Currently, he is Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. He published over 450 papers in refereed international journals and conferences. He served on the program committee of several international conferences including IEEE ICDE, IEEE ICDM, IEEE IAT, SIAM DM; program chair of IEEE IRI-2008-2009-2010, OSINT-WM-2008-2009-2010, ASONAM-2009-2010, CASON-2009-2010, MS-2007-2009-2010.

He is founding editor-in-chief of the Springer Journal of Social Networks Analysis and Mining, founding editor of Springer Series 'Lecture Notes on Social Networks', Steering Chair of IEEE/ACM International Conference on Advances in Social Network Analysis and Mining (IEEE/ACM ASONAM); Steering Chair of the International Symposium on Foundations of Open Source Intelligence and Security Informatics (FOSINT-SI); Steering Chair of the International Symposium on Health Informatics, Bioinformatics and Biomedicine (HI-BI-BI) . Associate Editor of IEEE SMC- Part C and he is member of the editorial board of the Journal of Information Assurance and Security, Journal of Data Mining and Bioinformatics, Journal of Data Mining, Modeling and Management; he has been guest editor for a number of special issues and edited a number of conference proceedings. Dr. Alhajj's primary work and research interests are in the areas of Computational biology and bioinformatics, data mining, multiagent systems, schema integration and re-engineering, social networks and XML.

He currently leads a research group of 10 PhD and 8 MSc candidates, most of them are recipients of very prestigious awards including Alberta Innovates Graduate Studies Scholarship, NSERC Vanier Scholarship, NSERC PGS, etc.. He received a distinguished supervisor award from Graduate Studies at University of Calgary. Dr. Alhajj recently received with Dr. Jon Rokne a donation of equipment valued at $5 million from RBC and Teradata for their research on Computational Intelligence and Bioinformatics.

Along with his wife Dima Halabi they have three daughters Aya, Loubaba and Lama Gulay and two sons Suleiman and Mohammed Taha.

To listen to the interview, click on this MP3 file link

DISCUSSION:

Interview Time Index (MM:SS) and Topic

:00:15:
Reda thank you for sharing your experiences with our audience.
"....Running a large group of graduate students is not an easy task. Fortunately most of my students are receiving major prestigious awards from the government of Alberta and NSERC. Thank you to Alberta Innovates for their support to many of my students which really helped attract potential stars to come and join my research group at the University of Calgary and participate in the Imagine Cup...."

:01:03:
Can you profile some of your top research successes, what value they provide to research, and the implications/applications to the broader business and ICT industry?
"....We are mainly focusing on health informatics, computational biology, big data management and analysis, social media analysis and many applications like this. We are working on theory and application....In the health informatics field we are focusing on the Canadian healthcare system, a unique system which has two levels of doctors, the general practitioners and the specialists. We are working on a process which will make it easier for the patients and specialist to meet faster.....Another interesting component of our work related to health is helping to identify disease by markers.....We are also working on opinion mining and propagation of influence with emphasis on identifying spam reviews for products....."

:11:29:
Reda describes his top leadership roles and what value they provide to research and the implications/applications to the broader business and ICT industry.
"....I run a large research group of over 15 students, so managing this group is very demanding, but I am happy I have a group of highly qualified and talented students. This requires considerable time and effort....We are shifting into a new era where development requires combining research with skills in development, so students even with a CS degree are expected to be more creative and innovative in their development rather than doing systematic routine work...."

:16:30:
Why should faculty and students get involved in the Imagine Cup? Your university has been so successful with this venue, especially under your tutelage.
"....The Imagine Cup is a unique opportunity for faculty and students to get engaged in real international competition. It is like the Olympic Games of computing and development and by competing in such competitions students learn how to develop their real professional skills. They have to think outside the box in an innovative way. They learn how to turn their ideas into some useful product that can benefit humanity. They learn how to be self-dependent which is very important for the students to build their self-confidence, trusting their own capabilities and potential while doing their research project for their thesis work....."

:21:22:
Reda describes in more detail their experiences at the finals in Canada and Russia? [Editor note: Line noise in interview]
"....Dr. Jon Rokne served as mentor for one team while I was registered as mentor to the other team. We were not aware of the number of submissions but we were told later on that there were over 700 submissions in Canada....We had two teams, one in Innovation and one in Citizenship and we were extremely happy and excited that we had two teams among the three Canadian finalists. When they informed us of the results we realized that our two teams would compete against each other which was another challenge for us, but now our target was to have one of the two teams to represent Canada in the finals....Winning the Canadian competition was the start of the real test if we wanted to be recognized and excel in the international arena. The team worked very hard between the Canadian finals and the world finals to improve the project and to bring it to the level where it could complete well at the world finals. We returned back to Canada with the award and shared the joy and happiness with our fellow Canadians...."

:26:27:
When your students are doing their projects and they are looking for interesting pieces of research, I would imagine that they would be using the ACM Digital Library when they are doing their research for the Imagine Cup. Is that so?
"....Yes, actually my students spend a long time on the computer trying to investigate the research that others have done and download papers related to their research. Everything that is available in the digital libraries of ACM, IEEE, Springer and others my students try to analyze for research outcomes...."

:28:47:
From your special perspective as supervising faculty and mentor, describe the top placing winning projects for the Imagine Cup and what made them special? [Editor note: Line noise in interview]
"....Our two projects ranked among the top three in Canada so we had two novel ideas.....The project called YouSafe guides people to optimizing their spending, time and fuel consumption which will help in saving the environment by less driving....The second project was SANO which is a healthcare-related system. SANO tracks the behavior of a person and his movement trends throughout the day. This is very crucial for people who spend a long time sitting in front of the computer, behind a desk in the office. SANO keeps a record of the health indicators for the person registered in the system and his or her exercise plan....SANO won first place in Canada and received the KFC Innovation award in the world finals in Russia...."

:34:13:
Can you provide some special tips from your areas of renowned expertise?.
"....Go for group work which covers a variety of disciplines....Talk to people and understand their problems in a current and comprehensive way in order to tackle these problems and to find specific, helpful, working and successful solutions for them.....Avoid reinventing the wheel because it is a waste of effort, time and resources to try to do something that has already been done. We have to spend more time finding the holes whether they are big or small, because the bigger the hole the more challenging it will be to close it and the more interesting the solutions that will be developed in order to handle that challenge....Our students should never underestimate their skills and potential....Understand that what actually made big names big is their ability to see what others could not see and to do what others could not do....Everyone involved in the project is expected to have some potential to contribute, and the level of contribution depends on the capabilities of the person and his or her understanding of the task expected, as well as his or her communication skills...."

:39:25:
From your perspective, what are the best online resources to use?
"....Digital libraries are very helpful and save time and effort (ACM, IEEE, Springer and others)....Websites from other universities are also important because there are key developments going on at other universities....Google provides a very wonderful website where I can search for some documents I am looking for....Online newspapers (old newspapers you can download online; this helps with our research)....Magazine articles...."

:42:53:
You talked about analyzing digital libraries, available material in the media (newspapers, magazines), and you talked about stock markets and looking at what's happening in that particular segment. I imagine you look at simulations and so on. Have you looked at some of Gabriel Wainer's work at Carleton on simulations?
"....Yes, but we are trying to tackle this from a different perspective. We try to avoid simulation. We try to develop models that are able to predict and discover knowledge within the data rather than simulate the existing technique. So our work is mostly trying to look at and analyze the history, build a model on the history, try to put this model in practice, and try to see how this practical model will be successful in analyzing and predicting the future....."

:45:35:
What special technical tips can you provide when developing apps for things like the Imagine Cup?
"....Have it as simple as possible....as good as possible, with the minimum cost as possible...."

:48:59:
What are the major challenges your students encounter in their projects and how are they overcome?
"....Deciding on a specific project was a major challenge....Finding the tools appropriate for the project....Too many things to be done so they had to manage their time. They had to complete some things in a minimum amount of time....Diversity of knowledge...."

:52:30:
What special developer techniques do your students use in their innovations?
"....My students distinguish themselves by their diverse knowledge yet they are deep in various aspects. They know a wide number of techniques that they can put together to produce solutions. This capability makes my students unique compared to any other student who focus on a specific aspect and end up thinking locally rather than globally...."

:54:38:
What are your recommended Microsoft technologies and why?
"....Windows 8 is amazing actually....Kinect...."

