CTOVision

Update on Federal Cloud Computing

My last several briefings, including one yesterday at the FIAC, have addressed some of the dramatic changes underway in the IT world.   That briefing is attached here: Download FIACGourleyBrief.pdf

The conference had a focus on information assurance, computer security, network security and Chief Information Assurance Officers (CISO) in the federal space.   So I not only updated my briefing with the latest tech trends but changed it to focus on lessons learned from industry on compliance monitoring and automation of remediation and related topics.

Android: Disruptive? Not enough info to say

Google and T-Mobile just announced the arrival of the G1 device today.  This is the first cell phone to use Google's new open "Android" operating system.   Android will almost certainly change the mobile computing fabric.  It is the first open and free mobile platform and since it is backed by Google it is not going to be a flash-in-the-pan.  But, now the question is, how disruptive will it be?  There are over 3.3 Billion active cell phone subscribers in the globe.  How many of those will eventually be on Android? 

I'd appreciate any of your thoughts on that.  For now, check out some of Android's features below.  Looks pretty cool.

We still don't know when these will be in the local phone stores. But then again, we don't know when the Blackberry Bold will be here either.   Anyway, I plan on evaluating an Android phone as soon as possible to see if it is for me. 

More later.

Collaborate and Deliver With More Cowbell

Participants in this week's Enterprise 2.0 conference, hosted by the ODNI's ICES group and the CIA's WIRe team, were treated to a shared experience that is hard to capture in a blog post.   So I won't try.  But I will say this, we all had some great collaboration and coordination lessons and context, and we were able to participate in creating that ourselves because the conference organizers established a great ambiance and gave us access to wiki's, blogs, twitters and WiFI that knitted that all together.  I really appreciated being there.

One lesson I'd like to note now was underscored by Fred Hassani.  Fred found a great way to make us all think about the variety of collaboration tools at our disposal.  In a musical analogy he underscored how hard it can be to make music with instruments that don't traditionally play well together.  But in a sign that the spirit of the community is strong, we all saw how a cowbell can make really really great music if you put your heart into it.   And we the community of professionals can make use of any tools we are provided to collaborate, even if they are not our favorites.  We will always make due and will always overcome.   One way we will overcome is through mashups.  Just like in music you can mashup piano's and cowbells, in IT you can mashup imagery data and SIGINT data and analytical data etc.

Which brings us to a great video that underscores this point-- not from thte WIReICES conference, but from a group of spirited collaborators from SNL who many of us in the community look up to.  

So please check this out and as you do please think of the IT tools in your enterprise.  I guess the point made for CTOs is that we need an enterprise that allows mashups of all tools and all data.  You never know when the maestro will call for more cowbell.

The greatest new technologies (and great drama too!)

I like technology and I like drama.   These are two of the greatest of human creations.  And they can be even more interesting when combined.

There has been some real drama in the West Coast tech scene the past few weeks, heating up to a boil in the last few days, and about to come to a head tomorrow.

The story is this:

- Two great expos for high tech startups are the DEMO conference and the TechCrunch50.

- DEMOfall08 will be in San Diego.   According to their website, Chris Shipley has been around the globe gathering info on the best new technologies and has brought them into one place for this conference.  72 new digital technology products from 11 countries will be introduced.  A record crowd of over 800 have registered already.   This looks like an awesome conference and I can't wait to read about the presentations and study the companies.  I'm sure I'll find candidates for my own list of top disruptive technologies from what I read from this conference. For more info see:   http://demo.com

- TechCrunch50 is Sep 8-10 in San Francisco.   It has a goal of bringing the best start-ups and launching them in front influential VC, corporations and the press.  Many companies also give demos.  It seems to be about twice the size as the Demo conference, about 1700 attendees are expected.   Between the two conferences this appears to be the one with more VC and big company attendance, but I am only basing that on a review of the website.   The website, by the way, shows an incredible panel of experts.  These are really the greats in the community.  Experts judging at TechCrunch include Marc Andreessen, Marc Benioff, Dan Farber, Bradley Horowitz, Joi Ito, Tim O'Reilly, and Robert Scoble, to name a few.   Here too, I'm sure I'll find companies that need to be on my early warning screen of disruptive IT.   For more on TechCrunch, see:  http://techcrunch50.com

So now you see the drama?  How could these two great conferences end up being held at exactly the same time? 

