(An edited version of a post to Bob Lewis's Advice Line)
CMMI has evolved to handle the complexities of trying to standardize processes across a large enterprise.
Beyond a certain size, even finding out the current state of play is difficult, let alone trying to co-ordinate standards through a centralized body. Attempts to do this include Enterprise Architecture, CMMI, Six Sigma etc etc.
The problem is that "one size fits all" can easily turn into "one size fits none". Innovation is easily stifled when all changes have to go through layers of bureaucracy (which I presume CMMI imposes).
Following on from my post on Vanilla, Chyrp just squeaks by the Web 2.0 bullshit-name-meter, but seems to be a nicely engineered, extensible blogging engine.
It has a Wordpress-clone admin interface, which nicely reduces the learning curve for people interested in switching. The biggest drawback with it at the moment is that there's no way to intermix text, images and videos (they are all different "feather" types), but perhaps that reduction in complexity is a good thing.
It's already got a strong community building extensions and add-ons, which is a also an excellent sign.
Just when I thought that forum software had dropped off the perch, I find Vanilla. Rocketing up the charts to #3 on Google (although I see that Yahoo! and Microsoft Live search aren't with the program) it's a refreshing change to the same-ness of phpBB and its derivatives, spiritually or otherwise.
It's built to be extensible, and from a quick look at the code, seems pretty well thought out. There are over 300 extensions registered to date!
As some have noticed, it can be thought of more as a live web/blogging tools rather than a forum, since it's permissions are quite granular and customizable.
Now that Google News allows news searches by geographic location, we can combine this with a tweak of the Google Reader embedding code to get a live feed of local stories in our area.
First, let's craft our geo-specific query. From Advanced Search at http://news.google.com, we can work out that it's the geo=xxx parameter that determines our geographic bias. So a Canberra local feed is
http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&geo=canberra
This article from FastCompany.com had my head nodding. In reality, most of them boil down to one of three categories:
Read the whole list. It's worth a look.
As everyone knows, Google develops or buys lots of different types of applications.
Even after a successful product is launched, Google is always tweaking and adding new features. Sometimes these features flop. But sometimes, a new idea which is so simple comes along that you wonder why everyone hasn't done it.
Web-based office suites get mixed reviews, let's face it. But Google, to its credit, is facing up to the challenge of creating a product that really takes advantage of being online. For example, you can now create a survey which saves its results to a Google Spreadsheet in literally 5 minutes.
I've always kept half an eye on the progress of the long, long, LONG awaited Perl 6, and more specifically on its cross-platform, dynamically typed VM at its base, Parrot.
One of the more exciting features of Parrot is its advanced language parsing features which make implementing a new grammar almost trivial -- the Parrot Grammar Engine (PGE). A humorous, but practical example of using PGE can be found in this LOLCODE implementation.
A fascinating article in Fast Company magazine about the research being done by Duncan Watts to empirically test the famous tipping point theory of Malcolm Gladwell.
In essence, Watts sets up simulated worlds with strict constraints. Some are controlled through AI agents, while others rely on real-world input from thousands of human volunteers. The results are, to my mind, pretty compelling:
Watts wanted to find out whether the success of a hot trend was reproducible. For example, we know that Madonna became a breakout star in 1983. But if you rewound the world back to 1982, would Madonna break out again? To find out, Watts built ... an online music-downloading service ... filled it with 48 songs by new, unknown, and unsigned bands [then] recruited roughly 14,000 people to log in. Some were asked to rank the songs based on their own personal preference, without regard to what other people thought. They were picking songs purely on each song's merit. But the other participants were put into eight groups that had "social influence": Each could see how other members of the group were ranking the songs.
Okay, so you've written your strategy document and got it all signed off by management. Now the hard work begins.
It is likely that each of the goals outlined in your strategy will require a number of initiatives that move the organisation towards that goal. Each initiative will need to be described in sufficient detail that management feels comfortable that the initiative is both (a) going to work and (b) be aligned with the goal or goals in question.
Writing the case for a strategic initiative is just like a cost/benefit analysis, but applied to the long-term. They are normally expressed in terms of drivers and benefits.
... This is, of course, all bullshit.
Confused? Read Joe Gregorio's The Free Market Fairy - an essential rant on what the free market is, and is not, good for.
Oh, and while you're over there, if you haven't read I, Pencil, read that too.
