Can you believe it?  The original iPod was unveiled eight years ago today!  Little did we realize what a dynamic industry upheaval was launched that day.

Our oldest grandson also turned eight years old a few days ago.  He should always be able to remember when the iPod was launched.  When he is an old guy like me, he’ll be able to authoritatively tell his grandkids, “I grew up with the iPod!”

By the way, the photo is a stark reminder that age has affected Steve Jobs much differently than the music distribution revolution he helped lead.

During the second and third weeks of November, I will have the distinct pleasure of accompanying Michelle Dennedy, Chief Governance Officer of Cloud Computing for Sun Microsystems, in a series of three CIO Roundtables in New York, San Francisco and Washington, DC, and two CIO breakfast seminars in Toronto and Vancouver, Canada. 

Sponsored by Sun and moderated by CIO Magazine executives, these events will address the topic, “Identity Management - Pathway To Enterprise Agility”,  providing excellent forums to discuss such pertinent questions as:

1. How does strategic Identity Management contribute to business growth and not merely fulfill technology “need to do” requirements?
2. What Identity Management steps should you take to enhance business effectiveness?
3. How can good security governance is be good business?
4. Is your Identity Management system tuned for emerging marketplace requirements?
5. How does Identity Management address cloud computing?
6. How is Identity Management is enabling enterprises to capitalize – and not merely cope with – these realities?

To read more information about specific locations, including registration information, you can download .pdf fliers for each event:

1. Washington, DC – November 10th
2. New York, NY – November 11th
3. San Francisco, CA – November 12th
4. Vancouver, BC – November 13th
5. Toronto, ON – November 17th

Thanks! Hope to see you there.

Dare we think that Twitter might actually improve our quality of life?  Just ask Dilbert.

This morning, I listened to an excellent webinar entitled “Pinning Down Cloud Computing,” hosted by Yankee Group Research.  Yankee Group Vice President Camille Mender and Senior Analyst Agatha Poon explored the popular topic of cloud computing, focusing much on the business details enterprises must pay attention to if they are to successfully harness the promises of cloud computing – important things like uptime/availability, maintenance, penalties for non-performance,  limitations of liability and privacy / data protection, to name a few.

I liked the following diagram used to discuss the different levels or tiers of a cloud “stack” architecture.  The “Security and Compliance” bar to the left is a good way to illustrate the importance of information security and related compliance activities at each tier of the stack.  Of course, Identity Management is a critical underpinning of that security and compliance functionality.

(Diagram Copyright © 2009 Yankee Group Research, Inc. All rights reserved.  Used with permission.)

It was pointed out that the top three barriers to cloud computing uptake are:

• Security (39%)
• Reliability (35%)
• IT governance (33%)

The cloud computing market is still maturing.  So far, only a small percentage of enterprises are shifting a large part of their IT budgets to the cloud.  Recognizing the essential role Identity Management plays in security and governance is critical to accelerating that movement.

Congratulations to the Sun team for today’s release of Sun Java Communications Suite 7.  Did you know that there are over 150 million seats of the Sun Java Communications suite in production?  Telcos and other service providers all over the world use this suite for high scalability and performance in a service provider environment.

I particularly like the “Convergence” web client that provides a state-of-the-art AJAX Web 2.0 client experience for users.   It’s great to see the innovation rising out of this great group of Sun people.

I opened my copy of the Arizona Republic today to read an interesting Associated Press Article entitled “Internet turns 40; barriers imperil its growth.”  I was a junior in high school way back in the day when, on September 2, 1969, “about 20 people gathered in Kleinrock's lab at the University of California, Los Angeles, to watch as two bulky computers passed meaningless test data through a 15-foot gray cable.”  I was oblivious to it then, and little did I realize how my entire career would be affected so profoundly by that pioneering work.

Despite the challenges that face the Internet now, a few of which are pointed out in the article, it has been enjoyable to pause a few minutes to reflect on the advances in technology over that span of time and try to anticipate what the next 40 years may bring.

In the photo above, “Internet pioneer Len Kleinrock poses next to an Interface Message Processor, a device used to develop the Internet 40 years ago at UCLA.”  Gotta love all those switches on the front panel!

A related article published in the Globe and Mail includes a summary time line of key milestones in the development of the Internet.

