Collaboration with others who are excited about what they are doing, excites me. Crossing borders/building bridges (knowledge areas, political, racial, cultural, religious, class) engages me. Integration of what I hear, what I know, and research allows me to problem solve with wisdom.

I integrate what I hear from my clients and colleagues with my past experience/study, bring fresh study to the project, and then synthesize that data for my clients and colleagues– moving us all forward in new ways.

I bring people and ideas together. When the project needs more hands, or is outside my scope of practice, I invite my competitor-colleagues to join me in the project, or refer the project outto them. By doing so, my clients get the best service I can give them, I receive their future loyalty, and my competitor-colleagues and I, both grow our businesses.

I lead with my desires, passions, and skills. By acknowledging my short-comings, by focusing on what I want to know and do, and by compensating for my short-comings by surrounding myself with people who compliment my skills sets and focus, we all get to contribute our best. Our clients win.

I am building a tech business that serves small nonprofit organizations with all the roles that an IT department would provide them, were they big enough to have one. This virtual IT department does everything from the CIO role of helping the organization envision and manage its work processes in-light of available techologies and developing budgets to do so, to unboxing and setting up the newly arrived desktop computer and configuring the router, backup system, and server, to tutoring and training.

My clients have chosen to use the Apple system for its reliabiity and stability, and which I compliment, as appropriate, with Cloud-based services. With this hybrid infrastructure, many smaller nonprofits won’t require on-site IT staff.

I like the people that have chosen to work in small nonprofits. I understand their work processes and financial cycle. I get to make a contribution to their efforts to alleviate some of the world’s pain. If I my contributions were to go beyond reduction of pain, to helping birth a more “just” world, that is even better.

I am fascinated by the efforts of those who create businesses that do good on a far grander scale. However, my contribution is helping make a difference within some part of a few Chicago neighborhoods. My task is to lift up and honor those masters of applying grand imaginations to the small local places and to help them harness technology to make that happen.

Beyond working for nonprofit organizations, I like helping small law firms and boutique retail stores implement the elegant workflows that are made possible by Apple systems– whether creating a way for electronically organizing legal documents, or setting up a beautiful point-of-sale system. And, it is always fun to get the ocassional creative professional that needs assistance with their Apple systems.

If you have read this far and have connected with some part of what I have said, I would you enjoy your introducing yourself to me.

To find out how others would answer these questions, I started discussions within my LinkedIn Groups. From the various groups that I belong to, 18 members wrote responses about what they would say. I think you would find their answers informative.

However, I really did have my own take on Apple’s place on the tech landscape.

Starting with a couple of quotes, let me set the context for where I think Apple fits and why Apple’s role is important for all of us.

June 1, 2010, Steve Jobs: “The day is coming when only one out of every few people will need a traditional computer.

When we were an agrarian nation, all cars were trucks, because that’s what you needed on the farms. Cars became more popular as cities rose, and things like power steering and automatic transmission became popular.

PCs are going to be like trucks, they are still going to be around, however, only one out of x people will need them.

Earlier this spring, in an article written for CNNMoney by Marc Benioff, Chairman of Salesforce.com, he described the changing arc of computing: “From mainframes (70s) to minicomputers (80s) to PCs and LANs (90s) to Cloud 1-the desktop Internet (2000s) to Cloud 2-the mobile Internet (2010+)”

Again, Marc Benioff, earlier this month: “We are moving from Cloud-1 (his definition: “Desktop Internet”) to Cloud-2 (his definition: “Mobile Internet”) and the iPad is the accelerator.”

So, if these guys are correct that the mainframe, desktop, and Cloud-1 Desktop Internet worlds will be over-shadowed by the Cloud-2 Mobile-Internet world, where does that leave me, as someone who supports Apple desktops and servers?

What will I need to know 3 – 5 years from now to be relevant in my business, or in the job market?

It won’t have anything to do with past wars between Desktop computing models.

Simply to say that I need to learn Cloud 2 skills, seems like once-upon-a-time, saying: “just learn MS Office”. That didn’t make you technologically relevant, it just kept low level workers from so quickly getting kicked out the door.

There have been three significant Apple events in the last 3 months.

The 271st piece of Apple targeted malware was released into the wild in April.

iPad sales produced more than 1 billion dollars in less than 60 days– do you know how many years it took HP to sell $1Bil in product?

