Jon DiPietro is Domesticating IT

Weekly High Five lists the most interesting, compelling, and/or useful links of each week.

This was a tough week to select five stories; there was lots of tech news worthy of mention.  In the end, it was three articles about Facebook and two about growing up geeky.

#5: The Children of Cyberspace: Old Fogies by Their 20s

This was fresh take on the “old news” of obsolescence.  We all know that each generation grows up under a different paradigm from its previous.  What’s changing is the definition of a “technology generation.”  We used to think (at least I did) of this as linear – that the gap between us and our parents is about the same as the one between us and  our kids.  The reality, however, is that this gap is growing and that behavioral differences (as influenced by technology adoption) that used be evident in age differences in the range of 15 to 20 years are now shrinking to as little as 5 to 10 years.  This will have profound implications on how businesses adapt their workplace environments and adjust their marketing paradigms.

Link: New York Times

#4: Darpa: U.S. Geek Shortage Is National Security Risk

This story came out before the news of the major, sophisticated cyber attacks against Google, Adobe, and more than thirty other companies this week.  Many trade organizations are working to address a shortage of engineers that will provide workforce challenges in the manufacturing and critical infrastructure (water, wastewater, power, gas, etc…) sectors, and now we see concern growing over national security issues due to low enrollment in the computer sciences.

Link: Wired

#3: Facebook’s Zuckerberg Says The Age of Privacy is Over

This story has more moving parts and metaphors than a Rube Golberg contraption.  There is the minutia of Facebook’s user interface and the relative difficulty of setting up the privacy settings to one’s liking.  There are overarching principals of privacy versus transparency in a Web 2.0 world.  And then there is also the business argument of the degree to which Facebook can, should, and will continue to emulate Twitter.  My take tis that this sound a little bit like Zuckerberg trying to rationalize that Facebook’s evolving business strategy of transparency (read: search and advertising revenue) is all for the greater good.  Meh.

Link: ReadWriteWeb

#2: Twelve Steps To Creating A Bootylicious Facebook Page

John Haydon has a great series going right now on his blog, “Social media and inbound marketing for non-profits ,” but don’t think that the tips are only useful for those audiences.  This article, in particular, contains terrific tips any business or individual who wants to improve their Facebook fan page.  I’ve definitely learned a few tricks (and been reminded of a couple of outstanding items to be done).

Link: John Haydon dot com

#1: Facebook Releases Their Version Of Retweets As Twitterfication Continues

Normally I detest Facebook’s attempts at “Twitterfication” as this author describes it.  I use Facebook and Twitter for two different purposes and the number one difference between them is privacy.  When I want to interact with a private, closely-knit network I use Facebook. When I want an open, more transparent relationship I use Twitter.  Having said that, this new feature is a long-time coming and doesn’t erode that privacy I’m looking for in Facebook.  It does, however, make it easier to discover who the content generators are in your extended network and to find others you may wish to connect with and to spread your ideas more effectively.

Link: All Facebook

Feel free to provide your thoughts and/or contributions…

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Weekly High Five lists the most interesting, compelling, and/or useful links of each week.

This week’s High Five is all about cyber security.  There are a couple of stories about protecting yourself, and two very important stories about protecting critical infrastructure.

#5: EU Wants Consent for Every Web Cookie

This is a story about the nanny state run amok.  Cookies are little chunks of text that web sites leave on your computer so that they can remember who you are when you return to their site, and store some information about your preferences and habits while on their site.  Limiting their use will lead to a greatly reduced user experience, not mention tremendous expense to all web site providers who will need to rework their architecture.

Link: TechRadar.com

#4:Stop Paying for Windows Security; Microsoft’s Security Tools Are Good Enough

Lifehacker makes the case the the free suite of security tools from Microsoft have reached the point where they are at least as good as the paid versions like Norton Antivirus.  The reality is understanding how to avoid scams and dangerous web sites is at least as important security software.

Link: Lifehacker

#3: Banned Xbox 360s Flooding Craigslist, Ebay

If you’re looking for used bargains this Christmas season, be particularly wary of purchasing used Xbox 360 consoles.  Microsoft recently began “actively banning consoles from Xbox LIVE that have been modified to play pirated games.”  These castrated units are now finding their way to the classified ads.

Link: PC World

#2: Cyber War: Sabotaging the System

60 Minutes broadcast an important story about vulnerabilities in critical infrastructure and the threats posed by hackers and nation states.  While parts of the story are a bit sensationalized (I know, shocking) if not downright misleading.  However, we still need an awakening with regard to cyber security and the crucial role every user plays in keeping our systems safe.

Link: CBS News

#1: Control system cyber events, 60 Minutes, disclosure, and FUD

The previously mentioned 60 Minutes story touched off a firestorm of discussion on a cyber security mailing list I subscribe to.  This article is a response by Joe Weiss, who is one of the world’s foremost experts in cyber security of process control systems and has even testified before Congress.

