Oh Yeah!!! I mean OUYA!!!

Tech blogs and sites are talking about OUYA. OUYA is not a gaming console for the Kindle Fire or the Droid Razr but rather for the “old school” screen, the television. My research shows that OUYA is composed of a slick cube shaped console and a controller.  

OUYA's application programming interface (API) and its documentation, which are accessible via the OUYA website, show that the API clean and lightweight. The system is written on the Google’s Android OS which is written in Java. The OUYA API consists of six Java classes and it looks like the developers will have to develop interfaces on how they want the OUYA console to interface with their games. It’s a smart approach. The responsibility on how a game should interface with the OUYA is on the developers and not on the OUYA staff.

What does this mean for the gaming companies? The companies like ZYNGA and EA will need to have resources who will code the OUYA functionality for all of their games. The companies would also need to host their games. Can we repeat the words, “CLOUD COMPUTING” (again).  

What does the OUYA platform mean for customers? This approach is truly disruptive. This opens up the platform for traditional Java developers like me which in turn means more games will be developed.  

What does the OUYA platform mean for the business world? Businesses can now buy services where specific games can be built for their business needs. Game based learning is rapidly evolving into the main stream business. For instance the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is currently exploring games to train the next generation of Air Traffic Controllers. With a platform like OUYA, FAA can develop games a lot less cost since Java developers are not that expensive and publish these games to train new Air Traffic Controllers or even get a high school age person interested in managing air traffic.  

Even though the possibilities of OUYA are great, I worry about the security threats with a platform like OUYA. OUYA security access controls are based on its open source Android operating system (OS) and stores like Google Play don’t test the games for malicious code. Unless this policy has recently changed, OUYA may not be adopted by large organizations. If OUYA can provide a secure app store, OUYA’s potential is quite high otherwise it’s to be determined (TBD).  

In closing I will know that OUYA is successful when Stuart Scott to say “OUYA” rather than “Boo Yah” on ESPN SportsCenter.  Here is also a video I found on the OUYA website.

Memo to Tim Cook: It's time to innovate

As you noticed that Apple stock is plummeting faster than a NASA satellite crashing into the pacific ocean.  Why is that?  As a digital consumer, I would say that Apple has not released any new product.  When I mean "new", I don't mean a rehashing of its existing products like mini-iPad or new iPhone 5.  Apple was great in releasing technology which revolutionized how we consumed digital content. What Apple needs is a new Steve Jobs.  A true visionary with savvy business skills.  Tim Cook is not a visionary but rather a good COO with the title CEO.

The big question to ask is what is the next big thing to invest in.  I would say, Yahoo! looks promising but Marissa Mayer, Yahoo! CEO, seems to be taking patterns that she learned at Google and implementing them in Yahoo!  I don't see innovation.  I am loyal to the Yahoo! brand since it led me through the evolution of the internet.  It, however, has not evolved as a company. Yahoo! reminds me of Oracle in the digital content world.  Like Oracle, Yahoo bought smaller companies however Yahoo doesn't know how to integrate them to provide new and refreshing products.

My money is on Bob Iger, CEO of Walt Disney Company.  He understands his management style and the Disney brand and made some brilliant moves. His moves include:

• Acquisition of Pixar - Acquired a popular product and infused into the Disney brand.  He understood that the new generations don't easily gravitate to Disney characters like Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, but to Toy Story characters.  It was a win/win product.
• Acquisition of Marvel Entertainment - Acquired products  that appealed to a certain product and infused into the Disney brand
• Acquisition of Lucas Films - Acquired Star Wars and Indiana Jones and put them in the Disney family

Do you see the pattern?  Bob buys these products on behalf of Disney and uses the Disney brand to make more movies, action figures, theme parks, and sells contracts to McDonald's to sell more Happy Meal toys.

Pure brilliance. Tim Cook is muddling along.  He needs to define what Apple should do.  If he doesn't do it then Apple stocks will continue to plummet. 

Future through my Kindle Fire HD

Recently I purchased an Amazon Kindle Fire HD and I really enjoy using it.  Here are my reasons why:

• It's Green - I don't have to buy books, CDs, DVD or fancy CD/DVD players.  The content in various formats can be accessed by this Information Delivery device. I currently listen to Pandora (internet radio), watch videos on NetFlix, YouTube and Amazon Prime and read books
• It's Mobile - I like it better than an iPad since it's smaller to carry around
• It's flat out cool - Nothing like watching HD video

You may wonder why am I writing about my KindleFire. Is it because of my emotional attachment to my KindleFire? Not really.  The reason I am writing about Kindle because Kindle like devices are the future of our digital world

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Before I get into why Kindle like devices are our future, I would like to say that I, Enoch Moses, became a fan of wrist watches.  The reason is because the marvel of mechanical precision and accuracy cannot be fully appreciated when you work with software, hardware or digital content.  It's cool stuff!

