Lessons Not Learned

By 7:00 am yesterday, the news was spreading like wildfire. Both my kids were awakened by their cellphones - a highly unusual event, since their crowd spends most Sunday mornings sleeping. So we knew the news wasn't going to be good.

And we were right.

For the second time in nine months, a classmate was killed in a single car drunk driving accident.

Seb was one of those kids who was liked by everyone. But he had a problem that no one addressed. He was a big partier.

He had just turned 17.

The circumstances of his accident were almost a cliche. Drunk. Speeding. At night. Not wearing a seatbelt. Lost control. Crashed into a tree. Ejected from the vehicle.

It's a story that is repeated over and over in the United States every night. It barely gets a mention on the news. Ironically, it happens too often to be newsworthy.

And so, all yesterday, Seb's classmates gathered to console one another and to share stories about what a great kid he was. An impromptu memorial was conducted at church. Last night, about 60 kids held a candlelit vigil at the place where he died.

As parents, we resisted revisiting the standard lecture about drinking and driving - opting instead to wait until the immediate sorrow cleared... Until the message could be absorbed.

I think every one of us went through the same list of questions in our minds... Where were the parents? How did he get the alcohol? Why didn't a friend stop him from driving?

It's easy to be critical of the circumstances when the tragedy happens to someone else. Until you've raised teenager's, you can't appreciate the challenge. You hope that your lectures are heeded. You hope that the kids can't get their hands on booze. You hope their friends would take away his keys. You hope that everyone would learn from the tragedy.

But it seems not to be the case.

I mentioned that this is was the second time this happened in the last nine months.

The very same story played out last January. And that time, the victim was Seb's best friend.

The Experiment

Just over a year ago, I started writing this blog. I started it as an experiment. I've always been interested in technology and especially interested in knowledge management, sharing and innovation. I wanted to find out more about what Web 2.0 was all about.

And so I signed up for a free Blogger account and started writing.

I've learned a few things about the experience.

First, my writing sucks. But I think it's getting better. I'm trying to use 5 words where I used to use 10. I check my spelling. And I've learned that errors jump off the page only after I hit the "Publish" button.

Writing a blog (on an almost daily basis) is a selfish thing to do. It's my alone time. This is my time to reflect on the day's events, what's going on in my life and what's going on all around me. It's time set aside for me to reflect - to assess what I've learned or observed that day. Frankly, it's a habit I've only recently developed. It's for me.

As I write this, I'm the only one awake at our house.

As a product of the TV generation, I've invested a large portion of my life in front of a television. While much of that time was enjoyable, it was time spent emotionally reacting to content, laughing, crying, getting angry - not much time spent thinking or analyzing. Blogging has helped me appreciate the power of reflection and introspection. (I call it Webtrospection.)

Maybe I'm just getting old.

At the same time, blogging is a selfless act. I'm sharing these thoughts with subscribers and anyone else who happens to trip over my blog. I don't have any expectations. I don't expect anything in return.

If someone finds a thought or observation useful, fantastic. If this entry encourages someone to start blogging themselves, that's terrific.

Our grandparents used to relax on the front porch, observe their world and converse with neighbors as they walked by. To some extent, blogging is today's equivalent of sitting on the front porch. You meet some new people, enjoy some old friends, share some stories.

I've also learned that the blogosphere (I hate that word) contains some fascinating characters with radically different lives and disparate points of view - an infinite number of "channels", waiting to be discovered. My number of RSS feeds grows with each passing week.

There are a lot of interesting people out there.

And so the experiment I started a year ago, to better understand blogging and the Web 2.0 experience will continue.

It's been an interesting experience with many unexpected benefits.

Video Doesn't Forget

I watched in stunned silence.

Last night, the President announced he was going to begin to withdraw troops from Iraq to pre-surge levels. The "talking heads" on one of the cable news networks summed up the move by saying that George Bush was "kicking the problem down the road" - to the next President, in an effort to shape his legacy.

Are you kidding me?

Perhaps this might have worked 35 years ago. Not in the digital age.

The problem with trying to shape one's legacy in the digital age.... Video doesn't forget. Digital content doesn't "forget". The internet has seen to that.