Link: ControlGlobal

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Weekly High Five lists the most interesting, compelling, and/or useful links of each week.

This week’s High Five include a couple of stories about how technology is affecting governmental organizations.  The last three stories all demonstrate the power and pervasiveness of social media on every aspect of our lives; whether we know it or not, and whether we want to admit it or not.

#5: Los Angeles adopts Google e-mail system for 30,000 city employees

Well, Google has bagged itself an elephant.  In a unanimous vote, the Los Angeles city council became the largest city to move its entire email infrastructure to Gmail.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2009/10/city-council-votes-to-adopt-google-email-system-for-30000-city-employees.html

#4: Lobbyists beware: judge rules metadata is public record

This is an interesting legal development that will make it a little bit harder for politicians, lobbyists, or government officials to pull a fast one over us.  Document metadata includes information such as the author, creation date, etc…  In some cases, this information can be used to reveal details of a document’s true history.

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/10/lobbyists-beware-arizona-rules-metadata-is-public-record.ars

#3: Mob rule! How Users Took Over Twitter

This is the sort of thing that one could write an entire book about.  On the surface it sounds simple enough; a Web 2.0 technology comes out, users run with it and discover cool applications that the founders hadn’t intended or thought of, then rebel against changes that marginalize those applications. But if you’re listening carefully, there’s a lot there that can apply to institutions, businesses, consultants, etc…

http://www.wired.com/magazine/2009/10/ff_twitter

#2: Google Social Search

This short video describes what I believe will turn out to be an important change in the way we find information. It warrants its own blog article (that will be upcoming), but in the mean time consider the following.  Who do you trust more?  A Microsoft commercial or your nephew-computer-whiz?  A Wall Street Journal reporter or your accountant for the past 20 years?  The point is that we trust the people we know, and social search is a way for Google to leverage your own network to provide “pre-qualified” search results from sources you typically trust more than most.

You can read the entire help article here:

http://www.google.com/support/websearch/bin/answer.py?answer=165228

#1: Clay Shirky: How social media can make history

This video is a TED presentation by Clay Shirky, who is my favorite speaker and author on the subject of social media.  In this presentation, he makes a compelling case about how powerful and pervasive social media is in ways that are far more important than clever marketing techniques.

The other take away, for my money, is a lesson in innovation, which often occurs when common, boring technologies are used in unique, exciting ways.

http://www.ted.com/talks/clay_shirky_how_cellphones_twitter_facebook_can_make_history.html

Feel free to provide your thoughts and/or contributions…

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There are man interesting discussions happening right now concerning the International Society of Automation (ISA) and its current travails with regard to its membership, publications, and exposition.  For those not familiar with the situation, this volunteer organization has been around for over sixty years and has come upon tough financial times, not unlike most organizations.  Two of its major revenue generating enterprises (its InTech magazine and ISA Expo trade show) have declined precipitously and are necessitating major changes.

The dialog is starting to reach a boil with comments like those recently posted on Jim Pinto’s web site by former ISA Executive Director Glenn Harvey.  I wanted to focus on just one statement in his response, in which he said “Who knows, but if large numbers of members do not call for change, ISA will keep doing what it has been doing and the results will be the same.”  Although I certainly don’t disagree with him, there is a larger message here for institutions in general; in our Web 2.0 world, that’s not the worst thing that could happen to you.

Do-It-Yourself Institutions are possible in the world of Web 2.0

DIY Institutions

When it comes to institutions like ISA, dissatisfied members used to have two choices; to stay with the institution and either live with it or try to affect change, or to find a better institution that more closely aligned with the member’s needs and desires.  If there wasn’t a suitable competitor, then the institutions had very little need or incentive to change or adapt.  If competition is a factor, then the institutions would generally react only when and if they started to lose members.

But today there is a third and more unsettling option for these dissatisfied members – they can simply do it themselves.  As the transaction costs of building, organizing and managing organizations approaches zero (thanks to the explosion of free Web 2.0 applications), members who are dissatisfied with their institutions can simply go and build their own.  Why pour time and energy into fighting an established bureaucracy (an exhausting, sometimes nasty endeavor), when one can instead simply invest the same amount of time and energy into building the institution they wanted in the first place.

“Surely You Exaggerate”

If you think I’m overestimating the power of Web 2.0, then you need to read my blog more often (just kidding). But seriously, I’ll illustrate this with two examples.  The first is a presentation by Guy Kawasaki about how quickly and inexpensively he was able to launch a company:

The second example is a project on which I’m currently working as IT Director for a NH gubernatorial campaign.  I was able to put together an entire IT infrastructure for the campaign that includes staff collaboration tools, shared calendar, web site and email hosting, web site design and development, customer relationship management (CRM), and e-newsletter services for less than $90 per month and under$500 in up front costs.  The entire system is cloud-based, which allows the campaign staff to work remotely and eliminates the need for purchasing software licenses.

So, the catch phrase is no longer “If you build it, they will come.”  Now, it’s “If you don’t build it, they will.”

