Thursday April 28, 2005

Essays, Blogs and Oracle Licenses

I recently discovered the essays of Paul Graham. I referred to his essayThe Submarine in my last posting. Another one of his essays that I just read and found extremely interesting and engaging was titled The Age of the Essay.

Graham's essay about essays is full of interesting ideas but I particularly liked his point that an essay is a train of thought, not, as we were taught in school a defense of a thesis. He says “ I'd much rather read an essay that went off in an unexpected but interesting direction than one that plodded dutifully along a prescribed course.” It seems to me that a lot of blog entries are in fact essays. Just as the best essays are interesting the best blog entries are interesting. Graham says that interesting means surprising. He says that if you are writing about things that you have thought about and a point was surprising to you then it will be interesting to the reader.

So, for example, in a town hall meeting with Scott McNealy last Monday McNealy said that because of the way Oracle prices their software it is possible for the Oracle licenses to cost a lot more than the Sun computers they run on. He quoted some very large and surprising numbers. I believe it was something like the machine costs $10,000 and the licenses cost $300,000. That was new to me and both interesting and thought provoking. Since then I've read similar information in Dave Brillhart's blog and in Keith Bierman's blog.

It is not a new idea that an essay or a blog should be a conversation but I like the idea that they should be the kind of electrifying conversations where ideas are flowing and my mind is being expanded and challenged. Graham ends his essay with suggestions for how to find surprising things to write about. I find it it inspiring.

Sunday April 24, 2005

How we decide what to talk about

Stephen O'Grady of RedMonk also linked to this but it is an excellent essay about the impact of PR by Paul Graham.

It is worth reading the whole thing but I thought it was especially enlightening what he said about blogs. So much of what we read in the press and in magazines is as a result of PR. What is different about blogs is that content is what the blogger wants to write about. Although that is even influenced by PR. PR frequently creates the buzz. I guess one way to look at PR is that it instigates the conversation.

Broken Computer

The monitor on my Gateway PC has quit working. The computer is only 16 months old so this quite disappointing to say the least. I called Gateway yesterday to see how much it would cost to fix it and it was something like $700. So the question is do I try to fix it myself or do I just buy a new computer. Another option would be to just use the monitor from Duke's old computer. I just want my computer to work!

Friday April 22, 2005

Web services, Application Service Providers, and Be Interesting!

Tim mentioned in his blog yesterday that he just did an op ed piece in Business Week about Web Services. After reading his piece I realized that I only have a hazy notion of what web services means. To learn more I just read the web service entry in Wikipedia. It helped. The article said that software applications can use web services to exchange data over computer networks and web services can be deployed by using application server software from companies like Sun or BEA Systems. What I didn't realize before doing my little bit of research was that although lots of companies are exchanging XML messages across the network to do their work today the method for implementing web services is still evolving and will be a big area of future competition for companies like Sun, IBM and Microsoft. So what are the important factors that people will look back on in 10 years and say made the difference for the successful company or companies in this market?

I always hesitate to post an entry like the one above. Writing it forced me to understand the concept enough to be able to explain it at least a little. So it helped me, but is it interesting?

Almost a year ago Tim published the Sun Policy on Public Discourse. One of his rules is Be Interesting. I try very hard to make that my primary objective when I write for this blog. For that matter I try to make it my mission in life. So is my explanation of what I have learned about web services interesting? I am not sure. A conversation on the topic would be very interesting to me and perhaps to others but I almost feel that to be interesting on a topic like this you need to be the expert.

Another area that is very interesting to me is the whole application service provider (ASP) model for delivering software. It seems to me that it was really hot during the bubble but now is beginning to evolve and mature. Salesforce.com is the ASP example that I always hear. RightNow is a company that that I just learned about. They also use the ASP model for software and have some very cool customer service software.

The idea of selling software on a subscription basis makes so much sense to me. The appeal of not having to maintain or administer servers, back up data, or upgrade your own software is very strong as is the appeal of being able to access your application from a browser anywhere. I have to believe we are just seeing the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the future of this business model.

Tuesday April 19, 2005

Blogs as Internal Marketing

Recently Coté blogged in response to my posting about the benefits of blogging. His posting was great. I sometimes say something and then someone else's reply will articulate in the perfect way what I meant but couldn't quite put into words. Coté hit the nail on the head. He said “ blogs are a supra-effective tool for internal marketing. And if you don't think that's important, you must work for the perfect company.”

