Canadian IT Managers

Chat with Ajit Jaokar, Founder Feynlabs, FutureText, Blog — OpenGardens

Stephen.Ibaraki — Sun, 19 May 2013 23:25:00 GMT

Ajit Jaokar is the founder of the London based research company FutureText which specializes in identifying and researching cross-domain technology trends.

In 2009, Ajit was nominated to the World Economic Forum's 'Future of the Internet' council. In 2011, he was nominated to the World Smart Capital program (Amsterdam). Ajit moderates/chairs Oxford University's Next Generation Mobile Applications Panel and conducts courses at Oxford in the next generation Telecoms trends. In 2012, he was nominated to the board of Connected Liverpool — Resilient Liverpool programs — based in the city of Liverpool for their Smart city vision.

His consulting activities include working with companies to define value propositions across the 'converged stack'. Ajit has worked with a range of commercial and government organizations including in strategic and visionary roles.

Since May 2005, he has founded and run the OpenGardens Blog which is widely respected in the mobile/telecoms industry.

Ajit has spoken at many conferences which include MobileWorld Congress (4 times), CTIA, CEBIT, Web20 Expo; Java One; European Parliament; Stanford University; MIT Sloan; Fraunhofer FOKUS; University of St. Gallen (Switzerland).

Ajit follows and studies white space networks as part of his PhD.

Ajit is the founder of the ed-tech start-up www.feynlabs.com. Feynlabs is the first initiative to teach the concepts of programming languages to kids (as opposed to a specific programming language). By abstracting the common elements of programming languages, our aim is to rapidly learn any programming language. We have more than 40K fans on Facebook and covered in major tech-ed publications. We are running trials in Europe and North America. All our content will be always open sourced and also free for schools. Feynlabs was founded on inspiration by Ajit's then seven year old son Aditya Jaokar (now nine years old).

See Mobile World Congress (WMB2013): http://www.opengardensblog.futuretext.com/archives/2013/03/mwc2013-mobile-world-congress-roundup.html

George Lucas Education Foundation:

To listen to the interview, click on this MP3 file link

DISCUSSION:

Interview Time Index (MM:SS) and Topic

:00:27:
You are involved with the World Economic Forum (WEF), can you share some of your experiences?
"....My involvement in the World Economic Forum was with the 'Future of the Internet' council....When you look at the future of the internet most people realize that the internet evolved organically, there was no structure, no planning behind how the internet evolved, but now that it has matured the discussion on what happens, where it goes forward and where the ambiguities lie tend to be in terms of government, corporates and individuals. My personal view is about what is essentially the freedom of the internet which is a platform to be kept away from any particular entity...."

:02:50:
You talked about the freedom of the internet and its future. There are some countries who really want some regulation and governance over the internet and more government involvement. Can you comment on this and do you think that controversy will ever be resolved?
"....Whatever side you are on, our policy makers today are reluctant to come out too much in favor of controlling the internet....I think technically it is possible to exert a level of control on the internet (as much as most people would not want that to happen). What is at stake or what is the discussion is from a regulatory perspective and from a global perspective on that regulation...."

:07:05:
Can you talk about the World Smart Capital program, your involvement in it and what you hope to accomplish?
"...The role I play in that is in an advisory board role (advisory board primary function is to look at the criteria for understanding smart cities and as well deciding which smart cities are every year). We are still early stage so it's pretty much a role of deciding intellectually what the smart city is....I work with cities or city officials more than with specific vendors and that makes quite a big difference because vendors who approach smart cities tend to approach them from a technology perspective....City planners tend to look at completely different arguments, they tend to look at urban immigration, green issues, pollution...."

:11:03:
You also have involvement with the Oxford's Next Generation mobile applications program. Can you outline what the program is about and what you hope to accomplish?
"....The idea was (what I call) 'an intellectual watering hole' for thinkers. On the internet there's not a lot of places to have real discussions or in-depth discussions about issues mainly to do with mobility, the future of mobility and the impact on people....We try to get the best thinkers on the forum and let the discussion happen and similarly with the conference. It's very much unscripted conferences which do not have any conference sales pitches and people come and have a great time as well...."

:12:53:
What are new trends in Smart Cities and the top two city models to emulate? Why?
"....The first one is certainly on people's radar: Barcelona....which has already built up on its core strength which happened to be the Mobile World Congress held there every year, and then extended that into parts of the city where there are specific areas earmarked towards some trial and deployments and things like that....The second model to emulate which is not in the spotlight, but which I work much more closely with is the Liverpool model....The Liverpool program is run very differently, it's run from the perspective that it's a city which has some level of unemployment and so on. It's run in a very human perspective...."

:16:02:
Can you give some digital policy innovations for 2015? If 2015 is too far ahead, even for next year.
"....I think 2015 is not far ahead for a policy point of view. I've been in policy discussions both in the EU and in the US. If you look at the mobile handset cycles and if you look at those numbers then you can pretty much see what's going to happen...."

:19:01:
What will be the features of open systems for 2015?
"....To put it into perspective, my definition of open first of all has to be a platform (by that I mean others can add value to their systems), and that clearly has to have an economic model which is a classic platform model. The second definition of an open system from my perspective is that the system not be controlled by an entity....If you take this idea of understanding open systems in that perspective I think the 2015 arguments will focus around a few things, the first one being how the existing web players define openness...."

:21:42:
What are some top cross-domain technology trends?
"....Possibly the most important one is mobility, but I use that in a specific context of mobile-first....The second is the change in the enterprise and that is specifically when you take mobility and social media to the enterprise (everything else has come from the enterprise to the consumer, whereas mobility and social media are flowing in the opposite direction)....The third one is what is called the internet of things, the machine to machine...."

:24:13:
What are the top mobile strategies for 2015?
"....The hybrid app....Mobile payments in some shape or form....Those two will drive a lot of technology and consumption and some of that is already being played out...."

