I really enjoyed having a quick lunch with some of my co-presenters after our lightning talks over the past weekend at the National League of Cities Congress (“Engaging Residents in Solutions: Using Data and Technology to Improve Local Government.”) At lunch, I confessed that I really don’t agree with the oft-cited recommendations that the first […]
The Rise of Personal Cloud Computing?
The recent OpenStack conference (you can check out the OpenStack conference session and keynote videos here) has gotten me thinking, not just about where private cloud is going now, but also where, in the beginning of the era of broken trust in centralized computing, it might go in the future. Here’s what I mean. There is […]
From Open Data to Better Government: National League of Cities Congress 2013
I’m just returning from a lightning talk and World Cafe session at the National League of Cities Congress of Cities in Seattle, and thought it would be helpful to jot down some thoughts while they’re fresh in my mind. The theme of the session was, “Engaging Residents in Solutions: Using Data and Technology to Improve […]
Code for America Summit – Visual Takeaways 2013
Just got back from the Code for America Summit. I’ll report a little bit more about this, but here are the visual takeaways! (OK, the sign isn’t exactly a takeaway, but I thought it was cute enough to include here.) BIG props to the visual facilitators! (If you know who they are, please link to […]
Beyond Transparency: A Diversity Of Open Data Experiences
This past week, Code for America book released their new book, Beyond Transparency, which I contributed to! I am humbled and grateful to Code For America for the opportunity in general, and Brett Goldstein and Lauren Dyson for specifically thinking of me and our journey at the city where I work. It is for others […]
Startup Weekend: A Special Kind of Crazy
Asheville Startup Weekend inspired me to talk about a special kind of crazy — the kind of crazy that inspires you to work, to create, to spend time outside of goofy entertainment during your free time. I hope to eventually update this post with just that part of my remarks, but for now, it starts […]
Can We Secure Open Data?
I always learn something or get to think about something more deeply when I give a talk, because I’m open to being challenged, and yesterday was no exception. Yesterday’s challenge: can we — and should we — secure open data? Yesterday’s talk was on the Microsoft campus in Charlotte, NC, addressing the North Carolina chapter […]
IT and Business Units: Relationship Rescue?
Some months ago, Terri Griffith wrote a blog on HBR asking “are we asking too much of our CIOs?” My answering post on InformationWeek: it’s complicated. “If IT is now accountable for the success of virtually the entire business, why not put IT in charge of the whole business?” Of course, that’s a snarky answer […]
Ignore Social Business At Your Peril
My column, “Ignore Facebook At Your Peril” generated a good conversation. Some readers essentially asked, “where’s the proof” that business (and therefore IT) must adapt to the new reality that Facebook is a juggernaut of both identity management and social business. Fellow editor Alex Rudansky made a good point that, proof or no proof, whatever […]
Why Agility Is So Dang Hard
Agility is so hard because people are afraid. The rest is commentary. One great personal example that’s relevant to how we act in our teams and organizations was my fear about relaunching my personal website / blog. Fear was the the hardest thing for me in going from talking about blogging to blogging; it had […]