was down to the noise-to-signal ratio.
For those of you who don’t know Ed Brill is Business Unit Executive, Worldwide Lotus Messaging Sales, IBM Software Group. What I am writing is not meant to be criticisms of Ed as a person, but in his ability to meet the requirements that I personally have. His job title gives me an expectation that he is going to be talking about how great the IBM Lotus software is, my frustration comes out of my perception of his ability to meet those expectations. I doubt very much whether they are the expectations of most people who read his blog and I am sure it is wholly unfair for me to pick on his blog in particular, but it’s the one that has frustrated me the most.
I’m looking for a signal from IBM that tells me about all of the really great stuff they are doing with collaboration technology. Ed’s blog goes some way to fulfilling this requirement, his job title certainly gives me that expectation.
As with any blog though (mine especially) there is some noise. The noise can just be stuff that I’m not interested in; this is only low volume noise. The noise may be stuff that I definitely don’t want to hear because it is completely unhelpful to me in my situation; this is high volume noise.
If the noise volume is high, the signal volume needs to be even higher so that the signal can be heard above the noise.
So I decided to put it to the test and analysed the last 20 posts on Ed’s site and marked them from +5 to -5. +5 being a great signal, -5 being complete noise. Remember -5 cancels out +5, that’s how noise-to-signal works. Everything about Ed’s family and things like that I scored as 0, they aren’t really noise.
Across 20 posts I go to a signal score of just 7 out of a possible 100. Not a very good signal.
One post in particular I scored as 0. All of the good signal at the beginning of the post was blown away by the high level noise at the end. This one really epitomises the problem for me. I want to hear about the great IBM road-map and that’s what I want to be left with, I want to hear how IBM have sorted out the confusion they caused last year and are steaming ahead. I do not want to be left with the noise about the Microsoft road-map which anyone in the industry knows about – but it doesn’t stop them being perceived as taking market share.
There are two ways of resolving the noise-to-signal issue. One is to increase the volume of the signal, the other is to reduce the volume of the noise. Please Ed can I have a bit more signal and a bit less noise.
links for 2006-06-13
- Wonder if an Innovation Mosh Pit has the same odour as one at a Rock Concert…
links for 2006-06-10
- Those are interesting numbers. Why would Apache lose 400,000 servers and Microsoft gain 4 million
- Interesting utilities
User Experience Thinking: The BBC World Cup Mode
The BBC Web Site is currently sporting two modes which the humble user can choose between:
- World Cup Mode: On
- World Cup Mode: Off
What a fabulous piece of insight into the needs of their customers. The UK will be divided over the next few weeks between those who care about the World Cup and those that don’t. Most of Scotland, for instance, will only be watching with moderate interest because their team didn’t make it. Millions of us English will be desperate to get our regular updates.
Recognising the different desires and doing something about it is pure genius.
I wonder if it’s the shape of things to come though.
Here’s a few idea for some more modes:
- I don’t care what Jordan is doing now mode.
- I love cricket.
- I’m a news junkie.
links for 2006-06-09
- time to sort those quota messages out,
- It doesn’t really matter whether this stuff, is any good or not. It’s Microsoft taking the same to IBM and all they seem to want to do is complain about it
- Perhaps it’s just the way to am feeling today
Reasons to work from home
Having got my tablet with Windows Vista Beta 2 and Feedburner (and other bits) working how I want it to I was able do something today that you rarely get to do in Lancashire.
I sat in the garden with my tablet and caught up on blogs.
Feedburner is definitely nicer than NewsGator for Outlook on the Tablet. It’s really helping my new resolution of posting to del.icio.us too.
(No Jimmy and Grandad today because they are, apparently, sold out in ELC in Preston)
Tags: Feedburner,Vista,Tablet,NewsGator
links for 2006-06-08
- At last a sensible name for a new product.
- The new interface may be nice but people struggle with change
- I am not a number I am a person.
Asking Why?
Jeffrey Philips makes an interesting observation:
I worry that we are crowding our already complex computers and processes with so many short-cuts, hot-keys, hacks and other “time saving” devices that we are actually creating more complexity and less vision on what’s important. For example, I have a colleague who has a BlackBerry. He answers the BlackBerry while driving, in meetings, etc, usually entering six or seven word answers to emails. Typically, these “answers” he provides don’t give enough information and require a second or third interaction before the solution is clear. While he feels confident he has cleared his inbox, these interactions are like small candy bars, immediately tasty but not satisfying over the longer term. We’ve built our productivity processes to a certain extent on the mental equivalent of junk food.
It’s true in many industries but the IT industry has to be one of the worst industries for thinking about going faster from A-to-B rather than thinking about taking a different route.
I was educated as a mechanical engineer and that included some production engineering. During my degree course (what seems like a lifetime ago now) I learnt about production lines and the radical (as it was then) new thinking of just-in-time. The production line techniques were all about going faster, just-in-time was all about taking a different route.
I have recently been enjoying the writings of Slow Leadership which is all about taking a different route.
I regularly return to the culture of writing huge documents to define something and think that there has to be a different route, especially when it comes to the document review process.
It’s time for more people to ask the question “why?” before they do something. There used to be a programme on the BBC called Why Don’t You, which had a more complete title of ”Why Don’t You Just Switch Off Your Television Set And Go Out And Do Something Less Boring Instead?”. The purpose of this programme was to encourage kids to do something that was more constructive than watching television, something that involved the whole person rather than just the small subset that the television was interacting with.
I’m sure we could all create our own “Why Don’t You?” and I’m sure that our business and personal lives would be all the richer for it:
- Why Don’t You Just Switch off Your Email Client and Go Out and Do Something Less Boring Instead
- Why Don’t You Just Switch off Your Blackberry and Go Out and Do Something Less Boring Instead
- Why Don’t You Just Switch off Your Mobile Phone and Go Out and Do Something Less Boring Instead
A good dose of “Why Don’t You?” and a few new routes and we will all be a lot happier.