Category: Released

  • Cool Socnet Visualization from MIT’s Immersion Project

    Cool Socnet Visualization from MIT’s Immersion Project

    A previous post considered some practical implications for privacy and government surveillance stemming from the Snowden revelations about the Prism program. The point was made that some people who think they have nothing to hide could easily become ensnared in webs not of their own making, and could find it difficult to untangle themselves. Interest…

  • Nothing to Hide? Or Afraid of a ‘Metadata Sweep’

    This post first appeared on the Port Washington Patch. In a recent discussion of the Edward Snowden Affair with family members,  two basic attitudes toward the government’s selective spying on U.S. citizens emerged: The Innocence Argument “I have nothing to hide, so I don’t care what the federal government wants to know about me.” The Privacy Argument “The…

  • Bush the Elder’s “Vision Thing”

    Bush the Elder’s “Vision Thing”

    A colleague suggested a TED talk by Simon Simek on “leadership.”  Can any talk or book about “leadership” be credible? I am suspicious of someone who casually proposes that humans are motivated “by biology not psychology.” As if these could be cleanly partitioned off from one another. I can perhaps overlook that oversimplification. But most organizations “believe”…

  • Recruiting #fail: On Recruiting for Proficiency

    Recruiting #fail: On Recruiting for Proficiency

    What follows is a position description received this month from a firm  — not a recruiter. Required Technical Skills: Proficiency in all MS Office applications including MS Project Front end development (HTML, Flash, Ajax, Javascript – templates) Back end development (XML, HTTPS, Web Services, Web dav, data mapping) Experience with implementing and managing Demand Ware…

  • Will $100M Trickle Watson Down to SMB Enterprises?

    Will $100M Trickle Watson Down to SMB Enterprises?

    Bloomberg News reported that IBM plans to invest an additional $100 million in its Watson technology. Earlier in 2011, Watson exceeded previously unmet expectations for artificial intelligence by easily overwhelming two Jeopardy!champions on national TV. While Watson-like technologies could be used in a variety of settings (e.g., network management or health care), the steep investments IBM has already made suggest…

  • Use (Corporate Knowledge) or Lose It

    When a firm decides to shutter operations, the loss of knowledge capital in the form of talent should appear somewhere in the risk assessment. While significant short term savings may be achieved by closing a division (in the case of Microsoft, perhaps to save $$$ to purchase Skype?), one side effect can be a brain…