Apple’s ‘enterprise value’ now equals Microsoft’s

This first event is notable to those of us doing Apple support. Many of these 271 malware are very old. They only continue to exist because Apple users have scoffed at the use of normal prophylactics! Often, Apple users just didn’t install anti-virus software.

For non-Apple support people, it demonstrates the robust longevity of UNIX. Consistently, it was made more and more robust. Apple OS X is one of four UNIX operating systems and OS X’s power, security, and command-line-interface rest on that UNIX history.

The second and third events speak to the earlier quotes from Jobs and Benioff. The computing world is entering a new phase. Are we ready for it? And, is it only a consumer phenomenon?

Isn’t Cloud-2, Mobile Internet, all about consuming, not producing?

What does an iPad have to do with creating economic value for a business?

And, what did Apple’s “Digital Hub” have to do with business, other than the marketing department having fun with it?

January 9, 2001, Steve Jobs announced  that Apple’s computers would be made the center of digital hubs, integrating all the digital devices that we were using, but that were not connected to each other or anything else: digital cameras, PDAs, camcorders, and DVD and CD players. (Reference: “The Dawn of Apple’s Dominance: Digital Hub Strategy, Revisited.” 2:51 am, January 27th, 2010, Pete Mortensen, The Cult of Mac)

Apple is a HARDWARE company, that also provides its own operating system, applications, cloud space, & marketing/vision.

Apple first maximizes this combination, as the basis for the digital hub– most dramatically with iMovie– a free Apple application, that together with a Mac and a camcorder and a .Mac account allowed the user to record, edit, and display a movie on the internet within minutes to hours, not days to weeks.

The Mac, as digital hub, integrated hardware devices and software. iTunes and DVD/CD Burners. iPhoto and Garage Band and iPod. Macs were designed to be the hub and other devices, software, and cloud resources were designed to be the spokes

The iPad, an applicance: My toaster has three controls: a slide-the-toast-down lever, a make-heat-stay-on-longer dial, and trap door to get rid of the debris. My refrigerator has two controls: a door to open or close, and a temperature dial to turn. When I open the door, I expect to see light and to feel coolness.

Some of us want our computers to be just as simple—we want them to hide the complexity and be the specific appliance we need at this moment.

Some of us don’t like computers, but we like our smart phones, which we don’t really think of as computers. Very seldom does your iPhone require someone like me to “fix it.” Seldom does it break. When it does, we reset it or take it in under warranty. There is little futzing with it. And we don’t think of it as a computer. Granted we mostly don’t use their full functionality, but neither do we do so with our computers.

Education and business work flows will very quickly be adapted for it. Imagine: a stack of iPads for registrants in line at an event. Pick one up, enter your registration info, throw it back on the stack, your name tag is printed out, you receive it from the registrar, and head on into the event. Consider: going to a car dealership, grabbing an iPad from the stack, selecting the picture of the car you wish to touch, selecting the features you want, and then being shown on the iPad a map to where on the lot a car like that is located. The salesperson gets a text message with the location of the car you went to see and meets you there. Or: you are referred to a doctor and when you arrive for your first appointment, instead of being given a clipboard with the stack of forms to fill out and sign, you are given an iPad on which to record your health history and sign away liability rights.

All of the above examples are single function uses, just like your toaster! They won’t eliminate the need for complex computing systems, for servers, virtual servers, and robust desktops, for processing and creating bulk data and exquisite graphics.

At this moment-in-time, Apple brings to the table something that  no one else quite does! …The User Experience!

I did not say, The User Interface. It is something much more than that, it is User-Experience.

Whether the original Apple IIe, or the Digital Hub of ten years ago, or the iPad of today, Apple’s focus is the feel of the “User Experience”.

Apples uses its control of hardware, operating system, applications, cloud services, and marketing message to create a pleasing “user experience”. People like their experience of them, it feels good, they feel empowered to do things…

So, where does Apple fit in business, into the enterprise environment?

Anywhere that the User Experience is important!

Anywhere that you wish employees to feel empowered.

And, sometimes in places where you wish to reduce support costs.

The world is not only multi-lingual and multi-cultural, its future computing environments are also best prepared for, when we acknowledge multi-platform.

Sometimes, Apple’s Total Cost of Ownership will be less than other computing choices, because users feel empowered and learn to handle more of their own computing issues and because of the tight integration between hardware and software that is only possible because Apple controls both.