Also in his posting Coté said that Brandon said, “The number of people who read a weblog matters much less than who reads a weblog.”. That is SO true. When I write for my blog I really try to think about who I am talking to. I know that one big segment of those who may read what I write is Sun internal people. I know that my blog is one effective way to engage support and resistance for, and to identify issues with a change for which we are trying to build acceptance. I do think my blog helped at least a little bit to build support and understanding for our recent transition of Sun from CDE to JDS.

Reading some of the links in Coté's posting I found his excellent summary of the issues with blogs that are for company internal use only. I've thought about doing an internal blog. Our CIO has one. It would mean I could discuss a few things I can't discuss here, but I like the broader audience for Blogs dot Sun dot Com and I don't have time for two blogs. Plus I like to focus on doing the best job I can here.

The other point that Coté makes is about how to advertise blogs. It would be interesting to know the percentage of Sun people who read Sun blogs. I bet it is less than 10%. There is a sizable population of people who, for lots of good reasons, will just never read blogs. When it comes to ways to increase readership it may just be that growth needs to be organic and word of mouth works best.

Sunday April 17, 2005

Books and Baseball

Back on March 20 I mentioned that I was reading three books. I've finished two of them and read one not on the list so I thought I would summarize my impressions.

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides was my book club book back in February and I talked about it then but I hadn't finished it. Now that I have I can say I enjoyed the book. It is a family saga about a Greek-American family who have a hermaphrodite child. But I would also agree with Stephen O'Grady's comment on my posting. He said he thought the story was a bit overwrought. I also thought it was somewhat contrived. For example, there was a part in the book where the family was exposed to the start of the Black Muslim movement. The coincidence was hard to believe. In spite of that I would recommend the book.

The second book was also a book club book. I read it for my April book club. The Book of Salt by Monique Truong was not my kind of book. It is about a Vietnamese cook employed by Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas in 1930s Paris. Truong has amazing skill with language. Her descriptions of food and scene are masterful. She developed the theme of cultural isolation so effectively that it impacted my feelings. In spite of all that I disliked The Book of Salt. At first I thought the Toklas / Stein connection was a gimmick to get people to buy the book then I thought maybe she was trying to emulate Stein and that was why there was no story. In any case I don't enjoy a book without a story and this book didn't have one.

I really loved the third book I read. Moneyball by Michael Lewis was the most enjoyable book I have read in a long time. A good non fiction book is hard to beat. Moneyball is about statistics in baseball and how the Oakland A's use them to win more than almost any other team in baseball while having one of the smallest salary budgets in baseball. They employ the baseball equivalent of the efficient market theory of investing. I highly recommend the book.

We went to see the A's play the Anaheim Angels this afternoon. It was great fun to see the people I had read about. There is a whole chapter about Scott Hatteberg who plays first base and also quite a bit about Nick Swisher. We were one row behind the Angel's dugout so there was often a guest relations person standing right by us to make sure no one climbed on to the field. I heard him asking the guy in front of me if he had read Moneyball when I said I had he pointed out which players he thought were current undervalued players. We see the A's play a couple of times a year. Today was fun. It was beautiful day and they won a close game 6-7.

How to get iWork Support

In Phillip Wagstrom's recent blog entry he talked about helping a co-worker who had a problem with her work from home technology. One of the big challenges the iWork Soultions group faces is how to provide top quality support for people's work from home technical environments. I think the problem that Phillip fixed would have been a difficult one to fix over the phone. One solution is the Sun Ray at home. It pretty much eliminates the problem because people don't need to manage their own systems. But for people who need a fat client or in other words a laptop or PC that needs administration the solution often is to find a friend who will help. Cookies or beer definitely help.

The Importance of Metrics

One of my core beliefs about management is the importance of metrics and measuring what you do. You may have noticed in my last posting that we measure user satisfaction with their work environment before and after any office is converted to an iWork environment. We also do an annual iWork survey. I am absolutely convinced that having these metrics si a big part of why iwork has been successful at Sun. Anytime people start talking about why or how iWork works or doesn't work. We can provide them with data not just opinions. Data is so much more powerful than opinions when you are debating something.