Bush 43 has been the most digitally documented President in history. The blogosphere exploded on his watch. The government is run on email. More citizens are weighing in (pro and con) on the internet than ever before.

Individual blog content links to online news articles, which links to MSM (main stream media) digital news content which links to online video sources. All the news shows are being archived in digital form.

Now leaders' legacies will be shaped by email, blogs, DailyKos, VoteVets.org, YouTube, all the major networks, the cable networks MSNBC, CNN, FOX, The Tonight Show, The Daily Show and on and on..... all just a click away...

For this President, these impressions and images can't be muddied with time.

The Iraq War may be a "comma" in America's history. But it will be a well documented one.

Bush's strategy to leave office with head held high, ensconced in the belief that the war is just and "winnable" and that history "will treat him kindly", is completely out of his hands.

Certainly there have already been a large number of books written on his Presidency (pro and con) and there will be more to come, but the digital archives will remain universally available. His legacy, perhaps for the first time, will be left to future observers of massive digital archives, rather than be shaped by kind autobiographers, failing recollections and time.

Like never before, all of our descendants, will have first hand access to mountains of digital forensics with which to interpret a President's legacy.

And all future Presidents would be well served understanding that.

Breaking News: Assholes Bad for Business

Okay, this may be one of the seven signs of the Apocalypse....

A Harvard Business Review article states that Assholes are bad for business. As reported by 1-800-CEOREAD, The book based upon the article has just received a Quills Award (Business category).

Who knew?

Google and Amazon to the Rescue?

This report by the BBC describes how Google and Amazon are participating in the search for adventurer Steve Fossett.

As you may recall, Fossett's single engine airplane has gone missing since Sept 3rd. So far, land and air searches have come up empty.

And so Google recently updated the Google Earth satellite photos of Nevada. And with Amazon's Mechanical Turk project, are enlisting volunteers to scan the photography searching for plane wreckage, which should appear as a 21x30 pixel size on your computer screen.

People can simply do a better job of recognizing potential clues better than computers, at least for now.

Suspicious images can be reported to Mechanical Turk for followup analysis and investigation.

Kudos to Google and Amazon for coming up with the idea.

Christmas Morning with HP

I bit the bullet the other day and bought replacement ink cartridges for my HP Officejet printer. I've tried those ink refilling places but (maybe it's me) the ink never seems to last that long - and the cartridge electronics don't work when they're re-filled, so when you're out of ink, you're OUT of ink.

After taking out a small loan, I made my purchase of both a black cartridge and a combo color cartridge.

If you haven't purchased printer ink recently, be warned: Each cartridge costs about the same as a tank of gas.

Built into the price of the replacement cartridges is HP's cartridge recycling program. I was pleased to find within the cartridge packaging, a self addressed, postage paid envelope, with which you could return the used cartridge to HP. I don't know what HP does with them when they get them, but at least they leave their customers with the impression, they don't end up in a landfill somewhere.

The "green" message is somewhat muted however, by all the excessive packaging that surrounds the cartridges. First, the external packaging is at least twice as large as it has to be - suggesting to the consumer that the package may contain two cartridges (and at that price, who wouldn't expect two?)

Nope. It's just air.

Perhaps the Marketing department wanted better shelf visibility. Perhaps the size of the packaging is designed to intentionally mislead. Either way, using extra cardboard is hardly eco-friendly.

Also contained within the packaging is a separate piece of paper with instructions on how to replace the cartridge (at least I thought that's what it was - I just tossed it.) Why not print the instructions on the inside of the package itself?

Finally, the cartridge came sealed in an airtight aluminum foil wrapper - to preserve the freshness of the ink.

By the time I had my hands on the cartridge, the table was filled with garbage. It looked like Christmas morning at our house. Wrapping everywhere.

I commend HP for their recycling efforts, but if HP is really serious about being a good environmental citizen, I'd suggest they revisit their packaging.

Coaching All Aspects of the Game

Ryan Braun, the Milwaukee Brewers talented rookie 3rd baseman, hit a home run last night, in the 12-2 Brewers drubbing of the Houston Astros.

And the Brewer's Manager, Ned Yost wasn't too happy about it.

