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April 26, 2006

Clickers !?

I'm thinking about using clickers in a large MIS class next Fall. I'm wondering how well they work? Does anyone have ideas about how to use them? Most of the buzz I've heard has been postive, but this morning I learned about a professor who's decided to drop them from her course.

She claims that the clicker actually inhbits conversation among the students. They vote (silently) and then when they see the results, have little interest in contributing to a class discussion. Anyone have a similar experience?

Posted by DavidK at 12:33 PM | Comments (0)

Teaching Collaboration

Arta Szathmary at Bucks County Community College sent TeachingMIS some interesting projects that she uses to teach teamwork and collaboration.  In one exercise, she gives student groups the following picture:

And asks her student teams to assess what might be happening with this team.  She asks, from the picture, what can you tell about the people, their process, the nature of their work, and so forth?  (The small black box in front the person in the black shirt is an abacus, not a PDA.)  Her goal is to encourage the students to consider various elements of group process by thinking about a different group.

She then assigns project concerning intellectual property rights in the movie industry.  Students then grade both their group and themselves.

Arta says it's a project in process and she's always looking for ways to improve it.  I like the idea of using pictures of groups as a way ferreting out group issues.

Take a look at the evaluation forms ... they could be useful for any teamwork project!

Thanks, Arta!

 

Posted by DavidK at 12:28 PM | Comments (0)

April 15, 2006

President Hu's First U.S. Stop

China President Hu Jintao's first day in the U.S. (next Tuesday) includes a tour of Microsoft headquarters in Redmond followed by dinner at Bill Gates house.  Lots of excitement here in Seattle because our local economy, especially software, airplanes, and bio-tech, is highly influenced by Asian trade.  Interesting his first dinner is at a private residence.  (Well, OK, how private is a house with 66,000 square feet, 6 kitchens, and 24 bathrooms?)  According to Reuters:

"Like any good dinner guest, President Hu will not come empty handed. The Chinese government issued a decree two weeks ago that all PCs will need to have licensed operating system software installed before leaving the factory gates in an effort to crack down on piracy.

"As a result, three Chinese PC manufacturers announced plans to buy a total of over $400 million worth of Microsoft Windows operating system software over the next three years and Lenovo Group Ltd., China's largest PC maker, is expected to announce a similar deal on Monday, organizers said."

More here.

     

$400 million is an expensive dinner on anyone's expense account. But Reuters, that's an awfully cynical view, isn't it?

Posted by DavidK at 05:21 PM | Comments (0)

If I Were 21 ... and Majoring in Information Systems

Last week I spoke to the MIS Association at Western Washington University in Bellingham, WA.  Professor Craig Tyran is the sponsor.  Seemed like a great group of students, actively networking in just the ways we all like to see.  I concluded the talk with a list of ten things I'd do if I were 21 Years Old and majoring in information systems. Craig mentioned the list might be useful to others, so here it is.

Ten Things I'd Do:

  1. Your Mother was right.  Stop smoking and wear sunscreen!  Take good care of your body ... it supports your mind and in this business, we live by our minds.
  2. Think innovation.  In 2005, a RAND Corporation study indicated the strongest job prospects for the next fifty years involve either creating innovative technology or, more in line with IS majors, creating innovative applications of emerging technology.  Example:  How can you use a video game metaphor for innovative user interfaces?
  3. Read two books:

            Thomas Friedman, The World Is Flat

            Ray Kurzweil, The Singularity Is Near

  1. In The World is Flat, Friedman says there are four ways to compete with off-shore outsourcing.

    Be:

    1. Special (be Steve Jobs or Brad Pitt)
    2. Specialized (skill or technology)
    3. Localized (do a job that requires you to be here, e.g., install networks
    4. Adaptable (be ready to change, learn new skills, apply skills in new industries)

    If possible do a.  For most of us, though, that's not an option.  In that case, I'd focus on b and d.  Note, too, that b is perishable.  Success lies on the derivative.

     

  2. Move!  Go to where the great jobs are.  Don't stay home.  Go to the other side of the country, to another country.  Find work that will give you great experience!  You can return home in 10 years if you want to.
  3. Learn to speak Spanish or Chinese.
  4. Find a parade and get in front of it.  Leading parades today:
  1. XML Web Services
  2. XML - Relational Databases.  XML data stores
  3. Computer Security
  4. Data mining.  Either reporting based like OLAP and RFM or statistical/math based like decision trees, market basket, neural nets
  1. Be entrepreneurial.  You don't have to take life, or school, or work in the way they're presented to you.  There's often opportunity for creativity.  Example:  negotiate with your professor on term projects.  If you want to study XML data stores, write a paper, do a project.  See your prof and negotiate a substitute for an existing project in one of your courses.  Learn to look for creative options.  
  2. No company or organization can provide job security, so don't look for it.  The only possible security is a marketable skill and the courage to use it.  Focus on those.  Every time I sought security, I paid highly and didn't get the security.
  3. Build and protect your personal brand.  Your name is everything.  It's a small world and a small industry.  Find out who you are, what you want to do, and do it well.  Guard your reputation.

Posted by DavidK at 05:06 PM | Comments (0)

April 11, 2006

Charles Simonyi Goes to Space

I saw last week that Charles Simonyi is spending $20 million to go to outer space. I met Simonyi years ago when I was promoting semantic object modeling. He wasn’t too excited about my technology – as a code generator, it was a bit like pitching a player piano to Horowitz.

Anyway, I was told at the time that he was worth $3 billion. Considering that he’s credited with being the prime developer of both Word and Excel, that net worth is probably deserved. Friends I know who aren’t easily impressed say he was truly an amazing developer.

