• Releasing the Source Code for the .NET Framework Libraries - Kudos Microsoft. No question that this is a good move.
• TED 2007 - The seemingly impossible is possible (Video) - Hans Roslings uses some of the best information visualization I have ever seen (Google must agree, because they bought his Gapminder tool) to deliver a great 20 minute presentation about how our cut and dry segmentation of the world into developed and developing countries is wrong and that we have the means and ability to eliminate poverty in our lifetimes. It’s well worth 20 minutes.

• Is Twitter Useless, Asinine, or The Crocs of The Web? I love the comparison of Twitter to Crocs and think it’s true: There are those that find Twitter pointless (my wife) and those that can’t understand why people can’t see the simple elegance of power of it (myself). But more than the ability for me to know where my friends are going for dinner, Twitter is a paradigm for multi-channel information sharing and that can be quite powerful for organizations as well as individuals.

• Learning from Bill Gates & Steve Jobs - Steve Jobs’ amazing presentation skills isn’t news to anyone, but I like this post largely because of the side-by-side depiction of a Bill Gates slide deck and a Steve Jobs slide deck. It makes a strong point…

Louis Rosenfeld on “Information Guys” one day getting the keys to the manor.

You know, I’ve wondered something like this ever since I started in the IT world. It seems that accounting, finance and operations management are the disciplines that corporate board like to see in their CEO’s (which may partially be because that’s what your board people are).

In a different tack from Lou, I’ve always wondered if IT people would one day achieve that goal in large enterprises. I think Lou’s question is just an extension of that: Will Information people one day be asked to helm (and in some cases, turn around) companies?

I tend to think so, especially as the challenge of managing information and knowledge becomes more and more vital to the bottom line of major corporations. But I would see it happening for pure “Information guys” that helm EIA groups long before IT gets that kind of shot. No knock on IT senior execs and CIOs (a lot of which are also accounting/ finance guys), but IT departments must repair their reputation of being a corporate “necessary evil” (a la, I hate you, but I need your technology) before any board will ever give an IT guy that kind of control…

In any case, as information becomes more vital, so do the roles of those that have the skills to deal with it.

Sad, funny and true… Check out today’s Dilbert Comic

“Economics is the study of how societies use scarce resources to produce valuable commodities and distribute them among different people.”
- Paul Samuelson and William Nordhaus

We know this fact…
We understand the logic of it…
And yet, this legitimate gripe continues all across corporate America today.

Are we insane? Misguided? Or are the organizational structures and policies of our corporations just that poorly structured?