Sunday Dec 02, 2007
At the and of last week, I attended Forrester Research's Services & Sourcing Forum in Nice (thanks, Boss!). It was really interesting to see research and real examples of how IT sourcing has evolved, so that the Selective Sourcing / Multi-Sourcing approach that we (Sun UK) started promoting a few years back is now more common, and (I would say) seen as best practice. Also, how far we have moved from the "your mess for less" mega-deals. However, some of the presenters from banks and the like were still talking about services on a huge scale.
I will write up more at a later time.
I'm still concerned about some of the ethics of offshoring. Much emphasis was made of how simply offshoring ("Global Sourcing" is the euphemism) for lower costs is not a good strategy. But, nonetheless, labour rates in India are lower than, say the U.S. So is it exploitation?
And when you take it beyond IT to industry & commerce as a whole, it seems to me that much offshoring also succeeds in outsourcing a company's carbon footprint; and thereby they can feel it is no longer their problem. Or maybe I'm too cynical.
On a related note, on the flight back (yes, I flew - mea culpa) I read a 2 page ad by the Prince of Wales's Corporate Leaders Group on Climate Change, with a letter to the world leaders meeting in Bali, to exhort them to DO SOMETHING about climate change. I was delighted to see Sun as one of the companies supporting this.
I went on to read the Prince of Wales's own article - Bali offers a vital chance to change the world - and was amused by the footer to the article, which is usually along the lines of "the writer is the Chairman of XYZ Megacorp and advisor to the Committee on Money Laundering". This one just simply says "The writer is heir to the British throne"
OK- 'nuff said!
Saturday Dec 01, 2007
I was astounded to find out, at the end of October, that the National Lottery had decided to shorten their list for the "People's Vote" from 6 to 4; and they dropped Inspired off the list.
The reasons are still not clear - they seem to feel no need to account for the decision (but it feels Political).
I feel really sorry for the Inspired team, who will fight on; the petition to reinstate Inpsired has now closed, but includes signatories such as Prof. Stephen Hawking.
Friday Oct 05, 2007
Is it really 2 months since I last posted to this blog: blame Facebook - too much fun to be had.
A couple of things I wanted share: I wanted to share a great article on this morning's BBC Radio4 "Today" programme; it's purportedly about the recent rise as autism in literature, but is also a good insight from a parent (who has written a book about his son) and Prof. Simon Baron-Cohen. Its starts about 8:30 into this link
Talking to a friend last night reminded me about an approach to helping the Asperger's kids that we did some work on a couple of years ago. The concept is "Social Stories". You can find various references (and books) about it - such as Polyxo.com (great name!) or The Gray Center , which is the resource we used. It's essentially about helping the autistic child to plan & rehearse for problematic social situations. What is particularly interesting is the very prescriptive approach to the structure of the stories. But it seems to work very well - I have met other parents who say it has been enormously helpful with some difficult situations.
Wednesday Aug 08, 2007
In the last Sunday Times (5th), Jeremy Clarkson dedicates half of his review on the G-Wiz electric car to the Science Museum's Inspired project and its bid for a UK lottery grant. Some quotes:
"Since 1996 entries for A-level physics are down by 5,000 and there have been 79 university science department closures. What’s more, in the next few years half of the nation’s physics teachers will retire, leaving a gap that cannot be filled.
"What makes all this doubly alarming is that we are living in an increasingly technological world. The demand for phones that can play tunes, jet engines that run on manure and game consoles that mince pigeons is increasing at an exponential rate. And as it increases the number of people in Britain able to design and develop these new ideas is dwindling.
"... it is critical the Science Museum wins a forthcoming competition to get its hands on £50m from the Big Lottery.
"The men in cornish-pastie shoes want the lottery cash so they can build an architectural wonder where all the quarter of a million exhibits can be displayed properly. A place that should help Britain’s schoolchildren understand that it won’t be environmentalists or politicians that’ll save the world from global warming. It’ll be a scientist.
"If you want to ensure the Science Museum gets its cash and the windmill fails, go to www.voteinspired.org.uk and vote. I have."
'Nuff said.
Thursday Jul 26, 2007
One of the things that seems to be significant with all Autistic Spectrum Condition (Apsergers, austism, ADHD, dislexia... ) is diet. Before I go on - this is an area that is based on some inconclusive science -there has not enoguh large-scale research. Moreover, it is clear that a number of people see this as a bandwagon for commercial gain - try
this google search. There is some good stuff in here, and some useful books, but some phrases like "reverse autism"... "cure for autism" ... sound alarm bells to me.
