Latest News from Python Developer's Journal

Python Performance Tips, Server Side Caching and More

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 23:49:00 EST

1. Python Performance Tips, Part 1 Like Ruby, Python is a programming language with a reputation for performance bottlenecks. However, Youtube has shown that if you write code the right way, you can scale Python to serve 40 million video views per day.

PDF Courier: Managed File Transfer Made Easy

Thu, 06 May 2010 12:16:00 EDT

Sending files to and from organizations is part of our corporate communication. What originally began decades ago as simple file transfers between research and government campuses, has become part of business interactions around the world. FTP was the original workhorse that enabled us to send files, but as network capacities grew, so did our need to send larger and larger files.

The Nature and Importance of Source Code and Learning Programming with Python

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 08:53:00 EST

Last year a client asked us for advice on getting started with programming. So I thought I’d share some thoughts about programming, its relationship with FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) management and why Python is a good language for learning programming including some great on-line resources. But first I want to make sure our business-oriented readers understand the nature and importance of source code. The “source” aka “the code” provides a language in which computer users can create or change software. One does not have to be a programmer to work on the code. In fact, every computer user is, ipso facto, a programmer! Menus, web interfaces, and graphical user interfaces (GUIs) are some of the more facile “languages” for computer programming that everyone, even children, can readily learn and use. Of course, building complex software systems requires a more expressive specification language than aweb form, for instance, can provide. Although all computer software is specified with source code, FOSS systems are unique in that the source code is made available with the software. In contradistinction, software lock-in or vendor lock-in describes the unfortunately all too common practice of many organizations to block access to their source code.

Cloud Expo Yahoo! Session Streaming Live on SYS-CON.TV

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 18:30:00 EST

Cloud Computing is receiving a lot of attention, and a number of companies see it as a key to increased agility and efficiency. The technology, however, is still at an early stage and many fundamental challenges need to be addressed before the full promise of the paradigm can be realized. In this general session, Yahoo! Chief Scientist Raghu Ramakrishnan highlighted some of the key challenges, described projects at Yahoo! that seek to address one or more of these challenges, and – in particular – he discussed the issues in managing large data stores in the cloud.

Microsoft’s First Step Toward Cloud Computing

Fri, 15 Jan 2010 20:30:00 EST

Pundits talking about how Windows 7 is all about Microsoft competing against Apple, recovering with Vista consumer adoption disaster, or getting people off of XP, are missing one other – extremely important – part of the Windows 7 story. Windows 7 and its server counterpart – Windows Server 2008 R2 – are actually the first real step in Microsoft’s Windows Cloud Story. Before Windows 7 Microsoft could offer some services (such as Exchange Online) from the cloud – but could not provide full enterprise directory, security and so on – now they can.

A Young C++ Programmer Lost His Hands

Sat, 09 Jan 2010 07:48:00 EST

I knew Joe since he was a kid. Today he’s 26, and here’s Joe’s story.

Four years ago Joe’s got his BS degree in Computer Science. Joe always loved programming games and decided to start his career in a gaming industry. But here, in the East Coast, most of the IT shops are creating anything but games, and Joe moved to Los Angeles, where found his dream job in a small gaming company.
Spending 15 hours a day coding didn’t bother Joe – he’d spent time doing what he really enjoyed and even got paid for this!

Life was good for the short three years. Then he started feeling pain in his arms. Than it got worse. The doctors diagnosed a tough form of carpal tunnel syndrome. He tried regular doctors, chiropractors, acupuncture, even collagen injections into his wrists, but nothing really helped.

Since Joe was a good software developer his employer was nice enough to allow him continuing working. No, he wouldn’t type – he was telling other developers what to type and helped them in resolving issues. This year, because of the economic crisis that gaming company closed the doors.

During the holidays, Joe was visiting his folks here in Jersey, and I’ve seen him yesterday. His handshake is strong. He’s still open, friendly, optimistic… and out of work. Doctors suggests surgery, but don’t guarantee that he’ll be able to type again.

When I asked Joe, what’s next, he said, “I’m considering going back to school to get my Master’s degree and start teaching programming”.

Man, I want to help this guy to return back to software development! This is so unfair seeing all these mediocre quickly baked programmers generating tons of mediocre code for living, while Joe, who dreamed about this job and has all the skills and experience has to stay out of work!

There’s got to be a way out, and here’s what I can think of:

1.   Joe should apply for a telecommute job. After getting and accepting an offer, he should hire a school or college student to be his hands. In this scenario, the employer doesn’t even have to know about Joe’s problems as long as the job gets done. Not too kosher, I know, but who said that the process of finding jobs is a kosher business? 

