Category: Technology

UK Identity Card Database Physically Destroyed

The other day i was sat pondering what had happened to the identity Cards infrastructure after the project had been scrapped.

Well today I came across this video:

ID Cards Database Destroyed

I’ve watched the progress of the UK Identity Cards project for quite some time, primarily because of the writing’s of Kim Cameron.

From Kim’s perspective the project was doomed from the start, because it broke the fundamental Laws of Identity.

Readers of Identityblog will recall that the British scheme was exceptional in breaking so many of the Laws of Identity at once.  It flaunted the first law – User control and Consent – since citizen participation was mandatory.  It broke the second – Minimal Disclosure for a Constrained Use – since it followed the premise that as much information as possible should be assembled in a central location for whatever uses might arise…  The third law of Justifiable Parties was not addressed given the centralized architecture of the system, in which all departments would have made queries and posted updates to the same database and access could have been extended at the flick of a wrist.  And the fourth law of “Directed Identity” was a clear non-goal, since the whole idea was to use a single identifier to unify all possible information.

It also stands out as an example of poor Conceptual Integrity – get it wrong at the outset and you end up in a complete mess.

The Power of WordPress Infographic

I am a big fan of WordPress and a big fan of Infographics, so what could be better than an Infographic about WordPress:

From Techking

The Evolution of the Geek

Do you class yourself as a Geek?

That’s all well and good, but what type of Geek are you?

The Evolution of the Geek

From Flowtown blog.

The Conversation Prism V3

An update to the Conversation Prism Infograph.

Chatworth with the FamilyThe prism shows 28 different categories of technologies that support the current complex set of conversations that we all have, everything from Wiki to Streams and Social Commerce to sCRM.

As someone who works within the corporate IT world there are a number of very prominent organisations we barely feature , or don’t feature at all: Microsoft, Oracle, HP, SAP. The high levels of choice also shows that we are a long way from many of these capabilities becoming universal, and for some even mainstream.

I’m also sure that we’ll see some of these capabilities collapse into other capabilities. There’s also a massive difference between wide adoption and deep adoption. Anyone who assumes that just because they are using Facebook for 2 hours a day means that everyone else is – is mistaken.

Who’s Suing Whom In the Telecoms Trade?

Really enjoying today’s Information is Beautiful chart on the legal action taking place across the telecoms market:

interesting to see Apple at the centre of so much attention, and Nokia as the instigator of so much of the attention.

Branding Colours – on the Web

I love inforgraphiics.The people over at colourlovers.com have done an assessment of the most powerful colours in the world, including the colours of the most powerful web presences. It’s really interesting to see the influence of reds and blues but also the power of multi-coloured approaches that focus on the primary colours (below). If you are thinking of launching a social networking site though, you need to make sure that your icon uses blue.

It’s also interesting to see how different this is to the spread of colour for corporate America overall.

Technology is making us rude

Another day, another conference call, another set of instant messages, some SMS messages and lots of rudeness.

When the Music StopsI would like to confess that today I have:

  • Joined a conference call without introducing myself.
  • Had an Instant Message conversation with someone I have never met and not even said “hello”.
  • Looked at my BlackBerry while talking to someone, to check an email.
  • Left a conference call to speak to someone else, while the call was still running, and not said anything. I just walked away.
  • Created a slide deck while on the same call – for a completely different project. I nearly had to confess to this rudeness and say “I’m sorry, can you say that again”.
  • Sent an SMS text message to someone without any pleasantries at all.
  • Ignored a phone call – because I knew who was phoning.
  • Stopped listening to someone sat next too me, because I was giving more attention to the PC screen in front of me.
  • Turned up late to a conference call and didn’t apologised for my lateness. These calls never start on time, do they?
  • Ignored a whole set of Instant Message conversations that people are wanting to have with me.

In short – very rude, but very normal.

You might argue that some of this is not really rudeness at all, but that would be putting a gloss onto something that is becoming an endemic issue.

Anyone else like to confess?

Random Thoughts for the Bank Holiday Weekend

I try to put together a well constructed post with something meaty to it at least once a week, but this week hasn’t been one of those weeks, so here are some random thoughts and stories:

  • Twitter on the BlackBerryAfter spending most of a day in a room with no light and very poor air-conditioning I again realised how destructive the working environment can be to productivity.
  • Team dynamics are constantly in play. Just because you’re “performing” in one place doesn’t mean you aren’t “storming” in another.
  • After sitting in a freezing cold office with the desk that backs onto a window I again realised how destructive the working environment can be to productivity.
  • Power and heating are still huge issues for IT. Many a fancy gadget is ruined by the need to carry around a power supply.
  • There are still far too many places without good mobile network coverage. It cannot be assumed that everyone, everywhere has, or can have network access. And in some of them you can’t even make a phone call.
  • The topics I think are going to be contentious – often aren’t. It’s the things I think are simple and straight forward that always catch me out.
  • Some things have annoyed me for more than 20 years.
  • After starting a group on Facebook for a reunion I realised the power of visual memories once I posted some old, old pictures.
  • I still hit ; when I mean ‘ far too many times.
  • Twitter is good for simple responses, but terrible for a conversation. This was made evident when two conversations overlapped with hilarious consequences – were we talking about underpants or Chrome?
  • It’s very difficult to type on a BlackBerry when your thumb is bandaged.
  • After reading a set of documents that didn’t answer a single one of the questions that we being asked I realised that people will spend days and weeks doing anything, rather than go through the agony of asking for help.
  • Having been misquoted by a number of people I was reminded, again, that people don’t always hear what is being said.
  • When being asked for my advice I know that on many occasions people are really asking me to take a decision for them, even when it’s their responsibility to answer the question.
  • One of my many faults is that I always expect people to know what I know. It’s irrational, I know, but it’s something that I do.
  • And finally for today, here’s a little experiment for you. If you draw the capital letter Q on your forehead leaving you finger where you finished. The side of your forehead where your finger ended up tells you something about how you see the world – I’ll let other explain.

