Data is fascinating!
Well, at least when Hans Rosling presents it. Dr. Rosling is a professor of global health and has worked around the world to fight hunger, HIV and other problems which plague developing nations. When he speaks, he presents data in a visual, creative way that engages the viewer in a way we're not used to. He is asking the world to serve up data in a way that would allow us all to build queries and present them like this.
Here is his talk at Ted and here is a web site with many more of his presentations. Are there uses for this type of data visualization in your enterprise?
Showing posts with label CIO. Show all posts
Showing posts with label CIO. Show all posts
new.lds.org Now Available!
new.lds.org is now available!
Some new features:
The team was up all night against harrowing opposition and went live at 5:00am or so. Conference, magazines and manuals go back to 2002 or so, but we'll be loading more content each day, eventually reaching back to the 1970's. We will have Spanish and German versions available before October conference.
We're finding and fixing bugs so please give us feedback.
Enjoy! (And spread the word...)
Some new features:
- Great new search (try out the facets!)
- Prophets and Apostles Speak Today
- Church News and Events
- Church Organization
- Temples
- Humanitarian Service
- "Our Heavenly Father's Plan"
- New e-store
- New Ward Calendar (with Google Calendar integration) and Ward Directory
- My Notebook (this is amazing and will sync with your mobile device in about a month or so). To try it out, login and go to scriptures or general conference. When you mouse-over a paragraph, you can tag and mark stuff and type in your own notes.
- And so on, and so on...
The team was up all night against harrowing opposition and went live at 5:00am or so. Conference, magazines and manuals go back to 2002 or so, but we'll be loading more content each day, eventually reaching back to the 1970's. We will have Spanish and German versions available before October conference.
We're finding and fixing bugs so please give us feedback.
Enjoy! (And spread the word...)
Mobile Augmented Reality (MAR)
MAR apps are becoming more popular ever since Yelp snuck in a hidden feature for iPhone 3GS users which combined GPS overlayed markers for businesses on the camera view of the phone. Layar, one such platform lets users build custom layers atop the camera view for a mobile device.
WiTricity
Wireless electricity! We’ve all seen wireless toothbrush charging and this is the next generation in efficient power transmission. WiTricity's technology however goes a step further by embedding the coils under the ceiling, a wall, or even a desk and whatever device is within the range gets powered without wires. The technology was developed by an MIT team for which the leader won the MacArthur (a.k.a Genius) award. With efficiency reported over 90% - it seems like a promising technology. Read more here.
Green!
Energy cost-cutting begins at home. According to this article, local city administrators in England, Scotland, and Belgium have posted maps that contrast heat escape in homes, offices, and industries. A creative way to pin-point and address rising energy costs. Only time before this comes to the US – may be an extra hot edition of Google or Bing maps.
Malware Primer
Lifehacker has a pretty good description of the different flavors of malware (viruses, trojan horses, spyware, scareware, and worms), although they leave out phishing attacks and probably a bunch of others you security folks could point us to.
Data Extortion
Recently somebody hacked into a web site operated by the State of Virginia, deleted the records of over 8 million people and left a note on the homepage, demanding $10M to restore the data.
We're talking about 0's and 1's here.
It's not the first time hackers have used data for extortion. Typically they threaten to release potentially damaging data, whereas this time it's closer to kidnapping where they're offering to return the data for a price.
This event underscores the importance of regular backups and disaster recovery. Granted, the brutes should never have had the opportunity to get into the web site in the first place, but a secure perimeter won't solve the problem if it's an inside job. Appropriate seperation of duties and regular testing of data (and system) restoration is critical for peace of mind when it comes to making sure your data is safely guarded.
Luckily, the state of Virginia apparently had appropriate backup and restoration precedures in place.
Do you?
We're talking about 0's and 1's here.
It's not the first time hackers have used data for extortion. Typically they threaten to release potentially damaging data, whereas this time it's closer to kidnapping where they're offering to return the data for a price.
