Google Wave

Google Wave is breaking new ground in the collaborative environment. I know that people are not happy about having to wait for invitations or the system isn't running perfectly. It is PREVIEW or pre-beta. Google has broken new ground by opening up development projects that would normally have never been used or even known for months later. They use the feedback from these experiences to further improve the software for the public release. By involving ourselves in this endeavor we, the community, have certain responsibilities:

1. Be patient and realize that Google has their schedule and that schedule may change at any time. We don't influence the schedule
   
2. Realize that any part of the system may or may not work at any time. By agreeing to participate we were not guaranteed a working system
   
3. Provide honest feedback about the functionality and suggest improvements
   

Other software providers who have been traditionally closed are slowly moving in this direction. We, the preview testers, can make this the way of the future by working with the providers and not against them.

For a good introduction to how to use Wave visit Gina Trapani's Wave 101 at: http://lifehacker.com/5376138/google-wave-101

TED Talk on Wisdom

I just finished listening to Barry Schwartz's talk on the "Loss of Wisdom" given at TED in February 2009. This is an outstanding talk and really gets to the root of some of the issues that caused this current economic crisis and are also causing companies to be stuck in a crisis circle.

Barry makes very clear points with examples that rules and incentives are NOT the solution to our problems. The issues we face are, in his words, "often ambigous and ill defined". It isn't possible to write rules to solve these issues. Each situation is different. We must apply morals, wisdom (maybe collectively known as common sense) to each situation in order to solve it. Responding by developing guidelines or rules that "must be followed" are not the solution and in fact more often than not will cause even more problems in the long run.

Everyone should listen to this talk (see the link). There is something in it for everyone regardless of your position in a company or society.

The talk is available at http://www.ted.com/talks/barry_schwartz_on_our_loss_of_wisdom.html and also on iTunes.

Your Digital Reputation

http://thefuturebuzz.com/2009/02/28/digital-reputation/


I thought this was a good article. Sometimes we don't realize that sites such
as Facebook, Linkedin, mySpace, Twitter, mailing lists and so on are cataloged
and available for searching. Even if we have turned up maximum privacy, our
comments or pictures may be found on other people's sites that have less privacy.

These days employers DO search these sites for information about prospective
employees. Speaking from my own experience, I google EVERYONE that is a business
partner. That "funny" picture at a party, slouching in a chair or comment that
might seem inappropriate when the background isn't known would be the one thing
that causes someone else to be chosen for a job.

That certainly doesn't mean that we shouldn't use these new social media tools
but only that we should keep in mind how others would use them and how we want
others to view us. Yes, some things will get posted by others that we can't
control but we can control what we post and how we want the world to see us.

Properly used, these social media sites can be a very powerful force that will
open doors to opportunity that a simple old-fashioned resume never would.

2009 - The Rebirth of In-house Development

The change in the dynamics of the world economic situation will change how companies consider capital investments. In particular, the high cost: initial license, implementation and ongoing warranty costs of software will receive a very high focus. As companies, even whole industries, realize that they need to make radical and fast changes to their business models there will be a mandate for the software systems to change at the same rate of speed. The current model of using Commercial Off-the-shelf software (COTS) and high cost implementation consultants will not be able to respond to this new situation.

In the 1970s and 80s there were large in-house IT development staffs that in the 90s were seen as resistant to COTS and client-server. This was true. However, now we have a new paradigm of agile, "open" development that really does connect the end customer of the software with the developers (eXtreme Programming and similar methodologies). Using these "new" methodologies we can reintroduce the in-house programming teams and couple them with the open source community to leverage an even bigger effort to develop and maintain software. The in-house staffs can keep the software current with business requirements and feed those changes back into the community.

For most companies, the support software isn't strategic to the company's success. It is only a tool. If they are using a system such as SAP R/3, Oracle's manufacturing system or others then they probably only use a fraction of the total capability, yet pay a license for much more. By leveraging the Open Source Community they will not be put at a competative disadvange, rather will be able to be at an advantage by reducing costs while increasing the speed at which they can change their internal processes.

In 2009 we will see that systems such as OpenBravo, Alfresco, Knowledgetree and Pentaho become more prevelant. Protocols such as XMPP/Jabber will be used to power scalable interfaces between modules of these systems as well as with companies, their customers and suppliers such as it has with the Evergreen Library system.

A New Paradigm?

