Earlier postings on this Blog will tell you that I understand and support good security measures around information. As such, I am also "tuned in" to security measures don’t make sense.
Airline travel is a great example. This week I tried to change a flight with Jetstar, which I had booked and paid for, but I was not the passenger. I knew I could do this online, but as I was away from my PC, I thought I would try the phone. No go.
They have two policies – one for the telephone and for online. Why? Shouldn’t the level of identity security be the same? I would have thought so. If I know the flight details I can change them on the Web, but not on the telephone. Only the passenger, or someone who claims to be the passenger, can change the flight via the phone.
Security policy problem or just a ploy to get customers to use the Web? Hmmm
Sunday, December 2, 2007
The Online Election
A week ago the Australian Federal Election made political history. Of course, after 11 years, the result was a change of Government, with the Australian Labor Party winning from Opposition, and a sitting Prime Minister losing his seat for only the second time in history. All of this has been well documented.
What has not been so well documented is the role of IT – specifically the Web - in the election result.
The Australian Labor Party was delivered a big majority, by taking a huge share of the Gen Y vote. I don’t think it is any coincidence that the Labor Party had a dominant presence on the Web.
The Labor Party had a Campaign URL in kevin07.com.au which was easy to remember, if derivative of Obama08. The Labor site reflected current Web thinking – kept current and relevant with daily updates, offered effective use of video, contained blogs, and clear links to their major campaign messages. And, to integrate the site with other social networks, the home page offered prominent links to integrated messages on facebook and myspace, and to more video material on YouTube.
The people behind this deserve credit for highly effective use of the Web. They have changed Australian political campaigns forever.
What has not been so well documented is the role of IT – specifically the Web - in the election result.
The Australian Labor Party was delivered a big majority, by taking a huge share of the Gen Y vote. I don’t think it is any coincidence that the Labor Party had a dominant presence on the Web.
The Labor Party had a Campaign URL in kevin07.com.au which was easy to remember, if derivative of Obama08. The Labor site reflected current Web thinking – kept current and relevant with daily updates, offered effective use of video, contained blogs, and clear links to their major campaign messages. And, to integrate the site with other social networks, the home page offered prominent links to integrated messages on facebook and myspace, and to more video material on YouTube.
The people behind this deserve credit for highly effective use of the Web. They have changed Australian political campaigns forever.
Saturday, November 3, 2007
How big is the Spam problem?
To start by showing my hand, I really dislike Spam. I could live without offers of pirate software, contact from someone pretending to be a young Russian woman, offers of all sorts of pills and potions and of course, the enhancements to my anatomy.
My guess is that there must be a return on their effort - in other words enough people must click-through to make spam worthwhile.
On one level they are a nuisance, but if there are enough spam emails, they are clogging your Internet connection. So, are there enough?
Here is real data from a Spam Filter here in Australia - you decide.
Total Emails received = 9.5 million
"Genuine" Emails = 2 million
Spam Emails = 7.5 million
This means more than 80% of the email arriving at this domain is spam.
Having an absolute fix for spam is difficult, as it involves technical and legal remedies. That said, I notice that Spam Filters are now doing a great job. For example, I have a Hotmail account and the Spam arriving in my inbox is zero. If more and more spam is blocked, then hopefully, the sources will diminish.
Microsoft Results - the more things change.......
In my last post, I commented on the challenges that Microsoft are facing to their dominance in the desktop productivity space.
Well, at the moment those challenges are not making an impact - judging by Microsoft's recent results. Growth in Vista revenue, and great growth in Office revenue. While positive, this is only a 90-day period, so I will watch with interest over the coming quarters.
On another note, the investment by Microsoft in Facebook shows that they understand what is happening on the Web, and how to be part of it.
Well, at the moment those challenges are not making an impact - judging by Microsoft's recent results. Growth in Vista revenue, and great growth in Office revenue. While positive, this is only a 90-day period, so I will watch with interest over the coming quarters.
On another note, the investment by Microsoft in Facebook shows that they understand what is happening on the Web, and how to be part of it.
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Have you seen Buzzword? What does it mean?
Collaboration has been an IT buzzword (pardon the pun) for at least a decade. If, like me, you struggle with those mark-up features in Microsoft Word, you will love Buzzword.
It is a word processing environment which allows online, live document collaboration. Have a look at www.virtub.com/ and let me know what you think.
