June, 2006

Much of the IT industry, especially in smaller companies, is only now coming to the realization of the impact of Sarbanes-Oxley or SOX. Denis Drouin of Ernst & Young gave a very interesting and informative talk to an enthusiastic group of VANTUG members on June 21. Denis works as a SOX IT Auditor and has been 'very' busy over the past couple of years! Judging by the audience reaction and questioning...

I really enjoyed my time at EnergizeIT since it is about working with the community and giving time and resources to things that matter. As a highlight of my day, I had the special honour and pleasure of introducing Dr. Gary Birch, executive director of the Neil Squire Society (NSS) and a noted researcher in the field. Gary provided an inspiring talk in the morning about NSS followed by a video...

To blog, or not to blog....that is the question . With apologies to Shakespeare, who is probably turning over in his grave about now, but this question is on the minds of a great many business people, all the way from the small business owner to the boardrooms of the corporate world. What is this communication phenomenon that is sweeping a large part of the world? Is it merely a passing fad or a stepping...

Just a quick post to say that the photos I took at EnergizeIT are now posted to Flickr : http://www.flickr.com/photos/barnaby_jeans/sets/72157594175736704/ If you took any photos, feel free to upload them to the Flickr photo pool for EnergizeIT at http://www.flickr.com/groups/energizeit/pool/ Finally, Rick has done a quick write-up on the CanITPro blog - http://blogs.technet.com/canitpro...

This news item energizes a dialogue: http://www.cips.ca/news/national/news.asp?aID=2270 New and Improved Designation for Tech Workers Tech Association urges industry to reinforce professional standards by Mylene Sayo The Canadian Information Processing Society (CIPS) recently announced the revamping of a professional designation for Information Technology (IT) workers. The Information Systems...

In a discussion I had with Thomas Moore, a top-tier developer, consultant, trainer and author, I asked him to share his 10 tips for trainers and for training. In part 1 of this two-part series, Thomas describes those attributes that have made him a well-respected trainer. Here are Thomas's top 10 attributes for Effective Training: Effective training begins with the ability to establish a rapport...

In a couple of previous posts I mentioned my involvement with JDQ ,their 3 Spheres of Reciprocity community help program and their latest project with the Surrey Food Bank in BC. A couple of volunteer developers who are VANTUG members are working on the project. I said that I would post here from time to time as to how things are going. The project is well under way, the specifications are close to...

In a discussion I had with Thomas Moore, a top-tier developer, consultant, trainer and author, I asked him to share his 10 tips for trainers and for training. Here are Thomas's top 10 attributes that make him one of the best trainers: I always like to think of myself as a very personable individual who gets along well with others and can empathize with the experience of a variety of individuals...

Yesterday we looked at some of the legal issues IT Managers need to be aware of. Today we look at the second half of the list. E-Business Transactions Transactional Web sites need to be designed to reflect electronic commerce laws, privacy laws, and consumer protection statutes. If this is not done, at the very least the business will suffer because of the lack of user friendliness of the site...

The title says it all!! The past couple of weeks, and the week ahead of us, have seen some great things happening at Microsoft. Obviously the big news was the Bill Gates announcement ( http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2006/jun06/06-15CorpNewsPR.mspx ), but a little closer to home there is a lot happening. Last week the team wrapped up the Future of the Desktop tour in Toronto, but more...

IT Managers need to be aware of legal issues that can affect them. A few of those issues are summarized here. Software Licensing Software vendors, and software organizations, such as the business software alliance (BSA) or the Canadian alliance against software theft (CAAST), take the matter of unlicensed software seriously. If an organization is using more copies of software than they are licensed...

When you receive your budget and it's less than last year, what is the first thing you do? You cut 'something' out. You measure and weigh, spend hours agonizing over your decision, and if you are like most IT Managers, you finally decide that your staff really don't require training; after all they've been using computers every day for the last several years of their working life - right? When...