This past weekend, I adopted Windows Live Writer as a blog editor to post to my personal and professional blogs.  Now, I can use the same user interface to post to Roller (Discovering Identity), Blogger (Dixon Digest) and WordPress (I Love Freedom).  I really like the way it works with photos and how it handles WordPress Tags.  I sense that I have barely scratched the surface of its potential.  Time will tell.

• Screens of our Lives
  (tags: Zits Mobility Television Laptop OnlineServices)

• Qualcomm Inc.: Smarter Chips to Power SmartBooks (Industry Week)
  "Qualcomm Inc. CEO Paul Jacobs recently told Bloomberg News the makers of a new small computer known as 'smartbooks' will use his company's Snapdragon chip for the new device that's expected to start selling in the next quarter."
  (tags: smartbook qualcomm)
• Sharp intros 5in ARM-based netbook (Register Hardware)
  Sharp launched the PC-Z1 Netwalker, a small netbook based around a 5in display and Ubuntu Linux and an ARM Cortex A8-derived CPU.
  (tags: netbook sharp)
• How Facebook Can Ruin Your Friendships (WSJ.com)
  "All this online social networking was supposed to make us closer. And in some ways it has. ... But there's a danger here, too. If we're not careful, our online interactions can hurt our real-life relationships."
  (tags: socialnetworking socialmedia twitter facebook)

• Quick Wins in Identity Management - Still Alive and Well
  (tags: Identity IdentityManagement DigitalIdentity QuickWins)
• Aegis USA - Identity Appliances
  (tags: AegisUSA Identity Management Digital Appliance)
• FoxNews.com - Device Lets the Tongue See
  "The Wicab BrainPort is a device that takes information gathered by a small digital camera in a pair of glasses and sends it to a 'lollipop' electrode array that sits on your tongue. The device was designed to help people who are blind or who have extremely low vision."
  (tags: vision blind sight Sensor tongue)

• Digital Lifestyle - Nokia announces their first netbook
  Impressive new addition to the netbook genre
  (tags: netbook mobile mobility)
• Silicon.com - Apple finally reveals why some iPhone apps get a 'yes' at the App Store
  "It's been over a year since Apple inaugurated its App Store but it has finally shed some light on how the approval process works."
  (tags: iphone applications appstore itunes)

• YouTube - 8-bit trip - amazing video for legomaniacs everywhere.
  Animated video featuring a plethora of lego structures, celebrating early video games.
  (tags: lego videogame animation stopmotion)

• USATODAY - International Space Station Comes Together: animated time line
  Cool animated model shows the progressive growth of the international space statione from its first module in 1998 through 2008, plus anticipated additions in the future
  (tags: Space spacestation NASA)

• CNN.com - Bolt changing face of athletics forever
  "In the space of just a year, Usain St. Leo Bolt has become one the most recognizable people on the planet."
  (tags: Bolt track Jamaica speed)
• Times Online - Steve Jobs: The man who polished Apple
  "Apple Inc is worth around $140 billion. But is it worth anything without Jobs?d"
  (tags: apple iphone SteveJobs Macintosh pixar)
• A Sales Guy - Onliine Presence: Asset of the Future
  "The asset of the future will be your social graph. Have you started investing in it? You should be. Like most assets, the returns are much higher when you get in early."
  (tags: Identity Relationship socialgraph socialnetworking)
• ILoveFreedom.com - Entitlements and Slavery: No Free Lunches
  We must raise our voices in an articulate and resolute war of words to stop the downward spiral of our precious free society into the slavery of government entitlements.
  (tags: Freedom, Liberty, Entitlements, Slavery, Politics, Government)

• Mashable - Twitter to Attach Locations to Your Tweets
  Twitter just announced an upcoming set of features and APIs (application programming interfaces) that will make “Twitter truly location-aware.”
  (tags: twitter LBS LocationBasedServices location)
• Telegraph.co.uk - Chalk in three dimensions: the pavement art of Kurt Wenners
  "Master street artist Kurt Wenner's creations on cobbles and pavements across the world may look like they have been dug into the ground..."
  (tags: art chalk)
• Motley Fool - The iPhone's More Popular Than You Think
  "Feature phones are taking on more of the physical characteristics of smartphones, and often offer greater exposure to carrier services,
  (tags: iphone mobile mobility smartphone)