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 summit in our chat this week: the situation with computer science education and declining enrolment. Its implications are profound since it impacts future business maintaining their competitive advantage with sufficient talent.

Maria is one of the most prominent global leaders in computer science and in education. In our talk she also shares her very important work and research, the global situation in China and India, and her passions. She makes a strong case for an upsurge in expanded computer career opportunities and in ways IT is critical for all areas of society. It’s a broader perspective that is important for IT professionals to hear.

Here’s the interview: http://www.microsoft.com/canada/technet/media/Dr_Maria_Klawe.mp3

We would be interested in hearing your views…

Thanks,

Stephen

I received an e-mail yesterday if I could share some of the roles I have undertaken and then provide career tips.

I thought for a minute and complied this list of a few background experiences:

1. Hardware: technical papers, designing; since 1965
2. Software: systems, design, development; since 1970
3. Teaching: IT and business; since 1980
4. Writing: technical papers, articles, books, blogs; since 1970s’
5. Speaking: regional, national, international; since 1970s’
6. Marketing: regional, national, international; since 1980s’
7. Consulting: since the 1970s’
8. Strategic planning: since the 1970s’
9. Executive management and boards: since the 1980s’
10. Entrepreneurship and starting companies: since the 1980s’
11. Working and volunteering with a variety of non-profit and professional groups such as CIPS: since the 1980s’ ; the latest is with the Canadian IT Managers forum

Here are my career tips or life lessons:

1. Have a pure motivation for your work…provide and make meaning for others: it is not about money. Strive to make it better for others. Your career goals and money will come.
2. Differentiate and provide value: This basic principle in starting a company and consulting also applies to careers. I had a meeting with a senior executive and he the talked about how this made a substantial difference in his life. You will see these principles in talks given by Guy Kawasaki and on his blog.
3. Do not worry about being 100% ready before starting a new career move: try, and try again—be persistent. Colin Powell talks about this too with his P40-70 rule where you start considering taking something on when you have 40% of the information. It is easy to get into preparation paralysis where you put something off since you are not 100% ready. I use a mountain analogy sometimes to describe what I mean. Imagine it’s dark and you have to get to the mountain top. You can’t see the entire path but you can make out the next 50 meters which is the extent of your flashlight. So go the 50 meters and you will see the next 50 along the path to the top. You will get there if you are patient and keep trying!
4. Make continual incremental improvements from the feedback that you actively solicit. I always ask for feedback on how I can improve and in the process I learn a lot from others. I recommend doing a constant environmental assessment of your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (a personal SWOT analysis). I blogged about doing a SWOT analysis in response to a question from the Mike Stonebraker blog and about a personal SWOT analysis in a response to a question from the Versatilist blog (there’s also a lead-up blog called: Most Wanted: a Multi-Specialist with Business Acumen or I.S.P.).
5. It is all about relationships and continual communications. Endeavour to build relationship networks. I had a discussion last year with a noted entrepreneur who has founded a number of companies. His latest is shaping to be a very large company [I believe $1B+] due to the technical innovation years ahead of the industry. He did graduate studies at Harvard and I asked him about the biggest benefit from going to Harvard. The course work was great but he felt the greatest value was from the relationships he formed. They helped him then and throughout his long and successful career. Two other successful business people I talked to this year took their MBAs for the relationships—they already had one MBA but took another from the US just for the relationships. The Canadian Information Processing Society (CIPS) is an ideal place to grow your relationships. This Canadian IT Managers (CIM) forum is another. The more you collaborate and exchange with others, the more you will learn and grow.
6. Keep a list of goals and review them once a day. Ask yourself, have I moved closer to my goals today? What have I done to direct this improvement? I find this keeps me focused.
7. 93% of any engagement is perception and 7% is content. Surprising, right? It’s all about the message delivery. One international expert I talked too this year indicated, you can have the greatest technical competency but if you can not communicate it, its value is hidden. I recommended taking every opportunity to speak, teach, write, or volunteer to sharpen your messaging skills.
8. Look for opportunities to take on a wide range of roles. It is something that Gartner recommends. In fact, one way to gain a variety of skills is to do work for a non-profit group. I found throughout my career it has made a difference to take on different roles and challenges. My motto is that you succeed by trying and meeting added goals are just nice extras! It is about continually learning and improving.

Cheers,

Stephen Ibaraki, I.S.P., sibaraki@cips.ca

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 in the afternoon. Gary noted that Microsoft technologies are integral to some of the technologies they provide. This is what it is all about--supporting community needs too!

Due to the generosity and support from the "geeks" at the Vancouver event, a good sum was raised for Neil Squire from the sale of Microsoft supplied Geek T-shirts. Moreover, Neil Squire made many new friends who dropped by their booth to see their technology and research in action and want to do more. I want to thank Neil Squire for sharing their compelling story, to the attendees who provided their support and to Microsoft in hosting this worthwhile charity at EnergizeIT.

I have another privilege today. This time providing an introduction to a blog post from Greg Pyc, NSS's National Operations Manager. Greg has many great stories and deep insights so I have invited him to blog here...Watch for them!

