Rants and Raves of Marc Dimmick

2011 has ended, so where will the Technology go in 2012

2011-12-02T14:26:00.001+08:00

127 days, 19 hours, 16 mins and 02 seconds
till my Churchill Trip - 11th May - 13th July 2012
Perth>SF>Seattle>Austin>NY>Boston>London> Heidelberg >Salzburg>Vienna>Singapore>Perth

2011 has been the launch of many different tablets. Apple has the iPad 2 and I would suspect that iPad 3 is close around the corner. There are roamers that something will be announced at iWorld. Samsung has let a cat out of the bag with the announcement of a new System-On-Chip (SOC) Exynos 5250. They have indicated the capabilities and specs and some believe it is the strongest indication of where iPad 3 may be heading.

Apple has been in the courts battling with Samsung over the Galaxy Tab 10.1 over IP, but all they have done is highlighted that this may be something to checkout. And boy have you seen the ads, and when they come on everyone is aware of Samsung and the Galaxy Tab. Well done Apple great advertising campaign for Samsung. Are Apple afraid that it is too good and could take market share from the iPad, why don't they just let the market decide. Apple user will stick with Apple but the undecided will now wait because Apple has made such a point maybe there is more to the Samsung offering to consider. This may or may not be true but you would have to ask why a company with such innovate products would try so hard to stop someone from getting their product to market, there has to be more than just being a look alike.

I believe that tablets will now start to come out with more power, features and function and the price will also drop. We are seeing it happen already with Sony just in the last couple of days reduced the cost of theirs table S by $100.

The Operating Systems are all starting to level out, take a look at iOS, Android 4 (ICS) and Windows 8. These OS's are all now taking into consideration the touch experience on large format tablets. I still say there is an issue with data input and that the devices that will win in the end will have a pen device which recognise hand writing, and utilise Wacom technology. The important part is that you can search your hand writing. There is no point in having the hand writing capabilities and not being able to search that writing. You are then reduced to searching visually, with a couple of documents that is fine but if you are serious this is totally impractical.

The other areas which is starting to really pick-up is the Ultra-books. These are starting to become serious desktop replacement material. Currently I am researching more into finding the ultra that has the power and capabilities of a desktop. Connecting to a screen and keyboard for when you are working from a fixed position then detaching easily to become totally mobile.

Over 2011 the table market has hit the Desktop PC market the greatest. I believe that end of the market will start to change in a big way to end up with very small foot print devices. So as I indicated last year the old desktop as we know it will become smaller and smaller mobility with the growth area. Especially with the tablets and Ultrabooks, what will add to the Ultrabooks and which is starting to show with the tablets is having an imbeded phone sim capability. A big area for improvement is the screen technology. Its fine having all the mobility but if you can not read the screen while you are mobile then where is the value of the mobility. We started to see the Pixel Chi screen coming out with their liquid paper technology making the screen readable in full sun light. I suspect this screen technology as seen in the Kindle will get even better and full colour.

Another screen technology is the transparent screens, if you saw the move Avatar you will understand the concept. Recently some people at MIT have developed transparent battery technology so this will add more to the possibilities.

The next area we will see some big steps I believe with be in the bluetooth arena. Providing the connection to your mobile device and having all the functions of your phone. The audio area with better bluetooth ear pieces, bluetooth storage devices and you are already seeing digital camera's with wireless capability to transmit their photos to you computer or onto the net directly.

The place to see what we will be getting is at the International Consumers Electronics Show (CES) Jan 10-13th in Las Vegas. Follow it online unless you are lucky enough to get there in person.

So where do I see it going this year:

1. Tablets will keep dominating the market. ICS, Win8 and iOS are all out there these devices will really take off

2. I hope Apple gets back to it game of innovation and leaps ahead of the game and gets out of the courts. Its harder to copy if you are leagues in front. But once the competition gets in front then the challenge becomes harder. Has Apple lost its way? have they reached their pinical of innovation? We will see this year hopefully

3. There will not be any major updates to the range of Netbooks and they will disappear if not this year by 2013.

4. Ultrabooks will become even more powerful with better battery technology they will start to have a major impact on the desktop and they will become cheaper.

5. There will become more technology integration with the phone and other technology, storage, internet, cameras the lines will start to blur.

6. Finally I believe and hope there will be the appearance of more surface technology. Microsoft is one of the leaders in this space. They demonstrated their version 2 surface last year at CES 2011 what will come this year? This is becoming more cost effective and there will be some of this technology demonstrated at CES this year. The Minority Report, have a look at the real thing and Avatar were great examples of the real direction this technology is starting to move. To see some great examples take a look at 'A Day Made of Glass'

i.e. an example of some of the types of integration can be seen with ASUS Padphone.

ASUS Padphone

I am really looking forward to what comes next.

Form over Function

2011-11-25T06:38:00.001+08:00

167 days, 23 hours, 6 minutes and 3 seconds
until my Churchill Trip - 11th May - 13th July 2012
Perth>SF>Seattle>Austin>NY>Boston>London> Heidelberg >Salzburg>Vienna>Singapore>Perth

The debate at the moment I believe is over form rather than function when it comes to tablet technology. People are getting caught up in the hype of the marketing and not considering function and fit for purpose.

Over the last year there has been many different tablet and net-book and now the ultra-books hitting the market. All with their many offerings, but when it gets down to it what are we looking for? What I see is many people are just adding another device to their stack. Another way to consume their own and others content. In fact I have an Android table which got a lot of praise and damnation, that being the "Notion Ink Adam".

As I said on the Notion Ink forum at the time when I purchased the tablet, it was innovative and was leading in a direction that many tablets did not. It was different and it took the mobility aspect to a new hight utilising the Pixel Qi display technology. Many of the tablets in the market place all claim to be capable in the mobile space but take them into the bright light as see what you can see. The adam goes from a back light device to liquid paper screen. In bright light I can continue to use the device where ever I am.

Camera, big thing with a lot of devices, one on the front and one on the back, the adam came up with a rotating camera so you only needed one. There are many little components of this device which I believe that were thinking outside of the box. Yes, there are issues and these were outside of the companies control, but the open source community came to the assistance and many different ROM's have now be developed which address a majority of issues the users paid.

It was very exciting when purchasing as it was done online and at a set hour in the day. There were hundreds online at 2am in the morning in Australia and around the world waiting to buy. I have not seen anything like it other than with Apple, but this company was not Apple it was a small company in India. There are still things to be sorted out with the device but I am still a very proud owner of a new innovative product. But this is not the issue of this posting.

The issue is Form over Function, many of the organisations I seen are jumping on the Apple bandwagon to get their iPad. Don't get me wrong I am not an Apple basher, I like the product. I have been a proud iPod user for years, my daughter and wife use MAC laptops and my daughter is about to get an iPad. For what they are used for they are fantastic, easy to use and able to consume a lot of different media. But what I am looking for in a portable tablet device is something that will provide me mobility but when I as sitting at my desk provide the necessary capabilities to replace my desktop. If the tablet has 3G capabilities then replace my phone. If I am going to be totally mobile then give me the tool to do the work.

I have to laugh when I see people showing off there mobile device and then the phone goes off. The next the next thing they need to get at their desktop to carry out further work. Then when they head off they pack the laptop as well. The portable and mobile concept just looks like it is adding something else to carry.

But there is another slate coming out which I believe is starting to head in the right direction. Not only is it a capable device but I believe it is heading in the right direction to become a desktop replacement as well. That is the Samsung PC Series 7 Slate. I has the power of an i5 CPU, 4Gb of RAM and 64 Gb of solid state drive and is only 13 mm think, front and rear cameras and with the docking station provides the ability to connect to a large screen when sitting at a desk and also comes with a nice blue tooth keyboard. With this device you have mobility and a real desktop replacement which can connect to the network via the Gigabit Ethernet connection in the docking station.

But one of the best parts and the part that really gets me excited about this technology is that it has a WACOM pen device. Using the pen which works exactly as like a real pen and you can lean on the device while writing. The other part that many people don't realise is that in Windows when you use the pen device, in an application like One Notes or any of the window product you can actually search your writing. Try that on any other device and you wont have such success or the ability to lean on the device while writing. The WACOM technology is something worth having.

This is the technology which will be worth watching.

Tablet Computers, Surface and the future

2011-10-31T12:25:00.000+08:00

192 days, 17 hours, 55 minutes and 28 seconds
until my Churchill Trip - 11th May - 13th July 2012
Perth>SF>Seattle>Austin>NY>Boston>London> Heidelberg >Salzburg>Vienna>Singapore>Perth

Well the tablets are coming think and thin. Its hard to imagine that the iPad was only launched back on the 27th Jan 2010 and since then we had the iPad 2 March this year. The iPad brought a lot of innovation since the tablets of old, but where is it going now? At the moment people would have to be wondering if the innovation has stopped and all we are going to see is the law suites over who had what first and owns the rights. :(

Well some companies are not just sitting around and to see some of the work that has come out in the area of Ultra-Notebooks, ie ASUS Ultra-notebook and Dell's Ultra with Optical Drive and Samsung Launches a Series 7 Chronos Notebook. These are quite exciting and quite powerfull devices. But the question is how much longer will these types of devices be around?

Samsung Series 7 CHRONOS Notebook

ASUS Ultrabook UX21

Mac Air

Dell XPS 14z Notebook

The other day I came across some more interesting video's produced by Microsoft in the area of surface technology. In many ways all these new tablet and smart phone devices are becoming thinner and more intergrated into our everyday lives. The video from Microsoft shows some of the direction where this is going and that the phone will be come more and more an everyday device with respect to communications, ticket, wallet and media communications device.

What is shows is that the technology will become more transparent. Yes physically as well as the product itself with respect to what it is to what does it do. More and more we are seeing people and their interactions with the technology become more intuitive. The technology is starting to fad and the functionality is all that is important. For our generation we will talk about the bits and bytes and what the underpinning technolgy is. But for our children and their children it will be a topic of the past.

My best example is with my own daughter. She has Down Syndrome but that does not stop her from engaging in the use of technology. Her school issued all the kids in her class for the last three years with MAC notebooks. Being a longtime PC user it has been foreign to me. But I see my daughter doing thing with that laptop that I have know idea how she has done it. She obiously learnt things at school, but she customises the user interface and how she works with it from her own knowledge to the extent that her school IT department are struggling to manage the device. :) (Smart Girl)

Our Smart Kids

More and more our exposure and experience with technology will be form an experiece perspective and the underlying technology will be a minor concern. People are more interested in what experience they can have with the technology. It either performs and is purchase or not, bring on the future

The Future is Here!

Time moves on

2011-10-27T14:03:00.000+08:00

196 days, 17 hours, 2 minutes and 11 seconds
until my Churchill Trip - 11th May - 13th July 2012
Perth>SF>Seattle>Austin>NY>Boston>London> Heidelberg >Salzburg>Vienna>Singapore>Perth

Time keeps moving

Its always intresting to see how time seems to be slow when you are waiting, and then you get going and time seems to spead up. I started blogging about my trip at the 294 days point as so I am about to trip over the first 100 days. In that time I have secured my locations of where I am going and a number of good contacts to visit and talk with. That exercise is still progressing and become more interesting each day as I discover other opportunities.

My next milestone comes from my army days when we counted down from 100 days. That was during my time at the Army Apprentice School of Music. That point was referred to as "Crab Night" and we would go all around town painting pictures of a crab with a number in it which would represent our years intake. Mine at that time was 29th, the goal was to get the image in the most unusal spot. We I won't be doing that but maybe put one up on this blog at the 100 day point, which will be the 1st Feb 2012.

As time moves on I am becoming more focused on what it is I hope to achieve. I have now brought it down to looking at the issue of interface design and usability from four angles. They are:

The user perspective: How they learn? What is good and bad in usability? What indicates to a user good usability?
The Developer: How does a developer consider usability? What are they trying to achieve? Is usability a consideration within the process of usability? Are they able to separate their passion to develop and take a user perspective in their work?
Manufacturers: How do they address this issue in their design? Is this a marketing issue or and engineering issue? Who defines the direction with usability? How is this defined?
Business: How do we re-engage business to be involved with the conversation of usability at the start of a project? Does business see a need or value? Why has business advocated this responsibility? Have they or is it a matter of an inability to communicate their needs? What can we do to engage and show the value to a business in being involved at the start and not complaining at the end?

These are my focus and I dare say I will not find all the answers but at lease I will be able to start the conversation towards a better user centric approach to the use of technology in general and specifically to mobile technology.

The other question which is highlighted with a recent patent awarded to Apple is should functional design beable to be patented? will this become an inhibitor to innovation? Many of the things we use today are built on the past.

A simple example is the mouse. Invented Dr Douglas Engelbart at Stanford Research Institute.

Dr Douglas Engelbart and the first mouse

Future Design Mouse

Imagine if that was patented to the extent that it stopped anyone from building and improving on it. These two mouse are basically the same. They plot on a flat screen the X ,Y coordinates of a cursor to a person to engage programs on a screen.

The other area is tablet computers and boy have they come a longway.

Star Trek Deep Space Nine

Star Trek the Original

Star Trek Next Generation

There is Kirk way back in about 1966-67 using a tablet computer with a pen device. Then Picard on Next Generation using quite a thin tablet. All well before the release of some of todays computer companies offering in this space. Admitidly they are only props but I dare say they were the seeds to some of the ideas that are presented today.

Where will it go, well you only need to look at movies like the Minority Report and Avitar. Then look at what Corning are doing. A good example can be seen on youtube, a video called the Day Made in Glass. Another good video is Microsoft's Surface 2 technology this is the future and it is on the door step of tomorrow. Only last year at CES Samsung display their Amoled transparent display technology.

To take it to the n'th degree check out the Mozilla Seabird Concept Phone. This is a concept but all of the technology is available today. So it is just a mater of time.

