Enterprise hits & misses - April 28
- Summary:
- Jon's cheeky weekly review of which enterprise software articles hit (or didn’t) on diginomica & beyond - for week ending April 27, 2014.
A cheeky weekly review of which articles hit (or didn’t) on diginomica and beyond.
quotage: 'If the results of this research are to be believed, it seems that users are still struggling to get to grips with big data and aren’t really seeing very many benefits – yet. They also aren’t spending a great deal.' - Derek
myPOV: This week, the diginomica team hit on troubling big data and privacy issues, digesting fresh research along the way:
Derek had one of the most popular posts of the week with A big data reality check – what the hell is the use case?, where he broke down the data from a recent study from The Information Difference, which indicates that customers are struggling to define big data use cases. I took a different angle, reviewing the latest on data science skills demand in The data scientist debate – new salary data and definitions. From my vantage point, the most compelling stories I have seen are not really about big data from a volume standpoint, but about incorporating selective external data into enterprise decisions. Even so, Derek is right to insist on verifiable outcomes, which are not as easy to find as marketeers imply.
Phil examined the dark side of the big data in Open data or privacy breach? This quote sums up the problem: 'The trouble with big data is that the most useful kind comes from aggregating lots of data about individuals — you and I.' Meantime, Den also explored the immense challenge of keeping private data private in The real cost of maintaining privacy when your data isn’t private anymore.
quotage: 'I’ve made no secret of my support for the G-Cloud programme since its inception, regarding it as one of the most important tools in the box for fixing the broken nature of public sector IT procurement and service delivery. So what I’m about to say isn’t intended to undermine, but to be some kind of ‘tough love’.'
myPOV: Folks following our G-Cloud and digital governance coverage will find plenty of meat this week, with excellent contributions from Stuart, Kenny, and Derek. (Vigorous comment thread on Kenny's piece). I was particularly inspired by the informed warning call raised by Stuart in his two part special report, which sparked an active comment thread on diginomica and, from what I'm told, movement beyond cyberland as well.
Enterprise hits & misses - April 28A cheeky weekly review of which articles hit (or didn’t) on diginomica and beyond. diginomica hit: …Apr 28 2014diginomica.coI've long maintained that objectivity is a myth. Transparency and conviction is what I care about, and I see plenty of that in this coverage. I don't see enough of that in our governing bodies, but as one commenter said, isn't that what media is supposed to do, that is - when it's not busy being part of the freaking problem?
Customer use cases: some keepers this week, from stalwart Jessica Twentyman's Blinkbox tunes in to IaaS to compete with Amazon and Netflix, to a pair of west coast uses cases from Den, San Mateo County rejigs storage and desktop for the digital age and How National FFA achieved value from Rimini Street (video case study). I posted a use case on cloud platforms with Choose Digital takes on digital media giants with CloudBees.
Best of the rest
- Frank Scavo posted one of the highlights of the week with What Fiori Means for SAP and Its Customers. As a fan of effective argumentation I flagged this post as a reference next time I want to win an intellectual skirmish. As for Fiori, I've said enough about it in this space. Sapphire Now is in early June, we'll have a better idea then. There's a chance for a hit, or a big miss.
- It's not for dabblers, but Peter Nixey's monster post, How to be a great software developer, is worth sending to the coders in your life. With section titles like 'Learn to detect the smell of bad code,' and 'Understand the liability and leverage of technical debt', Nixey might suck in some non-coders also.
- Esteban Kolsky strikes again with one of the most intriguing post titles of the week, Infor, the teenager. Concise but useful view on Infor's UI and cloud architecture. Classic disclosure to boot.
- No one dissects the shared services industry (and finds a pulse) better than Phil Fersht of HfS. His latest missive: BPO: Pronounced dead, but still very much alive.
Honorable mention: It's always a good read when Ping's Jeff Nolan blogs about B2B marketing, mostly because he keeps it real to his company's evolution and doesn't offer happy talk. Longtime readers know how I feel about gamification, but if you read one gamification post this year, make it this practical gamification framework by Hutch Carpenter. I thought this Information Week post on DevOps was nifty for the same reason - practical tips, not buzzy claptrap. Oh, and yours truly was the victim, err, I mean special guest, on Tom Raftery's Technology for Good rundown this week. I'm told I had a good hair day, but I make no guarantees.
Whiffs
Disclosure: I'm not a LinkedIn fanboy nor am I a fan of the rebooted walled garden model (I can't bring myself to give LinkedIn credit for the new publishing functionality either - not when they should have added bloody obvious blogging features years ago). But when LinkedOut becomes not only a verb, but a hashtag, you have to wonder if maybe you are getting a little too big for your community's britches. In fairness, closing down APIs is only a permanent whiff if a competitor comes along and takes advantage.
Not to be outdone, Google did further PR damage to Google Plus (if that's possible), by enduring the loss of Google Plus chief Vic Gundotra's departure from the company, denying it had any impact on the future of G+, only to be called out further by TechCrunch in the flatteringly-titled Google+ is Walking Dead, which reported the further 'reshuffling' of 1000-1200 core Google+ team members, according to two sources cited by TechCrunch. Further context is provided by Wired in Why Google+ Should Give Up Its Battle Against Facebook.
No, I don't view Google+ as an outright failure (Google now has a much more extensive social graph of its users). And yeah, as Wired points out, this whole 'mega-site' thing may be shifting to bite size apps at any rate, giving Google+ time to do an end-around of sorts (e.g. the Hangouts team is now reportedly absorbed by Android which is not a bad idea).
But is there any doubt that the notion of 'Circles' was a well-meaning, but in retrospect, absurdly convoluted miscalculation of how we want to interact online? There's no blander and less important notification on the Internet today than 'so-and-so has added you to their circles.'
Officially off-topic
Not signing off on the entire argument, but The Desperate Hustle as a Way of Life calls BS on the 'sharing economy' as well as anything ever has. The comment thread is unsettling in tone and shows how far the divide is between those who have figured out the newest economy and everybody else.
On the happier front, nice to know British Airways has signed a deal to (eventually) fuel airplanes with 50,000 tons of solid waste from Washington D.C. Sillier domestic innovation comes by way of My Fish Just Sent Me a Text Message.
If you're a Game of Thrones doobie like me, you'll enjoy this interactive map of the universe, complete with book and TV spoiler controls. Speaking of TV, 'Keeping the Faith' with Stiller and Norton has been on cable a lot lately, and is now rapidly climbing my list of the worst (and most self-indulgent) films ever made. Maybe I will fare better with the latest 'Mad Men.' I'm about to find out - see you next time.
Which #ensw pieces of merit did I miss? Let us know in the comments.
Most of these articles are selected from my curated @jonerpnewsfeed. “myPOV” is borrowed with reluctant permission from the ubiquitous Ray Wang.
Image credits: Cheerful Chubby Man © RA Studio, Happy Children © Anna Omelchenko, Waiter Suggesting Bottle © Minerva Studiom, Overworked Businessman © Bloomua, King Checkmate © mystock88photo - all from Fotolia.com
Disclosure: Oracle, SAP and Salesforce.com are diginomica partners.