:56:00:
Do you feel computing should be a recognized profession on par with accounting, medicine and law with demonstrated professional development, adherence to a code of ethics, personal responsibility, public accountability, quality assurance and recognized credentials? [See http://www.ipthree.org and the Global Industry Council,  http://www.ipthree.org/about-ip3/global-advisory-council]
"....We can't imagine a medical doctor who does not have a degree in medicine and practicing, but we see many computing specialists who do not have degrees. I'm not sure how long it will take to have this as a profession, but I think we are moving forward slowly. We are in better shape than in the 80s and 90s....If we succeed in developing computing as a profession with well set boundaries, requirements expectations, responsibilities and ethics then it would be possible to produce more sophisticated outcomes which is needed in this era of rapidly growing technology...."

:01:00:40:
Reda shares some stories from his extensive speaking, travels and work.
"....Let me start by describing some old stuff and then move to some more recent stuff...."

:01:06:46:
If you were conducting this interview, what 3 questions would you ask and then what would be your answers?
"....Why did you decide to work in academia?....If you had not chosen to work in academia what other profession would you have chosen?....Given your heavy load how do you divide your time between your family and your research?...."

:01:10:05:
Reda, with your demanding schedule, we are indeed fortunate to have you come in to do this interview. Thank you for sharing your deep experiences with our audience.

Patryk is the President of the Association for Information Systems (AIS) Student Chapter and is the owner of Hard Code Software Solutions, Inc., a start-up company that he recently formed after receiving a BizSpark Grant from Microsoft.

Patryk began developing applications for the Windows Store and Windows Phone after being introduced to C Sharp programming while enrolled in an Object Oriented Programming course in 2012. Since then, he has had multiple Spotlight applications in both the Windows and Windows Phone Stores. The Spotlight categories include Top Paid, New Releases, and Best Rated. In addition, Patryk currently holds the number 15 spot in Nokia's DVLUP developer leaderboard, and has had 5 store apps certified by Softopedia.

To listen to the interview, click on this MP3 file link

DISCUSSION:

Interview Time Index (MM:SS) and Topic

:00:28:
You have one degree, why did you decide to earn a second degree?
"....Education is very important to me and also to my family....The story behind the second degree is that I always wanted to be more computer literate...."

:04:05:
I've looked at your background and you've had some great successes. Can you profile some of your top successes?
"....I consider earning my first Bachelor's degree one of my major successes....Another is serving my country being part of the US Army....Also what I have been able to achieve with Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8...."

:08:12:
Provide your five special technical tips for developing using C Sharp?
"....I still consider myself a beginner. Although I've made major improvements it is important to understand that I'm not quite there yet, so I'm going to keep this very simple....Always use comments in your code....While you are still learning, make small changes and then test, rather than trying to build half the application (like I've done so many times) and then testing....Make sure to handle all exceptions....Follow naming conventions when naming your variables (this is something very simple, but very important)....Use the Control + Z shortcut and don't be afraid to experiment...."

:12:35:
What are the challenges in having a start-up company?
"....Limited funding and having to fend for yourself. Your business and business name haven't been established yet....You may be lost and don't know exactly what you're doing because you're new and having to worry if you are going to make it or not...."

:13:05:
From your perspective, what are the best online resources to use as a developer?
"....There are all kinds of SDK (Software Development Kits) which you can find online and are very valuable for developers for adding specific features to their apps. Just to name a few: Nokia Imaging SDK, this can be used to build an application for editing images....Aviary SDK, another photo editor SDK and has some awesome filters and effects and has stickers and even texts....Bing Translator SDK....Other resources include:learnvisualstudio.net run by Bob Tabor, the website is full of resources for programmers....Channel 9 where you can find video series on any programming language, you can download the source code for every project and every video series....Skype, great for developers to communicate with each other and discuss projects.....Teamviewer which you can use to remote into your computers, developers can use this to work on projects together....MSDN, they've got code samples, their Developer Centers, Forums and a bunch of other resources)....codeproject.com, where you can find examples of different codes for different things that you would be trying to implement into an application....stackoverflow.com, if you have any questions for other developers this is a good place for you to visit....There is C-SharpCorner, which is another great website...."

:19:05:
What 5 special technical tips can you provide when developing apps?
"....Always test your application thoroughly before releasing it....Start with a template and make small changes (this is one that really works for me)....Always assume you will be making changes to the application or updating it so write the code in a way that will make this process easier for you later on....Leave comments in your code. As a developer this is one of the most important things you can do for yourself and others who may possibly working behind you....Don't try to target a specific device. Consider the fact that there are a variety of devices that run on different screen resolutions so you basically want to keep everything generic...."

:21:52:
What are the major challenges when developing apps?
"....The idea, because without an idea you pretty much have nothing....Getting your apps to stand out and having to compete with other developers that have more experience than you....Once you have an idea chances are that somebody is already using it so you have to get your app to compete with theirs or somehow make your application better....Developing the app itself is a challenge...."

:23:33:
What special developer techniques are you using in your latest app?
"....In my latest apps I believe I used the Nokia Imaging SDK, which is a photo editor app that offers around 30 filters...."

:24:13:
How did you achieve your Spotlights Top Paid, New Releases, Best Rated, number 15 spot in Nokia's DVLUP developer leaderboard, and 5 store apps certified by Softopedia?
"....The Spotlight (from my understanding) is where downloads and ratings make all the difference in the world when it comes to your apps ranking in the categories and holding that position. I have a simple strategy that seems to work when it comes to making the Spotlight categories...."

:30:39:
What are the major benefits in being part of BizSpark?
"....BizSpark is a grant that is offered by Microsoft and you get 24 hour technical support and it's absolutely free. Free access to any Microsoft software that you can imagine....You also get access to great training and resources such as Microsoft Virtual Academy....."

:31:58:
What are your recommended Microsoft technologies and why?
"....Number one would have to Office 365. You can sync any of the documents that you're using with the Cloud SkyDrive, so you can sync them essentially with all your devices....Skype, you can use it on your phone or PC. I use it to talk to family members and to communicate with partners if we're working on a project together....I would definitely say Windows 8.1. I just recently upgraded to 8.1, they fixed a bunch of bugs and the whole setup is a lot better and a lot more convenient...."

:35:17:
Do you feel computing should be a recognized profession on par with accounting, medicine and law with demonstrated professional development, adherence to a code of ethics, personal, public accountability, quality assurance and recognized credentials? [See www.ipthree.org and the Global Industry Council, http://www.ipthree.org/about-ip3/global-advisory-council]
"....I do feel that it should. From my point of view as companies expand or grow their ability to handle their workload is contingent on computers and applications...."

:36:57:
From your extensive speaking, travels, and work, please share three stories (amusing, surprising, unexpected, amazing).
"....When I first started Dr. Bailey's programming class I actually failed my first programming test. I got a zero and she always says that I earned that all by myself....Now I have several apps in the marketplace....My message to everybody else is if I can do it anybody can do it, because I was completely computer illiterate and had to pretty much start from scratch. So if I can learn it I think anybody can as long as you're determined and you keep working at it you can get it done...."

:41:41:
Can you give us some of these apps so we can search for them?
"....You would type in pljaniszewski if you were searching in the store...."

:42:27:
If you were conducting this interview, what 3 questions would you ask and then what would be your answers?
"....What other programming languages do you work with?....What other programming languages would you like to learn?....Do you enjoy what you are doing?...."

:45:02:
Pat, with your demanding schedule, we are indeed fortunate to have you come in to do this interview. Thank you for sharing your deep experiences with our audience.

[Text question]
Q: What value does the ACM bring to computing and students and why should people join the ACM?
A: "The ACM is the largest educational and computing society in the world. The organization is responsible for furthering the advancement of computing as both a science and as a profession. One major way that the ACM brings value to computing and students is by providing services to professionals in industry in the form of academic research. The ACM provides members and the computing profession with many valuable resources including leading-edge publications, conferences, and even career resources.
The ACM represents the computer science profession in industry and at the same time connects professionals with the academic research that occurs at universities, which is extremely valuable as the research ultimately affects industry. Members can enjoy benefits such as ACM's (Discounts and Special Offers Program) which will allow them to receive discounts and special offers on different goods and services that they need, want and use. Examples of this include: books and journals, careers and conferences, magazines, software/hardware, insurance, financial products, travel and general consumer products. I highly urge everyone in the Computer Science field to join the ACM."

