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September 30, 2006
Tired of the Whole Ugly Soap Opera at HP
I imagine we're all getting tired of this story. As C/NET's Charles Cooper put it this week:
"Truth be told, I'm getting fairly sick of chronicling the truths, half-truths and lies that have attended this affair. But this story's not being fueled by a bloodthirsty pack of reporters chasing a headline. It's being pursued by state and federal investigators because laws were broken, and rules of corporate governance were tossed aside."
Amen. All the principals have lawyered-up, Dunn and Baskins have resigned. Perkins preserves his reputation. And Sonsini escaped any untoward publicity. It's looking like Hurd may get past it all, and Wall Street breaths a sigh of relief. (How that sounds like a reprise of Desperate Housewives!)
Next week I'm going back to Teaching MIS.
The only bright spot: maybe more people have learned the dangers of phishing,
Posted by DavidK at 09:37 AM | Comments (0)
Congressional Action on Phone Records and Phishing
On Thursday, three HP executives, including Ann Baskins the former general counsel, took the 5th Amendment and failed to testify. Friday, Congress goes after the phone companies. Two bills are pending. HR 4709 concerns phishing in general and has already passed the House and awaits action by the Senate. HR 4943 seems to have disappeared somewhere within the House.
I would think Sarbanes-Oxley would make an entrance here. If you have systems in place that you know are amenable to pretexting of customer records, don't you have some culpability?
If you're looking for some sardonic humor, and aren't prone to depression, try these out-takes from the hearings.
Posted by DavidK at 09:35 AM | Comments (0)
Finally, Dunn Gets the Ax
She resigned yesterday. Here's her statement:
"I have resigned today at the request of the board. The unauthorized disclosure of confidential information was a serious violation of our code of conduct. I followed the proper processes by seeking the assistance of HP security personnel. I did not select the people who conducted the investigation, which was undertaken after consultation with board members. I accepted the responsibility to identify the sources of those leaks, but I did not propose the specific methods of the investigation. I was a full subject of the investigation myself and my phone records were examined along with others. Unfortunately, the people HP relied upon to conduct this type of investigation let me and the company down. I continue to have the best interests of HP at heart and thus I have accepted the board's request to resign. I look forward to appearing before Congress next week to answer their questions and help the company put this unfortunate event behind it." Source here.
So, she approved the project to investigate the board, but didn't hire the people nor approve the tactics. Does that exonerate her? Maybe worth discussing in class.
Had to be a very strange week for her. On Wednesday, she was inducted into the Bay Area's Business Hall of Fame. Story here.
Posted by DavidK at 09:33 AM | Comments (0)
September 28, 2006
Bridging the Digital Divide
According to an editorial in the Seattle Times today, the digital divide persists: "While two of every three white students use the Internet, fewer than half of black and Hispanic children do" The editorial mentions two agencies here in Seattle that are actively involved in bridging the digital divide. Most people know that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has donated millions (250 and counting) of dollars to equip libraries with publicly accessible computers
The times mentions another organization, the. the Technology Access Foundation that is coordinating donations of individuals and corporations to bring computers and computer literacy to those on the wrong side of the digital divide. Information about their program here.
Posted by DavidK at 09:16 AM | Comments (0)
HP Phishing Scandal Continues
Hearings today about the HP Phishing expedition at the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Yesterday the committee released written from Patricia Dunn, the former HP Chairwoman. She claims the probe had the approval of other senior executives at HP. Apparently, the whole thing came to light because Tom Perkins of Kleiner, Perkins forced HP to make a public disclosure in an SEC statement. He wanted the world to know why he quit the board.
Meanwhile, HP's general counsel Ann Baskins, who had claimed that the investigation was "Well done and within legal limits," quit her job.
Mr. Sonsini will testify today. That should be interesting... Details here.