:25:42:
Are there any lessons that you can share from your recent conferences and your involvements with them?
"....My experiences are that the conferences themselves are evolving as business models, but they are evolving in these two directions that is very large conferences or very niche ones and both are good...."

:28:18:
You are also involved with Feynlabs, can you outline what Feynlabs is about and why it works?
"....The ideology of Feynlabs is in a sense a pedagogy, a way of teaching. I wrote a paper about it which was published in a US Journal and education journal and we've been developing the methodology working with trials in schools in Europe and in the UK....The idea is that when you finish the program you are able to master any programming language because you are able to understand what's common across the different languages...."

:32:31:
You are deeply involved in the education space and we can see that with Feynlabs. What do you think education will look like in 2020 or 2025?
"..... In the case of education I think the rate of change is dramatically escalated....and this is in the massively open courses and things like that and at institutes like Stanford and MIT, etc....When we look at these platforms and technologies what does it mean for somebody to have learned something? That's the real question and that's where education is evolving. The other area of education that's evolving is how do you prove what you know...."

:35:13:
How is ICT infrastructure evolving?
"....My personal view of ICT infrastructure (which may not be agreed to by everybody) is that the value for ICT is changing significantly. If you look back at its history it was very clear cut— you either made a hardware product of some kind or you made a software product of some kind and you sold that at a cost or a license. The challenge today is the value across the stack is moving in different ways...."

:39:20:
What are the main challenges faced by enterprises and governments today because of this rapid change and changing demographics?
"....I think that the key challenges that enterprises and governments face is how to manage the rate of innovation...."

:41:24:
From your point of view what company policies need to be implemented to foster innovation?
"....I think the biggest driver to innovation is to help incorporate diversity into your culture, assuming you are in an industry which is at a faster rate of change...."

:43:04:
What kind of resources do you use to stay on top of things, stay informed and to be agile?
"....My way of thinking and being agile actually is to follow people as opposed to companies. I tend to look at specific people who I follow, and by that I mean even those with views where I don't agree. I think there's a lot to be gained by understanding diverse perspectives...."

:45:10:
Can you describe some areas of controversy in the areas that you work?
"....The areas of controversy in terms of topics and domains tend to be people who have certain views and you find them on both sides of the fence....There's the classic piracy and there's the classic privacy problem that could be viewed as a controversial or not...."

:47:23:
Do you feel computing should be a recognized profession on par with accounting, medicine and law with demonstrated professional development, adherence to a code of ethics, personal responsibility, public accountability, quality assurance and recognized credentials? [See www.ipthree.org and the Global Industry Council, http://www.ipthree.org/about-ip3/global-advisory-council]
"....The real question is if that should extend across to all of IT. I think that's harder to do for the very simple reason that the rate of change is very high, much higher than any other industry we have seen before, so it's hard to compare IT to accounting for example from the certification perspective....I think there are certain segments of the IT industry which do require certification and that certification is already happening through vendors and through industry bodies...."

:00:00:
Ajit share some stories from his extensive speaking, travels, and work (something amusing, surprising, unexpected or amazing).
"....The most interesting thing that I find when I'm travelling is the kindness of strangers and it never fails to amaze me...."

:52:08:
If you were conducting this interview, what questions would you ask, and then what would be your answers?
"....Can you comment on the very rapid change in innovation coming from emerging markets?....How has the meaning of research changed in today's world?....Can you comment on singularity as a disruptive field?...."

:55:08:
Ajit, with your demanding schedule, we are indeed fortunate to have you come in to do this interview. Thank you for sharing your deep experiences with our audience.

Music by Sunny Smith Productions and Shaun O'Leary

Chat: Stephen Forte, CSO, CTO, Founder, Microsoft MVP, Global Entrepreneur and Developer

Stephen.Ibaraki — Wed, 15 May 2013 23:11:00 GMT

Stephen Forte is the Chief Strategy Officer of the venture backed company Telerik, a leading vendor of developer and team productivity tools. He is the co-founder and executive director of AcceleratorHK, Hong Kong's first start-up accelerator.

Involved in several start-ups, he was the co-founder of Triton Works, which was acquired by UBM (London: UBM.L) in 2010 and was the Chief Technology Officer and co-founder of Corzen, Inc., which was acquired by Wanted Technologies (TXV: WAN) in 2007. Prior to Corzen, Stephen served as the CTO of Zagat Survey in New York City (acquired by Google in 2011), and also was co-founder of the New York-based software consulting firm The Aurora Development Group.

Stephen is also a Certified Scrum Master, Certified Scrum Professional, PMP and also speaks regularly at industry conferences around the world. He has written several books on application and database development. Stephen has an MBA from the City University of New York. Stephen is also a board member of the Scrum Alliance.

An avid mountain climber, Stephen leads a trek in the Mt. Everest region every fall to raise money for charity. Stephen lives in Hong Kong with his wife. @worksonmypc

To listen to the interview, click on this MP3 file link

DISCUSSION:

Interview Time Index (MM:SS) and Topic

:00:50:
What particularly useful job roles, career milestones and valuable lessons can you share since the last time we talked?
"....Since the last time we spoke I've had a great experience working on the AcceleratorHK project, which is a start-up accelerator focused extensively on hybrid mobile development or cross platform development...."

:01:15:
You mentioned the cross platform or hybrid development, are there some recommended tools that you would like to spotlight?
"....There are definitely a lot of tools out there, but what I tell developers is that if you are going to do cross platform development what you need to do is to go back to good old fashioned JavaScript....HTML5 is equally important....PhoneGap in the Open Source Library...."

:02:25:
What should developers focus on?
"....They've built out several platforms for consumers, but I think for the next number of years developers will start looking at the enterprise again, both with mobility and non-mobility...."

