November 29, 2006
All Knowledge is Free
What Happens when…
All Knowledge/Information is Free
All Knowledge/Information is Free and Freely Available
All Knowledge/Information is Free and Freely Available all of the time
All Knowledge/Information is Free and Freely Available all of the time to Everyone
What will knowledge workers do when the dissemination channel is gone. Based on my 24 years experience, much of our value was defined by our knowledge and experience. Today, most of that information is out on the Internet and experience, as they say, Isnt what it use to be. Most Information Architecture knowledge can be found online or in the book store. Most Metadata experts freely publish their knowledge in trade magazine or online journals. There will always be demand for those that can execute but the game is forever changing.
Posted by Todd at 12:51 PM
October 19, 2006
Getting Promoted
Interesting article in this weeks Information Week by Dan Tynan: 20 Tips to get you promoted. Of course, one must assume you actually want to get promoted in the first place but that may be a subject of another conversation. The thing that struck me with this list is the difference in the long term and short term impact of the activities. For example, doing the crappy jobs in order to demonstrate your abilities seems like a short term value equation. There are always a ton of crappy jobs to be had in any organization but getting on one of these projects just for the notoriety seems to have a limited payoff. Has anyone actually entered their crappy job on their resume or CV? Of course not, otherwise you would be asking future employers if you could sweep the IT floor. It is always a good idea to let leadership know that you are willing to do what ever it takes but this is a poor long term strategy. Number 14, which focus on building your own portfolio, is a far better long term strategy. Here you are adding components that you can reference for years to come. Other tips focus on habits that need to be developed irregardless of your level or position. The article is a great read and worth the time.
Posted by Todd at 1:47 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
October 11, 2005
Seven Technologies
Interesting article written by Om Malik and Anders Lotsson, on seven technologies that will change everything. Specifically, I like #3 has it addresses the dark side. Maybe metadata should be on the dark side after all.
WHAT IT IS: Technology that boldly goes where no search engine has gone before. WHY IT'S HOT: Google may have already indexed 8 billion webpages, but thats just the tip of the iceberg. Many more pages are hidden behind corporate firewalls or in databases waiting to be indexed. By some estimates, this so-called dark Web is 500 times bigger than the World Wide Web as we know it. Unlike the public Internet, however, it can't be retrieved by the usual Web crawlers. Instead, the information must be fed into search engines mammoth databases using special retrieval techniques.Before the advent of desktop search, our PCs were part of that invisible Web -- connected to the Internet but not indexed. File-sharing networks already search your PC for MP3s, but there are tricky privacy and security issues to resolve before your hard drive can join the visible Web. There are also millions of digitally transcribed books waiting to be connected. Ultimately, deep Web search could answer a direct question better than hundreds of links, because many of the most authoritative sources have yet to make it online.
Posted by Todd at 1:05 AM
October 4, 2005
CIO Magazine Rant
Published in the October Issue of CIO Magazine
In Bricklayers or Architects? [Aug. 1], Gary Beach asks what we can do to make a difference in the U.S. education crisis.
First, we must change the mind-set of the individual knowledge worker. Whether you are moving from company to company or project to project, you should have a skill portfolio that can be transferred easily. Job erosion, evolving business models and technology change are here to stay, and the long-range risks and costs of comfortable inaction are deadly to your career.
Also, we must address the development of skills for our youth. In the days of old, careers and skills could be developed over a long period of time with apprentice-type programs. Our current environment does not provide the time to build anything beyond basic skills. More importantly, organizations don't care what I did five, 10 or 15 years ago. This myopic view, and the continuous evolution of the technology environment, requires adaptability, not conformity.
Finally, we must raise the standard by which we measure ourselves. I am always amazed when so many parents say they have gifted kids. They can't all be gifted, and the only area in which our children are leading the world is in thinking that they are.
It's not only the teachers support but also the environment and community support that needs to be addressed.
Posted by Todd at 3:43 PM
October 2, 2005
TDAN Article
Career development is one of the most important topics today with the advancements of technology, out sourcing of jobs, and continuous evolution of standards. Our employment environment is changing and we need to ensure that we are focusing on career development for jobs in the next 5 - 10 years. This articles reviews career planning from four perspectives: professional, academic, corporate, and Entrepreneur.
