Having succeeded in upgrading my HP TC1100 from Vista Beta to Vista RC1, I thought I’d try the RC2 upgrade path too. All seems to be fine.
Category: Solution Architecture
OneCare 1.5 Beta
Why are Web 2.0 applications successful?
Rod Boothby has been having some fun this week poking a stick it the IBM Lotus community (here, here).
I’m not going to join that particular fire-storm, instead I am going to use it as a branching point.
Rod seems to assert two things:
- People use Web 2.0 applications because of their nice web interfaces.
- The primary interface that people use is a browser.
If you read through these two posts you will find these statements:
Quoting Charles Robinson:
“Not everyone likes working with applications in a browser. We’ve done extensive usability testing at work, and in nearly every case users prefer the Notes version to web-based implementations. We tried to force a group of users to only use web-based mail and they simply stopped checking it because they hated using a browser. (We tried them on Zimbra, too, and had the same result so it wasn’t just Domino Web Access.)”
Rod’s answer is:
This, to me, is a surprising result. The examples of Yahoo! Mail, HotMail, Gmail, MySpace, Flickr, YoutTube, FaceBook, Wikipedia and the 50+ Million blogs out there would tend to contradict that user testing.
Is that really how it is for everyone out there? Because it isn’t for me.
I don’t use Web 2.0 applications because of their browser interface I use them for far more basic reasons:
- I use flickr because it is a great way to distribute my photos to my friends.
- When I post an image on flickr I get my ego massaged when people comment – that’s why I post them to groups and the like. I want someone to comment.
- I look on YouTube every now and then because I want to see what’s hot, I don’t want to be left behind. I am one of the huge majority of people who looks, but posts nothing. I’ll do some rating and some commenting, again to massage my ego, to be seen.
- I use Wikipedia as a reference source, but I don’t contribute at all. I don’t really care whether it’s Web 2.0 or not; it’s a reference source.
- If I had something I thought would get noticed on Wikipedia then I’d contribute.
- I don’t use MySpace because none of my friends use it (yet). There’s no-one their to massage my ego.
- And what am I doing right now, I’m expressing myself in order to solicit a response. I want to know that people read my blog otherwise I wouldn’t do it.
In summary: I use these sites because I get something out of it. I’m selfish. I’m not using them because they have a great interface.
When it comes to using these tools through the browser:
- I use a client applications to upload to flickr.
- I use a client RSS reader (FeedDemon, NewsGator).
- I use a client blog writer (Windows Live Writer).
- I used to use Hotmail – but only through an Outlook connector.
I didn’t write all of these tools so I’m assuming that I’m not the only one who would prefer not to use the browser.
Unfortunately I don’t have any statistics for it, but I would guess that I am using my browser less now than I was 18 months ago. The important thing to me is that the data is in the cloud and that I can access it from wherever. Now that most of my data is coming to me via RSS I don’t have to use that slow browser thing.
The need for accessibility means that I want a browser interface, but I’m not going to use it every day just because it’s there. The browser interface is not optimal so I’m better off using the things that is.
BBC PC Security Reporting
Today seems to be BBC PC Security reporting day with articles on their web site and on the TV news.
It seems that they conducted a reasonably simple experiment and decided that the results were news. I suspect the real driver is coming from the Get Safe Online campaign though.
If you have reasonable level of knowledge about IT security then be prepared for a number of cringe moments. Making this complex issue as simple as possible is a real challenge, I know I’ve tried explaining it a number of times.
What I can’t decide, though, is whether the BBC has done us a service or a dis-service in this reporting. The issue is the level of alarm and the target of the alarm.
I’d like people to be concerned and to take the right actions to alleviate those concerns. When we drive on the road we should all be concerned about the safety of our vehicle, being alarmed would be an unhealthy response. When people use IT, I want them to be concerned about the safety of what they are doing.
In car terms people terms people are thought to check the basics; oil, tyres, windscreen wash, etc.. On the BBC coverage they tried for three “do’s” and three “don’t” while it’s a reasonable approach to communication it’s prone to over simplification and false assurance. One of the over simplifications was in the TV report, when people were told to use their common sense when opening emails, and not “open” suspicious ones.. I have a real problem with the notion of “common sense” in this scenario. This is new technology to most people so the level of “common sense” is very low and can’t be relied upon. It also raises the tricky question: “If I don’t open it, what do I do with it?”
On the whole I think these reports probably did strike the right balance, just.