2.   Joe can apply for a regular job in software, pass all the interviews and at the end honestly tell about his problem. Most of the potential employers won’t like it, but hey, every rejection brings us closer to our goal, right? 

3.   Experiment with Speech-to-Text programs that would allow Joe to turn the voice into the code.  

4.   Write the code manually, on paper, and use some OCR software to turn handwriting into code.

Now I’m asking for your advice – do you have any other than changing career suggestions to Joe? Please leave a comment to this blog or send me an email.

If you need a passionate C++/MFC developer, please write me a note at yfain11 at yahoo.com. Joe can either work in your office or telecommute. He may not be the one who types the code, but trust me, you can rely on this guy! Unfortunately, our firm doesn’t need C++ developers, but if Joe will decide to master Flex and Java, I’ll have better chances to help him out.

Harnessing Cloud Computing and Virtualization Whitepaper

Sat, 19 Dec 2009 20:30:00 EST

Many IT organizations have inadequate governance processes to control the provisioning of virtual servers, resulting in problems including virtual server sprawl. Some IT organizations are building private or internal cloud environments to capture the benefits of cloud computing, yet they lack management tools to provide visibility into usage and costs. Successful IT service management, including the use of a Service Catalog, is critical to realizing the benefits of virtualization.

Surgient Awarded Cloud Computing Patent

Sat, 19 Dec 2009 15:15:00 EST

Surgient, the leader in management software for internal enterprise clouds, announced on Friday a series of milestones demonstrating the company’s continued leadership in virtualization management and cloud automation. Surgient added to its existing suite of recognized innovations with a newly granted patent on the, “Creation and Management of Federated Virtual Server Clouds.” Additionally, three separate organizations honored Surgient for being among the fastest growing and most successful technology companies. Surgient has long been a leader in providing infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) through its purpose-built, seventh-generation cloud automation platform.

The New Version of EC2Studio Is Released

Sat, 19 Dec 2009 14:00:00 EST

The users can use several Amazon EC2 accounts when they work with the add-in. Account changing in the add-in is available in the same easy manner like changing of the AWS region at the all EC2 add-in pages. Once an account is added and the connection is tested – it’s ready to use.

Canonical Offers Free Cloudware

Thu, 17 Dec 2009 17:15:00 EST

Canonical’s Ubuntu 9.10 Server Edition, code named Karmic Koala, became generally available for free download Thursday. That’s the stuff that introduces Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud (UEC), a k a Eucalyptus Software’s open source software, as a fully supported technology. The widgetry is based on the same APIs as Amazon EC2 and, as previously reported, lets businesses build private clouds.

RightScale To Support Azure

Thu, 17 Dec 2009 12:45:00 EST

RightScale, the cloud manager, plans to support Windows Azure and let customers deploy RightScale-managed applications and take advantage of Azure’s particular properties. It said it would support Azure infrastructure-level services through its new Service Management API like it does Amazon and Rackspace and give Azure users access to other cloud platforms. It didn’t say when.

CA Wants More Than a Few Good Men

Sun, 13 Dec 2009 14:45:00 EST

CA is looking for talent in EMEA: associate account managers, directors of solution sales, senior solution strategists, sales account managers, technical sales consultants and alliance account managers. It says it’s launched a large-scale recruitment drive and it’s not often big companies put out press releases saying so. It says it means to capitalize on cloud computing and virtualization.

Cloud Computing and The Israel Defense Forces

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 17:45:00 EST

Stepping off the airplane last Tuesday at Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion Airport I knew I was in for a memorable business trip. As I left the airplane I was greeted by a young female Israeli government official who seemed to recognize me by sight. This was to be my first indication of what was to become a very interesting few days in Israel.

Before I go into the details of my trip, I first need to give you some background which lead to my bizarre series of events. Although I was born in Haifa, a city in North Israel, I had left the country in 1982 at the age of 4, moving with my parents to Canada. Over the nearly 30 or so years since I left I have been lucky enough to travel all over world with generally little in the way of problems. Regardless of where I travel I've always use my Canadian passport, generally the Canadian passport provides me with a warm welcome regardless of the country I'm visiting. As an individual I've always identified myself both professionally and personally as a Canadian. When I speak, I like many other Canadians I throw in the casual "eh" at the end of sentences, and Americans routinely make fun of my "outs" and "abouts". I'm told they sound funny. So for all practical purposes, I am Canadian.

But because of where I was born, in the back of my mind I knew I was technically an Israeli citizen but never gave it much thought. Being born in Israel to a Swiss mother and Canadian father gave me a unique gift. This unusual "gift" is that of having three citizenships. Two of which, Israel and Switzerland require military service. Since leaving Israel at the age of 4 I have never had the opportunity to go back, not so much as a conscience decision as much as I never really had any reason to visit -- albeit for business or otherwise. But unlike Israel I have been to Switzerland many times over years and even have an active Swiss passport (which I rarely use). During my many trips to Switzerland, I have never been asked about military duty, so I falsely assumed the same would be true in Israel. Making what transpired all the more surprising.