Posted by Todd at 6:24 PM
Wisdom of Crowds Review
This month I take a look at James Surowiecki's book called The Wisdom of Crowds. The book was published in 2004 by Double Day publications. The sub title reads Why the Many Are Smarter Than the Few and How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business, Economies, Societies and Nations.
Posted by Todd at 4:14 PM
August 31, 2005
Are you an Expert?
If you wanted to rate your interest or passion for a particular subject on a scale from 1 to 5, how would define the different levels. What are your thoughts based on my initial stab?
1: I am interested in the subject; enough to publicly declare my interest and when information is presented to me on my subject, I will read and try to improve my base level of knowledge and understanding. While I may or may not be actively engaged in work directly tied to my interest, I am interested in the progress.
2. I am interested in the topic and I try to read a wide variety of publications including research firm reports, journals, and books. I am considered a Subject Matter Expert within my group and I am involved either directly or indirectly with efforts within my organization.
3. I have a passion for the subject and I actively seek out research, books, authors, and any source of information about the pros and cons of my subject. I can argue both sides of the topic and I am considered one of the top experts within the company. I am actively engaged in work directly related top my topic and seek more assignments in this area. If my subject is broad enough, I have the responsibility and ownership of corporate rollout.
4. I am expanding the body of knowledge on a global scale by adding my thoughts and ideas. I not only have the ownership within, I am involved externally by publishing or presenting for others to evaluate my efforts. I am considered a player in the field from a research and experience perspective. I am involved with local and global groups dedicated to the defining standards and best practices.
5. I am in the top 5% of this subject and I have a collection of references to back up that claim. I have expanded the body of knowledge and others seek my opinion and direction. I not only have the professional experience but the rigor of research as well. I have at least 5 plus years experience and the scars to prove it; I have reached the pinnacle of this topic professional, academically, and from the corporate perspective. The expansion of the body of knowledge includes authorship in journals, books, proceedings, and professional sources of information.
Posted by Todd at 1:42 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
August 10, 2005
Is the Tide Turning?
Yesterday, a colleague and I stopped for a conversation which turned toward the difference between an employee and consultant within the large corporation. My belief is that:
Consultants are hired for their experience, assumed to be knowledgeable, and must prove otherwise. Employees are hired for their potential, assumed to lack knowledge, and must prove otherwise.
As an example, a couple of weeks ago I walked into a meetings where the discussion was on enterprise architecture governance and knowledge management. Clearly, we have over 6 years experience in this area but the business person continued to turn to a visiting consultant to answer the questions first. They were armed with great high level theory but had no knowledge or understanding in the actually process of implementation. They had talked about the subject but never really did anything. Just about every issue they discussed could be found in books by Firestone, McElroy, or Drucker. They provided little or no value add that could be gathered for $24.99.
This colleague said that the tide is turning on this observation and that the value of the employee is changing. With out sourcing, over seas sourcing, job cuts, and the transformation that most organizations are going through, I can’t see this actually happening. Do you?
Posted by Todd at 12:58 PM | TrackBack
August 2, 2005
RSS: The Future of the Metadata Repository
Really Simple Syndication (RSS) is a lightweight XML format designed for sharing headlines and other Web content. Think of it as a distributable Whats New for your site. Originated by UserLand in 1997 and subsequently used by Netscape to fill channels for Netcenter, RSS has evolved into a popular means of sharing content between sites (including the BBC, CNET, CNN, Disney, Forbes, Motley Fool, Wired, Red Herring, Salon, Slashdot, ZDNet, and more). RSS solves myriad problems webmasters commonly face, such as increasing traffic, and gathering and distributing news. RSS can also be the basis for additional content distribution services (Web Reference, 2005). The typical use of the RSS feed is within the WebLog (blog) environment. Once the author updates their blog with an entry, the system will update the RSS file and send a 'ping' message to the 'Aggregation Ping Server' indicating that his site has updated. Several organizations like Feedster and Technorati will monitor the feeds and publish in a centralized location the content. The other option is that end users can simply purchase or download a news aggregator application (reader) which allows the user to subscribe to any blog that supports the RDF/XML feed. The application can check the blog for updates once an hour or once a day depending on the configuration of the reader. This eliminates the need to visit search engines or news collection sites in order to read the content of the blog.