One piece of advice that really frustrated me was the level of advice given at the end of the TV news report. The only advice given was to go to Microsoft.com and use the tools their. I’m sorry but that’s terrible advice. It’s terrible for all sorts of reasons:
- Microsoft.com is a terrible place to start. The only obvious link on Microsoft.com is a link to a 90-day trial for Live OneCare. Live OneCare is only available in the U.S. at the moment
.
- Microsoft is a product company and wants to sell its products. What about other companies products? What about free products?
- How is Microsoft going to help all of those Apple customers?
The Get Safe Online site has a much more rounded approach to security.
Microsoft are probably a bit disappointed that the link to “Microsoft online scanner” on the “Tips to help you stay safe online” article (which is the more detailed article) point to the Malicious Software Removal Tool on the very day that Live OneCare safety scanner is released.
Technorati tags: BBC, Virus, Live OneCare safety scaner, Malicious Software Removal Tool, Microsoft, Apple, Security
Working Environment – Thinking Outside the Box
Alexander (The Chief Happiness Officer) has a great set of pictures taken in inspirational working environments today.
Inspired me to think again about this room in which I sit for most of my working day. It made me slightly ashamed that I have created something predominantly traditional with a standard desk and book shelves.
The only break from the norm is the sofa (but that’s hardly radical) and the dolls house where Jimmy and Grandad live.
One of the nice things about this room is that I can control what is in here. The other day I finally decided to resolve an issue with the way some of the cables were tangled under the desk. It’s my desk, so I can. At the office I would have though twice about such things.
The thing with this room is that it is always going to be a compromise, because it is also the guest room so one it’s necessary to have a sofa bed in it, but that’s about the only restriction.
I’ve been thinking about putting a nice big whiteboard on one of the walls, because I am finding that it’s a great way of encouraging the creative flow. Anyone who has seen me in a presentation will probably be amazed that I don’t already have one 
.
Time to get the creativity working again.
(That reminds me, I must get a frame for that picture that needs hanging)
Notes v Outlook – again
If you are at all interested in the Notes v Outlook debate then you should read all of the comments posted on Volker Weber’s site following his “Now what?” post.
Instant messaging and its impact on e-mail and collaboration
Adam Gartsberg has blogged Mike Rodin’s Town Hall. I feel a bit like I’m reporting something third-hand but never mind, perhaps that’s what blogging is about.
There are some really interesting observations that concur with some of mine:
We think the idea of innovation is all about collaboration. We’ve connected everyone together. Think about how you work today, what you came in and did this morning. What are the first things you did this morning – probably log onto Notes and bring up your buddy list. Or maybe not in that order. For me, it’s primarily the buddy list. I use e-mail today the way I used [interoffice] mail when I started 20 years ago – maybe I check it once a day or so. IM is my primary business tool.
What’s your primary mode of communication? (Polled the audience of 200-300 people)
- e-Mail? [I only saw 1 or 2 hands go up]
- Phone? [About the same]
- Sametime? [Almost whole room]
If this is really how this presentation went, then there is a good deal of suggestion in the question, having already told them his answer. I assume that when he is talking “Sametime?” that he is primarily talking about IM type capabilities, but I could well be completely wrong there.
If I ask myself the same question “What’s your primary mode of communication?” then the answer is “it depends”.
- If I want a quick answer to something I’ll use an IM client
- I have as many phone conversations as I do IM conversations.
- Many IM conversations get converted into phone conversations.
- I rarely send files over my IM clients because, like me, people want them in their e-mail. It’s also rare that I send a file to one person, I’m normally sending it to a group of people.
Don’t get me wrong here, IM has radically changed the way I work and I’m a big fan, but I’m only a fan of the correct use of IM. There is still a lot of life in e-mail though. Which brings me on to the other interesting part (for me):
There’s a generation coming up where these tools – MySpace, Facebook, YouTube – are central to how they live. A friend’s daughter left for college, and knew the majority of students before her first day on campus. People we’re hiring think this way. When we give them an e-mail client, they think “e-mail is for my grandfather.” It’s not how they think, not how they work. We’re creating a set of tools for the next generation of workers.
I was doing some problem solving on my son’s PC yesterday (with iTunes). While I was there I was a nosey parent and decided to look at his e-mail. Turns out that he hadn’t checked his e-mail for more than two weeks. There was a good deal of new e-mail in there, but it was nearly all SPAM. I’ve written before about this generation and their expectations of the workplace as have others. I’m still to understand how we create a workplace that has all of these tools, but is still productive. There is a difference between work and play. When you work you have to produce something, when you play you don’t. Employers aren’t going to pay people to play without it producing anything. But provide some of these capabilities is exactly what we are going to have to do.
