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June 29, 2006
The Beauty of Information
It’s interesting that the majority of award winning sites are all Flash sites. Cool designs seem to focus more on the visual cuteness that actual customer value. Information Architecture is beautiful and when sites are well architected they scream value and utility. Perhaps, we should start an Information Architecture Site of the Day; dedicated only to those sites that are, in the eye of the beholder, beautiful.
Information architecture does not mean plain and boring; you can have great graphics but the generation of value is in the content and the IA. What makes a great meal? Is it the food, cook and recipe or the garnish weed that is placed on the plate. Ok, I am showing my lack of sophistication with the weed comment but you get the idea. Maybe we have too many designs and not enough IAs. Or have the visual graphics crowd bullied their way into the environment while we cower in the corner.
Posted by Todd at 12:00 PM
June 21, 2006
IEEE Article on Semantic Web
I had a chance to provide some information on the SOA movement to Greg Goth. The interview was published in the March Issue of IEEE DISTRIBUTED SYSTEMS ONLINE. Additional comments provided by James Hendler, director of the University of Maryland's Joint Institute for Knowledge Discovery, Dave McComb, president and chairman of Semantic Arts, and Anne Thomas Manes, vice president and research director at the Burton Group technology analysis firm.
View Article
Posted by Todd at 12:03 AM
June 13, 2006
What is Average?
Within the world of High Performance, what is Average Performance?
Is it...
1. The mid-point or 50%; such that half of the people have lower performance and the other half with high performance
2. The 80-20 Rule where we say 80% are Average
3. The 89% of Online Dating Average: 99% of Respondents have Above Average Looks
4. The 99% of Average Child Behavior; All Kids are problems but mine
5. The School System where "C" is average but 90% of the students make A's and B's
6. The Bell Curve where 96% are predictably average or 72% definitively average
7. Where Average is defined as a minimum; the average sick days equal the allocated days published in the company handbook
This is important because its hard to define high performance if we cant define what average is. More importantly, being average has social stigma and no one wants to be below average even when that is the definition of average.
Posted by Todd at 5:50 PM
June 12, 2006
June Article on the Long Tail of Metadata
In 2004, Chris Anderson wrote an interesting article on a concept referred to as the Long Tail. The long tail is basically the products and services that have lost their sale ability within a geographical area. One of my favorite books on personal marketing was published in 1997 titled The Persona Principle: How to Succeed in Business with Image Marketing by Derek Armstrong and Kam wai Yu. You would be hard-pressed to locate this book in any bookstore, and even Amazon has it ranked number 1,140,052. Online retailers can carry a much larger inventory than physical stores, which allow them to generate more sales along the long tail of popularity.
Where does traditional metadata fit into this model? Traditional metadata focused on data and transformation-type assets with a few business rules tossed in on the side. Applying the "long tail" framework, we would include many of the enterprise metadata components as well as other data elements that might not be labeled as enterprise.
Posted by Todd at 11:09 PM
June 7, 2006
Breaking the Rules of Career Planning
Rule #1: Work Hard and you will be noticed!
Wrong: The meek will inherit nothing; work hard and someone will steal your ideas; the world belongs to the ones that control their brand.
Rule #2: Work and Retire for Corporate America!
Wrong; You are employee #2,345 and nobody cares; Ask someone what you did three years ago and you will see how much they care; Careers are made through a cycle of extensive learning followed by value creation.
Rule #3: Develop Leadership Skills!
Wrong; the vast majority of people can tell you difference between management and leadership; leadership is getting things done; leadership changes daily, leadership emerges after the battle, survival is what happens during.
Rule #4: Everyone is here to support you!
Wrong; all of that ended in High School; we live in reptilian world where we eat our own young in order to survive and prosper; we would trade our soul for success (See Enron, HealthSouth, Anderson, etc.); There is only one you, one brand, one message; unfortunately, if you are one in a million your one of 6,652 and counting.
Rule #5: Keep your nose clean and do what you are told!
Wrong: Following that advice will place you in the middle of the pack of community hell. Disruption and failure changes the world; push everything to the limit and grow your experience; The vast majority of directives play it safe and eventually someone or something will be able to do safe 10 times faster and cheaper.
Posted by Todd at 6:30 PM
June 3, 2006
Where are they now; Technology Leaders
In 1984, Robert Levering, Michael Katz and Milton Mosokowitz wrote a box called The Computer Entrepreneurs. Can you remember any of them.
Daniel Bricklin: VisiCalc
Joel Berez: The Zork Trilogy
Jack Tramiel: Commodore 64
Chuck Peddle: Victor 9000
Gary Kildall: Pascal and C-Basic
Go Sugiura: Grenn and Amber Monochrome Monitors
Jeffrey Wilkins: Compuserve
Terry Johnson: PC Hard-Drives
Dennis Hayes: Hayes Modems
Reid Anderson: Verbatim
The most interesting aspect of reading the book is that of the hundred or so thought leaders, less than 10% remain one today. Notably, Mr. Gates and Mr. Jobs are only two of the few that remain. Based on what you might have read or saw in their images, most of us would have bet on the others people.
Posted by Todd at 3:34 PM
June 2, 2006
Personal Branding Framework
A couple of days ago, I posted a request for review of a personal branding model. Several folks have stepped forward to provide feedback. Here is one of the slides that focuses on the tasks and activities of the Persona Trademark.
Again, if you are interested in reviewing the slides and providing feedback that would be greatly appreciated. Especially, if you have been in the personal branding space for a few years; your insight would be extremely valuable.
Thanks again,
R. Todd
Posted by Todd at 1:36 AM