:03:26:
Can you share tips about the global entrepreneurship environment?
"....I think there's been a bit of a renaissance in the global entrepreneurship environment. More people are jumping in and starting businesses and this is due to two reasons. First is that the cost (and risk) of starting a business today has been drastically reduced over the past decade. Second is that the global economy is still very weak....You are seeing more people who would have gone into all these other sectors that have been hit really hard by the global recession now going into start-ups or starting them up themselves...."

:05:33:
Stephen describes the ecosystem/environment for start-ups in Hong Kong.
"....The culture in Hong Kong and most of Asia is a little risk-adverse and think start-ups are a little bit risky and once that starts changing (and it is changing), the Hong Kong ecosystems will grow even further...."

:07:55:
What are your tips for forming an accelerator?
"....If you are starting an accelerator, the mentors make the program. That would be my tip, go out and find the best mentors you can...."

:09:50:
Are there other key members that should be part of an accelerator team, for example accountants, lawyers, technical people, etc.?
"....Our cohort was small; we started out with six teams so Paul and I were able to make sure that all the meetings were scheduled and the mentor relationships were scheduled. Once you get larger than six or seven you are going to need some administrative help in that regard....The important thing if you are starting an accelerator, the accountants and lawyers are really only needed at the beginning and at the end....I think the perfect accelerator would have a few developers on staff who are senior developers who can train and almost work for hire for the team during that three month period...."

:11:33:
You mentioned customer development so in your training program or in some of the courses, seminars or workshops you provided you must have been following some gurus out there?
"....When it comes to customer development and the process of building a new start-up from scratch there are two gurus that everyone needs to follow. The first is Steve Blank, he's written a very influential book called The Four Steps to the Epiphany....Another individual who is extremely influential and has to be followed as well is Eric Ries and he's written the book called The Lean Startup...."

:13:33:
You have this start-up and people submit their business proposals, but once they are in the accelerator program that you have, do you use these business plans or do you have some other kind of technique?
"....We have another technique instead of a business plan that we prefer to use (we are gaining a lot of traction in the global start-up eco-system), and this is called the Business Model Canvas which was developed in a book, The Business Model Generation by Alex Osterwalder....The Business Model Canvas is a great tool and it gives you the ability to look at your business holistically in nine different categories...."

:15:52:
You mentioned you did accept a cohort and they went into your AcceleratorHK program, how many of them pivoted?
"....Every one of them pivoted in a small capacity and probably 5 out of the 6 pivoted in a major capacity...."

:16:57:
What are your best practices for operating an accelerator?
"....The number one issue was space, it took us a while to find space for an accelerator....In addition to that the other avenues of operating a cohort are your regularly scheduled meetings (as I mentioned before your administration is key here)....Operating the cohort really is a logistical process once it gets started. Before it gets started there's a lot of legal and accounting things which need to take place...."

:19:14:
Stephen describes in a nutshell what their accelerator looks like.
"....When the program is over it's not really over. We'll check in with the teams every 30 days and we'll pretty much keep doing that until we're not needed anymore...."

:24:03:
How do you choose a cohort? What are you looking for? What are some of the attributes that you think will make for success?
"....If you have a great team: they are coachable, adaptable and work well together and they come with a good idea or great idea in a really hot market, those are the attributes that we are really looking for...Most who come into the accelerator (the teams that we accept), haven't even written any code yet. They just have a small prototype and the business model canvas, that's actually the perfect team...."

:27:39:
You already talked about the Demo Day and the whole operational process, the strategy behind it, the customer development, the lean start-up, the business canvas idea — all great foundations for making this thing work. What do you want to accomplish long term?
"....Long term I hope to change the model a little bit where I think the early round of investment will be provided more by accelerators that come with an educational component. I hope to help grow that accelerator ecosystem around the world by being one of the stand-out start-up accelerators...."

:30:29:
How will accelerators change the entrepreneurial ecosystem?
"....Accelerators are easy to set up and they don't cost a lot of money beyond the investment and the lawyers....The hardest part is attracting the right mentors, if you attract great mentors you are going to attract great cohorts because your mentors will also help you to promote your cohort....I think accelerators long-term will increase the amount of innovation in society because they will spread and will make so many investments in all these early stage companies, and a lot of them will fail, but a lot of them will also succeed...."

:32:33:
What do you hope the survival rate will be in 5 years post-acceleration in your accelerator?
"....Realistically the statistics say the following: about 1/3 do well upon graduation, 1/3 struggle along and don't get funding and 1/3 never make it out of the accelerator. That's a pretty consistent statistic....We are lucky, all of our teams graduated and some of them are starting to survive right now so we'll beat the odds in our first build. I assume over time our averages will balance out to the accelerator average...."

:34:27:
What are some truly disruptive technology forces for the next five years and why are these your choices?
"....I think the two things that are going to change drastically over the next 5 years are processing power and energy storage (or more specifically battery life)...."

:39:05:
Do you feel computing should be a recognized profession on par with accounting, medicine and law with demonstrated professional development, adherence to a code of ethics, personal responsibility, public accountability, quality assurance and recognized credentials? [See-www.ipthree.org and the Global Industry Council, -http://www.ipthree.org/about-ip3/global-advisory-council]
"....I think there should be something like a tier-based system. If you are going to be working on a life-critical, mission-critical application, I think there should be some kind of recognizable accreditation or certification. If you are senior developers working on software worth millions of dollars, definitely obtain these certifications and accreditations. That said, if you are working at a small company as a developer or a systems engineer or as a coder at a start-up, I don't think you necessarily need a high level of accreditation, you just need the credentials in so far as you have the experience.....I would like to see that everyone who enters the industry adhere towards a public code of ethics...."

:44:27:
From his extensive speaking, travels and work, Stephen shares some stories (amusing, surprising, unexpected, amazing).
"....I'm still going to Nepal every year on a charity trek where it raises money for schools and I wanted to highlight this year because I brought my 65 year old father with me. I got him to climb up to just over 6000 meters or 18000 feet with a group of about ten of us...."