As stated in an earlier post, Sonsini has been a key lawyer in Silicon Valley for years. I remember his firm played an active role back in the mind 1980s with a number of early PC startups. Interesting quote from Paul Saffo in that same article:
"'It's getting to be open season on Larry,' said Paul Saffo, a who has been following Silicon Valley trends for more than 20 years. 'Larry has been around the valley forever. He has got a lot of skeletons in his closet.'"
Posted by DavidK at 09:11 AM | Comments (0)
Speaking of Paul Saffo:
Paul Saffo has also been around the industry for years. I find he almost always has an interesting take on emerging technology and trends. If you don't know about his work, you're in for a treat. www.saffo.com. Here's a recent article I found interesting. Money quote:
"Forget information. Media is the organizing principle."
Posted by DavidK at 09:10 AM | Comments (0)
How Do Cyber Crime Experts Reformat Their Disks?
One more interesting statement from the HP scandal in this morning's news: One of the investigators who actually did the phisihing, Bryan Wagner, must have decided things were getting too hot. He didn't want to be caught with the goods and apparently didn't trust format c:/
"Wagner told an investigator he had destroyed his computer with a hammer, The Wall Street Journal reported in Wednesday's editions, citing an anonymous person familiar with the case."
That outta do it, all right. Source
Posted by DavidK at 09:08 AM | Comments (0)
September 23, 2006
HP Stock Drops 5.2 Percent
Finally, the market responds to the HP phishing expedition. According to Associated Press (Michael Liedtke),
"Shares of HP dropped more than 5 percent Thursday after reports that CEO Mark Hurd knew more about the skullduggery than previously thought. Wall Street worried that the man who engineering HP's recovery -- a leader believed to be scandal-free-- would lose his job and leave the company rudderless in a time of crisis."
It's about time. Apparently, as long as it only involved HP Chairwoman Patricia Dunn and General Counsel Ann Baskins, it didn't bother Wall Street.
This will become uglier and uglier for HP. Meanwhile ....
Posted by DavidK at 07:11 AM | Comments (0)
HP to Give Privacy Prize
In the Seattle Times yesterday, Business Section, page E3, was the report about the HP stock price drop. Immediately underneath appeared an article announcing that HP is a co-sponsor of a Privacy Innovation Award:
"Nominees are currently being accepted for the fourth HP/ IAPP Privacy Innovation Award, which Hewlett-Packard gives in conjunction with the Maine-based International Association of Privacy Professionals.
"According to the award's Web site, the prize was created to honor 'strong and unique contributions to the privacy industry.'
"'At present, there is not sufficient recognition for organizations that have embraced privacy as a competitive advantage, and as a business/government imperative."
The irony abounds. Imagine the conversations at IAPP: "Who picked HP as our partner?"
Or, the HP spin-doctors: "Ah, yes, we know there is insufficient recognition for organizations that have privacy as a competitive advantage. Yes, we know that by looking no further than our very own ..." wait for it ... "Board of Directors!"
Mr's Hewlett and Packard must be rolling in their graves. Probably 6.2 on the Richter-scale grave rolling. It was such a quality company when they were alive.
Posted by DavidK at 07:09 AM | Comments (0)
Widowmaker
Paul Whitman of Pacific Lutheran University sent me a copy of an article that I had published way back in 1988. I reread that article with misgivings. On the one hand, the technology seems so dated ... teaching BASIC ... but on the other hand, the problems of the class are still, in so many ways, so familiar.
I'd forgotten about Socratic solitaire. I mean, it happens in my class -- I haven't forgotten about the event of Socratic solitaire. I'd forgotten the term.
Anyway, here's the article and thanks to Paul for sending it along.
