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...

Wow, great things happen while your away. As you know, I've been offline for the last week and when I came back it was to some great news! My friend and co-blogger Stephen Ibaraki was announced as the recipient of the "2005 IT Leadership: Lifetime Achievement Award. Now that is really great news!! Congratulations Stephen, it nice to see someone that gives so much get recognized. The official...

I had a wonderful conversation with Dr. Maria Klawe . She is a World Renowned Computer Scientist, past Dean of Science at UBC and current Dean of Engineering at Princeton. Talk about a prominent Canadian; her ideas are so important that this summer Maria was the moderator at the world computer science faculty summit where she fielded questions with Bill Gates. In fact we talked about this important...

Graham Jones (Surrey, BC - IT Professional and President of VANTUG ) The Opportunity to Spread the Word Last week Stephen Ibaraki (blogger extraordinaire – congrats on being named one of the top 10 in Canada ) and I attended the "Global" MVP Summit and a "World" UG Management Summit in Redmond. Most of you may have heard of the MVP Summit but the UG Management Summit was a new event organized...

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...

You're in a meeting and it's going well. The team is brain storming for a solution to a critical problem and the ideas are flying. You get back to your desk, meaning to review your notes and start on some action items but the phone rings. You get off the phone and someone stops by your office. Then it's into another meeting. By the time you're able to go over your notes, a few days have passed and...

Harvey Mudd College is led by Maria Klawe, HMC's fifth president who began her tenure in 2006. A renowned computer scientist and scholar, President Klawe is the first woman to lead the college since its founding in 1955. Prior to joining HMC, she served as Dean of Engineering and Professor of Computer Science at Princeton University. During her time at Princeton, Maria led the School of Engineering...

I believe there is a lot of value in getting information direct from the source and especially an acknowledged authority in software development. Here is Part 1 in the Q&A series with Soma. I encourage you to make comments here or send me an e-mail at sibaraki@cips.ca . Profile: S. "Soma" Somasegar is corporate vice president of the Developer Division at Microsoft Corporation . The Developer...

Watch the video on the ACM Queue website, and watch for more Queue Portrait videos in the future! ACM Queue, the popular website for practitioners, is continuing its series of video interviews of today's leading computing innovators who are also members of ACM, with a spotlight on a young security researcher. The second video in the series features Ang Cui , a Ph.D. student at Columbia University in...

I thought, “What a great blog!”, after reading Graham’s piece on management. It brought to mind Colin’s Powel’s (CP) lessons on leadership which I’m reproducing here as extracts in a two part blog. All of them apply to IT Managers. I have added a few words of interpretation to each as I see them. Enjoy! Stephen Ibaraki, FCIPS, I.S.P. ___________________ Part 1/2 CP 1: “Being responsible sometimes means...

This is the next blog in the continuing series of interviews with leading professionals. In this blog, I interview Sean O'Driscoll , General Manager for Community Support Services (CSS) and MVP Worldwide, Microsoft Corporation. Sean is a world leading authority on social networking, community engagement, innovation, a top-ranking speaker and thought leader -- his ideas are followed throughout the globe...

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...

As a User Group Leader I am often asked my opinion about the value of Technical Certification. My answer is always the same, “all things being equal, who would you select for employment?”. Now I fully realize that “all things are rarely equal” and I could stand to be accused of giving something of a cop out answer. However, there is no other way to honestly answer the question without perhaps introducing...

I am heading out this week: Vancouver, Toronto, Frankfurt, Geneva. In Geneva, I am speaking on Thursday May 16th starting at 9h00 (Geneva time, 12am PDT, 3am EDT) at the ITU/UN World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS).   The session theme chaired by IFIP IP3 board chair Brenda Aynsley is, “Why We Need an ICT Profession to Grow Our Citizenry, Our GDP and Our International markets (IFIP)....

In Part 1 (seen here on Tuesday April 4th), we begin our Q&A with Soma and profile his background. Soma also discusses his main current challenges and how he is solving them. In Part 2 (seen here on Wednesday April 5th), we examine Soma's views on the biggest issues facing the IT industry and business. Here's Part 3 of the Q&A series with Soma where Soma discusses future trends, AJAX/ATLAS...

In Part 1 (seen here in CIM on Tuesday April 4th), we begin our Q&A with Soma and profile his background. Soma also discusses his major current challenges and how he is solving them. Here is Part 2 of the Q&A series with Soma where he discusses the major issues facing the IT industry and businesses. I encourage you to make comments here or send me an e-mail at sibaraki@cips.ca . Discussion...

We Canadians have exceedingly rare national treasures that are the foundation of an entire worldwide industry, educational stream, and profession. Their contributions are so profound and their impact so diverse and in so many areas that the lasting value can not be comprehended. As befits this CIM blog, this time it’s in the computing field. I am having the real privilege of talking with computing...

John Oxley suggested that I blog what myself and some other IT pros are doing here in Winnipeg, so here goes! First, the larger community: WITPRO meets once a month at Red River College for technical presentations concerning various Microsoft products. Momentum seems to be building and the turnout is growing! IT Lounge is our innovative attempt to put some fun into the IT community here...

Apps, apps, apps – it’s all about apps these days, across phones, tablets, and desktops. It seems that regardless of the size of company, small and large alike, every company has an app. Take a look at the apps that you have installed on your devices and ask yourself how and why you use each app. Then, look at how, by using the app, you interact products, brands, and/or companies. This app motivation...

There has never been a better time to study for and pass the 70-659 exam because we here at Microsoft Canada are determined to get as many Canadian system admins, network admins, IT managers, IT job seekers, and whatever-else-you-want-to-call-yourself certified on Window Server virtualization as possible. Why? Virtualization is the foundation for private cloud and dynamic IT infrastructure. Getting...

I’m back from my travels since the week of September 16 th and providing an update. First of all I was in New York at the ACM Practitioner Board (PB) meeting. The ACM is the world’s largest scientific, educational and professional association, famous for their special interest groups such as SIGGRAPH , Turing Awards the Nobel Prize of Computing. I did an interview with the Judea Pearl who received...

(Photo credit Thomas Quine from Wikipedia Commons ) Did you notice that the Early Bird pricing deal for Vancouver TechDays reached it’s expiry date yesterday? Yup – it’s seriously 6 weeks before TechDays 2010 opens in Vancouver. Wow! I’ve been off on vacation over the last little while and didn’t really paid much attention to all the activity that the team, session...

This is the next interview in the continuing series of Computing Canada’s (CC ) Blogged Down (BD) which is featured here “first” in the Canadian IT Managers (CIM) forum. In this blog series, we talk with Gordon Ross, Internet Filtering Pioneer, Biometrics / Security / Telecommunications / Ethics / Privacy Expert, Founder of Net Nanny; President of Virtual Perceptions Systems Inc. Today I will profile...

This is the next interview in the continuing series of Computing Canada's (CC ) Blogged Down (BD) feature which is highlighted here in the Canadian IT Managers (CIM) forum. This week we talk with industry leading development authority, Michael Vax, Vice-President of Product Development at Blackboard. In our last blog, we began the interview and profiled Michael's extensive background in development...

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...