This event underscores the importance of regular backups and disaster recovery. Granted, the brutes should never have had the opportunity to get into the web site in the first place, but a secure perimeter won't solve the problem if it's an inside job. Appropriate seperation of duties and regular testing of data (and system) restoration is critical for peace of mind when it comes to making sure your data is safely guarded.
Luckily, the state of Virginia apparently had appropriate backup and restoration precedures in place.
Do you?
WolframAlpha=CrazySearch
If you haven't tried WolframAlpha, check it out.
Here is a screencast that explains.
It's a search engine which returns organized data from queries based on normal language. You can ask it math questions, statistics questions, questions about nutritional content, popularity of baby names and so forth.
Notice how often it doesn't understand your question--unlike Google where you almost always get a result, even if it's not what you want. In this case, humans are doing more work behind the magic, trying to predict what people will ask. Though you don't always get a result, when you do get a result it's more satisfying.
Here is a screencast that explains.
It's a search engine which returns organized data from queries based on normal language. You can ask it math questions, statistics questions, questions about nutritional content, popularity of baby names and so forth.
Notice how often it doesn't understand your question--unlike Google where you almost always get a result, even if it's not what you want. In this case, humans are doing more work behind the magic, trying to predict what people will ask. Though you don't always get a result, when you do get a result it's more satisfying.
Server Sprawl
Because we are a Church, we are considerably more cost conscious than a typical enterprise would be. In an effort to save power, cooling & hardware costs in our data center, we've begun implementing virtualization. We've been using virtualization for quite some time with our AIX servers, but we've now begun to virtualize Windows and Linux boxes.
Most of you know what virtualization is, but for those who don't, I'll try to explain.
<virtualization_explanation>
In the past, when a team needed a server in the data center, we would purchase them their own server. Their application might use, on average, 10% of the capabilities of that server. Or less. It was a waste, not just for our shop, but for the entire industry. A potential, but not always viable, solution was to load multiple solutions onto one box, but those solutions shared the application server and operating system and consequently could interfere with each other by crashing the operating system or the application server and/or just utilizing too much of the computer's brain (CPU).
Virtualization allows us to load multiple instances of an operating system on a single box. So on one machine, we could load several solutions, each with its own instance of the application server (Websphere) and the operating system (typically Linux). So if one solution crashes its instance of the OS, the other solution is just fine because it's running on top of its own instance of the OS.
And because each solution was previously only using around 10% of the total resources of the server, you can run, say, 5 solutions on one server and still only use around 50% of the server's resources. You just cut your power, cooling and hardware costs by roughly 80% (minus a little overhead for the virtualization technology itself).
Pretty amazing.
</virtualization_explanation>
We have seen significant, and maybe even extraordinary, savings on our "per server" costs as a result of virtualization.
The unintended consequence has been "server sprawl." The ease, speed and extremely low cost of creating a new server (because it is virtual) has increased the demand for servers. Without great governance and management tools, this is becoming a problem for most enterprises.
How are you dealing with "server sprawl" in your shops?
Most of you know what virtualization is, but for those who don't, I'll try to explain.
<virtualization_explanation>
In the past, when a team needed a server in the data center, we would purchase them their own server. Their application might use, on average, 10% of the capabilities of that server. Or less. It was a waste, not just for our shop, but for the entire industry. A potential, but not always viable, solution was to load multiple solutions onto one box, but those solutions shared the application server and operating system and consequently could interfere with each other by crashing the operating system or the application server and/or just utilizing too much of the computer's brain (CPU).
Virtualization allows us to load multiple instances of an operating system on a single box. So on one machine, we could load several solutions, each with its own instance of the application server (Websphere) and the operating system (typically Linux). So if one solution crashes its instance of the OS, the other solution is just fine because it's running on top of its own instance of the OS.
