Billing and Meetings Remain Easier Than Usable Digital Systems
November 11, 2015
I have bumped against digital initiatives in government and industry a number of times. The experience and understanding I gained were indispensible. Do you remember the “paperless office”? The person attributed with creating this nifty bit of jargon was, if memory serves me, Harvey Poppel. I worked with the fellow who coined this term. He also built a piano. He became an investment wizard.
Later I met a person deeply involved with reducing paperwork in the US government. The fellow, an authoritative individual, ran an advertising and marketing company in Manhattan. I recall that he was proud of his work on implementing strategies to reduce dead tree paper in the US government. I am not sure what happened to him or his initiative. I know that he went on to name a new basketball arena, selecting a word in use as the name of a popular vitamin pill.
Then a mutual acquaintance explained the efforts of an expert who wrote a book about Federal digitalization. I enjoyed his anecdotes. I was, at the time, working as an advisor to a government unit involved in digital activities, but the outfit ran on paper. Without paper, the Lotus Notes system could not be relied upon to make the emails and information about the project available. The fix? Print the stuff on paper. The idea was to go digital, but the information highway was built on laser printer paper.
I thought about these interactions when I read “A Decade into a Project to Digitize U.S. Immigration Forms, Just 1 is Online.” (If the link is dead, please, contact the dead tree publisher, not me.)
According the article:
Heaving under mountains of paperwork, the government has spent more than $1 billion trying to replace its antiquated approach to managing immigration with a system of digitized records, online applications and a full suite of nearly 100 electronic forms. A decade in, all that officials have to show for the effort is a single form that’s now available for online applications and a single type of fee that immigrants pay electronically. The 94 other forms can be filed only with paper.
I am not surprised. The article uses the word “mismanaged” to describe the process upon which the development wheels would turn.
The write up included a quote to note:
“You’re going on 11 years into this project, they only have one form, and we’re still a paper-based agency,’’ said Kenneth Palinkas, former president of the union that represents employees at the immigration agency. “It’s a huge albatross around our necks.”
What’s interesting is that those involved seem to be trying very hard to implement a process which puts data in a database, displays information online, and reduces the need for paper, the stuff from dead trees.
The article suggests that one vendor (IBM) was involved in the process:
IBM had as many as 500 people at one time working on the project. But the company and agency clashed. Agency officials, for their part, held IBM responsible for much of the subsequent failure, documents show.
The company’s initial approach proved especially controversial. Known as “Waterfall,” this approach involved developing the system in relatively long, cascading phases, resulting in a years-long wait for a final product. Current and former federal officials acknowledged in interviews that this method of carrying out IT projects was considered outdated by 2008.
Several observations are warranted, but these are unlikely to be particularly life affirming:
- The management process is usually not focused on delivering a functioning system. The management process is designed to permit billing and cause meetings. The actual work appears to be cut off from these administrative targets of having something to do and sending invoices for services rendered.
- Like other interesting government projects such as the upgrading of the IRS or the air traffic control system, figuring out what to do and how to do it are sufficiently complex that everyone involved dives into details, political considerations, and briefings. Nothing much comes from these activities, but they constitute “work” so day to day, week to week, month to month, and year to year process becomes its own goal. The new system remains an abstraction.
- No one working on a government project, including government professionals and contractors, has responsibility to deliver a solution. Projects become a collection of fixes, which are often demonstrations of a small scale function. The idea that a comprehensive system will actually deliver a function results in software quite similar to the famous HealthCare.gov service.
I am tempted to mention other US government initiatives. I won’t. Shift to the United Kingdom. That country has been working on its National Health Service systems for many years. How similar have been the initiatives to improve usability, functionality, and various reductions. These have ranged from cost reduction to waiting time reduction. The project is not that different from US government efforts.
What’s the fix?
Let me point out that digitization, computerization, and other Latinate nominatives are fated to remain in a state of incompletion. How can one finish when when the process, not the result, is the single most important objective.
I heard that some units of Angela Merkel’s government are now using traditional typewriters. Ah, progress.
Stephen E Arnold, November 11, 2015
Self Deception and Web Search
November 6, 2015
It never occurred to me that humans would fool themselves via Web search. I assumed falsely that an individual seeking information would obtain a knowledge pile by reading, conversation with others, and analysis. The idea of using a Web search to get smart never struck me as a good idea. Use of commercial databases to obtain information was a habit I formed at good old Booz, Allen & Hamilton. Ellen Shedlarz, the ace information professional, sort of tolerated my use of the then-expensive, tough to use online services. Favorites sources of information for me in the late 1970s were Compendex, ChemAbs, and my old favorite ABI INFORM.
Imagine my surprise when I read “Googling Stuff Can Cause us to Overestimate our Own Knowledge.” The write up reported:
The main takeaway message of this research is that when we’re called on to provide information without the internet’s help, we need to be aware that we might possess a false sense of security. The most obvious example of how we should apply this is in the run up to a school or university examination. If we only ever prepare for examinations with the internet on hand and don’t take closed book mock tests without the internet’s help, we might not realize until it is too late that information that we think is in our heads actually isn’t.