Firstly - let's recognise this is a condtion, not a disease. Of coure, severe autism is very hard to deal with - but mostly this is about differences from what we accept as normal - so words like "cure" are deeply offensive. (As an aside, I reccommend the "Institute for the Study of the Neurologically Typical": which holds a satirical mirror up to "normals".)
A more significant caution, is that this is an area touched on by Dr. Andrew Wakefield (of MMR & Autism infamy). But that is a whole other issue.
Research into autism & diet seems seems to have a little more substance, and I'll describe our empirical experience. But you need to make up your own mind.
With those caveats said, it seems that diet can play a role in reducing some of the symptoms or side effects. Principally, it is to do with gluten and casein, proteins from cereals and dairy. As I said you can find a lot of the background on the web, but the theory seems to be that is that when these proteins are broken down into peptides in the gut of someone with ASC, these peptides can enter the blood, rather then being broken down into amino acids. They then act like morphine in the body; and can be detected as opoids in the urine ('Leaky Gut' and the Gluten- / Casein-Free Diet')
We first came across refrences to this Luke Jackson's excellent book "Freaks, Geeks and Asperger Syndrome" . Our minds were made up, when we showed Luke's list of physical symptoms to Calum; we knew about the bad skin and bad breath, but Calum said he felt most of them, such as gut pains.
This was shorty after Calum was diagnosed. Over the summer holiday, we started Calum on the Gluten & Casein free diet (it takes several weeks). When he returned to school in September, all his teachers were asking what we had done: he was calmer, more focussed, less voluble in class (and has continued to be so).
Let's be clear: Calum is still Calum,and still has Asperger's (and we love him for that). But some of the distracting effects had been reduced.
It really came home to me a few months later, when I was editing some video of Calum, taken shortly before we changed the diet. In the video, you could see his eyes had dilated pupils and were darting around at random: compared to how he is now, he was "high".
I'll say yet again - you need to form your own opinion. We know what we have seen, and we are not unique. I will reference some further research papers that I have been reading:
Tuesday Jul 10, 2007
Interesting "panel discussion" about ITIL V3 (it's more like a chain letter, in reality) published on the ITP site. This article is "hosted" by Sharon Taylor, the ITIL V3 Chief Architect. It carries comments from various people such as Michael Nieves, one of the V3 authors, and.... Paul Gostick, formerly of Sun.
Worth a read, as a more balanced and weighty set of views than my last post (or rant, to be accurate).
Thursday Jun 28, 2007
I need to preface this posting with a caveat that this really is a personal observation, not the view of Sun. And I'll probably change this opinion at a future date!
Earlier this month, we saw the much vaunted launch of ITIL Version 3. If you are not familiar with it, then you can read all about it on the itSMF International site, or the itSMF UK site. ITIL was well overdue an update, and the new version "...makes the link between ITIL's best practice and business benefits both clearer and stronger. The main development is that V3 takes a lifecycle approach to guidance, as opposed to organising according to IT delivery sectors..." - which is A Good Thing.
But hold on.
"....the interface between old and new approaches is seamless so that users do not have to reinvent the wheel when adopting it...". There is not better mousetrap here: the original guidance for Change Management, Incident Management etc. still applies. So, what is the actual, tangible benefit in moving to V3? Yes, I reiterate - I do support the business integatation and lifecycle approach - but what is the business benefit?
I ask, not because of the cost of the books, at £300 a pop, but because of the flood of marketing that I see on the back of this new version. Virtually every day, I receive an email about V3 conversion courses, software tools with "exciting new V3 capabilities", teaser webcasts from "experts", and charged-for book launches from the OGC (the owners).
Behind all this frenzy in the ITIL ecosystem, I worry about what we are implicitly accepting. From the viewpoint of Sun (as an open-source company) collaboratiave, community development seems natural. And that was how V2 felt. But V3 feels like it is more like a proprietary approach.
The parallel I see is the recent launch of Windows Vista. The week of that launch, a UK PC retailer had a 2 page newspaper spread for "Vista-ready" products, such as "Vista ready printers". I'm sure I'm missing something here - a printer is a printer isn't it? I thought we cracked the problem of the O/S being able to talk to printers at least 25 years ago?
I digress. It would be a cynic who would view the current hype from systems tools, training and consulting suppliers as merely an attempt to drive more business out of a maturing market. I'm sure that people will get a real business benefit as they adopt V3.
And maybe 6 -12 months from now, I'll be a V3 zealot, giving presentations about it on my Vista laptop.
