RodeWorks

Security for Twitter

Randy — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 10:13:43 +0000

Twitter sure is fun. But as it grows in popularity, and 3rd party companies extend its capabilities, security will become a growing problem. It has already struck me that the tiny URLs frequently used could be a real issue — you have no way of knowing what you’re clicking into to before clicking. This SecureTweets browser plugin might help that situation. But images and even passing files through twitter are also openings for the maliciously minded. The same lessons we’ve all learned through email (i.e. don’t open attachments, especially if they sound like fun diversions) need to be remembered in the new social media circles. But I’m afraid we’ll all need to endure some new attacks, at least among friends, clients, users, if not ourselves, before these new lessons are learned.

Internet Evolution – Security Clan Editor’s Blog – Porous Twitter Must Prep for the Enterprise

While Twitter and its developers could no doubt tighten things up a bit, tweeters themselves might take a fresh look at the online hygiene handbook. Keep antivirus software up to date; click “No” on “Remember this password?” prompts; treat unknown links and domains with extreme circumspection. OK, I can already hear you thinking: “Like my end users will ever do any of that…”

URL Security for Twitter w/ URL Scan: Download Free Browser Add-On

SecureTweets is an extension of Finjan’s SecureBrowsing and is powered by Finjan’s active real-time content inspection technologies.

Building a winning portal

Randy — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 10:01:15 +0000

Booz Allen Hamilton has a new, award winning, employee portal. How did they do it? Start with a cross-functional team to develop and evangelize the work 2) learn from success and failures in similar projects 3) know when you’re wrong and change 4) knock down silos and 5) solve real problems for your users (not problems you think they have.)

Becoming An Open Enterprise: Five Lessons from Booz Allen Hamilton

The portal that garnered them the accolade, hello.bah.com, has shown impressive adoption within Booz Allen, especially for a firm that’s 90 years old…Since being rolled out in August 2008, it’s been taken up for daily use by 40% of the 21,000-strong workforce,

Why MyBlackBerry isn’t iTunes Apps

Randy — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 09:53:07 +0000

RIM has a new MyBlackBerry site, which I tried to sign up for — after all I am on my second Blackberry so you’d think I qualify. But the sign up requires some time of invitation code (which I don’t have) and your BlackBerry registration code (which I don’t feel like getting now because it is charging — that BB Storm sure burns through its battery), so at least for today no MyBlackBerry for me. You know, I thought “number 2 tries harder” (are they even #2?)

MyBlackBerry: RIM Social Network Launches Tomorrow – ReadWriteEnterprise

RIM will launch MyBlackBerry, community site for device owners to rate and review apps, as well as share tips and tricks. …In the best of all possible worlds MyBlackBerry will serve as a space for customers to provide support for each other. In the worst, MyBlackBerry will languish, as the lack of a vibrant ecosystem around BlackBerry apps becomes more apparent than ever.

How Did it Get so Popular? Apple’s App Store Hits 1.5 Billion Downloads and 65,000 Apps

Earlier today, Apple announced that iPhone and iPod touch users have now downloaded over 1.5 billion applications. According to Apple, there are now also over 100,000 developers in the iPhone Developer Program and over 65,000 apps in the store.

Magnatune: a record label for a new world (encore)

Randy — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 10:36:48 +0000

While I’m on summertime travel please enjoy this re-post from the Rodeworks archive. Magnatune continues to be a significant presence in online music distribution, and proof that open access, free delivery and pay-what-you-will can be a successful business model.

Magnatune: A record label for the new world

Apr 11.05

Magnatune bills itself as “the open music record label.” Here is the deal:

All of their music is available for listening. Not 30 second snippets, but full albums worth.
You select how much you want to pay for an album from $5 on up (suggested price is $8.)
The artists gets half of that — no muss, no fuss

They have 356 complete albums in genres from classical to electronica. Take a listen. Finally a publishing model that makes sense for most music artists!
Magnatune: MP3 music and music licensing (royalty free music and license music).
IT conversations has a great interview with the founder of magnatune, which is well worth a listen.

Disruptive Change needs to add up

Randy — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 10:13:54 +0000

What types of impacts should higher education be looking for in disruptive innovation? Do we even want disruptive change? Or will the systems at work outside our walls force it upon us? In my workplace we’ve just been told to plan for two more rounds of 5% across-the-board cuts — one for mid-year (or sooner) and another for the next budget year. Andthis is on top of 20% cut for the current July 1 budget year. So we’re getting the disruptive part — I guess I need to work faster on the innovation! I’m trying!

As Funds Shrink, Universities Must Emphasize Their Value, Says Official and Former Politician – Chronicle.com

Everyone has to be out talking about the value,” he said. “We need to renew the idea that economic development is based on a quality higher-education system.”

