John just let me know that he’s just re-launched his TechNet radio program today with an interview with Deborah Lovell – AITP president.
You can find his relaunch show at http://edge.technet.com/Media/TechNet-Radio-Community-Corner-with-John-Weston-Episode-1/ and keep an eye out for follow up shows at http://blogs.technet.com/jweston/default.aspx
If you haven’t already heard about it, Ignite is coming to Austin next week (January 13th.) Tickets are up, and at $5 for general admission or $10 for VIP, it’s well worth picking one up and heading over. If you haven’t seen the ignite format, it’s a fast paced, super dense information download on all kinds of great topics, so I’ll see you there!
I’m catching up on my email and news after travelling for the holidays and really wanted to make sure everyone saw that we’ll have Martin Fowler back in Austin this month giving a historical perspective about software and why where we’ve been has a lot of relevancy on where we’re going in our industry. If you haven’t heard him speak, this is a GREAT chance to meet him.
Signup is at http://connect.thoughtworks.com/austinevents/
Dec 21
You may notice something new as check your feed or visit my blog. I’ve been doing some renovation and changes to get ready for the new year. It seems about this time every year I look at the site and really want to do something new with it. New version of the software, new type of operations, it’s always something.
Well this year, I’ve decided to really push things. I’m going to continue learning about SEO and what that means from a content and development side. But not just that, I’m running in a hosted environment now as well – I’ve worked for a very long time with a server of my own (physical or virtual) and I really thought I’d like to learn about the environment that most users and developers work in.
This site is the result of the intersection of both of those pushes. And as a side effect, I’ll get to learn a good bit about PHP under IIS 7 as well, and how this world compares to my more familiar world of SharePoint and capabilities that I’ve been using so long.
It’s a grand experiment, you’ll probably see me break some things, do some flubs, trip up on some items, but I’m going into this with the same attitude that I generally do with cooking. If you already know how it’s going to turn out, then what’s the use of doing it?
On the Startup theme, Startup Weekend Dallas will be in 2.5 weeks. Again, information at http://dallas.startupweekend.org/ – there will be a LOT of people around that you recognize from the BizSpark crowd!
For all those that were asking, just a reminder that the first Startup weekend Tulsa is happening next weekend. More info at http://tulsa.startupweekend.org/
Also, come out to Tulsa TechFest this Saturday, StartupWeekend will be involved there as well.
We’ve got the Headspring Event tomorrow here in Austin – 1-5pm at the Austin Microsoft office. You can find the details tonight at ADNUG or at the event link: http://www.headspringsystems.com/services/agile-training/continuous-integration/
In the spirit of completeness, I wanted to make a few comments about my other session I submitted for SxSWi- “Smart for Who?” This session really came out of looking around my office and working spaces and really noting not only how connected all those “impulse electronics” and “entertainment devices” have become, but how little most people consider what their full capabilities and purposes are. As we’ve seen in the history of PC’s the best capabilities have come with networking and larger connectivity between systems, but that increase has also been paced by an increase in vulnerability and exposure to those connections being done with malice.
So as we connect more and more devices that we use every day not only to each other, but to the internet at large, we need to be aware of what’s going on between those. PVR’s often report back not just what shows you watched, but how many times you rewound that halftime commercial or act. The old days of “tracing a call” have become a Hollywood gimmick – the number is available even before the connection is made, and the call itself can be real time transcribed to text. Your printer is network connected, and most embed unique numbers in ever item printed, your security system knows when you’re home and when you’re gone. And they’re all able to talk with each other.
This session will be about how much control we have over this – how much is black helicopters and how much is actual productivity enhancement and personal customization that I WANT to be done. Do I want my bedside alarm clock to check my schedule and know that it doesn’t have to wake me quite so early tomorrow morning because my first meeting got cancelled overnight? Do I want the world to know I’ve put my house on power save mode because I’m going to be in Chicago for a couple of days? The Yin and Yang of connectivity is that Identity, Privacy, and Security are key – and we’re having to find new ways of making those concepts easy enough that you don’t have to read another 300 page manual just to use your new remote control or VOIP phone!
If this sounds like something you would be interesting in hearing about, either at SxSWi or in the community after SxSW – please “Thumbs Up” my session either above on the link or below!
I’ve had a couple of people ask me (and a couple of people not ask, but given their own spin on the title) and so I thought I’d do a bit more commentary on my “Brain” session submission.
From the site (“Your Brain in the Cloud”), you’ll see the description as:
Workflows, Agents, Bots… Not only is our data going into the Net but our decision making processes as well. What constitutes “Me” and how carefully should we consider how much of that resides outside of my own skull? Who owns or has access to that part of us outside ourselves?
So what does this mean? Well when I first started thinking and talking about this, “Bookworm, Run”, “True Names”, and “A World out of Time” (Peerssa for the state) were some of the works that had already been thinking about what happens when we begin not just using computers, but embedding our own decision making processes into them and then turning over those “mundane” activities to be freed up for more lofty (or just more fun) activities.
Well, as the years went on and many people continued thinking about it, most of the “Serious” work was focused on either higher FPS’s, achieving the holy grail of the Memex, or embedding the decision making processes of Corporations and legal entities into the programs and systems of the machines. But Moore’s Law marches on and what used to be in the reach of only governments and multi-nationals are now the playground of everyday users, and embedding yourself in various systems comes along with that.
What I hope to talk about is how this initiative/push/desire – whatever you want to call it – will affect us. Don’t think you’re part of it? Have you ever run a tweetbot? Set up an email rule? Configured your phone to allow some people and not others at different times of the day? Used a Bot in an online game? These are all ways that people today are putting parts of themselves into the cloud without even realizing it!
So what I hope to do is get us all thinking about what we do outsource of our internal selves, what makes sense to push up and to think about what happens if that repository should be compromised. While we all want the happy part of “True Names” (“My kernel is out there in the System. Every time I’m there, I transfer a little more of myself.") we also need to be aware of Stross and his vision of multiple copies of self aware selves and how the very idea of identity can be challenged by this.
And my final plea – if all this sounds interesting, please “Thumbs up” my session either directly or by the link below.
I can’t let St Louis get too far ahead of us! Looks like I need to get more involved in the Austin Hacker Space movement!
Looks like their first meeting is next week.
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