And because each solution was previously only using around 10% of the total resources of the server, you can run, say, 5 solutions on one server and still only use around 50% of the server's resources. You just cut your power, cooling and hardware costs by roughly 80% (minus a little overhead for the virtualization technology itself).
Pretty amazing.
</virtualization_explanation>
We have seen significant, and maybe even extraordinary, savings on our "per server" costs as a result of virtualization.
The unintended consequence has been "server sprawl." The ease, speed and extremely low cost of creating a new server (because it is virtual) has increased the demand for servers. Without great governance and management tools, this is becoming a problem for most enterprises.
How are you dealing with "server sprawl" in your shops?
Risk Magic
Last week at the Research Board, I had the pleasure of sitting down to talk with Peter Tippett, a security guru who bucks common risk management wisdom and has made an enemy of many security folks who find his focus on being "practical" naive. He was both delightfully insightful and hilarious.
He offered many tidbits of wisdom.
For example, he talked about endpoint protection. Security best practices dictate that laptops, particularly ones carried by executives or other folks who might be carrying sensitive data, be encrypted with heavy duty encryption stuff. Tippett argues that this practice is silly.
In order for something bad to happen, ALL of the following must be true:
What is the likelihood that even the first three of these things might happen, let alone the last two?
A good security professional will know the potential attacks and best defenses. An excellent security professional will temper the desire to "continually batten down the hatches" by considering the probability of successful attacks and planning accordingly.
Peter was refreshing and fun.
He offered many tidbits of wisdom.
For example, he talked about endpoint protection. Security best practices dictate that laptops, particularly ones carried by executives or other folks who might be carrying sensitive data, be encrypted with heavy duty encryption stuff. Tippett argues that this practice is silly.
In order for something bad to happen, ALL of the following must be true:
- The individual must lose (by negligence or through theft) a laptop
- The laptop must have information on it that could actually be used in some harmful way
- The person who acquires the laptop (through whatever means) must desire to get data off of the laptop and not just sell the laptop for drug money, which is probably much more often the case.
- The bad guy must have the ability to get through the basic security protection on the laptop
- The bad guy then must have the ability to use that information in some hurtful way
What is the likelihood that even the first three of these things might happen, let alone the last two?
A good security professional will know the potential attacks and best defenses. An excellent security professional will temper the desire to "continually batten down the hatches" by considering the probability of successful attacks and planning accordingly.
Peter was refreshing and fun.
1: Accountability
Perhaps the most important attribute a leader needs to be successful is accountability. Humans will do amazing things if they know what is expected of them. They will often do stupid things if they don't.
Consider the parable of the rock:
A village chieftain once asked a young warrior to bring him a rock. The young man, feeling excited, creative, and proud to have been asked, guessed that the chieftain wanted a new decoration for his hut. He went out and found a beautiful quartz crystal and brought it to the chieftain who shrugged and said, "Thank you. But that's not the rock I wanted. Please try again." Disappointed, but still resolute, the warrior then decided that the chieftain must be worried about the oncoming winter, so he returned with a piece of coal. "That's not it either,” said the chieftain. Getting frustrated, the warrior asked around the village and found that the chieftain had asked for rocks before and had once accepted a piece of granite. Thus, the young man traveled several days to a place where he could find granite. He chipped off a large piece and hauled it home to the chief, who didn't have time to see him, but sent a message through his lieutenant-chieftain that he had changed his mind and no longer wanted a rock.
You've probably been on both ends of that story. I know I have. The warrior, instead of spending productive time, spent time trying to divine what the chieftain wanted. What a waste of effort! Clear instructions save everybody time and improve the quality of work. Accountability is impossible without them. You can grow leaders by giving clear instructions and letting them flourish.