The implications for the metadata environment are enormous. Taking a closer look at the RSS standard reveals that the standard is fairly simply and consistent irregardless of the context. This indicates that a simple meta-model such as the Dublin Core could be easily exchanged by the use of RSS technology and that news readers could replace the majority of the functionality within the centralized metadata repository. The section will argue that publishing new content is very similar to the information required for publishing technology asset metadata or will be in the future. Advancements in the RSS technology will allow development, modeling, and other system development lifecycle products to publish information about their assets which will eliminate the extraction of information by hand or forcing integration into a single methodology. RSS already has search functionality and personal taxonomies where the end user can catalog their own content which may prove to be much more valuable than the traditional IT based taxonomies and onotologies. Assuming that vendor organizations can convert their product lines to the XML based standards then a whole new world will open up to the possibilities of the semantic web-enabled applications. W3C (2001) defines the semantic web as:
The Semantic Web is an extension of the current web in which information is given well-defined meaning, better enabling computers and people to work in cooperation. The mix of content on the web has been shifting from exclusively human-oriented content to more and more data content. The Semantic Web brings to the web the idea of having data defined and linked in a way that it can be used for more effective discovery, automation, integration, and reuse across various applications. For the web to reach its full potential, it must evolve into a Semantic Web, providing a universally accessible platform that allows data to be shared and processed by automated tools as well as by people.
By definition the semantic web will integrate the different technologies like XML, RDF, RSS, namespaces, ontologies, etc. These technologies will come together to radically change the way in which we collect information. McComb (2004) defines the killer application in the semantic web as a radical improvement over search and agent. An agent is a program to which an individual delegates some authority to act on the individual’s behalf and then releases to act autonomously. Clearly, RSS technology moves us in that direction. More importantly, inside the corporation the semantic environment can be controlled and dictated which might be impossible on the World Wide Web (WWW). The semantic web and accompanying technologies will produce an environment where a universal repository is possible and should be on the market.
Posted by Todd at 5:55 PM | Comments (4)
August Book Reviews
Excellent Globalization Books...
Three Billion New Capitalists - Clyde Prestowitz
A couple of great books on the impact of globalization. Mr. Prestowitz does an excellent job of describing our world and how the global economy will take shape. The author focuses on China and India and spends a great deal of time on their strengths without too much attention on the weaknesses or negative possibilities. His key point, that I cannot argue with is the lack of a universal strategy by the United States. More importantly, the lack of a strategy by individuals. The author is very credible and most of his points are backed up with fact and data. Perhaps my favorite paragraph was where the author describes the tax incentives, funding, and education grants provided by China. Ironically, Dell got a similar deal in one of the Carolinas this year.
The World is Flat - Thomas Friedman
As if I didn't have enough bad news with the prior book, Mr. Friedman describes a world with very few borders. I purchased this book on tape and am on my third listen / read. The initial parts review technology and the advancements over the past several years and the savings by different organizations due to outsourcing. A trend that will not only continue but get far more aggressive in the future. The author even discusses the impact of terrorism and how this too is an example of a flat world.
Posted by Todd at 2:28 AM | Comments (1)
July 20, 2005
Fast Company Article
Marcus Buckingham provides some interesting observations on building ones skills and career in the August issue of Fast Company. He points out that we should focus on our strengths and not our weaknesses which goes against the grain of most organizations that manage by things done wrong. I like idea of enhancing ones strengths, focusing on the successes, managing by things done right, and the glass if half full. The main issue with this theory is not that it isn’t a good idea but it takes much more effort and commitment from the employee and manager. How difficult is it to go into an employee review and preach from the same hymnal used 25 years ago. You need to improve X, enhance your skills in Y, and gain more exposure in Z. In this article, Marcus points out that 41% of people work on their strengths, I wish the percentage was that good but from my experience it is not. How about yours?
Posted by Todd at 2:45 AM
July 8, 2005
They Get It
Tom Peters and Marshall Goldsmith get it. Linus Torvalds and Tim Berners-Lee get it too. What they get is the understanding that we do not live in a world where value is derived by the scarcity of the product but rather the abundance. Open Source and 10 millionth download of FireFox remind us what the internet is and should continue to be. Free of obstructions from corporations and governments. That sharing information so that everyone benefits is really the secret of the coming business environment. Unfortunately, many of our organizations still dont understand the new equation of success. Bill Gates once commented that in the Gold Rush, the majority of the riches was made by the people that sold blue jeans, pick axes, and maps. In fact, I believe that the man that first discovered Gold in California dies dirt poor due to conflicts of land ownership
Posted by Todd at 2:58 PM
July 5, 2005
New TDAN Article on Globalization
Title: Globalization is Just the Tip of the Iceberg
Recently, I had the opportunity to provide a metadata tutorial to an academic conference where the welcome speech touched on the impact of globalization. The speaker indicated that the erosion of jobs within the Information Technology community could be fixed by simply increasing the supply and quality of students within computer science or any related field. Fueling this perception are article after article telling us the same thing.
