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February 28, 2005
The Rules of Metadata Implementation
Implementing Metadata is simple when you take a simple view of the effort. Four activities can be borrowed from Tom Peters ReImagine and applied to our world. First, take every repository, business process, and librarian function and turn it into a value based product or service. Products and services require business models, branding, and work-worth-paying-for can be clearly defined. Second, take every activity and get it on the web by any means necessary. If after a few months of implementing the product and adding value-based services and you are not insanely great at it and customers are screaming accolades then kill it. Perform the ceremonial Metacide to the program then start over with a new area or asset (Third activity). Finally, if you are great at asset management, governance, and fundamentally changed the culture of the organization then celebrate your success. Then, take that product and service to the experience level and continue with the metadata invasion and world domination.
Posted by Todd at 3:58 PM
Interesting Observation
Last week, I read an interesting story about a college professor that gave a final exam to his soon-to-be graduating seniors. The test questions were divided into three categories and the students were instructed to choose questions from only one of the categories. The first category of questions was the hardest and worth fifty points. The second, which was easier, was worth forty points. The third, the simplest, was worth thirty points. Upon completion of the test, students who had chosen the hardest fifty point questions were given As. The students who had chosen the forty-point questions received Bs. Those who settled for the easiest thirty-pointers were given Cs. The students were frustrated with the grading of the papers and asked the professor what he was looking for. The professor leaned over the podium, smiled, and explained, I wasnt testing your book knowledge, I was testing your aim.
Posted by Todd at 2:41 AM
February 23, 2005
Top Ten Speaking Tips
Practice, Practice, PracticeThere is no substitute for this. Every professional speaker spends an enormous amount of time working out the session. “It takes me three weeks to put together a good impromptu speech." - Mark Twain. Practice at home, in the car, in the office, 5-10, 20, minutes; what ever you can schedule.
Establish that Foundation
The first 10 minutes may be the most crucial time in an entire speech. This is where people form perceptions on your skills, knowledge, and experience. Delivering a solid performance here and you will set the stage for the remainder of the session.
Flexible Ending
No matter how much you practice, you will approach the ending of your session at different times. Try to take the last 10 minutes and make a mental note of which slide you should be on. Assuming you have 20 slides and you think you should be on slide 16 with 10 minutes to go. You should be able to expand the discussion points to 15-20 minutes or shrink this time period to 5 minutes or less. This is crucial to deliver a professional speech; attendees don’t want to feel cheated by ending early or not covering some of the material because of time constraints. Your ability to pull this off without giving a hint of what’s going on will set you apart.
Limit the Use of Bullets
Most speakers like to use bullets in their slides and the more the merrier. The problem is that you can’t really tell where you are in the slide deck without reading the slide itself. Try to place diagrams or even clipart into the deck that can remind you of where your are. Most nervous conditions come during the transition period between slides and by using diagrams you only need a glance to determine where you are.
Deliver with Feeling
The basic difference between the good, the bad, and the ugly is passion. Deliver the session like you have spent your entire life waiting for this moment. Deliver the session with feeling and emotion, let your passion flow like a Baptist Preacher, can you say amen?
Watch that Slide Count
You should be able to spend 3-5 minutes on each slide besides the title and support slides (QA, References, Contact). Why not less than that? Because some members will be reading the slides while you talk and you want to make sure they can read the entire content. Hence, why you shouldn’t put 20 bullet points and then cover in 2 minutes. Why not more than 5? Perhaps you have too much content that could be much easier explained in separate slides.
Alter your speed of delivery
If you ever watch the World Poker Tour, you will hear them talk about changing the speeds of play. Playing fast, slow, conservative, aggressive, etc is the recipe for success. Same holds true in speaking, delivering a slow monotone for the full period can lull the audience to sleep. However, an overly aggressive style, like Richard Simmons, can wear the audience down and perhaps lose the message in the process. Vary everything!
Use Humor or Interesting Things in the Show (It is a Show by the way)If you have ever watched Emeril Live more than once you will pick up on some comments that are meant to interject humor and delineate him from other cooking show hosts: Bam, Use your Knobs, Kick it up a Notch, Smell-a-Vision, etc. They are funny fillers that have become a brand unto them selves. Work on a few things that you like to say besides Hmmmmm. Props are good for this….