EMC and Microsoft Extend Agreements
EMC 
Press Release:
“EMC and Microsoft Form New Enterprise Content Management Alliance, Extend Microsoft Office SharePoint Server With Content, Compliance and Archive Solutions
EMC will bring to market new solutions that seamlessly integrate the EMC Documentum platform with multiple Microsoft solutions and platform technologies including Microsoft Office SharePoint® Server 2007, the 2007 Microsoft Office system, SQL Server™ 2005 and enterprise search solutions. Microsoft provides content management capabilities in SharePoint Server 2007 today. With this new alliance SharePoint users can take advantage of the advanced ECM capabilities of the Documentum platform. Information workers will be able to access the Documentum platform natively from within Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and the Microsoft Office system, enabling users to leverage the power of the Documentum platform in areas such as advanced records management, business process management, imaging and rich media from their preferred Microsoft applications.”
and
“These solutions from EMC will allow manual or automatic archival of content from SharePoint repositories to a Documentum repository while keeping content accessible and searchable from within Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007. By archiving content from SharePoint into Documentum for long-term retention and management, organizations can help their information workers meet compliance, content utilization, and storage optimization policies and procedures, all from within the familiar Microsoft applications they use every day.”
I am currently working with a number of customers who are feeling let down by the document/content/knowledge management project they undertook 2-3 years ago and are now looking for something much lighter and far more integrated into the normal day-to-day activities. A lot of these people have been looking at SharePoint as a way of filling the gap between the file system which is anarchy and the document management system which is owned by the process zealots.
Perhaps these activities will help enterprises build a bridge that will keep the process zealots happy.
What do EMC get out of this deal? The ability to retain a few more customers.
What do Microsoft get out of this deal? The acceptance of SharePoint by the process zealots (because they can carry on using Documentum). They also get EMC saying how great Documentum is on SQL Server.
Looks to me like Microsoft got the better deal.
Technorati tags: EMC, Documentum, SharePoint, Microsoft, Office, Process Zealots, Document Management, Content Managment, Knowledge Management
My working day & my blogging day
I like to think about how I can make the most of my time. This means that I regularly question why I do things in the order I do them to try and get more out of the time I have.
When I am working from home (which is most of the time at the moment) I find it’s vital to have something approaching a routine. The routine enables me to be focused, but I’m not so embedded in my routine that I can’t be flexible with it.
I thought others might be interested in my routine, so here it is:
- Breakfast
- Walk – I find that a walk in the morning wakes me up. It’s good for my brain and also good for my posture which isn’t great after 20 years sat in front of a computer.
- Quiet time – I listen to quiet music, read and relax. There is a sofa in my study which I use. I read from books during this time because the great thing about a reading a book is that you can’t flick to some other application while you are doing it. If I have thoughts about things I need to do during the day I will write them down so I don’t forget them, but I won’t do anything about them now.
- Blog reading – The tablet sits within reach of the sofa. While still sitting on the sofa I start FeedDemon and go through the blogs that have been written overnight. Because I live in the UK there are a load of blogs to catch up on. I sort of follow a GTD method for blog reading. I will scan read all of the blogs. Those that I think I might read later get flagged within FeedDemon, those that I think I will reference at some point in the future get posted to del.icio.us. Everything gets marked as read. I will make a note of things I am going to blog about if anything.
- Diary check – I check today and a few days further forward so I know what I need to get done.
- Check email – My role means that I get email all through the day and night. I don’t read email outside my working day so there are always ones to catch up on in the morning. Again, I follow a GTD type approach with anything being scan read. Everything that needs an action gets flagged and everything gets marked as read.
- Write task list – I write my task list out on a piece of paper. Physically writing each one makes me think about each one and how I am going to tackle it. The ones that I am going to do today get a star.
- Tasks and meetings – Having planned my day I will then on with tasks and meetings.
- 50 minute sit, 10 minute move – The day is split into chunks of work which involve sitting at a desk and others that involve moving around. This means that I don’t stiffen up too much, but it’s also good for my brain and makes me more alert when I am moving and also when a return from movement.
I’m not declaring any times because that’s my business and not yours , you can be sure that everyone gets what they are paying for.
tags: GTD, FeedDemon, del.icio.us, blog
S.U.M.O – Question #1
I went to an excellent breakfast over the weekend where the speaker was Paul McGee – The SUMO Guy. Paul is a great speaker. There was 50 of us and he had us entranced, which is no easy task at 8:00am on a Saturday morning.
Paul was talking about using the S.U.M.O. (Shut Up, Move On) principles when trying to deal with burn-out.
Paul’s primary message was that most events don’t lead directly to an outcome. It’s the event + our reaction to it that normally creates the outcome.