Transparent displays and devices that are aware of other devices to then transfer content. Recently a number of companies have released the bump technology to transfer between devices and MIT presented their research on transparent batteries so lots are on their way. Let hope this line of patent wars will not slow down innovation to see the world from one perspective. Its interesting to see the history of companies and where they have come from. The battles againt big corporates while they were small and the things they did to get where they are now, and to see that they are now the big corporates defending themselves and battling the small startup of the future. As they always say what comes around goes around.

Clarification of how I will approach the topic

2011-10-12T12:52:00.002+08:00

211 days, 17 hours, 50 minutes and 44 seconds
until my Churchill Trip - 11th May - 13th July 2012
Perth>SF>Seattle>Austin>NY>Boston>London> Heidelberg >Salzburg>Vienna>Singapore>Perth

The more I think of my topic the more I spend considering how I should approach the topic and get the most of the trip. In my previous blog I considered the questions I am looking to address, but as I read more I am starting to realise the approach and thought process will have a bearing on the outcomes.

The thinker

I have been reading an article which was written by Tim Brown of IDEO. The article itself can be found at Design Thinking .

One of the key pieces of information I got from this article was the definition of design think that was put simply,

"It is a discipline that uses the designer's sensibility and methods to match people's needs with what is technologically feasible and what a viable business strategy can convert into customer value and market opportunity."

But the main idea behind design thinking is that it is a "methodology that imbues the full spectrum of innovation activities with a human-centred design ethos." I really believe that we have to focus on the human-centred aspect but to do that there is an engagement process that has to be addressed.

Technology has to accept that whatever is designed it needs to be human-centred, but the other side of the debate is how do we engage the human side to own and get involved. Life was to become easier with all the new technology but it has not. It has become more complex and to many people frustrating. As Steve Jobs once quoted: "Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works."

I believe many forget that and that is one of the main points I am hoping to better understand. How do we go about better design with the respect to the use of this technology. How can we design to empower rather than dis-empower the end user.

Business and users know what works for them, they have been trailing and testing it for years. So how do we design those proven and tested processes so that we can get the efficiencies of the technology without reinventing proven processes which only need to be more efficiently expressed in the technology so that the technology becomes transparent.

The best example of transparent technology is watching owners of iPad's and a lot of apple products. If you engage them in a conversation about what they are doing you will hear about all the creative products that they produce and the enjoyment they get at producing it. Very rarely if ever with they talk about the technology.

Understanding Your Research Goal, Before Doing Your Research.

2011-09-27T21:14:00.000+08:00

226 days, 13 hours, 26 minutes and 31 seconds
until my Churchill Trip - 11th May - 13th July 2012
Perth>SF>Seattle>Austin>NY>Boston>London> Heidelberg >Salzburg>Vienna>Singapore>Perth

I have been listening to severalHBR (Harvard Business Review) Idea Cast and it has raised many ideas. One ofthe main themes that have been coming out of several the Podcasts was thatknowing the objective you are looking to achieve in what you do. As you mayhave guested this is the areas I am recording my journey in my researchoverseas for my Churchill Research Project.

The information I placed in myapplication for the 2011 Churchill Fellowship was:

"New Frontiers inTechnology for Child Protection

This project will explore howbreakthroughs in mobile technology can help social workers in the field, andproviding an improved child protection service. It will examine how to removeusability barriers imposed by the complexity of unwieldy applications anddevices. It will try to remove, or moderate, the impersonal use of technologyin meetings, with clients, where a high degree of empathy and emotional intelligenceare needed. Working with experts in child protection this project will seekways to record and process information captured in the field using a newgeneration of smart devices and innovative software applications. Key goalswill be in a drop in staff workload, improved access to information forcolleagues, and a rich interaction with clients strengthened by the removal oftechnology barriers. A decreased in computer training can be achieved due to betterunderstanding of usability and human interfaces into these devices. This will allowstaff more time to focus on relationships with clients."

During my time since being awardedthe scholarship I have been thinking more about my topic in this research.Working to better understand what it is I hope to communicate in my finalpaper. Trying to better understand howmy trip better arm me with the necessary information to address my topic. Butto understand what I will need, I need to better explain exactly what I amtrying to achieve. In other words my objectives and why I am going where I amgoing as well as why am I meeting the companies and people that I haveidentified so far.

I am looking to address my topicfrom four aspects. They are:

1. Technology - Theactual device be it a tablet, laptop, ultra- laptop and desktop computer

2. Software – Thedesign of the software and the usability aspects of that software

3. Business – How dowe re-engage business to usability? To be involved in the discussion before theproduct or services is developed

4. Usability– In general how do we go about addressing usability both indesign of specific technology and then the interfaces into the systems that areused on this technology?

To addressthese questions I am working to meet with several different people, companiesand organisations involved in technologies. In meeting with these organisationsI am hoping to better understand the questions that need to be asked andconsidered where building, developing and using technology. Other organisationsI hope to meet and talk with are organisations which use technology andunderstanding how they have addressed these questions and do they have some ofthe answers.

My first stopwill be San Francisco (SF) where I have made contact with Stanford Universitywhere I will be meeting Professor Terry Winograd. He is a professor of computerscience and is involved with the Human Computer Interaction (HCI) Department.He has invited me to visit and to be involved in any of the workshops thatmight be running at that time. Here I hope to find out about the study of humancomputer interaction and what is studied.

While in SF Iam also arranging to meet representations at Cisco, Facebook, Google and Apple.But as it still is sometime before I head off I am waiting to make contactearly in the New Year. I am fortunate to have a close friend, Jack & Lucy whonow lives in SF and works for Cisco.

Following SFI then head to Seattle to meet with Microsoft. I am hoping to see their futureslaboratories but this is to be confirmed. I have made contact with the ChildProtection Agency in Seattle but still waiting on a response. I will followthis up in the New Year. From Seattle I then head to Austin Texas where I willbe visiting Motion Computing a manufacturer of tablet computers. Looking attheir work with tablets and how they go about design their product. While inAustin I am hoping to catch up with the Department for Child Protection who dida case study on their use of tablet computers in the field. And finally I havereceived confirmation from Craig Tomlin to meet and discuss his work in Usability. I came across Craig on a blog discussing his views about usability and it was a re-buttle to a response to his article from Charles Mauro of Mauro New Media. I then head to New York to actually me up with Charles.

In New York I have confirmed meetings with Charles Mauro, Adam Greenfield of urbanscale LLC | Design. Adam I came across in a book he wrote called "Everyware" - The dawning age of ubiquitous computing. After reading this book I then started to research Adam and found him in New York and approached him to see if he would meet to discuss some of his idea. He has agreed and is another of my interviews. I have also arrange meetings with the Chief Software Architect of Epicenter Consulting. As well as a number of other contact if I get the time. One of the other locations I am hoping to visit is the IBM futures laboratories just outside of NY but this is still being worked on.

I then head off to Boston to visit MIT - Massachusetts Institute of Technology. This has been one of the locations I have dreamt about and the opportunity presented itself. I have made contact with a professor involved in HCI and Usability and will be meeting. I am still trying to find a contact at Harvard to see if I could discuss the business angle with this research project. From Boston I then head to London, UK.

In London I am still working on my contacts. Child Protection in the UK comes under Health but is managed in the shires and Burroughs. I am fortunate in that I have a contact in the Department here in WA who has worked in the UK in the area and working on a contact there. From London I then head to Heidelberg to visit SAP.

SAP recently purchased a company called Sybase and they have a technology which is used in the production and deployment of mobile solutions. At this point in time I don't have much more information. I will be flying into Frankfurt and then taking a train to Heidelberg. From Heidelberg I then catch a train to Salzburg.

In Salzburg I will be visiting the university of Salzburg and their HCI department. Again I have made contact with one of the professors their and this discussion is to be further developed. I am there as with most places for a week so I am leaving this opportunity open to see what I can achieve. From Salzburg I then catch a train to Vienna.

In Vienna I will be visiting C.U.R.E. the Centre for Usability Research and Engineering. I have has some initial discussions with one of the staff at this centre and this will get further developed early next year. Finally after eights weeks I then head to Singapore via London.

Singapore is 4-5hrs from Perth and will be where I was going to take a break. But I just can't help myself and have already found a connection there. I have made contact with MicroUsability one of the largest usability organisations in the world which is based out of Mumbai. Again I have a confirmed contact and will be corresponding in the New Year to fix dates and times.

When I arrive in Singapore I will be meeting up with my wife after the initial 8 week for a bit of a break. Before heading back to Perth and work on the 16th July after leaving on the 11th May I would have travelled over 29,000 miles and meet many different people and hopefully be in a better position of understanding to be able to offer some insights into better designs for usability aspect in the area of Child Protection.

Stay tuned for more information as it come to hand.

Leg No 10: - Singapore - 7th - 13th July

2011-09-15T14:25:00.000+08:00

238 days, 15 hours, 27 minutes, 38 seconds
until my Churchill Trip - 11th May - 13th July 2012
Perth>SF>Seattle>Austin>NY>Boston>London> Heidelberg >Salzburg>Vienna>Singapore>Perth

The final leg of this trip is to Singapore. To date I don't have anyone lined up. This is still being worked on and is not part of my official trip. I have added 1 week of my own leave to relax and will be meeting up with my wife as I would have been away for 8 weeks. But, as they say while I am here I will take any opportunity that presents itself.

To that end I am looking to find information about any company or organisation in the field of UX (User Experience) or manufacturing mobile technology to see. I will also be looking to see if there is any alignment with any government body as well.

More details will follow as I make contacts in Singapore.

Leg No 9: - Vienna, Austria - 29th June - 6th July

2011-09-09T21:54:00.001+08:00

244days, 17 hours, 17 Minutes, 17 Seconds
until my Churchill Trip - 11th May - 13th July 2012
Perth>SF>Seattle>Austin>NY>Boston>London> Heidelberg >Salzburg>Vienna>Singapore>Perth

The next part is a train trip to Vienna. In Vienna I am hoping to spend some time with a number of people at the Centre for Usability, Research and Engineering (C.U.R.E) During my time I am hoping to get some idea as to how such an organisation goes about looking in to the science of use ability from a physical aspect.

Vienna Pallas Athene Fountain Parliment Building

My initially contact they were unsure of what I was looking to do and felt there was nothing they did would be of interest or relevant. Upon discussing with one of the staff there Lars he had a better understanding of what I was doing. I look forward to my visit and spending some time with the team at C.U.R.E. Lars also pointed out the work that was being done at Salzburg that was one of my reasons for stopping there.

Natural History Museum

Leg No. 8 - Salzburg, Austria - 22-29 June 2012

2011-08-31T09:00:00.002+08:00

254 days, 06 hours, 10 minutes, 03 seconds
until my Churchill Trip - 11th May - 13th July 2012
Perth>SF>Seattle>Austin>NY>Boston>London> Heidelberg >Salzburg>Vienna>Singapore>Perth

The next part of my trip will be to Salzburg. I will be travelling via train which is expected to take an hour. My reason for visiting Salzburg is to meetup with some of the lecturers and professors at the university. In my research to date I had come across C.U.R.E (Center for Usability, Research and Engineering) and in discussion with one of their representatives they had indicated the strength of knowledge at the university.

Salzburg

In light of that I then have been emailing the university and its HCI (Human Computer Interaction) department to meet up and discuss issue with respect to usability and how this study is carried out. I have outlined the areas of interest and issues face by our department but in general most users. I wanted to get a better understanding of how I would go about understanding this science and how it can be applied to my project.
To date I have receive a couple of offers to catch up and explore these and other issue I discover in my travels.

Leg No. 7 - Heidelberg, Germany - 15-22 June 2012

2011-08-24T12:24:00.001+08:00

261 days, 02 hours, 36 minutes 00 seconds
until my Churchill Trip - 11th May - 13th July 2012
Perth>SF>Seattle>Austin>NY>Boston>London> Heidelberg >Salzburg>Vienna>Singapore>Perth

The next leg is to visit SAP in Heidelberg, Germany. I don't know much about this city but grew up in Germany. We lived in the North of Germany in a town called Fallingbostel.

Heidelberg Castle

SAP has taken on a new product with a company they had purchased and are dealing with mobile solutions in the area of software and the delivery on multiple platforms.

Leg No. 6 - London - 8th - 15th June 2012

2011-08-22T13:38:00.004+08:00

263 days, 01 hours, 40 minutes, 1 second

until my Churchill Trip - 11th May - 13th July 2012
Perth>SF>Seattle>Austin>NY>Boston>London> Heidelberg >Salzburg>Vienna>Singapore>Perth

The next leg will be to London from Boston. In London I hope to be visiting agencies that are using mobile technology in the field. I am looking to see what they have done and if and how they have addressed the usability aspects of taking on that technology.

what have been the considerations they needed to consider. What environments and situations will the end users find themselves and how have they found the value of the technology.

St Paul's Cathedral from the Banks of the Thames
©MarcDimmick 2011

London Bridge from the banks of the Thames©MarcDimmick 2011

These were photos, I took this year in London.

Travel arrangements have now been locked in so now I am finalising all the accommodation locations. Just about have all bar New York, and Salzburg. I am using airbnb.com for a lot of the locations and some really great locations and prices.

Leg No. 5 - Boston - 1-7th June 2012

2011-08-11T14:19:00.001+08:00

274 days, 0 hour, 41 minutes, 9 seconds

Boston, I will be traveling to there from New York via amtrak. I have used the trains before going to Washington from New York. This is a very enjoyable way to travel in the States, I am not sure if they have high speed rail as they do in Europe.

Typical train in the states

I have never been here so this is quite exciting. Due to the number of world famous universities and institutions, the likes of MIT and Harvard. I have been trying to make contact with each of these universities to hopefully meet and talk with people in the HCI (Human Computer Interaction) Departments.

Skyline of Boston

I am still working on trying to make contact with the different universities and institutes. As more details come I will update this blog.

Harvard University

MIT Dome

Not exactly sure but looks cool

Leg No: 4 - New York - May 25th / June 1st 2012

2011-08-08T10:36:00.005+08:00

277 days, 4 hours, 23 minutes

Well I get back to the big apple yet again. :) This will be my third time and I really love it. The architecture, the environment, the contrast.

