Business

  • Will “Things” Use the Internet Better than People Do?

    The terms "Internet
    of Things    " and "System of Systems" are concepts that help to explain a great deal about what
    is happening, now, where the digital world meets the physical and
    intellectual.

    In the video below, from IBM, you get a glimpse of it …

    Imagine if your alarm clock talked to your calendar and knows you
    need to catch the
    ferry in 1-1/2 hours to get to work, so it wakes you up. But, a half hour before it wakes you, it turned on the heater in your bathroom; and other sensors started your morning coffee and de-iced
    the windshield in your car.

    Here are some excerpts from the film:

    “Over the past century, but accelerating over the past
    couple of decades, we have seen the emergence of a kind of global data
    field. The planet itself – natural systems, human systems, and physical
    objects – have always generated an enormous amount of data, but we
    didn’t used to be able to hear it, to see it, or to capture it. Now we can
    because all of this stuff is now instrumented. And it’s all
    interconnected, so now we can actually have access to it. So, in
    effect, the planet has grown a central nervous system.

    Look at that complex set of relationships among all of these complex
    systems    . If we can actually begin to see the patterns in the data, then
    we have a much better chance of getting our arms around this. That’s
    where societies become more efficient, that’s where more innovation is
    sparked.

    When we talk about a smarter planet, you can say that it has two
    dimensions. One is to be more efficient, less destructive, and to
    connect different aspects of life which do affect each other in more
    conscious, deliberate and intelligent ways. But the other is also
    to generate fundamentally new insights, new activity, and new forms of
    social relations. So you could look at the planet as an information,
    creation and transmission system    , and the universe was hearing its
    information but we weren’t. But increasingly now we can, early days,
    baby steps days, but we can actually begin to hear the planet talking to
    us.”

    This framework applies to many other things (for example, trading and markets).  Expect to hear more about this type of insight and automation.

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  • Finding Wisdom in Mountains of Data

    In this video, Gary Flake demos Pivot, a new way to browse and arrange massive amounts of images and data online. Built on breakthrough Seadragon technology, it enables spectacular zooms in and out of web databases, and the discovery of patterns and links invisible in standard web browsing.

    The big idea that this video demonstrates so well is that the whole of the data in which we consume is greater that the sum of the parts. And, instead of inducing information overload, new tools enable us to use information so that patterns pop and we can see trends that would otherwise be invisible.

    If we can do that, then, instead of being trapped in data, we might
    actually extract information. And, instead of dealing just with
    information, we can tease out knowledge. And if we get the knowledge,
    then maybe even there's wisdom to be found.

    Click here to view the transcript.

    This tool, and others like it, will have massive impact on businesses
    and the scale of projects they undertake.

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    Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

  • Finding Wisdom in Mountains of Data

    In this video, Gary Flake demos Pivot, a new way to browse and arrange massive amounts of images and data online. Built on breakthrough Seadragon technology, it enables spectacular zooms in and out of web databases, and the discovery of patterns and links invisible in standard web browsing.

    The big idea that this video demonstrates so well is that the whole of the data in which we consume is greater that the sum of the parts. And, instead of inducing information overload, new tools enable us to use information so that patterns pop and we can see trends that would otherwise be invisible.

    If we can do that, then, instead of being trapped in data, we might
    actually extract information. And, instead of dealing just with
    information, we can tease out knowledge. And if we get the knowledge,
    then maybe even there's wisdom to be found.

    Click here to view the transcript.

    This tool, and others like it, will have massive impact on businesses
    and the scale of projects they undertake.

    Related articles by Zemanta
    Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

  • Why Cloud Computing Irks Larry Ellison, But Benefits You.

    The network is becoming the computer.

    Here is a short video that puts "Cloud Computing" in perspective.  In it, Ellison jokes that someone decided to change the word "Internet" to
    "Cloud" because it was a lot easier than innovation.


    Microsoft is spending a lot of time and money to make sure it does better gaining an early lead and monetizing this type of "Internet" service.  Their cloud computing platform is called Azure.

    Amazon also has a cloud offering worth a look. 

    Why Should You Care?

    Basically, you can “rent” a current version Windows Server for as little as 12 cents per hour, and only pay for the hours you need it each month. That’s $12 bucks to use 100 servers for an hour. You also pay for data transfer and storage, but that is negligible. The nice thing is that you can fire up an army of servers to run a batch process … then stop paying when they complete their work.

    You can get access even cheaper under a program where you bid on unused capacity within the cloud at any given time (Spot pricing). 

    I still have reservations about using cloud computing for many daily business applications. However, for “crunch on demand” processes … this model makes much more sense that investing in piles of hardware that all too soon becomes obsolete.

    Most of the data from this post comes from Tim McDonald, the president of Infassure, a technology consulting and out-sourcing company in the Dallas area.  They've been a big help to us on this, and many other matters.

  • Why Cloud Computing Irks Larry Ellison, But Benefits You.

    The network is becoming the computer.