Back to my arrival in Israel, at first I thought "Wow, Avner and the folks from the Israeli Association of Grid Technologies (IGT) who had invited to speak at their annual summit really go all out. I hadn't even gone through passport control and I'm already being greeted with a warm welcome". Well it turns out the welcome wasn't as warm as I thought. Next thing I know I'm being escorted to a secret label-less backroom at the airport. At this point I was told to wait. So for about two hours I waited as occasionally attractive young Israeli women with large machine guns would come in saying something to me in Hebrew, which I don't speak. After awhile they realized I didn't speak Hebrew and said "What kind of Israeli doesn't speak Hebrew" To which I responded, "A Canadian" They then ask me a series of questions. (Who my parents were, where I was born etc. Which they already knew)

The next part caught me by surprise, remember this is supposed to be a short (72hour) trip to Israel. A young woman tells me that as an Israeli citizen I have two conditions before I can leave: First I can't leave leave the country without permission from the dept of Interior and must get an Israeli passport. When I asked how long she tells me several weeks. Then the best part, secondly I must report for my Israeli military service in a place called Tiberias not far from Jordan and Syria on western shore of the Sea of Galilee as soon as possible. When I said again that I was just visiting, the official indicated that I was now officially in the Israeli defense forces (IDF).

I was now on my own in a country where I didn't speak the language and certainly didn't identify myself with. I was on my own effectively drafted into one of the most well funded and active defense forces on the planet. To give you some background on the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), in 2008 Israel spent $16.2 billion on its armed forces, making it the country with the biggest ratio of defense spending to GDP as a percentage of the budget of all developed countries.($2,300 per person). Also all male citizens are required to serve three years in the IDF with exceptions made only on religious, physical or psychological grounds. Arguably the IDF is one of the most politically charged defense forces on the globe, not exactly how I envisioned spending my next three years.

It wasn't that I was afraid of being in the army, so much as the thought of potentially being away from my family in what most certainly felt like a strange foreign land. With an 11 month old baby at home and my wife and I expecting another I focused on how to get out of this most awkward predicament I suddenly found myself in. So now instead of focusing my attention on the business meetings and presentations I was supposed to have over the next few days I would have to focus on what felt like getting back my freedom. Luckly my new Israeli friends and business partners stepped up to help me out.

Some of the biggest help came from an Israeli business partner (who asked not to be named). When I eventually emerged that evening from the holding area in the Airport, he was there waiting for me and sprung into action. Within minutes he had called senior contacts within the Israeli Government, contacts that would eventually include the Deputy Prime Minster of Israel as well as various other high ranking officials. He then detailed a strategy that would have me visit both the Dept of the Interior as well as the biggest Army base in the country.

While my business partner was calling everyone he knew, the second day of my trip I attendeed the conference as much as I could. After all I was in Tel Aviv for the World Cloud Computing Summit and a CloudCamp Tel Aviv which ended up being both successes having great turn outs. Needless to say there is a tremendous amount of interest in cloud computing in Israel with several hosting companies announcing they would be offering cloud related products and services. But alas, this aspect of my trip was greatly overshadowed by my worries of being conscripted into the military as well as not being able to leave the country. Anyone who follows my twitter account could easily see I was somewhat stressed over the situation. But thanks to the huge outpouring of support from the Israeli's I met, my situation would soon be resolved with the greatest of efficiency. Literally dozens of people made phone calls and provided me with advice. It seemed that if you had a friend in the IDF, they would call on my behalf with at one point one senior military commander noting that that I must of been a very special person because he had received no less then 10 calls about me in the previous 24 hours.

All in all it took roughly 48 hours to get my situation fully resolved. First with the issuing of an Israel passport (which was given to me 45 minutes after it was requested, a new record I'm told) as well as a visit to the largest military base in the country called Camp Rabin named for Yitzhak Rabin. The base was one of the first IDF bases and has served as the IDF headquarters since Israel's founding in 1948. Think of it like the Pentagon in the U.S.

One of things that struck me at Camp Rabin (other then it reminded me of a good unconference name) was the age of the average enlistee, somewhere between 18-21 years old, unsurprisingly all of which were heavily armed. It felt like a summer camp with guns.

After a few hours of back and forth between the IDF HQ and my outpost in Tiberias I was given my release papers. The papers were in Hebrew, but luckily my local partner who seemed to have became both my chauffeur and translator was there to help. He told me that I had been discharged from the IDF for the reason of "Old Age" and that it also said that I was free to leave the country.