My Visit to New York is meet up with a number of specialist in the field of Usability. I looking to meet with a number of Usability Experts.

Usability Expert: Charlies Mauro of Mauro New Media,

Adam Greenfield of Urbanscale and author of a very interesting book called "Everyware" which is about "The Dawning Age of Ubiquitous Computing". The book is about the form that computing will take in the next few years. Its about the vision of distributed processing power that basically computers will disappear in the way we know of them today. That computers will be so integrated into our lives that we will not see or think of them as computers. We will just engage within our environments and over time will not even be aware of where the line between carrying out a task and our engagement with using a computer.

Norman Vincent Peel

Someone who has had a big impact in my life on perspective. Wrote a very good book call the "Power of Positive Thinking". You should read it.

The Empire State Building

The first time I was here I got to 34th Street which is where the Empire State Building was situated. I looked around and I could not see the building. It was 10pm at night and the building across from me was only half light up. anyway I asked the Police Office where I could find the Empire State Building, he looked at me and said "you're not from around here are you?" no was my answer. He then proceeded to pointed over his left shoulder to the a building and said "that's it, there". I looked again "it's not that tall". He then advised me to check-it out in daylight.

Second Hand Rose
(Owned by Friend of Mine's Father)

This place is where a lot of movies are filmed in when they are looking for a street scene in New York. My friends dad specialise in Antique Wall Paper. The shop is very interesting inside, wall to floor antiques.

The Wedge
First Skyscraper in New York

I have a picture of this building over my bed and always wanted to see it for real, well I got the photo and I dare say I will try again as the weather last time was not to good.

IBM Research: The other areas I am hoping to get to is IBM's Research Laboratories. This I am still working on and when I have firmed up details I will post to the site. IBM also has research locations in Cambridge, Boston and there is my next leg within this trip.

Again accommodation has been arranged via airbnb.com.

Leg No: 3 - Austin Texas - 20th / 25th May 2012

2011-08-03T09:20:00.005+08:00

282 days, 5 hours, 55 minutes

**UPDATE: Change of Dates from 20-25th May to 23-25th May

Night seen of the city

In Austin I am hoping to catch up with two organisations. They being the Department for Child Protection and Motion Computing. Austin and Texas I know very little about. As a child I remember seeing the movies about the Texas Rangers and there is the discussion about their cattle stations being big but that is all I know. I have a little research to do before gettting there.

Austin, Capital Building

Department for Child Protection - I read a case study which indicated that the deparment is using tablet computers. So I am interested in finding out how they are using them, have they addressed the usability aspects I feel that get missed. If so how have they worked with the end user to achieve their results.

Motion Computing - I have been a user of their tablets for a few years and have found them to be very good. I am taking the opportunity of visiting the company to get a perspective of how they go about the design and building of these devices. How does usability aspects effect what they produce.

Again I have arranged my accomodation using a great site called http://www.airbnb.com. This site and its services have recently had an increase in funding and as a user of this service through Europe recently I have found it to be great. You can get everything from and igloo through to a castle and it can cost as cheap as $9 a night through to $2000+ so everyones tastes are covered. We used this site for accomodation in France, Lyon and Nice as well as the UK. It is well worth a go. All of my accomodation has been arranged using this service for my entire trip.

Leg No. 2 - Seattle - 19th / 23rd May 2012

2011-07-29T12:58:00.005+08:00

287 days, 1 hours, 57 minutes and 54 seconds

**UPDATE: Change of Date - 19 - 23rd from 16-20th (Still 5 days)

My second leg of my trip is to Seattle the home of the Space Needle and Microsoft.

While I am in Seattle I am looking to catch up with Microsoft to see what is happening in the area of Windows 8 which fingers crossed would have been release by the time I travel. The other is to catch up with one of the Child Protection agencies in Seattle.

Microsoft has a Research and Develop section and with some of my contacts I am hoping to see that area. I am wanting to gain an understanding of how they go about looking the user understanding and experience. At the Department Microsoft is predominantly used so having an understanding of the factors that are considered by this organisation can only give me a better understanding and appreciation of this whole environment.

Seattle Children's Hospital, Research, Foundation - This was another location I found and have written to asking if I could meet to discuss areas of my project. I was hoping to see if and how they have implemented technology solutions and what considerations they have taken in the consideration of the End User Experience (UX)

In my search of what else is happening in Seattle I also found that they have a Science Fiction Museum and I can get to have a seat in the chair of Captain James Tiberius Kirk, my childhood hero, this sound really cool. :)

Experience Music Project / Science Fiction Museum

Seattle is overseen by Mount Rainier which is about 3 hours for the capital.

The short period of time I am in Seattle I don't think I will get a chance to see this, which look quite increadable.

My next leg is to Austin to visit the Department for Child Protection and Motion Computing a manufacturer of tablet computers.

First Location after Leaving Australia - 11th / 19th May 2012

2011-07-28T13:57:00.005+08:00

288 days, 4 hours, 29 minutes and 37 seconds

**UPDATE: Due to some further contacts I have decided to extend the SF stay. 11th - 19th instead of 11-16th May. Responses from Stanford and other opportunities show that I can get far more for SF.

The first stop is San Francisco (SF). Flying East is really great after 14-16 hours of flying I arrive an hour after I have left on the same day. So this will be a very long day to kick of this trip. While I am in SF there are a number of things I hope to achieve. Dependent on the time and day I arrive I will have a couple of days to acclimatise and prepare for my visits.

I would like to see some of the sites of SF, these are the classic locations with Alcatraz, the trams, Golden Gate and finally the skyline over the city. Being a hobbiest photographer I would love to get some good photos.

Main Reason for Being in San Francisco

The main reason for picking SF was Silicon Valley and seeing some of the major companies that have a great influence on what we use our technology for and how we use it. These are Apple, Google and Facebook. I am looking to meet with representatives from these companies and to hopefully get a better understanding of how they address usability and interface design or what is referred to as User Experience (UX).

Apple, I believe has achieved a remarkable feat with making a piece of technology in to something we consume. The work that has been done with the iPad has been increadable feet of both marketing and functionality. I use the iPad as an example with respect that people will talk more about what they do with the iPad rather than the technology. You will see and hear people talk about their pictures or videos, with pride they just present the iPad with the images and talk about the images and their content. Its not about the technology and the CPU and how much memory the device has, but more of what and how they interact with that technology. So I would like to find out a little more on how and what goes into that thought process. At the moment still trying to get in to see them.

Google has achieve a lot with how we find information and our interactions in carrying out that task. Google the work itself has become an adjective with in our language. Don't quote me on it as grammar is not my forte, but people use it within conversation "have you googled that yet?".

The other area I am interested in finding out more about is their work in the Android area. I have had a smart phone for a number of years and have seen and used this OS from and early stage. I now have an Android tablet and while I was on the earlier versions of Android I considered it a geek device. I installed thing and uninstalled and experimented but it was not really a consumable device. Since I have installed Android Honey Comb the story has changed. It is now becoming a very functional device. The material I have seen for what is coming in Android 4 or "Ice Cream Sandwich" are very exciting. So having the opportunity to see what is happening in this area will be great. Still working on this contact.

Facebook, a friend of mine suggested this and at first I was not sure but the more I thought about it the more I could see the value. Facebook has become the social space where everyone around the world is coming together I now see businesses on TV with ads that include Facebook references. So understanding their views on social interaction and working with their software. What work is done on the understanding of the user and their experience. At time I have read damming articles talking about the lack of this as a consideration. Having an better insight into their processes would be good.

Stanford University - this is somewhere I would have loved to had the opportunity to study and learn. This is just a small way of achieving this and getting some insights into this specialty area of HCI (Human Computer Interface/Interaction, not use yet on the 'I'). In some information that I received from a contact in New York the field of HCI and usability has been around since the end of the Second World War. It is a specialise area of study and research and I will hopefully be catching up with Charles Mauro of Mauro New Media in New York to discuss further into my trip.

I have started to send out the emails to Stanford University to see if I could catch up with the HCI department or people working and studying in this area. As I gain appointments I will update my blog as to where and whom I will be catching up with. This blog will become my record of the trip and help towards the writing of my paper.

So this leg of the trip is a short leg and I hope to cover and see all of these organisation and contacts in 5 days I am there. My next location will be Seattle and Microsoft.

The Planning Starts - :)

2011-07-27T15:46:00.005+08:00

289 days, 0 hours, 48 minutes and 42 seconds

I have finally worked out my dates and the locations I am hoping to visit. One of the first things was to get a start on the Blog. I am hoping to log my experiences both in the planning and the actual trip. This gets more exciting each days as I look forward to reading my email to see who else I am able to line up to meet with and discuss my project.

At the top of each entry I will be entering my count down until I leave and this is based on leaving on the Friday 11th May 2012 at 3pm. That is based on my last trip overseas where we fly out of Perth at 3pm. That was a great trip, it was to celebrate our 20th Anniversary check it out. My wife Frances and I blogged the entire trip. I took photos and made basic entries and she wrote the majority on the trip.

So far for the trip I have created a google map as my details are firmed up I will attempt to maintain and update this map. The other part that I am doing is to maintain my documentation within the cloud. Google is very helpful with that as it is a part of their gmail account system. Now on with what I have done to date.

The goal is to leave on the 11th May 2012. I will be flying to the following locations over 9 weeks. The last week being some leave time and meeting up with my wife.

2012
Leave 11 May - Perth > Sydney > San Francisco (Via LA or Dallas?)
16 May - Fly to Seattle
20 May - Fly to Austin
25 May - Fly to New York
1 June - Train to Boston
8 June - Train to New York > Fly to London
15 June - Fly to Heidelberg
22 June - Train/ Fly to Salzburg
29 June - Train/Fly to Vienna
6 July - Fly to London > Fly to Singapore
13 July - Fly to Perth
16 July - Back At Work

So as you can see I will be packing in a lot of places. The model I am using though allows for time to rest and write up my notes and see a little of where I am visiting. I have tried where possible to fly on Friday's, have the weekend off to collect my thoughts and prepare for the week ahead. I have 10 stop offs for my trip over the next few days and weeks I will update the blog with each of the stops and who and what I hope to see and do.

Stay tuned. :)

2011 Churchill Fellowship

2011-07-15T09:01:00.004+08:00

Time before I head off on my trip and work on my project

(294 Days, 5 Hours, 59 Minutes and 11 seconds, but who's counting)

Guest what, I have been awarded the 2011 Churchill Fellowship. Yahoo... (That's and expression for the website). Yes, I want to blow my trumpet,because I am excited about this opportunity.

It all started with an email that was sent around to all staff that they should consider applying for the Churchill Fellowship. At first I was going to just delete it but then thought to check it out and see what it was about. After reading it I decided to give it a go. Basically it was anyone over the age of 18, Australian and who had an idea that they would like to research. You did not require any formal education just a passion and at the end of the experience to produce a paper. That paper needed a title, index, introduction an executive summary explanation of the programme, main body and conclusions and recommendation.

The important part was successful applicants then were sponsored to travel oversea to further that research. That sponsorship was from 4-12 weeks which was funded. So as with everything in life never know unless you try.

I proceeded to downloaded the application and to fill in the details. Personal Details, Education, Employment and then it started. I had to come up with a project title and then in a small area articulate my project. I had to get my point across clearly so that a non-technical person would understand. That has been the hardest part as you only have enough space for about 6-8 sentences.

After many trials and tribulations and with considerable assistance from one of my associates Gary, I achieved that goal.

"This project will explore how breakthroughs in mobile technology can help social workers in the field provide an improved child protection servcie. It will examine how to eliminate usability barriers imposed by the complexity of unwieldy applications and devices. It will try to eliminate, or moderate, the impersonal use of technology in meetings, with clients, where a high dgress of empathy and emotional intelligence are required. By working with experts in child protection, technology, usability and communications, this project will seek ways to record and process information captured in the filed using a new generation of smart devices and innovative software applications. Key goals will be a reduction in staff workload, improved access to information for colleagues, and a rich interaction with clients enchanced by the removal of technology barriers. A further, substatial, benefit will be a decreased need for computer training, due to a better understanding of usability and human interfaces into these devices, allowing staff more time to focus on relationships with clients."

The next section wanted to know what new knowledge do I hope to gain from my project, my response was:

"I hope to demonstrate better designs in the tablet and mobile technology markets that will lead to new opportunities in social work settings. What I learn will lead to a better understanding as to how to better design, build and use the next generation of mobile applications for use in social work. This hopefully will lead to breakthroughs in the natural way that social worker and clients will interact with minimal thought of the technology at hand. Providing information instantly, ensuring maximum accuracy and without need for re-entry and data being available to other staff."

Why do I need to travel overseas to obtain this knowledge?

"I need to travel overseas to observe the practical operations and the research in the area of advance interface design. These companies and Government agencies are addressing this field of study where we are just getting use to the idea of the technology will have a bearing on how we work. As we are only just starting to catch up with the software side of the technology, the mobile technology is over taking our understanding and usage within Government. I believe that interface is the missing component for maximising the use of this technology."

What experience do I have to undertake this project?

"I am a very experienced technology professional with over 25 years' experience. I previously judged in this area of interface design for industry awards. I have experience being involved in both functional workflow and end user design, having been a designer of interfaces for systems for the City of Greater Dandenong. Currently I am leading a project which uses mobile technology for Childcare licencing. The project will inform the exploration of the potential for better user design and adoption of newer mobile technology providing a better level service to our clients."

How will my project benefit the Australian community?

"Chage is one of the biggest challenges for everyone. That change and speed of change in mobile technology is enormous. Understanding how to apply good interface design to reduce the learning curve, increase productivity and speed up the transfer of information is paramount. To adopt that mobile technology and use it to its maximum benefit will only build a bigger and bright future for Australians in general. Australia is currently building a super highway for information transaction for the future, with the National Broadband Network (NBN). The NBN is laying a foundation that will allow unprecedented opportunities for mobile users in all industries. Much of our work takes place in the field, using mobile devices will enable users to gather or lookup information on the spot. The expansion of world class broadband to new areas of the country means that it can be used on remote towns, farms and schools. The design of devices, forms and applications will determin the success of this undertaking and whether Australia will achieve the full potential of its investment in broadband internet. My project will form the foundation to building those better interfaces. My current project will add to that body of knowledge on the topic of good interface design."

