Data, Data Everywhere…

I bet we look back on May 21, 2009 as an historic day; a day when everything changed…On this day, the Obama Administration, specifically its CIO, Vivek Kundra, announced the launch of Data.gov which “will open up the workings of government by making economic, healthcare, environmental, and other government information available on a single website, allowing the public to access raw data and transform it in innovative ways.”

Obviously, the mere thought of a government opening up its proverbial kimono is amazing enough, the real, grand moment, however, will be when the first applications of this data materialize.  Just as Apple’s AppStore for the iPhone displays the brilliance (and not a little stupidity) of the crowd, Data.gov will bring forth today’s innovative developers and enterprises.  I can’t wait to see what they do!

One day earlier, Google announced it will open up its servers to geographic data from anyone.  This goes beyond its 2005 open API announcement for its map services enabling mashups to “viewing, storing and updating geodata on the web.”  And even with some initial service limitations, this is a win-win for all developers — as they no longer have to manage their own geo-data store — as well as Google itself, who can add this new geo-data to their search results and possibly generate revenue from it.

One week earlier, the Wolfram|Alpha had its soft launch “to make all systematic knowledge immediately computable and accessible to everyone.” This is a “quest to make knowledge computable.” It also “contains 10+ trillion of pieces of data, 50,000+ types of algorithms and models, and linguistic capabilities for 1000+ domains.”  It is truly amazing to have come so far and daunting to still have so far to go in its endeavors.

What these events all have in common is the super consolidation and subsequent dissemination of the world’s data in the hope of it becoming knowledge and wisdom.  The results could be life-altering, good or bad, but definitely different.

What I hope to also see from these events in my clients and other enterprises is their wake-up from the deep sleep so many of them are in when it comes to dealing with corporate data.  If the above events are the future trend, huge changes need to begin in corporations.

Most of them are so caught up with securing a perimeter that no longer exists, complying with useless but required SOX audits, and working around Legal’s latest inane guidelines, they see all “their data” as confidential and therefore secret.  This often occurs within the silos of the corporation itself, so sharing of data doesn’t even cross lines of business or departments.  It is my hypothesis, as seen in a few leading edge organizations, that there is only a very small percentage (~10%) of all corporate data which is truly confidential or proprietary, and enterprises are losing out on significant opportunities to increase sales, innovate new products/services, or improve operations by not widely disseminating the other 90%.

So, how do we get them to see it?  How do they “consolidate and disseminate” in a way which is secure and appropriate, yet leverages and empowers the employees, partners, vendors, suppliers, stakeholders, peers, and others connected to these companies?  How should companies democratize data?

Newbies are beginning to shine

As I struggle to understand why we are propping up a clearly flawed model in our automakers, I am very excited by what I see from the newbies.  Though still too expensive for me at over $57,000, the new Tesla Model S is still extraordinarily impressive — 300 miles on a 45 minute charge and able to go zero to 60 in 5.5 seconds.

Given what we know now, it boggles the mind that Ford dropped Th!nk from its portfolio because it decided to get out of the electronic car business in 2003.  Th!nk has struggled along, mainly in Europe, but has recently secured new financing and plans to push into the U.S. market shortly.  Where they seem to excel is from the modularity of their technology.  They have basically built the core functionality of a car and allowed the battery source and outer shell to be just about anything.  Thus, they are poised for both a B2B and B2C play or both.

It is this kind of ingenuity and innovation, not just in the auto industry, which gets me up in the morning lately.  If we continue to bankroll failed models, however, we prevent or at least delay new innovations and new ideas from reaching viability.  It is easy to play it safe, hard but possibly more rewarding to be out on the edge…

UPDATE. “Electric car startup Tesla Motors has a new partner: German giant Daimler.“

The Federal CIO

Though President Obama has yet to announce a CTO, he has announced his choice for Federal CIO, Vivek Kundra.  His choice is a promising one, given Kundra’s fantastic success as CTO for Washington D.C. For example, he saved the city millions by switching off Microsoft’s Office platform and onto Google’s Apps platform for desktop productivity and even crowdsourced technology solutions for the city, saving even more millions in development fees.

O’Reilly has a great summation of audio and video clips describing what Kundra has to say.  Viewing them has given me great hope for the US and our amazing leader who can recognize innovative talent in this traditionally unfathomable space.

Our first CTO…

Could it be? Could we be getting a U.S. Chief Technology Officer? It certainly seems possible, with our most technologically savvy President in office. If we were to have such a role, it would most definitely enable Obama to intelligently craft many of the solutions to the issues he has been talking about, such as healthcare, climate change, energy independence, government 2.0, etc.

Technology Review has a good interview with one of the names being bandied about for holding such a post, Cisco’s Padmasree Warrior.

Social Networks Epitomize Biomimicry

In my last post, I talked about biomimicry as the answer to most of our human problems. Some of those problems include information dissemination, joint knowledge creation and relationship management.  By looking at the insect world, we can and have solved many of these problems.

The insect world seems chaotic, but in reality it is a self-organizing, redundant, highly specialized, centrally managed system.  Colonies of ants and bees, for example, look like chaotic swarms, but in reality their queens give the orders, specialized workers carry out those orders and have backup systems, like chemical trails or poisons, which allow for problems, like invasion or weather, to be surmounted without damaging the overall system.  Individuals “know” each other through their scents or chemical signature and can share experiences and collaborate together once identified as “friends.  Is this beginning to sound familiar?  They may not have perfected smell-o-vision on the Internet yet, but once I “know” who you are, I can “friend” or “follow” you on any number of networking systems today.