Yes, one crazy business trip.

Bright To Peddle SUSE

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 13:15:00 EST

Bright Computing, a specialist in Linux-based cluster management software and services for high-performance computing (HPC), has started offering its Bright Cluster Manager software bundled with SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES). Bright and Novell are going to co-market the stuff to their channels and perhaps collaborate on software development for HPC. Eight of the top 10 supercomputers run on SUSE.

The Power of Google and the Promise of Cloud Computing

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 05:45:00 EST

Evans Data Corp announced that use of the Python scripting language has increased by 45% since Spring 2008 according to the most recent North American Development Survey to be released this week to subscribers. Only 13% of developers used Python before Google announced its App Engine platform in Spring 2008, which at the time only supported Python, but that number has increased to 20.3% today. Other scripting language use remained relatively constant, with only small gains or losses in popularity among languages such as Ruby, PHP, Perl and Actionscript.

B2B Lead Generation Tip #3: Identify the Metrics that Matter

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 10:30:00 EST

If you haven’t addressed the first two steps in the lead generation planning process - establishing the right mindset and building a strong roster of stakeholders - you may want to go back and review those before you read this. After all, if you’re a smart lead generation marketer, you know (or you’ll find out) that process is critical. Skip a step or ignore part of the process, and you can expect a weakened lead generation program.

Cloud Computing: Transformative Technology With Financial Benefits

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 16:15:00 EST

A majority of executives polled by Deloitte (60.9 percent) believe cloud computing will be a transformative technology in the industry and can drive financial benefits, or at least be useful for certain kinds of enterprise services. The executives were polled recently during the Deloitte webcast, "Cloud Computing in the Enterprise: Not If, But When and How?"

Business Service Management: Aligning Business & IT

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 10:45:00 EDT

The result is BSMReview.com, a site which seeks to analyze the best and next practices in business service management from a third-party point of view. The experts that Bill has brought to the site are literally a who's who of the best and most trusted people in the field: Peter Armstrong, Tom Bishop, Malcolm Fry, Israel Gat, Peter McGarahan, Richard Ptak, and Ken Turbitt. And that's just for the launch. Bill is recruiting more experts even as I write this. I'd like to get David Williams from Gartner and Jean-Pierre Garbani from Forrester involved as well, but they're behind the iron walls of the analyst-dom.

Moving HPC Apps to the Cloud: The Practitioner's Perspective

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 13:00:00 EDT

HPC applications are computationally-bursty, resource-hungry and self-provisioning software systems that are ideally suited to lead the early adoption of cloud computing by core enterprise applications. This session will examine several types of HPC applications deployed on various clouds as well as using different compute and data grid middleware. Victoria Livschitz will be sure to also talk about the challenges and opportunities typical of grid deployments in the cloud.

GoGrid to Exhibit at Cloud Computing Conference & Expo

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 10:30:00 EDT

SYS-CON Events announced today that GoGrid, a leading Cloud Infrastructure Hosting provider that delivers true "Control in the Cloud™", will exhibit at SYS-CON's 4th International Cloud Computing Conference & Expo, which will take place on November 2 - 4, 2009, Santa Clara Convention Center, in Santa Clara, California.

The Enterprise Private Cloud - From Infrastructure to Applications

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 13:45:00 EDT

Several organizations have been exploring how to realize the economic benefits of cloud computing within their own datacenter. They are looking for faster provisioning on demand, agile resource scheduling based on policies and chargeback rules to ensure resources are optimally utilized. At the Cloud Computing Conference and Expo, Sudip Datta will elaborate on the current focus of such private clouds which has been mainly on infrastructure enablement, leaving the applications to fend for themselves.

Securing the Cloud and Establishing a Level of Trust

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 13:15:00 EDT

While the benefits for cloud computing are compelling, the cloud brings an additional level of security risk that must be managed and secured. In his session at Cloud Computing Conference & Expo, Tim Brown, VP and chief architect for Security Management at CA, will address security needs for cloud computing. Security must be addressed for all aspects of the cloud paradigm – Internal, Private, Public and Hybrid cloud envvironments. The cloud must be secured by multiple organizations, and a level of trust established and verified.

Unlocking the Cloud with Enterprise Private PaaS

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 12:45:00 EDT

Like the agility benefits of public Platform as a Service (PaaS), but concerned about lock-in, security, integration and compliance? Considering an enterprise private PaaS for running Java apps? In his session at Cloud Computing Conference & Expo, Mohamad Afshar, VP of Product Management at Oracle, will answer these questions as well as discuss best practices for building and operating a private PaaS.