The economic rise of Asias giants is the most important story of our age. It heralds the end, in the not too distant future, of as much as five centuries of domination by the Europeans and their colonial offshoots - Martin Wolf (Financial Times)
There is no job that is Americas God-given right anymore. - Carly Fiorina (HP)
Currently, India is becoming the back office of the world. Everest estimates companies all over the globe are sending as much as $5 billion in work to Indian outsourcing service providers. But all the headlines about the Indian success story are obscuring a development that can have just as much impact. I predict China will be the next big wave in offshore outsourcing. – Todd Furnis
Income Confers No Immunity as Jobs Migrate – USA Today
The world has arrived at a rare strategic inflection point where nearly half its population—living in China, India and Russia—have been integrated into the global market economy, many of them highly educated workers, who can do just about any job in the world. We’re talking about three billion people. – Craig Barrett (Intel)
Posted by Todd at 5:09 PM
Eye on TDWI Baltimore May 2005
Nice Review of my Keynote Address at TDWI this year.
R. Todd Stephens kicked off the second keynote of the conference. He titled it, An Information Odyssey: The Future of Business Intelligence. I have heard several analysts and consultants talk about the future of BI in the past. They had focused on the challenges of really big data, real-time delivery, and outsourcing so I wasnt expecting much new. However, Stephens is the Director of Metadata Services for BellSouth. As somebody on the ground, he did bring an unique perspective to the subject.
Stephens started out by reviewing the work of other futurists. He quoted Peter Druckers Ages of Civilization which points out that the information age may be already drawing to a close and that we are on the brink of the age of knowledge. He then extended Druckers ideas to the BI/ data warehousing arena. Stephens suggested that the hub-and-spoke model and other current data warehousing architectures are artifacts of the information age. In the age of knowledge, such frameworks would give way to service oriented architectures. I thought about Sunday nights hospitality suite hosted by Informatica and Gary Reichers presentation on integration competency centers. Stephens had a good point.
Stephens then went on to confirm that integration is at the heart of a services oriented architecture. He suggested that integration will be needed for data as well as governance and various business and technical initiatives. He also saw BI as being embedded within the fabric of service oriented architectures. Like other futurists, Stephens saw technical jobs going to other economies. At home, successful BI workers will be knowledge workers.
Posted by Todd at 2:39 PM
June 28, 2005
McDonald-izing Information Technology
Why has McDonalds been so successful in the last 40 years? Why would someone like myself that doesnt really like McDonalds choose it over nice and seemingly classy local organization when traveling? The answer is obvious; we fear a bad experience much more than the dream the possibility of a positive one. What is currently happening within the Information Technology field (Globalization) isnt about engaging organizations that are far better than our own but rather ones that can deliver a consistent and standardized product. Hence, the highest number of CMM organizations are not in America.
Posted by Todd at 1:28 PM | Comments (1)
June 27, 2005
Math and Politics
Ok, I dont say much on politics since I am not an expert in any form or fassion. However, I do believe our public education system isnt doing its job. Case in point...
In a comparison of a 1973 algebra textbook and a 1998 "contemporary mathematics" textbook, Williamson Evers and Paul Clopton found a dramatic change in topics. In the 1973 book, for example, the index for the letter "F" included factors, factoring, fallacies, finite decimal, finite set, formulas, fractions and functions. In the 1998 book, the index listed families (in poverty data), fast food nutrition data, fat in fast food, feasibility study, feeding tours, ferris wheel, fish, fishing, flags, flight, floor plan, flower beds, food, football, Ford Mustang, franchises and fund-raising carnival.
Posted by Todd at 5:21 PM
June 21, 2005
Daily Rant...