:49:45:
If you were conducting this interview, what questions would you ask, and then what would be your answers?
"....What is the best advice for applying to a start-up accelerator?....My city or location has no real start-up ecosystem, what do I do?....Why Nepal?...."

:52:33:
Stephen, with your demanding schedule, we are indeed fortunate to have you come in to do this interview. Thank you for sharing your deep experiences with our audience.

Music by Sunny Smith Productions and Shaun O'Leary

Enterprise Information Management (EIM): Bringing Together SSIS, DQS, and MDS

Chris Di Lullo — Tue, 14 May 2013 19:14:00 GMT

	Enterprise Information Management (EIM): Bringing Together SSIS, DQS, and MDS

On May 31st, 2013, Microsoft Canada will host Enterprise Information Management (EIM): Bringing Together SSIS, DQS, and MDS. This half day event that will feature Matt Mason, Senior Program Manager from the SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) team.

Spots are limited! Don’t miss a chance to meet Matt Masson, Matt has worked on many aspects of the SSIS product, and has written two books for SQL Server 2012 – SSIS Design Patterns (Apress) and SQL Server 2012 Integration Services (MS Press). He is a frequent presenter at SQL conferences, and blogs at http://mattmasson.com/.

Email us now to confirm your space for this event using the link below.

Date: May 31, 2013

Location:

Microsoft, 1950 Meadowvale Blvd.

Mississauga, ON L5N 8L9

View the map

Agenda:


What’s New in SSIS 2012 9:00am – 10:00 am	This demo-intensive whirlwind tour will show off the new features and functionality in SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) for SQL Server 2012. From the productivity enhancements in the designer, to the new SSIS server deployment model, there’s something in the release for everyone. If you haven’t seen SSIS in SQL Server 2012 yet, you won’t want to miss this session!
EIM - Bringing Together SSIS, DQS, and MDS 10:00am – 11:15am	Enterprise Information Management (EIM) is an industry term for managing your data for integration, quality, and governance. This session revolves around a demo which brings together the EIM functionality in SQL Server, a key part of our Credible, Consistent Data story for the 2012 release. We will show you how SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS), Data Quality Services (DQS), Master Data Services (MDS) and other Microsoft technologies work together to provide a comprehensive EIM solution.
Break 11:15am – 11:45am
SSIS Performance Design Patterns 11:45am – 1:00pm	Need a fast data integration solution, but don't have the time or budget for heavy performance tuning? Come learn how to maximize your ROI by applying trusted design patterns to your Integration Services packages. We’ll start off by looking at how to set performance expectations, and see how you can easily put together a simple framework to record benchmarks for your ETL process. We’ll then dive into a number of common design patterns, such as surrogate key generation, advanced Lookup patterns, parallel processing, change data capture, and different ways of handling slowly changing dimensions.

Presenter:

Matt Masson

Matt Masson is a Senior Program Manager working with the SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) team. Matt has worked on many aspects of the SSIS product, and has written two book for SQL Server 2012 – SSIS Design Patterns (Apress) and SQL Server 2012 Integration Services (MS Press). He is a frequent presenter at SQL conferences, and blogs at http://mattmasson.com/ . He currently lives in Montreal, Quebec, and works remotely with his Redmond-based team.

SECTOR--Illuminating the Black Art of Security—Early Bird Ends May 15th

Stephen.Ibaraki — Wed, 08 May 2013 13:44:56 GMT

Last chance for SecTor early bird pricing!

Security Education Conference Toronto Oct 7- 9, 2013 MTCC Toronto

Soon the first round of SecTor 2013 speakers and keynotes will be announced, but not before the price goes up. You've got until May 15th to save on this year's premier security education conference.

SecTor is the security education conference built by security professionals, for security professionals, and offers too much content for anyone to consume in the three days - and that's why we love it.

In case you missed 2012, check out our video.

So much value, so little time...

This is one conference you can't afford to miss.

3 Technical tracks with over 20 exceptional (no marketing) sessions
1 Management track with 7 hard hitting sessions on security inside the organization
1 Sponsor track with 10 sessions sharing lessons from the industries' top vendors
Automated Penetration Testing with Metasploit Professional and SecTor Forensics training on the Monday before the conference - GO
A coffee lounge were you can "plug-in" and recharge throughout the day
Lock picking village
Networking Reception and Party at Steam Whistle sponsored by Rapid7
4 of the best security keynotes you'll find in Canada this year
Skills contests including our Capture the Flag Competition - click for more
Earn up to 24 CPE credits

Tell your colleagues about this great deal and register before we sell out again.
We look forward to seeing you at SecTor 2013.

Journal: Speaking at ITU/UN WSIS Geneva and Astana Economic Forum ASTEX 2013

Stephen.Ibaraki — Tue, 07 May 2013 13:46:00 GMT

I am heading out this week: Vancouver, Toronto, Frankfurt, Geneva. In Geneva, I am speaking on Thursday May 16th starting at 9h00 (Geneva time, 12am PDT, 3am EDT) at the ITU/UN World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS).