Internet Evolution Launches New Midmarket Clan

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 14:55:00 EDT

TechWeb's Internet Evolution social network unveiled its Midmarket Clan, the latest in a series of specialty user groups designed to serve unique technology and industry segments. The Midmarket Clan is intended for IT professionals and executive management from companies with revenues in the $10 million to $100 million range that have 100 to 1,000 employees.

IBM’s Linux-Based ‘Cloud-in-a-Box’ Makes its First Sale

Sun, 27 Sep 2009 18:15:00 EDT

Taking a page out of Cisco's book - from the chapter on so-called smart cities - IBM late Thursday announced that the city of Dongying near China's second-largest oil field in the midst of the Yellow River Delta is going to build a cloud to promote e-government and support its transition from a manufacturing center to a more eco-friendly services-based economy. Dongying, which can turn the widgetry into a revenue generator, means to use the cloud to jumpstart new economic development in the region.

The Top Ten Executive Mistakes

Sun, 13 Sep 2009 07:30:00 EDT

Want to feel old? Sixteen years ago, in 1993, The Late Show with David Letterman premiered on CBS. Where has the time gone?

Letterman, for most people, is synonymous with his 'Top Ten List.' It's such a part of our culture that The Top Ten List even has its own Wikipedia entry. Fun trivia, you're thinking, but how does this relate to executives?

Executives and lists have a long history together. Business leaders love to make lists, they hand out lists, they read lists. Lists are popular with everybody. You can't pick up a leading newspaper without finding a list of something. Everybody does lists: Business Week, Newsweek and dozens of other business journals, and Forbes has lists that go far beyond the top ten. They trump everybody with their list of the Top 100.

So, in honor of Letterman's anniversary, here is The CXO Mindset's List of the Top Ten Ways to Get Kicked Out of the C-Suite:

The Top Ten Executive Mistakes

Mistake Number 1: Talk too much and don't actively listen to your team's concerns.

Mistake Number 2: Don't take responsibility when you've messed up.

Mistake Number 3: Have lots of ideas, but don't execute on any of them.

Mistake Number 4: Think you can do it all, and don't delegate power and responsibility.

Mistake Number 5: Give presentations that have no inspiration or vision.

Mistake Number 6: Think that what got you into the C-suite will keep you in the C-suite.

Mistake Number 7: Rely on people you like vs. people with skills.

Mistake Number 8: Don't communicate to your staff on a regular basis.

Mistake Number 9: Stay isolated from the "shop floor."

Mistake Number 10: Do not "give back" to all the people who helped you get into that C-suite office.

Aspect-Oriented Programming and You

Tue, 18 Aug 2009 16:30:00 EDT

One of the coolest parts of the new SproutCore View layer is its ability to use aspect-based programming to add behaviors to views. Aspect-based programming is built on the premise that often objects that don’t follow from the same class hierarchy may in fact need similar behaviors. This is especially true in GUI programming when designers come to you and say something like “I came up with this new widget - it looks kind of like a progress bar but it acts like a button when you click on it”.

Open Source Selenium Web Application Testing System

Fri, 07 Aug 2009 16:15:00 EDT

In my recent blog post – Get more out of functional web testing: How to correlate test reports with server side log information? – I discussed the problem that testing results are usually not linked to the log and diagnostics information captured by the application under test. The blog entry offered a way to link the two sides using HTTP Tagging via an HTTP Proxy. Tagging individual Web Requests allows linking each individual request executed by the testing tool with the transactions that are executed on the server side. Your logging framework or diagnostics solution can then take this tag and link the transaction to the originating web request. Tagging Web Requests with Selenium

Convey Computer Gets $24m B Round

Thu, 30 Jul 2009 02:45:00 EDT

Texas-based Convey Computer Corporation, a pioneer in hybrid-core computing – a technology designed to help high-performance computers run faster on less energy – has gotten $24.15 million in Series B financing. The round was led by new investor Braemar Energy Ventures. The Series A crowd, CenterPoint Ventures, Intel Capital, InterWest Partners, Rho Ventures and Xilinx, also participated.

Is Social Media a Hostile Work Environment?

Wed, 22 Jul 2009 21:45:00 EDT

The blurring of professional and personal lives in social media and the rush of organizations to “join in” may create just that.

Almost every modern organization has behavioral policies known as “zero-tolerance” these days. These policies are designed to provide a healthy, productive environment in which anyone can work without fear of being insulted, offended, harassed, or otherwise made uncomfortable on a day to day basis.

Basically, “zero-tolerance” policies are - in part - the codification of the common-sense rule that says you don’t talk about religion, politics, or sex in the work environment. Controversial topics, jokes, images, and words are off-limits even at the water-cooler for anyone who truly endeavors to have a successful professional career and, in many cases, enjoy continued employment.