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As a consumer, I love the Kindle because it brings everything that I read to one common device which I am comfortable use.  I don't have to learn how to use a CD player, a DVD player or even carry a four thousand page book.

As a content provider, I can spend more time and resources in looking at the quality of my content rather than how should send my content to my consumer.  A good example is the CEO of a local newspaper who has to worry about the following:

• How can folks access my newspaper? - Home delivery, Grocery stores, Digital
• How much money do I need to spend on raw materials? - Printing machines, paper, ink, delivery of papers

The CEO of the new content company cares about:

• How can we convene our content with more impact?  - He/she doesn't have to worry about traditional constraints like print, voice or video.  The CEO can embed a video in a written piece or have written content in a video/audio format.  Nothing like listening the author narrating his new book.
• Metrics - With digital content, they can see how popular or stale is their content.  This increases agility.

From an infrastructure point of view, Amazon and Google are providing platforms where the hardware and software can reside.  The web browser will eventually be standardized. Outsourcing development will also become a new factor.  This way the business can focus on its business domain while Information Technology (IT) will be commoditized.

I also think there will be a clear break between the domain of IT, Computer Science and Information Science.  IT will be an administrative business function where the CIO will make decisions on which IT services will be used by the business.  Computer Science services and Information Science services will become niche services which will enable businesses to meeting their mission.  For example drug companies will use information science services to mine drug and clinical data; meanwhile companies like Goole and Amazon will use computer science services to further their IT services.

How does this all relate to my KindleFire?  It may not but you may be reading it on your KindleFire.  In fact it does, as I write this content, I am not thinkin about:

• Where do I host this content?
• Is this content friendly for the web, iphone, ipad or Kindle?
• Is anyone reading this content? - I use Google analytics to track this information

I am just worried about this blog entry and this is important.  This was not possible ten to twenty years ago.  Enjoy your

My customer experience

Last weekend I was in the hospital as my wife gave birth to our son Zachary.  As I was walking in the hallways of the hospital, I realized that hospitals have changed alot in the the last thirty years so.  When my brother was born in 1980, I remember walking in the hospitals and seeing how the hospital was setup.  It was sterile, white, and frankly boring. It is similar to the scene in the classic movie, One who flew over the cuckoo's nest.  I posted a picture from the movie.  Do you notice the whites and grays in this picture.  

Now here are pictures from the hospital where my wife gave birth to our son


Do you notice the blue & gray carpet, the nice wood floors and the halls have beautiful paintings and pictures.  This is typical of any hospital in the US in the twenty first century.

I liked the change and it made my experience in the hospital pleasurable. The doctors, nurses and the staff are extremely polite and the overall experience was great. 

In March 2012, I was given the opportunity to work for my IT organization's customer service department.  I look at customer requests and enable the requests to get processed to the appropriate IT service delivery group.  I enjoy working in the customebr service department because it has provided me an opportunity to assist in the transformation of an IT organization. 

A few years ago, IT organizations were viewed as a collection of computer geeks who wrote client server software or fixed PCs.  Couple of years ago, I talked someone in the US government who was complaining that typical IT person is an introvert who enjoyed working with technology.  He stated this type of workforce was hurting the overall image of his IT department.

I talked to numerous people in the private sector and public sector and there is a frustration that IT budgets are getting cut, IT functions are being outsourced and most of the time they don't understand how they can join the transformation rather than fight it.

After my experience in the hospital and reading Gartner, Forrester articles, I believe IT organizations need to emphasize customer experience management.  Customer relationship management is key however the relationships cannot become strong without providing a rich customer experience.  If I am a customer, I would like the IT department to be proactive, understand my business and needs and enable me to do my job better.  If I don't enjoy working with the IT department then I won't be able to develop a mutually constructive relationship.  For a rich customer experience, I would like the IT department to be transparent, and provide me good service.  Not service like this:

So whenever I think about customer experience, I think about my hospital experience.  I am sure we can do improve the customer experience in IT.  We don't Peggys like the ad above.
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FB = failureBook.com

I give up! I am planning to get out of Facebook.com.  Yesterday I spent some time trying to limit profiles for certain individuals.  It's extremely hard.  Frankly it is retarded!  This is the first time in couple of years that I tried to configure my account.  Facebook does a horrible job of putting functionality  in their product and they don't remove the functionality when it becomes obsolete.  Where is the part that I can sign up to be in my employer's social network? It's not there.  What happened to limiting profiles.  Now you have to create lists which are highly complicated. They just paid Instragr.am to be part of this dysfunctional family.  Facebook reminds of Microsoft's second cousin who lives in trailer in the backwoods of Ozarks.