Certainly he was pleased with the 3 run homerun, but what didn't impress him was Braun's "swagger" just after he hit it.

Normally, after a hit, Braun takes off for first base, head down - all business. But last night something else happened. In a very uncharacteristic move, Braun walked towards first base, showing very little respect for the opposing team and calling more attention to himself than was necessary.

And Ned Yost let him know it as soon as he returned to the dugout.

Ryan Braun is a very talented player, but he's a rookie. Ned Yost wants to groom a great player and wants to build a winning team, which means that egos aren't allowed. He appreciates that Milwaukee is a midwestern city, where people work hard and appreciate the work ethic of others - a place where we're all a little uncomfortable with big egos.

And so Ned did the right thing and brought him down a peg or two.

Let's hope that twenty years from now, as they're putting Braun's name and number up on the wall at Miller Park, he remembers the lesson of Sept 5th, 2007 that taught him the difference between being a good player and a great one.

And that he credits Ned Yost for teaching him all aspects of the game.

The Cost of Indifference

When I call my local Pizza place, they know a lot about me. They know the last pizza I ordered. They know my favorite pizza toppings and they know where I live. The pizza's good. The delivery is fast. They treat me pretty well.

Over the last 10 years our family has probably spent $5000 on Pizza.

Contrast this with my car dealer. Whenever I walk into the dealership, they have no idea who I am or what car I drive. They don't know how many times I've been in for service. The routine is always the same.

"May I help you?" the salesperson asks.

"I've purchased cars from here before. I thought I'd check out the new models."

"Do you know who your salesperson is?"

"I have no idea. They seem to change every time I come in".

"I'll go and look it up. [returns after a minute] Your salesperson is no longer with us. You've been assigned to Mr. Jones, but he's not here right now. Can I help you?" (oblivious to the irony of me being passed around yet again.)

Apparently, "being assigned" to someone at this dealership, means that they get to write up the order, should you happen to walk in and want to buy a car. They don't call to introduce themselves. They don't advise you when the new models are in. They don't remind you to come in to get your oil changed or to schedule maintenance inspections. In fact, they do absolutely nothing. Except wait.

Over the past ten years, I have either purchased or leased six vehicles from this dealership. My guesstimate is that the value of these purchases was around $180,000.

And they still have no idea who I am.

Which is why they are now my former car dealership.

Don't misunderstand me. I don't have a big ego. If the dealership had just managed to call me by name ONCE, after ten years and $180,000, that would have been nice.

I didn't fire them overnight. In fact, it happened gradually over the past 4 years. Four years ago I strayed into a Lexus dealership and they convinced me to purchase one of their vehicles. Their sales and services teams are spectacular. When I show up at the dealership they recognize me and call me by name!

I've never really looked back.

Both my kids now drive cars from sister dealerships (to the Lexus dealer), where the sales and service are also excellent.

So, now my former car dealer has lost not only my business, but have also lost two new consumers who have begun their car ownership experiences, with the competition.

And it all started with indifference.

My Umbrella Story

What kind of idiot goes shopping for patio furniture in late August?

This kind.

Last Wednesday, someone, (okay, it was me) left our patio umbrella up. A brief, but strong storm rolled through our neighborhood later that day. Our glass topped table, powered by strong winds (and that damn umbrella) was tossed into a very hard stone retaining wall in our backyard - with predictable results.

The umbrella was unsalvagable (good riddance) and the table was a write-off.

Our patio set had given us a solid decade of service and so off we went to find a replacement.

We tried all the usual haunts - big box stores, brand name outdoor stores, but found very little selection and outrageous prices (especially for this time of year). Out of ideas, we tried the Internet. There were surprising few patio furniture stores in the area (we live just north of Milwaukee).

One search result was a store called On The Deck, located in Oconomowoc, a 40 minute drive away. Frankly I wasn't very impressed with their website and I had low expectations, but it was a great day for a drive to lake country. And so, off we went.

We found the store, located in a very old building, on the main street, perhaps 50 yards away from the lake. We almost missed it because the space they occupied looked like it was originally designed to hold three (relatively small) adjacent stores. I guess I was expecting a more modern single story commercial building.

