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As part of my job I have to go to a lot of meetings. As it turns out, all meetings are not equally important. Many times, either during a meeting or after the meeting, I end up asking myself why the hell did I go to this meeting. Sounds familiar? A couple of yeas back, instead of just whining about it, I decided to do something about this situation. I set a personal goal to cut down the meetings that I would go to by 20%. Not only I succeeded but I kept the same goal the year after and I accomplished that as well. This is how I did it: Ask for prep documents and an upfront agenda If the meeting that I am invited to does not have an agenda in the meeting request, I ask for it before I commit to it. This approach has two positive effects: 1) it forces an organizer to think what he/she wants to accomplish that invariably results in a productive meeting b) I have an opportunity to opt out if I don't receive an agenda or the agenda doesn't require my presence. I also ask for prep do

Industry's transition from custom made, one-of-a-kind IT infrastructures to the standardize, commodity based cloud paradigm is well on it's way. IBM's recent " Under Cloud Cover " study highlights the rapidly of this global transformation: "According to our global study of more than 800 cloud decision makers and  users, business leaders of all stripes – Finance, Sales & Marketing, Product  Development and more – are becoming increasingly focused on the business value  cloud provides. Over the next three years, cloud’s strategic importance to business  users is expected to double from 34 percent to 72 percent, even surpassing their IT  counterparts at 58 percent." From IBM "Under Cloud Cover": Competitive advantages from  cloud computing help leading organizations deliver stand-out  financial performance . (Click to enlarge) http://public.dhe.ibm.com/common/ssi/ecm/en/ciw03086usen/CIW03086USEN.PDF What seems surprising, however, is that thi

Source: Wikipedia A Russian chemist, Dimitri Mendeleev, invented the first periodic table of elements. Prior to that, scientists had identified a few elements but the scientific world lacked a consistent framework to organize these elements. Dimitri built upon existing work of these scientists and invented the first periodic table based on a set of design principles. What fascinates me more about his design is that he left a couple of rows empty because he predicted that new elements would be discovered soon. Not only he designed the first periodic table to create a foundation for how elements can be organized but he anticipated what might happen in future and included that consideration in his design.     It is unfortunate that a lot of us are trained to chase a perfect answer as opposed to designing something that is less than perfect, useful, and inspirational to future generations to build on it. We look at technology in a small snapshot and think what it can do for me and others n

  Yesterday I thoroughly enjoyed an opportunity to participate in the DorobekINSIDER LIVE edition on cloud computing.  The conversation was both lively and informative.  Joining me on the show were: Jim Sweeney, author of the book  Get Your Head in the Cloud: Unlocking the Mystery for Public Sector and President and CTO of V3 Systems. Patrick Fiorenza, Senior Research Analyst, GovLoop. He is writing the  GovLoop Guide on cloud computing. Emily Jarvis In partnership with GovLoop, the Knowledge Network for Government", Chris Dorobek and Emily Jarvis get smart people together in order to share ideas because they believe that the real power of information comes when it is shared. This event was the ninth edition of DorobekINSIDER Live and the focus was looking at the progress agencies have made in moving to the cloud. Some of the key points addressed include: Why Does Cloud Matter? Sweeney: I've read so many cases studies that feature government at all levels using cloud to im