The session theme chaired by IFIP IP3 board chair Brenda Aynsley is, “Why We Need an ICT Profession to Grow Our Citizenry, Our GDP and Our International markets (IFIP).” In my talk, “We will explore the Current State of ICT Trends, Trends in Innovation, Define Professionalism, and provide Professionalism Success Measures. In addition, the context of my presentation is the global environment into which all ICT practitioners work, whether they are in a single country or part of the global economy. Open source education and practice must not exist in isolation from this context. The unifying thread is ICT Professionalism which underlies open source and open standards." My speaking perspective will be as the founder and chair of the IFIP IP3 Global Industry Council (GIC): “Global Industry Council Directors are specially nominated and invited to serve within the UN-rooted body as internationally recognized luminary executives, thought leaders, and visionaries and for their strong history of providing substantive contributions to global business, industry, society, education, and governments.” GIC Director, Moira de Roche, principal author of a 2013 UNESCO requested paper on ethics and professionalism will present an extract of the Ethics paper at the WSIS session--Brenda will be submitting the full paper to UNESCO. Watch for more on the paper in a guest article from Moira and guest articles from Brenda on her world travels and extensive fine work with global leaders. One area in the paper I want to highlight is “The Pledge of the Computing Professional” that came to my attention from ACM SIGCAS executive and ACM PB PDC member Netiva Caftori which entails a rite-of-passage ceremony for graduates from computing programs and promotes the notion of computing as a recognized profession at the time of graduation for students in Computer Science and related programs. I also want to spotlight the significant input provided by Donna Lindskog from CIPS. Moreover, the Australian Computer Society (ACS) is demonstrating tremendous leadership within IFIP and with Brenda’s strong leadership of IFIP IP3.

WSIS participation can be done physically in Geneva or virtually open to the world via remote connection. Instructions for connecting virtually are on the ITU WSIS website.

The ITU is the specialized United Nations Agency governing and setting standards for Information Communication Technology (ICT) comprised of over 190 countries and 700 global organizations/corporations. WSIS is a great venue for speaking and building relationships with government, business, academia, media and organization leaders from over 100 countries. Previously I have shared my chats with the ITU Secretary General, Hamadoun Toure and UNESCO Communication and Information ADG (head of the sector), Janis Karklins.

After a week in Geneva, I fly out to Frankfurt where I will be meeting with GIC Director Brian Cameron Founding President of FEAPO. FEAPO just completed their Spring Summit last week where work was completed on the enterprise architecture (EA) space. Brian, Nick Malik and Mark Lane did considerable work on the EA Perspective Paper, EA Career Path Document. Nick has made continuing strong contributions in EA with the paper being a major milestone. CAEAP President Mark Lane laid much groundwork for the summit and particularly with EA Career Path document. Watch for a future announcement from this FEAPO summit including the final reports later this year. I sit on the FEAPO Board and can attest to the fact that Brian is doing a remarkable job leading FEAPO. He also chairs the ACM Enterprise Architecture TechPack and an update is targeted for 2013. In addition, in his high demand three country May schedule, Brian is speaking at the Astana Economic Forum ASTEX 2013 due to his acknowledged leadership in enterprise architecture and where he is advising countries on their e-government programs.

Next, I will fly from Frankfurt to the Astana Economic Forum (AEF) / ASTEX 2013. The Astana Smart Technology Exhibition and Conference (ASTEX) is a highlight event at the economic forum, the concept formulated by the ICT Development Fund founded by General Director Aibol Kuandykov – a joint government and industry start-up acceleration and incubation program for innovation where I was invited to be founding advisor / mentor in 2012 and then contributing in 2013 and onwards. ASTEX is the model for Expo 2017 in Astana.

In Astana, at the Astana Economic Forum ASTEX 2013, I am speaking, on “ICT Powering Educational Reform, Innovation and New Resources.” My theme is: “ICT is fostering significant improvements in education and as a result innovation in research and its implementation. Ultimately new education reforms can result in a five times total factor productivity increase, a five dollar return in value for every ICT dollar invested and a 20% increase in GDP -- all with a foundation in innovation driven by new educational methods and resources. The education practices of the last three hundred years have changed little but must now change rapidly to ensure global leadership in 21^st Century Skills and invention. ICT powered education is undergoing a major revolution that must be implemented. In this presentation, we will first overview general ICT trends which underlie new education methods. We will next discuss ICT-focused SMART education trends, examples and models, Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) and new resources. Finally we will talk about the extensive innovation and research advantages of an online digital library (DL), using the experiences of the Association for Computing Machinery or ACM. The ACM is the world’s largest scientific, educational, professional computing association well known for their awards (example, Turing Award often considered the Nobel Prize of Computing), 35+ special interest groups (example, SIGGRAPH), 70+ publications/newsletters, learning center resources, 500+ conferences/events, live webcasts, videos, and 1.5 million users of their digital library.”

For some background, I serve on the ACM Practitioner Board and Chair the Practitioner Board Professional Development Committee (ACM PB PDC) which includes the Webinar Committee (ACM PB PDC-W) and Professionalism and Certification Committee (ACM PB PCC). The PDC oversees ACM products and services (videos, webinars, courses, books, techpacks, podcasts, learning paths, …) appearing with the ACM Learning Center. Watch past Webinars and look for upcoming monthly Webinars with the top experts including one scheduled May 8th and available on demand post-event on “Engineering Software as a Service” with presenter David Patterson, University of California, Berkeley; Former President, ACM and moderator Armando Fox, University of California, Berkeley. On June 13th, the featured webinar is “IBM Watson: Beyond Jeopardy” with presenter Adam Lally, IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center and moderator Will Tracz, Lockheed Martin Fellow Emeritus; Chair of ACM SIGSOFT. Will is leading the ACM webinar series with continuing strong contributions to the ACM PB PDC.

As noted in the letter of invitation for the Astana Economic Forum (AEF): “On behalf of the members of the Eurasian Economic club of scientists (EECSA—see list below) representing research organizations, prominent politicians and public figures, scientists and academicians from 111 countries, let us express our sincere appreciation and invite you to participate in the VI Astana Economic Forum and the World Anti-Crisis Conference which will be held in Astana, on May 22-24, 2013 at the initiative of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan H.E. Nursultan Nazarbayev…The World Anti-Crisis Conference will take place at the level of ministers of finance, economy, central banks and international experts, and the platform of the conference will be the VI Astana Economic Forum. Traditionally, Forum is attended by 8,000 delegates from 100 countries, including Heads of States and Governments, prominent politicians and public figures, leaders of international organizations and business corporations, top thinkers and Nobel laureates, and representatives of global media. The main result of the Forum is the drafting of an Open Letter by its participants with recommendations for Heads of G-20 countries, international and regional organizations for discussion at the G20 Summit. In 2012 recommendations of the Astana Economic Forum were presented at the session of the UN General Assembly. The Forum is designed to serve as ideal platform for enhancing cooperation and signing long-term agreements and memorandums between nations and companies.”