All of this got me to thinking, what would life be like if I had that much money? Seems like it would take away some of the simple pleasures – like finding the big sack of carrots on sale at Trader Joes. Or would it?

Let’s say you wanted to spend a million dollars a day. Could you do it on $3 billion? Well, with that much money, you probably have investment counseling that enables you to make, say, ten percent a year. That’s $300 million in income. So, that won’t quite make up the $365 million you’d need to spend a million a day. Plus, you’d have taxes. So, let’s say that at a million a day, you’re taking $100 million out of your capital per year. So, you’d only be able to spend a million a day for 30 years. OK, let’s try it.

Posted by DavidK at 08:09 AM | Comments (0)

A Million a Day for 30 Years

How could I spend a million a day? Say I want to get to Boston from Seattle – a trip on an executive jet might cost $15,000, and then I could stay in the penthouse of the Ritz, say another $2500. I could bring in my own chef, serve fine wines, maybe another $5000. So far, I’m up to $22,500. Not making much of a dent in a million for that day. Creature comforts, however lavish, won’t get me there.

I have to up the ante. Hmmmm. OK, say I charter a helicopter to fly up to the Hinckley Boat Company in Southwest Harbor, Maine (another $10,000, tops). There I buy a $2 million 52 foot sailing yacht. That sounds promising … two days worth of spending, but, wait, it will take me at least a week to pick and choose all the wonderful gear I want on my boat. I have to tell their engineers how to configure the interior, etc., so I don’t think the boat is too promising. At least a week to spend $2 million. I’m losing ground on my goal.

So, even the yacht isn’t going to do it. OK, maybe I buy the University of Washington a new building for the College of Business. Now we’re talking. That will run, say, $100 million, and that buys me 100 days of relief from my spending spree. (It probably also gets me, finally, a decent parking place at UW.) Now, I can use the 100 days to take my new yacht somewhere exciting --- maybe South Africa.

But, 100 days is just a third of a year. I’ve still got another 2/3 of the year to figure out.

Even a trip to outer space only costs $20 million – that’s not even 3 weeks of spending.

Doesn’t sound like that much fun, does it? Something’s been lost, somewhere.

Posted by DavidK at 08:05 AM | Comments (0)

April 06, 2006

Amazon Makes Damaging Mistake

Amazon.com has posted a review written in 1999 about a book that I first published in 1987. The reviewer said that book was dated, and indeed, given that it was 12 years old when he wrote the review, it was.

Unfortunately, somehow Amazon has connected that 1999 review with my new MIS book, which was just published in 2006. Please note that none of the comments in that review pertain to my 2006 book.

I endeavor to keep this site as pure and unrelated to my books as possible, but given the nature of this problem, I hope you’ll excuse this exception.

I don’t know how Amazon made this mistake – the books have different titles and publishers. Furthermore, how can they publish a 1999 review on a 2006 book? Seems like it would be a simple check to write.

Yikes!

Posted by DavidK at 11:29 AM | Comments (0)

April 03, 2006

Interesting Factoid

At two minutes and three seconds after 1:00am this Wednesday it will be 01:02:03 04/05/06.

Can this only happen once each century?

Posted by DavidK at 06:13 PM | Comments (0)

Inter-school Team & Collaboration

I've been wondering if email and the Internet don't present us an opportunity to collaborate across campuses (Ms. Guidon, my 10th grade Latin teacher, would have me write campi, but it looks a little pedantic in 2006, Ms. G., God rest your soul. (No way could she still be alive -- she was as old as Cicero, back then!)). Anyway, The topic came up today in a conversation among several profs from different campu..., ah, schools.

The idea is to form teams comprised of students from two different schools.  Maybe two students from school A are grouped with two students from school B.  (Or maybe three per school?)  The students would be given the same project or case to work, with the same proportion of their grade on the line.  Students would work together in virtual teams.  Students would learn to collaborate with people whom they've not met -- and each team would benefit from the expertise of two different profs, in two different universities.

If you're interested in pursing this for the Fall, 2006, send a note to Ideas@TeachingMIS.com.  Provide the dates of your term, the level of your students, and the types of activities you do, and I'll try to match you with a like minded professor.  Sort of an MIS team collaboration dating service...  

Posted by DavidK at 03:08 PM | Comments (0)

On Line Test Cheating, Caught(!)

Just heard today about a novel way to detect on line test cheating.  The professor noted that the two highest test scores were obtained by students using the same IP address.  Looking further, she found that one of the students required 45 minutes to take the exam and the second required only 10 min for the same exam.  Answers, were, well, highly correlated.

To protect the professor and the school, I'm not naming names, but if you want to contact that professor to compare notes, send an email to Ideas@TeachingMIS.com and I'll pass your request along.

Posted by DavidK at 02:57 PM | Comments (0)

Office 2007!

I had my first glimpse of the new Office last Friday.  Several thoughts:

I shouldn't be so skeptical from an early peek, I know.  Maybe after I use it, the beauties of the new UI will become clear.  Right now it looks very confusing ... like they've re-wrapped the complexity in Office XP -- re-factored it, so to speak -- but the complexity is still there.  It's just hard to find.  But, we'll see.

Posted by DavidK at 12:15 PM | Comments (0)

Most Popular Office Functions

According to Mircosoft, the most-used functions in Office today are, in descending order:

Given that paste is ahead of copy, does that mean that Office is a net importer of data?  If so, did they solve the wrong problem?  They've changed the UI, but haven't done anything to obtain the data that we all need to import?

Alternatively, it just means that we paste things in several places.  Put it on the clipboard and paste here, here, and here.

They'll get no argument from me on Undo.  In fact, I'd place my use of Undo before Save.  Don't like to think what that means, though.

Posted by DavidK at 12:13 PM | Comments (0)