There you go. False confidence or the Google effect.
From my point of view, the issue is not confined to a particular Web search system. The assumption that anyone can get smart via a query, reading some documents, and answer a question is just one manifestation of entitlement.
The person seeking information assumes that his or her skills are up to the task of figuring out what’s correct, what’s baloney, and what’s important is a facet of the gold star mentality. Everyone gets a reward for going through the motions. Participate in a race. That’s the same as winning the race. Answer some multiple choice questions. That’s the same as working out a math problem in long hand.
Unfortunately it takes real work to learn something, understand it, and apply it to achieve a desired result.
Locating a restaurant via a voice search is nifty, but if the restaurant is a rat hole, one’s tummy may rebel.
Search and retrieval is work. Quick example.
In a casual conversation with a doctoral student, I mentioned the Dark Web.
The student told me, “Yes, I plan to dive into the Dark Web and maybe do a training program for executives.”
Good idea, but the person with whom I was speaking has some interesting characteristics:
- No programming or technical expertise
- No substantive background in security
- No awareness of the risks associated with poking around in hidden Web sites.
However, the person has the entitlement quality. The assumption that an unfamiliar topic can be figured out quickly and easily. What could possibly go wrong?
One possibility: Accessing a Dark Web site operated by a law enforcement or intelligence entity.
As I asked, what could possibly go wrong?
Stephen E Arnold, November 6, 2015
Why Search May Be Doomed
November 4, 2015
Crafting a query takes mental effort. If the data in “Averatge US Teen Watches nearly Seven Hours of Media Daily” is accurate, mental effort may not be high on the list of US teens as they age.
With smart software poised to deliver information to a user without the user having to think, my hunch is that these folks will not be able to figure out what’s correct, what’s relevant, and what’s factual.
Great news for those in control of information streams. Bad news looms for other folks.
The write up reports:
Children ages 13 to 18 spend six hours and 40 minutes a day, on average, with screen-based media, with almost half of that taking place through mobile devices, the study found. On any given day, 18 percent of teens are using more than 10 hours of screen media, although some of those hours might take place at the same time – texting, for instance, while watching a television show.
On the bright side, there are many hours which teens are not sucking up digital media. I assume that the marketers will find a way to boost this six hour per day figure.
I noted this passage too:
Screen media is more often used for passive entertainment than for creative ventures, but this entertainment is highly fragmented, the study found.
Consolidation into monopolies may solve this problem. Great news for Amazon-, Apple-. and Google-type outfits. Marketers can target light users and readers in a push to get these digital duds into pure consuming mode.
Stephen E Arnold, November 4, 2015
SEC Cracks Down on News Release Interceptors
September 15, 2015
What’s better than a flash trade? I would suggest perusing news releases before the news releases are released. “SEC Takes $30m Pound of Flesh in Newswire-Hacking Scandal” reveals that the US Securities and Exchange Commission frowns on “trading on info swiped from press releases before they were made public.”
The write up reveals:
According to the SEC, two Ukrainian hackers compromised the wire services and then fed the stolen information to dozens of investors who made illegal (and highly lucrative) trades. The defendants are accused of violating the US Securities Act and the US Exchange Act.
Interesting. Will the SEC expand its crusade to ensure that news releases remain off limits to those who would exploit the financial system?
My hunch is that Martha Stewart type investigations and prosecutions are more appealing to some enforcement outfits. I have heard that there is a revolving door between certain financial outfits and US government positions. Chasing Ukrainians does not modify standard operating procedures. Do I have a pending folder named “hold ‘er”? I will check.
Stephen E Arnold, September 15, 2015
Quote to Note for Ad Lovers
August 28, 2015
The world seems to be focused on the stock market excitement. I want to highlight a paragraph in the dead tree edition of the Wall Street Journal. You might be able to access “Mobile Readers Abound—The Ads, Not So Much” online. Not my problem. Pick up the real newspaper. Flip to the Business & Tech” section and look for this paragraph on page B1 of the August 24, 2015 edition:
It [lagging mobile device ad revenues] is a similar story at News Corp’s Dow Jones & Col, publisher of the Wall Street Journal. More than half of unique visits to the Wall Street Journal Digital Network—which includes the Journal, MarketWatch, Barron’s, and WSJ Magazine—now come from nondesktop devices, but mobile accounts for less than 20 percent of the network’s digital ad revenue, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Interesting comment. So as the world goes mobile, Google goes Alphabet. Publishers perspire.
Without ads, where will online information journey? I would recommend that real journalists who cannot identify co workers as anything other than “a person familiar with the matter” consider podcasting. There may be jobs at Alphabet too.
