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Print, Slowly March 30, 2009

Posted by Chuck Musciano in Random Musings.
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I recently wrote about the demise of print media, lamenting the loss of PC Magazine as they shifted to an online-only distribution model. I received a lot of sympathetic email from people who also liked printed magazines. We all agreed that the world really needs printed media.

With such a fan base, why do print magazines make it so hard to subscribe to them? Subscribing to a magazine is, by far, the longest and most tedious process on the web.

With PC Magazine gone, I had a slot available in my reading hierarchy. In my world, you must always read the more transient items ahead of the less transient. Thus, you should read any available newspapers first, followed by any available magazines, and then any books you have on hand. I find that bringing rigid rules and structure to a relaxing pastime like reading makes it that much more compatible with a compulsive lifestyle.

I decided to replace PC Magazine with Wired. I had abandoned Wired years ago, when its propensity for ransom-note typography and “we’re too avant-garde for you” layout made the magazine illegible. Nonetheless, I had recently picked up an issue while traveling and found it much improved. At $1 an issue, a subscription was hard to resist.

I went to the Wired website and ordered the magazine. That was six weeks ago. I still haven’t received my first issue! In a time when second-day delivery is considered to be the slow, economical choice, taking six weeks to get anything is incomprehensible. I can go online and order a custom-made dress shirt and get it sooner! Why can’t I get a magazine in a few days?

I know why: my subscription was processed by some aggregating service center in Iowa and dropped into the Wired subscriber database. I’ll get a magazine when the next issue is mailed. This is the model the magazine industry has used for about 100 years. They’ll continue to use it until the last issue is sent to the last subscriber, about ten years from now.

Here’s a bold, out of the box idea: print a few extra copies of the magazine and keep them in Iowa. When my subscription arrives, send me a copy of the current issue right away. Even if I’ve already read it, the quicker response will earn you brownie points. You could even start my subscription with the next issue and spot me the current issue in the interest of (gasp) good customer service.

Will this happen? I doubt it. I fear that the print industry has all but given up. Their only focus is on making some sort of transition to online delivery that can still pay the bills. Rather than finding a way to make print work with a receptive audience using modern technologies, they are chasing the trailing edge of digital technologies with clumsy efforts at blogs and such.

It’s sad to realize that we live at the end of an era: 550 years of printing, drawing to a close.  We’re witnesses to history, but will be left with no way to permanently write it down.

Survey Says… March 4, 2009

Posted by Chuck Musciano in Random Musings.
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Most people are shocked to learn that I like to give my opinion on things.  Normally reluctant to speak out, with a little prodding I can come up with a viewpoint on almost anything.  Given my natural desire to share, it’s also not surprising to learn that I like to fill out surveys.

Most surveys.  Well-written surveys are fun to fill out, and provide the illusion that someone cares about what I have to say.  I always volunteer to be on a customer feedback list and am actually registered with several online survey companies that periodically send me surveys.  I take my role as a shaper of public thought seriously.

That is, until I get sent a lousy survey.  You’ve all seen them.  For some reason, they tend to be attached to subscription renewal forms, wherein I have to describe my budget and spending habits in excruciating detail.  Who writes these surveys?  Who actually uses the results?

They start out simple enough.  A few questions about your business, gross revenue, employees, etc.  Then you get hit with an enormous chart listing two hundred different technology areas.  For each area, you need to provide your projected spending, ranging from $0 to $10,000,000, divided into 15 or 20 buckets.  Good grief!  I don’t know!  And I’m in charge of this stuff!  We’ll spend what we need to spend, as the business needs it.  Just the act of clicking on each item and selecting the range makes my wrists hurt.

Having waded through all that, you then get hit with comparison questions, having you compare one vendor with another on attributes like “trustworthy,” “humble,” and “good with children.”  For each attribute, you get to make Solomonic distinctions between “strongly agree,” “adamantly agree,” and “insistent.”

Even for a hard-core survey-taker like me, getting through this is tough.  I often punt a survey half-way through, leaving me to wonder if my partial answers were counted.  All things considered, I have to wonder if there is any statistical validity to the results when all is said and done.  Most of these things are clearly written by marketing people with no direct exposure to the technology they address.  I have to assume their understanding of statistics is similarly limited.

I do like the idea of these people sitting around a big table, lattes in hand, poring over the results.  Imagine the discussion: “Brandi, why do 77.293% of our customers ‘reluctantly admit’ that we are less likely to ‘offer actionable solutions’ than our competitors?”  “I don’t know, Geoff, but look on the bright side: 58.909% are ‘unwilling to dispute’ that we ‘bring fresh perspectives’ to the market.”

Here’s my fresh perspective: I want to keep filling out surveys, if companies make them sensible, short, and easy to fill out.  On that, I strongly agree.

How Are Things At Home? February 23, 2009

Posted by Chuck Musciano in Technology.
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You can divide the technology at any company into two areas: the enterprise stuff and the end user stuff.  The enterprise stuff includes all the “heavy iron” in the data center: the servers, storage, networks, monitoring systems, databases, firewalls, and what not.  This is the domain of the IT professional, where we get to do deep analysis and evaluation of technology, cost benefits, and strategic value.  The user stuff includes everything a user touches: desktops, laptops, phones, email clients, web browsers, and PDAs.  Our ability to manage this technology hinges less on technology and more on what happens outside of work, in the user’s home.

We all have early adopters in our organizations: people who try out new things at home, way before they are actively considered at work.  (I suspect that most readers of this blog fall into that category). These people provide wonderful free evaluation services, figuring out what works (and what doesn’t) so that we can make better decisions for our companies.