Got a call from a vendor not too along ago that wanted me to review their product. The sales person directed me to their web site where they quoted the benefits of advanced technology like OWL. I asked the gentleman what OWL stood for and his response was telling. No, I don’t know what it means. Well it means Web Ontology Language and 99.9% of your customers are not going to know or understand what it means. Stop killing our profession with Acronyms that you can’t explain. Vendors better start learning to sell to business people and not technology professionals. Soon they won’t be any IT folks left in the sea of outsourcing
Posted by Todd at 6:55 PM
June 8, 2005
Great Article in HBR
Think we have reached the end of outsourcing? Do not read the June 2005 Issue of Harvard Business Review article by Thomas H. Davenport. The coming commoditization of processes will enlighten you to a whole new dimension and possibilities. Also, a good friend is mentioned in the article; Brett Champlin and his collection of Capability Maturity Models. Brett has collected over 180 models, and the Metadata Maturity Model is number 130. My favorite quote from the article:
Eventually these costs and benefits will be so visible to the buyers that outsourced processes will become a commodity, and prices will fall dramatically. The low costs and low risks of outsourcing will accelerate the flow of jobs offshore, force companies to look differently at their strategies, and change the basis of competition.
Welcome to the new world where talent competes on a global scale while labor competes on a local scale.
Posted by Todd at 12:03 PM
May 16, 2005
Dont Sweat the Small Stuff...
Do you worry about India taking your job?
In 2007, The number 1 language of the Internet will be…
In 2050, the number 1 economy will be…
80% of Wal-Marts Suppliers is…
Exports have grown by 1,600% in…
65,000 vs. 6,000,000 Science Fair Attendees. USA vs....
China....
Posted by Todd at 12:02 PM
April 29, 2005
A New World is Needed
It’s over; place a nail in the coffin of the traditional delivery of value within the Information Technology world. Success in IT is not about delivering products and service with the perfection of a symphony. We don’t have the time, money, or option to analyze the environment with the level of detail that would make an accountant cringe. Delivering value with speed is the only option for survival available. Delivering imperfect value with speed is the only option available. What is standing in our way? Hierarchal Management? Transaction Based Accounting? Outdated Education? The problem is never how to get new, innovative thoughts into your mind, but
how to get old ones out (Hock).
Posted by Todd at 2:37 PM
March 23, 2005
Globalization
Recently, I had the opportunity to provide a metadata tutorial to an academic conference where the welcome speech touched on the impact of globalization. The speaker indicated that the erosion of jobs within the Information Technology community could be fixed by simply increase the supply and quality of students within computer science or any related field. Fueling this perception are article after article telling us the same thing.
The economic rise of Asia’s giants is the most important story of our age. It heralds the end, in the not too distant future, of as much as five centuries of domination by the Europeans and their colonial offshoots Martin Wolf (Financial Times)
There is no job that is America’s God-given right anymore. - Carly Fiorina (HP)
Currently, India is becoming the back office of the world. Everest estimates companies all over the globe are sending as much as $5 billion in work to Indian outsourcing service providers. But all the headlines about the Indian success story are obscuring a development that can have just as much impact. I predict China will be the next big wave in offshore outsourcing. – Todd Furnis
Income Confers No Immunity as Jobs Migrate – USA Today
The world has arrived at a rare strategic inflection point where nearly half its population—living in China, India and Russia—have been integrated into the global market economy, many of them highly educated workers, who can do just about any job in the world. We’re talking about three billion people. – Craig Barrett (Intel)
Ok, you get the idea that plenty of people believe that we are entering into a new world of work where the globalization of labor, capital, and innovation will take center stage for years to come. However if we step back a feet, we can see another perspective where history paints a different picture. Globalization is clearly in the early stages of hitting the white collar world and especially the upper and middle layers of the organization. But globalization is not the predominant reason we have job erosion. Globalization is only the tip of the iceberg; the vast majority of reasons revolve around the fact that we have been very good at what we are doing. Automation, reuse, standardization, communications, and abundance of talented individuals is the real reason we need less and less information workers.
Posted by Todd at 12:55 PM
March 7, 2005
We are Failing in Transforming the IT Organization
The essence of the previous post is what do you do when technology perfection is expected? The trend of technology is to make it embedded and ubiquitous; hide the complexity and expose simplicity. The Internet exploded this idea due to it’s simplicity and Blogs/Wiki will do the same. Yet inside the organization, we still measure our worth by what we know, hording the knowledge, and making the complex more complex. When will the IT organization wake up and get a clue? We had better figure it out before 95% of our value is automated, standardized, or outsourced.
Posted by Todd at 9:01 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 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 3, 2005
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