The App-reneur Awards will honor the creative efforts of student-built applications running on any of the current mobile app devices including iOS, Android, Windows 8, as well as smartwatches/wristwear, Google Glass and other emerging platforms. Winners will be invited to attend 2014 CES as guests of the Kay Family Foundation and showcase their apps to the industry as part of the Mobile Apps Showdown, a contest that pits the most powerful new apps in the world in a competition of those “most likely to succeed.”

The final two App-reneur Awards winners will each receive a $5,000 scholarship to further support the student’s endeavors in bringing new apps to market.

“The world is calling for a new generation of transformative leaders with a strong command of science and technology, entrepreneurial and creative thinking, communication savvy and ethical core values,” said Elim Kay, president of the Kay Family Foundation. “Our Foundation is interested in championing a demand-driven surge of 21^st century global leaders.”

“The Mobile Apps Showdown thrusts tomorrow’s winning apps into the limelight and is one of the most popular standing-room-only events of the four-day International CES,” said Robin Raskin, creator of the Mobile Apps Showdown and founder of Living in Digital Times. “We’re thrilled that the Kay Family Foundation is working with us to help identify students and rising entrepreneurs who are destined to be the next generation of world-class app builders.”

High school, college and graduate school students from all over the world are invited to submit their apps by visiting http://mobileappsshowdown.com and clicking on the Kay Family Foundation App-reneur Awards. The free application requires a brief description of the app, along with a URL and a statement from the student. The judges, including journalists, engineers and developers from the mobile community, will rate the apps based on their creativity, innovative problem solving, user interface and originality. The public will be able to review the submissions online and cast their votes for the most promising app.

Students will be notified of their status by December 25^th and will be invited to travel to Las Vegas to present live in person or via Skype during the Showdown. The award nominees will be showcased on the Mobile Apps Showdown website.

The Incremental Commitment Spiral Model (ICSM) extends the scope of the original spiral model for software development to cover the definition, development, and evolution of cyber-physical-human systems. It has been successfully applied to systems ranging from small e-services applications to complex cyber-physical-human systems of systems. It is not a one-size-fits-all process model, but uses four essential principles to determine whether, where, and when to use candidate common-case process elements (reuse-based, prototype-based, agile, architected agile, plan-driven, product-line, systems of systems, legacy-based, etc.).

The four essential principles are (1) Stakeholder value-based system evolution; (2) Incremental commitment and accountability; (3) Concurrent multi-discipline engineering; and (4) Evidence and risk-based decisions. This presentation covers the four essential principles and their rationale; spiral, phased, concurrency, and process-element-decision process views; associated tools such as an Electronic Process Guide and the Winbook stakeholder win-win requirements negotiation system; and examples of successful ICSM use and pitfalls to avoid. (Based on a book co-authored by Barry Boehm, Jo Ann Lane, Supannika Koolmanojwong, and Richard Turner.)
Duration: 60 minutes

Presenter: Barry Boehm, University of Southern California
Dr. Barry Boehm is the TRW Professor in the USC Computer Sciences and Industrial and Systems Engineering Departments. He is also the Chief Scientist of the DoD-Stevens-USC Systems Engineering Research Center, and the founding Director of the USC Center for Systems and Software Engineering. He was director of DARPA-ISTO 1989-92, at TRW 1973-89, at Rand Corporation 1959-73, and at General Dynamics 1955-59. His contributions include the COCOMO family of cost models and the Spiral family of process models. He is a Fellow of the primary professional societies in computing (ACM), aerospace (AIAA), electronics (IEEE), and systems engineering (INCOSE), and a member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering.

Moderator: LiGuo Huang, Southern Methodist University
Dr. LiGuo Huang is an associate professor in the Computer Science and Engineering Department (CSE) at the Southern Methodist University (SMU). She received both her Ph.D. (2006) and M.S. from the Computer Science Department and Center for Systems and Software Engineering (CSSE) at the University of Southern California (USC). After her Ph.D., she joined SMU CSE as the Assistant Professor in 2007. Her current research centers around mining systems and software engineering repository, software process modeling, simulation and improvement, software quality and information dependability assurance, value-based software engineering, and empirical software engineering. Her research is supported by NSF, the U.S. Department of Defense, NSA, and industry. She had been intensively involved in initiating the research on stakeholder/value-based integration of systems and software engineering and published in ICSE, ASE, IEEE Computer and IEEE Software. She has been the reviewer for TSE, TR, JSS, JSEP, IST, IJSI and the program committee member for a number of international software engineering conferences and workshops. She served as the Program Committee Chair of ICSSP 2012, CSEE&T 2012, and the Asian Chair of CSEE&T 2011. She is the member of CSEE&T Steering Committee and the Program Committee Chair of ICSSP 2014.
Click here to register for this free webinar and be sure to share this with friends and colleagues who may be interested in this topic. And check out our past events, all available on demand.

Martin Kratz leads the intellectual property practice and co-leads the ecommerce practice for Bennett Jones. His practice is focused around intellectual property and technology law, which includes substantive patent, copyright and trademark matters as well as matters of intellectual property transactions, IP commercialization, IP strategy and opinions, data protection, privacy, ecommerce, strategic alliances, mergers, acquisitions and technology transfers among technology companies. His practice is focused on the energy, electronic commerce, cloud computing, software, telecommunications, pharmaceutical, biotechnology, entertainment and related industries.

Martin continues to be internationally recognized as a leading lawyer. Among other recognitions he is identified:

• as one of Canada's most creative lawyers by Lexpert-Thomson in the US guide to Canada's 100 Most Creative Lawyers;
• as one of Canada's leading lawyers in The Lexpert/American Lawyer Guide to the Leading 500 Lawyers in Canada in intellectual property, and formerly when the categories were covered also in information technology and biotechnology law;
• as a leading Internet and e-commerce lawyer in Who's Who Legal: Internet & e-Commerce;
• as one of Canada's leading lawyers in Woodward White's The Best Lawyers in Canada for intellectual property law, technology law and information technology law;
• in Who's Who Legal 2013 in Information Technology, Patents and Sports & Entertainment;
• as highly recommended in technology law by the Practicing Law Institute;
• as recommended by Chambers and Partners for information technology law and intellectual property law;
• in The International Who's Who of Internet & e-Commerce Lawyers by Who's Who Legal;
• as a pre-eminent lawyer in information technology transactions in Euromoney's Guide to the World's Leading Information Technology Lawyers;
• as a leading lawyer in Intellectual Property and Information Technology by Lawday; and
• as a leading Canadian IP practitioner by winning the Corporate Intl Global Award, Intellectual Property Advisory Excellence in Canada.

Martin has written over 285 publications on various topics involving intellectual property, technology law or on related topics including the following books as sole or co-author: Canadian Internet Law, 2013; Canadian Intellectual Property Law, 2nd Ed., 2010; Outsourcing (Canada) 2012; IP&IT Handbook 2011/12: Volume 2: Data Protection – Canada; Licensing 2012 (Canadian Forms & Precedents), Electronic Commerce Law 2012; Trademarks and Industrial Designs, 2002 (Canadian Encyclopedic Digest); Internet Law: A Business and Professional Guide, 1998 (Canada's first Internet law text); Canadian Intellectual Property Law, 1998; Obtaining Patents, 2nd Edition, 1999 (1st Edition published 1995); Protection of Copyright and Industrial Design, 1999, 2nd Edition (1st Edition published 1994); Information Systems Security: A Practitioner's Guide, 1994 (2nd Edition published 2003); The Computer Virus Crisis, 1992, 2nd Edition (1st Edition published 1989 and translated into Russian, Japanese and Dutch versions); and Control and Security of Computer Information Systems, 1988.

Martin is national co-director of Osgoode Hall Law School's Intellectual Property LLM program. Teaching or having taught courses in Intellectual Property Law, Biotechnology Law and Internet Law at several law schools, Martin is an Adjunct Professor of Law at the Osgoode Hall Law School (Toronto) and at Concordia University College (Edmonton). At Osgoode Hall Law School (York University) Martin teaches (as lead national instructor), Intellectual Property Transactions for the Intellectual Property LLM Program. He also acts as Regional Director of the E-Business LLM program. Martin teaches an IT security and law course in the MSc program at Concordia.

Among other memberships, Martin is a member of the American Bar Association's Science & Technology, Patent, Copyright & Trademark, Sports & Entertainment and International Sections, a member of the Intellectual Property Committee of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, a Fellow of the Intellectual Property Institute of Canada, and a member of the Advocacy Committee of the Canadian Information Processing Society.