The way this started, as far as I can tell, was captured in an April blog post from Henry Blodgete.  He said, I quote:

Now that TechCrunch and Jason Calacanis have scheduled their TechCrunch50 start-up celebration conference at the same time as IDG's DEMO start-up celebration conference, the allegations are flying:

Who moved whose conference to kill who.
Who ripped off who.
Who's screwing who.
Who's greedy, mercenary, abusive...
Etc.

The drama really heated up a few weeks ago when the long running tension was written about by the New York Times.   An article by Brad Stone put it this way:

Demo, a 17-year-old conference franchise owned by the technology publisher IDG, has served as the springboard for hit products like the Palm Pilot and the TiVo digital video recorder. In San Diego during the second week of September, 70 start-ups will pay $18,500 each to make a six-minute presentation to a crowd of investors, journalists and others. To Michael Arrington, the elbow-throwing, supercilious founder of the popular Silicon Valley blog TechCrunch, Demo’s business model amounts to “payola.”

From that article, leaders and associates of both Demo and TechCrunch began exchanging heated posts and interviews.  

Here is one from Michael Arrington titled "Everyone Needs To Calm Down"  Mr. Arrington asks folks to chill, but calls the Demo conference unethical.   I guess I like the way he says what he thinks.  But I don't think his post will calm anything down!

Here is one from Chris Shipley who says she has had it with the shoddy reporting, invective and arrogance that has attended most of the commentary.  The following are some quotes from her post at: http://guidewiregroup.wordpress.com/2008/09/06/shoddy-reporting-invective-and-arrogance-yeah-i-want-some-of-that/

QUOTE:

When in a twitter I bemoaned the lack of original reporting (only one reporter (cnet) and exactly zero bloggers writing this week about this silly DEMO v TechCrunch episode actually contacted me), the infamous blogger Robert Scoble suggested that if I'd blog my opinion, he'd link to it. Does that mean that a perspective only exists or matters if it's expressed in a blog post? Or that Robert's just moving too fast to do any investigation outside his narrow medium?

Scoble's not the only guy living in the rarefied air of the echo-chamber. Sarah Lacy, who works for the much-respected Businessweek.com, conducted a five-minute video interview with TC50's Mike Arrington and Jason Calacanis, during which the two leveled the usual slander. Did Lacy fire one tough question at the two? Did this journalist call me or the DEMO organization to get a response to serious accusations? Um, the answer to that would be "no."

In fact, a few weeks ago, when Mike Arrington wrote an assumption-based and error-filled story that demanded an apology from the DEMO organization for a comment that was clearly not made by or on behalf of anyone at DEMO, Lacy picked up the story and wrote with righteous indignation that slander was the highest insult that could be leveled against a journalist. Did she call me or DEMO before posting her story? Again no.

UNQUOTE

So, what's my take on all that?

It is my intent to follow, from afar, both conferences, and review all I can read out of both.  I'll make my own assessments on which hot new technologies are of interest to me, and I'll try hard to help my associates, friends and readers know my opinion by updating my blog here.  Stay tuned to my list of disruptive IT:  http://www.ctovision.com/disruptive-technology-list.html

And I'll also keep tracking the drama.  

CIA IT Leaders Are World Class IT Leaders (continued)

CIO magazine continues its reporting on the IT enterprise at CIA and the CIA's CIO (Al Tarasiuk).  I have little more to add:  My comments from before still stand:  Al is a world class leader and this follow on report just underscores that.  I imagine Al is similar to other great CIOs from industry (folks like HP CIO Randy Mott, for example) and my old boss Mike Pflueger of DIA.   These leaders must wrestle with far more than technology (they can hand of the easy technology stuff to CTOs, right?).  In story after story of the great CIOs I note that they spend a great deal of time on culture, policy, process and human factors. 

For continuity I wanted to provide the link to the rest of the story.   It is here:  http://www.cio.com/article/print/441688

Bob