Maybe.
Monday Jun 18, 2007
A couple of comments that I received to my last post to this subject made me feel that I need to add some interesting and positive thoughts about ASC.
- This entry on wikipedia - People speculated to have been autistic is a good collection. OK - it's Wikipedia, and as they say themselves "This section does not cite its references or sources." (actually, it does), but it's a thought provoking (in a fun way) read.
- This led me to what looks like a great "Aspie" web site / forum at Wrong Planet- managed by an "aspie" with his own feisty views.
- Did you know that Simon Baron-Cohen (researcher) is first cousin to Sacha Baron-Cohen (comedian of Ali G & Borat fame)? Sounds like an internet myth - but I think the name kind of validates it. It also makes me wonder.....
Thursday Jun 14, 2007
What I am going to write about in this post is a parent's perspective and experience of having a child with Asperger's Syndrome.
There is a mass of stuff on the 'net about this: there are the medical and academic articles (which can be quite grim): I added links to some of what we think are the best sources in a previous post, including references to some of Dr. Temple Grandin's articles.
At the other extreme are sites offering everything just short of a cure (as if there was such a thing). These sites are becoming increasingly prolific. As the incidences of all types of Autistic Spectrum Disorders increases, while the cause is still uncertain, more and more parents are becoming desparate. Clearly there are some who see this area as a business opportunity. This is exacerbated by the fact that there is no real mainsteam "treatment", which leaves parents prey to what could optimistically described as "alternative medicine".
Somewhere in the middle are the support and self help groups, such as the UK's National Autistic Society and the Asperger's Syndrome Foundation. We also found inspiration from the books and TV programme of Luke Jackson - explaining what it was like from a teenager's perspective.
It may be best if I explain this in the context of our son Calum, so you can see specifics, and real examples.
Asperger's Syndrome
As a child at kindergarten, it was suggested to us that Calum had hearing problems - he would often ignore the rest of the class and prefer to read. When tested, his hearing was fine. At infant / junior school, some teachers became aggravated at the way he would speak out in class; also, his handwriting was illegible.
Eventually, he was referred for diagnosis at about age 9 . Having run some tests, he was diagnosed as having Asperger's Syndrome.
Asperger's is described by the experts as being on "on the Autistic Spectrum". Spectrum seems to be the right word - in the rainbow sense, not a range. As well as classic autism, there are other versions such as Pervasive Developmental Disorder, OCD and some versions of ADHD.
From research we've done, conferences attended, talking to professionals, and to adults with AS, it sees that:-
- Autistic Spectrum Disorders (ASD) are not disorders (I prefer Autistic Spectrum Conditions - ASC). It's simply that these are people whose brains are wired differently.
- The common area seems to be with processing information, especially sensory - auditory, visual, touch....
Calum is 80-90%% typical Asperger Syndrome - if there is such a thing. You can read some of the symptoms in this document:. The key areas are:
- Issues with Social Interaction & Communication
- Imagination & Flexiblity of thought
- Difficulties with Sensory Stimuli
- Motor Difficulties
- Organisational Difficulties
But Calum is not a problem - he is justeccentric; which is pretty typical. And this is nothing new - people who are suspected to have Aspergers include Einstein, Bill Gates.... (Plus many of the geeks and nerds you will have ever come across.)
In Calum's case we see:
- High cognitive (logical) thinking; low intuitive (emotional). (Most/all AS kids have to learn how to read emotions from peoples' facial expressions as if they were learning a foreign language).
- That also leads to poor social skills; poor listening skills, knowing what is appropriate when, etc.
- High functioning (high IQ) - this often means they learn how to compensate social and other issues using cognitive strength.
- Can be obsessive about interests - hobbies etc. (for example, in Calum's case it's reading - we have to search him for books when we go out, remove his lightbullb at night etc.)
- Auditory processing issues - can't filter in noisy environments. A classic thing with ASD kids is that at the end of class, in the hubbub, they don't hear the teacher say "and tonight's homework is....." ( If you want to get their attention, you need to start the sentence with their name)
- Poor fine motor skills -e.g. illegible hand writing
- Hypersensitivity (to some things). Calum is not too bad here. We are lucky - some AS kids can't stand being touched, hugged...
- Conversely, poor body awareness: "why are you wearing that heavy jumper in this 85 degree heat.? Aren't you hot?"
- A "tick" or "tell" - tugging, scratching.....