But when that water cooler goes digital, organizational policies and apparently common sense (and courtesy) end up routed into what amounts to a black-hole, leaving those with a role that includes interfacing with customers and the public via social media working amidst what could be considered a hostile work environment.

THIS. IS. SOCIAL MEDIA!

The line between personal and professional life are not being slowly blurred out. It is being purposefully broken and snapped into pieces by social media. At the same time “brands” are encouraged – nay, frightened – into participating lest they be seen as uncommunicative and “out of touch” with their customers and modern marketing efforts. The clash between organizational policies and the use of social media as a tool to communicate with customers is painfully obvious when interacting on sites like Twitter and Facebook, where “friends” and “followers” are really customers, interested parties, influencers, analysts, and the press; many of whom view their persona as a combination of personal and professional, and let the two intermingle freely in their tweets and posts and profiles.

What someone might say in a tweet would never be spoken aloud inside the walls of an organization to another employee. The language and views expressed in many tweets and comments on Facebook pages would almost certainly violate any modern zero-tolerance policy. Yet on Web 2.0 and social media sites across the Internet, such commentary is common.

Many of us participate in social media efforts of our own volition. It is not mandated by the organization nor is it listed as a responsibility of our roles within the company. But some organizations are moving to including participation in social media as a part of an individual’s job responsibility, opening up some very interesting possibilities.

For example, Pizza Hut’s search for a Twitter intern was widely broadcast through the social media world as a sign that social media as a role within the organization is growing. That’s great for those self-styled social-media “experts” and for those who believe that social media has a larger, more important role to play within a company, as this move validates their views on the role of social media.

But when you’re suddenly required to interact with hundreds and thousands of people in an environment like Twitter; in an environment where anything goes and there are no corporate policies regarding what’s considered appropriate and what is not; in an environment where personal and professional are equally mixed, you may find yourself in the middle of what could reasonable be considered a hostile environment.

The problem is you may not be able to do anything about it. If your role includes interacting with customers in a social media setting and their language or choice of topics is offensive or hostile toward you or your personal beliefs, you have nowhere to go. You can’t unfollow them because it’s your job to interact with them. There’s no universal zero-tolerance policy in social media because it’s not just professional folks engaging in its use, and there is not – and should not be – any such policy governing the expression of opinion outside the workplace.

MAKING IT OFFICIAL

There is a very real danger in making the use of social media an “official” part of a person’s role within the organization without guidelines and expectations. When one chooses to interact via social media they bear the responsibility. They can follow and unfollow at will, and they can always decide it’s too hostile for them and choose not to interact. I know I have, many times, and will likely continue to do so. It’s my choice. But when it’s made part of their job responsibility, can they? If your job responsibility requires you to interact with people who may be creating a hostile work environment, organizations may be setting themselves up for some ugly legal consequences (IANAL). One of the definitions of a “hostile work environment” is that the victim must believe that enduring the hostility is a requirement for keeping their employment, which means making interacting with social media a part of an employee’s role – such as Pizza Hut’s Twitter intern position - could, potentially, lead to legal issues.

In that respect, perhaps Jennifer Leggio’s recent un-call for a CSMO (Chief Social Media Officer) is a better idea than it first seems. With oversight within the organization, corporate governance over employee’s actions as well as remediation steps might be more clearly identified. For example, if my responsibility is to monitor and respond on behalf of the “brand” on Twitter, am I allowed to “unfollow” customers who are offensive? Who use rude and vulgar language? Who are hostile? Am I required to subject myself to insulting and offensive conversations in order to perform my job? How am I allowed to respond if I choose to do so? Can I choose to respond? And what are my responsibilities? What kind of conversation should I, as a corporate representative, be engaging in?

Outside the organization, the answers to these questions are not so clear and it is just those answers we need before we start officially making social media a part of someone’s job description. Expectations when dealing with a hostile environment should be set clearly up front; what is and is not allowed on the part of the employee when responding (or even if they should respond), for example, should be decided before the situation arises. The possibility of hostility should be clearly discussed with employees before sending them “to the front lines” to ensure their personality is one that can/is willing to deal with such scenarios based on organizational decisions guiding interaction.

These kinds of policies have long existed at organizations that run a call-center/technical support for consumers. These types of interactions are nothing new to consumer-oriented tech support folks, as they’ve been dealing with them via e-mail and by telephone for years. But for many organizations the need for such a policy, training, or at least guidance may be new and a surprise. It needs to be a part of the process when moving forward with a full-blown social media presence.

It would be so much easier if people just used common sense and exercised some basic courtesy toward their fellow social media inmates, wouldn’t it?

[pause for laughter]

Exactly. That’s why organizations should start thinking about how an individual can and should interact within the Web 2.0 world and social media before they make it an “official” part of someone’s role.

