Are you a friend of Harry?

By /
I am.

A 'friend of Harry' is wonderfully outlined by Lloyd Davis over at Perfect Path blog and I have a sneaking suspicion it is the attitude of "bypass it" that is at the heart of most IT Departments fear of the Web 2.0/Enterprise 2.0 malarkey.

If we (normal, everyday 'users' of computer systems) start to get access to stuff that isn't hosted internally, isn't locked down to one vendor and isn't dependent upon a single user login* then we (the 'user') can suddenly start to "bypass" everything.

We can bypass the controls IT Departments have placed upon:
  • WHAT applications can be used
  • WHEN applications can be used
  • WHAT the connections ("information flow") between applications are
  • WHO controls access to the applications and the information
For some businesses (I thinking "government" here, in it's widest term) the lack of control of the information flow is probably the scariest. This is a valid business fear/risk and I don't advocate freedom for all in a Harry type way just for the sake of it - closed areas a la Che's original metaphor (espoused at the e-Govt2.0 Barcamp) are probably the approach I'd recommend.

So, friend of Harry, you're probably being seen by your IT Department in the same light as Harry himself was - a renegade to be hunted down, caught and stopped at all costs.

Harry's of the world unite!

* not having a single login is, of course, both a boon and a pain - it's a boon because I get to choose my 'personality' for each service (I'm crazy music boy at one site, serious Enterprise 2.0 at another). It's a pain because I have to remember all my logins ... icky.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular articles

Knowing good info from bad - how do we?

This posting inspired by the latest Gerry McGovern newsletter - read it for his views We vote. As an example, that's the power of Google search - it uses the concept that web pages with the highest 'vote' get put at the top of page 1. The 'vote' is a weighted one using the number of pages that reference it multiplied by a lot of clever algorithmic type activity - highly technical insight from Google themselves . In essence you voted me top of the "mike riversdale" Google list by linking to me. However, voting is spreading through the web in many more ways than simply linking to pages and I believe the driver is that people are starting to use the tools to group themselves into communities. In the good ol' days before " Web 2.0" (say before mid-2005) there were many informal methods of finding the 'best* content' - we would send emails to our mates pointing out cool sites, read about it from dedicated "Best of the Web ..."

How To Facilitate A Barcamp/Unconference

Image
I have been privileged to help create a number of successful barcamps ( Wikipedia ) alongside an ever growing number of committee members here in Wellington over the past few years both public and internally at client sites. I've also attended others around the country which have been mostly awesome but sometimes missing a certain "something". During this time I've managed to crystalise what I believe helps create and facilitate (NOT "run) a successful barcamp - here it is, by all means share it around. Oh, one more thing - barcamps are traditionally held within the realm of the geeks but there's NOTHING about a barcamp that limits it to such an industry and, much like you can hold a traditional conference on any subject under the sun, so you can with a barcamp. What do you need for a barcamp? I've always said you only need the following to get have a barcamp A venue A date A logo People On reflection I should also add, "a need" - dur. The date

50 reasons not to change

Image
Change should always be from one way to a better way. If it's change because it's newer, trendier, keeping up with the Jones' or because the IT Department want to play with new toys then I say, don't both changing. However all change ("good" or "bad") is scary and involves fear and apprehension on those going through it - that includes those instigating the change and those having the change "applied" to them. Sometime the fear is too much and the response to a proposed change is one of the below (click for bigness): Thanks to the Biocultural Science & Management blog for this article

The 3 C’s – Communication, Consultation and Collaboration

Image
[this is an old WaveAdept post archived here] You've got the technology (be it Google Apps, SharePoint or whatever) and your IT people have integrated it, patched it, set you up and handed it over... now what? Well, for a start, sit back and congratulate yourself that your organisation is: Saving costs (NZ$2 million per year for NZ Post with their Google Apps roll-out, and they've just started) Freed up your IT staff to concentrate on your company's particular 'secret sauce' No longer have to wait to benefit from the latest features Instantly given access 'anywhere, any time and (almost) any device' Really, celebrate that you have switched from old to new. But once the party is over you're going to have to get back to work getting the true benefits from your new toolset. And before you dive into the full on, "let's all collaborate, be open with everything and change the world" maybe planning out some interim steps to world domination

Change Management Is So Simple

Image
No, change management is not simple and for one very easy to understand reason - it involves people. And that's the first, most important, all encompassing and ultimately only real point of change management. People are what we are endeavouring to help through change and the outcome of change management is people doing something different (there is a change) But dropping the other attributes of change management can leave you open to a non-starter of a process or, at best, one that flops over the line with many weary participants huffing and puffing behind you. A little self disclosure before we get to the 6 main components of "change management". I'm actually someone that believes in constant change, that companies, Govt agencies, NGO's, communities and all people are constantly adapting to the environment within which they operate. Therefore a "Enterprise Change Process" (or even a "Transformation Programme") is a slightly false worldview