THE DREAM IN ACTION

Here’s a new idea. Well, an old idea with a Web 2.0 spin…my favorite. ControlC is a web based application that automatically stores everything that you Copy/Paste onto the web. Brilliant idea right? Well, there are some concerns around security. Specifically some of the TechCrunch readers have shared concerns about the security of this product. I don’t see the problem. Call me irresponsible if you’d like, but I see security concerns as a almost a thing of the past. The web is being forced to become more and more safe. As our lives move onto the web (I know it kind of sounds sad, but it’s true) we are forced to find ways to stay safe and developers are forced to near a guarantee of safety. I understand that there are no guarantees but peoples behavior proves my point. Take Mint.com for example. A web based personal financial management site. Within days of TechCrunch40 they were doubling their server capacity because so many people couldn’t wait to throw their financial information up on the site. If people are that trusting with their personal financial data what makes you think that ControlC will have any problems. They won’t.

This is a great idea and another perfect example of how there are so many things that we forget we even do on a day to day basis that can be improved and digitized with new technologies.

Please share your experiences with ControlC using comments.

Here’s a new idea. Well, an old idea with a Web 2.0 spin…my favorite. ControlC is a web based application that automatically stores everything that you Copy/Paste onto the web. Brilliant idea right? Well, there are some concerns around security. Specifically some of the TechCrunch readers have shared concerns about the security of this product. I don’t see the problem. Call me irresponsible if you’d like, but I see security concerns as a almost a thing of the past. The web is being forced to become more and more safe. As our lives move onto the web (I know it kind of sounds sad, but it’s true) we are forced to find ways to stay safe and developers are forced to near a guarantee of safety. I understand that there are no guarantees but peoples behavior proves my point. Take Mint.com for example. A web based personal financial management site. Within days of TechCrunch40 they were doubling their server capacity because so many people couldn’t wait to throw their financial information up on the site. If people are that trusting with their personal financial data what makes you think that ControlC will have any problems. They won’t.

This is a great idea and another perfect example of how there are so many things that we forget we even do on a day to day basis that can be improved and digitized with new technologies.

Please share your experiences with ControlC using comments.

Yesterday I had an opportunity to speak with Gary Reiner, CIO of General Electric and ask him anything that I wanted. It was part of my new gig in a GE leadership training program. I don’t discuss my job here on ActionsTalk but this experience and opportunity forced me to break that rule. Here are my notes from the talk with Gary:

When asked about IT’s contribution to the business, Reiner replied…IT not a contributor or service for the business, IT is the business, fully integrated. Any project that is taken on will fail if it is considered an IT project. A project should only be undertaken if it will improve the business and improve a process that the business executes. These process improvement project will succeed. Along those lines he expanded that the best measure of a process is “cycle time”.

When asked about Open Source products Reiner was very enthusiastic. He was heavily in favor and a current user of products like Skype and OpenOffice. He would even like to incorporate them into the worlds largest company if it wasn’t for issues like security, transition difficulties, and vendor support, all of which are major concerns.

There were other topics discussed that would not be appropriate for me to share on this forum. A few of these topics discussed were emerging new technologies and the companies that are developing these technologies and also many other GE specific topics.

Gary Reiner was incredibly approachable, inquisitive, broad in his knowledge of GE and the world economy and genuinely interested in what we (as low level developing managers) had to contribute. Having an opportunity to speak with Gary was an exceptional experience!