1988 WidowmakerPosted by DavidK at 06:27 AM | Comments (0)
September 20, 2006
Recruiter Evaluation Criteria
My previous blog entry (below) shows how the general public and parents view the purpose of undergraduate education. It's interesting to contrast that with the list of criteria 4,200 recruiters gave the Wall Street Journal regarding MBA programs. Here is a list of attributes the recruiters used, along with the percentage who rated the criteria as 'very important.'
| Percent | Criteria |
| 89.0 | Communication and interpersonal skills |
| 86.9 | Ability to work well within a team |
| 86.2 | Personal ethics and integrity |
| 84.3 | Analytical and problem-solving skills |
| 82.9 | Work ethic |
| 74.5 | Fit with the corporate culture |
| 74.0 | Success with past hires |
| 72.5 | Leadership potential |
| 67.1 | Strategic thinking |
| 64.9 | Likelihood of recruiting 'stars' |
| 53.9 | Willingness of student to relocate |
| 50.7 | Well-rounded |
| 43.2 | Student 'chemistry' |
| 38.0 | Content of the core curriculum |
| 35.7 | Students' years of work experience |
| 31.7 | Overall value for the money invested in recruiting effort |
| 29.0 | Incorporates experiential learning into the curriculum |
| 27.1 | Career-services office |
| 25.9 | Faculty expertise |
| 21.0 | Student international knowledge and experience |
| 16.7 | Commitment to corporate social responsibility |
source: Wall Street Journal, September 20, 2006
I understand and appreciate communication and interpersonal skills and I'm pleased to see teamwork, ethics, and problem-solving so high. But having a quality career-services office is more important than faculty expertise? And 5/8ths of the recruiters don't think content of the core curriculum should be ranked 'very important'?
Is it all marketing, then? Career-services will make the 'products' sizzle, regardless of faculty expertise?
Let's just recruit good communicators with high ethics and good problem-solving skills and play volleyball for 2 years! Call in the career services pros 6 months before 'graduation.'
Lots more here.
Posted by DavidK at 04:45 PM | Comments (0)
How the Public and Parents View Higher Education
I'm reading Declining by Degrees, Edited by Richard Hersh and John Merrow. A wonderful Foreword by Tom Wolfe seduced me into buying the book ... He spoke to a large group at Harvard and was surprised to find, "they were all dressed like nine year olds." The book has essays by James Fallows, Howard Gardner and other notables. I'm not yet sure if the book was a good purchase. But, here's something interesting, I think.
The results of survey of the general public and parents (2000):
| Absolutely essential (%) | Important, but not essential (%) | Not too important (%) | |
| A sense of maturity and how to manage on their own | 71 | 26 | 2 |
| An ability to get along with people different from themselves | 68 | 29 | 2 |
| An improved ability to solve problems and think analytically | 63 | 34 | 1 |
| Learning high-tech skills, such as using computers and the Internet | 61 | 35 | 4 |
| Specific expertise and knowledge in careers they have chosen | 60 | 35 | 4 |
| Top-notch writing and speaking skills | 57 | 38 | 4 |
| The responsibilities of citizenship, such as voting and volunteering | 44 | 47 | 9 |
| Exposure to great writers and thinkers in subject like literature and history | 32 | 53 | 14 |
Source: John Immerwarh with Tony Foleno, "Great Expectations: How the Public and Parentss -- White, African, and Hispanic -- View Higher Education," as printed in Declining by Degrees, Hersh and Merrow, p. 27.
Because the survey was done in 2000, the 'high-tech' skills such as using computers and the Internet is probably overblown. Is there any college student today who doesn't know how to use the Internet?
It might be worth discussing this in class with our students. I wonder how they perceive these in importance? Maybe survey the class and then show the results?
How would a survey of professors evaluate these? Or a survey of IS professors in particular? I'd guess items 3, 4, and 5 would score higher.
Posted by DavidK at 07:29 AM | Comments (0)
September 19, 2006
Congressional Fishing for Phishing
MSM catches the HP phishing story. Newsweek Business asks 11 questions.
Congress will try to, as well. However, Stephen Diamond, a law professor at Santa Clara University, doubts anyone will show up.