- Taking things literally. Again , Calum is not too bad here, but many AS kids don't "get" jokes; they take things literally - (we even have dictionary of idioms for AS kids! Expressions like "it's raining cats and dogs" can be very confusing!)
- They don't "get" team sports. I thinks it's a combination of the auditory processing and the lack of intuition,
If these sound like problems, they are not. As I said, most people simply see Calum as eccentric and not a little entertaining; he is knowledgeable; and has an extensive vocabulary. This is a kid whose History teacher admits that he often knows more than she does, but who cannot tell you what day of the week it is or who else is in his class at school. He's not quite a nerd, but you can see his ideal career will be a professor or a librarian....
More about Calum, strategies we have adopted, and what we are still learing, in a later post.
Thursday Jun 14, 2007
In my previous posting on Sun & ITIL, I overlooked the ITSMO service we've been developing - a rapid deployment, web-based approach for delivering ITIL process definitions.
Wednesday Jun 13, 2007
Some unkind people will tell you that the best thing about Swindon is its view from your rear-view mirror as you join the M4.... But not many know about the hidden treasure trove at a nearby disused airfield - one that any of us with a hint of interest in Technology, Science or Educataion need to be vigorously supporting (-in the autumn you will get a chance)
Of course, we all know about the Science Museum in Kensington. This, in turn, is part of the UK's NMSI family of museums, that includes the National Rail Museum and the National Media Museum. But the less famous member is the Swindon Science Museum.
Before you scoff: Swindon holds 92% of the Science Museum collection; yes you read that right - Kensington only has 8% of the collection. Wroughton airfield near Swindon has hangar after hangar stuffed full of, well, stuff. This includes a Lockheed Constellation once owned by the Rolling Stones, a nuclear missile or two, Blue Peter inshore lifeboat, the first hovercraft, oh and - computers. Rows and rows of them- from Leo, through ICL 1900's to Microvaxes & Apollos (I haven't spotted a Sparcstation yet).
Today, public access is limited (and a bit random). A project called "Inspired" has been launched to develop the site and open it up for better access - not as a "normal" museum, but more a place of education, inspiration and fun - a new type of museum that will "deliver serious fun for everyone by bringing to life the human
stories and moments of genius behind 200,000 iconic objects which have
been previously inaccessible to the public".
The project is on a shortlist of 6 for Lottery funding, that will be voted on by the UK public later in 2007. Please -
browse their web site, get Inspired, go to one of their events, support the Lotterty vote.
Tuesday Jun 12, 2007
Within the larger field of IT Service Management, does Sun have anything to say, anything to offer, regarding ITIL? I'm sometimes asked "why should Sun be interested in ITIL? - Sun is a technology company"; and "why would anyone come to Sun for advice on ITIL?"
I'll leave the discussion about Sun's use of ITIL and CoBIT internally for now - subject for a later posting - but you may want to refer to the ISACA case study on Sun
The importance of ITIL is as an "enabler" for our customers – it's something we can use to help them. If they are looking to improve they way in which they are delivering IT services to their users, or to drive towards some goal related to operation excellence, ITIL provides a framework for that. The term “best practice” is used and abused; it's really just plain good practice- if you want to support business, support your users, ITIL gives some ideas about how to go about it.
As an aside – ITIL is not a rule book, it's a framework. Brad Vaughan has captured it nicely in his blog - “"ITIL cannot be implemented"
But I've still not answered why Sun would be interested. It's really about making sure that our customers are able to get the best out of their investment in our technology. Some of our technology is complex, and we have teams of experts to help our customers architect and implement large scale infrastructures. However - all too often the focus is on “getting it up and running” - then what? To look at the flip side: there are lots of anecdotes out there of major system outages; (not on Sun kit specifically!) that have ultimately been caused by a failure of process, not technology. Wrong patches applied, no change approval, no backout plan.... and so on.
So, in a way Sun's interest in ITIL could be seen as analogous to why we provide training courses, or work with open source communities: it is to enable our customers to make better use of our technology.
We don't promote ITIL on its own, as a specific offer. Firstly we are a technology company. Secondly, ITIL is systemically embedded into a number of our services, such as OCA and Managed Operations – back to Brad's point. ITIL is a means, not an end.
What is different about Sun's approach here is that we are not specifically trying to sell consulting, training, or systems management software (unlike most other vendors with an ITIL “play”). Sure – we will charge – we are a commercial company. But we are not doing this to hook our customers into endless consultancy, or “advise” them to buy our management software. It's about our customers getting the best use from what we are providing them.
