Reading highlights 9/30/12 - 10/6/12

This week had a large number of interesting posts to read.  There seemed to be a quite a bit of fighting going on:  election debate (Obama vs Romney & Stewart vs O'Reiley) to Syria and Turkey to Japan and China and even Google vs Microsoft in their patent war.  Below are some of the posts that caught my eye this last week:

The Power of Defining the Problem

Dwayne Spradlin from HBR provides three examples on how "...asking better questions delivers better results".  He presents how understanding the problem and clearly articulating it can yield innovative solutions.  I particularly like the one on NASA where big data was used.  Using a traditional governmental approach NASA would have probably spent a lot more that 30 K in getting this solution, if they would have gotten it at all.

How a rogue appeals court wrecked the patent system

Following all the patent lawsuits these days in the technology sector can be mind numbing.  Here's an interesting read on how things went astray.

Should You Trust Your Gut? The Answer Is Yes.

I talk about the process for decision making in my business.  In those talks I generally discuss that most decisions are made by the gut of the decider.  His or her experiences drive the decision.  One thing that I look to do is to bring analytics into the decision process so the decider can make a data driven decision with their gut.  Derek Andersen discusses this in this article centered about start-up / tech investment.

Which of the 3 cups has a cloud under it

With OOW underway and all the talk about cloud from Larry I found this article right on point.  Thiele lays out of the "false" arguments for or against cloud architectures that I face throughout my work week.  He closes with a discussion on what really matters:  "...getting on the actual cloud thought process."

Balancing team passion and product-market fit

Dave Kashen discusses in this post the notion of how passion is key to making it especially in the start-up arena.  I know from personal experiences that without passion that the long hard days of trying to make it on your own would simply crush you out.  He starts off by asking this simple question:

“You must follow your passion. Startups are so hard that if you’re not passionate about your mission, there’s no way you’ll succeed.” At the same time, the lean startup movement has entrepreneurs everywhere “building, measuring and learning” what the market wants, to find the illusive product-market fit. But what happens when what the market wants is not what you’re passionate about?

NYPD to bolster gang unit to battle teen violence fueled by dares, insults on social media

This is an interesting article in the Washington Post about NYC's exploitation of social media to stop crime and violence.  It is a short read but it highlights an on going discussion within Government on how to strike a balance between needed effects with a new information source and privacy.  They still haven't figured it out as far as I can see but here is an interesting quote:

The NYPD has developed strict guidelines for investigators using social networks “to instill the proper balance between the investigative potential of social network sites and privacy expectations,”

Fusion Centers

There were articles across the US this week discussing a Senate sponsored review of the 70+ Fusion Centers developed in 2003 to promote agency communication and data sharing in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the US.  He is one of the quotes from the LA Times review of the report:

But the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, in a 146-page report released Tuesday that reviewed intelligence reports from fusion centers between April 1, 2009, and April 30, 2010, "could identify nothing that uncovered a terrorist threat, nor could it identify a contribution any fusion center made to disrupt an active terrorist plot."

Ouch!  My business has tried for years to help DHS, State, and Local Governments in getting these centers performing better but it has been real tough to break into that market space. We'll see if attitudes change in the future and they become more open to innovated ideas on data sharing and intelligence driven operations.   Here are two of the most interesting reads from this week:
Senate panel criticizes anti-terror data-sharing centers - LA Times
Inquiry Cites Flaws in Counterterrorism Offices - The New York Times

Comic

Best comic of the week has to go to Mashable on Apple's Maps and Siri applications.

2012 Annapolis Boat Show

So to end this week here are a couple picture from the 2012 Annapolis Boat Show.  I attended two days of the show and loved every bit of it.  More to come on that in the future.