Dan Sholler's Musings

I am Joining Collibra

2015-05-12T15:58:00.005-04:00

I am very excited to be starting a new adventure as the Director of Product Marketing with Collibra. I am excited to make the shift into the data world. Information is the currency of modern business. As all organizations become increasingly digital, and more information is used to drive our business decisions, trust in that information becomes crucial. Without that trust, the organization can no longer function as a digital business. Big data, small data, regulated data: Collibra has helped dozens of organizations gain the confidence that their information is the right sort for addressing their business needs, and is being used in the right way. This capability is needed by every organization as they become increasingly information driven. I am thrilled to be a part of a company that is growing fast with leading edge technology, a great team, and fabulous customers who use our products every day.

Dan

The Apple Watch... yeah

2015-03-12T11:02:00.000-04:00

Yeah, Yeah, I know.
Everyone has an opinion about the Apple watch.. and so do I... so here it is:

I am not sure if the story is apocryphal or not, but I had heard once that when asked what the "killer app" was for the iPhone, Steve Jobs replied "Talking on the phone."

I think that the same is true of the Apple watch, or of any smartwatch. While the music controls and restaurant reviews are nice, the real thing that will make a smartwatch live or die is its ability to help you manage time.

These days, managing time is a rather complex subject, as it is not just making sure that you know what time it is and what is on your schedule. It also includes all the active notifications about those things (when they change, when you are about to start so you should finish the previous activity, when you can fit one of the items on your todo list in between the things on your schedule, when you should get up an walk because you have been sitting too long, when you should drink more water, eat lunch, work out, go to sleep, when you have hit your heart rate target, what your split times are etc. etc. etc. )

So regardless of what we think of the current crop of apps, or where they are.. I believe that the success of this device right now is really up to Apple, and their ability to deliver really good time management functions. Unfortunately, today's release of the Google Calendar App for Iphone does not bode well, as it has not be available to me on the store most of the day due to the load. If that many people want to get away from Apple's (IMHO not very good) calendar, it is not clear that the team understands what it is that will make the watch a success.

back on the blog

2015-03-11T16:18:00.001-04:00

Hello all. I have decided to reactivate this blog, after neglecting it for quite a while. So if you still have this feed in your reader, this is not spam or a ghost.. just me feeling chatty again. I look forward to hearing from you. Dan