To plug in to Bennett Jones (http://bennettjones.com)

To plug into Martin's bio (http://bennettjones.com/KratzMartin/)

To listen to the interview, click on this MP3 file link

DISCUSSION:

Interview Time Index (MM:SS) and Topic

:00:50:
From your considerable success history, describe some major challenges you have faced and your solutions to the challenges that would be of value to businesses today?
"....Not to fear change in the world but rather to seek to understand what is driving the changes and see how it can be turned into an advantage....Think about your audience what they need and how they need to be informed and to communicate in a way that is meaningful to them....Let the customer know what you are doing for them and why, not merely the result....Seek to find balance as an individual so that you can have endurance for stable and committed long term effort in business...."

:04:00:
With your deep insights as an Information Communication Technology (ICT) and Intellectual Property (IP) legal pioneer, from your viewpoint what are the top five future challenges for business executives today and what are the solutions?
"....Managing the tensions between the efforts of some current industries to seek even higher degrees of protection for ICT innovation, where the trade-off of providing greater protection is that we enrich the current generation at the expense of future generations which are less able to build on what came before....Addressing the issue of internet privacy....The migration of ICT services to the Cloud....Managing the risks of bring your own device policies while still providing flexibilities that employees are seeking....There's a generational challenge looming for executives as younger workers expect to be free to express themselves using social media even in the workplace...."

:08:43:
What are some future disruptive innovations that business executives should be watching for from a legal perspective?
"....Cloud computing involving security and privacy protocols and issues of ease of leaving a Cloud service provider's service are core issues....Security risks and mobile access risks for mobile devices and the challenge of bring your own device policies....Social media having transformative impact in our society....Locational technologies provide unique business promotional opportunities, but if abused can pose security, privacy and personal risk to users and reputational and direct liability for a business....There is growing interest in the use of 3D printers that are claimed to increase the risk of IP infringement....Another innovation risk is the use of IP rights themselves, especially patent rights as a tool to seek to extract value from successful businesses...."

:12:22:
What are the privacy and security compliance obligations users need to consider before they adopt a Cloud-based solution (public sector and private sector)?
"....A key factor in each customer's decision of whether to adopt Cloud-based solutions is understanding if the solution meets the customer's compliance requirements. In Canada, key compliance issues are privacy and security because we have mandatory privacy and security obligations and those are applicable both for the private sector and public sector. I'll differentiate between those two because while there are a lot of similarities, the rules are generally the same...."

:17:07:
What happens if you have a global organization, which for example is based in Canada, but the data resides in the US in the Cloud? Or because it's a global organization, personal records may be held in Asia, Europe, Africa, etc.; what are the implications of that?
"....Generally privacy laws relate to activities not to locations, so the activities of collecting, of using, of storing, of disclosing will trigger the possibility of privacy laws....What global organizations do is that they assess all of the legal regimes that could be applicable to their information handling practices and seek to develop a synthesized set of privacy policies and practices that allow them to be compliant in all jurisdictions, and their privacy policies typically reflect that type of integrated approach...."

:18:46:
Increasingly with the Cloud there are smaller organizations and non-profit organizations, who at a very low cost establish a global footprint. One can see all of the legal implications from that requiring considerable legal advice as to what the implications are. How is that managed if you have all of these smaller organizations including non-profits worldwide who perhaps don't have that ability or resources to do this? Are there any resources available that they can make use of or are lower in cost to help in this endeavour?
"....As a principle point a business has a responsibility to comply with the laws and jurisdictions to which it is subject, regardless of its size or its capability....The tools available for the smaller companies are to consider hiring people who have that kind of global experience as part of the workforce for the smaller company....The second approach they seek to use is in their agreements....The third approach is to look to industry associations or professional associations as sources of information and best practices in terms of compliance...."

:21:36:
You are an active blogger, written articles in this area, and also authored one or more books in this area. Do you have any recommendations as resources?
"....I think a starting point of excellent materials are the websites of the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioners of the provinces and the federal Privacy Commissioner....If people are interested at a professional or deeper level there are a number of textbooks in this area that will give you a deeper analysis of those privacy obligations and requirements...."

:23:28:
What are some contractual issues in Cloud computing?
"....The starting point is to look at what the cases and the decisions of the Privacy Commissioners have suggested....There should be covenants restricting collection, use and disclosure of the information other than for purposes for which the Cloud service provider is expressly retained....There should be covenants requiring the service provider to maintain specific privacy, safety, security and backup standards for the personal information....There should be obligations to provide access to personal information to the company and its customers or employees as required by their own privacy obligations....Some of these requirements for organizations using foreign service providers include notification of individuals if the service provider outside of Canada will collect personal information on behalf of the organization, and notification if the organization is transferring personal information to a service provider outside of Canada, and information on the outsourcing practices of the organization including its policies...."

:26:09:
Can you share some insights into the investigation and managing domain name disputes?
"....The typical types of domain name disputes we have are trademark infringements where an existing company's trademark is used as a domain name to direct traffic or to try to extort the trademark owner to purchase the domain name. There is also reverse cyber-squatting where a bricks and mortar company has a wish to use a domain name and they haven't been made internet-savvy....Another class of domain name conflicts are commentary sites where disgruntled customers or employees vent about a company's business and an existing domain name is misspelled in an effort for a certain part of the population that mistypes the name will be directed to the other site....There are two approaches legally to address these types of issues...."

:31:20:
What are the key points around the investigation and managing website misuse?
"....One of the key issues is to identify the defendant. There are legal tools available to identify the anonymous poster of content on a website, and there are some powerful non-litigations tools available such as addressing whether the unlawful material posted on a website violates the terms of use of the website and whether or not there are statutory regimes available...."

:32:28:
Social media adoption is so widespread around the world today. What are the issues around the investigation and managing social media disputes?
"....Improper social media use can expose a business to a wide range of liability including defamation, harassment, creating a hostile work environment, copyright violation, breach of confidence where a company or third party's secrets are posted, securities law violations have to deal with disgruntled customers or employees, content issues of such things as pornography and hate speech....I think the most important thing that we have as a cultural factor as we adopt social media is we have to start to educate ourselves about smart conduct so we limit our individual exposure to legal liability...."

:40:00:
Social media has an increasing presence in our lives so we have this identity either from a corporate side or as an individual. Do you know of any services that can protect that individual brand, your individuality in some way from all the kinds of misuses that can occur because of the internet?
"....There are a variety of services that purport to do this, but it is not a trivial thing to do....The broad legitimate services look at a wide range of service providers who address questions about identity theft and reputational monitoring and then look at the experience or track record of those kinds of services to see if it's worth adopting or using any of their products...."

:41:55:
How can you validate the reputation of these people providing services? Is there a clearing house or an industry association or some kind of government body that says these people are okay and their services are fine and we can validate them?
"....Efforts to address these issues are efforts to create Trust Marks that identify companies on the internet that have particular adherence to practices (such as the Better Business Bureau), or satisfy certain security or privacy requirements, and while these can be mimicked, the idea is that you can check with the source of the Trust Marks in order to verify that the company in question is actually legitimate....The issue of who you can rely on is an area where there is a real opportunity for industry associations and groups of users in particular areas to establish their own rating services and to use those types of services as sources of information to seek to identify who could be relied on. The difficulty of those kinds of referral services is that they can become 'paid to place services' so despite your reputation you might be able to pay your way into their good graces...."

:44:14:
You are a highly respected legal authority both in the ICT area and also in intellectual property; do you know of any professional legal associations that could provide this kind of additional service, especially connected to intellectual property?
"....There are a variety of those services that seek to identify lawyers who have abilities in certain areas....In terms of identifying websites, what most lawyers tend to do is not look to Wikipedia or other translation sites, but rather look to primary sources. Visit the Canadian Intellectual Property office....All publishers as you know are vulnerable to disintermediation because of the internet, but there's a circumstantial guarantee of trustworthiness that the law book publishers like other publishers provide to their content so they provide to their services in an effort to synthesize the law and make it more readily available to the lay readers as well as to the professional reader...."

