#hpio

Readers here at Elemental Links know that I’m an idea collector. I’m constantly on the look out for interesting articles in business, news and trade journals that either relate to my current work, or more likely, provide fodder for future work.

Lately, I’ve been highlighting these discoveries over on Active Information. This week, I discuss an intriguing piece in the Economist’s Technology Quarterly on Game Theory in Practice. Check out the Active Information post.

Related posts:

1. Active Information: Data, rather than brute force and sheer will, wins races
2. Active Information: Lessons from the NBA – Better Data, Better Hoops
3. Active Information: Data-Driven Business Innovation

This week on Active Information I highlight an article on IT Failure from the September Issue of Harvard Business Review that is focused on Managing Complexity.

The authors describe what they learned by taking a radically different approach to the study of IT Failures.  Ignoring averages and general trends, they worked from the Black Swan principle that “rare events can be more significant than average ones — and may occur more often than we think”.

Their findings were quite enlightening.  Standish, et al, take notice.  Even better, they offer new investment guidelines that every CxO should be aware of.

Read my Active Information post.

Related posts:

1. Recent Active Information Writing: Crash-proof code, data lessons & infographics
2. Active Information: Data, rather than brute force and sheer will, wins races
3. Data Thought for Tomorrow

For the last few months, I’ve been hunkered down applying my SOA, active-information and execution skills on a [redacted] project for an organization in the [redacted] industry.  It’s a cool project.  But, it seriously stymies my writing.  First, I can’t write about it.  Second, I don’t have time to write, or hardly think, of anything else.

So, for me — a so-called low metabolism writer — it’s a good thing I was previously contracted to write for Esther Schindler at the HP Input Output site.  Over the last few weeks, I’ve published  the following Active Information posts:

Crash Proof Code:

“As digital emitters and sensors pervade the physical world — cars, bridges, medical devices — the opportunity to exploit active information patterns for business and societal innovation increases exponentially.

However, with technology-driven innovation comes risks.  The most cited risk associated with digital pervasiveness is lack, or even absence, of privacy.  But those of us with development and engineering backgrounds realize there is another, potentially more significant risk.  Bugs…” [Read the post.]

Lessons from US CIO Vivek Kundra: Data-driven innovation:

“Buried between tech bubble talk in the most recent Fortune Magazine is a good interview of Vivek Kundra, US CIO.  The interview is a retrospective on Kundra’s term as the first CIO of the US…

…The interview covers a lot of ground, including Kundra’s Cloud First technology plan [pdf], being stymied by bureaucracy, the power of data for transparency and publishing data to spur innovation…”  [Read the post]

Big Data as Story Teller — Story of Big Data:

“…Too often, we geek types think about visibility in terms of business analytics and intelligence tools.  However, an interesting, and very powerful technique is data visualization.”  [Read the post.]

Related posts:

1. Active Information Writing
2. Active Information: Data-Driven Business Innovation
3. Active Information: Data, rather than brute force and sheer will, wins races

The inspiration for my active information post this week is an article in the Economist that highlights the use of data, sensors, aggregators and analytics in competitive racing — motor sports and sailing.  Telematics for the win.

Check out my post.

Related posts:

1. Active Information: Data-Driven Business Innovation
2. Active Information: Balancing Speed, Accuracy, Attention & Context
3. Active Information Writing

My post this week on HP Input Output is Data-Driven Business Innovation: That’s Progressive.  The post highlights a cool use of data collection and analysis by Progressive Insurance.

I say “cool” confidently, because when I recounted the scenario to my friend Sandy Kemsley this morning, she said “that is cool”.

Check it out.

Related posts:

1. Active Information Writing
2. Data Quality for Real-time: Correctness and Tolerance
3. Goal-Driven Business Measurement Workshop in Cambridge MA, September 23, 2010