The brilliance of online tools like Buzzword, brings into focus the future of personal productivity applications. We used to call them desktop applications, but that doesn’t quite work anymore.
When the world was DOS PCs and Apple IIe’s, the applications were VisiCalc, WordPerfect, and Lotus 1-2-3. I think that Microsoft overtook these applications and took a dominant position based on 3 changes
1. the paradigm shift to Windows 3.1
2. Lotus and WordPerfect slow to move to Windows – continued development of DOS version, and development focus on IBM’s OS/2
3. the packaging of applications into Office suites offering much better value
Looking at Buzzword made me realise that we may be going through a similar set of changes
1. the paradigm shift to the Internet for application delivery
2. Microsoft focussed on Vista while the developers of Buzzword, Google and many others, create different options
3. the availability of open-source offerings (Open Office, Lotus Symphony)
I suggest we will see a large change of user base, but not necessarily a large change in revenue base. Corporate customers will continue to buy Microsoft Office, and many users who will switch to open source or online applications, where those not paying for Microsoft Office anyway. Plus, Microsoft will have a significant play in the online application market.
However, the big wildcard is Government and Education. Government is a big user and could make big savings moving to Open Office, and if they want “brand backing”, Lotus Symphony.
In a school or college environment, with some much great software around for learning, I would be very tempted to put my budget in that direction, and save by taking Open Office or online applications.
Time will tell.
It is a word processing environment which allows online, live document collaboration. Have a look at www.virtub.com/ and let me know what you think.
The brilliance of online tools like Buzzword, brings into focus the future of personal productivity applications. We used to call them desktop applications, but that doesn’t quite work anymore.
When the world was DOS PCs and Apple IIe’s, the applications were VisiCalc, WordPerfect, and Lotus 1-2-3. I think that Microsoft overtook these applications and took a dominant position based on 3 changes
1. the paradigm shift to Windows 3.1
2. Lotus and WordPerfect slow to move to Windows – continued development of DOS version, and development focus on IBM’s OS/2
3. the packaging of applications into Office suites offering much better value
Looking at Buzzword made me realise that we may be going through a similar set of changes
1. the paradigm shift to the Internet for application delivery
2. Microsoft focussed on Vista while the developers of Buzzword, Google and many others, create different options
3. the availability of open-source offerings (Open Office, Lotus Symphony)
I suggest we will see a large change of user base, but not necessarily a large change in revenue base. Corporate customers will continue to buy Microsoft Office, and many users who will switch to open source or online applications, where those not paying for Microsoft Office anyway. Plus, Microsoft will have a significant play in the online application market.
However, the big wildcard is Government and Education. Government is a big user and could make big savings moving to Open Office, and if they want “brand backing”, Lotus Symphony.
In a school or college environment, with some much great software around for learning, I would be very tempted to put my budget in that direction, and save by taking Open Office or online applications.
Time will tell.
Monday, October 1, 2007
Green IT? Not yet
IBM has just released the findings of a study “examining the practices and attitudes of large Australian enterprises towards Green IT”. IBM deserves credit for helping drive this agenda.
The findings are that 36% of respondents (IT managers and directors in large Australian enterprises) believe that the reduction of carbon emissions from their IT infrastructure is a high priority for their business.
While it would be great if this were higher, I wonder if the results would be different if the audience was management in manufacturing, logistics or finance? In other words, carbon emission is becoming a factor for business, but is not yet a high priority.
In IT I suggest we can take a lead in 3 ways:
- Specify lower power consumption and lower heat output in all devices, and make this an important buying criterion. This will drive vendors to constantly improve design in this area, which I sense is happening.
- Introduce back-end technology that reduces power consumption and heat output. One of the most high-profile technologies, which makes sense on multiple levels, not just carbon emissions is Server Virtualisation. Fewer servers, each working at higher capacity drives down cost of acquisition and cost of ownership, which includes power consumption from operation and cooling.
- Introduce technology that increases effective collaboration without the need to travel. The reduction of travel only works if the meetings can still be effective and in my experience, with technologies such as Adobe Connect and WebEx they can. These are great tools which are available on demand, to virtually bring people together which saves the carbon emissions from travel – both ground and air.
While the reduction of carbon emissions from their IT infrastructure may not be a high priority in all businesses today, it will become more important and IT can take a lead now and be ahead of the curve.