Another reason metrics are important is that they help focus an organization on what is important. Bill Vass, our CIO, has published a Top 10 Rules for executives to Succeed with Technology rule number 8 is you manage what you measure. I've saw this work when I was on Bill's staff before he bacame the CIO and I've seen this work in my own organization. We once had an outsource vendor come in that was doing a horrible job. From the beginning we measured their performance and it the data gave us the ability to manage and improve their performance. When a customer support organization measures customer satisfaction then customer satisfaction gets better. The list of examples is endless. You manage what you measure.

We are talking about how we can improve the satisfaction with iWork next year. Something that I think we might do is create a iWork issues desk. It would be an escalation point for anyone is having a problem with iWork. People get problems resolved but we will also analyze and report on what the most common problems are what the root causes are. We can then work to fix the root causes. Many of us have opinions about what our biggest problems are but this will give us data to help us fix them.

Wednesday April 13, 2005

iWork in Tokyo

I'm a member of the iWork Solutions Group at Sun. As you know iWork is Sun's work from anywhere program. iWork enables Sun employees to focus more energy on work by allowing employees to determine where, when and how to work. As an iWorker I don't have an assigned office, instead when I need an office I reserve one where I need to be or I work from home when that makes sense. David Rush in my group puts together a monthly internal online newsletter called the iWork news. This month he had a very interesting article about transitioning almost 1000 employees in Tokyo to iWork.

I've condensed his article here.
Everyday, hundreds of employees travel from their homes throughout metropolitan Tokyo to engage in sales, marketing, engineering, and corporate activities at Sun. As one of the company's top revenue generating centers of business, Sun's Tokyo office is a lively place where both business and social aspects impact quality of life in the workplace. Like many Sun locations, the Tokyo office has developed its own sense of community and identity within the larger corporate culture, so when iWork was introduced there last year, employees were justifiably concerned about its impact. They needed to be convinced that this change was the right thing to do, and that required leadership.

Strong leadership - starting with Dan Miller, VP, Global Sales, and the local Senior Management team - was crucial in driving change and acceptance. The entire Senior Management team endorsed iWork in its communications with employees, helping not only to persuade the workforce, but to enable the iWork implementation team to be successful.

To start with, Sun leadership saw a strong value proposition for Sun in Japan. Some of the compelling reasons cited for promoting iWork solutions internally and externally are:

• for workers in Japan, commute times are extremely long, negatively impacting quality of life

• real estate is among the most expensive in the world, forcing companies to carefully control costs

• economic forces have caused Japan to focus strongly on all business & productivity issues that drive growth

• Japan is highly urbanized; customers, partners, and employees are widely geographically dispersed

• data security has become a national concern, driving legislation, and sparking interest in SunRays and Java technology

The last point has huge implications for Sun in Japan. From a Sun customer perspective, industry deregulation will have a big impact on data security. Businesses will be legally responsible for securely storing and transmitting data, especially the confidential data of their customers. As Dan Miller says, “the Japanese government is demanding data security, and big business is saying 'we can't do it with PC's anymore'. This means interest in SunRay, Java, and iWork concepts is running high ”.

So, what does iWork in Japan look like? For starters, all employees have open workspaces, including managers. In the new “iWorkplace”, Senior managers have open access to small Meeting Rooms that accommodate 3-4 people. These “private” spaces complement the overall openness of the environment, providing a quiet place for using a phone or SunRay. Also, each organization has its own “neighborhood” which provides a destination, or gathering place for employees when they are in the building. All workspaces are flexible, and available by reservation using SunReserve. In addition, casual “SunRay Counters” along the windows support mobile workers coming and going from the Flex Office areas.

Because of iWork impact on space saving, SE's and Engineers are able, for the first time, to work directly adjacent to one another, in the same building. The same is true for the Partner and Industry teams. Proximity for these groups is reported as one highly desirable aspect of iWork.

In addition to working in a Flexible Office, employees in Japan now have the option to work from home. The " WFH" program was piloted in 2004, and is now fully operational, with about 400 employees working from home some of the time, with support from Sun. As familiarity with the program grows, more employees are likely to take advantage of the opportunity to work from home.

But what about employees' acceptance of iWork? Dan Miller admits that some cultural issues are big. But, as Dan Miller claims from first-hand experience, “people are adaptable!”. Whether learning to work using less space, or sharing resources, or using new technology, or working together from a distance, people will adapt once the value proposition has been made clear.

Dan Miller also believes strongly in the importance of change management and project delivery. He says unequivocally, “quality implementation is the most important aspect of change. We had a great iWork implementation team in Tokyo, and I'm very proud of them!”