I once had a manager who subscribed to the “bring me a rock” school of thought. He was a smart, talented guy, but he had very stringent, inflexible notions of how things ought to be done. He would ask me to bring him a rock over and over and over again until, at last, the rock I brought was the one he wanted. Hey, I eventually brought him what he wanted, so we succeeded together, right? Wrong. Each day seemed like a continual struggle with this manager, and I often felt like I was spinning my wheels. I definitely wasn't as productive as I could have been. Obviously, this behavior turns people into drones whose purpose is to figure out the leader's will.
As a leader, you have a responsibility to help your people help you. If you have particular concepts of how things ought to be done, be clear on those up front. People need a sandbox, especially in large enterprises where standards, protocol, politics, and policy, by necessity, govern. But make those boundaries as spacious and as well-documented as possible.
Once you establish boundaries, you must set people free within them. People want to feel empowered. They want to be creative. They want to solve problems and have freedom. Turn them loose and stay out of the way! People are paid to use their brains, and the more they're micromanaged, the more they have a tendency to turn their brains off. Micromanagement can work well in very small groups with monumental challenges which require heroics. But micromanagement doesn't grow leaders. I know. I'm a recovering micromanager and I've seen the negative effects of meddling on potential leaders.
It may be easy to criticize someone's ideas. And it's human nature to think that your way is better. You might even be prescient enough to see a potential train wreck coming. But letting leaders own their decisions allows them to feel accountable and learn from their own mistakes. We can't (and we shouldn't) want to teach every person to do every job. We don't know enough and we don't have enough time. Let people learn on their own. Each time you swoop in to solve a problem that you see coming you remove a potential lesson from the people in you organization. Accept mistakes for what they are: cheap leadership training courses.
Clear expectations and defined, yet spacious boundaries with room for mistakes will create leaders in your organization.
Consider the parable of the rock:
A village chieftain once asked a young warrior to bring him a rock. The young man, feeling excited, creative, and proud to have been asked, guessed that the chieftain wanted a new decoration for his hut. He went out and found a beautiful quartz crystal and brought it to the chieftain who shrugged and said, "Thank you. But that's not the rock I wanted. Please try again." Disappointed, but still resolute, the warrior then decided that the chieftain must be worried about the oncoming winter, so he returned with a piece of coal. "That's not it either,” said the chieftain. Getting frustrated, the warrior asked around the village and found that the chieftain had asked for rocks before and had once accepted a piece of granite. Thus, the young man traveled several days to a place where he could find granite. He chipped off a large piece and hauled it home to the chief, who didn't have time to see him, but sent a message through his lieutenant-chieftain that he had changed his mind and no longer wanted a rock.
You've probably been on both ends of that story. I know I have. The warrior, instead of spending productive time, spent time trying to divine what the chieftain wanted. What a waste of effort! Clear instructions save everybody time and improve the quality of work. Accountability is impossible without them. You can grow leaders by giving clear instructions and letting them flourish.
I once had a manager who subscribed to the “bring me a rock” school of thought. He was a smart, talented guy, but he had very stringent, inflexible notions of how things ought to be done. He would ask me to bring him a rock over and over and over again until, at last, the rock I brought was the one he wanted. Hey, I eventually brought him what he wanted, so we succeeded together, right? Wrong. Each day seemed like a continual struggle with this manager, and I often felt like I was spinning my wheels. I definitely wasn't as productive as I could have been. Obviously, this behavior turns people into drones whose purpose is to figure out the leader's will.
As a leader, you have a responsibility to help your people help you. If you have particular concepts of how things ought to be done, be clear on those up front. People need a sandbox, especially in large enterprises where standards, protocol, politics, and policy, by necessity, govern. But make those boundaries as spacious and as well-documented as possible.
Once you establish boundaries, you must set people free within them. People want to feel empowered. They want to be creative. They want to solve problems and have freedom. Turn them loose and stay out of the way! People are paid to use their brains, and the more they're micromanaged, the more they have a tendency to turn their brains off. Micromanagement can work well in very small groups with monumental challenges which require heroics. But micromanagement doesn't grow leaders. I know. I'm a recovering micromanager and I've seen the negative effects of meddling on potential leaders.