"You don't just wander into a congressional hearing with politicians looking for sound bites in advance of the November elections," said Professor Diamond.
Ah, the cynic. Sound-bites? What about truth and justice?
Several big names from Silicon Valley are involved. Mr. Perkins of Kleiner Perkins (the famous and VERY successful early-stage investment firm); Mr. Sonsini of Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich, and Rosati (probably the most famous of all the high-tech law partnerships in Silicon Valley) has been asked to testify as well. There's a bind. What a sound-bite generating opportunity for his firm, but what about the interests of his clients? Anyone want to bet he finds a way to testify?
What a mess for HP! And deservedly so. Phishing the phone records of your directors, reporters, and your own PR department!
Posted by DavidK at 11:59 AM | Comments (0)
Marketing the IS Program
In an earlier post I mentioned that UT Austin has taken a marketing-oriented approach to increasing their IS majors. With the guidance of one of their Steering Committee executives, they sought to increase enrollments using a classic marketing approach. Namely:
- Clarify targeting, positioning, and message
- Develop campaign theme
- Develop communications strategy
- Execute that strategy
As part of number 1, they learned that potential IS majors suffer from two misconceptions. a) The majority of IT/IS jobs are going overseas and b) the number of IS/IT jobs is on the decline. In fact, between 2004 and 2006, the number of IT jobs increased 100 percent. They learned that they needed, in part, to correct these misconceptions.
Part of their strategy was to develop two IS minors: an analytical one that included data mining and a technical one that included programming and database management. Slides here.
They also developed a communication plan as described here. (Note, to reduce download time, the graphics were removed from this ppt. If you want the full 4+megabyte, zipped version, click here.)
The result is that their entry level class enrollments are up 50%!
As shown on the last slide in the communication plan, they believe the most important actions were to change their old Office Skills class into an Introduction to MIS class. (That class, by the way, has a significant technical aspect to it ... serious discussions of data communications and database technology / application.) The second most important action was to get out and sell the program. Professors visited other introductory classes and spoke about the IS major and dispelled the misconceptions above.
This approach seems to me to be right on target.
The key element was to get the message to freshmen.
Thanks to Elota Patton for sharing these files and her experiences!
Posted by DavidK at 11:31 AM | Comments (0)
September 14, 2006
No Such Thing as Private Email!
Earlier this week, the Seattle-area had a host of angry (and foolish) emailers. A middle aged man posed on the Internet as an attractive female looking for good times. Apparently, several hundred men responded, some with quite explicit photos. No news there. But then the imposter published all of the emails and photos he'd received on public Web site. Quite of number of the respondents, some with good reasons to keep their interests private, were outraged.
We need to tell our students, one more time: There is no privacy in email. Once you send an email, the law presumes you have given up your right to privacy. Once it's sent, the 4th Amendment no longer protects you from government search, and, absent some other crime, you have no legal recourse in civil courts, either.
This means, by the way, that were I to tap the wireless signals in my classroom, and arrange the captured packets into sessions, I could quite legally read any email sent in my class.
The same for instant messaging. Once you send an IM, you have given up the right to privacy on the content of that IM.
(OK, there are some exceptions. Communications with lawyers, doctors, and clergy-persons are protected.)
Anyway, if my students do not learn anything else in my class, they will learn that they should never send an email or IM that they wouldn't be pleased to see published on the front page of the New York Times (or the campus newspaper).
Posted by DavidK at 04:21 PM | Comments (0)
September 12, 2006
HP Chairwoman to Resign
This just in from AP:
"SAN JOSE, Calif. - Hewlett-Packard Co. said Tuesday that Patricia Dunn will step down as chairwoman of the computer and printer maker in January amid a widening scandal involving a possibly illegal probe into media leaks. She will be succeeded by CEO Mark Hurd.
"Hurd will retain his existing positions as chief executive and president and Dunn will remain as a director."
Resign??? Continue as a director??? She should get the ax! Come on, HP, get back to your ethical roots!