80-90 Percent Rule
No matter how hard you practice, when the day comes you will only be able to deliver 80-90 percent of your ability. The same is true for professional sports like golf. The pressure, time constraints, public view, and a variety of other reasons cause you to be less than perfect. It’s ok, most people won’t notice.
A Built-in Support Group
Remember, the attendees have selected your session to attend. They may have paid to see your presentation and you can bet they want to see you succeed. Nobody goes out and buys a car in hopes that it will break down or get into a wreck. Go on, everyone wants you to succeed.
The Room is your Friend
Most speakers find a parking spot at about 35 degrees to the left and right of the screen. It gives them comfort of being able to look at the screen at any point in time. Don’t park the car, ride that baby. Walk in front of the screen (just don’t park there), walk in the isles, walk down the sides, vary everything. This allows you to look directly at the majority of the audience, since most people sit in the back of the room. Also, big secret time. The most important time you need to see the screen is when you change slides, this is where you gather your thoughts. If you time it right, by walking back toward the front of the room you can see the entire slide without appearing as you needed it.
Be a Host not a Speaker
Before the session, try to meet as many people as you can. Even if you only talk to the people you know, others will get the feeling that you are an approachable person. Try not to spend more than 2-3 minutes with any one person; bounce around. If your session is large, you may only get to say hello with 5-10 people, but these folks could be your supporters that you focus on during the session.
Posted by Todd at 5:52 PM
February 22, 2005
The Future of Business Intelligence
This week I will head to Orlando to present the future of business intelligence to a group that already leads the way in most technology environments. The message will surround the impact of Service Oriented Architecture to the world of BI. While no one can really predict the future, the reality is that services will invade the BI world in a way that will literally change the way we look at BI. Think about how business intelligence has changed over the years from story telling, accounting and manual bookkeeping, automated system methods, and to the current environment of performing analytical analysis on the data to report on the past in order to predict the future. The problem with the future is that you wont have time to analyze it. The future world of information technology is instantaneous and with not much sympathy for those that cant keep up. The future world of BI will be proactive, predictive, and defining. Defining in the sense that unique value propositions will be awarded to those that are the quickest to the market. The quick and the dead will define the future world of BI. Markets will be defined and created as quickly as they die, as someone remarked: if it works, it is obsolete.
Services will literally change they way we think about business intelligence. Services will encapsulate complex business logic and rules in BI reports and exposing them as Web services, we will be able to leverage legacy & other IT investments very effectively as well as create intelligent agents that can monitor events in real time and dynamically influence and reroute transactions improving speed, agility & adaptation of operations to changing situations. Seamless, timely, & consistent Information access is the mantra for staying connected in this digital age. Sharing of information over Intranet – with peers & others is crucial for internal operations and Extranet (Internet) – with customers, partners, suppliers for efficient supply chain.
What can you do now? Realize that we are entering into a new world where knowledge-Based Business Models will define how business gets done. Focus your BI efforts with an Asset Management Mentality. Already, our jobs are defined as assemblers of knowledge, not as creators. Constant Evolution and Destruction of Value are keys to redefining your career and keeping your skills marketable. Globalization of Capital, Labor, and Innovation will continue at light speed. We are entering into a new era of technology and the impact technology has on the business world. In many ways, this is an opportunity that we must embrace, just as the farmer and mill worker realized generations ago
Posted by Todd at 12:59 PM
February 18, 2005
Simplicity for Life and Complexity for Business
Pondering today why we enjoy the simple web based applications in our personal life but complexity rules the day in the business world. For example, three technologies are emerging from the Internet environment: wiki, weblog (blog), and folksonomies. Each technology is about as simple as you can get. The value and perhaps one day profit is the number of people that are engaged in the technology. However, applications and technology that is brought into the corporation thrives on complexity. Recently, consultants started discussing registries within our organization. I wish I could have recorded the conversation, not that I think anyone could actually understand what they were saying. Maybe, we need to bring simplification into the corporation.