Other than my Fellowship Report how will I inform the Australian community of my experience and knowledge gained?

"I have the opportunity to disseminate and engagement in conversation about interface design with many departments. That conversation has already been going on with Police, Justice and Work Place Training. I have had involvement with AIIA and AIMIA in the past and these are just a couple of the forums that I would look to engage and present through. With my current project with Childcare Licensing I will be writing a white paper for whole of goverment on our experience. I would hope my Fellowship report would also be distributed through the government channels."

So this was my application responses as well as two references. Over the following year I will be posting information about how I am going and what I am planning for my trip. Then when I go on the Trip I will then post pictures and information about the entire experience.

Coming to the end of another year (2010)

2010-12-27T11:40:00.001+08:00

So what a year. The moves in the technology and tablet space has been enormous. At the start of the year it was the launch of the iPad. A great device which was position to take a very large market share from the e-book readers. Strategically this was a great move by Steve Jobs. He made the e-readers irrelevant and being basically the only type of tablet/slate technology in the market at that time with the functions and feature which no-one else had Apple cornered the market. There sales numbers have shown that and the e-reader has moved into the space it should have started and that was the consumer area. e-readers that were in the US$5/600 space dropped to US$99/149 space.

There are still some in the top end trying to compete with iPad and other tablet/slates that are entering the market but you know longer hear much from them. The only thing they did have over iPad and other tablets is the e-paper concept. But now that is also changing and the Tablet/Slates are starting to take that up.

The other small entry into the market is the Net-book computer great again but I feel just missing the boat. I feel the Tablet/Slate has come of age and they will now take the place of the Net-book. But we will still need our desktop and I see that the Desktop will become more prominent. I feel the laptop and the net-book will be things of the past and we will see a migration to more capable desktops and the Tablet/slates being the mobile option of choice.

Over this last year I have been scanning the market for a new tablet/slate computer. A project that I am working on has been part of the reason as well as I believe it is the natural progression. The important part if finding a product that is fit for purpose. People constantly forget there is a purpose and reason for a technology and it is not always to replace an existing technology.

I have been looking to take the analog forms of the past and moving them into a digital space. This is nothing new but finding a tablet that was light weight and functional has been a challenge but I have been getting closer. The project I am working on has to demonstrate a windows solutions so I have been struggling to find something to fit that bill. So far the only tablet that partly meets the requirement is the ExoPC Slate that is because of the interface. It runs windows 7 but the designer has developed their own interface which has been great to see. There are still two issues which I feel still needs work in the Tablet/Slate space and that is usability in small screen factors and data input.

This I believe has been well addressed by Notion Ink with their use of the Pixel QI screen and their rethink of the interface. As Rohan Shravan has pointed out we need to re-think the way we interact with our technology. To this end the work that Rohan and the Nortion Ink Team has done with the 'adam' tablet offering in the market has been a leader in thinking in this space.

The work being done on screens with the introduction of Pixel QI and other e paper screens will bring in a very different landscape for users. With lower power consumption it will mean we will be more attuned to be totally online 24/7. The next area I feel will have to move fast is the method of accessing that data. That is in the area of 4G and 4G and Max WiFi. These will be the space to keep an eye on.

But going back to a previous post we will need to get a better understanding of portable identity management. We will need to improve in this space as I believe that the Tablet/Slates are a short term technology and that intelligent surfaces will start to emerge. The Tablet/Slates will be here for a little while but the marketing parts of business will want to take it further. Embedding the intelligent surfaces in common areas but the issue that will face all of these technologies is identification in a quick and easy fashion but secure.

Bio-scanners, RF-ID tags, DNA markers who knows? We shall see, I am forever looking forward to what new ideas and progress are being made. But of the technology I have seen this year, Rohan Shravan and his company Notion Ink are out there in front. Not competing with other technology companies but leading the way and the conversation.

Well I am now waiting for 2011 and my new 'adam'. I was one of the fortunate people who was able to place my order when the pre-orders were open. It was a great time waiting to get on to the form. I remarked at that time which by the way was 2:30am in the morning as the launch was at mid-night India time that the last time I cued up was at the launch of Star Wars the very first movie. I was some 200 meters down the street waiting to get in. Notion Ink has generated this type of interest, not for the fact they have a new device in the market place but the way Rohan and Notion Ink approached their market. For what it is worth check out the adam at the Notion Ink Website

So where will this technology go??

2010-09-09T10:02:00.001+08:00

I have been a geek ever since I can remember. I remember programming at school when you got a card to write your program on using a pencil mark for each character. It would take a couple of week to develop your program and then days to mark up all your cards. They would then be collected and sent off and two weeks later a print out was returned with your program printed out with the results.

My biggest program took ages and on the results being returned I had no answer. It was pointed out that I had missed a full stop. So I fixed the error and then waited another two weeks to get the results and printout back. Thank god we have progressed from there. My journey took me from a 16 switch interface which had some flashing lights to my first computer a "Sinclair ZX80" this was the ultimate with touch pad keyboard. Using my own cassette recorder for media storage, and a black and white tv. It took many hour of cursing and swearing before I got the screen to display the cursor, but I persisted and finally it came. That computer was based on the ZX80 Chip and 1k of memory, yes (1) one kilobyte of memory or 1024 characters. I had such fun with this very powerful piece of technology. I ended up getting a memory upgrade to 32k of RAM. This was housed on a piece of circuit board 10cm x 10 cm. It was a bare board with multiple chips and wires which had to be stored in some aluminum foil and unwrapped and plugged in when needed. O' what power I had then. :)

From there, there was no stopping me, I then went through a VIC20, Commodore 64, Tandy TRS Model 3 and finally to my first IBM Compatible which was not that compatible. Then through the XT, 286, 386, 486 Pentium till finally into Laptops and finally Slate or Tablet computer. In fact my current tablet is an "iTablet" yes thats right and "iTablet" not an "iPad".

But where will it stop, only recently it was the Netbook which is in someway a cut down laptop, but that is slowly being dispelled as these little Netbooks are as powerful and many laptops but considerably longer battery life. Then there came the e-Reader which was a technology fit for purpose and there future was looking very good, until. You guessed it, Apple and Steve Jobs. The launch of iPad basically has killed the e-Reader Market.

The iPad launched and provided all the functionality of an e-Reader but in full colour and giving wireless and 3G connectivity. It did not have the ePaper quality but for the price comparison it just devastated the e-Reader market. These devices have drop so much in price many companies that were about to release their version either drop their prices by 1/2 or 2/3 and even with drew from the market.

This space which the iPad had carved out for a while has been quite. There has been a lot of talk about other devices coming to market which will compete or attempt to kill the iPad market but much has yet to reach the market. But finally it is starting to happen, the devices are starting to pour into the market. Android and Microsoft have provided the OS to run these devices and more are still coming.

But where do we go from here. The Netbook was looking so promising, but from all indications the tablet will change that dynamic. There will still be some netbook in the market place but I believe that market will go the way of the e-Reader. But will the tablet be here for long as these devices are more and more being so well connected to the grid, ie the internet, phone systems (3G) local networks we don't need to have so much storage on the devices they are becoming more and more an interface into the Cloud.

What I see is that more and more it will be just a surface that we interact with to use and manipulate our data. The table will just be the interface into the cloud and what we will start to see is more publically available surfaces. Microsoft has been demonstrating these surface in desks and in someway they have been more of science fiction due to costs and accessibility for the general public.

I see the device that we will end up with will be our identity. We will then interact with these intelligent surfaces to access our information and data. You will walking into the internet cafe or communication location where you will be identified and your interface which will be customise to your settings will appear on the surface and you would carry out your work.

Once you have finished as you walk away the surface will return to a clear surface ready for the next user. The only time we would have a portable device when there is no surface to work from. Our desks of the future will be dynamic surfaces which then curve up to present a clear perspex screen which would display our information while we are using the surface.

What I see for the future is the development of personal identification and identity management devices which will take advantage of these surfaces as we will see the computer of now disappear. Someone who saw all of this in our future showed us many years ago what we were heading for. My all time favorite show Star Trek, Check them out even the original series you will see our future is getting very close to what Gene Roddenberry showed in these shows. These surfaces you will see completely in the New Generation and Voyager.

So I would say the old keyboard and desktop computer have a very limited future and those dynamic surfaces will be with us in the very near future.

But the Tablet or Slate are now coming of age. Steve Jobs

Architecting the Enterprise

2010-07-27T08:34:00.000+08:00

I am about to engage on a project where I will be applying the framework of TOGAF9, The Open Group Architecture Framework, version9. Version 9 was released in Feb 2009 replacing version 8.1.1. Like many frameworks is is not a "use out of the box item", it has over 780 pages, a little bedtime reading.

The challenge I am starting to face is the HOW. There is plenty of information out there on WHAT it is, but so far I have found very little on HOW. If you come across this article any offer of information would be greatly appreciated.

The biggest question I get is what is Enterprise Architecture, or we have an excel list of all our servers. The pragmatic approach is to ask "what needs to be done to make the most of our enterprise IT resources". But in the level of the CIO and business it is the "Alignment of Business and IT"

In many of these IT frameworks they have maturity indicators. Over the years I have devised my own which shows to what level business and IT are integrated. That indicator is the value business places in IT. The value is the fly away comments you hear. "IT never works" or "they just don't get it, why can't do my job?" These are companies that have abdicated their responsibility to IT to figure out what they want. The usual reason being that its to complex and they should know what they are doing, we pay them enough.

Where you don't hear these types of comments are in companies that seam to have figured it out and aligned their business needs to the technology. They have owned their business and identified their needs and requirements. IT then has been given the authority to supply as per their needs. This should be done based on sound business knowledge of: "will this technology improve processes, save time or make money". It can't be any simpler than that, because why would you spend money in any business if it did not give value.

Enterprise Architecture is one of those tools that a business can use to bring about that alignment. It is just one of many tools, ie ITIL, Project Management - Prince2 - PMBOK, Cobit, Governance, etc.

The Enterprise Architect is to IT as a City Planner is to City. Where a city planner would provide a map of a city and the zoning an Enterprise Architect provides the IT Zoning map. The city planner would not provide the individual designs of each building but more a road map of the zones within that City. There Enterprise Architect provides those City Maps of the IT space. Its not to say they don't corral all the details, they draw more of a picture from many viewpoints to interpret the information and details so business is in a better position to invest and manage their investment in IT.

Enterprise Architecture is one of the most effective ways to align both Business and IT. But as they say the proof is in the pudding so I start my journey and we shall see. :)

Project Management - But we do Agile!,

2009-08-04T15:26:00.002+08:00

In a current project it is interesting to hear the comments people make to defend their current practices. I have been involved in running out a project framework. The aim of which was to put some strucutre to the way people work to delivery the project.

Common statements I hear are, "This won't work with our business", "we are different to normal business", "This won't work with large project", "This won't work with small project" and the best to date is "We do adgile methodology".

Like always it was'nt until I thought more about it I was able to come back with a statement to squaure things off. But unfortunately 2 days had past and the meeting had well and truley finished.

Over the last 10-15 years I have come across many different way to manage projects. PMBOK and Prince2 just to name two. As a former software developer and software develpment manager Agile is a Methodology that I was aware of, but it is as far as I am aware a Software Development methodology based around iterative development, where requirements and solutions evolve through collaboratiion between self-organising corss functional teams. The Agile approach generally promotes a project management process that encourages frequent inspection and adaptation, a leadership philosopy that encourages teamwork, self-organsiation and accountability, a set of engineering best practices that allow for rapid delivery of high-quality software and a business approach that aligns development with custoemr needs and company goals.

This is all great if you can hit those goals, the trouble is Adgile in this situation was being used as a defence. Don't get me wrong I have used Scrum and xpress in the past and when all things are going your way it works well. But in many situations I have rarely found anyone who is a true exponent of the process and it being used more as a defence so they don't have to move out of their comfort zone.

As far as I am concerned a project framework is a checks and balance to see that what has been requested has been delivered. It is designed for the business user and to start to move IT to a better alignment to business.

A project consist of a number of items:
1. We have a problem that requires a possible technology solutions
2. We have some inputs
3. We have some business rules to apply to those inputs
4. We need some outputs

The framework is designed to define, measure and check for delivery. The meeting the other day just showed more of what it is that IT is missing. Business Drives Business and IT provides the technology to give a return either as improvement in process or Return On Investment anything else is a waste of money and time. IT the clock is ticking and we need to rethink how we engage with buisness.

The business-quake has been, so where is IT today?

2009-07-29T12:02:00.003+08:00

Traditional IT centric businesses are not coping nor are business. There needs to be a better way for IT. Business needs to become more agile and change is inevitable. Changes in technology, competition, governance and customer demands all need to work. This change will not stop or slow down and IT needs to lubricate the wheels of business. IT needs to provide the competitive advantage and meet the ever increasing demands on its level of service.

So much is riding on IT today that they need to shift from those bits, bytes and boxes to the provision of a Service Centric Business Model. This is a mind shift that IT and the business need to take, moving from the fragmented approach of the past to a more integrated and service drive model.

In this way IT will be better able to articulate their services and understand what it takes to deliver those services. So how does IT do this? Where do they start? They start with accepting that there has been a seismic change in business and how IT supports the business. Until IT and the business have come to this realisation they are stuck in the past and potentially have become victims of the quake. But if both IT and business have come to this realisation there is a change.

IT needs to accept their role in business is that of the steward and not the Lord of the Manor. This is a big step and crucial to the process and mind shift. Business has to take back its role and become the Lord of the Manor and provide the direction and demand. This can only happen with good communications and Governance. Because unless the business includes IT at the board table how they are going to know which way the ship is going and anticipate the challenges ahead.