As we entered the dimly lit store, the old wood floors creaked. We were greeted by a treasure trove of patio furniture and accessories. We wound our way through the rabbit's warren of rooms, created by the unmodified floor plan of the three original stores. Each room revealed more selection, more surprises.

And then we discovered the best thing of all.

The two ladies who ran the store.

Pleasant, engaging, knowledgeable and patient - they walked us through the choices and spent way too much time with us, scouting the entire store for just the right umbrella to match the set we were interested in. About an hour later, we finally completed our purchase.

The whole experience was a flashback to a time when all the stores in your hometown were run by their owners (who were also your neighbors). Back to a day when product quality, good value for money and personal service were business cornerstones.

Even if you aren't searching for patio furniture, I'd recommend paying them a visit. You'll certainly enjoy the ride to Oconomowoc and the trip down memory lane.

Now, if I can just remember to close that umbrella every night!

A September Like All The Rest?

I fear that this September will be a repeat of every other September I've spent in Milwaukee, watching the Brewers fade from memory (and even further from contention) just as the Packers season begins.

Last night my beloved Brewers lost yet again (for the 7th time in their last ten games) to the dreaded Cubs, landing them below .500 for the season and ensconcing them in third place in the Central Division.

You can feel Brewer confidence slipping away. Players and fans, resigned to yet another disappointing season.

Yet this season wasn't like every other. The fans showed up in droves to see a young exciting team jump out to a great start - all smiles and swagger. We're hitting home runs like never before. We have lots of speedy base runners and huge amounts of raw talent. It would be nice to have a starting pitching rotation (are you listening Ben Sheets?) for the entire year, but injuries are part of the game.

We're a good young team. We could be a great young team.

Over the past 5 years, our management style has been one designed to develop young talent - to nurture players along to their potential. The Brewers have long suffered a shortage in that department, and I applaud the team's management for investing in their farm system and growing the next crop of future Brewer talent. It's exciting to see Cory Hart, Ryan Braun, Prince Fielder and J.J. Hardy take the field.

But it may be time for a change. Don't get me wrong, the Brewers' strategy of investing in talent development should continue but at the Major League level, it think it's time we managed to win.

Too often I see Ned Yost leave in pitchers too long - hoping that they'll pitch out of trouble - hoping for a confidence building turnaround. I understand that thinking. At the Major League level, though, I think we need to shift the balance somewhat towards being less patient.

When you teach your kids to ride a bike, at some point you have to let go of the handlebars.

Now is that time, Ned. Go Brewers!

A Gift for Boomers

As an aging boomer, I can appreciate the innovative spirit of those companies trying to bring us products to make our lives better.....

Brought to you by First Street, this device moderates sound on your TV, quieting those loud obnoxious commercials and increasing the volume when people are whispering.

I thought it was just me. I'd pay $10 more if it completely muted the damn commercials.

Why is Saying NO so difficult?

One of the toughest challenges of any I.T. department isn't installing that complicated system, or upgrading the network or integrating that new acquisition or even Sarbanes-Oxley compliance efforts.

It's saying No (or not yet) to enhancement requests. Setting an honest expectation.

Yet without clear, concise, easily understood expectations, our business community's default expectations are "Yes". They're waiting to hear the answer to "when?"

And so it goes. Development requests come into I.T. The B/A says we'll take a look at it. And it never goes any further or the project gets estimated and added to the never ending "list". Or worse yet, the B/A makes some sort of commitment (trying to be helpful) that has little chance of being met.

The requester is disappointed (or irate) and I.T.'s reputation takes yet another hit.

Who's at fault here?

Not the business person, who is trying to improve a business function or reduce costs or service customers better. To them, why wouldn't I.T. want to get their project done? Who can argue with serving customers better or improving costs?

Not necessarily the I.T. business analyst who's listening to the request and estimating the project. After all he/she rarely has any say in how projects get prioritized. They usually aren't in the position to give a Yes or No, yet that's what is expected of them.

The process is the problem.

