MJD Management Group

Archive for May, 2010

I attended my nephew’s high school graduation last Friday and this sparked thoughts of other inspirational commencement speeches.  I have shared a very inspiring commencement address delivered by Steve Jobs, co-founder and CEO of Apple,  from 2005.  In reflection of his life, Steve tells three inspirational stories from his life that are worth a listen.  The third story in my humble opinion is the best.  Enjoy.

We all know that the concept of privacy as we knew it growing up is gone and each day the personal privacy space is getting smaller.  I remember countless movies that have sparked individual privacy debates like the 1998 Will Smith feature, “Enemy of the State” (which was on one of the pay DirecTV channels last week) that provided an eye opening view into the arrays of tools that can be used to monitor or “invade” personal privacy.   We normally think of privacy concerns in this context, but the latest privacy concerns are slightly different than traditionally raised about government intrusion.  These individual concerns are “give me the options and features to control to what degree I allow and who I allow to see my information, comments, photos, experiences on the web in the social media age.”  The combination of internet community wide access to shared personal information, comments, experiences, and photos and the incidents of Facebook related crime/personal safety related to this information are driving the push for greater user controls over information in social media applications.

What put me on this thought process this morning was a pop quiz question posed by Nick Bilton in his NY Times article, “The Price of Facebook Privacy?“, where he asked. “Which is longer, the United States Constitution or Facebook’s Privacy Policy?”   I am sure your probably guessed Facebook.  And you are right.   He points out in the article, the length in words of Facebook’s Privacy Policy is 5,830 words long.  Does that sound like a lot?  Now consider this, the Facebook Privacy Policy is now 1,287 words longer than the United States Constitution minus the amendments (4,453 words).  Think about that for a moment…..interesting isn’t it.  Further, the article provides a word count in the user ” Facebook Center” for privacy-related FAQ of 45,000 words.

We can assume the amount of words has grown with the recent security additions in response to the recent congressional interest in Facebook privacy  (new congressional concern over Facebook policy) and the growing concerns of groups demanding simple to use options which provide more granular controls over privacy.   With the addition of the new Facebook security opt-out features there are now more than 50 privacy buttons, which then require choosing among a total of more than 170 options.

You may ask if the features are here, what is the problem?  Well, the time required to understand complexity of the new features coupled with how your implement it with your community of friends which are comprised of family, friends, associates, business partners, etc….is beyond the patience, desire, or understanding of a number of members.

The challenge Facebook has is that everyone wants “Apple style” functionality with simplicity and intuitiveness.  There is not a silver bullet for this simplicity on the Facebook platform.  The complexity for these features is the trade-off made for comprehensive versus granular on this platform.

Let’s put Facebook into proper perspsective.  We all know that if Facebook members were a country, it would be the 3rd largest country on earth at more than 400 million people behind China and India.   How big is Facebook? Facebook Privacy made the  Time Magazine cover for the issue that hits the streets on May 31.  The Facebook  growing chart is astronomical, so I am sure there is a study projecting when Facebook membership will pass India for 2nd. The secret to the viral growth is the comprehensive community design and feel where you join an connect your universe or community of friends which interconnect to mine and their and so forth.

So, what is the takeaway from this post?  Mark your calendar so you can look back on this time with the current Facebook privacy debate (now that Congress is involved) as the event that sparked the movement to closed affinity group based micro sites.   The privacy needs desired by the folks shouting the loudest will not be addressed by Facebook, so they and others will look to closed affinity group based micro sites which will spark the growth of this segment.  Now this spark will be the net effect will likely not be noticed on Facebook which will enjoy a meteoric rise for the quite sometime, but this will popularize closed micro sites for affinity groups.

So, what are closed affinity group based micro sites you ask?  Well, an affinity group is a group of like minded individuals organized for a social (i.e. fraternities, sororities, hobbyists, alumni associations) or professional (i.e. doctors, lawyers, dentists, etc…) purpose of any size or geographical scope.  A micro site or mini site is designed for a specific purpose only and the private and secure member invitation only site application is the outgrowth of the current demand for more privacy.  With this type of site, privacy is assured and members can sleep soundly knowing they have the freedom to share information, photos, experiences with their group without the entire planet having visibility.  The closed affinity group micro site solves the natural security trade-offs that Facebook faces and will continue to balance between comprehensive (community/site wide/internet wide) and granular (personal only).

I came across this article on the T&D Blog which quote a four-year study from LeadershipIQ.com for why CEO’s are fired. Perhaps the surprising point is none of the top five have anything to do with financial performance of the company.  The top reasons CEO’s were fired are:

• Mismanaging change (31%)
• Ignoring customers (28%)
• Tolerating low performers (27%)
• Denying reality (23%)
• Too much talk, not enough action (22%)

Read the full article from the T&D Blog.

If your are a business who sporadically has a a need for a certified police officer for your security needs, check out PoliceShift (www.policeshift.com), which is the premier web based solution for this business need.   The challenge that normally exists for businesses is that they might not have the network or contacts to have access to certified police officers to suit their needs.  On the officer side of the equation,  there isn’t a streamlined process for officers to have equal access to off duty shift requests, so the demand greatly exceeds the supply through the traditional network.  PoliceShift provides the web based solution which matches businesses to any officer looking for shift work.

Here are three videos about:  PoliceShift, client testimonials, and officer testimonials.

Client Testimonials

Officer Testimonials

Here is a great post with a clever title by Mark Toomey,leading expert & seasoned advisor to boards & execs on corporate governance of information technology and ISO 38500, that I wanted to share.   Based upon the inference to the light bulb joke, you can probably guess the answer.  Check out the post to read the survey findings by Infonomics from earlier this year.

How many directors does it take to detect unacceptable risk and impending damage to business through IT failures?

To learn more about the survey; to read a preview; and to purchase the full report, please go to http://www.infonomics.com.au/GMITIS.htm