Once the players have taken back their roles and the business has provided a map for the journey they can begin. IT needs to bring value and alignment to the business. This is done by defining the services needed by business to maximise its ability to respond to the market. Business is not longer interested in the bits, bytes and boxes. They are only interested in what they need to do to get the job done. IT needs to define their wears in those terms and forget about the bits and boxes when doing their work.

The demarcation is business need to work IT needs to provide those services and then maintain them to the agreed levels. IT has to provide value and their need to be a return to the business in a cost effective and efficient manner. The other role for IT is to identify all the business processes and define the best cost effective solutions to deliver those services. IT’s mantra should be to “Continually Improve Services”. Give the competitive advantage, utilise the latest technology but only if it is cost effective and efficient and provide value and a return to the business, either in productivity, money or both.

All Great Paintings Need Many Colours

2009-05-26T08:43:00.005+08:00

So the journey continues, after 3 days of Service Support I now have a good appreciation of what a Cofiguration Management Database (CMDB) can provide. In its self it has some capabilities but when in concert with Incident, Problem, Change and Release Management it really startes to shine.

I am currently working on a piece of work where we are writing into the document the requirements of an incumbant to utilse ITIL practices. The document is still in draft and reference to having to provide the services of a CMDB were islands in the documents. After completing the 3 days I now fully appreciate that the power of the CMDB is the component parts that are connect to it.

When an Incident is rasied which indicates an interuption or reduction in service, the important part is its association to a Configuration Item (CI). This is where the picture starts and provides the colour to each CI. As an incident is processed and moved through the process the CI is constantly updated with the progress. At the completion of the Incident there will be more colours added from Problem Management, Change Management and Release Management. The end result could be quite a colourful picture, but the real depth comes with the time as more Incidents are submitted. Layer upon layer can be added of tone and colour. Like the old masters of art until you can see the full picutre and are able to appreciate all the colours.

Over time the CMDB becomes quite a powerful agent, providing trend details and information across all the CIs in the CMDB. This in turn then empowers the Service Desk to be more proactive in their goal to reduce Incidents and provide constant improvement over time.

The Evolution of IT Alignment

2009-05-05T09:51:00.003+08:00

Businesses are going through an evolutionary period, especially in today’s market. Businesses have to face change at an ever increasing speed. The technology of business has had a massive impact. Its constant improvements have lead to much efficiency in businesses but at times cost dearly. We are hearing of the job losses and cuts but are they the best solutions. It provides an immediate cessation to money going out of the business. But are we throwing the baby out with the bath water?

More and more business are having to take a look at their businesses and how they utilise their resources. IT for a long time has been the black hole of business both in understanding and money. But in reality businesses needed to take control and look at the value that the technology was bringing to the business. In other words value for money, are we improving our processes, saving money or even making money with our technology decisions.

Alignment is the next stage, aligning the strategy of our technology to business, moving from “Reactive” to “Alignment”. Seeing that the business strategy and direction are deciding factors to our technology spend and direction. IT no longer can stand-alone in its decisions and direction it needs to provide real value to the business and business needs to drive the IT Vision. But alignment is not the only thing we need to do. The second part of alignment is building an agile business prepared to change as the business needs. This ability is brought about by having a sound architecture and Governance over IT. Our decisions in that architecture needs to provide the best outcomes but with the most flexible options. This is accomplished by having our solutions delivered in a tiered fashion, freeing the business from brands as the solution is provided to a model. In this way technology can change direction as much as the business. Business can take advantage of improvements as they appear, moving to the business drivers and not the technology companies’ drivers and directions.

Once the business and IT has then been aligned the next step in this evolution is collaboration. The business needs to evolve further to take advantage of technology and what it has to offer. Technology can have a high price, but it does have its advantages. It is the balance of business to technology that a good CIO brings to the table. Businesses need to utilise this resource and invite the CIO to the executive level to have input into the business and how it can maximise its technology even further. The CIO’s role is a conduit to the technology, their role is applying technology to business strategy but if they are not included in the planning the business is losing out.

So to complete this evolution to a collaborative and blended strategy businesses need to embrace technology, align their values and direction then maximise the understanding of what technology can do for the business based on those alignments and values.

Business need to admit IT mis-alignment before they can align

2009-05-04T10:11:00.006+08:00

This point is critical both for the business and the executive in that buisness. In the ITIL book "Best Practices for Applicaiton Management" there is a phrase which articulates this perfectly.

"IT is not technology itself that supplies returns to a buisness,

but how technology is employed to meet business requirements."

Study by IBM and The Economist

The biggest issue is getting the buy-in by business to realise that there is a disjoint to how the business and IT need to work as one.

This alignment can be carried out in a number steps

Identify the different applications used by the business
look identify the diffeent busienss owners
finally identify the customers both internal and external

From this exercise we can then start to build a map of the physical systems and the flow of data through those systems. This looks to be the foundation to then start to understand how the business is using the technology and from there I would see we can then identify the value to the business and then start to build an alignment map and strategy.

A business cannot realise value from its IT until it has been algined. This was argued in 1993 by Henderson and Venkatraman of Harvard Unitversity, any search for these names with IT alignement will find more details.

This article is more a question, I understand the need its just getting the common view point and how that is achieved.

Service Support a very good place to start

2009-05-01T09:57:00.003+08:00

My journey begins with review and testing that review. Page one of the Service Support manual was where I started. Familiarising myself with all the Terminologies again, yes they help when you work with them day to day but we need to remember who we are talking to.
One of the biggest issues we need to understanding is change will need to happen at a cultural level and people will resist.

Implementing new processes in to an organisation we need to realise that not everyone will know what we mean when we refer to SLA or OLA. Some might but when we start to venture into CMDB and KER and all the rest of them we need to consider who we are talking with. The last thing we want is to alienate the very people we need to support and take on these processes.

In looking at way to improve my retention of reviewing the materials I started to look around for online resources. There are many and a simple search via Google will return many of them, but one I found to be very good. That was the site “ITIL Free Mock”. You will need to register and activate your account, but once that has been done you have access to a large variety of mock tests.

The website currently provides 569 questions to study for ITIL® certification version 2. The site hopes to have version 3 in the future. They don’t claim to be an official ITIL® website, they just provide a great tool to assist in the preparation of ITIL® exams. The best part I found was that you can see your performance as well as review your answers and understand where you went wrong.

The journey continues....

My Journey to the land of ITIL

2009-04-30T14:25:00.003+08:00

Today I had an interview to see if I met the criteria to attend an ITIL Masters Course. Good news I past but I am not sure that they knew I was carrying out my own interview, good news they too past.

In many ways doing this course and obtaining the certification is more I believe a validation of how I have always thought. Back in July 2005 I wrote a blog called "The Keys to your Mansion" it was about how decisions of technology needed to be taken further up the tree. That the value to business had to be taken into consideration and that IT should be considered a service to business. In many ways this is the culmination of my experiences and now putting it together with both my business and technical experiences I believe will help me in my journey.

Since then I have gained a far greater appreciation of where those decision should be taken. That IT is not its own entity but an intragal part of Business. It can no longer be seen in isolation but as a necessity of business. Business needs to own its busines and IT is its business. It provids the connectivitiy to the digital age we live in, but it can't drive business. Like all buisness it has to be part of that value chain in the delivery of services. It is in aligning the business strategy and values to IT that will bring around more prosperity. ITIL I believe is just one of those tools we can use.

Over the next few blogs I am going to write about my journey in obtaining and hopfully applying the knowledge I gain from this course. I hope any reader will start to see the development of my understanding from the knowledged I gain. Hopfully my future blogs will become a better articulation of that knowledge and application into an organisation. ITIL and its application is a process of continual improvement. These blogs should represent that continual improvement in my knowledge and understanding.

The course I am doing is with the Conan Group in Western Australia. From what I have experienced to date this company has a passion about ITIL I believe is infectious. I am looking forward to being infected with more of that same passion. The important part is you not only have to walk the talk, but you need a swagger. I believe I have found that in this company and I look forward to my journey.

Securing the Layers of Web Development

2009-03-31T10:20:00.004+08:00

When building up a Web site you should consider all layers for security.

When building a commercial Web site, security is one of the most important issues to consider. A good understanding of the layers used in the delivery of a solution, as well as knowledge of the types of threats will always help. When you look at any web development, these layers are: the foundation, the physical computers, the network, operating systems, applications, the development and underlying code.

Understanding where the weakest link is in these layers will help the business address those weaknesses. The hardware and operating systems are found at the base of these layers. The security around these are managed with patches for both firmware and software updates.

The next layer of threat is how and where you store your data. This will involves both the software and the hardware arrangements. Looking at how the data can be accessed and who or what accesses it can be important. A good practice is to ensure that your data is not accessible by the web. Make sure that it can only be accessed by a call from you application layer with a trusted internal link. These applications need to be maintained with their respective updates, fixes and patch releases. With patches and updates, implementation should always be after extensive testing and understanding of the benefits.

Another layer contains the web servers and application frameworks. Many of the modern development languages now have well-defined frameworks that provide some of the tools to building better solutions.

The final and weakest layer is the flaws that arise from badly developed business logic and known vulnerabilities. There are many sites on the web warning and advising developers of these vulnerabilities and their proposed fixes and solutions.

When engaging this area of development, you often need someone with experience in this field to help. The web provides many examples of people, consultants, companies, products and services to aid in this field. The more astute the average hacker becomes, the more we need to be mindful of this issue and seek the relevant security expert.

In a previous development project undertaken by my company, one member of the staff did not agree with my choice of development environments. They hacked a commercial web site which was using a similar environment. By doing so, they illustrated that it was their knowledge of the vulnerabilities of the underlying web services and not my choice of development environments.

This example highlights the need for securing all layers and not just the development layer of the project. Security failures happen for many reasons. They could be caused by hackers, disgruntled employees or a lack of knowledge of the environment.

There are no totally secure systems. The only way to guarantee total security is to unplug from the net. Of course, that is not practical. You simply have to be cognizant of the layers of dependencies and manage the risk.

This article has been published on to sites around the world.

Data, Infomation, Knowledge - Capture, Manage & Create

2008-07-22T09:59:00.004+08:00

Data, Information, Knowledge are they not all the same?

Companies are now realising that they are more than the bricks and morta that house the enterprise. There seams to be an item missing in the company ledger, but how do you define it and what do you define?

We see the result of its present but cannot touch it.
We can sell the results of it but can not see it.
Our bottom line seams to have a bearing on it but we can not taste it.

The item is knowledge, but knowledge in itself is intangable but the results of it ends up being new processes, products and services. The results are measurable but how to measure the intangable?

In trying to comprehend what it is that they should be looking for you must first understand what it is. There is noise about knowledge capture and knowledge management, but what should be captured and what should be managed. The enterprise has its databases, document storage and filing systems. Doesn't the IT department look after these things?

Well yes they do but they don't own the knowledge. It is a culture and an idea and it requires change in the way we work and think. Its not being the expert as they only become barriers. The power is in the viral effect and the spreading of the knowledge and experience. The more that information, knowledge and experience is spread within our environements the more it has to offer.

The real question is... are you infectious with the information you have??

The Jounrney of Knowledge-Enabling

2007-11-02T13:18:00.003+09:00

Knowledge management or more so knowledge creation should be the goal of all businesses today. In reading the book Enabling Knowledge Creation it this understanding and application of unlocking the mysteries of Tacit Knowledge and Releasing the Power of Innovation. It is not a matter of capturing and storing information as this is not knowledge. It is in the application of information and the interaction between people and the creation of new innovative ideas that this information becomes real knowledge.

Krogh, Ichijo and Nonaka provide an understanding of the limits of knowledge management and the barriers which retard the level and effectivness of this area of business. In understanding these barriers which are both individual as well as organisational you are better prepared to assist an organisation in liberating this resource and allowing it to be a true asset in the business.

The book identifies four severe barriers. These are

The need for a legitimate language
Orgnisational stories
Procedures, and
Company paradigms

These as with individual barriers arise because of natural human tendencies, and they can be strenthened because of the wrong attitude of managers attitude towards knowledge and the acceptance of limited company paradigms.

The first being language is key as the conversion of tacit knowledge to explicit can only be done through a common language which is accepted thoughtout the organisation. So time this can not be achieved and it is a matter of defining the new language and communicating it amound the business.

The second is organsation stories, sometimes these stories are from past experience or hear say, or stories brought from other organisations. Not to say these stories are needed to help people to orient themselves in bonding with other and understanding the company. But its the other side when it makes it difficult for new knowledge creation, since they make it difficult for individuals to express contradictory ideas. A lot of the time stories are negative and about failures of the past. They work of the assumption that it failed before so its not going to work now. The old story is there was this person Peter Nurk who tried it and he not hear any more.

The third is procedures which is a double edge sword. These procedures usually have been developed over and time and through experience and provide a more efficent way to carry out complex task. The trouble is when individuals find an innovative alternative the procedure is quoted as the proven and test method and encourged to stay within the defined boundarys. Which is a good idea and maintain standards but can be a limiter to new eyes.

The last barrier to knowledge creation is the most fundamental and all-encompassing: company paradigms. A companies worldview is usually governed by it strategic intent, vision or mission statement all of which contribute to their paradigm. Its these paradigm which define the conversations, language used, key stories and the routines followed. All of these influence the way individuals work within an organisation and interpret the data.

The large part of my understanding from this book is the alignment and context of information. And the translations of this information in to a common language so that others can digest and internalise the lessons learn't.

One of the diagrams which best showed the model knowledge creation was in the Epilogue on Pg261.

This models highlights the three types of initiatives used in knowledge management. They are:

Risk Minimisers,
Efficiency seekers, and
Innovators

It is the Innovators who have travelled fartherst along the path of knowledge enabling path. Still most organsiations go through these steps first. The first step is to minimise the risk to the business. Taking stock of what it is the organisation has and where it is and then capturing and locking down. This can be in data but usually it is found in people and their tacit knowledge of the business. This knowledge is used to solve operational tasks in marketing, finance, manaufacturing and so forth.