Imagine for a moment that your company had no I.T. function. Let's say it's 100% outsourced. (Some of you may not have to use much imagination... but I digress). If you need a system enhancement, you'd have to detail the expected benefits of the enhancement, then get the projected estimated by your outsourcer, before you'd have a complete picture of the project complexity and estimated payback. If the investment was large enough, you'd likely have to go through a capital expense procedure, where you'd take the business case to your company controller or CFO and (s)he'd make the decision whether to proceed or not.

The clear advantage to putting the decision in the hands of the Finance leaders is that;

1. They can hold the business accountable for the business case benefits. This has several advantages. Armed with the expectation that the business will be held accountable for the benefits, helps eliminate spurious "nice to have" requests. This reduces requests and related business expenses estimating projects that will never be approved by the business.

2. CFO's can make system project decisions armed with the overall business priorities perspective. Something that I.T. could seldom do.

This process turns I.T. Projects into Business projects.

Which is what they should be.

Development Tips from the Dictionary

The New American Webster Handy College Dictionary contains a clue for anyone installing Enterprise Applications.

On page 173 (of the New Third Edition), you'll find the word customer. The very next word listed is customize.

As any veteran project manager will tell you, try with all your might to install enterprise systems (SAP, Oracle, PeopleSoft, JD Edwards etc..) without customizing. The benefits of using standard are tremendous - lower maintenance costs, fewer bugs, ongoing vendor support, easier and faster system upgrades, overall improved reliability and lower I.T. costs....

But if you must customize, make sure the functionality is where it matters most. Next to the customer.

Your customer doesn't care what General Ledger you use. Your customer doesn't care what HR system you use. They don't care what Warehousing, Inventory, Shipping or CRM system you use.

They care that you use it well.

Customization that directly helps your customers find what they're looking for, purchase and pay for it quickly, or return a defective product easily, will most likely be worth the application effort and cost.

Otherwise, take an Application tip from Webster's. Don't "customize" unless it's next to "customer".

Competing with Customer Service

The New York Times reports that Netflix is starting to compete against Blockbuster using live customer service! Imagine that!

They're replacing an email model with live customer service reps, located in Portland, OR.

In fact, they've eliminated the customer service email service from their website and given their Customer Service phone number prominence, so if you have a problem, you're encouraged to call.

What a concept.

In an age where many companies would send service overseas, Netflix is betting that prompt, courteous service in "domestic English", will win over their customers. I hope they're right.

In an age where many companies operate giving their bottom line more attention than the needs of their customers, this is a bold move.

I've long thought that putting customers first, drives bottom line success. It seems to work in other industries (Nordstroms, Southwest Airlines, Lexus for example). I hope it works for Netflix.

If it does, it'll be a win/win for both Netflix customers and Netflixs' bottom line.

Viacom vs. Google

I am watching, with interest, the current spat between Viacom and YouTube (now owned by Google). Viacom is suing Google over alleged copyright infringements by YouTube users who post snippets of Viacom video.

As reported in Huffington Post, Google wants to depose Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert as part of their defense.

Can Viacom be making a bigger mistake? Both Stewart's show and Colbert's show are really current event's shows. They themselves use video clips of news events in their satirical efforts. But this content has a very short shelf life. When is the last time you saw an "old" Colbert Report or Daily Show?

The satire fades pretty quickly. I can't believe there's ANY money to be had in syndication of these shows.

On the other hand, the YouTube video posts serve as FREE commercials for Viacom shows. They provide an Internet community with selected samples (usually really good samples) of the type of comedy these shows feature on a daily basis.

Viacom, why cut off your nose to spite your face?

I'm just asking.

Mind Mapping

Thought I'd link you to a great article on MindMapping on the LifeHacker blog.

Breaking News

Fox News to start delivering News!

Today I came across this article which describes how Shepard Smith will be revamping his nightly show on FOX.

Fewer (or no) teases about upcoming News. No more Hollywood fluff pieces. Could it be that Shepard Smith wants to bring some credibility to FOX News?

To be honest, I've never been a big fan, but if anyone is willing to try to cram News into a News program, I'm willing to try it out. I find it unfathomable that with the mega problems facing us these days, that the networks still find the time to show skateboarding dogs and waterskiing squirrels...

Maybe, just maybe, they're beginning to learn that just because you have video of something, doesn't make it newsworthy.

That's what YouTube is for.

