Chaos

If you're rewarded for your ability to manage chaos, does it give you incentive to create more chaos so that you can manage it?  Or at least to not prevent chaos?

Some seem to think that IT is chaotic by nature of being IT.  Rather than designing and implementing efficient, scalable processes, they manage the daily fire fight, managing issue logs as their daily process rather than designing fixes that create better systems.  On top of that, when management measures success solely by looking at one's ability to fight the fires, are they not incentivized to have the fire to fight?  If they prevent all fires, they will appear to be doing nothing.  Why not reward people for implementing good solutions that prevent chaos?

This isn't just in IT, you see it all over the place.  The complexities of IT systems certainly lend themselves to the chaotic nature, however.

When you see someone constantly fighting fires, don't you start to suspect that they're starting them, or at least not preventing them in the first place?

It's been awhile...

It's been a long time since I last posted, I know.  I was posting semi-regularly through January and then February hit which is right about the time I decided to end my vacation and get a real job again.  As much as I loved the freedom of being able to do what I wanted to do whenever I wanted to do it, it was time to put a little structure back in my life.  Since then, coming on here and writing has been the last thing on my mind.  But that being said, I need to put things out here a bit more.

So, after I close this, I'm writing a new post. 

Google Buzzing...

Have you "buzzed" yet?  Yesterday Google announced and released Google Buzz.  I had not heard any rumor of this service prior to hearing that it was releasing so I was a bit surprised.  A bit more surprising is that Google implemented Buzz as a core component with Gmail, which means they didn't roll out a service with invites and slowly move users onto the platform through beta testing, they introduced the product to millions of users right away. 

Google Buzz reminds me A LOT of FriendFeed.  Very similar concept.  Share links, pictures, articles, thoughts, etc. and integrate across multiple social platforms to aggregate information.  Beyond that, however, Buzz goes mobile.  Buzzes can be posted with a tagged location where a user can write a review or simply a short message about where they're at, similar to Foursquare and Gowalla.  Initial thoughts are that it's a great platform and it's good to see Google finally jumping into the social space.  And by jumping, they're not dipping a toe in the water, the plunged head first.  I like the boldness.

So Google Buzz is a great concept, yes, and I love the aggregator feature aspect.  However, here are some things I'd rather see work different.

• Auto-following.  I don't necessarily want to automatically follow everyone in my contact list that has a Gmail account.  Just becaues they're there doesn't mean I want to follow them on Buzz.  Just give me a feature where Buzz will tell me who in my contact list is on Buzz and I can choose to follow or not but don't make it automatic.
• Gmail requirement.  In order to use Buzz, you have to have a Gmail account.  Not just a Google account, but a Gmail account.  Maybe Google wants to have a product that will get users to switch to Gmail but let's face it, our email address is what follows us for years, across state lines as we move about.  The idea of changing to another email provider is often a frustrating proposition.  Gmail can make this transition easy but people generally don't want to do it.  So why not allow Buzz to be standalone from Gmail so I can log in with my Google account and use the service?  Seems like this would limit the ability for users to adopt the platform and essentially creates this little "Gmail clique".  Aren't we always taught that cliques are bad for social integration?
• Contacts.  Google has frustrated me in this area for awhile with how they utilized the Contacts in Wave.  In Wave, there's a concept of Robots that can be added to a wave to allow certain tasks to happen or to add features to a wave, like a game or poll, for example.  Google adds these into my contact list and treats them just the same as any actual contact I may know.  They've done something similar here, where if I want to follow, say, Kevin Rose, he's now in my contact list, just mixed in with all of the other people.  I like my contact list clean as it syncs with my phone and in general I rely on it to be an accurate list of actual people I'll be contacting.  Yes, it puts it into the "All Contacts" so these won't actually cause too many issues but why not have a whole category called "Buzz Contacts" or something?  I know I'm still thinking of "contacts" through an old paradigm but I think most people do.  And by the way, why in Kevin Rose's contact record is his profile URL some weird string of numbers, clean it up so it reads like it does in the address bar.
• Isn't it weird that I follow myself?  I'm guessing this is the method Google implemented to get my own buzzes to show up in my timeline but it seems weird.  Even if you're going to use it that way, remove me from my followers list on the front end.  It's not hard to do.

I'll keep playing with it and see if I have more thoughts but so far I do like it.  I'm just not sure if it's positioned quite right to really challenge Facebook and it needs the ability to accept more connected sites (can they say "Facebook"?).  Also, the Gmail requirement seems to limit the ability for people to adopt.  I'm also really curious to see how Wave will interact here.

iPad

The much rumored, much speculated iPad is official.

The device looks amazing.  It looks very sexy.  But I don't see myself buying one just yet.

Here are some of the thoughts and observations I've had about the iPad.

iPad.  A lot of people are raising their eyebrows at the name.  Forget about the name.  The Apple logo on the back of the device sells the device.

Integration into the ecosystem. A big reason why the Apple logo sells is the product ecosystem.  Jeff Dachis wrote about the ecosystem here.  This is well worth reading.

Amazon.  Steve Jobs basically told Amazon that he's out to crush them in the ebook space.  This device can do that.  Barnes & Noble came out with their Nook too late to even compete, in my opinion, and the iPad raises the bar.

Price.  The device is priced very well.  Going in I thought it could be a game changer with the Kindle but that was dependent on the price.  $499 is twice the price of the Kindle but it's beautiful, it's sexy, and it does a lot more than the Kindle.  A lot of people will pay the premium primarily to use the iPad as a book reader.