    Here is a short video that puts "Cloud Computing" in perspective.  In it, Ellison jokes that someone decided to change the word "Internet" to
    "Cloud" because it was a lot easier than innovation.


    Microsoft is spending a lot of time and money to make sure it does better gaining an early lead and monetizing this type of "Internet" service.  Their cloud computing platform is called Azure.

    Amazon also has a cloud offering worth a look. 

    Why Should You Care?

    Basically, you can “rent” a current version Windows Server for as little as 12 cents per hour, and only pay for the hours you need it each month. That’s $12 bucks to use 100 servers for an hour. You also pay for data transfer and storage, but that is negligible. The nice thing is that you can fire up an army of servers to run a batch process … then stop paying when they complete their work.

    You can get access even cheaper under a program where you bid on unused capacity within the cloud at any given time (Spot pricing). 

    I still have reservations about using cloud computing for many daily business applications. However, for “crunch on demand” processes … this model makes much more sense that investing in piles of hardware that all too soon becomes obsolete.

    Most of the data from this post comes from Tim McDonald, the president of Infassure, a technology consulting and out-sourcing company in the Dallas area.  They've been a big help to us on this, and many other matters.

  • This Post Will Help You Predict the Future of Our Economy

    Have you ever seen a funny photo that was captured just before a "something bad" happens? The tag-line is usually something like … This isn't going to end well.

    Well, after the news came out about President Obama seeking a $3.8 Trillion budget.  I remembered seeing this chart; and it isn't so funny.

    Federal Spending Is Growing Faster Than Federal Revenue.

    Since 1965, federal tax revenues and spending have soared. Revenues have increased by more than $1.5 trillion, and spending is up by $3.3 trillion. In 2009, federal revenue will drop, while federal spending is expected to increase by nearly $1 trillion.

    100207 Federal Spending Exceeds Revenue

    To give you some context for this issue, here is an interactive U.S. Debt Clock.

    100207 Click to see US Debt Clock

    Click the picture and you'll see a version that updates in real-time.

  • This Post Will Help You Predict the Future of Our Economy

    Have you ever seen a funny photo that was captured just before a "something bad" happens? The tag-line is usually something like … This isn't going to end well.

    Well, after the news came out about President Obama seeking a $3.8 Trillion budget.  I remembered seeing this chart; and it isn't so funny.

    Federal Spending Is Growing Faster Than Federal Revenue.

    Since 1965, federal tax revenues and spending have soared. Revenues have increased by more than $1.5 trillion, and spending is up by $3.3 trillion. In 2009, federal revenue will drop, while federal spending is expected to increase by nearly $1 trillion.

    100207 Federal Spending Exceeds Revenue

    To give you some context for this issue, here is an interactive U.S. Debt Clock.

    100207 Click to see US Debt Clock

    Click the picture and you'll see a version that updates in real-time.

  • Why You Might Want an iPad

    Here is Apple's launch video.  They do know how to innovate and market, don't they?

    Yes, it is stuff that does the stuff their other stuff does.  Yet, somehow it is generating great Buzz.

    Are you planning to buy one?  I'm planning to resist … for now.

  • Why You Might Want an iPad

    Here is Apple's launch video.  They do know how to innovate and market, don't they?

    Yes, it is stuff that does the stuff their other stuff does.  Yet, somehow it is generating great Buzz.

    Are you planning to buy one?  I'm planning to resist … for now.

  • Ted Talk About the Building Blocks of Business Success: Autonomy, Mastery & Purpose

    This video provides a peek into the science of human motivation.

    There is a mismatch between what science knows and what business
    does.

    And what's alarming here is that our business operating system —
    think of the set of assumptions and protocols beneath our businesses,
    how we motivate people, how we apply our human resources — it's built
    entirely around these extrinsic motivators, around carrots and sticks.
    That's actually fine for many kinds of 20th century tasks. But for 21st
    century tasks, that mechanistic, reward-and-punishment approach doesn't
    work, often doesn't work, and often does harm    .

    Here is the direct link to the video on Ted's site.

    Here is an excerpt from the talk.

    Too many organizations are making their decisions, their policies about talent and people, based on assumptions that are outdated, unexamined, and rooted more in folklore than in science. And if we really want to get out of this economic mess, and if we really want high performance on those definitional tasks of the 21st century, the solution is not to do more of the wrong things. To entice people with a sweeter carrot, or threaten them with a sharper stick. We need a whole new approach.

    And the good news about all of this is that the scientists who've been studying motivation have given us this new approach. It's an approach built much more around intrinsic motivation. Around the desire to do things because they matter, because we like it, because they're interesting, because they are part of something important. And to my mind, that new operating system for our businesses revolves around three elements: autonomy, mastery and purpose.

    • Autonomy, the urge to direct our own lives.
    • Mastery, the desire to get better and better at something that matters.
    • Purpose, the yearning to do what we do in the service of something larger than ourselves.

    These are the building blocks of an entirely new operating system for our businesses.