what is GE up to?

General Electric Automatic Iron Box (Photo credit: Marion Doss)

I find it interesting that General Electric (GE) has been showing up in multiple leading edge software companies as an active participant.  Last fall at the Dreamworks conference,  Marc Benioff talked about meeting with GE to come up with new ways to use their software and the result was some very creative use of Chatter to integrate a jet engine into a chatter community for support and service of that engine.  Yesterday Pivotal announced an investment of $105M by GE to help Pivotal redefine how to write commercial software. Is this just a natural progression of their current business or are they on to something new?

They have definitely come a long way from the Automatic Iron!  :-)

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• Why GE is betting on software

The paradox of Choice

TED (conference) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I have a goal of listening to a couple TED talks each week.   I just listened to Barry Schwartz talk about the Paradox of Choice. TED talk: barry_schwartz_on_the_paradox_of_choice.html

I now have many questions I want to answer, primarily about raising children. So, he just gave me even more to do. :-)

However, his talk makes it clear to me why we seem to have less time in our lives than when we were growing up  - we are spending so much more time making decisions on things that used to be "non-choices".  Never mind that we were young and didn't think about all the things we can think about now (another set of "choices").  Yeesh!

What I appreciate about this talk though, is that it helped me put things back into perspective - if we want more time, get rid of the things that cause us to choose from many options.  And keep in mind that we are doing well, just that there is always more to do than we can get done, so be happy at the end of every day!

Have an outstanding day!

My tools for Social Media

English: Tools (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

At our Personal Board of Directors dinner last night (attending were Gian Zoppo, Howard Weiner, Steve McCrudden, Tim Meyer), I realized I might help people by posting the tools and process I use to maintain my social channels. So, here it is in a nutshell, or maybe a little more...

First, my primary goal in maintaining a social presence on the internet is communicate my interests, both personal and career, and use social media as a way to both hold myself accountable to the goals I set in my personal and career life as well as let people know what they are.  I guess I have always felt an interesting person who is known by no one is not very interesting... and that sharing my interests helps me learn more in the process.  So, that is why I have a Social online presence.  

My typical method of contributing to the (online) world is to blog, then get the word out that I have blogged something new.  Sometimes I just send out a quick thought, in which case I don't blog it but instead I tweet, send an update to Linkedin and facebook.  I did that with a TED talk today.

So, my process when I have something significant to say is to first blog it (here).  To blog I use Blogspot coupled with Zemanta which gives me help in tying what I have to say to relevant things out on the internet already.  I can pull visuals from Zemanta (a plus on a blog simply for some eye candy) as well as related articles. So I write my blog, pull in related articles and visuals, and then post the new content to my blog for all to see.

Once I have done that, I use 1 of 2 tools to get the word out.  One tool is called Buffer, which lets me share my blog post out to Twitter, Linkedin and facebook as well as others.  The other tool is called Snapshot Social Media, which does similar things in a different way.  There are pros and cons to each (e.g., I can't post to a blog site from Snapshot unless it is Wordpress, and I have more ability to use local content in Snapshot than I do in Buffer).  I can't post to Google+ with either tool.  So, in any case, I use one of these tools to let people know that I posted a new blog article,  and I am done.

I use a couple other tools to monitor the social channels, mainly Tweetdeck and the stats page on my blog (from Blogspot).  

So there you have it!  What do you use that I am missing?

..Brian..

Silicon Snake Oil - a look back to look forward

mobileinternetgrowth5 (Photo credit: sam_churchill)

I was speaking with Rick Thompson of Snapshot Social Media the other day and he mentioned the book written by Clifford Stoll called "Silicon Snake Oil" as a interesting view of technology and it's power to change our lives.  Clifford Stoll helped create the internet technology and as such was an early user watching the average person discover and start using the internet.    This book was published in 1995, so was written 1 to 2 years before that (based on the schedule of my author friend and his writing of novels).   

I didn't end up reading this book - I skimmed it after the first few chapters.  Clifford is pretty pessimistic about what he helped build and felt that people were wasting a lot of time because they were doing things that were not of any value in their everyday lives.  He also seemed to feel that the internet would never become useful to the common person.  A very interesting and telling section of the book comes when he says, "Well, I don't believe that phone books, newspapers, magazines or corner video stores will disappear as computer networks spread.  Nor do I think that my telephone will merge with my computer, to become some sort of information appliance."  :-)  According to Wikipedia, when this article resurfaced on BoingBoing in 2010, Stoll left a self-deprecating comment: "Of my many mistakes, flubs, and howlers, few have been as public as my 1995 howler....Now, whenever I think I know what's happening, I temper my thoughts: Might be wrong, Cliff..." 

Just goes to show us we won't get every prediction right, and we will probably understimate the value of emerging technologies... even with all the hype that comes along with new capabilities.  In my mind social media is at this point right now... It is turning marketing on its head, it is changing the way we interact with each other and with companies, and it is changing the way we "find" things.  Mobile makes these shifts even more dramatic as we become more impactful as a single person in a world with billions and billions of people and companies. To Clifford's point though, there are more and more things to waste our time, so the key is making our life, our company and our world efficient when there is more and more to deal with. As we know, the one thing that hasn't changed is that there are only 24 hours in a day.  

Why rapid change is in our future

The Tipping Point (Photo credit: Go Gratitude)

Just a short post to capture some thoughts I had today about how social technology, online capabilities and mobile are changing the way we behave, interact and live and what we can expect in the future. My primary premise is that technology is the driver that is going create rapid change because with adoption of technology comes changes to human behavior.

Although I wasn't impress with the book, the Tipping Point, I do agree there are points in time where something really starts to take off - the hockey stick phenomenon where the change is accelerated and happens faster than it did previously.  I believe this is where we are with technology; it is accepted and generally adopted and in the future is going to change things much quicker than it has previously.

