My career appears to be a series of random lateral moves that reflect my heart more than my head. I knew without a doubt that I would have a lifelong relationship with computers in the late ‘80’s, after successfully implementing one of the first small office systems, a Wang 2200, as an intern at a Boston law firm. But instead of installing and using the applications, I wanted to write the code that made the systems work. So the lateral moves began.

In my formative years as lead database architect at a large Boston bank, application packages like Oracle or SAP weren't invented yet. Instead I worked directly with the finance executives to understand the business, the transaction processes, and the data, while custom-designing and deploying applications for them. The work was thrilling to me. (Well, except for the 2 AM calls from IT Ops when an overnight batch program abended.)

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"History teaches us the mistakes we are going to make" -Author Unknown

Reflections on Computer History

This time of year I think about history. The Computer History Museum marks the 20th anniversary of its Fellow Awards and my fourth as Program Chair. On October 16, 2007, four computing technology pioneers, Morris Chang, John Hennessy, David Patterson, and Charles Thacker will be inducted as Fellows. There they will share their insights and stories, which will be recorded as part of the Museum’s artifacts.

Others are thinking about history because this month also marks 50 years since the founding of Fairchild Semiconductor, the company regarded as the start-up that spawned the Silicon Valley chip industry. Venture capitalist Floyd Kvamme, who joined Fairchild as a product marketing engineer in 1963, remembers it as “the Google of the era.” This past weekend, the Museum hosted panels and a reunion gala, where others who were there or wanted to be, shared their stories.

Dean Takahashi, reporter for The San Jose Mercury News, visited Behind the Scenes at the Museum and highlights in his words the “forgotten tales from the frenetic history of the electronics industry”.

Compared to most historical subjects warranting a museum, 20 or 50 years of computers hardly seems enough to qualify. But capturing first hand the early stories of computing technology, while many of its original pioneers are here to help tell them, is one reason it is so fascinating to me.

Another reason I work with the Museum is pure love - an ongoing unadulterated love affair. Let me explain. . .

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DILBERT: © Scott Adams
Dist. by United Feature Syndicate, Inc.

Did you happen to catch the Dilbert series from September 13-18, 2007?

If you did, and you have the responsibility for bringing together products and services with customers, how did those five comic strips make you feel? The first of the series is reproduced below -- what is your reaction now?

My initial reaction was to laugh, then groan. Scott Adams always evokes a chuckle because of his scary but realistic view of corporate life. It also reminded me of Seth Godin's entertaining 2005 blog and book, All Marketers Are Liars.

In the same breath, I voice a deep groan. Why? Because yet again, the marketing function is positioned as fraud or creative public deception. That is -- lying.

At times I’ve asked myself, “Why would anyone willingly choose to be associated with a profession that has become synonymous with deception?” I hear particularly horrifying stories and think, “I don’t do that” or “I would never do that!”

But do I? Am I actually making a difference? Instead of complaining about the unfairness of labeling all marketing as fraud -- or resigning myself to believe that all’s fair when it comes to making money and winning in a competitive marketplace -- I wonder...

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Coding Horror

The best products are designed with Human Factors in mind. That's why I often write about Web design and usability in my Web Performance Matters blog.

Jeff Atwood recently published Thirteen Blog Clichés, a post summarizing his "opinions about what makes blogs work well, and what makes blogs sometimes not work so well." These are presented as a list of 13 common mistakes to avoid (or anti-patterns). If you have a blog, or are designing one, you've probably read similar articles before. Even so, Jeff's checklist is worth a look. All such lists tend to contain a core set of common guidelines to follow and/or pitfalls to avoid, but some of Jeff's opinions step outside the conventional wisdom.

Because I maintain two blogs -- UpRight Matters and Web Performance Matters -- I decided to rate both blogs against Jeff's criteria. Here are edited versions of his recommendations, and my responses. To read Jeff's full discussions of each guideline, see the original. And for the full story, see the many responses posted by Jeff's readers in the comments section of his blog.

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EchoSign is a poster child in my book for everything done right in the new world of enterprise software. I use it to get documents signed fast and then to manage my signed documents in a more effective way than before.

It’s as simple as that – and as powerful.

To understand why this subscription software-as-a-service is so powerful, you only need to think about the typical steps and costs for getting even one contract signed and filed:

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All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.

--J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring, 1954

Tolkien might have been surprised to see his writing quoted in a discussion of technology and marketing, but I believe there is a strong connection.

I have always appreciated Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings trilogy, returning periodically to enjoy it again since I first read it almost 40 years ago. And although Peter Jackson's film adaptation was worthy of Tolkien's original creation, many aspects of Tolkien's wisdom were inevitably lost in the translation.

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As Chair of the Computer History Museum's Fellow Awards I took special notice of CHM Fellow Vint Cerf's BBC interviews last month on how the Internet has evolved and where it is heading next.

There are many interesting points in these and other interviews by Mr. Cerf on this topic. However, his pointed comments about censorship and society made me pause to consider more than the future of technology.

How has the Net evolved?

In a radio interview, Cerf is bemused that comments on the future of the Internet were recorded using 19th Century media:

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Peter Drucker is often called "the father of modern management". Many books and Web sites are devoted to his insights, some of which I have written about previously.

This post highlights his incisive observation about the difference between effectiveness and efficiency. I have always found it to be especially memorable, and quoted it (twice) when discussing priorities and choices in my book about software performance. Unfortunately I got the source wrong, but thanks to Google I can now correct my mistake.

It appeared in Managing for Business Effectiveness, an article in the May/June 1963 edition of Harvard Business Review ("HBR"). You can also find it reprinted in a February 2006 HBR article -- What Executives Should Remember -- a collection of excerpts drawn from HBR articles by Drucker published between 1963 and 2004.

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Relax and breathe. No need to feel defensive. It isn’t a trick question. But it can be a revealing one.

If you’re not sure, ask someone: a colleague, a partner, or a co-worker. Meanwhile, I’ll share my answer with you. Then please post your thoughts and stories here for our marketing moments of Zen.

I was asked this question recently in a Mastermind discussion. And honestly, I don’t know how I would have responded 15 years ago. But now with plenty of history and well, a few gray hairs, it took only moments to explain.

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