Has iWork been a good thing for the workforce in Tokyo? Most people you talk to will say “yes”, though, based on existing survey data, overall satisfaction with iWork is somewhat lower than in other locations. Many people, including Senior Management and the local iWork implementation team, think this is probably the result of too much change happening at once, including reorganization, RIFs, and real estate consolidation. Although these activities were not directly related to iWork, they more than likely had a temporary negative affect on perceptions, which was reflected back in the survey. iWork Survey data is always used to devise local action plans for improving iWork conditions, and efforts are underway to do so in Tokyo.

Dan Miller is determined when he says, “I know we can do better with iWork, and get our scores up”. Having Work From Home as an employee option will help, as will availability of training and best practices, and the commitment of the local Sustaining Management Team. Dan goes on to say “change is really no different for the Japanese than for anyone else. If the technology is there, and the people and implementation issues are handled well, Japanese workers will embrace the change”. No one should be surprised to see this happen, given the well-known ability of the Japanese to hone and perfect a good idea!

Tuesday April 12, 2005

Solaris 10 roll out

We are beginning to roll out Solaris 10 on more and more Sun Ray servers. Right now people are being asked to utswitch to these servers and test. We want to find any problems and do any tuning we need to do as soon as possible. The more people we have running on Solaris 10 the better. We also are sending out surveys to all the sites that have been asked to use the Solaris 10 servers. So far the feedback has been almost completely positive. We did get one response today about problems with an application which we haven't heard before. We are looking into it. Our goal is to have the pilot configuration installed on up to 70% of Sun's infrastructure by June 30. So far so good.

The space shuttle is 24

The first space shuttle was launched 24 years ago today. I remember that one of the big concerns was that the solid rocket boosters had never been tested in flight. Watching the space shuttle launch for the very first time was thrilling.

But, you might ask, why do I remember this so well? It is because my oldest daughter was born 24 years ago today. It was a VERY memorable day and one of the happiest of my life.
Happy Birthday Allison!!

Monday April 11, 2005

Thanks and What I have learned

I'd like to add my thanks and congratulations to the BSC (blogs.sun.com) team who just won Sun's chairman's award for creating BSC. It got me thinking about all the benefits that for me have come from blogging. Since I started blogging last September I've learned a lot. Blogging at Sun has been an extraordinarily valuable experience. I've summarized some of my thoughts about blogging and its benefits in a lessons learned list.

• Blogging is a great communication opportunity. It is a great opportunity to start a conversation. Since I am doing Change acceptance for JDS and Solaris 10 within Sun, blogging has been a great opportunity to tell people inside and outside of Sun what we are doing and why we are doing it. Broadcast emails just don't do the trick. They often are too much marketing talk and they usually don't encourage feedback. But even if an all Sun email was written like a blog a blog still does a better job because of the conversational aspect and because people who read my blog have over time built up an understanding of who I am and how I operate so they don't hesitate to ask questions or even challenge what I say.

• Blogging builds community. I've probably met more Sun customers and Sun employees outside of my division in the 7 months I've been blogging than I did in the previous 7 years. And I've learned something from each of them. The community building aspects are amazing. From my perspective it is one of the best things about blogging.

• Blogging and reading blogs are a great learning tool. Presenting to customers has always been a fantastic learning opportunity for me, but blogs are even better. The give and take and the different blog perspectives have allowed me to learn a lot about Sun's strategy and products and I've become much more aware of what is going on in our industry. I think it works for me because it is like sitting in on a conversation with the people who are making the decisions and selling the products. The perspective is invaluable. And I've always believed that the best way to really learn something is to teach someone else about it.

• Writing a blog is not only a learning tool but it makes you a better communicator. You can't help but improve you ability to communicate about something if you are writing about it. And I believe that the regular discipline of writing a blog is bound to improve my written and verbal communication skills.

• Blogging has improved how I feel about Sun. Sun is a big company. One of the things I love about Sun is that most of the time I have worked here I have been able to feel that I was making a difference, that I what I do helps Sun to be successful. It is almost a small company feeling. As Sun has gotten bigger it has sometimes been hard to maintain that feeling. Blogging has made me feel more a part of the company and more aligned with our strategies. It has improved my morale.

• Strangely enough blogging has made me realize how many people don't read blogs. By writing a blog and receiving feedback I've communicated with a lot of people that I probably wouldn't have otherwise. But what is interesting is that seeing this has made me realize how many people we have not touched with our change acceptance and communications efforts. I need to remember that blog readers are just a segment of the community.