Posted by Todd at 7:07 PM
February 17, 2005
February Article Published
This month’s article focuses on the entire Metadata environment which includes: The Asset Portal, The Traditional Repository, Business Processes, Application Processes, and Customer Support Environment. The repository environment is a complex collection of communications that are one way, collaborative, and interactive in nature. This brings us back to the basic definition of metadata; is metadata a technology, a product, or a service? Does it matter? Delivery of enterprise metadata must be effective, efficient, and dependable if it is to have value in the customers eyes. The customer must be able to depend on the consistency of the technology, processes, and the relationship. Building the entire repository environment will ensure you can deliver that value each and every time.
Vision and Reality Hit the Meta Data Environment
Posted by Todd at 5:03 PM
February 15, 2005
Interesting Statistic and Impact
At a recent presentation, the speaker brought up the dramatic drop in the cost of storage. In 1988, a gigabyte of storage cost around $10,000 while today that same storage runs about 0.54 cents. This simple statistic reiterates that we are in an environment that is under constant pressure to change. Technology is getting faster, cheaper and more ubiquitous every day. It is easy to get lost in the day to day activities, announcements, mergers and forget that we are in one of the most chaotic times in history where entire business models are being turned on a dime. Not to mention, industries and professions that are changing right before our eyes. Take a look at Guy Kawasakis Book, Rules for Revolutionaries, on page 71 which takes us up to the year 2000.
Posted by Todd at 5:54 PM
February 11, 2005
Folksonomies Once More
After pondering and reading a ton of material on this concept, I have come to one conclusion; Folksonomies are one of the first Consumer taxonomies. Yes, I know that a single term classification system does not a taxonomy make. However, think about this for a moment. Most taxonomies, ontologies, and classification system are either built by the producer of assets or the brokering group. This is true in the corporation (information models) as well as the Internet (Yahoos business classification system). There are 90 billion web pages out there, but my favorites are organized in a simple one level folder structure with only about 30 sites saved. Hence, my personal classification system is simple and contains a small volume of sites. Folkonomies allow the consumer classify content by the use of single terms which then can be reconciled by the broker. I do not see any reason for not integrating this technology into our current enterprise environment with the exception of lack of tools. Ok, that is a big exception but in theory, this technology could provide some value-add in the ability to actually locate content within the enterprise. Thoughts?
Posted by Todd at 5:37 PM | Comments (1)
February 9, 2005
XML Standards Map
Posted by Todd at 6:28 PM
Folksonomy Thoughts
Have you read much about Folksonomies? The idea is simple yet profound. Allow users to classify content based on their own classification system. Dont build extended top-down ontologies or taxonomies; allow them to emerge from the ground up. The responsibility of the Metadata Services Group would then be to reconcile these classifications and ensure information can be shared across business units. Personally, I havent done anything to move this concept into the enterprise but I am curious. What I love about the idea is that it would provide a fairly simple classification, perhaps only two layers deep. Only about 10% of the terms would be outside the reconciled classification scheme which could be a really useful tool.
Posted by Todd at 6:27 PM
February 8, 2005
Window of Value
Not sure why this thought emerged today but perhaps its because we are entering into the 2004 review and 2005 objectives period of time. If you draw a timeline, beginning with your first job and ending the line today, you will see your career as a series of assignments and jobs. However, does anyone really care what you did 20 years ago? How about 10 years ago? 5? The reality is that within our corporate walls is an environment built by a management group that only cares what you did one to two years ago and what you’re going to do the following year. This is not a slam, but a reality check. Ask your current manager what key projects you worked on in 2001. This is the window of value. So What? The so what is that you need to develop a brand mentality that enhances this time periods focus on your unique value proposition instead of relying on x years of service. Its later than you think.
Posted by Todd at 8:11 PM
February 7, 2005
Metadata Skills Required
In the past, corporations built their Information Technology organization around two primary skill categories: technical and professional. Technical skills included the specific skills required to design, develop, or operate systems which included Oracle, Java, AS/400, etc. Professional skills focused on ensuring the right fit, communication, management, leadership, and all of those HRish like qualities. Now a third skill category has emerged and will eventually (if not already) take center stage in the requirements of hiring technology staff: information skills. What are information skills? How do we hire for, promote on, manage with, and evaluate on these new skills? Are managers who have been trained to judge off project plans, task sheets, and commitments made 12 months in advance now going to evolve to information managers? Does anyone know what questions to ask an interviewee when hiring today for a metadata job?