More entries on HP phishing below ...
Posted by DavidK at 07:12 AM | Comments (0)
Information Management in Ireland
Gerard Begley who teaches in Information Management in the University of Limerick in Ireland sent TeachingMIS the following email this week:
"Just a quick comment about things here on this side of the Atlantic, and perhaps these are reflected on your side. Since 2001 there's been a major drop off on the intake of IT (comp science, software systems, information and communications engineering - basically any IT/IS orientated course). There was much talk of an impending skills crisis, but to be frank, I didn't see much evidence of jobs for those who chose to follow IT careers - we went from pages of IT jobs to single adverts for lowly roles such as data input clerk, network admin for small company, etc., but nothing of any substance, and certainly very thin on the ground. In the spring of this year there was a survey about this and some of the experienced IT professionals responded with the view that they could see no reason to recommend IT as a career - and I'd have been hard pushed to disagree. [BTW, I've been working as an IT pro for the past 17 years - the university job is very much a side-line.] In the past 2 months, however, the number of jobs here has gone crazy. We've got loads of roles to be filled in technology companies in Ireland, and the result is a mad rush for the talent. Is this a desirable state? Probably not - it'd be much better if we had structured, managed approaches to hiring, and that would have a more positive effect on the university application rates for IT courses. As it stands, if you're about to start a 4-year course, you're still not likely to choose IT because there's no guarantee of any career, unlike, say, accountancy or one of the other financial careers. And they also pay more and are more highly respected. Not many respect or value engineering as a profession." (emphasis mine)
The same data points seem to be popping up, all over the world. There is a need for business-savvy IT professionals. Our current coursework may not be well designed for the new world. Students need to be shown why IS is not the same as computer programming, and why the combination of business and IT knowledge is so effective. Seems time for us to do something about this.
Posted by DavidK at 07:06 AM | Comments (0)
September 11, 2006
The Meaning of the 21 Century
I read a good part of James Martin's The Meaning of the 21st Century last week. I haven't quite finished, but so far I'd say it's a good book for your school library, but not worth buying a personal copy. I think Kurweil is so much better (though more narrowly focused).
Martin joins Kurzweil in the intelligent machine theme:
"Most people associate the growth of computing with the 20th Century, but the true computer revolution is yet to come --- with ubiquitous sensors, nanotechnology, global data warehouses and whole pervasive access to networks of extreme bandwidth. The main reason the true computer revolution is ahead of us is that machines will become intelligent..." Martin, Meaning of the 21 Century, p. 164
For 40 years we've been saying, "After years of explosive growth, the computer industry is finally in its infancy." Probably just an implication of Moore's law?
But, when you consider the low level of IS enrollments, things do seem out of whack. Surely, if Kurzweil and Martin and others in that camp are even partially right, there will be incredible opportunities for IT/IS savvy business professionals to find and exploit innovative IT/IS applications.
Maybe our discipline needs to follow the UT, Austin model (below) and rethink the whole curriculum, from a marketing perspective. What will IS majors needs to know in the age of the intelligent machine? How do we even begin to answer that question?
Posted by DavidK at 07:09 PM | Comments (0)
James Martin
I was surprised to find a new book by James Martin. He's still working and writing. I had to check to make sure it was the same James Martin that wrote the data communications books back in the 1960s. It is. Looks the same, only older. How does that happen?
To my knowledge, Martin wrote the very first database textbook -- published in '74 or '75. I learned DL/I from it. The jacket cover of his recent book says he's the author of more than 100 books. Over say 40 years, that's 2 1/2 books a year. Now that's productivity!~! The books I've read are like this most recent one: timely, relevant, clear, accurate, and a tad bit boring. I wonder if he dictates and has the recordings transcribed into books? Either that or he employs prolific staff writers. Probably just sour grapes?