Maybe I am harsh but I am definitely frustrated.  I am done! >-|

Are you for real?

For the last couple of weeks, if you ever ran into me, you  would notice that I am usually fidgeting with iPhIone.   Either I must be checking my email, tweeting or simply "four-squaring". Four-squaring?  What is four-squaring?  Well I just coined the term on this blog entry.   If you ever hear the word "four-square" then you can attribute it to this blog entry.  According to "moi", four-squaring is a term that references to a person who is advertising his or her existence on the foursquare mobile app.  Foursquare lets you tell the world that you are in a specific store.  If you use the app alot then you end up earning foursquare badges..  Sounds alot fun right?  Actually I thought I was advertising my shopping trends and my daily routine to the world.  Vendors are now offering special coupons via foursquare to visit their stores.  It sounds like alot fun for the user...BUZZ! You are wrong!  It's sounds like $$$ for the vendor since it is another marketing channel and another data point to consider in their marketing strategy.  In closing I would say,

• 4^2 = $$$$$ for the vendors
• 4^2 = no privacy for the user + meaningless badges.

$ocial Media & Ma$$ Collaboration

Recently Komen Foundation did a 180 when it comes to funding Planned Parenthood.  An organization could be crippled to social pressures. This is the second big story compared to how Google, Wikipedia and other companies and individuals raised their concerns about SOPA.  Some of these individuals worked as contractors for the US government.  I personally did not object to SOPA and frankly I do see merits on how government should control piracy; nevertheless I am impressed by the power and gravitas of social technologies.  They can be used as steroids to gain rapid momentum on decisions on social issues.  There are blogs and social communities galore on issues like abortion, freedom of speech, gay marriage, small government, keeping corporations accountable.  This is a great that folks are exercising their right to express their opinions on various issues.  The reality is that these issues are so complex  and folks have such strong emotional reactions to them that in practicality these issues will remain in the US for a while.

The big question to ask is how folks can make money of these power technologies. I could write about the next big idea which needs seed funding and technologists to make the big idea happen but in reality no one will really know if this idea will take off.  It's like peanut butter slices.  Do you buy them? If so then please comment to this blog entry.  Unlike the next big idea, what I can write about is how we can use existing technologies to make money.  I am big fan of Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Instagram, Four Square, Tumblr, and on and one.  What I have not seen is how businesses are successfully using all of these social technologies to sell their brand and simply market their products.  Online companies still use Adwords (Yes! Hail to the power of Google Gods [I say with sarcasm of course) and spend money on search engine optimization but they are struggling how to harness social computing.  At work, I worked on projects where social media and mass collaboration efforts are promoted however no one knows how these technologies will be used in my employer's enterprise.

The reality is that money can be made using social technologies in smart way.  If folks can persuade the masses on how SOPA is bad for you, your kids and you grandkids then I am sure we can use these technologies to sell a product smarter and more effectively.

"Duck Sucker"

When I attended an ITIL class in 2008, I heard a term that perked my interest.  Initially I thought, can ITIL terminology really be unique and "cliche"?  Can "duck sucker" be a french word to describe complex IT service management?  I was brought back to reality like the "lego man" holding a Canadian flag.  The instructor described the term when someone throws a problem or issue over his or her cube and shouts out "Duck! Sucker." This term came to my mind after I read the Gartner paper called, " JavaScript: Past, Present and Future." According to the sharply dressed folks at Gartner, JavaScript is here to stay.  Therefore please don't complain that you cannot debug JavaScript properly or you are tired of your friendly neighborhood, Mr. Alert() function.  The reality is that with more JavaScript routines designed to detect your web browser enable this technology to stay. With web browser developers incorporate more JavaScript rendering capability and computing hardware getting faster and cheaper, it seems it is the right thing to do.  With Verizon and AT&T charging for data plans,  browser based apps will need to cache more information on the device rather than in the "cloud".  Frankly the way OMB and Google are promoting the cloud, it sounds like heaven because everyone will be happy using the cloud.   Folks get used to the word "Duck sucker" because the application developers will try to access devices through the device browser JavaScript calls and the device manufactures are going to build more powerful, smaller and expensive devices.   In the end, you and I, the general consumers, may have to duck those big bills.  There is a cost for a great user experience which is driven by the cloud.  So who is the real sucker in the mobile world? You and I are. :-(