Rapid Access, Data Governance, and Aggregation

Interesting concept from Read Write Web writer Chris Lamb on information liquidity:
http://www.readwriteweb.com/cloud/2011/10/how-the-cloud-makes-financial.php
The section on Emerging Opportunities is spot on:
"One of the key drivers is flexible and rapid access through web services interfaces, and flexible commercial terms. One company, Xignite, has built its business around this new model.

Another key opportunity is in financial data management and data provenance. Regulators and counter-parties back in 2008 were unable to understand their financial positions because the definition of the data itself was ambiguous. Was this Lehman Special Investment Vehicle the same as that one? Nobody knew. Data management and data provenance can help sort this problem.

A third opportunity, aggregation tools, will also play a role in this new world. The ability to aggregate data from radically different domains (not just different trading venues), the ability to combine structured and unstructured data, the new dynamic portioning models will radically alter the landscape."


These same basic opportunities are found in many other sectors, not just financial. Some quick examples:

• In the Energy sector where I work with Oil and Gas companies on exploration, I see the need to aggregate data across many different sources, both structured and unstructured, to forecast the best locations for drilling opportunities.
• In the Personnel security sector I see the need to give rapid access to data, especially through mobile devices so that decisions can be made to avoid potential issues while traveling world wide
• In the Defense sector where I deal with different Services and missions the importance of data management and governance (provenance) is critical so that we are talking about the same data in the same way.

There are many other example across other sectors that I work but these opportunities are some of the fundamental building blocks need to be addressed.

Software Development Overruns

Michael Sampson writes "Software development projects have a long history of running over schedule and budget. Recent research by Evans Data estimates that 49% of such projects run over schedule; an IBM survey of CIOs puts the percentage at 62%. 


Research by IBM suggests that two of the root causes are poor communications among developers, especially when they're geographically distributed, and an unclear understanding of the business domain they're contributing toward." via the BrainYard.

Certainly these are key factors, but I would suggest the desire to get a project sold with a revenue stream coming in is also a key factor. Here the desire to give a client a feeling they are getting something at a price point they can live with that includes features they really need. 


This is a key reason these projects are late and overrun; unrealistic expectations on what it takes to get the project completed. This is done on the client side and the business development side, sometimes without involving the developer community at all in the decision space.

Source Via:  http://currents.michaelsampson.net/2011/10/sd.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+michaelsampson+(Michael+Sampson:+Currents)

IOS 5 Frustration

Upgraded my iPad to IOS 5. After upgrade non of my purchased apps would work. Immediately went to the web to see if someone was having the same issue. Web forums are open up with lots of people having a similar problem. UGH!

I read an article that one of Apples' key tennets is not to release a product until it is polished. They don't do public beta like some.

Not sure this is the case today. Antenna Gate to IOS 5 failure sums it up.

Now I have to find a way to fix my iPad before Monday when I need to use it for work. Great Sunday Beta testing Apple IOS 5.

Vizit releases new visual search and social collaboration features for SharePoint 2010 http://goo.gl/ZKAWm

I love how they open with a discussion of the new product:

"Let’s face it SharePoint is not the easiest product to use. We’ve all sat in meetings and heard the audible groan when someone says the document is in SharePoint. A typical user experience is clicking a link, seeing nothing recognizable, looking to the ribbon for help, followed by sending a message back asking for the document in email. This cycle is repeated by casual SharePoint users every day."

Maybe what we need is a new foundation to build upon; not an add on?

Anyway the description of the product seems interesting with better visualizations, elimination of clicking and waiting for documents, and web part deployments.  I'll check it out.

Taking Friday for a Spin

I recently received a private Alpha invite to try out Friday, an Android application made by Dexetra, http://goo.gl/42auo .  Dexetra is a private company located in Cochin, India and primarily focus on smartphone platforms such as Andriod, iPhone, Symbian and Blackberry. 

Friday http://goo.gl/2r0RR is a logger for your activity with your phone.  It basically logs places your go, the calls you make, the chats / SMS messages you make, pictures and locations you take, etc.  Overtime it becomes a journal of your activities and allows you to recall events such as what did I do in Denver.  To do this you have to give Friday access to everything on your phone which is a bit scary but required to provide you detailed analytics of your daily patterns.