Posted by DavidK at 07:07 PM | Comments (0)
September 09, 2006
Apparently the Market Doesn't Care
More on the HP phishing case here. I find this last graph disturbing:
"Investor reaction to the Hewlett-Packard board furor has been muted. The company’s stock closed today at $36.17, up more than 2 percent on the day and almost back to the level before news of the board’s turmoil emerged late Tuesday. Indeed, at a Citigroup investor conference where Mark V. Hurd, the chief executive, spoke and answered questions on Wednesday, no securities analyst asked about the problems."
A chairwoman of the Board of Directors used the results of illegal phishing and possibly approved it and the market doesn't care? What signal does that send to every other board? No security analyst even ASKED? Not even one, "Mr. Hurd, did Ms. Dunn approve of the phishing techniques used by the investigator she hired?" All the idiocy the press reports every day and they don't ask an important question on ethics at the highest levels of one of the most important IT companies???
Should the market care? I think this is worth talking about in class this week.
Posted by DavidK at 08:39 AM | Comments (0)
September 07, 2006
Phishing the Hewlett-Packard Board of Directors???
If these allegations are true, it is a colossal blunder. Alledgedly, the HP's chairwoman, Patricia Dunn, instigated an investigation to determine the source of leaks. The Wall Street Journal today reported that someone phished for the phone records of several directors. The phisher obtained the last four digits of several directors' social security numbers and used them to phish phone records from the telephone company. Now, MSN reports they also phished several reporters' phone records.
Can this be true? Can such a stupid ethical blunder have been made by the chairwoman of Hewlett-Packard??? What a quality company it used to be. William Hewlett and David Packard must be rolling over in their graves.
Posted by DavidK at 06:31 PM | Comments (0)
September 06, 2006
What's Wrong with This????
Bob Grauer at the University of Miami sent me this questionnaire that he uses for the first lecture of his MIS class. Anyone see what's wrong with it? A great example of education in action!
Posted by DavidK at 06:33 PM | Comments (0)
IS Majors Up 50 Percent!!!
I had a busy summer working on a new manuscript and doing data mining consulting. But the high professional point of the summer for me was meeting with four lecturers from UT, Austin -- the four who represent the core teaching faculty of the undergraduate IS major. They were out to Seattle to visit the Microsoft campus and we had a chance to visit over dinner. Wow! What a group.
In the last several years, they embarked on a program to increase their IS majors and it's worked. Their majors are up 50 percent since they started their program. Their secret? Marketing.
One of the members of their College of Business Advisory Council is a VP of Marketing for a Fortune 500 firm. They asked him for assistance and he suggested that they consider the problem from a marketing perspective. He suggested they ask (and answer) basic marketing questions like:
What is the target market for undergraduate IS education?
Do we have the right products for that target market?
Do we have the right messages for that target?
Is our messaging reaching the target market?
and so forth. Elota Patton headed up that project and is sending me more information that I'll share in the weeks ahead.
One item of note: They teach Introduction to MIS at the Freshman level. They were able to get this by the Curriculum Committee by transforming their old Office Skills class Introduction to MIS. Teaching the class to freshmen enables them to reach students before they select their majors! More to come!
Posted by DavidK at 06:30 PM | Comments (0)
Pressures of the New Term
Classes haven't started at UW yet; we're on quarters and they don't begin until the end of September. Walking across campus this time of year always makes me a bit nostalgic for students from years gone by. I wrote this teaching reminder last year, but maybe it's still relevant. What a job we have!
Posted by DavidK at 06:29 PM | Comments (0)
Second Season for TeachingMIS.com
Hard to believe a year has gone by since I started this blog. I think we had a great inaugural season and I hope it continues this year. The best moments occurred when we really had a conversation rolling ... I hope you'll come back and pitch in like that again. If you're new to this site, please see About Teaching MIS, above. I want to involve anyone who has innovative ideas, questions, or even just problems!
Posted by DavidK at 06:26 PM | Comments (0)