http://www.infoworld.com/columnists/archive/index.html Lead With Knowledge, from InfoWorld.com en-us Copyright (C) 2005 InfoWorld Media Group, Inc. Mon, 14 Nov 2005 11:26:45 PST http://backend.userland.com/rss Kathy_Badertscher@InfoWorld.com webmaster@InfoWorld.com 40 http://ad.doubleclick.net/ad/idg.us.info.rss/logo;pos=rssfeed_infologo;sz=214x54;ord=? http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/idg.us.info.rss/logo;pos=rssfeed_infologo;sz=214x54;ord=? http://www.infoworld.com/cgi-bin/redirect?source=rss&url=http://www.infoworld.com/article/05/08/09/33OPconnection_1.html Back in the summer of 2001, just a few weeks into my job at InfoWorld, I attended our CTO Forum event. When dinner rolled around, I sat at a random table. Two men already seated introduced themselves: Tim Bray, co-inventor of XML, and Dan Bricklin, co-creator of VisiCalc, the first spreadsheet. “Wow,” I thought to myself. “Just by chance I’m sitting with two people who have made world-changing contributions to technology.” Tue, 09 Aug 2005 05:00:00 PDT chad_dickerson@infoworld.com;letters@infoworld.com (Chad Dickerson)http://www.infoworld.com/article/05/08/09/33OPconnection_1.html http://www.infoworld.com/cgi-bin/redirect?source=rss&url=http://www.infoworld.com/article/05/08/02/32OPconnection_1.html Over the past four years, I've spent a lot of my time advising CTOs on how to manage their careers both in this column and on my Weblog. In my very first column, I outlined what I think it means to be a CTO, and since then I've walked you through my day-to-day trials and tribulations, hoping that reading about my successes and failures would be instructive -- maybe even entertaining. Tue, 02 Aug 2005 05:00:00 PDT chad_dickerson@infoworld.com;letters@infoworld.com (Chad Dickerson)http://www.infoworld.com/article/05/08/02/32OPconnection_1.html http://www.infoworld.com/cgi-bin/redirect?source=rss&url=http://www.infoworld.com/article/05/07/26/31OPconnection_1.html Dear fellow CTOs: the Internet is broken and someone needs to fix it. And the only people whom I trust to do it are you, my comrades in high-end IT problem solving. Tue, 26 Jul 2005 05:00:00 PDT chad_dickerson@infoworld.com;letters@infoworld.com (Chad Dickerson)http://www.infoworld.com/article/05/07/26/31OPconnection_1.html http://www.infoworld.com/cgi-bin/redirect?source=rss&url=http://www.infoworld.com/article/05/07/19/30OPconnection_1.html The headline for my previous column was "A Last Word on Outsourcing" -- a not-so-subtle hint from my editor to let the subject rest! -- but the mail keeps pouring in. Much of it deals with the core issues of self-identity in IT. Tue, 19 Jul 2005 05:00:00 PDT chad_dickerson@infoworld.com;letters@infoworld.com (Chad Dickerson)http://www.infoworld.com/article/05/07/19/30OPconnection_1.html http://www.infoworld.com/cgi-bin/redirect?source=rss&url=http://www.infoworld.com/article/05/07/12/29OPconnection_1.html Last week's column about the commoditization of IT services elicited spirited responses from IT professionals once again, especially those working in desktop support. (To those of you thinking, "Gosh, I really wish this Dickerson character would get off his desktop support kick," note that this time I'm using the topic as a springboard to loftier ideas.) One reason desktop support sparks interest is that it's a universal IT problem. At the same time, conventional wisdom among IT professionals dictates that it's a hands-on, in-house job. Tue, 12 Jul 2005 05:00:00 PDT chad_dickerson@infoworld.com;letters@infoworld.com (Chad Dickerson)http://www.infoworld.com/article/05/07/12/29OPconnection_1.html http://www.infoworld.com/cgi-bin/redirect?source=rss&url=http://www.infoworld.com/article/05/07/05/28OPconnection_1.html With the growth of outsourcing and the pressure for IT organizations to do more with less, most businesspeople would agree that IT should outsource commodity functions -- and focus its effort on services and systems that enhance a business’s ability to compete. That’s why you see IT shops outsourcing domains such as sales force automation, messaging, and even desktop support. Yet defining what constitutes a “commodity” function can be tricky. Just as “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure,” one man’s commodity is another man’s competitive advantage. Tue, 05 Jul 2005 05:00:00 PDT chad_dickerson@infoworld.com;letters@infoworld.com (Chad Dickerson)http://www.infoworld.com/article/05/07/05/28OPconnection_1.html http://www.infoworld.com/cgi-bin/redirect?source=rss&url=http://www.infoworld.com/article/05/06/28/27OPconnection_1.html I am running out of options for areas in my IT operation that legitimately shouldn’t be open source. Operating system? Linux works like a champ. Web server? If you’re not running Apache at this point, what are you doing? Database layer? MySQL scales fine for most Web-based apps, and basic master/slave software clustering for it is free, which can save roughly six figures over a commercial solution if you’re running more than a couple of database servers. App server? JBoss if you want Java, or you could just use PHP running on Apache, among many other choices. OK, I haven’t spent any money on software yet, and hardware is cheap. I’m surveying my office right now, looking for something that I couldn’t enable with open source software, and my eyes fix on that ugly corporate phone that hooks into the old PBX. I feel helpless before it -- I look at it and the words “lock in” might as well be blaring from the speakerphone. There’s nothing I can do about it. Open source can’t help me with my crusty old PBX. Except that it can. And for me, that suggests that open source can -- and will -- go anywhere and everywhere. Tue, 28 Jun 2005 05:00:00 PDT chad_dickerson@infoworld.com;letters@infoworld.com (Chad Dickerson)http://www.infoworld.com/article/05/06/28/27OPconnection_1.html http://www.infoworld.com/cgi-bin/redirect?source=rss&url=http://www.infoworld.com/article/05/06/21/26OPconnection_1.html About two years ago, a funny thing happened during a stay in Las Vegas. Up against great implementation odds, I got in touch with my inner hacker. Tue, 21 Jun 2005 05:00:00 PDT chad_dickerson@infoworld.com;letters@infoworld.com (Chad Dickerson)http://www.infoworld.com/article/05/06/21/26OPconnection_1.html http://www.infoworld.com/cgi-bin/redirect?source=rss&url=http://www.infoworld.com/article/05/06/14/25OPconnection_1.html The recent news about Apple adopting Intel chips for its hardware elicited roughly the same amount of excitement in me as washing a pile of dirty laundry -- that is to say, not much. My main reaction was this: Since when did Apple people care so much about CPUs? Tue, 14 Jun 2005 05:00:00 PDT chad_dickerson@infoworld.com;letters@infoworld.com (Chad Dickerson)http://www.infoworld.com/article/05/06/14/25OPconnection_1.html http://www.infoworld.com/cgi-bin/redirect?source=rss&url=http://www.infoworld.com/article/05/06/07/24OPconnection_1.html As a high school kid with an unusual interest in politics, one of my favorite books (and movies) was All the President’s Men, the Woodward and Bernstein classic on the Watergate scandal. Unless you’ve been holed up in Uzbekistan, by now you’ve heard that the secret source known as Deep Throat turned out to be W. Mark Felt, former assistant FBI director. As the story goes, Felt repeatedly urged Woodward to “follow the money” in their clandestine meetings in parking garages. Tue, 07 Jun 2005 05:00:00 PDT chad_dickerson@infoworld.com;letters@infoworld.com (Chad Dickerson)http://www.infoworld.com/article/05/06/07/24OPconnection_1.html