:46:25:
ICT Pioneer Kelly Gotlieb has long expressed his views about privacy. What are the current issues from your viewpoint on privacy?
"....In Canada as in other countries we don't permit privacy to become a barrier to the investigation of national security or terrorist threats. The point being in discourse there is an expectation of privacy being an absolute blanket, but privacy is not an absolute right and it is constantly being weighed against other values that are also important to society. The issue is that for most issues, privacy provides a range of tools for individuals to seek to protect their privacy, however the most fundamental has to begin with the individual not to disseminate their personal information widely without care...."

:49:01:
Can you define this area of Creative Commons and then talk about intellectual property issues on the Internet?
"....With recent efforts to increase the level and scope and in some cases also the term of the copyright protection the amount of content available to nourish the public domain is threatened. So there are various initiatives such as the Creative Commons which seeks to carve out protected areas for use of content, and as a result the people who choose to make their materials available through Creative Commons licensing regimes or the like are actually the copyright holders who are making decisions to make sure those materials are available...."

:53:00:
How is the legal profession evolving?
"....In general lawyers don't do enough to explain what they do and how that role plays an important part of ensuring change and stability in society. A number of law societies are aware of this and are doing more of that type of outreach. I think other than that the legal profession continues to evolve to adapt to new modes of practice, to adapt to increase international competition, to adapt to the increasing needs of clients whose expectations have changed in particular because of digital technology...."

:54:50:
What is the driver behind your long-time support of non-profits?
"....To find that balance that I talked about earlier. It's a way to give back to the community some of the benefits I think I have and also a way to share and support good causes or organizations that are doing important work. In some cases I might be able to contribute in a positive way to that organization's ability to move their cause or their work forward...."

:55:53:
Was there a defining moment in your childhood or some kind of inspirational story that happened or a decision later in life?
"....I have a tremendous thirst for learning so it's a great way to meet people, to enrich your own life to learn about different organizations and different causes and to help to make the world a better place. Ultimately if we don't contribute ourselves individually to make the world better and we all expect somebody else to do it the world isn't going to get any better...."

:56:58:
In your background you also do a considerable amount of teaching and you are the co-director of the Intellectual Property program at Osgoode Hall and you teach for a number of universities. What motivates you in that realm?
"....It forces me to actually keep current and to think about the changes that are going on around me and to try to keep up with them....In every class there are some really bright and innovative thinkers and they approach problems in a completely different way. They are not thinking traditionally and in a linear manner so I really enjoy the learning experience that I get from the students as well....There's a benefit in getting to know people who are working in the field and up and coming and might be able to fit in what my firm might need...."

:58:30:
Can you describe some areas of controversy in the areas that you work?
"....Managing the challenges and tensions between privacy and security between the user and the service provider on those kinds of issues....Managing the tension between seeking a freedom to innovate and the protection of existing innovation....Balancing the decision making around risks and benefits in respect to the adoption of new technology such as Cloud solutions but in other industries, other types of technologies....Helping clients to manage complex disputes or complex transactions tends to raise controversies....Helping clients to seek to manage the risks involved in the adoption of new business models or new technology where legal framework is not sufficiently evolved to provide certainty...."

:01:01:08:
As a long-time contributor to ICT, do you feel computing should be a recognized profession on par with accounting, medicine and law with demonstrated professional development, adherence to a code of ethics, personal responsibility, public accountability, quality assurance and recognized credentials?
"....In my view this makes sense as self-governing professions are common in areas where there is a need for public protection and where the professionals have unique skills and the public is protected by the profession's management of the skill level for the professionals and enforcement of those standards....I think it is in society's general interest and in the Information Technologies sector's interest that the ICT profession be more widely recognized and encouraged and that be a feature that employers look at in making hiring decisions or for staff for whom they want minimum levels of competence...."

:01:04:11:
From your extensive speaking, travels, and work, do you have any stories you can share (perhaps something amusing, surprising, unexpected, amazing)?
"....I really enjoy learning and traveling and I've benefited from the opportunity to speak at many international forums and to meet people from many different sectors, Europe, South America, throughout North America, Asia, Australia and elsewhere and through that it enriches me to learn how other people solve their problems. Unfortunately I don't have an amusing anecdotal story that I can share in a public setting...."

:01:05:45:
If you were conducting this interview, in which areas would you have asked questions and then what would be your answers?
"....Getting into even into more detail about the issues of controversy in the ICT sectors in areas such as Cloud computing or social media....Drilling down further in the area of intellectual property itself....There's a wide range of interesting topics we could have gone through and the challenge really is one of time...."

:01:09:21:
Martin, with your demanding schedule, we are indeed fortunate to have you come in to do this interview. Thank you for sharing your deep experiences with our audience.

Dr. Cameron has designed and taught a wide variety of graduate and executive education courses, both online and face-to-face, in areas including enterprise technology strategic planning, strategic alignment, enterprise technology leadership and decision making, information technology innovation, enterprise architecture, enterprise integration, portfolio management, information technology governance, and many others. He is consistently ranked as a top teaching faculty member for professional audiences.

Dr. Cameron’s accomplishments have led to invitations to speak internationally in venues that include the White House Conference Center, The World CIO Forum, The Office of the CIO of the U.S. Department of Defense, The National Association of State CIOs, and many other professional organizations and corporations. Dr. Cameron received the Career Achievement Award in 2011 from the Network Professional Association (NPA) for efforts related to the founding of the Federation of Enterprise Architecture Professional Organizations (FEAPO), the building of the Center for Enterprise Architecture, and associated service to the profession. Past recipients of this award include Tadao Saito, CTO of Toyota; Joseph Sifer, Senior Vice President, Booz Allen Hamilton; and Ted Thompson, CIO of the American Red Cross.

Cameron is a member of the Professional Education Standards Committee of the International Professional Practice Partnership (IP3), a member of the Global Industry Council (United Nations Affiliated), a member of the Board of Trustees for the Center for the Advancement of the Enterprise Architecture Profession, a founding board member of the Business Architecture Guild, the founding president of the Federation of Enterprise Architecture Professional Organizations, a founding member of the MITRE Enterprise Architecture Body of Knowledge Governing Board, a Co-chair of the Academic Alliance Committee for the Special Interest Group on Enterprise Architecture for the Industry Advisory Council of the U.S. Federal Government, and a member of the editorial review boards for the Journal of Enterprise Architecture, the International Journal on Cyber Behavior, Psychology, and Learning, the Interdisciplinary Journal of Information, Knowledge, and Management, the Journal of Information Systems Education, and the International Journal on E-Learning. Additional information can be found at: http://ea.ist.psu.edu/cameron.php.

Nick Malik is an internationally recognized expert, speaker, blogger and innovator in Enterprise Architecture and Business Architecture. Co-author of three books and a popular speaker at conferences, Nick brings his 32 years of high-tech experience to bear as he creates Enterprise Architectural models and solutions to the CTO of Microsoft IT, his current employer. Developer of a number of novel methods in Enterprise Architecture, including the Enterprise Business Motivation Model and the Minimal Sufficient Business Integration method, he strives to improve the maturity and professionalism of the practice of Enterprise Architecture worldwide. Nick has a background in product development, internal software development, management consulting and business operations accumulated across such diverse industries as hospitality, health care, insurance, high tech and financial services. You can find his musings online at http://blogs.msdn.com/b/nickmalik or on twitter as @nickmalik

To listen to the interview, click on this MP3 file link

DISCUSSION: Interview Time Index (MM:SS) and Topic

:00:32:
Starting with Brian then Nick, please provide an update of your latest activities and the value of those activities to the industry and professionals.
:00:43: Brian: "....We have 17 professional organizations now, from all over the globe, within the FEAPO membership. We are taking major steps to professionalize the discipline of Enterprise Architecture starting with some of the initiatives that we'll talk about in this interview, and we have a great roadmap of activities planned for 2014 and beyond. At the Center for Enterprise Architecture at Penn State our new Master's Program in Enterprise Architecture is going extremely well. Our Center continues to grow and expand...."
:01:41: Nick: "....We have been very busy (specifically in FEAPO) to develop content and ideas and to try to find consensus among all the various different organizations. That's a real challenge, but it is also a major step forward because we are in the process of actually building something that hasn't been built before...."

:02:22:
Nick, you recently completed work on an EA paper. Can you describe the reasons for creating the paper and why it is so important?
:02:31: Nick: "....The real problem was that there wasn't a single source or any really good notable source of information that I could point to that said here's a consensus, here's a single person who said something that everybody kind of agrees with, or here's a well-formed statement that the industry has bought into.....So I got involved with FEAPO to the Center for EA advancement and proposed that we do this through FEAPO. Why don't we have all the organizations help write a paper, and if they all sign on and ratify it in some way and just indicate that they agree with it, then we would have something notable, something that is an industry consensus...."