It may not be secure and robust enough for your environment, but it is robust enough for use by NASA, secure enough for U.S. Army Intelligence and NSA, robust and secure enough, that earlier this year Google announced a switch to Apple computers, and it is robust enough to be used by astrophysicists and dna modeling scientists for grid computing.

And, as Jordan Zoot asked, “why is Apple a bigger threat to Google, than Microsoft is to Google?”

I can only guess that it is because Google believes that Apple is better prepared for the future, than Microsoft.

With the iPad at the hub, Apple is defining Mobile Computing. Whether iPads or Apple computers exist in ten years is irrelevant. They will have defined what follows them.

Are my current skills relevant? I asked that question earlier and it is still one that bugs me. I am trying to understand what skills sets I need in 3-5 years. I know that that is guessing. But simply relying on my current trajectory is also foolhardy.

For those of us doing Desktop Support, there will be fewer of us.

If you are a developer and you can learn to write very efficient small applications, there is a hugh demand for your skills.

Who really knows how prepared Apple corporation is to forge ahead without Steve Jobs. Is he building something bigger than his own vision. None of us really know.

Where does Apple fit and why would you want it to be there? (PDF of slide presentation.)

Apple products are for those setting where we desire a pleasing user experience.

You want it in those settings, because in the evolution of computing systems, Apple has defined the next step: connected integrative, but limited function, appliances like the iPad and user-pleasing experiences.

Does Apple pay me? “No.”

Do I sell Apple products? “No.”

And, do I drink the Apple “kool aide”? “Only once a year… except last year, twice. Oh, this year it was three times…”

“As an antidote, I use a Dell for running my business’ Quickbooks application. As an antidote to the Dell, I connect to Quickbooks from my Apple MacBook Pro running XP Pro SP 3 via Parallels’ virtual machine.

That’s all folks.

Hope you had a good ride and maybe some of this is true. Let me know your reactions.

Andrew T. Brown, his newly won iPad, and Charie Havens and Thom Clark

Community Media Workshop’s Annual Conference has an afternoon vendor fair. This year, Wooded Isle Computer Consultants held its drawing for a free iPad at that vendor fair and the iPad’s new happy owner is Andrew Brown.

Maybe, he will share it with his friends and family, but probably not for a week, or two. When you run into Mr. Brown, ask him what he thinks of it and what use he has found for it. Use the Comment section below to let us know.

It will be fun to see how these devices do get used and how they change the way we relate to computing.

When asked for my topic, I gave, “Apple, where does it fit, and why would you want it to?” I think it would be useful to round out my own ideas with input from others, who use or support Apple products. What I present at that meeting, I will post in text version on this blog.

(June 15th, I gave my presentation and have posted the notes and slides to that presentation on this web page. Take a look and add your own comments.)

Below are the responses to my original request for input on the topic:

(Add your comments below!)

• “Brian Kontrath, June 3, 2010, on LinkedIn Group– Apple Professionals, responded:
  I think discuss how Apple has been thinking outside the box, since they started. ...they thought that everyone should be able to use computers. The idea that computers could be used by ordinary people outside of science and business was really radical at the time. ...When Apple started, people thought that microcomputers were a fad and that the average person wouldn\\\\\\\'t want or need one---Apple proved them wrong. Apple came out with computers that were intuitive, friendly, useful and not intimidating---at a time when most computers were command line driven. Apple designed personal computers with graphic user interfaces but critics thought that it was a fad and that it would remain a niche market--again Apple proved critics were wrong. You could also discuss some of Apple\\\\\\\'s failures and problems and the risks of thinking outside of the box. As a framework, I\\\\\\\'d start by comparing and contrasting Apples computers and other products to those of competing companies. What made Apple different and successful? You could even discuss how Apple and other companies are moving away from traditional computers and moving towards lightweight computing devices (like the iPhone and iPad) and discuss the impact this might have on all forms of computing.”
  by http://www.linkedin.com/in/briankontrath
• “Tyronne Seneviratne, June 3, 2010, on LinkedIn Group– Apple Professionals, responded: I would talk about Apple as a company that has re-invented themselves from the brink of extinction to becoming a technological juggernaut surpassing some of the largest opposition. This was achieved with in the space of the last 13 years. Apples core competency is its leading design and development capabilities of innovative, ingenious and productive user experiences solutions.
  
  As a technological company Apple has offered a range of products from mobile phones to computers and software solutions. Apples expertise and marketing strategy has ensured that its products capture the imagination of every cross-functional age group.
  