Confessions of an Information Addict

"My name is Graham and I’m addicted to information."

There I’ve admitted it, and as they say admission is the first step in the recovery process.

Silverdale and Morecombe BayA little while ago I wrote a blog making a joke of how I could waste a while day doing absolutely nothing at all. There’s another saying: "many a true word said in jest" and, as you’ve guessed, there is a good sized dollop of truth in that post.

I could, if I allowed myself, waste hours scanning for information, feeding on it, searching it out, getting to the end of a chase.

I don’t think I’m alone in this issue, so I thought I would share some of my journey and why I’ve got to the point where I call it an addiction.

This morning was a wonderful example of the issues that I face. Today I had two presentations that needed to be completed for sessions later in the week. I knew how long they would take, and what needed to be done. Did I sit down and get on with it – did I heck – I fed my habit, scanning blogs and emails and enjoying a trip down a few information rabbit holes. I did eventually get the presentation sorted, but just in time, and with just about enough effort.

But is addiction too strong a word for it, aren’t I just doing my job. Well I  also know a good deal about addiction. One of the things that I do outside of work is to help with a group that supports people in need, some of them struggling with addiction. There are a lot of parallels, but I’ll leave that for another time.

I’ve been looking for a new series for a while now; sometimes the obvious answer is the one directly in-front of you.

My Tools: WordPress for BlackBerry

It’s not often that I write blog posts while I’m mobile. If I’m going to write anything I’ll normally twitter. But there are times when a thought comes to me that is more than a tweet and is worth writing there and then rather than waiting until I am home.
It’s not always a good thing to be too immediate about things, but there is a time and place for it. It’s at those times that I turn to WordPress for Blackberry, and to prove the point I’m using it right now.
If I got more comments I’d probably also use it for keeping up to speed with the stream.
We have only just started the mobile revolution even. We’ve been working at it for some time now. In years to come we will do things while we are mobile that we can only imagine today. The devices that we have today are going to change radically as the computing power, storage and connectivity capabilities accelerate.
Writing a few words into a simple app might not be that radical, but it’s a signpost of the things that are to come.

A Lack Of Planning On Your Part Does Not Constitute An Emergency On Mine

This is also one of my sayings so thought I would share it:

Unfortunately in the job that I do saying these words rarely makes a difference to the outcome – and the effort that I have to put in to help someone with their “lack of planning”.

The thing is, I feel like I know the gentleman in the picture, but can’t place him?

Blogging – 5 years on (well nearly)

I’ve been blogging for nearly 5 years now. It will be 5 years proper in April, but I’m likely to forget then, so I’m commemorating this event now.

A Trip to Hadrian's WallActually my first post was on 04/04/05 and sometimes I wished I’d posted a day earlier so it could have been 03/04/05, but I wasn’t that fortunate.

The first words weren’t very profound, but we’ve been on a long journey since then:

Welcome to my new home for Oak Grove.

This site will continue to focus on my work-type related stuff. I’m also planning something new for more general information and musings.

Graham

The description of “work-type related stuff” has probably been quite fair. My work is quite broad and increasingly focussed on concept and ideas rather than on technology products. The change in post topics has reflected this – I don’t think I’ve written about a technology product for some time, and the most popular posts at the moment are on team dynamics and rich pictures.

I continue to be hugely interested in how technology can add value to peoples day to working life – and the massive void between the technology available and the technology being exploited. Businesses move at a pace that is a mystery to me and I have to admit that I am still perplexed by what it takes to influence people to change. Someone once said “when the pain of staying the same is greater than the pain of change – you will change” but that seems a bit negative.

Writing about concepts is much more difficult than writing about products, the audience is smaller too, but I’ve always written about things that I find interesting and will continue to do so.

The work on rich pictures has lead to some great conversations with my peers and customers. Much of this conversation has been carried out behind the firewall, as we move forward with our own internal social and enterprise networking exploitation, something that wouldn’t have happened 5 years ago.

Over these last 5 years my working life has changed massively, but there are yet more massive changes ahead. I think I’ll leave that for another post though. One of the things that I do intend to do in the coming months is to revisit the subject of the brain mainly to assess how this changed the way that I think personally.

Castle CragBack then I wrote under the name “oak grove”, there’s some history to that name, but I’m not going to get into that today. One thing that has changed has been the lack of Jimmy and Grandad. I’m not sure why that happened, it just seemed to come to a natural end. Perhaps it’s time to bring them back. What do you think?

I’ve also been writing my Blessings posts for most of that time too; these posts come less often mainly because I find they need a bit more work and for me to have the time to be creative. Some of the responses that I receive to these posts are wonderfully profound and often a privilege to receive.

To those of you who have been with me on this journey – thank you for your input. To those of you who are a little newer on the road – welcome.