I also invite the audience to share their thoughts, talents, and ideas with Greg…or send me an e-mail at sibaraki@cips.ca

Enjoy!
Stephen Ibaraki
____________________

By Greg Pyc
National Operations Manager
Neil Squire Society

Is technology keeping pace with the needs of people with disabilities?

This is a peculiar question as technology has been viewed, generally, as an empowering tool for those with disabilities. We need only to look around us to see the proliferation of technological marvels and how they have enhanced the lifestyles and dignity of individuals.

A quick scan of products available for people with disabilities is testament to the ingenuity of their developers and the real need that exists today. Some noticeable examples are the hundreds of configurations that have been developed and marketed for keyboards and mice - each unique keyboard or mouse caters to a very different type of ergonomic need and new products are flooding the market every day.

Any internet search engine will list the thousands of sites dedicated to technology for people with disabilities.

But in terms of accessibility, there are subtle shades of grey here. Let's rewind to 1984 as my first introduction. I was working on my honours thesis at McMaster University and was desperate to type it, and I couldn't type. The thought of edits, more edits, white out and even more edits all on a typewriter unnerved me to no end. Enter Atari.

At that very moment in time Atari had the 130XE with disk drive, the availability of a dot matrix printer and no monitor (all for $3,500.00 and it even connected to your TV). And they had a cartridge that plugged into the back with a magical "word processor" that allowed me unlimited edits and I could print my thesis with no fear of white out and the dreaded cut and pasting problems associated with a major paper.

That was very intriguing and served me very well but I soon discovered gaming. Big time. Two dimensional games that were impossibly difficult to avoid and for the day, they rivaled any arcade. I hade line-ups to get into my apartment.

My then neighbour had a disability. He was a quadriplegic and had very limited movement of his arms, with little finger dexterity. Games were played then on a very simple joystick with one red button. Jim wanted to play the games but the joy stick was too difficult to manipulate.

The solution to Jim's dilemma was not a technological revolution but it did work. We made a base, bound it with duct tape and made a simple lever so he could press the little red button that was the nerve centre of that particular joystick. Jim could play any game and became quite proficient at a road race game, loosely based on F1 racing. He also played other games quite well and while he excelled, he was never quite up to the rest of the gang, who, in all honesty, practiced a disproportionate amount of time in my small living room.

This small example highlights one of the emerging problems when technology, in this case the Atari and their game cartridges and the advent of the joystick, accelerates at a very rapid pace. It becomes affordable (and fun) for the general public and prices drop, but people with disabilities find they are unable to use it to their full capacity.

We have come a long way with very long way but there are bumps on the road, not high hurdles, and these bumps need to be addressed. And the one area that needs immediate attention is personal digital assistants.

Over the next several articles we will explore technology and its use by people with disabilities to highlight not only the empowering aspects it provides, but the problematic ones as well.

___________

Greg Pyc is the National Operations Manager of the Neil Squire Society. He was disabled in a motor vehicle accident over 30 years ago and is a paraplegic, requiring the use of a wheelchair.

A question I often get is, "How can I progress career-wise and stay ahead?" Invariably, a good strategy is to keep informed.

To help you, I am sharing an interview I did this week with Computing Canada (CC) Editor Patricia MacInnis, a leading and respected voice in the Canadian computing scene.

Patricia provides insights into these topic areas:

1. Top news items for IT managers in 2005 that are continuing for the future
2. Priorities for IT managers in the past and in 2006
3. Issues to be addressed at the executive roundtable at the CIPS INFORMATICS conference held in Victoria, May 28th to May 30^th
4. Major predictions of future trends, their implications and business opportunities
5. Recommended resources for IT managers
6. Career events that were turning points; current challenges and goals
7. Working life as the CC editor
8. Editorial snapshots of coming features important to IT managers
9. Hot topics generating the greatest feedback
10. Big issues facing print publications

I invite you to provide comments here or via e-mail, sibaraki@cips.ca

Thank you,

Stephen Ibaraki

One of the neat things about my job is that I'm often given cool technology to play with and review. A couple of weeks ago, I got an HTC 6800 from Bell Mobility to play with and so did my fellow WWITPRO executive member and Canadian IT Manager guest blogger, Don Spencer. Well, we decided to get together and do a video review of the device. It's my first time doing something like this, and figuring out all the camera equipment was a job in itself, let me tell you. But the end product isn't all that bad - with much thanks going to the co-op student that's working in our department from Waterloo, Majid Mirza, who did the post production work using Windows Movie Maker.

For me the voice part of any mobile device is actually the least important. I mainly need to use it for email, text messages and note taking. The HTC 6800 does all those functions very well, as well as being a great phone. However, there are some things that I don't like, along with more that I did. For more information than that, you'll have to watch the video - it'll only take 4 minutes and 12 seconds of your day!

Don & Ruth Review the HTC 6800 Mobile Device

If you're currently evaluating phones, you may also want to check out the review on the HTC Touch which Damir recently posted on the Canadian IT Pro blog. He also made note of the new Windows Mobile web site.

[UPDATE] Due to your feedback, our most excellent intern Majiid revamped the video and turned down the volume on the soundtrack. However, there is still a lot of background noise, which is just due to my video-making inexperience. The next one will be better!