IT Savvy – What Top Executives Must Know to Go from Pain to Gain and What Top IT Professionals Need to Know About the C-suite
Greetings and Happy Holiday’s Web Professionals!
Today’s podcast is an extended interview with Dr. Jeanne W. Ross, Director and Principle Research Scientist at the MIT Sloan School of Management Center for Information Systems Research and author of a recently published book entitled, “IT Savvy” what Top Executives Must know to Go from Pain to Gain.
I reached out to interview Dr. Ross in response to and interview with Cia Romano CEO, Interface Guru last week regarding her take on the state of the Web and frustration with the lack of education of those providing and contracting for Web services.
If you ever wanted to better understand the mindset of the folks in the C-suite regarding the topic of Information Technology, (IT) you owe it to yourself to listen to this thirty minute podcast on today’s Web Professional Minute.
Dr. Ross’s research centers on the organizational and performance implications of enterprise initiatives related to enterprise architecture, governance and new IT management practices. At MIT she lectures, conducts research and teaches public and customized executive courses on IT management.
I’ll have a full transcript of this podcast shortly. In the meantime, here is what I asked Dr, Ross to respond to.
* What prompted you to write IT Savvy?
* What is the role of IT from the perspective of the C-suite?
* How does the Internet fit in to that role and that definition?
* How can companies strive to convert IT from a strategic liability to a strategic asset?
* A lot has been said about the potential divide among and executives and IT and you refers to this in your writings. For example in your book you recommend that executives become IT Savvy. Does that mean that executives are solely responsible or should IT professionals become more business savvy?
* What effect if any did the tech bubble bust have on the reluctance of some companies to invest in IT?
* Many in this industry talk about a talent and a skills gap? What are your thoughts?
* Is outsourcing contributing the reluctance on the part of some executives to embrace becoming IT savvy?
* Is their a role that education can play in improving the synergy between IT and the executives?
* What role should business and industry play to encourage parents and youth to see the opportunities IT as a profession? Second part of that question what role if any should business and industry play in promoting the benefits of IT both from employment productivity point of view.
* What kind of foundational knowledge should future IT and business professional’s posses and what will they need to succeed.
* In the book you talk about the importance of IT empowerment. Can you expand on the benefits of this?
* In the book you talk about empowering the digital culture? Can you summarize that and can you provide with a summary benefit statement on Why IT Now?
For today’s podcast, I reached out to Cia Romano, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of InterfaceGuru.com for her thoughts on the current state of the Web today. Cia is a ten year veteran of the Web profession and is a hands-on user interface expert living and working in her home state of Arizona. Cia was in between flights and in this three minute interview Cia shares her thoughts regarding the need for education within the Web profession and a technical baseline for those that hire, employ and contract with Web professionals.
A full transcript of this podcast will be available in forty-eight hours.
Today’s Web Professional Minute is brought to you by the folks at An Event Apart. The makers of A List Apart. An Event Apart is an intensely educational two-day conference for passionate practitioners of standards-based web design. If you care about code as well as content, usability as well as design, An Event Apart is the conference you’ve been waiting for.
Founded by web visionaries Eric Meyer and Jeffrey Zeldman, and dedicated to the proposition that the creators of great web experiences deserve a great learning experience, An Event Apart brings together twelve of the leading minds in web design for two days of non-stop inspiration and enlightenment. For additional information and registration check out the site today.
The global recession is still upon us but according to recent reports some marketing executive’s say companies are set to booth ad spends. It appears that consumer sales are back in the game. Third quarter sales for online ad spends were up for 2008. According to analyst the fourth quarter increase should continue according to the report in IBD.
A recent JP Morgan poll of 20 big media buyers released mid October found that 12 expected second-half ad spending to be up 5% to 14% vs. the first half of the year. Only two expected a decline and six seeing no change.
Today’s Podcast is a continuation of WOW’s media coverage of the Adobe MAX conference 2009 Los Angeles, CA. Adobe promised an event that would connect, discover and inspire. I walked away with all of that and much more.