Technorati Tags: MacVittie,F5,social media,web 2.0,twitter,facebook,hostile work environment,zero-tolerance,governance,Jennifer Leggio,Pizza Hut,policy,legal,web,internet,blog

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Annoying Turkish Spammers: Avukat Faruk Haksal

Mon, 26 Jan 2009 19:15:00 EST

Finally this evening I called 90 256 8564012, the phone number listed on his Website "about" page. Apparently the number was his home phone number also listed on his website as this address: Avukat Faruk Haksal, Didim Akbük Cumhuriyet Mahallesi 1. Kordon Numara 26 Aydın, Turkey. Apparently three hours ahead of Rome, Italy I woke him and his wife, they were not very happy. I think he cursed at me in Turkish by saying "ulan kekeme, dilini mi yuttun orospu chojuu" and hung up.

President & CTO of 3tera Speaking Next Week at SYS-CON's Cloud Computing Expo November 19-21 in Silicon Valley

Fri, 14 Nov 2008 09:20:00 EST

Months ago, 3tera unveiled our Cloudware architecture. But rather than try to convince the world that there is only a single architecture that works and ours is it, we emphasized that Cloud architectures need to be open. Not only need they interoperate with all sorts of hardware and software as virtual appliances, they need to interoperate with other Clouds and Cloud components as well.

Rackspace Mosso to Exhibit at 1st International Cloud Computing Conference & Expo

Thu, 13 Nov 2008 23:45:00 EST

SYS-CON Events announced today that the leading global Cloud Computing technology provider Mosso to exhibit at SYS-CON's Cloud Computing Conference & Expo which will take place November 19-21, 2008, at the Fairmont Hotel in the heart of Silicon Valley, in San Jose, California. More than 40 Cloud technology providers, as well as Virtualization and SOA companies will exhibit at the upcoming 1st International Cloud Computing Conference & Expo (www.CloudComputingExpo.com), November 19-21, in San Jose, California. The conference will be colocated with SYS-CON's 4th International Virtualization Conference & Expo (www.VirtualizationConference.com).

Time for VMWare to Change Its Pricing Model

Sat, 26 Jul 2008 10:15:00 EDT

The once darling of the software industry, VMWare, is currently struggling to recover to anything close to what it was. With stock once riding high at $124 per share, it is now struggling to break the $40 barrier. VMWare rode the initial wave of the virtualization revolution, producing high quality software to allow you to run and maintain multiple operating systems on one host. They were largely uncompeted for a number of years, but now that the computing world has decided that virtualization is indeed here to stay and will shape our landscape, a number of competitors have appeared, including solutions from Microsoft.

PlateSpin Outs First Post-Acquisition Product

Sun, 06 Jul 2008 12:45:00 EDT

PlateSpin has trotted out its first major product release since Novell bought the virtualization management operation back in March with the launch of PowerConvert 7.0, its data center disaster recovery mojo. The software has new backup and recovery features and expanded multi-platform support.

Google Web Toolkit: Finally Java Has Been Put into JavaScript!

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 07:15:00 EDT

For many years, Java and web developers alike have had to explain to the unwitting that JavaScript had absolutely nothing to do with Java. It was one of the great marketing gaffes of the mid-90s. They were no more alike than chalk and cheese. But in the last six months, I have had to lay down my placard and walk away from the picket line with a smile on my face and skip in my step. Finally Java has been put into JavaScript.

iPhone 3G Only Looks Cheaper

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 14:00:00 EDT

Apple has a history of carriage trade pricing, and, although such practices cost it the PC market - while imbuing it with a certain cachet - the policy was enshrined in the original iPhone. For the first time Monday Apple sorta kinda changed its tune, so to speak, and started chasing the mass market with an entry-level $199 iPhone 3G with 8GB of memory and $299 for a model with 16GB of memory, in either case a $200 price cut compared to iPhone 1.0, $300 cheaper than a year ago.

AJAX World RIA Conference News - AJAX & RIA with Server-Side JavaScript

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 07:15:00 EDT

Server-side JavaScript (SSJS) is growing in popularity fast since developers realize it can drastically simplify Web app creation by letting you use using the same technology stack on both the client and the server. While server-side JavaScript is not new - it was a part of Netscape's vision 10 years ago - times have significantly changed with 10x faster hardware and networks, making that original vision for the Web now a reality.

White Paper: "Extended Validation SSL Certificates"

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 00:15:00 EDT

Extended Validation SSL Certificates. Extended Validation (EV) is a new standard in SSL certificates. This guide explains the needs which drove the development of this standard and how it addresses contemporary security challenges. It also delves into the integration of EV certificates into new high security browsers such as Microsoft's IE7.