So, bravo Shep. I hope you succeed.

Point Made

Last week I posted about how the recent bridge collapse in Minneapolis reminded me of the Y2K crisis.

I ended by stating that once the initial shock was over, the infrastructure crisis would dissolve into the background of our sub-conscious until the potholes in our local roads got so bad, that we'd start complaining again.

Well, this morning, CNNHN conducted a text message poll asking whether people would be willing to pay a 5 cent surcharge on their gasoline to be used towards infrastructure repair and upgrades.

Over 70% of the respondents said NO!

Point made.

Why Is Email like the Weather?

Because people always complain about it but no one ever does anything about it!

I am one of those people. Just like 90% of software users (my estimate), I only use a fraction of the available features - just enough to get what I need done.

Email is no exception. I've been using email for about two decades now. My inbox regularly fills up with spam, unsolicited advertising, emails designed to phish information, dreaded joke emails, mixed in with emails I'm interested in seeing (with varying degrees of importance). Like everyone, I bitched and complained, but never did anything about it.

After a particularly bad week of receiving more crap than meaningful communications, I finally got off my butt and did something about it.

I learned a new (for me) feature.

I use Outlook Express as my mail client. It has this feature which allows me to create a "rule" - describing how the software should handle a specific email. After opening each email, I click on Tools/Rule Wizard, and lo and behold, I'm guided through a myriad of options as to how to handle similar emails. I can have the system delete them before I even see them. I can move them automatically to a folder (existing or new). I can forward them automatically.

A whole host of options!

And this week, I've spent almost no time scanning my inbox for the stuff I need to read.

This feature has solved another issue for me. I've never been very good at organizing my emails into folders. I just leave everything in my inbox. It is not unusual for me to have more than 20,000 messages in my inbox. However, the Rules Wizard has also solved that problem as well. By creating folders and having the application file them for me, I'm much better organized than before.

The feature takes about 5 minutes to learn and will payback many times over.

Now, time to do something about the weather........

Y2K All Over Again.

I remember the months leading up to Dec 31,1999. In the world of I.T., everyone does. We were all scrambling to remedy Y2K - caused by the condition whereby in databases throughout the U.S. (and the world), the year was formatted using two decimals.

I was a CIO at the time and remember the incredulity on my peers' faces when I described the condition and the possible outcomes. After some debate, I was able to marshal some incremental funding and directed all our efforts to review tens of thousands of lines of code, to remedy the situation. Not only was this an issue for custom development, operating systems needed to be patched, old legacy applications needed investigating and desktop applications needed to be at a sufficient rev level to address the "invisible" problem.

My business counterparts weren't happy. Their new system had to wait while we remedied Y2K.

My whole team worked extremely hard and we made it though, without a hiccup - as did most of the I.T. world. There were precious few examples of systems breaking down. In fact, after all was said and done, I think that I.T. professionals suffered for all their hard work.

There were so few examples of system failure, that many business leaders thought the entire situation was entirely overblown. In many executives' minds, the problem wasn't invisible - there was never any problem to begin with.

I tell this story, because this week in Minneapolis a major bridge collapsed. This has received around the clock news coverage. This bridge collapse, say some, should be an early warning - a call to address a crumbling national infrastructure. A situation which could take $1.6 Trillion dollars to fix.

Some estimate that we are only spending 20% of the funds necessary to keep our roads, bridges, tunnels, levies and dams and electrical grids in good repair. Even for new projects, TIME magazine will be reporting that we aren't building new/replacement infrastructure even close to the durability standards that some countries do. In fact, the newly rebuilt levies in New Orleans are NO MORE DURABLE (built for the same 100 year lifespan) than the ones which were washed away by a Level 2 hurricane two years ago.

The problem is real, but the perception is that all is well. Unless bridges begin collapsing on a weekly basis, the news crews will return back to Washington and New York and move on to the next story. The events in Minnesota will be perceived as just a statistical abnormality - a freak of nature. We'll all start thinking that it can't happen here, in my backyard. We'll resume thinking about infrastructure health by how many potholes need fixing in our local roads or whether the state gets federal funding for that new highway.

It's Y2K all over again. Except this time, no one's listening.