These early adopters can make or break a product.  Vista was killed in the business market in large part due to the early negative reactions from these leading-edge home users.  Even though Microsoft made huge progress in improving Vista, that early stigma never wore off.

Microsoft learned their lesson.  The early adopter feedback on Windows 7 is almost universally good.  Not coincidentally, I’m beginning to pick up positive buzz from other IT executives about their plans for Windows 7.  Give Microsoft credit: they don’t quit and keep trying until they get it right.

The iPhone is a different story.  Users are adopting these devices at home and love them.  They come to work and want to use them with enterprise email on our networks.  Unfortunately, many IT people (myself included) do not believe the iPhone is secure and manageable enough for corporate use.  As a result, we’ve got a lot of cranky users who can’t use their iPhones at work.  While this provides an opportunity to teach people about security and systems management, it still leaves users feeling disappointed.

Gone are the days when corporate IT led the way in bringing technology to the masses.  Now we are followers, led by the consumer market and ever-more-savvy end users.  To be successful and to stay ahead of the curve, we need to pay attention to what our users are doing and constantly ask them “How are things at home?”

Can You Fix This? January 30, 2009

Posted by Chuck Musciano in Leadership.
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I’m a gadget guy.  I’ve been fascinated by things with blinking lights for a long time.  Before I had access to computers, I built Heathkit radios.  Before that, Erector sets and Legos.  I love to tinker and figure out how things work.  It led me to computing, which has led to great happiness in my career.

I think technical expertise makes me an effective CIO when I deal with other IT people, especially on my own team.  I know enough to hold my own in technical discussion, and bring a lot of experience to the table as we try to design new systems and solve problems.  I think a non-technical CIO can be easily overrun by their people and make bad decisions.

But does all that technical expertise make me an effective CIO among other executives?  My management peers turn to me to solve quick problems with their phones, PDAs, and laptops.  I get asked for advice on televisions and home networking.  I never turn down such requests, if for no other reason than that it would be rude to refuse to help anyone.  But I worry that such help pigeonholes me (and other technical CIOs) as the nerdy A/V guy, forever destined to set up the projector and advance the filmstrip during class.

CIOs have fought hard to get real management visibility and recognition.  But we cannot ignore our technical roots. We have to strike a balance between our business skills and our technical skills.  Done right, we retain our management focus while bringing technical perspective to the discussion at hand.  Done poorly, we forever lose credibility among our peers.

Every CIO should seek to be seen as a good business leader with technology skills, not as a technology provider who happens to know a bit about business.  Sometimes, the only way to reinforce that perception is to let someone else set up the projector.

Change Is Good. You Go First. January 23, 2009

Posted by Chuck Musciano in Leadership.
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Once again, a seemingly Minor Event in my life causes Great Consternation and, upon reflection, provides a Greater Lesson for us all.  In this case, the Minor Event was the arrival of a new cell phone.

Let’s be clear: I love cell phones, and PDAs, and any sort of handheld device that you carry about.  If it fits in your hand, needs to be charged, has a screen, and can be endlessly configured and customized, it is my kind of device.  In the spirit of clarity, I’ll also share that I am extremely picky about user interfaces and the user experience in general.  I will tinker endlessly to get the screen layout just right, or to optimize the sequence of clicks to perform some action.

Disclosures made, let’s move to the Minor Event. Last week, I upgraded from my wonderful Samsung Blackjack II cellphone to the Samsung Epix.  Both devices run Windows Mobile and sport dedicated keyboards.  The big difference: the Epix has a touchscreen and the Blackjack does not. I was excited to try out a touch interface, along with the Epix’s built-in WiFi.

I was astounded at how difficult it was to switch to the Epix.  I had been using the Blackjack for over a year, and my fingers had long ago learned the key patterns to accomplish everything I needed to do on the phone.  I had tweaked every nuance of the Blackjack, installed a ton of third-party tools, and had that phone perfectly configured.

After one day of the Epix, I was ready to give the it back.  I was absolutely inept with the thing.  The ringtones were wrong, the applications felt clunky, and my constant desire to click on a directional pad was thwarted by the fact the the Epix doesn’t have one.  The WiFi was indeed cool, and the virtual mouse touchpad was clever.  Even so, I felt clumsy and frustrated with every aspect of the phone.

Great Consternation had set in.  I took a deep breath, drew on my deep reserves of inner strength, and vowed to use the phone for another full day.  By then, things had gotten a little better: I found some decent software for the phone, reinstalled touchscreen versions of my favorite tools, and even found better versions of others.  I was acclimating to the phone.

After a week, I have come to really like this phone.  Some things still need some tweaking, but other features are too good to give up and go back.  So my beloved Blackjack II will be placed, gently, into my Drawer of Abandoned Devices, next to my RAZR, Palm LifeDrive, Palm Tx, and Casio Zoomer.  The Epix becomes my device of choice, at least until my contract expires.

Which brings us to the Greater Lesson: If this kind of minor, self-inflicted change is this distracting and painful, imagine how annoying the change that we inflict on others must be.  Those of us in IT like to see ourselves as agents of change, disrupting existing practices with new tools and processes for the greater good of all.  Let’s get real: we drive people nuts, making seemingly arbitrary decisions that turn their world upside down for no apparent reason.

We can’t ever, ever forget how painful change really is for our users.  Minor Events that we fully understand generate Great Consternation out in the real world.  Nonetheless, our job is to find and fix things.  As you go about doing that, don’t lose sight of how hard it is for people to put up with the changes we promote.  And if you do forget how hard that can be, I have an easy solution: go get a new phone.