So ITIL is important; but not a “core” offer for Sun (part of the reason for the name of this blog)
Does Sun have any credibility / track
record in ITIL?
Well, since we started taking a more systematic approach, about 8 years ago, we've moved to a point where all our Services personnel have some level of awareness. More and more staff are achieving ITIL Masters; I even come across Sales people who've been certified (in ITIL, that is!). We also have a number of staffers who've joined Sun with deep, lengthy experience (in other words
they're really old ;-) )
Sun has also been an active sponsor of the itSMF for a number of years. We were one of the first Global sponsors, in 2002,and have provided speakers to events such as the global conference in 2003 - Lesley Lambert / Bobbi Burn's presentation ( you may need to be logged into the itSMF portal to get access)
In addition, Sun staff have been instrumental in getting local chapters going in France, Norway, Venezuela.
In the past, Sun's point of reference for ITIL was based around SunTone. Now that we've retired SunTone in favour of ISO/IEC 20000. As we move forward we will be addressing that standard; and transitioning to ITIL version 3 . More about these two another day.
Wednesday Jun 06, 2007
In a later post, I will explain why this area is so deeply important to me. What is Asperger's Syndrome? - From the National Autistic SocietyAsperger syndrome is a form of autism, a condition that affects the way a person communicates and relates to others. A number of traits of autism are common to Asperger syndrome including difficulty in social relationships, difficulty in communicating, limitations in imagination and creative play. For now, I just wanted to share a couple of important links with you.
Dr. Temple Grandin of Colorado State University is a noted writer and academic on the subjects of Autism and Asperger's Syndrome: she is probably the most accomplished and well-known adult with autism in the world. Articles such as An Inside View of Autism give a deep insight into what it feels like to be autistic. I commend her articles on the IRCA site.
This Times article on Mike Lesser is a good read, and refers to his website "Autism and Computing" which contains papers relating autism and computing: how computers can help autistics and vice versa. I love his quote:
"It can be argued that human knowledge and achievement is limited by our attention. Most of us do not have enough attention to deal with the demands of everyday life. That’s why 2,000 people die on the roads each year.
However, it seems that humanity has evolved a way of dealing with this problem of scarce attention by giving some people the propensity to focus their attention in a concentrated beam, an attention tunnel. This approach is often diagnosed as autism or Asperger’s syndrome. There is a minor but socially significant side-effect to this tight beam approach: it means that little attention is left for social rules, language, and how human beings relate."
And don't forget the resources on the National Autistic Society site.
Wednesday Jun 06, 2007
When the SunTone program started in the late 1990s, at the height of the dot.com boom, it was a an innovative approach to trying to ensure that the emerging Internet services met criteria to deliver reliability. These criteria were around areas such as security and availability.
The Program was a classic example of a community effort, with leading Service Provider partners contributing, to create a form of “opensource” specification. For Sun, the program became a way of developing the service provider market by driving a certification scheme for SunTone: those organisations whose services met the requirements could brand those services as “SunTone Certified”.
At the program's height, joint marketing activities and funds were available to certified Sun partners. At one point certification covered a number of categories – Services Providers, Integrators, Enterprise Services and Applications. These variances created a little confusion, but the overall number of organisations that have had a service or application SunTone Certified is over 250. In addition, at any one time, another 250 organisations may have applied for certification.
The specification for SunTone was evolved over the years by the member-driven Architecture Council.
The specification defines the Organisational, Architectural, and Process aspects for best practice in network computing. As such, it has been a unique model in the industry: broader than just IT management processes (ITIL) or operations (MOF). The latest version (version 3) developed in 2005 incorporated the BS15000 requirements. In addition, SunTone was linked to application development to create the SunTone Architecture Methodology.
The specification and program was well respected by industry experts. For example, SunTone has often been cited by Gartner as an example of Sun being able to offer unique intellectual property to its customers and partners. In some GEMS (notably SEE) SunTone has been used as part of a marketing and sales campaign to provide an entry, a proof point of Sun's expertise. There are also some individual case studies where SunTone has been used as part of an overall IT improvement program.
But in 2006, the decision was taken to end the program.
In recent years we saw emergence of BS15000 and now ISO20000, and an increasing adoption of COBIT within the industry. Now that these open industry standards exist, is seems no longer necessary for Sun, a leading advocate of open standards, to continue to maintain our own certification scheme.
The reference model developed as part of SunTone will continue to evolve and become a foundation for future Sun products and services.
Customers and partners who had existing (current) SunTone certification received formal notifcation of the end of the program in August 2006.
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