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My boss should be blogging

I was thinking tonight about a conversation that I had with my coworkers before heading home. The conversation was in the context of VoIP services, and how a very traditional, siloed IT shop like ours isn't well aligned or prepared to take on the wide sweeping changes that come with advanced technology like VoIP.

That stuck in my head and coalesced with a comment last week made by a colleague at our parent company, that the Information Technology group at MidAmerican Energy was seen as a tool, not as a strategic asset.

But why can't we be an asset? An agile IT shop? (for those of you from TechEd last week) Well, that's another blog post.

No, this blog post is even more of an evolution on that thought. Our chairman, David Sokol, has described our company as an old world company and our primary focus is to generate power. That is very true, and we do a outstanding job of generating and delivering safe and reliable power to all of our customers.

But we can do better. 100 years have passed in our industry, and it is not just about making power anymore. Technology departments can become a strategic asset in the power industry as we look for further optimization of internal processes, the efficiencies that technology can bring in connecting our employees together, and in the relationships with our customers in using technology as a communications mechanism. It is the last point that I'd like to focus on for this thought.

For some background, in the US, in most localities, delivery of power is regulated by the state or other public utility commission. This applies to the majority of our service territory. We are a government-sanctioned monopoly. In return, we're allowed a certain rate of return on our investments to continue to power up your appliances, homes, and computers.

As a monopoly in the areas we serve, we provide a public service. Very much the same as roads, fire, or police services. However, we don't typically have the same sort of visibility as those other government-provided services. Why? We're the big, bad monolith of corporate America. How well connected do any of our customers in Casper, Wyoming feel when contacting the company in Portland or Salt Lake, and "corporate" is back in Des Moines, Iowa?

And really, what is your typical reaction when you read a story, or your power bill, and see the rates go up? You scoff. Wouldn't you like more insight into why?

There are serious issues that our customers are concerned about. Our strategy on global warming, renewable energy, and our feelings on the current and future states of energy policy are national issues right now. Our company is affected by, or has a dramatic effect on, each of these issues.

What are the challenges that we face as a power company to continue to provide service to our customers in the same reliable, safe way as we do today? How can we, or how should we improve on that mission?

What have we done in our communities lately? How can we serve them better? How can we become more involved and truly part of the communities that we provide this public service to? What do we need from our community members and leaders to help us?

These are just some of the questions, thoughts, and discussions that are necessary in today's always connected world of communication and constantly growing spaces between end users and large entities.

When have we seen communications from Mr. Sokol? Mostly in one to two sentence blurbs in press releases that stream out of our communications offices, back in Des Moines, on a irregular basis. Try a Google News search for Mr. Sokol...he doesn't appear in the last 30 days.

I, for one, would like to hear more from the man who runs an energy company that affects 6.9 million customers across the US and beyond.

I want to know what makes someone like that "tick". What he is thinking about for the future of government, our business, the industry, and his observations on the challenges we face today? What does he think about our customers, our involvement in the community, how we can do more, or what we can ask of them?

How can we turn the conversation into a two-way mechanism?

Blogs have found ways to bridge the gap in bringing a more human face, a human element, to corporate America. As we serving in the public interest with a sanctioned monopoly, there is a greater duty on us to communicate effectively and openly with our customers, employees, and stakeholders.

Take a look at the list of company leaders that are blogging today. They realize the dominating factor driving Internet-based communication in today's time. The upcoming generation has been using blogs and the Internet as their primary source for communications and news gathering for several years now; many since they were old enough to use a computer. The most effective way, and the way they will demand, is to reach these customers with a more personal experience online.

I hope that my boss will take the lead in our industry and maintain a blog. Not marketing fluff, but real substance and interaction. Show on the technology front that there is a human element to all that we do, and that we have a real purpose and service commitment within each and every one of our employees, from the top down. To inform, educate, and share.

Check out some of the trends in corporate blogging today. It is not just about technology companies anymore.

Take the Kodak blog for example. Here’s a great post that shows what I’m talking about. Here you have a person (the post’s author) writing about another person (the designer in the spotlight) to a large group of people (the blog’s readers). Suddenly, Kodak is not just a large corporation. They are collection of people with passions and opinions, just like the rest of “us.”

These days, it seems the larger a company becomes, the more impersonal it gets. Consumers think of large corporations as single-minded entities, not as a collection of people. Anything you can do to change this perception is a win for your organization. How are you using your corporate blog to accomplish this?