Here’s my blog from speaking last year: Journal--V Astana Economic Forum / Connect 2012 Forum. Watch for new interviews, best practices, lessons and insights from the trips abroad!

Chat with Robert Deutsche, Global Top Technology Expert and Executive

Stephen.Ibaraki — Sun, 05 May 2013 22:54:00 GMT

Robert Deutsche
Principal Architect/Systems Engineer — Enterprise Cloud Solutions, SOA, IT Transformation & Data Center Consolidation

Bob Deutsche provides business and technical advisory services as well as thought leadership to mid-level and senior-level executives in the Global 50 and public sector.

With 30 years of experience in industry, Bob has held senior level positions with companies that most recently include Intel, CSC and Deloitte. With a varied background that includes data center operations, software development and CIO positions in both enterprise and LOB IT organizations, Bob has an extensive and pragmatic knowledge of cloud solution frameworks, big data, information security investments, enterprise architecture, business process improvement, business process reengineering, organizational change management, software development (CMM Level 4/5 organizations), systems engineering, and governance frameworks. His passion is to insure that technology investment is based on the benefit it provides to the enterprise.

Bob is a retired Lt. Colonel in the U.S. Air Force and holds a Master's of Science in Systems Management from the University of Southern California, Viterbi School of Engineering.

To listen to the interview, click on this MP3 file link

DISCUSSION:

Interview Time Index (MM:SS) and Topic

:00:23:
Bob, thank you for sharing your deep experiences with our audience.
"....Thank you for the opportunity. I'd like to say I've done a lot of things in my life. Master of none, but a whole lot of information to share with you I hope...."

:00:47:
When I listen to your colleagues they say you are the ultimate guru on the global stage. Can you give us a little background?
"....If you look at my background I'm one of those folks who has had one foot in different worlds. I started off in Line of Business IT organization many years ago....Then I morphed into enterprise and then I had my own business. I tend to look at things very differently.... "

:01:54:
What is the state of enterprise security spend and why should this change?
"....The easiest way to respond is today enterprise security spend is reactive, it's 'whack-a-mole'....What you find is that historically, security spend has been a reaction to a breach....The problem is that's not sustainable as you move outside your firewall...."

:10:22:
Are the days of large central IT organizations numbered and why are they numbered?
"....I think what we're going to see within 5 to 8 years is there is always going to be a need for some type of a central IT function that provides core services...."

:15:13:
I guess there is a lot of churn amongst people who work in the IT shops around the world as they are seeing this movement from the large central organizations as it will have some impact on jobs, etc. Can you comment?
"....I think the IT shops that have the highest probability of surviving are going to be the ones who are closest to their business. I challenge people who listen to this podcast to go out and ask the question: How many CIOs in their organization have been career IT people rather than people who have been rotated in from other parts of the business to get the CIO experience and then they move on to something else?...."

:18:14:
What are your feelings about enterprise architecture and aligning IT with business, etc, and is enterprise architecture becoming more important, and do you see that role of the enterprise architect expanding in some way?
"....I don't see them reporting directly to the CEO, but I could see them reporting to the CFO....Chances are that whatever they might be working on would ultimately impact the bottom line of the company...."

:27:24:
What are your thoughts on Big Data and what are the problems with Big Data?
"....What I'm looking for is a chief data architect's perspective on Big Data because Big Data is going to sell a lot of software and a lot of professional services....The fundamental question I keep going back to with Big Data is that it is about the data, and some of the challenges that a lot of companies have never confronted even within their firewall is data ownership and data stewardship. The question is who owns this record?..."

:34:42:
What are the government policy implications on Cloud Ecosystems?
"....There are probably six or seven considerations when I look at government Cloud policy that make for interesting discussions....Security and it involves things like privacy....Competition and Standards....Bandwidth....Sovereignty....Copyright....I keep telling people security is an issue for Cloud but it isn't THE issue, particularly if you are a large multi-national company or you want to do business worldwide...."

:45:21:
In your work you see this different marriage between different domains from business to software and hardware. Where does business, software and hardware begin and end?
"....Once you start influencing the large eco-system, it's like anything, it involves change....People and organization's ability to change strike me as being one of the biggest challenges as we move forward...."

:51:52:
What do you foresee as some of the truly disruptive technology forces for the next five years and why are these your choices?
"....I see Cloud as being one of the most disruptive only because companies still haven't figured out what it is....How that plays out is that it's the company's ability to look at the new model and figure out whether it can or can't reduce costs, and then adapt the organization to that....I think another disruptive force (I don't feel as comfortable with the term disruptive as with the term game-changing), I see some of the things we are doing with these multi-core chips as potentially changing everything...."

:01:00:24:
What bleeding edge technologies are you working with?
"....There probably was a time when you could impress people with what we call 'speeds and feeds', those days are done I believe. The question always comes back to 'what does it do to improve my business and how much does it cost?' That's probably where I'm most focused right now...."

:01:02:11:
From your extensive background, what are the top challenges facing the world today, and counter to that, what do you see as the top opportunities facing the world today?
"....I think that the technologies are evolving faster than the people and the policy can adapt....The number 2 challenge is today companies are understandably focused on revenue. How do we shift from being worried about revenue to actually building and making something?....The capability is there to connect the world in a way that's never been done before. Once you get connected there are incredible opportunities, but at the same time the other thing that I fear is that sometimes it is too easy not to get up and meet somebody — you lose the personal touch or interaction and that's the flipside of this connectivity...."