The second is the efficiency seekers, making available the information and finding new use for it within the business. These types of organisations tend to look at new knowledge and not knowledge creation. The main role of these types of businesses is to capture and reuse of this knowledge to other parts of the buisness. People need to be motivated to share their knowledge and utilise knowledge which has come from other parts of the business. They tend to concentrate on knowledge transfer rather than specific technological solutions for capturing existing knowledge.

The third step is taken by the companies which are firmly on the knowledge enabling path which is taken by the innovators. Its more about understanding the current limitations of their knowledge and realising that they need to create knowledge for succesful innovations. These organisations focus on new knowledge and the processes involved. The constantly engage and motivate their people, creating enabling context for new knowledge creation. Managers in these companies have a strategic view of knowledge, formulate knowledge visions, tear down knowledge barriers and develop new corporate values.

This highlights what I have found in much of my reading and that is Knowledge Management if the combination of People, Processes and Technologies, it is the balance between these that provides the results of a good knowledge managment vision, strategy and solutions which delivers results to the business.

In the epilogue the provided an examples of some enabling tools for knowledge management which is work considering.

Capturing and Locating

Data warehousing
Datamining
Yellow pages
IC-Navigator
Balanced scorecard
Knowledge audits
IC-index
Business information systems
Rule-based systems

Transferring and Sharing

Internet
Intranet
Groupware
Networked organsiation
Knowledge workshops
Knowledge workbench
Best Practice Transfer
Benchmarking
Knowledge gap-analysis
Knowledge sharing culture
Technology transfer units
Knowledge transfer units
System thinking

Enabling

Instill a knowledge vision
Manage conversations
Mobilise knowledge activists
Create the right context
Globalise local knowledge
Professional innovation network
New organisational forms
New HRM-system
New corporate values
Project management systems
Corporate universities
Communities
Storyboards

These entry is based on my reading of "Enabling Knowledge Creation" - Georg Von Krogh - Kazuo Ichijo - Ikukiro Nonaka

Randomness of Thought

2007-10-22T23:15:00.000+08:00

Articulating an idea sequentially for the digestion of other is difficult especially as ideas come about in a random manner. So how can we take those random ideas keeping up the energy levels and inspirations to then produce a sequential document?

Throughout my life and even today we are expected to produce information in documents which present the information in a sequential flow. It makes sense, if you were to try and locate the proverbial pin in the haystack you would find it easier if you had the table of contents or index so that you knew where you were looking.

This can become an arduous task at times computers have improved these abilities to catalogue and index our material. But the end result is not what I am talking about it is in the initial stages of generating the material and information and creating the work. It has been accepted that the material we end up with should be produced in the sequential manner of a beginning, middle and end, and it is that point we need to consider to find a better way to approach the topic.

The human brain is not created in a series of sequential steps; our whole process of thinking is based on a network of nerves and electrical impulses firing throughout our brains neural network randomly and in multiples of hundreds and thousands of incidents a time. It can happen in parallel, sequentially and randomly. So with this in mind try to out put our ideas, information and knowledge in our heads in a sequential manner does not seam to make much sense.

As a child I always struggled with the concept of writing a document in the manner that was taught at school. This could be the due to the many different schools and methods that I was exposed to. But consistently the result at the end was to produce these written works in a sequential manner to do that you had to put your thoughts on paper in the same manner. I have taken me close to 40 plus years to achieve the understanding that I wish I had as a child. I have since ever tried to impart my lessons learnt to my children.

As I worked throughout my life I have spent much of my adult life being in the forefront of technology. This is due to my own fascination and intrigue and my own pursuit to achieve a better understanding of the technology and be in a position to assist my children as they grow and endeavour to use this technology as a standard part of their lives. I have been fortunate to have been around at the beginning of the technology evolution in to the broader community. It had been around for a number of years before I started but not available to the average person on the street.

I started with a Sinclair ZX80 which at it time was one of the latest in it field of home computers. It was a small computer which was based on a ZX80 chip and had 1kilobyte of memory. Looking at it now my watch has more power that probably 10 of these computers. But it was the start of the home computer, I later obtained a memory upgrade to 32 Kilobytes which was an open circuit board with bare wires and I had to store it in a piece of aluminium foil. At not realising why, but later to understand to isolate it from static the enemy of these types of chips and circuit boards.

Bit by bit the computers improved and the capacity and capabilities of these computers improved to the extent that I am currently flying 37000 feet above the ground on my way to Chicago writing this article on a laptop which in the day of my ZX80 would have required building the size of at least half a dozen house if not more. In that time as I have work in this industry and with the many different computers and software application to carry out my work I have been required to produce many documents and to convey my thoughts and ideas.

For many years I have struggled with this not only due to my lack of ability in spelling but also in the ability to convey my thought to paper. I knew I was able to verbally communicate my ideas and I always was able to convey them when verbally communicating with people and associated but my downfall always happen at the point of trying to commit these ideas to paper. It has taken me a number of years to find the software that was able to assist myself, my children and anyone who is interested in communicating their thoughts to paper and struggle with the standard method of converting ideas and random thoughts to paper.

I was introduce to a piece of software which when I was first introduced to it turn on a light. It clicks so and I wondered why I had not been introduced to this many years ago. The concept was so simple but I suppose it required the ability of computers to reach such a stage to make so effective in today’s computer dependant world. The concept is called Mind Mapping and it was developed and is still being presented and I gather further developed by its creator Paul Buzan. I have read a little of his work and I support I should read some more, but at this time I have leant how to use the software tool which was based on his concept and have not needed to gain any further understanding of his concept as I have applied it as I see in the manner it was intended.

The software itself is so well designed that it took only a matter of minutes to understand how to use it. Not only use it but become both an avid user and evangelist of promoting its ability to assist people in not only taking what is in their heads out and committing it to paper but the power of the tool to brain storm and work in a collaborative manner to find the essence in a group and distilling it to a usable format.

The application is Mind Mapper Pro and there are a number of other products in the market place which will work as well and probably offer just as much if not more or lest that this product has. This software is the product I use but it is not the software but the idea and concept that it handles and the simplicity of the idea that it does. Taking a core idea and letting the user build a map a mind map of their or the groups ideas and in a simple and effective way putting it in to a computer which then give the ability to then convert it to a documented way which can then be produced for others to digest.

As the user builds their mind map it give the ability to add further branches, each adding to the depth and breath of to the original idea. This ability to interact with the software is simple and is able to be effected in a very quite manner. By clicking on each of the ideas which are added to the map the user has only to start typing to add further branches. The main advantage is that as we think and cross over between ideas and construct we can just click on each idea which need to be added to and start to type. The user has the ability to control the structure and place the map in order but it is the freedom that each user can work the way they feel in control of the process.

Myself I start of with a random map and then as I feel that I am getting to the point that I do not have any further idea to add to the map I then start to priorities and change the structure. But it is this ability to take the random ideas and as those ideas develop start to put in the structure and framework in preparation to then export the map to a document in a structured format. In the group environment I use it to manager the ideas to any given task. One of the biggest issues when working in a group is that people come up with allsorts of ideas. Some good some not so good, but the issue it to empower the members of any group and not to close them down if an idea does not look clear to myself. In this way we acknowledge the ideas and can developer them or not. But in putting the idea in to the map we then have taken the focus of not letting others put up their suggestions and focuses on the solution or results. These ideas can be expanded and developed and usually the people who suggest them will be the people who will come to the realisation that their idea may not be that good. Or the reverse may happen and the idea picks up momentum and others start to see the merits and focus further energies on them.

So if you are looking for a better way to extract either your ideas or the ideas of a group to find that solution and develop it further then may I suggest that you look no further than to the concept of mind mapping and the software tool that I have come to use frequently called Mind Mapper Pro. It can be found at http://www.mindmapper.com/ . These are the rants of someone who has found a tool that is very useful and easy to use and thought that others should be aware of it. If you are the sort that thinks in a sequential manner then this product may not be for you but if you are like me and as far as I know many others then take a look.

How Knowledge Enabling Avoids the Pitfalls

2007-09-05T06:59:00.000+08:00

It is understandable that members of organisation to be obsessed with the information tools and technologies and the boundaries that staff workin. As many of these systems are expensive and based on the cost a business case is derived, and basic outcomes can be predicted. Executives who take this route usually are not fools, careless or uninformed, but they may be short sighted. Focusing on the part that is easily defined and described is a natural process, but the sustained production of knowledge requires more.

Knowldge enabling is founded on basic human skills, that is being effective, caring experts and activits the following three premises indicate why this is so:

Knowledge is justified true belief, individual and social ,tacit and explicit. Knowledge is closely attached to human emotions, aspirations, hopes and intentions.
Knowledge depends on your perspective. Despite efforts to come up with general measurement tools that apply across many situationtions, knowledge is scalable (von Krogh and Roos, 1995a). It depends on an individual's perspective and a given context.

Knowledge creation is a craft, not a science. Knowledge activists and COPs (Community of Practices) share in the craft of knowledge creation it is not the responsibility of one staff member.

Premise 1

Knowledge is not simply information stored in the latest professed Knowledge Managment system. These systems are simply information managment and do not have much to do with the creation of Knowledge. Knowledge which is tacit and shared with other COP members is more difficult to capture and it is the processes of enabling which will assist with this task. When companies put information and knowledge into the same category, they neglect the very particular nature of knowledge and its creation; at worst, their elaborate information systems and measurement tools may leave out the creative aspect of knowledge. The real challenge is for managers to enable the creation of knowledge; capturing its by-product, information is the easy part.

Premise 2

Everything known is attached to a particular scale of observation; change the scale and knowledge of a situation changes. For example you can describe your current environment, but if you were in a helicopter your view would be of the building and its environment. This view offers a better understanding of the overall context. Going the other way a researcher using a microsocpe reduces the scale of observation, going inward and investigating the microbs.

Within an organisation a new employee starts with a general overview and as they become more aware they then delve further into a topic and detail of the subject at hand. So in Business acknowledging a range of perspectives is essential, even if general tools can help define what kind of knowledge are most relevant to the company.

Premise 3

Managers may want clearly defined responibilities and tasks, but the ebb and flow of knowledge in any company requires a more expansive approach. Individual and organisatioinal barriers are inherent to knowledge creation:

lack of understanding
lack of agreement

lack of common language
company myths

failure stories, and

rigid procedures.

Yet even if an overly scientific attitude contributes to these barriesrs, we do not mean that knowledge creation happends by default; it has to be carefully enabled throught an aware and sensitive managemnt practice. It is hard to achieve from scratch but this is not impossible especially if boundary-braking managers are in place.

(These insites are from my reading of 'Enablling Knowledge Creation' by Georg Von Krogh - Kazuo Ichijo - Ikujiro Nonaka - 2000)

Organisational Barriers to Knowledge Creation

2007-09-04T06:39:00.000+08:00

In any organisation it has been identified that there are four main barriers to the creations of Knowledge. They are:

The need for a Legitimate Language
Organistional Stories
Procedures, and
Company Paradigms

Legitimate Language
First, language is key to the learning and reflection of individuals. The problem arises when sharing ones knowledge, taking the individuals tacit knowledge and making it explicit for others to consume. The problem arises that some knowledge can only be expressed with the individuals vocabulary. So to recognise any new business opportunity might require an innovative and new vocabulary.

Organisational Stories
Secondly all organisations have stories of various kinds as well as anecdotal history of management. These constitutes corporate memory or commonsense in understanding about the individual environment within an organsiation and allows individuals to regulate their behaviour accordingly. Many stories are also coloured by personal experience and anecdotal evidence. Where this become a barrier is when you get stories which relate to an activity that someone has done before and they are not there anymore. Giving some indication that if you what to follow that path, it has been done before and failed so don't try unless you want to fail.

Procedures
The third knowledge barrier involved procedures, the double-edged sword of knowledge management. On one hand the process provide improved productivity gains but on the other hand it stifles innovation. An example is with products which are created across different work groups. ie with the development of the Sharp's pocket organiser, it required engineering staffs from a least three distinct technical milieus and groups. The problem arises that most processes are not designed to work across these areas and budgetary control usually does not allow for the utilisation of resources for other work group purposes.

Company Paradigms
Finally the last barrier to knowledge creation is the most fundamental: company paradigms. In general, paradigms socialise new organisational members, getting them to line up behind the current thinking of the company. Paradigms have the power to make or break knowledge creation, they determine the legitimacy of personal knowledge within an organisation. Personal knowledge that conforms with the paradigm will be quickly embraced by colleagues; nonconformist attempts to justify personal beliefs are often met with skepticism.

Summary
When any or all four barriers are present, individual insights may never make it through the whole process of knowledge creation. Ideas, arguments, concepts are killed and don't make it into successful products or services.

If new, innovative language cannot be accepted then tacit knowledge will be lost; alternatively, stories of past failures may paralyse members of the company. When individuals beat their heads against the proverbial brick wall they get to a stage point where they often decide to stop contributing new ideas. Like many organisations they become part of the passive participants, or reach a point and leave - only to compete with the company from outside.

These point highlight the fact that knowledge management is a whole lot more than the information and technology being used. Knowledge management is managing the most expensive resource in a company, their people it about the investment and management of the resource which returns the interest in payment of increased organisational knowledge.

Enabling Knowledge Creation - How to Unlock Tacit Knowledge and Release the Power

2007-09-03T11:10:00.000+08:00

From the authors of "The Knowledge-Creating Company" and "Enabling Knowledge Creation" I have started to get a better understanding of the barriers and enablers of Knowledge Creation.
We are still seeing Knowledge Management being cast into the realms of mistic and theory and no results. Yet countless examples are given around the world where it is fact and working. So what is wrong where does it stop and how do companies turn it around to work? These are some and part of the questions that are raised each time I have this converstation with managers. So over the next few weeks I am researching the answer to these questions. Part of this investigation is in the many books, websites and other peoples experiences.
In the latest book that I am reading which is "Enabling Knowledge Creation" by Georg Von Krough, Kazuo Ichijo and Ikujiro Nonaka published 2000. They had identified two types of barriers, they are individual and organisation. The two are both different and yet interrelated and companies need to address both of them to dismantle and enable the creation of knowledge.