  Where does apple fit in today’s world?
  Apple has captured the publics imagination and rejuvenated the enthusiasm in the mobile phone industry. Today Apple is the most profitable mobile phone company in the world. its products are used by millions of people across the globe. The iPhone has been a trail blazer in its field and the merging on the phone with web based services has opened up new avenues of communications and spanned new business model for delivering content to users. The iPhone has spanned many age gaps and become one of the most popular phones used by a vast cross section of the population. This success is to now being mirrored with the latest iPad. Once again Apple seemed to have innovated a new device that will change the way people use and interact with the web.”
  by http://au.linkedin.com/in/tyrones
• “Steven Goetherner, June 3, 2010, LinkedIn Group- Apple Professionals, responded: The previous posts have some points that you should use re: Apples culture and history. I would add something about the difficulty that hackers have with Apple. It is significant to me that most people do the same things on Windows and Macs - surf, email, MS-Office, pics, music, etc. (few use specialized software). Because Apple owns the hardware and the OS, they can make it rock solid. Many holes are created on the other side because Microsoft does their thing and it overlays on top of Dell, HP, etc. It has been my experience that Windows tech people can understand and appreciate this important difference. Have fun with your talk!”
  source: http://www.linkedin.com/in/softkare

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Please join us for the next gathering of the BNC Technology Group.

Presenter: Charlie Havens – Where does Apple fit and why, might I want it to?

Charlie Havens is President of Wooded Isle Computer Consultants and, since 1999, a member of the Apple Consultants Network. Armed with multiple Apple certifications and experience integrating Apple into a variety of settings, Charlie helps you plan for and manage your Apple systems. He is the virtual IT Administrator for a number of Chicago’s nonprofit and arts organizations, creatives and home-based professionals, and small law firms.

Apples are becoming more widely used in business and with the advent of the iPAD, organizations are asking how they will fit into their schema. Come learn from and network with an Apple expert.

Because there is never enough time to network at the first table, participants might want to arrive by 11:45am. If you sit down at your table when the salad comes out at 11:45, you will have time to network with people at your first table before the official program begins at noon.

Once the official program begins, we will follow our usual format. The first 30 minutes will be used for the help session, eating and very limited networking at the first table. The next 60 minutes is used for speed networking (switching tables every 20 minutes).

You MUST register online. No Walk Ins. When you sign-up, you will be charged a fee of $30.00 (plus admin fees) which covers the cost of your meal, a soft drink or tea/coffee and tax & tip. After you sign-up, you will receive an email confirming your RSVP. IF you do not get one, PLEASE notify Jean Pickering immediately.

We usually sell out so make your reservation early. Once we have filled all seats, you will need to contact me to have your name placed on the wait list.

Absolutely, I want you to list your company on my site. No question. Both of us may get inquiries because of it and neither of us will lose any customers that we weren’t already likely to lose.

This metro area is big enough and I am small enough and focused enough that I have never been in a head-to-head bid competition with any other service providers. That doesn’t mean that my customers haven’t looked at others, or that yours don’t occasionally look around. And, it doesn’t mean that I have never lost a customer. I have lost customers because of price or wrong fit; I have fired one or two, and I have had a couple move on, having been with someone else before they came to me, and I was happy to see them leave me.

My perspective is that your listing on my web site has the potential to bring both of us more customers, as much as any marketing does. There will be folks who come to my site who don’t like my skill set, or my picture, or the way I present myself, and will find in you what they are looking for. They will find you because of my network, which is different than yours. However, just because they come through my feeder network doesn’t mean that they and I are a good match. Others will find my website because of your listing here and they will check us both out and decide that they don’t like your picture, or location, or price, or whatever, and end up with me. In either case, we both get exposure to potential customers that wouldn’t otherwise have seen our web sites. In the end, customers get exposure to choices that benefit them.

In short, both of us increase our potential for adding new customers and are unlikely to lose, through our collaboration, any current customer.

Yes, you really are invited to list yourself on my web site.

Charlie Havens

I have the pleasure of working with some of the best people. My business benefits from those relationships. What follows are acknowledgements of those within the Chicago area with whom I have recent history.

Without Jean Newcomer and Demetrio Maguigad, this website would not exist. Demetrio architected (is that a word?), Jean designed, and I provided content. Bill Geraci did the first review.