:01:06:46:
From your prior roles, share some key lessons or best practices?
"....You always have to balance your pragmatism with the excitement....The other thing is I always try to keep a sense of humour....There's always going to be something more difficult than what you think you are experiencing now...."

:01:10:36:
Describe some areas of controversy in the areas that you work.
"....This question about sovereignty that I mentioned earlier can be controversial, but obviously you try to avoid that level of detail...."

:01:12:05:
Do you feel computing should be a recognized profession on par with accounting, medicine and law with demonstrated professional development, adherence to a code of ethics, personal responsibility, public accountability, quality assurance and recognized credentials?[See www.ipthree.org and the Global Industry Council, http://www.ipthree.org/about-ip3/global-advisory-council]
"....I don't think it would be a bad thing, but I think it would be a pretty heavy lift....I’d like it to be done I just don't think it's going to happen near my lifetime.... "

:01:22:13:
From his extensive speaking, travels, and work, Robert shares some stories (something amusing, surprising, unexpected, amazing).
"....Think big, act small and I've also added move fast, because all of that ensures you are going to get funding for next year...."

:01:25:49:
If you were conducting this interview, what would you ask, and then what would be your answer?
"....Where is the IT profession going, and how is it getting there, and what's going to be happening to the profession are things which are foremost on my mind right now...."

:01:30:49:
What are your top resources?
"....Generally I look at stuff coming from TOGAF and Zachman....Gartner....Some LinkedIn groups....IEEE...."

:01:33:35:
Bob, with your demanding schedule, we are indeed fortunate to have you come in to do this interview. Thank you for sharing your deep experiences with our audience.

Music by Sunny Smith Productions and Shaun O'Leary

Journal: Paris, San Francisco, Geneva, Astana, New York

Stephen.Ibaraki — Wed, 01 May 2013 15:24:37 GMT

I got back from board and related meetings in San Francisco and earlier in the year Paris where I spoke at the UNESCO WSIS+10 Review. Next week I leave for Geneva where I am speaking at the ITU/UN WSIS Forum. The week after I leave for Astana in Europe/Asia for the Astana Economic Forum ASTEX 2013 where I am speaking. Then off to New York again for board and related meetings.

Look to see new interviews from these travels and highlights.

ITU Young Innovators Competition Open for Applications

Stephen.Ibaraki — Wed, 01 May 2013 15:06:48 GMT

The International Telecommunication Union is proud to present its Young Innovators Competition 2013 edition, offering young and talented social technopreneurs the opportunity to present their ideas to industry leaders on a global stage at ITU Telecom World 2013 in Bangkok, Thailand, from 19 -22 November.

Young Innovators Competition aims to attract dynamic, engaged young people and identify projects with a genuine potential to succeed in addressing one of our Global Challenges, which reflect the most urgent spheres of life where ICTs could have a significant and wide-ranging impact. The competition seeks pragmatic, market-oriented solutions in the form of start-ups or concepts from 18 - 26 year-olds making use of the latest connected technologies.

Competition finalists are invited to attend World 2013, where they will benefit from in-depth mentoring from leading industry representatives, take part in pitching and workshop sessions, demonstrate their projects on the showfloor and have the chance to win seed money of up to USD 5,000 in the Concept category and up to USD 10,000 in the start-up category to fund their initiatives.

You can also learn more about the competition at http://world2013.itu.int/event/innovation

Professor Frans van der Reep, World Renowned Visionary Thought Leader and Innovating Entrepreneur

Stephen.Ibaraki — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 00:11:00 GMT

Frans van der Reep (1954, LinkedIn, http://twitter.com/fvdr) is a thought-leader renowned worldwide for his accurate and early forecasts of business and technological trends, valued highly for his ability to unveil hidden assumptions and relate directly to genuine underlying issues. Having witnessed many passing fashions in business advice, Frans is well-known for his ability to recognize meaningless hype and identify whether solutions really fit the problems they are marketed for, providing recommendations that have a tendency to become at once "embarrassingly clear".

A technological visionary, media futurist, game changer and popular inspirational speaker, Frans is dedicated to returning core moral values to the business arena, viewing universal traits such as respect for others and integrity as the foundation of a stable business culture. Known among his many roles as a researcher, trend watcher, writer, podcaster and entrepreneur, he is a Professor at the Inholland University of Applied Sciences, a Senior Strategist at Royal KPN, holds several board positions within both the public and private sector and was knighted in 1997 by Her Majesty Queen Beatrix for contributions to society. He has also published many papers and books on the influence and impact of the Internet, connecting the varied intellectual realms of Strategy, Sales & Marketing, HR, Finance, Innovation, Business Process Management and IT.

To listen to the interview, click on this MP3 file link

DISCUSSION:

Interview Time Index (MM:SS) and Topic

:00:30:
You wrote a most interesting article; distill the key elements of the article updated to 2013:
http://www.fransvanderreep.com/2011/07/20/middle-ages-internet-era-happening-us/
"....You are pointing at my essay, The Middle Ages in the internet-era: What is happening around us? It's my metaphor to better understand the times we live in....There are lots of parallels that allow us to better understand what world we live in and if you understand what you see, that helps you and helps the quality of your actions...."

:04:03:
How are governments evolving?
"....I'm very sure that the concept of State/Nation will change. I'm not sure how we will be there as human beings and the long term processes....There are many options open...."

:05:17:
What about changes with companies, where do you see that evolving?
"....I envision (I speak as a researcher and not as a businessman), that we go two ways, one is that we go back to creating and maintaining some basic social infrastructures....The other direction is that in this infrastructure, companies will become much smaller than they are now and will use this infrastructure as temporary projects and they will make use of the public infrastructures...."