This is the continuing series of special interviews appearing first here in the Canadian IT Managers (CIM) forum from top-ranking business and technology leaders. Last week we began our discussion with Nestor J. Portillo, and provided Nestor's rich history in the industry. Today I put these questions to Nestor: _____________________________ SI: Provide your three predictions of future trends...

This is the continuing series of special interviews appearing first here in the Canadian IT Managers (CIM) forum from top-ranking business and technology leaders. Earlier this week we began our discussion with Nestor J. Portillo, and provided Nestor's rich history in the industry. Today I put these questions to Nestor: _____________________________ SI: What are the biggest issues facing MVPs...

I am a "geek". I admit it even though I started in 1965. So I couldn't pass up EnergizeIT on June 24th. I consider it a kind of Unconference since it's centered of what we want-having fun, interaction, hands-on labs with our own laptops, free software, sharing within a community of IT. Plus you get a unique opportunity to plan for the adoption and training of: Windows Vista, Office 2007, Virtual...

This is the continuing series of special interviews appearing first here in the Canadian IT Managers (CIM) forum from top-ranking business and technology leaders. Earlier this week we began our discussion with Nestor J. Portillo, and provided Nestor's rich history in the industry. Today I put these questions to Nestor: _____________________________ SI: Together with technical communities such...

This is the continuing series of special interviews appearing first here in the Canadian IT Managers (CIM) forum from top-ranking business and technology leaders. Earlier this week we began our discussion with Nestor J. Portillo, and provided Nestor’s rich history in the industry. Today I put these questions to Nestor: _____________________________ SI: What are your biggest challenges and their solutions...

Are you in career stagnation? I feel one of the hardest challenges for IT professionals is to reach beyond their comfort zone. Ask yourself, are you feeling too comfortable in your job? This can be a key indicator of stagnation, complacency, and career stall! It's good to take ownership and control over your future. I believe there's a lot to be gained by incremental improvements on a continual...

This is the continuing series of special interviews appearing first here in the Canadian IT Managers (CIM) forum from top-ranking business and technology leaders. Yesterday we began our discussion with Nestor J. Portillo, and provided Nestor’s rich history in the industry. Today I put these questions to Nestor: _____________________________ SI: Describe how the MVP program has evolved since...

It started with an idea about a year ago with official pre-launch November 28 th with John Oxley's invitation and my response . The Canadian Information Processing Society (CIPS) is a partner and Computing Canada linked in with their editorial feature Blogged Down in January —in their magazine, they highlight and then point to an interview which appears here first. Our first podcast was the interview...

Licensing Web Cast Date/Time: June 29, 2006 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM Eastern Time With the introduction of Visual Studio 2005 and Visual Studio Team System in November 2005, Microsoft has increased the number of solutions offered to help development teams to deliver great solutions and improve the development process. Understanding these changes to packages and licensing will help you determine the...

This is the continuing series of special interviews appearing first here in the Canadian IT Managers (CIM) forum from top-ranking business and technology leaders. Today we begin our discussion with Nestor J. Portillo, who discusses the MVP program and the value it brings to business and technical communities. Today I put this question to Nestor: _____________________________ SI: Nestor, we...

Learning any new product always takes time and effort and, as someone who teaches Windows desktop and Office, I am, of course, very interested in what it might be like to eventually teach Vista and Office 2007. As the Office suite has evolved over the years, and steadily increased in features and complexity, most people, myself included, have said to ourselves, "why have they done that or where have...

At the INFORMATICS conference last week, CIPS' President, John Boufford, made a impassioned call for action to support the Neil Squire Society who innovate technology and services to empower Canadians with physical disabilities. John took this plea for support to heart himself by his President's Challenge-this time a public "shaving" of his long-standing beard to raise funds for Neil Squire. At...

This is the continuing series of special interviews appearing first here in the Canadian IT Managers (CIM) forum that are highlighted in Computing Canada’s (CC ) Blogged Down (BD) editorial columns . This week we talk with top-ranking executive, Merv Adrian, Senior Vice-President of Forrester Research . On Monday we began the interview, and profiled Merv’s rich and long history in the...