Keyboard. I won't comment positively or negatively about the touch keyboard because I didn't think I'd like it on the iPhone either.  This being larger, it could work once someone gets used to it.  Might take awhile though.

Where does it fit?  This is the big question.  Is there space in the market for something between a smartphone and a laptop.  Apple clearly believes there is and will attempt to define that market.  I have questions on if the market truly exists but time will tell.  The key is price and at the price point I think there will be a lot of people willing to participate in that market.

I hear people mention that they've pratically replaced their laptop with their smartphone and then I hear people mention that the iPad will take a chunk out of the laptop market.  I can see this for some users but there are a lot of things I do on my laptop that I can't do on my iPhone or would not be able to on the iPad.  Music is one.  With a super mobile device like both of these, the amount of music you can carry is limited, although 64 GB is a lot of music.  But remember that Apple acquired Lala.  Look for Apple to start pulling Lala into the ecosystem even more, allowing people to listen to their music library from anywhere without needing more device memory.

Multi-tasking.  Apparently the iPad still does not do multi-tasking.  Apple seriously needs to work this out.  This is my biggest complaint on the iPhone and I'm disappointed to hear it carrying into this device.  This device should function as a mobile window to the internet but no streaming music while writing emails or using iWork?  Only if I use the iPod and I bet Lala will become allowed as well.

No camera.  Really?  Shouldn't a device like this have a front facing camera and iChat?  Seems like it should be there.

Still doesn't support flash. I laughed when Steve Jobs opened the New York Times website and the first thing I saw was the blue lego indicating the device couldn't handle the flash.  Come on, Apple, you've got to support this technology.  It's there and it's big, you can't ignore it just because you don't like it.

Will I be buying one?  No.  Not yet at least.  Yes it's sexy and yes I want to hold one and play with it but to me the cons are big and I really don't need a big iPod Touch between my iPhone and MacBook.  But these will sell because they're Apple.  Apple makes great products and I love them but they always seem to skip some critical elements knowing that they'll be forgiven because they're Apple.

I'll go to the Apple store in a little over 60 days (let the crowds die down) and hold one and that'll probably satisfy my iPad desires for awhile.

Location based social networking! It's kinda fun

For those of you who enjoy broadcasting what cool place you found, here's a way to make it fun.  Location based social networking.  It's addicting. 

Foursquare and Gowalla are the two players in the location based social networking space right now.  Both launched last spring at SXSW and both seem to be really taking hold.  The concept behind each is basically the same but each has their own unique twist that make it fun.  The idea behind both is that you go somewhere (coffee shop, restaurant, bookstore, bar, wherever) and you "Check In" as being there.  If you're at a restaurant that doesn't exist in the system yet, just create it, simple as that.  Oh, and then check in to it.  After that, you start to see the uniqueness.

In Foursquare, there is the concept of mayors.  If you've been to a place more than anyone else, you will be crowned "The Mayor".  Besides narcissism, mayors could possibly get special deals at places they visit, if the business is catching onto the world of social networking. 

Also in Foursquare, you earn badges.  Badges basically are rewards that show how much of a user of the system you are or what type of user you are.  You're started with the "Newbie" badge right away and then you earn additional badges by checking into different types of places and checking in frequently.  You also earn points along the way but since Foursquare hasn't decided yet what to do with points, let's ignore them for now.

Final Foursquare twist is To-Dos and Tips.  This is a pretty nice feature, in my opinion.  Yesterday @ellenreynolds tweeted to try the bevo with turkey instead of roast beef at Cissi's in Austin.  Sounds good to me, add it to my To-Dos in Foursquare.  Next time I'm in Austin during lunch I'll have this as a To-Do.  Build up enough of these and you can plan a trip around it.

Okay, enough about Foursquare.  Gowalla.

Same basic idea, go to places and check in.  However, Gowalla feels more like a game to it than Foursquare, in my opinion, which might be because Foursquare hasn't decided how to use points yet.  But in Gowalla, you find items along the way.  For example, if I check into Halcyon in Austin, the Gowalla app will show me what items are there.  I can drop an item from my pack to become a "founder" or I can swap an item from my pack with another item there.  Now, the way it becomes a game is that people like to collect things.  So maybe your goal is to collect all of the musical instruments you can.  You come across at drumset at Gruene Hall (I just dropped one so it should be there) and you pick it up for your collection.

The other thing I like about Gowalla is the concept of Trips.  For example, there's the Nashville Honkytonk Stomp trip (here).  This trip has six spots to guide you through a little tour of some of Nashville's honkytonks.  Check in to all of them and you earn a badge.

Both of these are fun and have their own advantages.  I've been using both for the last couple of days and found that I'm often thinking of where I want to go to check in.  Yes, I have stopped at two coffee shops fairly close to one another (getting coffee at both) just so I could check in.  But I swear, I wanted to understand the apps better, not just become mayor at both.

Okay, enough from me about this.  Check them out.  Foursquare is on iPhone, Android and BlackBerry.  Gowalla is on iPhone and Android but also has a nice mobile site.

Here's some other links about these:

Mashable - Foursquare vs. Gowalla: Location-Based Throwdown

Gowalla Rules (i.e. Is Awesome)

Gowalla Rules (i.e. How to Play Gowalla)

By the way, those last two links are from Travis Smith's blog "Unvarnished".  He gets my award for most unique blog design.  I'm not sure if I liked it or not (doesn't matter, it's his blog, not mine) but it certainly is a unique approach.