There are even resources to help you get started. Of course, your own IT personnel (me!) would be happy to get you started as well.

This falls inline with our tagline, "obsessively, relentlessly at your service". The characteristics of meeting our customer service needs are changing and we need to adapt in many ways. We have the ability to become a more integral part of the communities that we serve in by having a dialog with our customers in the new medium, the medium of choice for those newer generation customers.

I really enjoy this example, provided courtesy of TBBC.

In a sense, CEOs would seem to be naturals for blogging. They tend to have strong opinions about things - and should not be afraid of blogging them. There is immense value in the knowledge they have accumulated over years in business, and the value to readers of making that knowledge accessible shouldn’t be underestimated. As Sun Microsystems COO Jonathan Schwartz says:

"There’s no fundamental difference between giving a keynote speech in Shanghai in front of 30,000 people and doing a blog read by several million people."

Technology has the ability to enable the communications and interactions that go well beyond the capabilities of "old world" companies. It is always my hope that I can show this ol' power company that technology is here to help it perform its job faster, better, more efficiently, and at greater cost savings to the company and our customers.

In the case of my boss blogging, technology enables communication with our customers, employees, and interested parties in a more open, honest, and continuous manner.

Heck, he might even enjoy sharing his ideas on the future. I know I do.

TechEd 2007 – Thursday & Friday Highlights

Since I didn't get to write this post when I was in central Florida, I wanted to be sure to get some details from the final two days of TechEd 2007 online. You can check out the previous posts for Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.

The final two days of TechEd always turn into a blur of activity. With Thursday filled with a full slate of sessions, then the attendee party late into the night, Friday follows up with a bang as you have to take care of packing, checking out, and carrying bags, grabbing some more sessions, and then hitching a ride home on an airplane -- to get home at 2am eastern time.

Whew!

There were some great sessions in the final two days. I think it is important to note that many of the sessions that I have mentioned are online at Virtual TechEd. I've provided links where available.

Awesome Session of the Day(s)

A gaggle of sessions in the final days impressed me and should impress you as well. First, Steve Riley takes another look at data security in his webcasted "do you know where your data is?" session.

Referred to me from my colleague Scott, "The Network is Slow" session presented by Laura Chappell was equally interesting and kept the audience engaged with her style and demos.

Lastly, I got to say "hi" to the man himself, Mark Russinovich, and attended his very informative and interesting sessions on Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista kernel changes. A third session described the User Account Control feature in Windows Vista and its intent. You can find Mark's article on this at TechNet Magazine this month.

Not so awesome session of the Day

I am very happy to report that over the course of the final two days, nobody deserved this award. That is an "awesome" thing in itself.

Honorable mention however goes to the central Florida weather and traffic which combined to shorten the attendee party out at Universal by an hour or so due to lightning. People were in good spirits, and a good time was still had by most.

Cheers

Thanks go out to the Orlando International Airport for being able to handle the masses that descended on MCO around 4pm on Friday. I got through all of the lines (both check-in and security) in under 45 minutes, even with the crowds. As a bonus, they have added free wireless Internet since when I was there two years ago (at least in the 50 gates).

Another set of thanks to US Airways for a perfect travel experience to and from Orlando for this edition of TechEd. On time departures all around (only slightly late out of Orlando due to a lightning-induced ground stop for about 15 minutes) and a safe and uneventful flight. Just the way we like it.

Miscellaneous

Well, that just about wraps up another year of TechEd. I had the most fun ever at this one, and had a great time once again meeting the people, networking, enjoying the community, and learning a lot. I'll be back with a best of TechEd post later this week once I can sort through all of the notes that I took (and things can settle down at work again). For now, I'm happy to be back in Portland with my family.

It's never too early to think about next year...TechEd 2008, Orlando (again...), June 9-13, 2008.

Hotmail/WLM returns to Outlook

From the Windows Vista blog this morning, news that the Outlook Connector is back in beta form.

The Microsoft Office Outlook Connector is designed to let you access your Windows Live Hotmail account through Outlook 2003 or Outlook 2007. You will be able to download and install the Connector to sync up your email and contacts in Windows Live Hotmail for free. However, if you are a paid subscriber of MSN Premium, Office Live Essentials, or Office Live Premium you will get the added functionality of being able to sync up your calendar, tasks and notes from Outlook to Windows Live Hotmail.

