Blog

T-Rend Not Found

DSCN3994
[How to call this, politically correct..?]

Uhm, would anyone have a serious overview of security trends as they unfold this year ..? So far, there’s nothing but a handful of incidents. Or is my memory just insufficient …

Anyway, I’d really like to at least have some classification scheme whereby we can bin various news items. “Antivirus is useless since it’s reactive and too slow for the rapid morphing of fingerprints” versus “Heuristics and profiling [secondary signatures?] solve this, as does upping the effort; unprotected neighbours go down first, please” would go into the Basic Endpoint Protection bin, for example. Privacy would be a similar bin. But who has a useful (sic) partial taxonomy or tree ..?

Kennis-werkers?

Short post, long read (in Dutch): Surprisingly valid, all the things I dreamt up in 1994 … this paper on Kenniswerk, in particular from page 13 on – but the rest, is also still valid and very worthwhile reading when I may say so.
And a picture for your viewing pleasure…:
005_21 (2)
[Where? No contest.]

Die Information

DSCN5494
[Twisting by the pool]

Claim. There needs to be some seminal work of economics on the thing that follows Labour and Capital, being Information. And how societal structures are impacted. I will write that book. Someday. And/or, sooner, when (not if?) you fund me through some crowdfunding scheme. After Das Kapital, a new wave.

Short link: Brain laser

Michio Kaku predicts we’ll send our minds into space via laser in this piece.

If we’re capable of that, there more probably will be no ‘us’ or ‘our minds’ anymore. We’ll reach Singularity (have passed the S point) already some time before that; dystopian version.

Oh well, here’s a picture for your viewing delight:
DSCN2558
[Your viewing delight ..!? in Riga]

Books by Quote: Collaboration

DSCN3136
[Monopolised, lost all]

Yet another ‘Book By Quote’ then (An attempt to subjectively summarise a book by the quotes I found worthwhile to mark, to remember. Be aware that the quotes as such, aren’t a real unbiased ‘objective’ summary; most often I heartily advise to read the book yourself..!)

So, this time: Morten T. Hansen, Collaboration, Harvard Business Press, 2009, ISBN 9781422115152.

Yet the goal of collaboration is not collaboration, but better results. (p.15)

Leaders who pursue disciplined collaboration never lose sight of this dictum: collaboration is a means to an end, and that end is great performance. (p.16)

… the disciplined collaboration framework targets four barriers: (pp.16-17)

  • The not-invented-here barrier (people are unwilling to reach out to others)
  • The hoarding barrier (people are unwilling to provide help)
  • The search barrier (people are not able to find what they are looking for)
  • The transfer barrier (people are not able to work with people they don’t know well)

In tailoring their solutions, leaders can choose a mix of three levers. … unification lever … people lever … network lever. (pp.17-18)

The idea of disciplined collaboration is to let organization units work independently when that approach produces the best results … This approach, however, needs to be complemented — not replaced – with a “behavioural overlay” of collaborative efforts, … (pp. 18-19)
Hansen fig 1-3
[Disciplined collaboration: High performance from decentralization and collaboration]

The first task is to understand the case for collaboration – to appreciate how collaboration can increase performance.
The second task is to evaluate the upside for the company – to consider the potential for the organization overall.
The final task is to understand when to say no to a collaboration project – to articulate a decision rule for when to go ahead, and when not to, at the project level. (p.26)

There are three areas of potential upside in business: better innovation, better sales, and better operations. In a nonbusiness context, these can be thought of as new services, greater client satisfaction, and better-run organizations. (p.26)
Continue reading “Books by Quote: Collaboration”

Shortie: Seth’s money

DSCN5009DSCN5189
[“Greed, for lack of a better word, is passive consumerist entertainment”..!?
   Where’s the ‘real’ money?]

Found some wisdom, by other formulation, on this already somewhat old post of mine, in the post of Seth Godin here.
Had wanted to do a follow-up longform on it, but will have to defer to include Seth’s insights.

Suddenly sees the connection between money and information, once again, over the value connection…!? May want to delve into this, to establish ‘better’ pricing of information… or is it the other way around?

[Update before publishing]
#first here …: Suppose we create some yardstick of how much computing effort it costs to produce one bitcoin (or so) and then derive the dollar value (if we have to, in the first place) – would that lead to some value of Information (or value of computing power / cycles) …!?

Frameworks, the inventions for …

DSCN5676
[Sturdy volume, i.e., Rotjeknor]

… for hanging.

Most unfortunately, after the demise of SOx et al. (as in this and many other places) there still hasn’t been a decline in interest for ICT management frameworks.
Which is bad, because

  • The Odies of this ICT management world, that is, both the ‘managers’ themselves and all the hangers-on like consultants, internally and externally, compliance freaks, auditors, etc., will still require yet more implementations of ‘new’ frameworks that, luckily, are so much blown out of proportion that their giant bubble content has diluted to a level both easily implemented and ever more quickly demonstrated to be failing the achievement of original objectives. Much ado about nothing.
  • [But after so many rounds of failed framework implementations, why a. do you not realise that it’s stupid to even try, b. do you not fire all that were involved as they apparently didn’t deliver ..? The latter, as continuous renewal and improvement must have been part of the implementation all along, and that hasn’t happened …!]
  • The strive for framework implementation still takes all the resource away from growth avenues, to calcification practices.

Get over it! The world has never been more unstable than [pick your most recent timeframe you consider relevant, when less than one year …(!)] … I mean ever before. [Sorry for the warped sentence; you get my drift.]
Which means that the cozy cold (!) sitting still like a rabbit in the headlights that frameworks will coax you into, will not carry the day if it ever did (do you need the spoiler? : it didn’t). By stifling any other, maybe actualy innovative, useful-in-prepping-you-for-tomorrow projects as they get implemented, and afterwards in particular if they’re successful.

Would I hence advise to use frameworks?

  • I don’t, if you’d want to take them as more than rough guidance. Use your brain! Frameworks are what they are, they’re not filled-in voids in between.
    And/or I can, and want, to help.
  • I do, if you want to crucify yourself (sic) on them. Not trying to be harsh, but good riddance.

OK, now have a look at your own industry. Finance including (ever more) central(ised) banks, anyone ..? Ever more attempts to regulate, to smother in totalitairan bureaucratic control …? And still wondering why and how the disruptive greenfield ops take over?

Maverisk / Étoiles du Nord