The worst that will happen is that IT will help the business save money!
The findings are that 36% of respondents (IT managers and directors in large Australian enterprises) believe that the reduction of carbon emissions from their IT infrastructure is a high priority for their business.
While it would be great if this were higher, I wonder if the results would be different if the audience was management in manufacturing, logistics or finance? In other words, carbon emission is becoming a factor for business, but is not yet a high priority.
In IT I suggest we can take a lead in 3 ways:
- Specify lower power consumption and lower heat output in all devices, and make this an important buying criterion. This will drive vendors to constantly improve design in this area, which I sense is happening.
- Introduce back-end technology that reduces power consumption and heat output. One of the most high-profile technologies, which makes sense on multiple levels, not just carbon emissions is Server Virtualisation. Fewer servers, each working at higher capacity drives down cost of acquisition and cost of ownership, which includes power consumption from operation and cooling.
- Introduce technology that increases effective collaboration without the need to travel. The reduction of travel only works if the meetings can still be effective and in my experience, with technologies such as Adobe Connect and WebEx they can. These are great tools which are available on demand, to virtually bring people together which saves the carbon emissions from travel – both ground and air.
While the reduction of carbon emissions from their IT infrastructure may not be a high priority in all businesses today, it will become more important and IT can take a lead now and be ahead of the curve.
The worst that will happen is that IT will help the business save money!
Monday, September 17, 2007
Symantec, Dancers and Hot Issues
I had the pleasure of attending the Symantec Vision Event in Sydney last week.
The event followed a familiar path. A loud Corporate video to open proceedings, followed by a troop of tap dancers. What tap dancers have to do with Symantec remains a mystery to me, so all ideas are welcome.
Then a senior sales exec presented corporate motherhood, while the audience waited for the real content to arrive. And arrive it did, with interesting keynote speakers from Symantec and a superb business keynote.
Glitz and glamour aside, my overall take-out was that Symantec has products that are at the heart of many of the big IT issues.
In 2006 The Council of Australian University Directors of IT (www.caudit.edu.au) developed a list of their Top 10 issues. They have updated the list for 2007 and it is
1. Staffing and Workforce Planning - Skills Shortage, Retention and Recruitment
2. Service Management - Support and Delivery: Availability, Capacity, Change Management
3. Project, Portfolio and Risk Management
4. Governance and IT Strategic Planning
5. Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery
6. Identity Management: Authentication, Authorisation, Access
7. Security
8. Information Management: Storage, Archiving, Records Management
9. Funding and Resourcing
10. Administrative Systems - ERP Upgrades and Enterprise Architecture
I think that Symantec has products in 5 or maybe 6 of these 10 categories.
I preach that any selection process should begin with a detailed understanding of the need, and then should include considerations of the other technology inter-relationships – both technical and commercial.
When that work is done, I am sure that in many cases, Symantec products will be worthy of consideration.
The event followed a familiar path. A loud Corporate video to open proceedings, followed by a troop of tap dancers. What tap dancers have to do with Symantec remains a mystery to me, so all ideas are welcome.
Then a senior sales exec presented corporate motherhood, while the audience waited for the real content to arrive. And arrive it did, with interesting keynote speakers from Symantec and a superb business keynote.
Glitz and glamour aside, my overall take-out was that Symantec has products that are at the heart of many of the big IT issues.
In 2006 The Council of Australian University Directors of IT (www.caudit.edu.au) developed a list of their Top 10 issues. They have updated the list for 2007 and it is
1. Staffing and Workforce Planning - Skills Shortage, Retention and Recruitment
2. Service Management - Support and Delivery: Availability, Capacity, Change Management
3. Project, Portfolio and Risk Management
4. Governance and IT Strategic Planning
5. Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery
6. Identity Management: Authentication, Authorisation, Access
7. Security
8. Information Management: Storage, Archiving, Records Management
9. Funding and Resourcing
10. Administrative Systems - ERP Upgrades and Enterprise Architecture
I think that Symantec has products in 5 or maybe 6 of these 10 categories.
I preach that any selection process should begin with a detailed understanding of the need, and then should include considerations of the other technology inter-relationships – both technical and commercial.
When that work is done, I am sure that in many cases, Symantec products will be worthy of consideration.
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