Wednesday, June 27, 2012

New blog dedicated to systems thinking

I have created a new blog where I will focus on systems thinking from a programmers perspective here http://flowshaped.io.

This blog may continue to contain various ramblings on software and the industry.

Monday, January 9, 2012

Real world authentication and transaction protocol semantics

A real world story explained in authentication and transaction protocol semantics to provide some insight into the relationships between real world information flow and failure demand that is so important when managing IT dependent service organizations.

A couple of years ago me and my family went on a trip to Mallorca. In the confusion of the arrival terminal baggage area we left one backpack on the pickup trail. The backpack contained artifacts of high value, but not critical to our stay. A human error started an obscure process enduring the our whole stay on the island.

Note: As most histories of failure demand this one started with the customer making a mistake. In systems thinking terms, this is probably so frequent in the charter business that it should be considered as mere variation.

On the bus to the hotel I discovered we where missing the backpack and asked the guide what to do. The guide told me to contact the guides located at the hotel as he was just having responsibility for transport to and from the airport.

Note: this must be happening all the time, why doesn't charter operators have procedures for handling this immediately? This is in effect a redirection to another service (endpoint), much like a http code 303 See other. This is also an example of standardized work that drives costs and complexity up.

I attended to the guides on the hotel on a daily basis. This resulted in using estimated 30 minutes per day in waiting and talking to the guides. Each day they promised to look into it, they contacted the airport, waited for response from the lost property department.

Note: I was polling the guides, which was in a constant loop answering me and polling the lost property department. This consumed resources and was of course a source of irritation to us.

In the day we where leaving, the guide having responsibility for the returning bus transport followed me to the lost property department of the airport. When asking for the backsack the clerk just shaked his head. Nothing like my backpack was found. I pulled my passport to eliminate any doubt of who I was, and provide correct information. The clerk quickly disappeared and returned with my sack. Huh? It appeared the guides was not informed of the required authentication to pick up left property.

Note: The airport clerks pretended it did not exist until I showed up in person and provided proper authentication. Much like a properly invented security measure in IT, but remember to inform your users (guides) about it. Failing to inform results in failure demand in the flow and bad service seen from the customer (which in this case will associate the travelling destination with bad service (cognitive availability).

Since the time before checkin was nearing fast I did not have time to check the contents of the sack before later. It appeared that mobile chargers and iPods where missing.

Note: Almost no security measure can stop unloyal employees from taking what they want.

After returning I claimed the loss to my credit card company. Travels payed with the card automatically has travel insurance. They presented a bureaucratic and cumbersome process, and in general did not cover lost property. Huh? So much for travel insurance. Our house contents (NO: innbo) insurance though covered lost property during travel. The process was very straightforward and used average prices on artifacts calculated from real prices. I got a security token that I could use to "buy" the artifacts again from their webpage or get money refund. -> Happy travelling insurance customer. I will stick with these guys for a while, as my availablity heuristic brain tells me they provides good service.

Note: providing a simple process with clear semantics reduces pain and resource consumption and great service.

Friday, January 6, 2012

Content and technology cycles

Most content outlives any presentation and distribution technologies. Content valuable enough will be converted to new formats and prepared for distribution on new carriers. This is nothing new and has been ongoing since humans started to draw and write.

Content creation involves effort and possibly considerable amounts of economical investments. Professional content creators live off their work, and naturally wants to be paid for providing their works.

Somewhere along the road, movie-, music- and publisher industry acquired exclusive distribution rights. When they where distributing content in a physical form (in atoms), this added considerable value to the product. Distributors got involved in all kinds of coordination and promotion activities related to their exclusive rights. As long as the distributors controlled the technology this went along fine, but with the invention of the music cassette the foundation for a copy culture was laid. Content consumers wanted to have copies of music in their cars, walkmans and in the living room. The VCR allowed copying of films. A growing pirate industry, mainly based in Asia was founded, but the economical problems was limited as they had to move atoms around the globe and copied material was not more accessible than the originals.

For music and movies this led both to direct loss for content creators, but it also provided culture sharing. When more people heard new music or films, some bought originals while some copied. It will be impossible to know if the entertainment industry have lost or gained in this game. A copy today may result in future sales of releases of music and movies.

When computers moved into the home copying of software soon became common as the physical burden was shrinking. We started to move bits on physical carriers (diskettes). When PCs was introduced copying flourished. Whether this favored or hurt the software industry is not quite clear. Microsofts success with Office was laid with the massive distribution of Windows which was heavily copied and distributed amongst users. I would guess the software industry as a whole, especially platform vendors, have gained opportunities because of copying. This is not a defense of piracy, but my estimation of the outcome. The software industry has slowly adjusted to the new realities. Software can be bought and downloaded or provided as as service (SaaS). Open Source developers uses the moving of bits their full advantage.

In the late 90-ies the Internet was introduced for consumers. The Internet made moving atoms obsolete. Content could now be moved as pure bits globally, with the speed of the network. The Internet provides us with a completely new way of distributing and consuming content. It is also a foundation for collaboration, creativity and provides us with vast new opportunities for doing business.

The elimination of the need for moving atoms also reduces costs. There is little value in moving bits, and the concept of the moving and copying of bits breaks the limitations of physical distribution. It also breaks exclusivity as content can be made available for anyone instantly at a global scale. The entertainment industry seems not have understood or do not welcome this. They seem to be willing to go all the way in their efforts to stop the evolution. They lobby for and support legislations like SOPA, PIPA and EU Data Retention Directive.

Technology follows very rapid cycles of invention, while content has a completely different cycle. The most valuable content will inevitably be converted to new presentation- and carrier technologies. If the copyright owners does not do it, consumers will. And why should they not? If you have bought a product shouldn't you be allowed to use it on gadgets not yet invented? To me it is not crystal clear copying is theft. Copying is also culture sharing, and generates future sales. The Internet gives us great possibilities for sharing culture and this could be lost, or at least very restricted if the entertainment industry will get it's will with lawmakers.

So why would anyone tie exclusive distribution rights to specific distribution technologies? This gives distributors no incentives for adjusting to new realities and opportunities. These industries are now lobbying for draconic laws that is protecting their relatively outdated business models. They refuse to meet the demand of their customers and stubbornly gives Internet the blame for everything not going their way. The difference now is that consumers (and pirates) have all the tools and infrastructure to fill in the gaps. When the gap left open by the entertainment industry is wide enough and demand is high, massive piracy is the inevitable result.

Instead of exploiting vast opportunities for culture sharing and selling a lot more (for a lower price per item, reflecting reduced costs) they want laws that will seriously impede democratic freedoms hard won through recent centuries. The Internet has breathed new life to democracies (video of Al Gore talking about SOPA was quickly deleted from Youtube...). Whether the lawmakers does not understand this, or do not want more democracy will be mere speculation. It is probably a mix of incompetence and using piracy as an excuse for their own agenda.

Another consequence of the internet is that there is only one market: the global market. Trying to limit releases to restricted areas will fail and only cause problems. It has become de facto Cargo Culting in the media industry. In the digital distribution world there is no borders or physical restrictions that creates exclusivity. A better strategy will be global releases and making use of social media buzz to spread the word and attract consumers to buy content from copyright holders.