Two things I find that are fairly interesting to me, although not very useful are:

• Hourly Profiles
• Daily Trivia facts

The hourly Profiles basically shows how many calls, sms, mails messages, places, and lists over a 24 hour period.  You can see when you get the highest call volume or receive the most emails daily.  It is interesting to see over a daily period when you have spikes in activities.  The question is how can I sue this information to have a  more balance profile.  

The daily trivia facts is just kind of fun.  Facts like that I have the highest emails on Monday and the lowest on Tuesday or that the majority of calls from X are never answered.  BTW I know I never answer those calls.  It’s just fun facts about your daily habits.

Since I just started with Friday my plan is to have it monitor my work life over the next month and then see if I find utility in using it.  So more to come.

QR Codes - Getting Started

I’ve been playing around with QR codes and readers lately.  You see QR codes popping up all over the place these days, especially within magazine advertisements and now on business cards.  Generally QR codes are used to provide more information about a specific product, service, event, or person.

I’ve looked at the following readers/scanners for my Android Nexus S phone:

QuickMark QR Code Reader: http://goo.gl/auE4A

i-nigma Barcode Scanner: http://goo.gl/8L1F3

MobiScan QR: http://goo.gl/lUUxE

I’ve settled on using QuickMark QR Code Reader as my go to app.  This isn’t a dig on the other apps, they all have really high and good reviews within the android market place, but I went this way primarily due to the cost (free), functionality of the app, an extension that is available for my Chrome browser, and the integration of business card QR codes with my android contacts.

It does require that you create an account and log into both the browser extension as well as the Android app but that is the bulk of the setup required.  The only drawback that I see is the manual sync that is required to sync from the handset to the browser; but that isn’t a big deal.

Try it out on the below:

Google Music - I'm Sold

I recently received my invite to the new Google Music Beta.  There has been a great deal of press surrounding the release of this service.  Especially of note was the inability of Google to receive agreements with major music labels prior to going live. This didn't seem like a big deal to me but I can see that it will be a big detractor in the future it they don't get it solved.  One other note, I haven't used Amazon's cloud service either, I'm pretty much an iTunes guy.

So iTunes became the biggest issue for me in considering Google Music Beta.  All of my current music is stored within iTunes.  Reading through the release notes Google said there would be no issues with importing my music into their cloud from iTunes.  So I decided to give it a try.

BLUF:  I'm a big fan of Google Music Beta.  Their seamless integration with Android and the cloud where my music is copied is a perfect combination.

After I receive the invitation to try our Google Music I downloaded their application from the log in page. It is called Music Manger (See below).

As you can see I selected the iTunes player, hit OK and 1950 songs were automatically copied to Google's Music cloud.  Actually it was that easy.  It did take over an hour for all the music to appear and be available to play.  Also all of my playlists were copied over intact with links automatically set up for playing.  Artwork was also associated correctly and I was offered free music to get started.  See below for a screen snapshot after the sync.

One question that I had with this process was whether or not I would run into any licensing issues with my music.  I've ran into this with Apple all the time, especially when I change computers.  Basically there were no issues with licensing with Google Music that I found.

So onto the most important question.  So how does this work with my Android phone?  Basically I already had Google Music on my Nexus S already.  As I opened up the application all the music I had loaded up to Google Music cloud was there and ready to play.  I was about as seamless as you can get.  No more fussing with iTunes and my android phone.  Music Manger now keeps my iTunes library in sync with my Google Music cloud and my Android.  I was basically sold from that point forward.

I've used Google Music Beta now for over two weeks and have traveled with it across the country.  Basically all the 1950 songs are not automatically downloaded to my Droid, they are playable over the internet.  As I play them they are then downloaded and available whether I'm connected into the internet or not.  This is only a problem when seating on a plan when you are disconnected.  Basically in that situation you can see and play the songs you've listened to before, but the songs that you havn't listened to are not available for playing.  That seems like the only drawback that I can find.

If Google can figure out how to solve the partnerships issues with the major record labels I can see using Google Music exclusively for management of my music as well as purchasing of tracks.  From what I've read this may not be a quick offering by Google.