Jack Vinson of Knowledge Jolt with Jack recently published a post titled Share it, don’t just store it. We share Jack’s perspective that just storing information is pointless. The value is in knowing what you have, where it can be found and putting it to use.

In response to Jack’s post I wrote: (more…)

Vinnie Mirchandani over at Deal Architect wrote another great post titled Alarming IT data points. In it he discusses everything from external dependencies and a lack of innovation at IT companies, to what he believes to be out-of-control costs and a shift in CIO focus.

In response to Vinnie’s post I wrote: (more…)

Vinnie Mirchandani over at Deal Architect recently wrote a post titled Big Tech is Broken - badly. In it he wrote that he has “never seen this much acknowledgement that our big technology companies are inefficient organisms”

The disappointment and discontentment (with product and process) has always been there. I experienced it nearly every day in my former career as a software developer and business analyst working on behalf of clients.

Employees are dissatisfied with what they perceive as management’s “screwed-up” priorities, and clients express dissatisfaction not only with vendor processes and priorities but their own as well.

Why have we not seen significant change? Why do broken relationships persist and thrive in and outside business? Here are just a few of the many reasons that come to mind: (more…)

I just finished reading Mark Taylor’s recently published blog post Open Source: It’s not just cheap!–one of thousands written about the benefits and pitfalls of open source software.

In his post, Mark referenced a Frank Scavo quotation from Chris Kanaracus’s July 2010 article about Open Source ERP. Apparently Frank, an IT consultant, wrote the following comment in an email to Chris:

“A lot of companies are getting fed up with the restrictive licensing, forced march to new versions, and exorbitant fees for ongoing maintenance. For organisations that are willing to take responsibility, open source provides the ultimate in flexibility, low cost, and control of one’s own destiny.”

Mark remarked that Frank’s opinion is not the usual “Open Source is better because it’s cheaper,” but “Open Source is better because you retain control.”

Nearly all justifications for the use of open source are based on notions about cost or control. However, as I pointed out back in 2008, perceived cost-savings and control are often illusions. We’ve thought about the subject quite a lot since then and we are thoroughly convinced that the attraction of open source is rooted in an illusion of control. More about that in a moment.

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