CEO of Hyperic, Javier Soltero on SYS-CON.TV

Thu, 29 May 2008 11:15:00 EDT

Javier Soltero, CEO of Hyperic, stopped by to talk with SYS-CON.TV host Jeremy Geelan at SYS-CON.TV's JavaOne studio in San Francisco's Moscone Center at JavaOne earlier this month. Other CEOs interviewed by Geelan at JavaOne 2008 included Chris Keene of WaveMaker; Sean Walsh, Skyway Software; Rod Johnson, SpringSource; and Mike Cannon-Brookes, Atlassian.

SaaS Platforms For ISVs and Who Wins?

Sat, 24 May 2008 11:30:00 EDT

Although SaaS development platforms like SalesForce and Coghead have gotten a lot of attention, this market has so far been remarkably closed and proprietary. The Platform as a Service leader, SalesForce, has both a draconian hosting policy (host your apps and data anywhere, as long as it's with us!) but also a proprietary language (who needs Java when you've got Apex!?). Moving forward, the same trends driving open source adoption everywhere else in the industry will ultimately drive SaaS adoption of open source, particularly by ISVs whose business plan does not include a low multiple sale to their proprietary hosting provider. Future SaaS platforms will converge with traditional tools, offering on-demand development based on traditional programming languages with built-in tools for mash-up based development for basic users.

Yahoo, Microsoft, Google - The Great i-Technology Love Triangle

Fri, 23 May 2008 05:00:00 EDT

In an effort to buy itself time to head off corporate raider Carl Icahn's mission to nominate a slate of completely new directors for the search giant, Yahoo has made an SEC filing saying that its July 3 AGM is postponed till the end of July. One of its current ten directors, Edward Kozel, also resigned from the board and will not be replaced.

Google Launches New Message Security Services

Thu, 07 Feb 2008 11:30:00 EST

'Organizations of all shapes and sizes can get access to Google's industry leading security and compliance technologies,? said Scott Petry, Google's director of product management, as Google this week announced a series of security products Powered by Postini that deliver message filtering, encryption and archiving for any business environment.

Perforce Software Delivers State-of-the-Art Application Lifecycle Management

Tue, 25 Dec 2007 14:15:00 EST

Perforce Software announced the availability of the SDK for the Perforce Defect Tracking Gateway. Using the SDK, customers and vendors can develop improved integrations to commercial and in-house issue tracking systems, strengthening project management capabilities throughout the development lifecycle. The SDK is part of the newest version of Perforce's Fast Software Configuration Management (SCM) system, Perforce 2007.3. Christopher Seiwald, president and chief technology officer of Perforce Software said, We believe SCM is at the core of ALM and is the hard part of the technology proposition to get right. From small development shops to massive installations, our customers view Perforce's ability to integrate tightly with other tools as a major asset in building their custom ALM solutions. According to Jim Duggan, vice president of research at Gartner, Inc., 'Large companies often have multiple technology lifecycles to manage and coordinate. An ALM solution woven from integration-friendly best-of-breed solutions is an important option, improving visibility and control without major disruptions to the development process.'

Python Creator Guido van Rossum to Present the Next-Generation Python 3000

Thu, 29 Nov 2007 11:30:00 EST

Python, the open source programming language that sees itself as an alternative to Java and brags about being used at Google, Industrial Light & Magic and NASA, will be having its PyCon user conference March 14-16 at the Crowne Plaza Chicago O'Hare Hotel. Python creator Guido van Rossum, now working for Google, is supposed to present the next-generation Python 3000 in the works for two years. See http://us.python.org.

TurboGears - Python-Based Framework for AJAX Web Development

Fri, 16 Jun 2006 00:00:00 EDT

The TurboGears website has announced that Version1.0 of the TurboGears web development framework is soon to be released. It is currently available as a preview release. TurboGears is based on the agile, mature, cross-platform, well-documented, easy and fun Python programming language.

SYS-CON Media Founder Featured on the Cover of Forbes

Sun, 29 Jan 2006 11:30:00 EST

This man who writes for CBS / CNet / ZDNet sounds like he is out of his mind. Not a single person among SYS-CON's management team has ever heard of his name, had any business relationship with him, or knows who this person is. He was never asked to write for SYS-CON, he was never considered to write for SYS-CON, and he will never write for SYS-CON. Because SYS-CON does not think he is fit to write for the world's leading tech media company, he wants to boycott the company's advertisers? SYS-CON's advertisers are listed and updated on the company's website, which pretty much includes every significant technology player in every segment of today's software technology branches. So Mr. Blankenhorn wants to boycott the entire software industry because SYS-CON offended him? No one at SYS-CON has any idea who he is.