It may be easy to criticize someone's ideas. And it's human nature to think that your way is better. You might even be prescient enough to see a potential train wreck coming. But letting leaders own their decisions allows them to feel accountable and learn from their own mistakes. We can't (and we shouldn't) want to teach every person to do every job. We don't know enough and we don't have enough time. Let people learn on their own. Each time you swoop in to solve a problem that you see coming you remove a potential lesson from the people in you organization. Accept mistakes for what they are: cheap leadership training courses.
Clear expectations and defined, yet spacious boundaries with room for mistakes will create leaders in your organization.
Growing Leaders
In a recent post I talked about the need to infuse IT professionals with business, leadership and interpersonal skills. Easier said than done for some, but still possible and a worthy effort. In the coming weeks, I'll discuss some of the principles we use as we try to grow our leaders from within.
- Accountablity, 7/14
- Learn, 9/30
Scrum at Google
Jeff Sutherland is one of the co-creators of "scrum." Scrum is an agile software methodology.
In this talk, Jeff describes how he consulted with Google on their AdWords project and helped them implement Scrum. It's an enjoyable talk. I listened while cleaning my office this morning. Make sure you peek at the slides once in a while which flow as he talks. The Q&A at the end is good.
In this talk, Jeff describes how he consulted with Google on their AdWords project and helped them implement Scrum. It's an enjoyable talk. I listened while cleaning my office this morning. Make sure you peek at the slides once in a while which flow as he talks. The Q&A at the end is good.
Moving Forward
Last week we released a new Beta web site: LDS Maps.This is a web site that people use to locate LDS buildings all over the world. This will eventually (probably July) be the replacement for a tool called Meetinghouse Locator on lds.org and mormon.org.
We'd love for people (members of the Church and non-members alike) to check it out and give us your feedback! This is only a beta so you will probably see some glitches, performance problems, incorrect data or issues with the design. When you do, let us know about them!
For members of the Church, if the meeting times are wrong then please let your ward clerk know. He can change the meeting times in his system (MLS).
If you see any other problems, including incorrect locations for buildings, click on the "Feedback" button in the web page itself and let us know what you think. With your help, we'll get any incorrect information fixed quickly!
Also feel free to give feedback in the comments here.
We are integrating this technology into the next generation of our web sites so that members of the Church can easily find who lives in their ward or branch boundaries and where. We will also be working on Spanish and Portugese versions, as well as versions for mobile devices.
We'd love for people (members of the Church and non-members alike) to check it out and give us your feedback! This is only a beta so you will probably see some glitches, performance problems, incorrect data or issues with the design. When you do, let us know about them!
For members of the Church, if the meeting times are wrong then please let your ward clerk know. He can change the meeting times in his system (MLS).
If you see any other problems, including incorrect locations for buildings, click on the "Feedback" button in the web page itself and let us know what you think. With your help, we'll get any incorrect information fixed quickly!
Also feel free to give feedback in the comments here.
We are integrating this technology into the next generation of our web sites so that members of the Church can easily find who lives in their ward or branch boundaries and where. We will also be working on Spanish and Portugese versions, as well as versions for mobile devices.
Top 10 Disruptive Technologies
Last month, Gartner identified the top 10 disruptive technologies for 2008 - 2012. And the list is pretty accurate:
We're already trying to figure out how to deal with some of this stuff. Disruptive? Yes. Scary? Definitely. How does a CIO (or IT manager) deal with, embrace or hold off new technologies?
Virtualization is a great example. In our data centers we face the same problems most I.T. shops do: not enough power or cooling. Answer? Virtualization! We're virtualizing servers with technology built into IBM's AIX platform and also with VMWare.