A good example of technology driving change is the way marketing a brand is done.  Previously, companies could position a brand the way they wanted to because they had the ability to influence individuals and individuals didn't have much ability to influence the company or their neighbor.  Then social technology came along and now an individual can voice a concern on Facebook (for example) and others can pile on and turn that single voice into a crowd chat that grows (and is heard) around the world.  Do you think the public will believe the positive Nike advertisement on TV if 50,000 people are voicing their unhappiness on the internet about how Nike is using unfair labor practices in Asia? No way! (and I don't know this to be true... just sayin'...)

My point here is not so much about what is happening today, although it is definitely a big shift. My point is more about the future.

1. Technology is at the stage now (with the internet, mobile and Social software) where it will quickly change the way we interact with each other and with businesses.  
2. Technology growth and evolution is happening much faster than it did even 10 years ago, driving faster  and more frequent change.  
3. In addition, people are getting much more comfortable adopting new technology, also leading to more rapid change in behavior (since the technology itself drives that change). 
4. The additional realization that has come to me recently is that although people generally resist change, it seems technology changes are much more palatable and even pursued by many individuals.   It is almost like flying for the older generations - it was novel and cool so people didn't mind changing the way they travelled even though it might have been more dangerous initially.   Accepting change drives even faster adoption. 

Bottomline is that businesses need to be more agile in the way they do business and how they interact with their customers.  If they don't they will not keep up with their competition now and will not be positioned well for the future where change is going to continue at a fast rate. They have to watch technology which is going to be at the core of the way their customers behave and change their business processes accordingly.

Thoughts?

Have an outstanding day!

My Take: Chapter 3 - The Law of the Mirror

245/365 John C. Maxwell book collection (Photo credit: CR Artist)

As I mentioned in 2 previous posts, I am reading and rereading John C. Maxwell's 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth.  I have summarized chapter 1 and 2, and the title of Chapter 3 is "The Law of the Mirror".  He says, "you must see value in yourself to add value to yourself".   There are some very valuable points in this chapter, and having 2 preteen boys I realized a few things about myself that is probably contributing to their view of themselves as well.  The same thing applies if we are managing a team or organization... we must see value in organization if we are to add value to the organization we are part of. 

His first point is that we shouldn't be too concerned with what others think about us, we should be much more concerned about what we think about ourselves.  If we have a running negative dialog with ourselves, (and all of us have a running dialog with ourselves, positive or negative), then we are creating a negative self-image of ourselves.  And where do many of us get a negative self-dialog?  Well, as a parent I probably say "no" to my sons many more times than I say "yes".  Maxwell talks about the average 17 year old and that they have heard about 30 "nos" to every 1 "yes".   This was a sobering and mind-changing point for me as I thought about my sons and my expectation that they have a positive outlook on life...

So, the first point is guard our self-talk.

The second point is stop comparing ourselves to others.   Compare ourselves to ourselves and simply strive to become better today that we were yesterday.  I think watching others for things we can do differently/better is valuable, but if we start comparing that is either defeating (because they are better than us) or creates self-pride if they are not as good.  Neither of these are positive.

The third point is move beyond our limiting beliefs.  I like the 4 step process that Maxwell lays out that could help us overcome the limitations we put on ourselves:
1. Identify a limiting belief that we want to change.
2. Determine how the belief limits us.
3. Decide how you want be, act or feel.
4. Create a turnaround statement that affirms or gives you permission to be, act or feel this new way.
In the end, it is not what we are that holds us back, it is what we think we are not.

The fourth point is add value to others. Add value to ourselves by adding value to others.

The fifth point is do the right thing, even if it is the hard thing.  Being true to ourselves and our values is a tremendous self-esteem builder. 

The sixth point is practice a small discipline daily in a specific area of our life.  Discipline is a moral booster.  I do wonder if this is one reason our children today (at least for the upper middle class and above in the US) are not as positive about themselves.  There is not as much "required" discipline in our lives because we have life pretty good (e.g., not many daily commitments are needed to go through life in a comfortable way). 

The seventh point is to celebrate small victories.

The eighth point is embrace a positive vision for our life based on what we value.   He recommends we tap into what we value and see what inspires us to take positive action.  Taking positive action helps to take more positive actions building on itself.

The ninth point is to practice the "one-word" strategy.  Pick a word that best describes us.  When we pick that word it focuses our attention and intention and helps us expand even more in that focus.   Obviously, if the word is negative for us (and we want to be more positive), then we have to change our word! I decided my word is "positive" - I maintain a positive attitude even if the situation is not good (not sure my wife would agree in all cases :-))

And the tenth and final point is take responsibility for our life.  We all have potential and we all have value.  If we just keep moving forward and keep believing, we can learn and grow. 

This was a really valuable chapter for me. I recommend reading the book to get the detail. 

Have an outstanding day!

..Brian..

IPaaS - Integration Cloud

English: Diagram showing three main types of cloud computing (public/external, hybrid, private/internal) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Integration Platform as a Service (IPaaS, not to be confused with IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service)) is a cloud based service that exists to integrate applications/services, both cloud based and internal. I just read a whitepaper from IBM on their IaaS service called Cast Iron (here).  Cast Iron just announced a go to market solution with Salesforce CRM (Sales Cloud). Disclosure: my wife works for IBM but is in research not connected to the Cast Iron service.  

Some of the competing services in the IPaaS space are Software AG, TIBCO, Jitterbit, Informatica.  (Thanks to Dave Masefield for giving me this quick list).

Interesting service that still has alot of hype about how easy it is to integrate on-premise and cloud based services (which we know is typically harder than expected), but still a valid service that I am sure will grow as more cloud based services are used and trusted.  

Have an outstanding day!