Do you know where you have been during the last few days? No worries, especially if you have an iPhone. There seems to be an App for that! I’m sure many of you heard about how iOS 4, the Apple operating system for iPhones and iPads, “secretly” records your location in a file (consolidated.db). If you sync your device to a Mac, you can look at it – here is the recipe. I am safe on my iPad because I don’t have a 3G. On the other hand, I voluntarily let everyone know where I am (using Twitter and Foursquare).
This is indeed big news, but, as Scott McNealy (former CEO of Sun) pointed out “You already have zero privacy, get over it” has unfortunately been true in this well connected world. Your cell phone carriers have had this exact information all along – except, they need a subpoena before they look at it (Hmmm….).
With technologies coming at us such a rapid pace and with companies (OK, not all companies!) paying a lot of attention to friendly user interfaces, technology training is fast becoming a challenge. Take the iPhones and iPads as examples. They are so easy to use that there are no user manuals. Great! Except, many users are not diligent about syncing their devices to a PC or a Mac, until that day arrives when their device dies. Many home users set up wireless and don’t either read or don’t understand the techno mumbo-jumbo that their access point is up for open manipulation by tech savvy neighbors.
Having some basic training would help in these and many other cases. But who has the time and inclination? This is a huge challenge.
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Another week coming to an end. Time indeed flies. Several of us traveled to Amherst College to talk to them about Drupal, the web content management system. I thought it was a great meeting. One of the key pieces that we will need for Drupal is Amherst’s Monster Menus. Whereas I was very happy to see the UConn men win last week, UConn women’s loss was not a happy moment. These kinds of unpredictable moments always remind me of how vulnerable all of us are. No matter how good you are and no matter how well you plan, things don’t always go the way that you plan. No worries, there is always the next year or the next project. I also talked to the Friends of the Library on Tuesday about where LTS is headed in the years to come. It was really fun.
Talking about projects, project management and key performance indicators (KPI) seem to be everywhere. Demand for services is far more than the available resources. There are a few institutions that have adopted the project management methodologies and have been reasonably successful, but many are simply unable to. As I mentioned in an earlier post, KPIs are extremely important in conveying how an organization is performing at any given point in time, in comparison to the same time in previous years and how goals are met.
My own feelings about this can be cast as practical project management…
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It has been a terrific day today. The Cricket World Cup that began about six weeks ago came to a fantastic conclusion with a classic game between India and Sri Lanka. Though I was born in Sri Lanka and grew up there, I belong to India, so I support them always and wanted them to win this one. India’s last World Cup win was in 1983.
Sri Lanka put up a total that was considered hard to beat, the legendary opening Indian pair got out early to set up a drama that finally ended in India winning it. Several days of me getting up between 4 AM and 5 AM to watch these games is over. Thanks to advances in technologies, the diehards like us were able to view live cricket through willow tv. Not sure how many simultaneous viewers watched some of these games, but the experience was flawless. After a short nap, it is time to root for UConn Men tonight.
Northeast Regional Computing Program (NERCOMP) is a regional affliate of EDUCAUSE. Many of the Higher Ed institutions from the Northeast and a few from other states such as New York and Pennsylvania are members of NERCOMP. My association with NERCOMP goes several years back in that I have presented several times at NERCOMP SIGs (Special Interest Group meetings) as well as in their annual conferences. I have also been a member of the Program Committee and I was elected in early March (2011) to serve in NERCOMP Board for the next three years. I really like the the NERCOMP annual conference which provides an excellent venue to network and listen to colleagues on topic of direct relevance to what we do.
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