The plus is that it's easier to get servers stood up, each server is cheaper and the utilization is much higher overall. This saves on both power and cooling which is the original problem. The downside is that servers are so easy to requisition that they proliferate like wildfire. Without strong change management processes it can get crazy. And the management tools for virtualized servers aren't mature enough yet. It's clear we're getting value out of virtualization, but is it worth the challenges it presents? I think so; I wish I were more sure.
Web mashups are another interesting one. Users are hurling their data out from the corporate firewall onto the Internet and using various web mashups to create interesting new apps. It's great for the end-user! But the I.T. professional is having fits with security, code management, etc.
All of these new technologies bring both promise and pain. The job of the CIO and the I.T. professional is to understand them and help our business partners see the potential and recognize the risks.
What a fun time to be in information technology!
- Multicore and hybrid processors
- Virtualisation and fabric computing
- Social networks and social software
- Cloud computing and cloud/Web platforms
- Web mashups
- User Interface
- Ubiquitous computing
- Contextual computing
- Augmented reality
- Semantics
We're already trying to figure out how to deal with some of this stuff. Disruptive? Yes. Scary? Definitely. How does a CIO (or IT manager) deal with, embrace or hold off new technologies?
Virtualization is a great example. In our data centers we face the same problems most I.T. shops do: not enough power or cooling. Answer? Virtualization! We're virtualizing servers with technology built into IBM's AIX platform and also with VMWare.
The plus is that it's easier to get servers stood up, each server is cheaper and the utilization is much higher overall. This saves on both power and cooling which is the original problem. The downside is that servers are so easy to requisition that they proliferate like wildfire. Without strong change management processes it can get crazy. And the management tools for virtualized servers aren't mature enough yet. It's clear we're getting value out of virtualization, but is it worth the challenges it presents? I think so; I wish I were more sure.
Web mashups are another interesting one. Users are hurling their data out from the corporate firewall onto the Internet and using various web mashups to create interesting new apps. It's great for the end-user! But the I.T. professional is having fits with security, code management, etc.
All of these new technologies bring both promise and pain. The job of the CIO and the I.T. professional is to understand them and help our business partners see the potential and recognize the risks.
What a fun time to be in information technology!
Hear from the Engineers
Some of our engineers (program managers, QA, developers and others) have been posting about their experiences working at the LDS Church on the LDS Tech blog.
If you have any interest in what it is like to work at the LDS Church, check it out.
If you have any interest in what it is like to work at the LDS Church, check it out.
Book Club: What Got You Here Won't Get You There
What Got You Here Won't Get You There is the best business book I've read in a long time. The premise is that executives (and managers) will be more successful leaders if they quit being jerks. Sounds simple, but he enumerates exceptional examples of his canonical "20 reasons why leaders fail."
It includes things like "always having to be heard," "shooting the messenger," and "not saying thank you."
Not only does he give hard hitting examples, but he talks about how to start getting rid of these personality and leadership flaws.
Here's the one I'm going to work on: "saying but."
Scenario: Colleague comes in with great idea. Instead of saying "thank you" and expressing the enthusiasm that I actually feel, I say something like: "That's really cool, but..." and then proceed to make my mark on the conversation by bringing up some reason why the idea is partially flawed or a "counterpoint to think about" or just some general critique.
What's the point? Think before you talk and thank people for speaking up! Don't be Mr. Debate all the time! I'm resolving to quit.
It includes things like "always having to be heard," "shooting the messenger," and "not saying thank you."
Not only does he give hard hitting examples, but he talks about how to start getting rid of these personality and leadership flaws.
Here's the one I'm going to work on: "saying but."
Scenario: Colleague comes in with great idea. Instead of saying "thank you" and expressing the enthusiasm that I actually feel, I say something like: "That's really cool, but..." and then proceed to make my mark on the conversation by bringing up some reason why the idea is partially flawed or a "counterpoint to think about" or just some general critique.
What's the point? Think before you talk and thank people for speaking up! Don't be Mr. Debate all the time! I'm resolving to quit.
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