Sorry Walmart. I don't buy books or DVDs but digital content

As my love affair with my Kindle Fire continues, I realize that my buying habits are strongly influenced by my Kindle Fire.  I don't go to Barnes and Noble to buy books anymore.  I now go to Barnes and Nobles to have a Starbucks coffee (a venti bold) and an old-fashioned donut.  I don't meander towards the section at Walmart where $5.00 DVDs are littered in a container.

I used to buy DVDs but now I don't.  I don't miss my five kids' small fingers scratching the DVDs or finding the DVDs in unexpected places.  My PS3 DVD drive doesn't work either due to curious kids playing with the PS3 buttons.

With Amazon, Netflix and other companies pushing streaming content, I don't buy my content on physical devices.  I buy movies and books on Amazon and store it on their cloud. I plan to purchase kindles for my wife and my older two kids in the next few months and give them access to my Amazon library.  I also plan to lock down the kids devices and let them access Amazon freetime which is a kid friendly site.

It is true that you cannot stream content on the Kindle without Wi-Fi.  The big question is then what do we do when we are traveling in a car.  The Kindle let's you download movies and books on the device. 

This leads to a future prediction.  Cars will have Wi-Fi connects which will allow their passengers to access content while traveling.

What does this mean to traditional companies like Walmart, Target, Barnes & Noble who sell content on traditional devices.  They need to evolve.

I could see them getting in content storage business.  What!!! WalMart in data storage business?  No way!!!  Disney is doing this already.  When you buy a Disney movie on DVD, you can also access the DVD content online via DisneyFile.  Disney may done it for mobile devices like iPads and other tablets but there is a market for content storage.  Amazon sells content storage space at an extremely rate.  Check out Amazon Glacier

All said and done.  Digital information business is rapidly evolving.  Security is a concern but that hasn't stopped folks like me changing their buying habits and driving change.

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

---

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!

---

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

2 days @Gartner Symposium

This is my second year at the Gartner Symposium IT/XPo in Orlando, Florida.  After the first two days of the symposium, I believe the mantra of the symposium is the three new pillars of technology which are the glued together by information.  The pillars are:

1. Cloud Computing
2. Mobile Computing
3. Social Computing

At first you think this is just bunch of hype.  What can a bunch of research analysts know about cloud, mobile, or anything else in IT.  Are these Gartner analysts creating trends from pure ignorance?   The answer is,"No"  Companies like Amazon, Google and Apple are creating technologies which are extremely disruptive and are causing problems in a positive way.  Today Gartner mentioned Google and Apple as the innovators.  I believe Amazon should be in that group. Amazon built the EC2  before IBM can spell cloud.
Amazon's model tends rely on developing services which are off-shoots out of its book business.  The Amazon cloud was a game changer and now Amazon's Silk which is a cloud browser will change the way things are done on the mobile space.

I attended couple of mobile sessions today and coule of social media sessions today.  Did I learn anything from these sessions?  The answer is Yes.  Social media has a defined lifespan.  Mobile computing is going to take over and the concept of cloud brokers was introduced.

I personally believe that cloud will reduce costs in the long run and increase throughput. I also believe that mobile will allow users to be more immersed in the internet and social computing is not a IT phenomenon but rather a social one.

The thing that caught my ear was the case study they did about the financial organization and how they built visual tools.  They updated their processes to be more "agile" so that the customer is engaged more in the development process.  I am therefore waiting for Agile computing.  This is the next big thing.  Once these technologies are stablize and drive costs down, businesses will be looking for more agility from their IT since the users will be changing their needs based on their social network.

Places that I would like to work

As an information technologist, I often ask the question, "Where would be the ideal place for an information technologist to work at?" Here are some of the places I usually end up with (rather than bore you, the readers, with paragraphs of explanations, here are one liners):

1. Amazon : - Can we say EC2. Love to play with it
   
2. Apple : - I would love to work with their innovators. Time to build my CV called iCareer.
   
3. Cisco : - Eventhough I am not a Network specialist. I like their CEO since he seems to have a vision. I could work on the SOA stack.
   
4. Facebook : - They made PHP cool! They have the data and the advertisers. Ingredients for some great business apps. My JavaScript skills are pretty good.
   
5. Google : - I am nervous about their CEO getting pushed out. They have some cool minds. I heard their Product Managers are worse than slave drivers. Unfortunately I don't have a Computer Science degree to apply their.
   
6. IBM : - They have the technology unfortunately with my professional experience I will probably end up working with their consulting services. If I worked there, I would probably say this all the time, "Have you looked at Websphere or the Rational Toolset?"
   
7. Microsoft : - They are known for building UI friendly and scalable solutions for medium sized companies. I am waiting for their "cloud" solution where every local and state governments will deploy their solution. If I worked there then I would be working on the .Cloud stack.
   
8. Oracle : - They have it all. Out of all the companies, they look every intriguing. I would work for them if I didn't travel alot and get to build some enterprise level solutions.
9. RedHat : - They are not as big as Oracle but they look promising. Their acquisitions have been quite good and they are always pushing open source. Guys, you need to get Apache Wave and build a Social Media platform.
   
10. Salesforce : - Give me the cloud. Nothing like working for a guy called Benioff! Seriously though, they look good and promising.
    
11. VCE : - Nothing like working for a company which is based on an agreement by three giants: Cisco, EMC and VMWare.
    
12. VMWare : - Hey Rod (Johnson that is). Need a Java guy!

I didn't include:

1. EMC : - I had a bad taste with their consultants. Documentum is overrated!
2. SAP : - They are big and they are European. My french is rusty but would be interested in a strategic position there.

In all seriousness, they all look good however I don't want to be a consultant with them but rather be a solution architect and be involved in their strategic decision making process. Any takers?! ;-)