Stephen E Arnold, August 28, 2015
Recipes, Recipes. The Gray Lady Cooks
August 24, 2015
Years ago I heard a Googler talk about recipes. I did not think too much about recipes. At the time, I was good to go with a Mountain Dew and a bag of M&M peanuts. Zoom, zoom, zoom.
Not long ago I learned that IBM Watson, the money spinning wonder machine from the lads and lasses in Almaden, Armonk, and Manhattan, wrote a cook book. Get your copy of “Cognitive Cooking with Chef Watson: Recipes for Innovation from IBM & the Institute of Culinary Education” right now. Yummy.
Not to be out parboiled, the New York Times has, according to “The New York Times Makes 17,000 Tasty Recipes Available Online: Japanese, Italian, Thai & Much More,” has been busy in the kitchen too.
Here’s a passage I noted:
Have a look around, and you’ll see that the site also offers a number of useful functions for those who make a free account there, such as the ability to save the recipes you want to make later and a recommendation engine to give you suggestions as to what to make next. But still, even though sites like these guarantee that none of us will ever go hungry for lack of a recipe, we can only do as well by any of them as our actual, physical cooking skills allow.
Which cutting edge company will step forward with a kitchen robot able to let the annoying human go back to the couch and contemplate a potato? I suppose I could check out my supply of miso and soy. Nah, too much real work. I am going to nuke a burrito in the microwave and watch cartoons.
Stephen E Arnold, August 24, 2015
Google Revenue Tweaks: Mobilegeddon the New Beginning
July 16, 2015
I read “Google’s Mobilegeddon Moves Hitting Marketers, Sites.” The write up reports an action by Google that I had not considered. The ballyhooed mobilegeddon hit my radar months ago.
Here’s the big news, according to ZDNet:
there’s a 25 percent gap between what they pay for clicks vs. what they get. “Parity or click through rates are growing faster than cost per clicks,” said Gaffney [presumably an Adobe principal wizard]. “We’re not even close right now. To see the gap widening is troubling.”
My view: Get used to it, gentle reader. The GOOG has a number of strings, but some of the chunkiest and most curvaceous in terms of revenue have been on “The Biggest Loser.”
As a result, the revenue mavens at the Google are beefing up other revenue streams.
Adobe is cheerleading for Facebook, but seems to be quite placid when the Zuck wants Flash to be disappeared.
Google, Zuck, Adobe: What’s this mean pour vous. Spend more, get less. Enjoy the excitement of the new feature “World That Click Streams Abandoned.”
Stephen E Arnold, July 16, 2015
Remote Access Round Up
July 15, 2015
I received an inquiry about remote access tools. With the mass media frenzy over the hack of a Italian services firm, interest in controlling another computer from a distance—that is, by remote control—seems to be on the uptick. If you want to dabble with remote access, navigate to “9 Free Remote Access Tools.” You can download a few and give them a whirl. The real question is, “How do you get the tool on another computer if that computer is not your mom’s or a helpless neighbor’s machine?” That is the big question, not the RAT technology. Enjoy.
Stephen E Arnold, July 18, 2015
Silobreaker Takes Gold and Silver in Online Decathlon
July 4, 2015
Short honk: I have been a fan of the Silobreaker system, which is available for commercial and governmental content processing. I read Network Products Guide “New Products and Service: Winners 10th Annual 2015 IT Awards” recommended solutions league table this morning. Silobreaker, founded by a couple of wizards with military and commercial experience. According to the league table, the Silobreaker content processing and information access system is the top dog for applications centering in Europe, the Middle East and Asia. This means that the system’s multi-lingual capabilities were the best, according to the Network Products Guide’s editors. The company also nailed a silver medal for US focused solutions. You can get more information about Silobreaker at www.silobreaker.com. Sign up. Join the thousands of users who want to work with a winner.
Stephen E Arnold, July 4, 2015
Publishers Want to Dejuice Apple, Squash It
June 22, 2015
I read “Publishers Slam Apple over Presumptuous News App Conditions.” Publishers presumptuous? I know of one publisher who used my research and marketed it on Amazon without my permission. Was that presumptuous of IDC and its wizard Dave Schubmehl?
According to the write up:
Publishers are up in arms following an email from Apple about inclusion in the firm’s upcoming News application and the kind of conditions that will be imposed. The email said that participants are presumed to have accepted Apple’s terms unless they explicitly opt out. It’s the old opt-out over opt-in thing.
Yes, up in arms. I can see the publishers at the New York Athletic Club wielding their squash rackets with malice. My goodness, what a chilling thought. What if those white clad clubsters were to descend on the Apple store in Manhattan and threaten the geniuses?
My fears subsided when I read:
The service will draw content from publicly available RSS feeds, and it is possible that Apple will be challenged, according to one expert, but not in any really meaningful way.
My concern for a Squash Assault receded. Publishers may have to retire to the Yacht Club to find another option.
Stephen E Arnold, June 22, 2015
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