:05:10:
Brian, do you have anything to add and can you also overview the highlights in the paper?
:05:16: Brian: "....This is the first time that we've had almost 20 professional organizations come together to ratify something like this and frankly I think that's going to be a little harder to discount....As far as the major components of the paper, we talk about what is enterprise architecture and we're talking wholistically (not just IT enterprise architecture), we are talking about enterprise architecture from an enterprise-wide view and the value that it brings to the organization...."

:07:28:
Nick, can you provide some comments in terms of the highlights of the paper?
:07:37: Nick: "....It's not so much a definition because definitions are intended to be references used in dictionaries, it's more of a description because we're really writing it for the lay person....We described how enterprise architecture is used. It's used in situations of ongoing and transformational change and we made a distinction between those two. Then we talk about what differentiates what enterprise architecture practices to other functions and practices within an organization, so that you can understand that enterprise architecture is this and not that...."

:10:02:
Brian, how will the paper evolve in the future?
:10:06: Brian: "....This is very much a living document. This is the first of hopefully many editions. We have a new publications working group that's being formed within the FEAPO organization to evolve this paper and to come out with the next edition at some time in the future, in addition to evolving and producing a number of other FEAPO related papers and publications...."

:11:13:
This question is from a practical aspect or perspective. First of all Brian, how should the paper be used? You come from an academic background but also work with industry. And Nick, as one of the principal architects within Microsoft, how do you see it being used with an organization like a Microsoft?
:11:34: Brian: "....As you can expect with a group this large we had different perspectives on who the audience should be and the different objectives for this paper. In the end we all agreed that this was to be for the general public, for the lay person (something I could take to say my Dean or anybody else in my community, either the industry folks outside of IT and EA or other academics and give them this document and have it stand alone and have them say okay, I get what you guys do and why this is valuable)...."
:12:30: Nick: "....We've all been focused on how would you explain enterprise architecture, both for the people who have never heard of it and may collaborate with it, and for the people who have never heard of it and probably won't collaborate with it, but it needs to be a simple and consistent approach...."

:14:52:
As a follow-up Nick, can you profile the work on the EA Body of Knowledge (EABOK) and provide any additional comments on it? Brian can you then add your thoughts on it?
:15:04: Nick: "....We managed to reawaken the EABOK. We collaborated with MITRE. MITRE is a very interesting organization and they are very interested in building that collaboration. They don't want to own all the knowledge, they want to be part of the community that grows the EABOK and we've been very fortunate. They've been very collaborative...."
:17:07: Brian: "....There's going to be a community unveiling, a community input session on the EABOK held at the MITRE offices this coming March so anybody that is interested, please go to the EABOK website...."

:17:35:
Brian, can you profile work on the Career Paths paper in terms of what you see as the purpose and objectives of it, the intended audience, the value that it is going to bring? Nick can you follow up with your comments?
:17:51: Brian: "....The genesis of this initiative came over the last few years as FEAPO and the Center for Enterprise Architecture at Penn State and all of our various constituents have been hearing more and more of a call for more formalized career paths in different areas related to enterprise architecture....Right now anybody can hang out a shingle and offer certification and there's no group out there to say that the certification is good, bad or somewhere in the middle. Over time the idea is that groups would bring their certification and other artifacts and documents related to the profession to FEAPO, and the FEAPO organization would then vet that certification and verify that the certification does map to that career path structure and that it does do what it's supposed to do. After that vetting process then it votes and if the vote is positive then that organization receives a FEAPO endorsement. Hopefully over time that FEAPO endorsement will mean something to the profession....."
:22:23: Nick: "....I want to highlight the difficulty of working without one....The work that FEAPO and the Center are doing to help foster this notion of what actually is an enterprise architect (in terms of training, capability, skills, etc.) is really important for organizations that are in both the situation of setting up an enterprise architecture program and having to hire an architect, and a consulting organization that actually wants to be able to say I have an enterprise architect to present to you. It's wildly valuable...."

:24:32:
We've spent some time talking about this EA paper and this Careers Path and the EABOK areas. Where can the audience go to get information or get copies of these papers to use them in their practice or organizations?
:24:51: Brian: "..... If you go to http://www.feapo.org you'll see links to all the material that we've talked about and other things as well...."
:25:12: Nick: "....EABOK is at eabok.org...."

:25:19:
What do you think are the major milestones for EA in 2014?
:25:28: Nick: "....There were a lot of discussions and facets that we did not cover in our paper and one of the key challenges was to storm around what is the next big thing that we wanted to address and go ahead and get some progress. I'd love to see another paper come out in 2014, but I'm not sure if it's possible. We'll have to see how the various FEAPO organizations are to collaborate with that...."
:26:45: Brian: "....I think there is an ongoing set of milestones that we are all working towards and it's the continued evolution and professionalization of enterprise architecture in general. I think that the paper and the Career Path are obviously steps towards that goal, but I see EA in 2014 hopefully making some greater advances towards broader understanding and broader acceptance and greater professionalism as a whole...."

:27:17:
Brian, what are the major milestones for FEAPO in 2014 and 2015 and how will these impact businesses, the industry, the profession and the working professional?
:27:30: Brian: "....If we've got the Career Path structure and the competencies and roles agreed upon and ratified, and we have vetted a few certifications and we are starting to award the FEAPO endorsement, and more importantly organizations are seeking out the FEAPO endorsement that we've attained the status of this accrediting body for the profession — if we can get to that point in the next 2 to 3 years then I think we've accomplished quite a bit as an organization and quite a bit for the profession as a whole...."

:28:24:
There are companies and also working professionals out there who are listening to this interview, how can they get involved?
:28:37: Brian: "....FEAPO is an organization of organizations, so currently the only way to get involved with FEAPO is to come in through one of the member organizations....However, early in 2014 we are going to be launching additional membership levels for non-professional organizations. These would be non-voting levels or corporations, government entities, universities. These affiliate memberships will be organization-based so companies can join, organizations can join, but not individuals (it's an organizational membership)...."

:29:55:
Nick you are a working professional and you are working with one of the largest corporations in the world, Microsoft. You are also interacting with a lot of other businesses out there because of your stature in the enterprise architecture space. In each of your business roles, can you describe some major EA challenges you face and your solutions to the challenges that would be of value to businesses?
:30:27: Nick: "....Organizations don't adopt EA suddenly with any kind of a positive effect, you really need to adopt it over time. It's a growth process and the challenges are going to be based on that scope to a certain extent...What I think is the bigger challenge is at some level the dysfunctions within an organization become the dysfunctions within IT and you can't address them at the IT level....From an enterprise architecture standpoint, asking people to consider making even fairly small changes to the allocation of duties, responsibilities, trust, structure of an organization is something to be done very carefully. Those are really the challenges that we face in enterprise architecture...."

:33:11:
This question is for you Brian. I know that you've been doing a lot of traveling throughout Europe, Asia, South America and throughout the US and it's all about consulting where you've been providing your expertise on enterprise architecture. What do you find are some of the top best practices and lessons that you are sharing with clients in your formal consulting work?
:33:35: Brian: "....At a high level, never assume that you have all the answers....We need a new generation of leaders that can build consensus, can lead their EA practices from their IT roots to really be true enterprise architecture and interface effectively with different parts of the organization...Being able to put yourself in the position of the other person and trying to find that consensus is a win-win in any discussion....Don't get married to a position or a single point of view...."

:36:00:
From your perspective Nick and then followed by Brian, what do you see as some disruptive innovations that aren't the topical discussion right now that people aren't considering yet, but that business executives should be watching for because they could affect the enterprise?
:36:36: Nick: "....I'm waiting for the innovations to occur. I'm helping in my little piece of it, but I don't know how it's going to evolve. I think we need a very dynamic leader to pull it together, but once it does emerge it will reshape the way information flows within companies, between companies and around a company and I think that's going to change very much the nature of what the professionals in the Information Management/Information Technology space are doing for a living. ..."
:39:26: Brian: "....I'd like to step back from specific innovations to talk about what I hope we'll see more in organizations. That is a better capability for sensing and scanning innovations, new technologies, new trends and assessing where they are in their maturity and when and how and if to adapt or adopt these technologies and trends into your organizations....I also think that potentially positive innovation would be the continued evolution of EA outside of IT and we're starting to see a few leading organizations actually reposition EA under a business function, like strategic planning or the COO, Chief Transformation or the Chief Innovation Officer...."