He had a set of questions to ask yourself before reacting to a situation. All this week one of those questions has been ringing in my ears and I share it here:
Where is this issue on a scale of 1-10? (If 10 is death)
This week I have found myself in a number of situations where my reaction was going to be a 7 or 8, but having assessed them they were nothing more than a 2 and in most instance they were a .5 
.
If you are interested in the other questions follow the link to a download of the cartoon:
You could even buy Paul’s book 
.
I think we’ll be inviting Paul back.
tags: SUMO, Paul+McGee, Burn-Out, Breakfast
Identity Theft Experiences
I now have two experiences of identity theft.
They both involve cars.
In both instances I was only aware that part of my identity had been stolen when the authorities came looking for me.
The first time I came across the issue of identity theft was a few years ago now.
I was sat at my desk when the PA for the most senior manager resident in that building phoned me. This was unusual but not completely unexpected. When she said “Can you come upstairs immediately please!” I was a starting to get worried. My worries were confirmed when I walked through the door and was introduced to two police officers from CID.
Their first question was exactly what you would expect it to be “Can you tell me what you were doing on the xxth of xxxmonth?”.
Like most people I had absolutely no idea off the top of my head. I excused myself and went to retrieve my diary. It turns out that on the day in question I had traveled back from Washington DC overnight, landed in the UK in the early morning and then gone home to bed.
The whole story is quite a long one, so all truncate it to keep it short.
It turns out that a car identical to mine had been used by a gang of individuals who had stolen a load of laptops from a hotel in London. When I say identical, I mean identical, color, model and registration plate.
The time between my plane landing and the time of the robbery gave me enough time to get to London and commit the crime, a time when I had no alibi because I was alone.
How do you prove you weren’t somewhere, unless you can prove you were somewhere else. In my case I couldn’t prove where I was, because I was the only one there. That was at least what I thought at the time, it turns out that I picked the kids up from school that day and others remembered me doing it.
I no longer have that car, but I do wonder whether the new owner has ever had any more trouble from its other identity.
Fortunately the CCTV that had captured my car also captured the gang, and I didn’t look anything like any of the gang members. I never got to see the CCTV but I did spend a few hours helping the police and having my photo taken.
My second experience of identity theft arrived today in the form of a bill from my car leasing company.
Attached to the bill was a Penalty Charge Notice which stated that I was in London a few weeks ago and stopped illegally in a box junction.
This time I was sent photographic evidence and apparently my car morphed from being a VW to being an Audi somewhere between my home and London. The number plate is mine, but the car isn’t.
This one is, at least, easier to rebuff but it doesn’t stop the fact that a car is driving around London with my car’s number plate on it. That part of my identity is no longer exclusively mine, it’s been hijacked. There is no knowing what traffic violations will start to arrive.
In a sense this is trivial compared to how bad it could be. It’s just hassle sorting it out. As an example of how vulnerable our identity is it should make us all think. It also makes me wonder about how much of my identity is being used elsewhere around the globe without my knowledge.
How much of my identity do I just give away without even thinking about it? If you knew where to look on the Web I suspect you could find out enough about me to be convincing enough if you wanted to impersonate me.
tags: identity+theft
If you can't measure it you can't manage it
The other day I wrote a post about the process of problem resolution. This follows on.
one of my earliest mentors used to use this phrase almost every day.
“If you can’t measure it you can’t manage it”
If truth be known he used it so often we hated it. I find that the shoe is on the other foot and that it is me who uses this very same phrase (or variants of it) time and time again. In most cases I use it when talking about the resolution of problems.
My own variant on it is to say that if it can’t be measured it doesn’t exist. It’s a slightly provocative way of getting people to focus on the facts. Focus on the measurements that do exist, if they aren’t measured or can’t be measured they aren’t there. I find it’s a great way of getting people to focus on defining the problem rather than focusing on a set of issues. Most IT systems seem to have some issue or other.
When I first heard this phrase the issue of measurement was huge. The IT systems that we were trying to analyze were relatively simple single box systems. The metrics available to us were very limited. For the most part things either worked or they didn’t. When they didn’t there was a Hex Dump to grind through.
Today’s systems have a different problem. Today’s problem is deciding what to measure so that the system would keep working and not spend all of its time collecting metrics. The chances are that you haven’t been collecting the right information historically because it was too system intensive.
The skill of measurement and management is still, therefore, the same as it’s always been. You need to know what measure will tell you what and what it won’t tell you. Knowing that means that you need to know far more about a system than most people seem to want to know these days.
tags: problem_management, measurement
Graham Chastney 