"For your people to be innovative and motiveated, you need

to consider human needs. If you feel good and appreciated, you are much more open to many things than if you always need to defend yourself."

-Andreas Rihs, CEO, Phonak

As I work throught the book I will update and make further postings on the subject.

The Process of Theory Building - (based on "Seeing What's Next")

2007-05-25T12:42:00.000+08:00

In the book "Seeing What's Next" (SWN) a number of theories are presented. One of the areas which I found quite powerful is understanding the processes in building a theory. One of the interesting presentations I heard in which Clayton Christensen presented was his explaination of a theory. He articulated it in the audio presentation which can be found at IT conversations. In this podcast he discusses that theories have got a bad rap and that because they are referred to as theories that this must mean they are theoretical. In SWN in the appendix it is outlined basically in two pages how a theory is built.

There initial statement is "A theory is a contingent statement of what causes what and why". People when building a theory usually take three steps, they being:

Carefully observe, describe and measure the phenomena.
Group observations into categories, then
Develop a theory that explains the attributes and how they lead to the results

Working with theories is an iterative process in which the person keeps testing. The theory is used to predict the expected result in various situations and typically they will encounter anomalies. It is these anomalies which their theory did not predict and do happen that are used to temper the theory. It is in the discovery of these anomalies that is pivotal in the process of building and improving the theory. As the research is carried out and the categorisation is tuned with any anomalies the theory starts to stablise.

The important part is the distinction between anomalies that a theory cannot account for and exceptions that a theory can account for. a theory with a good circumstance-based categorisation scheme and a causal underpinning explains the actions a practitioner can take to change the circumstances or to account for the forces that act upon them.

Further information can be found in "The Innovator's Solution, chapter 1"

Understanding "Seeing what's Next" by Clayton Christensen

2007-05-24T08:02:00.003+08:00

In the book "Seeing What's Next" which was written by Clayton Christensen, Scott Anthony and Erik Roth it discusses and analysis the use of a number of theoretical frameworks. It looks at how companies are using innovation and how businesses can use these theories to predict industry change. To do this they use three iterative steps:

Looking for signals of change and seeing if the non-consumers and both under and overshot customers are being addressed
Looking at the actions in the competitive market and seeing if companies are effectively using the sword and shield approach of Asymmetries, and
Watching firms and their strategic choices. Seeing how those choices increase or decrease its chances of successfully managing the process of disruption.

Important lessons learn't with "Seeing What's Next" naturally relate to disruptive innovations and understanding that it is a process not an event. In many respect disruptive innovation is perspective as some find it disruptive others are able to sustain the innovation. Understanding that different or radical technology does not equal disruptive. Finally disruptive innovation does not limit itself to high-tech markets. Christensen discusses a number of examples in "The Innovators Dilemma" which are more based on addressing the non-customers and those customers who are not so demanding.

The book "Seeing What's Next" discuss the process involved in theory building and then reviews the following concepts:

Disruptive innovation theory
Resources, processes, and value (RPV) theory
Jobs-to-be-done theory
Value chain evolution (VCE) theory (with corollary sustaining innovation classification scheme)
Schools of experience theory
Emergent strategy theory (with supporting discovery-driven planning tool)
Motivation/ability framework

Each of these theories are explained and notes provide references to other source materials. This is a book that will be something you come back to, time and time again. I am working through this book for the second time and can see that I will be doing it again. The more you read the more you find and its the clarification and application which shows the power.

In Understanding the Dilemma we can find a Solution

2007-05-08T08:33:00.000+08:00

"Knowing the how, of the competitions disruption provides a solutions"

"The theory holds that existing companies have a high probability of beating entrant attackers when the contest is about sustaining innovations. But established companies almost always lose to attackers armed with disruptive innovations."
(Christensen 2004 - Seeing What's Next)

Established businesses most of the time aim to provide the resources needed to provide for their best customers in the way of products and services. The problem is that it can provide a blind spot to new products and services that are initially targeted at the small seemingly unprofitable customer. As this type of approach is not feasible to the established business they forgo this business feeling that it frees them up to work in the higher end of the market. The real dilemma is the new businesses evolve and sometime at a more rapid pass than expected, in turn taking over the marketplace. The mark of disruptive innovation is usually, simple, cheap and revolutionary.

The Innovator's Solution reveals a powerful set of theories that assist in the challenges and explains how to go about creating a new growth business which is being challenged by disruptive innovation. The first part is to recognise the signs of disruptive innovation and having a strategy and model to counter.

From my understanding the low-end disruptor comes under the radar and targets the overshot customers with a lower cost business model. That is not the issue at first this market is usually unprofitable to the established business. These businesses tend to falls into a comfort zone, until the low-end disruptor starts to evolve. As the disruptor starts to sustain and improve this change can and does catch the established businesses off guard. The new business starts to focus can and has done in the past removed the incumbent.

What is needed is for the incumbent to earn their disruptive black belt. This is usually done with the company setting up their own disruptive counterattack and developing internal capabilities in disruptive growth. Many companies try this and usually need to create a spin out organisation to drive the disruption, as the current model and culture is usually not the best structure to build such an organisation. The book outlines a four pronged approach which is covered in more detail in chapter 10.

Start before it needs to
Appoint a senior executive to shepherd ideas into the appropriate shaping and resource-allocation process
Create a team and process for shaping ideas
train the troops to identify disruptive ideas

As I get further into these books I will update these postings

The Innovators Dilemma, Solution and Seeing What's Next

2007-05-07T10:08:00.000+08:00

"My learning of the theories of Clayton M Christensen's. This is a work in progress and I will be adding to it as I progress through the books and my understanding."

I have been reading the latest in the line of books written by Clayton Christensen. These books I came across via a podcast that I listen to when I was studing for my Master of Management. This was a presentation he gave at the Open Source Business Conference in 2004. His other books are The Innovator's Solution: Creating and Sustaining Successful Growth and Seeing What's Next: Using Theories of Innovation to Predict Industry Change

In this presentation he delivered his theory in an easy and understandable manner. From this presentation I then went and purchased the first of his books The Innovator's Dilemma This book was all about the dilemma's faced by existing companies and how they are almost always lose to attacks from businesses which introduce disruptive innovation. The issue faced by businesses when confronted by disruptive innovation is the lack of understanding that it is a threat to their business. Initial the disruptive innovation usually come about with going for the non-customer or the least profitable customer.

The incumbent business in many respects sees this as a blessing and is more than often willing to for go that client and business. It usually is the high maintenance, low margin which detracts the business from the higher margin clients. Where there is a higher margin client the incumbent will move up feeling that they can address the higher end and leave the small fish. The problem starts when the disruptive innovator starts to then move up the tree. Again the incumbent sees higher margins up the tree and for goes the next level. After a while each step up the tree becomes faster and the incumbent has no where to go.

Initially the disruptive innovator's product appeals to the less discerning customer who is willing to pass on the more expensive options. As the new business starts to build on their innovation their quality and standard improve and they start to move up the food chain. If they stay in the lower end of the market while they are establishing then this market space will stay open. When the incumbent has reach the top of the food tree then it is at that point that the new entrant needs to have established sustainable innovation and improvement.

The dilemma face by incumbent businesses is to compete with the disruptive innovator it usually requires a different business model. As most incumbent businesses would have reached a point of sustainable innovation, for them to address the lower end of the market would need investment for lower or little return. As put forward by Clayton does the business invest in customers who return a high profit or in the customer with low return. While there is profits at the top end of the market businesses usually will keep going up, it a logical decision. But in understanding this theory it raises the dilemma.

Knowledge Management (KM) its about a Cultural shift not an IT solution.

2007-03-26T09:04:00.000+08:00

‘It’s not about creating an encyclopaedia that captures everything that anybody ever knew. Rather, it’s about keeping track of those who know the recipe, and nurturing the culture and the technology that will get them talking” (Arian Ward, of Work Frontiers International)

This takes the emphasis away from creating vast knowledge repositories, and places the higher value on the knowledge which is in people’s head and finding ways to increase the mobility of that knowledge.

The essence of our companies in the new economy will be its capacity to create, transfer, assemble, integrate, protect and exploit knowledge assets. These knowledge assets are chief to most businesses if you are repeatedly to use your solutions in the most cost-effective manner. Unless you learn to nurturer, invest and manage your assets you will not add to the current asset and potentially lose more productivity income.

So what is knowledge management?

Why is it important to your business? And

How will you begin to nurture and manage this asset to increase your return?

To manage knowledge you need to know what it is we are going to manage. There is a need to map and define all the knowledge assets in the organisation and the flows of that information both internally and externally to the business.

Many of my discussions with companies result in comments ranged from “What Knowledge” to “that’s an IT issue” or “that’s not my problem”. These couple of statements provide a real concern on what companies are currently losing. It’s important that members of your organisation understand who and where these assets are located.

KM is not only about information, it is about the people that you have recruited, trained, developed, and promoted within your organisation. KM involves not only setting up a software solution; it involves understanding your business needs, your organisation’s culture, and your personnel. To succeed, any KM initiative needs to know your people and clearly define the behaviours that need to be changed or reinforced.

The benefits of KM can be extensive, but getting the most from a KM initiative is no easy proposition. However, if the people issues are effectively managed, your organisation's chances of success are high. KM is much more effective if it is not a stand-alone button on somebody’s PC but it integrated into a key business process. Most importantly KM is not an IT or HR solution; IT only provides the supporting infrastructure.

HR is involved as one of the parties that will start to depend on many of the tools and solutions a KM initiative can offer. Control and direction needs to involve and be managed within the company. It is the role of the Chief Information Officer (CIO) or Chief Knowledge Officer (CKO) reporting to the CEO, and it must be linked to your business strategy to create value to both our employees and the company.

Knowledge Management - "that's an IT thing is'nt it?"

2007-03-26T08:42:00.000+08:00

More and more of our assets in a business are reverting to knowledge and information. This knowledge and information has a cost as well as providing a possible avenue of revenue. A large part of the business investment is in the solutions and knowledge to provide and support our systems. Protecting, building and improving what we have would be a wise investment.

So you would think. But how many businesses have their heads in the sand? How many still think that the solution is an IT solution? Isn't it the New Intra-net or our document filing system? isn't that the knowledge management thing, that should take care of it, won't it?

More and more we hear this and more and more businesses are losing money. A simple example is if 80% of your staff is spending 30 minutes a day looking for information to carry out their job. What is the cost in lost productivity to your company?

It has been calculated the average salary at a company is about $80,000. This figure would be higher if you were to consider contractors and consultants. And the company employed 100 staff members, 80% of this figure is 80 staff. 30mins a day for a full year based on a 48 week working year, working 5 days a week, 9-5. This is being conservative, considering that most staff work well outside this range of time. The figure equates to 6.66% of a staff members time over that year is devoted to searching for information.

That’s 120 hrs which equates to $5,333.33 for the 80 staff members or $426,666 annually.

Providing resources to search and find relevant and contextual information 10 minutes sooner would save $142,222 a year in lost productivity. This is just one area of the business which is losing productivity based on not having the ability to locate information. The other side of the coin is creating value with our knowledge and returning an income for our investment.

In the article “The Cost of Knowledge” (Jacobson and Prusak, 2006) KM has become synonymous with searching for knowledge or information. This has been achieved by eliciting knowledge from experts and then adapting the gained knowledge. The time used by knowledge workers in searching for knowledge is about 10.2%, most of their time is in the eliciting, meeting and adapting that knowledge.

Many companies spend a large part of their time in eliciting and adapting information, but sharing of that knowledge or information is weak. Based on the figures above how much is your company losing. If they are wasting the sort of money indicated of productive time how much of the businesses investment in experts and external consultants are you wasting or not providing a true ROI.

Decisions, Decisions when will they make them?

2006-10-13T10:29:00.000+08:00

I dare say there are many people out there who have been in this position. Waiting for that call to say yes please come in, we want to make you an offer. But we sit by the phone waiting, people around us say its ok, they'll call but they just need time.

We are in a world where time is all perspective. We wait and time becomes very long. We get what we want and time flys. If only we could work the two together and shorten that waiting period. The other question is that unasked question, am I wasting my time? You never know so I am now working to the idea that a decision not given is a decision not made and move on to something else. Its just a pain that people can not be more open in their communications and consider what it is like on the other side waiting on that decision.

Marc Dimmick

Where is the value in your business?

2006-03-31T10:02:00.000+08:00

When you consider your business where is the value? Is it in the building, the property a physical item or is it more intangable?

More and more todays businesses are no longer hold their business value in their bricks and morta. The real value is more often in the heads of the people we employee. The problem is that people don't always stay. How much do you invest in building and developing those intangable assets? Like most businesses this can be quite a conciderable amount both directly and indirectly. So why do people move on? It is not always the dollars that people look for. It can sometime be as simple as recognition of input and value. Do you value your intagable assests??

Marc Dimmick

Method or Madness?

2006-03-31T09:46:00.000+08:00

Is your business running in chaos or is there an underlying method to the way you work?

Many businesses today just get in and do the work. When its just you and maybe one other that's fine, but what happens as you grow. Like many businesses it not until things become crazy that this is ever though about. Initially it may not be necessary to define a process in the way you work. But as they say if you fail to plan you plan to fail.

When people start their business the idea is to add value, most times for the client or end user. The other motive is to build the business so you can sit back and just make all that money. Well you will never beable to sit back and rake in the money if you don't have processes. It does not need to be complex and infact the simpler the better but look at what and how you carry out the task to deliver your services.

Document and then test it with someone else and see if they understand what you are trying to do. Then review and update, in this way when you employ those hundreds of employees you can sit back and rake in the money.

The important thing is to constantly review and update and make sure that everyone knows and understands the process. This will then help when you hire the next member of your organisation.