Although the keynote on day one kicked off a little late, the professionals at Adobe recovered with an uncanny ability to regroup, refocus and shine.
For Web professionals, Adobe MAX is part design, development and business. Candidly, I can’t recall a time in the eleven years that I’ve been managing the WOW organization that I’m walking away from a conference with something for everyone. Over the course of the next few days, I’d like to expand on that. I’d also like to provide you with a series of interviews why I think this conference provided solutions for designers, developers, those that teach and mission critical business applications that will keep Web professionals like us for a long time.
For today’s podcast, I caught up with Ted Patrick, Senior Evangelist Platform at Adobe. Ted shares his thoughts on the content, the develop and the design community and jobs.
Check out the full five minute podcast on today’s Web Professional Minute. Check out the video of Adobe’s FedEx demo on the YouTube Video below:
A full transcript will follow in twenty for hours.
Today’s Web Professional Minute is sponsored by the Nokia Corporation and their Nokia Web Runtime (WRT) Extension for Adobe Dreamweaver CS4 software making the creation of mobile WRT widgets for supporting Nokia devices easier then ever. Through the Nokia Ovi Store and Adobe AIR Marketplace, developers and designers have an easy way to engage, build and publish their content to Nokia mobile device customers. For additional information check out the Nokia Forum.
RIA, SOA and the Enterprise - Interview with Duane Nickull, Senior Evangelist at Adobe Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
RIA, SOA and the Enterprise: Interview with Duane Nickull, Senior Evangelist at Adobe Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
Today’s podcast is a continuation of the media coverage of the Adobe MAX 2009 conference taking place at the Los Angeles Convention Center downtown Los Angeles, CA. Today’s topic is Rich Internet Application, (RIA) Service Oriented Architecture, (SOA) and the Enterprise.
To assist me in the process of better understanding the topic from a Web designer, Web developer and from the business value proposition perspective, I sat down with Duane Nickull, Senior Evangelist at Adobe.
Duane’s an accomplished Web professional and a main focus of his professional career has been working for both the United Nations CEFACT committee and OASIS for the purposes of writing and building new architectures for global integration of multiple systems. Since 1996, Duane also has been working on multiple enterprise architectures including many service oriented architectures (SOA) within various standards bodies including W3C, UN/CEFACT, OASIS and others. Duane has also contributed to many SOA papers and articles on service oriented architecture.
Check out Duanes blog for additional information abut Duane and his rants, rave and event coverage.
A full transcript will follow in twenty for hours.
Today’s Web Professional Minute is sponsored by the Nokia Corporation and their Nokia Web Runtime (WRT) Extension for Adobe Dreamweaver CS4 software making the creation of mobile WRT widgets for supporting Nokia devices easier then ever. Through the Nokia Ovi Store and Adobe AIR Marketplace, developers and designers have an easy way to engage, build and publish their content to Nokia mobile device customers. For additional information check out the Nokia Forum.
About Rich Internet applications (RIAs)
According to Wikipedia, Rich Internet applications (RIAs) are web applications that have most of the characteristics of desktop applications, typically delivered by way of standards based web browser plug-ins or independently via sandboxes or virtual machines.[1] Examples of RIA frameworks include Curl, GWT, Adobe Flash/Adobe Flex/AIR, Java/JavaFX, uniPaaS, Mozilla’s XUL and Microsoft Silverlight.
The term was introduced in March 2002 by vendors like Macromedia who were addressing limitations at the time in the “richness of the application interfaces, media and content, and the overall sophistication of the solutions” by introducing proprietary extensions.[5][dubious – discuss] As web standards (such as HTML 5) have developed and web browsers’ compliance has improved there is still need for such extensions, when companies want to bring a truly high-end, seamless experience to their users. Javascript compilers with their associated desktop-like widget sets reduce the need for browser extensions even further. HTML 5 delivers a pseudo-application platform. It is still not possible to build RIA-like Web applications that run in all modern browsers without the need of special run-times or plug-ins. This means that if one could run a modern Ajax-based Web application outside of a web browser (e.g. using Mozilla Prism or Fluid) it would essentially be an RIA, though there is some contention as to whether this is actually the case.