Bill Geraci and I have traded clients, subcontracted under each other, referred to each other, and he is the person who got me into this business and provided my initial training…

Mary Visconti and I have gotten to work on a couple of her recent proposals. We will see what comes out of them. For about three years, she and I have collaborated in servicing Better Boys Foundation.

Tim Crawford is an Apple Consultant Network member operating out of Chicago’s western suburbs. When I was recently asked for the name of an Apple consultant to service a client near him, I was happy to make that referral.

Jason Bosket helped me design and implement a multiple subnet and multiple VLAN network, has been a great encourager, and I have looked to him for advice on a number of occasions.

Pam Lefkowitz is a long time supporter and signed me up as a subcontractor for a client project of hers near me.

Dean Shavit has been a trainer, an advisor, and a service provider to me. I have taken classes from him, checked with him for counsel, hired him to write the specifications for a complex wireless network proposal, and actively use his product, Mac HelpMate. I hired Dean to assist me remotely with troubleshooting a server in an out-of-state co-location site.

David Shoulty has been a good lunch partner at Apple Channel Camps and is always a good person to check with regarding Sonicwall networking devices.

Ben Greiner provides model managed services within the graphic arts community. We have shared business strategy ideas and I hope to use his services for 24/7 monitoring of some of my clients’ servers.

Adam Karneboge’s MacSpecialist has been a great place to get warranty service for customers and training for myself. He is the consummate professional.

Some of those with whom we work, with whom we exchange referrals, or whose services may be beneficial to some of our customers, may choose to list their services on our business services directory page. Such networks of collaborating service providers are powerful resources and we invite our customers to explore them. Regardless of whether or not they list themselves in our directory, the above listed above have helped to make my business what it is today. Thank you.

The strict divisions of competitor, colleague, and collaborator seem to no longer apply. I am grateful and our clients benefit.

Charlie

Even, if your services compete with ours, you are invited to submit your information for inclusion in our network of service providers.

To qualify, you must provide services within the City of Chicago, provide services to customers like ours, and some of those clients need to use Apple computing systems.

Before submitting your information, please read the criteria, complete the form, and submit. We will get back to you within five business days.

The ability to search listings by category will be added, as the list gets longer.

Looking forward to hearing from you,

Charlie Havens, President
Wooded Isle Computer Consultants
1507 E. 53rd St. #135, Chicago, IL 60615
Phone 773-256-1099 Fax 773-256-1099
charliehavens@mac.com
www.woodedisleconsult.com
http://www.linkedin.com/in/woodedisle
http://www.twitter.com/woodedisle

Memberships:

• Apple Consultants Network (ACN)
• Association for Consultants to Nonprofits (ACN)
• Hyde Park Chamber of Commerce (HPCC)
• Nonprofit Technology Network (NTEN)

The most significant danger of this move to cloud computing is expressed by Richard Stallman, founder of the Free Software Foundation and creator of the computer operating system GNU, as attributed in Wikipedia, “cloud computing was simply a trap aimed at forcing more people to buy into locked, proprietary systems that would cost them more and more over time. It’s stupidity. It’s worse than stupidity: it’s a marketing hype campaign,” he told The Guardian. “Somebody is saying this is inevitable – and whenever you hear somebody saying that, it’s very likely to be a set of businesses campaigning to make it true.”

Understanding that Richard Stallman’s cautions regarding cloud computing are true, and also that Marc Benioff‘s statements describing Cloud 2 and Social Media describe the present-future, is not a contradiction.

For the organizations that I work with, this means being nimble footed and not tying allegiances too tightly to particular closed proprietary systems. It also requires that investing forward, they invest in the best network infrastructures and the most flexible security systems for those networks. Bandwidth will allow them access to the media choices that they will be making and for which they don’t yet have a known need. Flexible security systems will be defined by allowing the organization the choice of full interaction within the social media networks and keeping the bad guys and their tools out of those systems.

There are so many questions an organization needs to ask itself about the usefulness of any given strategy in the social media networks. There so many choices about when, how, and how much to be involved in these tools. But they are just that—tools. We need to be equipped to know which tool fits which job.

The first part of the social media infrastructure that needs to be laid is our exposure and education, so that we can make choices. The second piece is adequate bandwidth/access and flexible network security. The two pieces go hand-in-hand and it is unfair to put one first and the other second. These are the technology infrastructure concerns that all organizations have at the beginning of this decade. Operating system platforms and software choices are secondary and will be limited by bandwidth/access and network security.

So say I. What do you think?