Practical Analysis: It’s Not Disruptive If It’s Not Cheaper — Practical Analysis

We often talk about virtualization and the automation that should come with it as a disruptive technology, but by definition a disruptive technology must change the cost of doing business.

Wired Campus: An Unusual Attempt to Shape a High-Tech Future, Singularity U. Gets Under Way – Chronicle.com

“Today’s institutions of greater learning — where you go and get your doctorate degree — teach you to focus so narrowly,” he said. “Where do you learn to pull way back and think about the biggest issues on the planet? That’s what we hope to bring you here today. Not to compete with the great institutions out there but to give you a different way of thinking.”

IT Project cost overruns

Randy — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 09:48:35 +0000

Why do IT projects so often run over budget and over time? Perhaps thinking too big, too costly, and too risk adverse is part of the problem. All three conditions often lead to a long project timel ine, another significant risk factor. A recent computerworld article discusses the increasing use of ‘lite’-thinking with open-source/web 2.0-type tools. The advantages?

Fast start — most products have simple technical requirements and little-no cost
Easy to experiment — low cost to failure
User-centric designs
Active user communities — highly adaptable capabilities
Short implementation timeframes

An example? You can have an organization-wide multi-user Content Management System up and running, fully configured in less than a day — with 2 staff people. Hardware-wise you need a standard apache/LAMP web server — a service that you can contract externally for under $1,000 annually (and for smaller organizations more like under $200). Many of your peer organizations are already doing it (especially if you are in higher education.) How do you accomplish this? WordPressMU. No months-long RFP process — no need for thousands of dollars of hardware/software investment — no mulit-tiered approval process — no consultants. Start small, start fast, see what works, gather user reaction, adapt, innovate.

Corporate IT done ‘lite’: open source, Web 2.0 gain appeal as budgets shrink

CIOs are turning to cheap, lightweight tools to get the job done fast.

Internet Evolution – IT Clan Editor’s Blog – Why Most IT Projects Cost Too Much

According to Jim Johnson, chairman of the Standish Group consultancy, a whopping 54 percent of IT projects worldwide came in over budget in 2008, with large enterprise projects a bit more likely to spin out of cost control…Hopefully, ongoing progress in Internet-related technologies will help alleviate some of the complexity of today’s IT projects.

Millions of Dollars Later, U. of Wisconsin Still Lacks New Payroll Software

More than three years and $36-million dollars have not been enough to fix the University of Wisconsin system’s payroll computer program…a system budget official said the project, originally budgeted to cost $1.6-million and be finished by last fall, will now cost at least $12-million.

Creating a ‘best’ workplace

Randy — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 10:55:11 +0000

Computerworld’s 100 Best Places to Work in IT 2009 is out, and 5 higher-ed workplaces made the cut. One of the things that struck me about the universities on the list was the frequent mentions of a commitment to education and training of staff — and important distinction to remember in these days of budget tightening. Cornell’s mention of training focused on individual strengths and work alignment echos the recommendations of an excellent Ecar article: Competency Based Career Ladders for IT Professionals.

Tim Chester from Pepperdine University discusses his changes towards development of an ‘IT versatilist.’ They made this move recognizing that as IT becomes more central to the organization’s mission, technical competencies are not the most important quality to measure and develop. Skills such as communication and business process knowledge are equally, if not more important. With significant staff involvement, Pepperdine completely reorganized their structure to create career ladders, and competency charts to track advancement in these tracks. The end result is greater staff retention and improved morale. There is also significant costs savings, as an employee who comes up through the ranks is better prepared for an advanced position, knows the organization better, and is more vested in the success of the group. Maybe Pepperdine will show up on next year’s top 100 list.

Best Places to Work 2009

#4 University of Penn: Top 10 ranking: No. 1 for benefits, No. 2 for diversity

#10 U of Miami: Top 10 ranking: No. 9 for retention, No. 5 benefits, No. 1 for diversity, No. 5 career development

#58 George Washington University: The IT department reimburses its workers for some certificates and other technical advancements that they choose to pursue and offers a comprehensive service-improvement initiative, training programs and a career development program.

#90 Temple University: Employees at this Philadelphia-based university pay no tuition for undergraduate and graduate programs. Spouses receive half off all tuition, and children pay no tuition for up to 10 semesters of undergraduate education.

#93 Cornell University: Managers and employees are being trained to identify individual strengths and align the work that employees are assigned with those areas. Managers are encouraged to invest time in developing employees’ strengths rather than remediating weaknesses.

Competency-Based Career Ladders for IT Professionals | EDUCAUSE

This ECAR research bulletin examines how CIOs can adopt competency-based human resource practices in their information technology organizations to enhance the versatility of IT professionals. The bulletin is based on practices adopted at Pepperdine University. In 2007 Pepperdine embarked on a project to deliver a competency-based set of career ladders for all IT professionals across the institution and reorganized its IT practices to emphasize versatility. The results have been extraordinary: the organization has gained more credibility with faculty, students, and staff, and escalating salary costs have been brought under control.