About Service Oriented Architecture (SOA)
In computing, service-oriented architecture (SOA) provides a set of principles of governing concepts used during phases of systems development and integration. Such an architecture will package functionality as interoperable services: software modules provided as a service can be integrated or used by several organizations, even if their respective client systems are substantially different. It is an attempt to develop yet another means for software module integration. Rather than defining an API, SOA defines the interface in terms of protocols and functionality. An endpoint is the entry point to such an SOA implementation. Service-orientation requires loose coupling of services with operating systems, and other technologies that underlie applications. SOA separates functions into distinct units, or services[1], which developers make accessible over a network in order to allow users to combine and reuse them in the production of applications. These services communicate with each other by passing data from one service to another, or by coordinating an activity between two or more services. SOA can be seen as a sort of continuum, as opposed to distributed computing or modular programming.
Greetings WOW Members and Web Professionals Everywhere!
I’m sure you’ve heard the news that Microsoft has launched its new BING search engine. For today’s podcast, I’d like to cover a few of the highlights and connect you up with a couple or pertinent links you and a short promotional video of the features and benefits according to the source.
If you have checked out the Bing, you may notice have noticed different search results from MSN search results and Bing. Although search results are small by comparison to others (5-10 market share) is significant enough to warrant your attention. Clearly, Microsoft will have an uphill battle competing with the 800 hundred pound Google guerilla. That said it’s definitely worth your time to investigate and to resummit your sites and those of your closest customers. :
Bing is marketing itself as a core provider of the following core search categories:
•Shopping
•Health
•Local
•Travel
Although not as robust as Google’s Webmaster resources, Bing does offer some limited information for Web Professionals. Check out the links and all of the great resources on today’s Web professional minute.
Greetings WOW Members and Web Professionals Everywhere!
It’s no secret that the economic situation is at its worst position in the past quarter century. That said, I am pleased to report that business and technology consumers continue to seek help from highly trained Web and technology professionals according to a recently published report by Ziff Davis.
* HTML
* Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)
* Search Engine Optimization
* PHP
* .net
* SQL SERVER
* MYSQL
* Java
* C programming
Today’s Web Professional Minute is sponsored by Peach Pit Press. Peachpit has been publishing top-notch books on the latest in graphic design, desktop publishing, multimedia, Web design and development, digital video, and general computing since 1986.
A complete transcript will be available in twenty four hours.
Web Professional Forecast::Interview with Dan Connolly, World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
Web Professional Forecast::Interview with Dan Connolly, World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
Greeting WOW members and Web Professionals everywhere!
For today’s podcast, I sat down with Dan Connolly, Technical Staff at the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) with a request that he summarize his keynote session that took place in Denver, CO. last month.
Dan Connolly is a research scientist at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) in the Decentralized Information Group (DIG) and a member of the technical staff of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). His research interest is investigating the value of formal descriptions of complex systems like the Web, especially in the consensus-building process.
In 1995, Dan moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts to join the W3C staff at MIT. From 1995 to 1997, during the intense struggle between Microsoft Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator, Dan chaired the working group that preserved HTML as an open standard.
Today’s minute is sponsored by the Web Master Survival Guide. When you need professional resources, be sure to check out webmastersurvivalguide.com There is something there for all skill levels and disciplines and be sure to ask about advertising opportunities with this PR6 website from the World Organization of Webmasters.
Transcript:
Bill Cullifer, Web Professional Minute: I am here with Dan Connolly, technical staff from the W3C at the Web Directions North Conference in Denver. Good morning Dan and thanks for agreeing to this interview.
Dan Connolly: Good morning.
Bill Cullifer, Web Professional Minute:: Dan, you gave a presentation this morning on a variety of W3C topics, kind of a landscape of the web as we know it today. Can you summarize that session for the subscribes of this podcast?