:06:55:
You mention parts of Asia being quite different. Do you see them evolving at some point and becoming more like Singapore?
"....I think China especially is more on the up-scaling. Their agenda is up-scaling and their agenda is not making things more flexible as we are doing now in the Netherlands and in this part of the world. They are more in the industry type of development and they have more scalability in the pricing questions and we are more here in the innovation questions...."

:07:41:
One of the exciting areas I've heard a lot about is this Massively Open Online Courses (MOOCs) and how that's going to shape education. But that's only one area, social media and its impact that's also shaping education. From your point of view, what will education look like in 2015?
"....I'm not so sure that social media really opens the world for especially young people....What they do is not open their world, what they do is stay in their bubble — they take their home with them....The second part of your question is the impact of social media on ICT....I think we will have a two speech education system so basic materials can be transmitted to a student by the internet, by means of video or whatever and the rest of it maybe in a dialogue with a human being...."

:10:31:
Extending this question even further, you've talked about this somewhat already about ICT infrastructure and how that may have become more of a public utility. How do you see ICT infrastructure evolving into the future?
"....ICT is about your ability to totally exchange information. I think it will be more a commodity with lots of standardization and make itself (the technological part) as cheap as possible. On the other hand, if you really look at ICT and access to internet as a basic feature, governments should guarantee people this access...."

:11:35:
Do you see any controversy with regards to internet access?
"....I don't think that the government should interfere in content as long as it is good in the law...."

:12:28:
What are the top challenges faced by enterprises and governments today?
"....You always come back to human features so I think HR, human resource management is the key thing in each company....I think the two basic challenges for companies are: what is our core competence....and what can I do to make cooperation cheaper...."

:15:31:
You talked about the challenges facing the enterprise, but how do you see this impacting governments?
"....The very big innovations (from candles to electricity or from horses to cars) — that type of disruptive innovation takes 50 years to really adopt....It's very clear that social media (Twitter and Yammer) puts democracy under pressure and it's happening before our eyes. As far as I know, no one knows the solution, it's just happening and it will take a lot of time to find a new balance there...."

:18:50:
Because the world is changing so fast, what do you see as some of the top opportunities with regards to enterprises?
"....The internet leads us into the personal age and the internet makes it possible that you live your life and that you shape your life as you want to lead it — that's a big opportunity. Though the internet makes it possible to lead this tailored type of company where the company structure gives you the position of nuts and bolts in an anonymous structure which you cannot influence, the internet gives us the opportunity to create new matching principles where you don't get your work from your boss, but that you create your own work, you become your own entrepreneur...."

:21:29:
What are the opportunities for national economies?
"....I think Nearonomics is a big theme, I also call that a circle — re-establish a circle of life.....That's the basic thing, the internet allows us to redo and to re-answer many questions and that's the opportunity...."

:25:28:
Please share some results from your extensive research?
"....I will tell them in more broad anthropological terms, not in technological....Context drives meaning....We go from lean and mean to lean and meaningful....The end of ERP...."

:29:16:
From each of your prior roles, can you share some key lessons or best practices?
"....Keep things simple....Avoid transgressions....Be clear in your intentions....Combine the insights from economics, technology but also from anthropology and psychology. In the end it's always about humans...."

:31:01:
Frans shares some lessons learned and best practices in regards to innovation.
"....In terms of innovation the biggest lessons for me are: Stop innovation if it loses momentum....Be careful when using the term innovation because most things we call innovation are not innovation they are just first use. The first use problem is a management problem and innovation is a leadership problem....In respect to innovation three steps I always use: Step 1 - solve a concrete problem.....Step 2 - Hide complexity....Step 3 - Do new applications with new technology....Don't start with step 3 because it doesn't work...."

:34:22:
What are the top resources that you use?
"....I have the opportunity to talk with lots of people and that is my basic resource....Consilience (the ability to recognize a pattern in domain A for use in domain B), that's a concept that I use very much and I try to understand what can I learn in Domain B from Domain A and I always try to ask that question to myself and to others and that's where I get my information.....If in any circumstance you are always the teacher you don't learn anything because you're the teacher. You should always allow yourself to be the teacher and the pupil....Always accept multiple viewpoints and belief systems and accept that people have different characters and different personal needs....Read great authors...."

:39:05:
Can you describe some areas of controversy in the areas that you work?
"....I'm a game changer and many might consider my views as provocative and not relevant. My position there is that I tell what I think. ....If you're a game changer and if you discuss context, then you should be aware that sometimes someone won't like your role, that's part of the game...."

:41:45:
Do you feel computing should be a recognized profession on par with accounting, medicine and law with demonstrated professional development, adherence to a code of ethics, personal responsibility, public accountability, quality assurance and recognized credentials? [See www.ipthree.org and the Global Industry Council, http://www.ipthree.org/about-ip3/global-advisory-council]
"....I think that the best management is peer to peer review. In the end you never can force professionalism by ruling, it doesn't work....I think computing is too important to leave to the ICT community, it should be looked at from various angles...."

:44:07:
Frans shares some stories from his extensive speaking, travels and work (something amusing, surprising, unexpected or amazing).
"....Where do you land when you go straight south from Cape Town after having passed the Antarctic?...."

:46:33:
If you were conducting this interview, what questions would you ask, and then what would be your answers?
"....What drives you?....How would you like to be remembered?...."

:47:32:
Frans, with your demanding schedule, we are indeed fortunate to have you come in to do this interview. Thank you for sharing your deep experiences with our audience.

Music by Sunny Smith Productions and Shaun O'Leary

App Builder Virtual Summit, May 2nd

Stephen.Ibaraki — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 21:14:55 GMT

There's never been a better time to build for Windows. Attend the Virtual Summit and listen to Steve Guggenheimer, Corporate Vice President and Chief Evangelist of Microsoft Developer Platform & Evangelism, talk about the Windows ecosystem opportunity, design and monetization tips, partner development frameworks, and even reviews from iOS and Android developers.