Students reach out to Doctorow

Randy — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 10:16:36 +0000

Cory Doctorow’s Little Brother should be on everyone’s summer reading list — good for young and old alike!

CO Students Score a Chat with Cory Doctorow – 5/26/2009 – School Library Journal

After reading Cory Doctorow’s 2008 novel Little Brother, students in Anne Smith’s Language Arts class at Arapahoe High School in Centennial, CO, wanted more insight. So they gave the author a call.

School Library Journal’s Best Books 2008 – 12/1/2008 – School Library Journal

DOCTOROW, Cory. Little Brother. Tor. Tr $17.95. ISBN 978-0-7653-1985-2.
Gr 10 Up–After a terrorist attack, 17-year-old Marcus and his friends find themselves victims of abuse and, along with the rest of San Francisco’s residents, under constant surveillance. This exciting techno-thriller asks readers to think about tough topics and to question authority.

Active Conference Plan (encore)

Randy — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 09:30:05 +0000

While enjoying a little time away this summer enjoy this re-post from the Rodeworks archive March 2005. Take some of these ideas and add Twitter as a tool and it still looks like a fun time.

Active Conference Plan

While driving home from NERCOMP in the snow I started thinking, why, at a conference where active learning and technology-enabled learning is all the talk, are we still stuck in the old teaching model. The speakers sit up in the front of the room with their carefully prepared PowerPoint slides and we all sit dutifully in neat rows facing them and taking notes. Isn?t it time for something different? Here is my active conference plan:

Registration ? The registration process is done online.

Registrants create a username/password that will give them access to conference materials and activities. They also fill out a detailed questionnaire that is designed to assess their specific interests, learning goals, learning styles, opinion on conference topics and even personality characteristics. Think of this as a combination professional questionnaire and personality test. All who respond are treated to a summary view of all the responses, so that they can see where they fit into the mix.

Based upon the topics that people are interested in, the conference planners develop several broad questions/issues that are to be addressed by conference participants during the conference. Teams of registrants are created and are assigned to address one of these questions/issues. The team assignments are planned to be cross-functional/cross-disciplinary based upon the survey responses.

Pre-conference activities

Once teams are assigned, registrants participate in a pre-conference introduction forum. They upload a picture, describe themselves, post a link to their personal websites, etc. The first team activity, conducted online, is to design a team logo. From the logo a t-shirt will be created and given to team members when arriving at the conference. Maybe the team also selects their topic/question from a list of possible topics?

The conference website also would include short FAQ/training information on technologies to be used during the conference ? podcasting, RSS, blogs, etc.

At the conference

The conference itself would have many of the standard trappings of today?s conferences ? the exhibitor floor, continental breakfasts, keynote speakers, topical presentations, panel discussions, etc. But there would also be extensive time and dedicated space set aside for team activity. The expectation would be that team members would each attend the sessions they personally found of interest, then return to review the information with their team, share information, and discuss how it all related to their topic. Information learned at the sessions, from discussions with vendors, and other conference activities would now be used immediately in discussions with fellow professionals.

Individual blogs ? each member is assigned their own blog to post notes/impressions during the conference. Blogs are organized by team, making it easy for members to share information.

Wireless networking ? everywhere, with participants encouraged to bring their laptops everywhere. Encourage session leaders to work laptop use into their presentations (having all access the same website, etc.) Also have a vendor who can rent/loan laptops for the time of the conference.

The final activity would be presentations from all team groups on their findings/conclusions regarding their topic. Presentations would be brief, 10 ? 15 minutes in length. If there are a lot of teams they may need to be multiple sessions, as any one sessions shouldn?t exceed 90 minutes in length. And food should be included. Final presentations posted online and become a part of the collective blog postings.

Implementing the Plan

This idea is flexible enough that it could be executed with a small group of people registered at a larger conference. There could be ?normal? conference goers there alongside the ?active? conferences.

There are a lot of details to still hash out with this idea, BUT this is starting to sound like the kind of conference I would like to attend. Everyone gets to be a active participant, you get to work with and meet new people, and you come out of the conference having really done something.

Flash and circumstance on modern web pages

Randy — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 10:45:07 +0000

Funny how fast design fads can change. Don’t flash-heavy web sites feel dated? Especially if they load slowly. And how do they work on a mobile phone brower or other not-a-full-computer device? Even on my super fast work connection the BAR site loaded really slowly. All I wanted to do was check the opening time I had trouble getting the Hard Rock Cafe site to load at all yesterday, although it seemed Ok today. Again all I wanted to do there was check the street address. If you view it on a device without flash it nicely informs you that you’re “missing the show.” Oh really — maybe it is their designers that are missing something.

Welcome to BAR

Hard Rock Cafe LONDON – HOME

RodeWorks

Security for Twitter

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