:41:48:
Nick what do you see as your number one top area of controversy in any area or in EA? Brian can you also give your top area of controversy?
:42:03: Nick: "....I live in the world of understanding how organizations grow and develop and how their structures and functions become more mature over time. In that space, the biggest controversy today is really about understanding whether or not we can approach the development of an organization or an enterprise in a way that would allow it to become more efficient and effective without individuals, without a master God character sitting around and saying that things have to be a certain way, but rather in a way where the organization would naturally evolve and develop...."
:44:29: Brian: "....I think from my perspective coming from higher education and in particular enterprise architecture higher education, I think one of the big areas of controversy (as Nick alluded to) and what we're seeing in industry is: 'What is enterprise architecture and what does an enterprise architecture curriculum look like?'...."

:46:37:
How do you see the evolution of EA as a recognized profession on par with accounting, medicine and law with demonstrated professional development, adherence to a code of ethics, personal responsibility, public accountability, quality assurance and recognized credentials? [See http://www.ipthree.org and the Global Industry Council, http://www.ipthree.org/about-ip3/global-advisory-council]. Brian can you give your views on this? Then Nick can you give your thoughts as a working practitioner?
:47:32: Brian: "....I think we have a lot of work to do before we arrive at the stature of a "real profession" on par with accounting, engineering and other established professions. But I do believe that the FEAPO organization is a major step in that direction because up until this time we really didn't have a way of building consensus....I'm very optimistic because we have a unique set of organizations and a unique set of very gifted individuals that have come together through FEAPO to really advance and professionalize the discipline. I'm very optimistic that over the next several years you'll see some great work coming out of FEAPO and much more maturity and professionalism for the discipline as a whole...."
:49:39: Nick: "....Right now we haven't seen the forward momentum that I'm hoping to see and building a real profession, at least in terms of the way that the rest of the world sees it which is why I'm so focused on being part of FEAPO. I think the necessary prerequisite that can allow us to get there is having an organization like FEAPO to pull together all the different voices (or at least enough of those voices) to have the weight ...."

:52:52:
Brian and Nick share some stories (amusing, surprising, unexpected, amazing) from their extensive speaking, travels, and work.
:53:04: Nick: "....As I've sat down and worked with them they've begun to really understand that it's not an either/or approach, you really have to have both. You really have to understand that processes and information working together can provide safety where one or the other simply can't. It's been fascinating to watch as people realize their teams, their structures, their assumptions are called into challenge...."
:54:41: Brian: "...... I think the message here (also in enterprise architecture), is when I go around the world I hear many of the same issues, concerns, challenges and also great interest in this field and I think the challenges, issues and interest in the field is all over the globe. ...."

:56:15:
If you were conducting this interview, what questions would you ask, and then what would be your answers?
:56:28: Nick: "....What is the actual next topic to go after consensus for?...."
:57:10: Brian: "....As we look at leading organizations that have evolved from their roots in IT and now have moved out of IT under some business function, are we seeing any lessons there that others can learn from?...."

:59:34:
Brian and Nick, with your demanding schedules, we are indeed fortunate to have you come in to do this interview. Thank you for sharing your deep experiences with our audience.

Note: You can stream this and all ACM Learning Webinars on your mobile device, including smartphones and tablets.)

These days it is not uncommon to have 100s of gigabytes of data that must be sliced and diced, then delivered fast and rendered quickly. Typically solutions involve lots of caching and expensive hardware with lots of memory. And, while those solutions certainly can work, they aren't always cost-effective, or feasible in certain environments (like in the cloud). This talk seeks to cover some strategies for caching large data sets without tons of expensive hardware, but through software and data design.

It's common wisdom that serving your data from memory dramatically improves application performance and is a key to scaling. However, caching large datasets brings its own challenges: distribution, consistency, dealing with memory limits, and optimizing data loading just to name a few. This talk will go through some of the challenges, and solutions, to achieve fast data queries in the cloud. The audience will come away armed with a number of practical techniques for organizing and building caches for non-transactional datasets that can be applied to scale existing systems, or design new systems.

Duration: 60 minutes
Presenter: Kate Matsudaira, Founder and CEO, popforms
Kate Matsudaira specializes in creating and operating large-scale web applications. Her focus has primarily rested on SaaS applications and big data. She has extensive experience building and managing high-performance teams, and considers herself a fan of agile development practices and the lean startup movement. Kate is currently founding her own startup, popforms, but has held roles as developer, project manager, product manager, and people manager at companies including Amazon and Microsoft. The last seven years she has been a VP of Engineering/CTO for companies like Moz, Decide (acquired by eBay), and prior to that Delve Networks (acquired by Limelight). She is also one of the curators of the Technology and Leadership Newsletter (TLN). You can follow Kate's blog to see her writings on tech and leadership.

Moderator: Terry Coatta, CTO, Marine Learning Systems; ACM Practitioners Board
Terry Coatta is currently CTO for Marine Learning Systems. Marine Learning Systems is an eLearning software and services provider to the maritime and resource industry. Prior to Marine Learning Systems,Terry was President of AssociCom, a Vancouver-based start-up that builds online communities for professional and trade associations. His expertise lies in the areas of software architecture and software development. As CTO for Vitrium Systems Inc., he led the development organization through the release of three new products, and the customer base expanded from under 10 to over 200. From 2001 to 2005, he was the VP of Development at Silicon Chalk Inc. where he led a team developing a unique real-time collaboration tool for use at universities and colleges. Terry was also a founding partner in Network Software Group Inc. (acquired by Open Text Corporation, 1996) and Director of Software Development at GPS Industries Inc. An active ACM volunteer, Terry serves on the ACM Practitioners Board and Queue Editorial Board, and chairs the Case Study Committee.

Click here to register for this free webinar and be sure to share this with friends and colleagues who may be interested in this topic. And check out our past events, all available on demand.

Andy Chen is a senior business advisor for several leading global consulting firms and enterprise software vendors. Andy has over 30 years of experience in utility sectors specializing in Nuclear Power Generation. For the past five years, Andy has been assisting leading global consulting firms in business development for the Nuclear Utilities in China and in North America.

In 2008, Andy held the position of the Chief Technology Officer and Vice President, Enterprise Strategy and Architecture of a Canadian-based electricity generator. The company's principal business is the generation and sale of electricity in Ontario and to interconnected markets, while operating in a safe, open and environmentally responsible manner. Andy was appointed to this position in February 2006. His primary responsibility was to align technology vision with business strategy by integrating company processes with the appropriate technologies. He provided the expertise for the development, specification and communication of the company's Information technology (IT) architecture plan. He was also responsible for enterprise-wide documentation standards, policies and principles for IT architectures. He provided enterprise systems planning and recommended new technologies and industry best practices which enhanced existing systems and supported overall corporate and business goals. Andy had extensive experience in a variety of engineering and systems roles within the company.

He has received Professional Engineer and Project Management Professional accreditations. In his previous position, Andy was responsible for Information Technology (IT) support to the company's nuclear power generating utilities. As Vice President of Nuclear Systems, he was also responsible for the management of IT and Telecomm services supporting nuclear related business.

Andy also volunteers for various professional organizations. He is actively involved in the Professional Activity Board of the IEEE Computer Society (IEEE-CS). The IEEE Computer Society is regarded as the computing professional's single, unmatched source for technology information, inspiration and collaboration. He also presides in the Board of Directors for the Federation of Enterprise Architecture Organization (FEAPO). FEAPO is a worldwide association of professional organizations which have come together to provide a forum to standardize, professionalize, and otherwise advance the discipline of Enterprise Architecture (EA).

To listen to the interview, click on this MP3 file link

DISCUSSION:

Interview Time Index (MM:SS) and Topic

:00:37:
Andy talks about his various roles and his role at Ontario Power Generation and some of the major challenges and solutions to those challenges.
"....The highlight of my career was in Ontario Power Generation (OPG), where I started as an engineer and over the years arrived into different roles (project managers and plan operations and information technologies) and eventually became Chief Technology Officer for the company....I moved on to start my own company doing consulting in the electricity generations area. I started working with some consulting firms and help them evolve some business opportunities in that sector. In my spare time I volunteered in several organizations, including the IEEE Computer Society as well as organizations like Federation for the Enterprise Architecture Professionals Organization (FEAPO)...."