Back in the 80s it was said that no manager would be fired for selecting IBM (mainframe or software). Along came a paradigm shift from the big iron mainframes to smaller, client-server based systems. SAP was(and is) the leader in these systems. However, they have lost sight of why companies switched from the "big iron" and in-house supported COBOL/CICS systems. It was because the client-server gave flexibility. However, over the years it has grown into exactly like the software it replaced. Big, bulky, slow to change, difficult to implement. Expensive to support (both hardware and software). No longer with SAP and similar systems be a "given".

A new paradigm shift will be accelerated by our current economic downturn. Innovative companies will return to the roots of having a core staff of in-house Business Process/Programmer combination people that can leverage the power of various FLOSS ERP systems and their supporting communities. The result is that systems such as Compiere, OpenBravo and other systems will move toward a large scale Enterprise support. Utilizing technology such as Evergreen does with XMPP these systems will be scalable from the smallest implementation on one PC server to supporting Enterprises all over the world.

Finally, organizations will be able to innovate their support systems at the same speed as they need to innovate their business. Waiting for months (if not longer) for "the next release" will be a thing of the past. AND that folks is what we need in the 21st century.
(copy of a comment that I made on "The Register" this morning")

Saving 2.5 million jobs in the USA

S(originally posted 11/23/2008)

President-elect Obama has announced "a bold initiative to save or create 2.5 million jobs in the next two years". (source: www.change.gov) Hopefully he (and his staff) will examine the reasons why jobs in the USA are lost to other countries. One of the leading reasons is that costs are just too high in the USA. Contributing to that is not only the cost of labor but the total cost of the product which includes all costs of a business. Companies today spend a TREMENDOUS amount of money on software and other support process. By tackling those costs
and applying such modern techniques as Agile Programming, utilizing Open Source and the power of "community" a companies total cost can be reduced. This would lead not only to better processes since the software would exactly support the business but also a lower total cost.

Some might say that it is only a fraction of total cost since labor is a high percentage. The actual savings from having streamlined software tools (not big, bulky, hard to configure, expensive "off the shelf" software) and the impact on speeding up process improvements is unknown. My opinion is that it would be a positive exponential impact on the speed of innovation. That makes it worthwhile.

Whoever is selected as the USA's CTO should have an Open Source Summit. Properly executed it could become the USA's competitive advantage.

Automotive Bailout

(Originally posted 11/22/2008)

Recent news stories have chronicled the push by the "Big 3" American automotive manufacturers for a "Bailout" by the U.S. Government. I won't go into their reasons and pleas.. those are better found elsewhere. Correctly, the US Congress has temporarily denied the request and sent the CEO's home to return with a "plan". What will this "plan" contain? That is the big question. There is some focus on having product that is environmentally friendly and less dependence on fossil fuels. While that is part of the answer it alone will not solve the issues.

We've had the same basic design in vehicles since the early days. 4 wheels, axles, drivetrain, an engine and steering. Around all of this fits a body. The OEMs release yearly "models" that appeal primarily to our visual senses. The basic "vehicle" doesn't really change. Our society today has changed. We want uniqueness in our life. We don't want to wait on anything. Our lives move at a very fast pace. We expect everything around us to move accordingly. Result of this is that the automotive industry must reinvent itself to support this uniqueness and fast paced lifestyle of it's customer.

MRP II/ERP, Production lines, firm zones, releases, schedules and other relics of the past no longer work. The successful company of the future will toss out all of these concepts of the last century. They will find new processes that will be the death of the "model " and "model year" as we know it. Every vehicle will be uniquely configured by the end customer and delivered in a fast timeframe. This so called "cookie-cooker" car where the customer can choose his own configuration will require a total rework of the production and supply chain processes.

Trying to have incremental changes won't make it. Usually what happens in that case is more layers are added to the processes, more reports are generated but totally new processes are not innovated. We need this innovation. It last happened in the 1960s when there was a strong focus on getting to the moon. We need to rediscover that level of innovation. Totally new processes and products need to happen in terms of months, not years. It can be done. Not without risk but it takes risk to really have innovation.

Two quotes attributed to Henry Ford are: " Failure is only the opportunity to begin again more intelligently" and "Life is a series of experience, each of which makes us bigger even though it is hard to realize this. For the world was built to develop character, and we must learn that the setbacks and griefs which we endure help us in our marching onward."

Congress is right, a plan is needed. What is not needed is a bailout that finances business as usual.

Lets reinvent the industry and march onward.