The IBM Data Governance Unified Process: Driving Business Value with IBM Software and Best Practices – A Book Review
Quick Take: The world of Data Management is becoming exposed and books like this one are a great starter guide for practitioners to understand what goes into initiating a Data Governance
program. There’s no secret sauce or magic and that’s mostly the point.
Detail Review: There was once a time when people didn’t have enough information. Now there is too much of it. And in a few years we’ll supposedly have smart appliances and talking toasters.
Well, maybe not talking, but data is becoming more ubiquitous.
Over the last decade you’ve probably been on vacation and asked “is there a good pizza place around here?” and a friend responded “according to Google, there are 8 pizza places within 5 miles of
here.” You picked up the phone and called one but the number was no longer in service. Being persistent, you tried another, ordered a large pepperoni and got it 30 minutes later.
Scared of Ideas or Open to Change?
He hears the alarm clock, hits snooze, and lays there for ten minutes somewhere between sleep and awake. “In the Hall of the Mountain King” by Edvard Grieg plays: He does what I think is one of the hardest things in the world to do, he puts the first foot on the floor in the [...]
My Experience, Our Story
Every Sunday millions of Americans sit in a hard wooden pew to attend church. Regardless of the denomination the session culminates in a pastor of some kind delivering his sermon. It’s a learning situation emphasizing morals and what is expected of someone within the church community. The message is delivered usually in one of two [...]
Generational Delay in Leadership
A few entries ago I wrote about a movie called Waiting For Superman. Today I learned that Jeff Skoll is the man behind it. He funds movies with an angle beyond entertainment; his movies inform, potentially leading to social activism. His films include: Good Night, and Good Luck, North Country, Syriana, An Inconvient Truth, Murderball, [...]
Right Place at the Right Time Happens, It Isn’t a Fluke.
There’s a movie out called The Social Network . The story shares a few perspectives on the founding of Facebook. But there are no shortage of opinions for this drama.
One common view is Mark Zuckerberg was in the right place at the right time. He was just lucky. It’s hard to argue he didn’t benefit from several favorable circumstances. Luck isn’t fated though. Good businessmen tend to be luckier than others because they play the favorable odds and work to improve their chances.
Many success stories start with a few individuals meeting at a coffee house and exchanging ideas. Connections are made and enterprises are launched. It isn’t luck these people were in the coffee house. They purposefully went there wanting to meet people who also wanted to people. A $4 coffee every other day results in a pretty wide network. So when right place at the right time happens, it isn’t a fluke.
Inspiration and Institutions
Malcolm Gladwell, the author of several best sellers including a favorite of mine The Tipping Point, wrote a New Yorker article last week about the bonds of Social Networking tools like Twitter and Facebook. To explain his point he describes the fears and risks of the “sit in” generation of the 1960s. Social change at [...]
How Pleasure Works – A Book Review
Quick Take: This book goes into the depths of the mind and looks for what feeds the source or core of happiness. There are stories of art theft, belching contests, bed pans, and cannibalism and I bet none of these you’d put on par with a birthday cake. And that is the point of the [...]
Lulled Into a Sense of Ever Improving Job Prospects
Autumn begins at Wednesday September 22, 2010 at 11:09 PM ET, but I’ve already felt it. I recently sat at a family friend’s bare dining room table. I looked out the window to avoid seeing the pain in
his eyes. The setting sun created an epilogue hue – uneasy and fated.
My friend was mentally torn down. He said “I don’t know what to do? I’m 51 years old and without a job.” I slowly nodded my support. “I wish I had known.” His words trailed off and a deep breath was
taken.
He’s a divorced father of two: a boy who’s six and a daughter all of nine.
Taking On Tests
I’ve been on an education kick lately since it’s back to school time. I often comment that I believe tests are overused as an evaluation tool. I think they have a time and place, but programs like No
Child Left Behind are making the test the apex of the curriculum.
I often argue that most tests are designed to assess memorization and not problem solving. I’d like to see students create something. That is how the world improves, through the value of creation.
This effort requires the student to apply the learned material plus it reinforces real world skills like managing time and resources.
Tests have positives though.
He Quit His Job and the World Got Richer – The Khan Academy
There are 1440 minutes in a day. That’s 120 opportunities, in one day, to consume a video from Salman Khan. He’s a game changer for education. He started The Khan Academy , a video tutorial service using only Youtube and his knowledge base. There are 1600+ videos and each one usually runs a little more [...]