Posted by Todd at 5:37 PM
February 6, 2005
Give It Away
Taking a page from Tom Peters, I am going to provide access to all of my speaking materials online. There is no longer a member’s area, but open access in order to expand the body of knowledge before it’s too late. You can find the materials on http://www.rtodd.com under the speaking link.
Posted by Todd at 12:31 AM
February 4, 2005
Something's Missing
Ok, I want to read Tom Peters latest rant on OutSourcing. How should I go about that in the physical world. Only Assumption: He wrote about it in his latest book.
1. Locate a Bookstore in the Yellow Pages and obtain the address. (check availability)
2. Find a Map in order to get travel instructions
3. Ask the salesperson or utilize the card catalog to locate the book
4. Open the book to the index to look for OutSourcing, Rants
5. Bingo, Tom says xyz
Whats missing in the electronic world? We have online yellow pages, search engines, and business directories. We have maps that can get us from door to door. We have localized search engines, metadata catalogs, and customer relationship applications. We dont have is a sinking SITE INDEX!!!! Yes, I have heard and written about topic maps but not much in the implementation of this technology has made it into our daily lives. How hard could it possible be to index the pages within the site, extract the key terms from the title, headers, keywords, etc, and then build a cross index.
Oh, here is my old one for those that say it cant be done.
http://www.rtodd.com/siteindex.htm
Posted by Todd at 6:11 PM | Comments (1)
Promotion to Obscure
According to Ed Batista, I have been promoted to an obscure blogger. Excellent!, I love it. Bloggers will take over the world and I am late to the game. How about you? And, I will repeat my rant from last month. Where the heck are all of the Data Architecture, Data Management, Dublin Core, Metadata Blogs?
http://www.edbatista.com/2005/01/
Posted by Todd at 6:11 PM | Comments (2)
February 3, 2005
First Three Steps
One of the presentations that I want to put together in the coming months is how do you create a personal brand online. After much thought, I decided that these items should be the first three steps. First, update your resume with content and style. Second, convert your resume to the CV format used by academics. This will force you into thinking on a different plane. While the resume is only 1-2 pages, the CV is unlimited and acts more like a chronological roadmap of your story. Finally, take these components and create a portfolio that can be used in an interview. Assemble your publications, awards, supervisor compliments, and other items that would not only interest your perspective employer but will impress them that you have it with you. These are the first steps toward building your brand online, know your product.
Posted by Todd at 4:55 PM
13,000 Jobs Vanish, Again
13,000 Jobs will vanish with another attempt to gain a competitive advantage by bonding two distinct corporations, cultures, customer bases, and business models. I am speaking of the SBS and AT&T Merger. Jim Collins mentioned that not a single company that qualified as having made a sustained transformation ignited its leap with a big acquisition or merger. Today, Qwest and MCI are thinking of merging and not too long ago Cingular merged with AT&T wireless. Didnt we break up the telephone monopoly? Now, what about those 13,000 jobs lost, where will they go? My only hope is that there are some extremely talented individuals that will become entrepreneurs and hand the company back a hefty invoice for their services.
Posted by Todd at 4:55 PM
February 2, 2005
SOA needs an Enema
Why is it that SOA implementations focuses so much time on SOAP. WSDL, UDDI and not about governance, enterprise application integration, and metadata management? The basic question I asked the attendees at this weeks SOA conference was what are they going to do with those assets generated in the SOA environment: web services, xml vocabularies, common components, schemas, open source, and many, many others. You cannot ignore the aspects of implementation because of the cool technology.
Posted by Todd at 10:19 PM
February 1, 2005
SOA and Web Services Conference
Todays message was delivered in spite of having the flu, what timing? Maybe my sweat and shivering was mistakenly taken as a sign of nervousness. The topics included SOA Architectures, Security, Web Portals, and migration experiences. Excellent speakers and a great location since it was held in Atlanta, GA. The best part was they handed out the January issue of Web Services Journal and the lead article was on Metadata Evolution into SOA.
Posted by Todd at 7:52 PM