NVTC Event: The CIO’s Role in Implementing New (or Quick Turnaround) Corporate and Government Initiatives

I was on the panel at the event - over a 100 people attended on a cold winter morning. Here is the summary from the NVTC e-mail:

Panelists (l-r) Carol Zierhoffer, Northrop Grumman Information Technology, Tim Wood, Friedman Billings Ramsey and Yuvinder Kochar, The Washington Post Company, speak enthusiastically to audience members about their roles as CIOs.

With a packed house, three local CTOs and CIOs served as panelists for a candid discussion on February 9 on ways to distinguish oneself as a provider of solutions in the technology market, during an event brought to you by the NVTC Business Development, Marketing, and Sales and Business to Government (B2G) committees. Moderated by Anne Armstrong, Publisher of Federal Computer Week, the panelists delved into the issues of the best practices to build relationships between companies, communication via e-mail, and "pitching ideas" from the bottom up, not the top down.

Tim Wood, CIO of Friedman Billings and Ramsey, began the panel discussion by explaining that although CIOs do not have a seat at his management table, he overcomes this separation from other top-level executives by "always walking and talking to those at the table." By staying in the loop, he feels CIOs remain involved in the decision-making process. All the panelists agreed that the ability to release products quickly comes down to relationships, whether they be external or internal. Carol Zierhoffer, Vice President & CIO of Northrop Grumman Information Technology, highlighted how relationships with other companies allowed Northrop Grumman to quickly restore productivity in Hurricane Katrina-damaged workplaces.

For a company vying for a provider slot, the panel discussed the need to both research what other companies are doing and highlight for the CIO how your company's product or service is unique from the competition. In deciding whether to return inquiries about sales pitches, the panelists agreed that e-mail is the best communication tool. Yuvinder Kochar, CTO of The Washington Post commented that he looks at all e-mails even if he doesn't respond. He said that the e-mails that make the best impression are those that show a belief in one's product and its validity to the market. Panelists commented that the best e-mails will be forwarded to appropriate departments, and those sent to the highest ranking officers have a much smaller likelihood of response.

My best answer: General marketing e-mails get a general response that is generally NO! :-)

Criteo Autoroll Widgets (Links to other similar blogs)
I created a new widget in 2 minutes (Check it out in the WIDGETS section on the right - you have to scroll down a bit). It automatically lists links to other blogs that best match my blog.

This widget stuff is cool!

Yahoo! trying to get innovation back by building a Brickhouse
Interesting article in bizweek on how Yahoo! is trying to get the innovation engine re-started the old fashioned way: build an external entity completely separate from the legacy company. Put some smat people there and see what happens. Interesting how one of the biggest web companies is already aging. I wonder how much tighter product life cycles will become as the Internet continues to provide faster and faster access to actionable information.

Was chatting with my new friend, Keith Tomatore, on why does time seem to fly by so quickly: Is it because we are getting older or is it due to the fact that information is more pervasively available and usable? Will love to hear your thoughts.

Social Network Taxonomy
Very thoughtful article on GigaOM categorizing social networks. If you are very interested in the space (like I am), follow the links to other articles and read the comments. A very lively discussion on the future of this space.

Innovation from Yahoo! - Pipes
Came across this very interesting product on techcrunch. Here is how the site answers "What is Pipes?"

Pipes is a free online service that lets you remix popular feed types and create data mashups using a visual editor. You can use Pipes to run your own web projects, or publish and share your own web services without ever having to write a line of code.

I have been wondering when such a product will become available. Seems to target techies. Have not tried it yet, but will soon! The potential is huge.

Widgets and Webtops: The demise of the URL

It is very dangerous to make predictions, especially on a blog that will be around for everyone to search and find for ever. However, what fun is life without risk!

I feel that within the next 3-5 years, we will stop typing URLs or using bookmarks to visit websites for news, pictures, videos, e-mail, instant messages and entertainment. On the contrary, our needs will be met by our personalized Homesite built with a diverse set of Widgets on one of the more popular Webtops (netvibes, pageflakes, google personalized homepage, microsoft live.com, etc.) accessible on a PC, television or a smart mobile device. All our information and collaboration will occur at our Homesite. We will be able to control access to sections of our Homesite (Pages or Widgets). We will find new information via Searching for public widgets or pages and secured widgets and pages that our friends or company share with us.

This, obviously, has broad implications and raises a lot of questions. More on the topic in my future posts. Will love to hear you comments / views!

What makes flickr a web2.0 leader?
Came across this great list of 10 items flickr does best!

Narrow function devices always on the net

The number of electronic devices that serve a narrow function and are always connected to a broadband internet connection has exploded over the past 12 to 18 months: TiVO, Nabaztag, Hard Disk (Segate's Dave), Nokia Internet Tablets, Navigation Devices (Dash), eBooks (iRex), Cameras (Kodak), etc.

Most of the home-use devices are on WiFi and the mobile (outside the home) devices are on the cellular networks. WiMax promises to try and converge the two on to a single technology.

A couple of years ago we all made fun of a refrigerator placing food orders on the web. That may still not be a great idea, but some very useful devices will become an integral part of our lives in 2007. I can imagine the number of devices always connected to the internet in an average american home to surpass 5 in 2008. Dropping prices and miniaturization will continue to drive the internet into more and more mundane devices.

"Data is the New Intel Inside" - Tim O'Reilly

Tim has made this point when he wrote one of his first and most thought provoking article on Web2.0. If you are a technologies you must internalize this.

I believe that "Knowledge, data, information are the key inputs that you process with intelligence to generate value."

Here is another interesting article from Tim with some additional book sales data points that continue to support the point.