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Jon DiPietro

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Facebook is a cloud with a huge silver lining

By now, you’ve heard all the hype about Facebook; how fast it’s growing, how vast its membership is, how much content is uploaded, how much time is “wasted”, etc…  But two things have happened this week that have really caused me stop and say, “Whoa.”  The reason?  It’s becoming clear to me that Facebook as a delivery mechanism for software applications is going to be a real game changer.

The “Whoa” Moments

The first moment was last week when it was well past the “old fogies’ bed time” and my wife, for some reason, was still down stairs.  I went down to see if there was a problem and discovered that she was in the middle of a strawberry harvest on Farmville and had to finish it.  The interesting point here is the years of jibes and ribbing I received when I was in the middle of a game and would report that I’d be at the dinner table after I finished “one more level.”  The tables had turned and this is actually an important business lesson.

The second moment was a couple of days ago when I found that one of my all-time favorite games, Civilization, is coming to Facebook next year.  Online gaming has been around for a long time, but this is different and significant.  Cooperative gaming has always been plagued by network issues that only geekiest gamers were equipped to handle, which greatly limited the addressable market.    Also, there was the infrastructure.  The game companies were forced to make massive investments in infrastructure (World of Warcraft) to host the games on their servers before they would really know if the games would take off. Many of the games on Facebook are small in scope and relatively simple.  To the best of my knowledge, Civilization is the first “mainstream” game with a large, fanatical following to jump on to Facebook and it’s going to be interesting to see what happens.

These two incidents together exemplify the true power of Facebook and every software company, and every business, needs to pay attention.  Here’s why.

Batteries Included

The first and most obvious benefit is the built in infrastructure of cloud computing in general.  Using Facebook’s development platform, you can write the software and use their servers.  Where Facebook is different from other cloud options is that their “infrastructure” includes built in networking capabilities like sharing, advertising, and inviting.  For the non-hardcore gamers in the audience, one of the things that we love to do is take screen shots of our successes and post them to forums and file sharing sites.  This is something that is done immediately and seamlessly on Facebook.

The Center for Disease Spreading

Viral marketing.  It’s a well known term and it’s something that has been studied, written about, and attempted time after time.  There are many theories and approaches to “going viral” but one thing is obvious; they need a medium to spread.  Facebook offers a built-in medium for spreading ideas and products virally.  Of course, the network is not enough to get something and that’s where the secret sauce comes into play.  Malcom Gladwell’s “Tipping Point” is the classic tome of viral messaging, but my personal favorite is “Made to Stick” by Dan and Chip Heath.

Crossing the Chasm

My wife never played a computer game in her life until last week.  In fact, she was down right hostile toward them.  How did she get started?  Our daughter Jacqueline sent her a request for help in Farmville and off she went.  At first blush, this may sound like a simple rehash of the built in viral marketing discussion, but it’s deeper and more important than that.  Her decision to start playing this game has its roots in a deep emotional connection with her child, something into which it’s very difficult to tap.  It demonstrates the platform’s ability to leverage the social connections between friends to get people to buy into things they otherwise never would have considered.

Don't underestimate the influence of pornography on "legitimate" business trends

They’re “Just Games”

Up to this point, you may be thinking this all well enough but they’re “just games” and don’t apply to my consumer product company, or magazine, or business to business service.  The first thing I will point out is that the influence of “entertainment” on technology is under appreciated.  And by “entertainment” I mean games and porn.

Seriously.  In the early days of the web, nothing drove the modem and data compression markets more than the pornography market.  Gaming pushed hardware and software limits to the max.  And let’s not forget the Beta versus VHS wars.  If you’re interested in more examples (come on, you know you are… it’s OK) you can check out “iSex: How pornography has revolutionised technology.”  The take way here is that any business can these entertainment trends as a crystal ball into the mainstream future.

Conclusion

This is the portion of our show where I put up or shut up.  Here are some glimpses into the future that I would be working toward if I were in any of these industries:

• Consumer Products Example: Nike is already half way there, but may have jumped the gun a bit with their Nike+ product line and web site.  I wouldn’t be surprised to see a Facebook app from Nike that allows people to upload their iPod data through a Facebook application and share it on their wall.  You could then create running networks where people compete with one another virtually by creating goals based on distance, time, etc…
• Publishing Example:  What if the Associate Press created an application that would allow friends to create their own “magazines” by simply grabbing posts, links, and photos from their walls to be assembled and published on their web site.  They could create their own branding and be indexed by search engines.
• Maintenance Business Example:  If I owned (or advised) a landscaping or home maintenance company, I would look into creating a Facebook application that allowed you to enter in the specifics of your home like region, grass species, lawn size, heating system type, etc…  The application could then build a maintenance plan with reminders and the occasional “special offer.”

That’s enough for now.  If you want more ideas than these, you’ll have to pay up… 

Or, feel free to propose your own Facebook game-changing application in the comments.

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