• You never know who is reading. One aspect of blogging that I am still grappling with is how much of my life to share on my blog. I know that the blogs I enjoy most are those where I get to know the writer. And I also believe that transparency is what builds trust and trust is important in blogging. But every time I write a blog entry I think about my audience, my family, my coworkers, my boss, Sun customers and my friends and I think about whether what I am saying is appropriate and whether leaving something out would be less than authentic.

• Blogging is intellectually challenging The mechanics of creating a blog have been a fun challenge. I've learned about CSS, Technorati, tags, RSS, etc, etc. The list is endless. And of course there is the challenge of the content. My mind is challenged whether I am reading about Building Solaris from Scratch or about traveling on the inland waterways of Britain

• Blogging is Fun! I don't have to analyze it to know that I am having great time! I'm hooked and I can't imagine ever stopping.

Friday April 08, 2005

The challenge of being a teacher

My daughter is a second year teacher with the Teach for America program. She teaches elementary school in the Alum Rock School District She has 34 students in her class. Two of them are at grade level and 28 of them are 2 to 3 years below grade level. 100% of them are non native English speakers who for the most part do not speak English at home. Two of her students are new comers to this country who, when they joined her class, spoke virtually no English. One of the reasons Allison joined TFA was to find out first hand why things are so bad in so many low income class rooms in this country.

She tells me that the problem has a multitude of root causes. I guess that is not surprising. Her students start school with so much less than students in the elementary school that Allison went to just 20 miles from her current school. They often come with little or no English skills. Kindergartners don't know how to open a book and don't know the alphabet. Children have to be taught to read left to right. The language spoken on the playground is not English. Most students only hear English from their teachers. They have no other English language role models. The parents can't communicate with the school because of the language issues.

The teachers do everything at Allison's school. In the elementary school that Allison went to as a child there were a lot of parent volunteers. Many students at that school had a stay at home parent. These parents did everything from aiding in the classroom to bringing in food for class room celebrations. At Allison's current school many of the parents work more than one job and the teachers do it all in the classroom. There are a lot of amazing teachers in her district who work very hard. They have an enormous challenge.

There are lots more stories. Stories of the gangs, the students with relatives in prison, the students who think that America doesn't allow immigrants to get driver's licenses, the student who babysits for her siblings after school and so they all often hang out in Allison's classroom, the parent who often brings Allison dinner, the teacher who has taught at the school for over 20 yaers and has been a wonderfully effective coach for beginning teachers and on and on.

Allison is coaching two teams from her school for the Tech Challenge competition at the San Jose Tech Museum. This morning she did a presentation to the board of the Tech Museum about her experience leading a team from her school. I went to the competition last year. It was clear that pretty much all the other teams were from affluent schools with lots of parental involvement. It was a great experience for her kids.

Allison is doing the Accelerated Reader program from Renaissance Learning in her class room. She likes the program. The kids read books and then take a quiz on the computer. Last quarter she had three kids reach their goals. This quarter, which ends today, she had 15 kids reach their goal. She is deciding what reward to give these kids. She is thinking about $15-$20 gift certificates to Hicklebees or or Borders She may even take the kids to the store to make their purchases.

The big question is how to pay for the gift certificates. One idea she and her room mates were discussing was to use donorchoose.com I had never heard of it before last night and then I saw an article about it in the Wall Street Journal this morning. It is a really great program that matches proposals submitted by teachers with people who want to help. Allison hasn't used it before but her room mates who are also teachers have. They say it is great.

Listening to Allison's stories over the last two years has been enlightening and heartbreaking. I wish there was a way to end this posting with a summation of the problem and the solution. But there isn't.

Wednesday April 06, 2005

Who is this person?

Do you have the same experience I do? You follow a link to a blog you don't usually read. You find it interesting and think you might want to subscribe to it. You say to yourself, Who is this person? And then you are stuck. From their blog it is impossible to get any context for what you are reading. Who do they work for? What is the focus of this blog?

So I've changed the header of my blog to be a little bit more enlightening. Is there anything else you think I should provide to give people a frame of reference when they stumble on this blog for the first time?

Monday April 04, 2005

Cnet article about iWork

Last Friday Cnet published an article by Ed Frauenheim titled Home sweet home office. He gave a different slant on some of the discussion we had last week about the impact of working from home.