Gamification

Sounds like a silly word, but "gamification" is garnering buzz. The idea is that an enterprise can smooth difficult change issues like innovation, training, new processes, and so forth, through the use of gaming mechanics. Gaming mechanics include things like leader boards, points, clear goals, and real-time feedback.

In August of 2010, gamification wasn't on the list of Gartner's big changes to the world of work in the next 10 years.

Now, Gartner is talking a lot about it, but on both sides of the issue: Here and here are a few examples.

What do you think? Is there a place for game mechanics in the work place?

Open Source Data Center

Facebook is going green and sharing with the world. A PUE of 1.07 is pretty amazing.

Dropbox Security

I've often wondered about the security of Dropbox. This article discusses it. Net-net is that the security seems to be awful. There is a file on your computer which, if someone gets access to, allows them to access you dropbox without authenticating. Malware could be written to grab this file. Or someone could just nick it.

The article recommends the following:

• Don't use dropbox
  
• If you do use dropbox, encrypt all of your files
  
• Remove old systems from your list of authorized systems
  

Libyan Domains

Domains like Bit.ly, Ad.ly and Letter.ly leverage the country of Libya's domain extension (.ly) to create cute names.

These domain names may be at risk.

Mormon Community Development

Here's an article on our mobile community development efforts. My dad helped build chapels when he was young. Now people are helping build apps.

I love my job.

THANK YOU to all who have helped or will help. If you have design, development, QA or project management skills, please come join us!

Microsoft Leaves Kinect “Open”

Seven or eight years ago, Microsoft donated the source code for a project I worked on to the open source community. The game was called Allegiance and it has been amazingly and admirably kept updated and enhanced by a group of volunteer testers, developers, designers and artists at FreeAllegiance.

When Microsoft released Kinect—a new system which lets people interact with the Xbox without a controller—a hacked version of the source code was posted on the Internet within a couple of weeks. See this Inc.com article. In the past Microsoft might have screamed, threatened, sued, or all of the above. Instead, they went to NPR and lauded the effort. Rapidly, people jumped on the bandwagon and have been enhancing the product.

We'll see if the interest is sustainable, but great move on Microsoft's part. Great to see some examples of openness!

Google and Microsoft: Search Wars Heating Up

Things are getting ugly in the search wars. Google is claiming that Microsoft steals their search results. Microsoft is accusing Google of abusing the use of private data.

Intrigue. Drama. Search is so fascinating!