Just like in the insect world, the systems we are creating are as diverse as the insects on this planet.  Their diversity stems from how the systems are being used and by whom.  For example, Facebook versus LinkedIn or Twitter versus Yammer where the difference is primarily between personal and business networks. Some of these networks are to ensure relationships are not lost and we can keep up with each other as we move from job to job or place to place.  I’ve found a number of people from school and past jobs through these networks that I never would have otherwise.  Others are focused on sharing information or on collaborating together to develop new knowledge.

I believe there are also classes of users who by using these systems differently are creating sub-systems within the larger network.  Take Twitter users for example.  There are many who use it as a global IM client.  Personally, I find this annoying when done all the time as that information is usually not relevant to more than one or two people.  I often “unfollow” very quickly if that’s all that’s coming across.  Others use it to ask questions or describe thoughts or describe live events as they unfold.  I liken this to the bee that has found a jackpot of pollen and wants every bee to know. My goal is to find jackpot bees from many different gardens so that my Twitterverse is diverse and highly valuable.

I have been finding that for many of the same reasons these technologies are so popular outside of business organizations, they are failing inside those same organizations.  It may be the self-organizing nature of the systems or the perceived lack of control over the information flowing through the system which worries businesses, regardless it is failing in most established businesses.

This year’s TED conference included a talk by Tim Berners-Lee where he spoke of information management being the next big issue to tackle as we tackled the WWW.  This is also true within businesses.  Too many assume all of their information is confidential and thus must be under lock and key, when in reality very little of it is.  It is my hypothesis that this fear of the truly unknown (ie information) is what is preventing a lot of social networking and collaboration from occurring  productively within businesses today.  How do we fix this?

Biomimicry is Usually the Answer

I have never really understood, with our early and continuous fascination with Nature, how we as a species find ourselves so far from it.  There is little that we produce or create that actually works within Nature.  From our houses and skyscrapers to our modes of transportation to the clothing on our backs and even to the foods we eat, we design, create and deliver little resembling that which is natural, regardless of marketing claims.  (we now have commercials for high-fructose corn syrup for goodness sake!)

The concept of biomimicry is to look to Nature when faced with a challenge and see if it, or something like it, has already been solved, instead of starting from scratch. By applying this concept, we will almost always find the answer.

Science has begun to apply biomimicry (aka biomimetics) in the design of new products or the solving of old problems. The most publicized example, I believe, was the coverage lavished on Speedo’s Fastskin suits, designed from the unique principles of shark skin, which swimmers began wearing during the 2000 Olympics. Close to 80% of the swimming medals that year were won by those wearing those kinds of suits. Solar lilypads in Glasgow, the stickiness of Gecko feet and the constant change of birds wings while in flight are recent examples I have stumbled across.

These are great applications of biomimicry, but as is recommended in “Natural Capitalism,” it is in the processes of Nature where we need to pay special attention in order to deliver true sustainability for the human race.  In nature, no matter what is happening, there are no waste products as there are in our own processes. Nature creates a zero sum equation, as in the carbon cycle of the earth.  It is our own input of too much of some parts of this cycle that is throwing off the equilibrium of the earth and causing climate change. Our goal must be to better mimic Nature’s own processes, or at leat Her zero sum equations, in order to bring back the equilibrium we have so dangerously altered.

The Able Project in the UK is a prime example of such thinking.  The short version is this, “From Cardboard to Caviar”:

• used cardboard from restaurants & shops picked up –>
• shredded cardboard recycled for horse bedding –>
• used bedding added to worm farm compost piles –>
• compost collected and added to plant beds & extra worms fed to sturgeon fish farm –>
• caviar is then harvested from the sturgeon and sold back to the restaurants

What other problems exist where we can apply biomimicry soltutions? What other biomimicry solutions are out there already in the works?

President Obama

Barack Obama’s Inaugural Address - January 20, 2009
As transcribed and posted in The New York Times
Watch the Address on CNN.com
And keep abreast of our new America here

Importance, Value and the Long View

My own thoughts and ideas on what “sustainability” really means have now begun to be articulated, far more eloquently than I ever could, in Tim O’Reilly’s post, “Work on Stuff That Matters.” His First Principles are:

1. Work on something that matters to you more than money.
2. Create more value than you capture.
3. Take the long view.

Tag! You’re It!

Well, I’ve been tagged by the infamous and exuberant, social media goddess herself, Susan Scrupski (a.k.a ITSinsider). So here goes…

First, the rules:

• Link your original tagger(s), and list these rules on your blog.
• Share seven facts about yourself in the post – some random, some weird.
• Tag seven people at the end of your post by leaving their names and the links to their blogs.
• Let them know they’ve been tagged by leaving a comment on their blogs and/or Twitter.

Second, these are my 7 facts:

1. I’ve ridden horses since I was 8 years old
2. My acupuncturist recently cured my painful Plantar fasciitis, to my great surprise
3. I’d much rather be in my garden, or any garden for that matter, than just about anywhere else on earth
4. I was drinking Cosmopolitans long before those knuckleheads on TV
5. I get “seasick” traveling on just about anything that moves, except for trains oddly enough
6. I think Sean Connery was and always will be the best 007
7. Getting out of bed in the morning is way more challenging than it should be

Finally, I’ll too will harass the following people to keep the party going:

• Vaughan Merlyn
• Esteban Herrera
• Roy Youngman
• Espen Andersen
• Steven Hatch
• Craig Morse

$3 Trillion Dollars…

A collision of feeds — “Imagine” on iTunes and @guykawasaki’s Tweet about the infographic below — led me down the path of imagining where we would be if we hadn’t spent the estimated $3 trillion on the war…I bet we’d be really close to energy independence already, no?