System Center 2007 – Configuration Manager for Servers

Great session this morning, MGT306 showing System Center Configuration Manager 2007 for Server administration and provisioning.

I don't see many webcasts for SCCM online yet, so you might have to wait for those to go online (and I'll post them when they are available), but here's some of the features you will get in the server administration arena.

• Server provisioning and build-configuration
• Patching and maintenance windows
• Baseline monitoring and remediation (desired configuration management)
• Next version of BDD using SCCM feature set

A whitepaper is coming for all of this next week. I'll post the link when it is available.

TechEd 2007 – Wednesday Highlights

The third day of the five day, 15th anniversary edition of TechEd. To read previous summaries, check out Monday and Tuesday.

You knew, and I knew, that being in central Florida in the summer, the rain couldn't hold off too long. Mid way through Paul Robichaux's presentation, a clap of thunder that startled many in attendance signaled the changeover from sunny skies to warm humid thundershowers that have continued into this evening.

Weather aside, this was also the longest day at TechEd. It's all downhill from here as there were a total of five session times plus an extra long lunch break.

Awesome session of the Day

Today is the first day that I can really say I got something, and enjoyed, every one of my sessions. I have to give the ASOTD to Paul's presentation on the Microsoft Forefront for Exchange Server product. He went in-depth about the placement, architecture, and some administration of the product.

This is an exciting area for myself, as I'm always looking for the next good thing to combat malicious email. In my 11 years in the messaging field I have seen the paradigm shift every couple years. Every time the spammers find a new tactic, old filters are left unreliable, and new ones take their place.

The Forefront product looks promising due to the sheer amount of configuration items available, the breadth of filtering (AV, content, and sender), the multiple engines, and the tight integration with Exchange and System Center. You can't ask for a better package.

Special mention to the aforementioned presentation by Marcus Murray this morning.

Not-so Awesome Session of the Day

I have to give this one to the folks on the bus behind me. It happened to be some of the marketing folks for Exchange. They were speaking about the content at TechEd being too dry and that they needed to be entertaining.

Let me go on the record here and say that the number one thing that I enjoy about TechEd is that I can come here, speak with the experts (or my peers), and learn things that are not in the book. Now, I understand that not all of the audience is of a senior level with the product, and that's fine. But when I see presentations that look like they have been lifted directly out of the TechNet documentation (Exchange Deployment, Exchange Tips, I'm looking at you), then where is the value?

You know what the folks like Riley, Robichaux, Minasi, and others of their fold bring to their presentations? That off-the-book knowledge. Stories from the field. Best practices. The "here's a better way to do this". Yes, they have the personality, but they also have the experience to back it up. Maybe the blue-shirts don't get out of Redmond enough to be effective technical session leaders?

Cheers

Cheers today are awarded to the folks keeping CommNet up and running. This is the first TechEd where I haven't (knock on wood-like-thingy) had issues with speed or connections. Things have run really smoothly and consistently. Great job!

Jeers

More on the snacks. no snacks for either of the two afternoon breaks. I don't know what's going on, but there were hordes of hungry techies wondering the halls of the south concourse with nothing to nurse except liquid caffeine.

Jeers also out to breakfast. French toast in custard is not something you serve as old or clod as it wad this morning. That toast has to be right out of the oven, or it's total mush.

See, it's small things, that really means the conference this year has been outstanding!

Miscellaneous

Are you using BitLocker on Vista yet? If you aren't , you should be. For all of your company laptops (and maybe desktops too). Check out SEC303 when it repeats on Friday at 1pm, online via Virtual TechEd at that time, or head over to http://microsoft.com/det to find out more about the released-today Data Encryption Toolkit for Mobile PC's.

People are definitely starting to trail off. Breakfast this morning was the least crowded so far, nearly a ghost town even at 8:15. This happens every year. You get very tired from the long days and long sessions in dark rooms, but you come away with a mountain of knowledge that couldn't be attained elsewhere (for all the previously mentioned reasons). That's why I drag my butt over to the OCCC in the morning, and prop my eyes open late writing these dispatches. It is very much worth the trip.

Hope the rain lets up for the outdoors party tomorrow. Go Sens (although looks like the Ducks have it just about wrapped up).