Dan Connolly: Sure. I think I will use a different question somebody asked at another conference was okay, with technology where anybody can make a radio show, does that mean we are all artists or whatever? The technology is available for everybody and one of the people that had been an artist for a long time sort of had a really good answer which was that it doesn’t mean we are all artists, but we are all responsible for our aesthetic choices. So, I talked a little bit about the balance between proprietary technologies and open standards and stuff and the web is kind of everywhere and everybody has got a choice about how they are going to be a part of it and so you can contribute, you can watch you know and if you don’t make choices, your choices are going to be made for you and this is happening everywhere from government to technology and art and everything in between. So, I think, I was trying to give people a sense of let’s zoom out and look at this technology that’s interacting with our society. It’s changing economics over time and in the course of a day and so yeah, the web used to be… I got in as a technical thing, but now it is connected with a lot of stuff with family and culture and life.
Bill Cullifer, Web Professional Minute: Yeah, very well said. If I am a teacher and I am listening to this podcast and I am looking out in the landscape[Phonetic] in terms of opportunity for employing people, would you have any specific recommendations on areas that they should essentially focus in on?
Dan Connolly: Well, the really current things right now are all dot mobiles[Phonetic] location where services [Inaudible] like this. JavaScript programming is something that remarkably young kids pick up and do amazing things with, but also you know try to go up the food chain a little bit from just the technology. How does this apply to tennis[Phonetic], how does this apply to government, how does this apply… you know and if you can have one good idea that connects a little piece of technology with a little piece of how life works, you could really change [Voice Cross Over].
Bill Cullifer, Web Professional Minute: Excellent. Thank you for your thoughts and for your time today.
Today’s podcast is a continuation on the coverage of the future outlook for Web Professionals. To that end, I sat down with Pete LePage, Product Manager Developer Division at Microsoft at the WOW table top in conjnction with the Web Directions North Conference that took place in Denver last month to talk to him about the rollout of IE8.
According to Pete, Internet Explorer 8 is Microsoft most standards compliant browser shipped to date; but that presents interesting challenges for Microsoft and web developers. How does we, the entire web community make sure we don’t break existing sites, and enable future development? Are progressive enhancements really possible? How do we think about sites we haven’t built yet, and how they might take advantage of new standards features later? We’ll look at these questions and some best practices for dealing with application compatibility today, and in the future.
According to Wikipedia, Windows Internet Explorer 8 (abbreviated IE8) is the next version of Internet Explorer, succeeding Internet Explorer 7. Beta 1, targeted at web designers and developers, was released to the general public on March 5, 2008. Microsoft released Beta 2, targeted at all consumers, on August 27, 2008. A public RC (release candidate) was released on January 26, 2009, and the final release is scheduled to follow it later in the year.
According to Microsoft, security, ease of use, and improvements in RSS, Cascading Style Sheets, and Ajax support are its priorities for Internet Explorer 8.
IE8 has been in development since at least March 2006. In February 2008, Microsoft sent out private invitations for IE8 Beta 1, and on March 5, 2008, released Beta 1 to the general public, although with a focus on web developers. The release launched with a Windows Internet Explorer 8 Readiness Toolkit website promoting IE8 white papers, related software tools, and new features in addition to download links to the Beta. The Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) added new sections detailing new IE8 technology. Major press focused on a controversy about Version Targeting, and two new features then called WebSlice and Activities. The readiness toolkit was promoted as something “developers can exploit to make Internet Explorer 8 ‘light up’.”
On August 27, 2008, Microsoft made IE8 Beta 2 generally available. PC World noted various Beta 2 features such as InPrivate mode, tab isolation and color coding, and improved standards and compatibility compared to Internet Explorer 7. Two name changes included Activities to Accelerators, and the IE7 Phishing filter renamed Safety Filter in the first Beta to SmartScreen, both accompanied by incremental technical changes as well. By August 2008 the new feature called InPrivate had taken the spotlight.