:09:35:
Andy continues to describe his other roles and describes some challenges and solutions to the challenges.
"....I am also on the Board of Directors to FEAPO and have been doing that for more than a year....What we thought was quite critical we identified as the governance, business models and membership recruitment...."

:18:24:
With your insight as a CTO and VP, what are the top future challenges for business executives in small and medium sized businesses? What are the solutions?
"....Most of my career I have developed in larger corporations so I do not have extensive experience in the small and medium sized business, but I can offer you my opinions and some of my thoughts that could be pertinent to the small and medium sized businesses....They have to figure out how to reduce these large technology costs to do the business and try to figure out what the right tools are for marketing....Another challenge (with this rapidly moving market), is being able to offer the right product and services responding to the market demands and with the market shifting, being agile enough to meet those demands and modify their products and services...."

:21:25:
With your insight as a CTO and VP, what are the top five future challenges for business executives in enterprises? What are the solutions?
"....I think with this question I have a lot more to offer simply because about a year ago while I was working with computer studies, and I had a large initiative to interview several executives that I've known in the past and who I respect to get their insights on what they think their future challenges are and how do they value the IT profession...The top one — the aging workforce....Another area is that employee skills align with the current organization priorities....Another area was those companies which have multiple enterprise systems. Any company like OPG has to implement several enterprise systems in different business units and most of them struggle with integration among the enterprise systems....Another challenge was compliance to the regulators....The last challenge that most people identified was in the area of data protection or cyber-security...."

:28:20:
What future disruptive innovations (something really game-changing) should business executives be watching and planning for?
"....The mobile workforce — meaning that anybody should be able to do their job on the go without being tied down to an office....Artificial intelligence assistants....The area of the autopilot for automobiles....The area of real-time language translations....To move more deeply into the clouds area where I think Office in the Clouds is going to be the next innovation where we will no longer require anything with us anywhere we go...."

:34:43:
Since this interview appears in IT Manager Connection hosted by Microsoft, how do Microsoft solutions provide specific value?
"....Office 360 is the first step in putting the office in the cloud. This is a game changer and they started putting a concept of 360 and getting all your office requirements up in the clouds....Their unified communications tools such as Lync and Skype and that provides a great value for global communications and remote collaborations....In the areas of securities, Forefront and Forefront with Security Essentials; I think they provide great degrees of data protection...."

:38:06:
In your current role as CEO, what are some best practices you are sharing with your clients?
"....The adoption of enterprise systems such as the enterprise resource planning systems....The second area is for those clients that multiple enterprise systems and how do we actually integrate the systems, how do you exchange information between the systems, how do you get the work up to high levels for the corporations....Another best practices that I share with my clients is to think about a multi-year technology plan....A lot of IT technology people are just that, they are very technically competent but they have very little business knowledge so being able to put in some IT technical people into the business and understand the business and training them to provide a better service and product is I think is a key essential for success of the IT technology aspect of it....The last thing is how do they best improve their IT applications and how do they improve their services as they grow...."

:44:24:
You talked about this idea of aligning the business side with the technology side or vice versa. It seems to be a problem that's been around for a long time. Do you think that this whole alignment of IT and business will ever be resolved?
"....I think the level has raised over the years but I don't think it's resolved. The awareness is there and I think people are starting to think more in line of it, but I think we still have a ways to go...."

:47:00:
Using your background as a board member for Federation of Enterprise Architecture Professional Organizations (FEAPO), what are your top 5 objectives in the EA space?
"....Encouraging the membership to be more of a holistic approach — more end to end....The sharing of the best practices amongst the members....More than just sharing — standardizing the best practices....To professionalize the discipline....To help the EA to demonstrate the business value...."

:50:37:
How do each of the objectives you provided in the last question specifically support and provide value to businesses?
"....For the holistic approach I think it is completing the efficiency among the different business units....Sharing of the best practices actually helps the business individually — you don't have to invent yourself and learn from the trial and error that others go through and benefit from their experience....If you standardize the practice we know that people follow then we know the outcome will be such and we know we can do it over and over again and that speaks for big value for business....Professionalizing the discipline would certainly help the right individual to do the right job....Demonstrating the business value of EA which speaks directly to how can EA be a huge value to the business...."

:53:11:
What are the top barriers to EA adoption in enterprises and how can they be overcome?
"....A lot of misunderstanding of what the role of EA is....People do not recognize the value of EA....There are many attempts at EA practices from different organizations where they tried to set it up and end up bringing it back in business and dissolving the EA functions because they didn't get the value. From those EA failed attempts people use that as a rationale and say that it doesn't work....A lot of companies focus only on the IT component of EA....There are companies that are so focused on the EA with business architectures and nothing else...."

:57:13:
What are some reasons why corporations should join FEAPO?
"....If you want to mobilize the whole enterprise or organization you have to be looking into leveraging the enterprise architectures or the EA concept....To stay on top of the current technologies and understand the advancement and adoptions of that I think it's a very good reason for people to be a part of FEAPO....FEAPO can offer a lot through the work that they're doing about advancing the profession, having the right resources, individuals, staff to be able to respond to different demands....Most companies have budget constraints and it is always a good idea to try to live within your budget, trying to be more effective across industries in enterprise rather than trying to focus yourself into one space. With the holistic approach on the FEAPO's aspect of it I think most companies would benefit from that...."

:01:00:08:
Why should professional organizations join FEAPO?
"....The opportunity to collaborate and coordinate different activities that you would not otherwise be a venture of and being able to leverage your efforts among your peers....By joining FEAPO there is a critical mass of the EA organizations and one can create an integrated community so that we could share experiences, share practices, collaborative work. We can unify our efforts of our practices and professions of the EA so if we all work together we can work towards the advancement of the profession....Also this is the area that provides the opportunity for recognitions. They offer up what they've done, share it and demonstrate that they are the leaders in their areas and people respect that....To get a standardized body of knowledge and certification commonly identified and agreed upon would be an area people could benefit from EA organizations.... "

:01:02:36:
Can you describe some areas of controversy in the areas that you work(ed) in your career.
"....I'm retired from a full time position so areas of controversy have all but been eliminated in my life. My daily life is not as complicated as before, but when I was working there were a few areas that come to mind to be noted for their controversies in my career....Competing priorities among the business units....The union agenda versus the management agenda....Make versus buy....Equality of staff salaries....In the utility world and the nuclear world one huge controversy was fitness for duty...."

:01:06:02:
Do you feel computing should be a recognized profession on par with accounting, medicine and law with demonstrated professional development, adherence to a code of ethics, personal responsibility, public accountability, quality assurance and recognized credentials? [See www.ipthree.org and the Global Industry Council, http://www.ipthree.org/about-ip3/global-advisory-council]
"....I guess the simple answer is yes....My point is that there's got to be a better discipline that we can impart on the IT staff that goes more towards an engineer or the thought of what you mentioned before to have a Code of Ethics, that there is a personal responsibility property profitability aspect of it, and also have standardized credentials where people can say this is for people who performed work this way and produced this outcome and who stand by this product....I truly believe that has to happen...."

:01:08:46:
Worldwide there are somewhere around 30 to 35 million IT professionals, IT workers or practitioners and probably another 30 million working in IT who are not even accounted for, so let's say about 60 million working in IT worldwide. Yet probably under 1 million hold truly professional credentials. Why is that? What is the barrier?
"....People's demands are different and to a large extent that contributes to IT and what I call a cowboy reaction....I think it has to do a lot with customer expectations and demands that creates some of these industries...."

:01:10:25:
From his extensive speaking, travels, and work, Andy shares three very interesting stories (amusing, surprising, unexpected, amazing).
"....I have been using the negotiation techniques that I learned from Mike in many tough situations throughout my careers. That experience enabled me to learn how to get things done through negotiating with people to the point where you are going to win, and you can actually have the deals both parties are happy with...."

:01:19:37:
If you were conducting this interview, what questions would you ask, and then what would be your answers?
"....What are the greatest challenges facing today's power industry?....What are the great impediments to evolve Enterprise Architecture as a profession? What are the obstacles?....What are the secrets of your success?...."

:01:25:01:
Andy, with your demanding schedule, we are indeed fortunate to have you come in to do this interview. Thank you for sharing your deep experiences with our audience.