Marc Dimmick

Who suggested this idea?

2006-03-16T18:51:00.000+08:00

Have to been in a meeting with you superior and they starts to sing the praises of a member of staff. The thing is you don't have any respect for that member and the current project you are working on can potentially be stopped by that person. The next comment to come out is a brilliant new idea that, that person has proposed. Your superior thinks very highly of them but all you see is red. You can either make the point that you proposed the idea or just let the water run off your back.

I have just recently faced that situation as I would think many have in the past and will do in the future. The only conciliation is that this person will have to face the music at some stage. The only problem is that I won't be there to see the result. The only conciliation is that I have kept my dignity and realise that there will always be people like this. I can stay at their level and feel angry or I can move on knowing that their situation is limited.

I came a cross a great saying by TS Eliot which might give you a laugh.

"between the dreams and reality fall the shadows"

The second line is mine.

"this is the realm of the shadow man"

These are the people who are incapable to shining their own light in life. They hide behind others pointing fingers and taking and using other peoples ideas. They then try to put them up as their own but will in the end fail. This is the difference You either create your own light which people will see or you join the realms of the shadow man.

As Dr Peter F. Drucker once said "The best way to predict the future is to create it" and that is what I try to do each day.

Are we compliant or passionate at what we do?

2006-03-16T18:38:00.000+08:00

Does it matter if we are compliant or passionate about our work? What are you?

This is a question that is very important to me. I have always believe that unless you are passioinate about what you do then two things happen. One you don't get the total satisfaction out of what you are doing and your employeer is not getting the best he can out of you. The second part to this question is does the empoyer know this? and if they do then who is to blame for the resulting situation?

In a resent position I have held I have had to put up with being complient as I was not equiped with the require knowledge to fufill the tasks assigned to me. The totally frustrating situation about the whole insident was that the the managers were aware of this situation before I started my employment. they admitted it and asked for assistance to remedy the situation. the problem was their words did not result in action.

As I proposed options and solutions I faced constant hurdels and blockages. These at first were low but day by day became bigger, until it got to the point of me stopping. I then endded up in a situation of then becoming compliant as I was unable to doing anything. The biggest problems with many managers is they don't know what their issues or problems are. I came across a bigger problem facing management today and that is knowing what the problem is but then either not being able to or a lack of conviction to carry out the work needed to fix the problem.

What managers really have to do is to look at themselves and ask the question. Are they the real problem?

Marc Dimmick

The Learning Organisation and how we get there, wherever there is.

2005-10-10T07:56:00.000+08:00

More and more in today’s business we need people to be free to be able to offer their creativity. But do we provide that environment which encourages true dialogue? Or do we just play lip service to it? It is a brave manager who is prepared to accept disagreement and work to a better understanding and possibly a different solution that where they originally thought.

We spend most of our lives working to achieve higher goals and aspirations. In that endeavour we reach position of authority and some respect control. But have we forgotten that boss we did not like? Or get on with? or had no respect? Was that important to the way we did our job and interacted with our environment? Are we that boss?

We all hope that through our experiences we learn and take the good and the things we liked about our leaders, and hopefully emulate them when we are in that position. Many times this is not the case and our attitude changes and sometimes becomes coloured with our experience. We end up becoming what we disliked and did not value.

The time has come to take your pulse and see are you the manager you want to be? Are you doing the things you said you would in the past?

The biggest thing to remember is that you never stop learning and everyone has something to offer you in that lesson. The moment we forget this and try to pretend that we have all the answers it cam be to late. But that is only if you are not prepared to look in the mirror.

One of the biggest things that has had a major impact in the way I think and work is my recent study on the topic of Systemic Thinking. Peter Senge "The Fifth Discipline" has had a big impact in the way I look and think about many aspects of my work and personal life.

The five disciplines are Personal Mastery, Mental Models, Shared Vision, Team Learning and Systems Thinking. These are the notes from "The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook":

Personal Mastery - learning to expand our personal capacity to create the results we most desire, and creating an organsational environment which encourages all its members to develop themselves toward the goals and purposes they choose.

Mental Models - reflecting upon, continually clarifying, and improving our internal pictures of the world, and seeing how they shape our actions and decisions.

Shared Vision - building a sense of commitment in a group, by developing shared images of the future we seek to create, and the principles and guiding practices by which we hope to get there.

Team Learning - transforming conversational and collective thinking skills, so that goups of people can reliably develop intelligence and ability greater than the sum of individual members' talents.

System Thinking - a way of thinking about, and a language for describing and understanding, the forces and interrelationships that shape the behavior of systems. This dicipline helps us see how to change systems more effectiviely, and to act more in tune with the larger processes of the natural and economic world.

World Grid - Help the World and your self

2005-08-17T07:43:00.001+08:00

World Grid

Who we are
World Community Grid's mission is to create the largest public computing grid benefiting humanity. Our work is built on the belief that technological innovation combined with visionary scientific research and large-scale volunteerism can change our world for the better. Our success depends on individuals - like you - collectively contributing their unused computer time to this not-for-profit endeavor.

How can you help
Simply donate the time your computer is turned on, but would normally lie idle, for projects that benefit humanity. Like a screensaver, grid technology is easy to use, safe and free. When you are ready to use your computer, the grid software will shut itself off until the next time your computer is idle. To learn more, click on Become a Member. Or to start volunteering your PC time now, click the button below.

Download the Program

Wil Wheaton, actor, author and geek

2005-08-13T14:35:00.000+08:00

If you are interested in hearing a great podcast then you can go no furhter than this very inspiring and raw presentation by Will Wheaton. I personally found it very powerful and open. Please enjoy http://www.itconversations.com/shows/detail220.html This is put into two parts so wyou will need to download both parts.

I have just purchased his book "Just a Geek" which again is great. Make your own mind up and see what you think.

The Keys to your Mansion

2005-07-13T07:13:00.000+08:00

This is the age old question where does your business IT strategy lay. The IT section of business has held the keys to the IT strategy for a long time. It was the case of the black magic of technology could not be managed by anyone other than the tech heads. That was fine if your business was soley IT focused. The IT manager understoods your business and the direction you wanted to go. The only problem is a lot of IT managers use IT glasses. The other problem is they usally are not involved in the business strategy and its direction. Their understand of security issues and making it all workis fine, but what of productivity?. What of innovation? Where do they get these insights?

A lot of IT managment are pushed as it is to manage and maintain the systems, backup, security and implementation of windows and office and a number of standard products over a network. But where are the productivity tools and for the consultants. Where do they get the time to research and see that they are best of breed. How do they do this if they do not understand the use or application of the product. This is one of the biggest failings in the current IT model of the IT manager being the definitive place for these decisions.

Decisions on software products need to be made with background and knowledge in the areas that they will be required. This is the domain of the CIO (Chief Information Officer) of KO (Knowledge Office). We need to take some time and consider the role and maybe IT should be accessed more as a service provider to the organisation rather than the lead.

Marc Dimmick

Effective Training and Training Material

2005-07-06T06:59:00.000+08:00

I have just started employment at a new company. Great I am finally back into a full time position. The first part of my job is to learn how their software works. I started with a couple of hours training with a member of staff. This was great, a lot went over the head but after a little percistance I started to understand their reporting module.

I have just started to work thorough their Accounting modules and finding the going tough. No due to the subject, but mind you a little dry. But the training material is very confusing.

Training is a pet hate of mine due to I want the information as quickly as I can get it. I have been involved in providing training and editing a training book for ColdFusion. ColdFusion from static to dynamic in 10 Steps, by Barry Moore. The important thing that I learnt from this experience was never to asume. I would have to say that this book is one of the best examples that I have seen in instructional design. When I was editing it I always took the position that the user or reader had no prior knowledge. In some respects that can be boring but you just never know where the reader is at.

Hopfully this will imporve with the material I am currently working with.

Marc Dimmick

Things to do, but when?

2005-06-14T07:58:00.000+08:00

So many times we talk about the things we want to do. The thing is until you commit to these ideas they are just dreams. I was told a long time ago that until you commit your dreams to paper they never go much further. I did this in a small grey book and supprisingly I have achived quite a number of them. One of them was to travel around the world. Since then I have, twice and each time I never thought I would ever get the chance to do it again. I now know the trick is to believe you can. also to put those ideas on paper or you can go to http://www.43things.com/ there you can create an account for free and start to put your ideas down. The wait and see how they start to appear.

Marc Dimmick

Did this a while ago

2005-06-14T07:56:00.000+08:00

I built my own Blog. It has taken me awhile to get into it. But with my study I am now starting to use it a bit more.

http://marcdimmick.blogspot.com/

See more progress on: Create a Blog

Created my own Blog

2005-06-14T07:49:00.000+08:00

I did this a while ago and have only started recently posting details and articles to it.

See more progress on: Create a Blog

Enterprise Applications Next Wave for Open Source

2005-06-08T14:46:00.000+08:00

OSBC: enterprise applications next wave for open source by ZDNet's Chris Jablonski -- This morning kicked off the Open Source Business Conference in San Francisco, where a mixed crowd of IT enterprise customers and vendors, lawyers, and venture capitalists rubbed elbows as they contemplated open source market strategies. In his keynote, Larry Augustin, CEO of Medsphere, left everyone with no doubt that the next frontier for open [...]

Marc Dimmick

Mind Mapping - "why didn't they show me this when I was at School"

2005-05-30T11:22:00.000+08:00

Mind Mapping; when I first hear of this I just thought of it as a gimick. After using Mind Mapper Pro for some time I now only wish I knew about this when I was at school. To that end I have taught my son to use the application. It take all of about 1-2 minutes to learn and you are away. The proof is that my son now uses the program without any prompting.

Mind mapping was developed by Tony Buzan a good place to find out more is at the Buzan Centres - Mind Mapping There is a good interview with Tony at Management Consultancy News. Tony Buzan's mission is to unlock the power of our brains, and show us how to tap and use our creative genius with ease. The Times of London predicts Buzan "will do for the brain what Stephen Hawking did for the universe."

Mind Mapper Pro is a software tool which I have been using for a few years. This tool gave me the ability to transfer random thought in to a sequential document. Schools and computers keep trying to make us all think and report in a sequential manner, but we are human and we just don't work that way. What Tony Buzan has done is free up the way we think and provide a method to take all the bits of information and put it into some form of order.

What Mind Mapper Pro or the developer have done is to create a piece of software which is easy to learn and powerful in its exicution of Tony Buzan's concepts and ideas.

Of the different pieces of software around this I believethat Mind Mapper Pro is the better of the lot. Not only does it give you the freedom and flexibility to take your thoughts and finally put them into some order but you can then transfer them to either Word, Outlook tasks, Microsoft Projects and Power Point.

I have used this tool in many different ways. Initially I was using it as an interviewing tool. when meeting up with a client for the first time we would commence the project titled after the company I was working with. I would then commence with questions like, what would you like to do, where would you like to go with your buisness and what ideas do you have for the business. This would be the basis for the start of the interview. From there the client then produces the information and creates futher questions and answers.

I can then develop them further untill the client feels they have transferred all the details and information. Initially I would start with a radial tree. From there I would then transfer the tree to the right and start to get priorities from the client. Ideals which end up not being used are kept for future reference. In this way then can re-address them, it also takes them out of the picture and put to rest.

We can then open up the project line and start to assign timelines and resources to the mind map. Finaly the whole map can then be exported to work to complete and report back to the client and the timeline if needed can then be exported to project for further managment.

Other areas that I have used Mind Mapper Pro is with contracts, assignments in my study and programming projects. It is also a great way to do mind storming with a group and get the ideas out in the open. Do your self a favor and checkout Mind Mapper Pro.

Marc Dimmick

Pod Casting the evolution of Blogging

2005-05-30T09:54:00.000+08:00

Pod casting is I believe an extention of Blogging. It takes Blogging to the next stage, and gives everyone the opportunity to broadcast their views and ideas. It gives you the opportunity to listern to many chanels and topics of which there are thousands.

My preference is for the technology and new advances in the IT industry. I came across a great chanel which is Slashdot review which if you are interested in slashdot.com you will enjoy this stream.

But to start of you will need a program to receive and manages the streams. I started with a program called iPodder which also has a great directory of chanels. From there you can then either listern to the chanels on the PC or transferr to your ipod. Try this out and see what you think.

Marc Dimmick

Technology and its cost

2004-09-21T11:51:00.000+08:00

Technology has a lot to offer, but many get caught up in the hype.

I have many discussions with my clients where we discuss their use of technology. My experience has been to work with clients to identify what technology they use and to see that they are maximise their investment. Many businesses either make their technology purchased based on emotional or direct influence by other people, the so called experts. Its not until someone questions why and asks for the justification of the choice that they understand that many of their choices have not been in the interest of the business.

I have four simple rules to apply to any technology solutions that is proposed to a busines and that is:

Will it save me time,
Will it save me money,
Will it make me money, or
Will it do all of the above.

Unless the item or solutions is able to offer one of these rules then I have to questions it real benefit. A lot of the time technology decisions are taken by well intentional and very technical people, but a lot of the time the viability and return to the business is not considered. The decision usally are based on comfort and personal views.

This area of management needs to fall to the Knowledge Officer. This has been a position which I have indicated to many busineses. A Knowledge Officer is someone who not only is able to understand, research and apply technology. They have an understanding of the implication that a particular chocie will have on a buisness and the path the buisness will need to take.

Marc Dimmick

Learning and the future

2004-09-20T13:26:00.000+08:00

The next level of learning will obiously be e-learning but are we ready?

I say this because there is still the train of thought that you need to have face to face contact. For some people that may be the case, but more and more people like myself want to learn but at their pace and at a time and place of their choosing. The electronic age provides just that environment, but we face a number of hurdels before it becomes an accepted way of learning.

Marc Dimmick

Success, a state of mind

2004-09-20T11:06:00.000+08:00

Success is not what you have but what you are. If you are able to achive the goal you work to then that is success. And no matter how much you own you are not necessaraly successful.