Transcript:
Bill Cullifer, Web Pro Minute: I am here with Pete LePage, Product Manager Developer Division at Microsoft at the WOW Booth. Good afternoon Pete and thanks for agreeing to this interview.
Pete LePage: Hey. No problem. Glad to be here.
Bill Cullifer, Web Pro Minute: Thanks Pete. Are you here with the IE 8? Can you explain to the listeners and subscribers of this podcast what you are here for and exactly what’s going on and how can web professionals benefit. What message would you like to share with us?
Pete LePage: Yeah, there is three really great things that we excited about with Internet Explorer 8. Just about a week and a half ago now, we shipped RC1, so this is our last release before we ship our final product and there is three big things a developer should be excited about. One is all the new standards compliance features and the new things like web slices, accelerators, and that that make developers lives easier, more standards compliant and much more easy to deal with. The second one is a new set of developer tools. Developer tools now ship in the box in Internet Explorer 8. You can simply hit F12 and pull up a full set of very feature rich developer tools that allow you to debug your CSS, your HTML, your JavaScript, the DOM, all sort of things and finally, this is the most important one for your listeners is Internet Explorer 8, we have made the most standards compliant browser that Microsoft has ever shipped. Because it’s the most standards compliant browser that Microsoft has ever shipped, that means we have changed some behavior that may have happened in IE 7 or IE 6. For most sites that’s going to mean nothing changes, but for some sites, they may depend on the old behavior. With that old behavior, things won’t work like they did before. So, there is a couple of easy ways that they can go about fixing that. The easiest one is just to either out of[Phonetic] meta tag or an HTTP response header with X-UA-Compatible and you can tell Internet Explorer 8 to use the IE 7 rendering engine or the IE 8 rendering engine. What we really strongly suggest is for people who have legacy sites or sites that they are not actively working on today, just go add that X-UA-Compatible and set it to emulate 7. That means your site is going to work, it’s going to behave exactly like it did for IE 7. For new sites or sites that you are actively working on, we strongly recommend that people put the emulate 8 tag on there with the X-UA-Compatible and that will make sure that you are always working with the new stuff. That way when Internet Explorer ships the next major version, all your pages are still going to work exactly like they did. So, you don’t have to worry about versions changing or anything like that.
Bill Cullifer, Web Pro Minute: Good information. Good to know and all this is happening very soon, correct? Has the announcement been made in terms of a date?
Pete LePage: We haven’t announced a date yet, but keep your eyes open. There is a couple of great places. Check out the IE blog at blogs.msdn.com/ie, as well there is the IE compatibility center. If you are looking to find out what’s changed with the IE, go check out the compatibility center at msdn.com/iecompat.
Bill Cullifer, Web Pro Minute: Excellent information. Very important web professionals listen up. Thanks for your time today Pete.
Pete LePage: You are welcome. Thanks for having me.
Bill Cullifer, Web Pro Minute: Today’s minute is sponsored by the Web Master Survival Guide. When you need professional resources, be sure to check out webmastersurvivalguide.com. There is something there for all skill levels and disciplines and be sure to ask about advertising opportunities with this PR6 website from the World Organization of Webmasters.
2009 Web Professional Forecast: Interview with Lance Loveday, CEO Closed Loop MarketingPlay Now | Play in Popup | Download
2009 Web Professional Forecast: Interview with Lance Loveday, CEO Closed Loop MarketingPlay Now | Play in Popup | Download
Today’s podcast is a continuation on the topic regarding the future outlook for Web Professionals. To that end, I am on the phone with Lance Loveday, CEO for Closed Loop Marketing. In this interview, Lance shares his thoughts on in the steady increase in Web adverting ad spending and his recommendation for those seeking careers within the Web profession with a knowledge in the areas of Search Marketing.
Today’s Web Professional Minute is sponsored by WebProfessionalJobs.com There is something there for all skill levels and disciplines and be sure to ask about free resume posting opportunities with this PR6 website from the World Organization of Webmasters.
IT Savvy - What Top Executives Must Know to Go from Pain to Gain Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
