Phil Simon's Blog, page 50

American Kingpin: An Interview with Nick Bilton

As Dr. Melvin Kranzberg once famously said, “Technology is neither good nor bad; nor is it neutral.”

I can’t recall truer words ever spoken. As amazing as smartphones, the Internet, apps, computers, and sensors are, there’s a massive downside. Technology has brought us Twitter trolls and revenge porn, but perhaps Kransberg’s axiom is best manifested in the Dark Web—a disturbing place where just about anything goes.

Curious about what goes on and how the feds took down one of the largest pirate web sites, I recently read American Kingpin: The Epic Hunt for the Criminal Mastermind Behind the Silk Road (affliate link). In short, the book is amazing and I plowed through it in under a day.

I recently had a chance to sit down with the book’s author, Nick Bilton.

Note that his publisher sent me an advanced copy of the gratis.

Here is our interview.

PS: Congratulations on penning such an excellent and compelling text. I barely know where to begin. Let’s start with background. How much of the story of Silk Road did you know before you decided to write the book?

NB: I actually lived a few blocks away from the library where Ross Ulbricht was arrested in this sleepy part of San Francisco called Glen Park. I was working for The New York Times at the time and was fascinated by the modern day reality that someone could be running the biggest drug and guns empire on the Internet from a tiny library (and nearby coffee shops). In the end, as the story unfurled, I felt it was such a perfect allegory for how technology can be used for both good, and for evil, and how people in Silicon Valley build these sites with one goal in mind, but are incapable of seeing how it will affect so many people.

PS: I found the different agents’ ability to connect the dots fascinating. Even those with in-depth knowledge of security can leave key breadcrumbs.

It’s truly fascinating how many little details and fingerprints we leave through our digital devices every single day

NB: Yes, it’s truly fascinating how many little details and fingerprints we leave through our digital devices every single day. I had a number of moments during the reporting of the book where I would find clues Ross Ulbricht left behind that opened a floodgate to stories of where he had been, and who with. From a journalism standpoint, technology has enabled an entirely new style of research and storytelling, where it’s possible to write narrative non-fiction with a slew of details (like what someone was wearing from a Facebook photo, or where they were located from the GPS data on their phone, among many other details) that in the past would have been impossible to discern.

PS: I don’t know much about the extent to which different government agencies conflict with each other. Is this level of dysfunction common or is it only prevalent on high-profile cases?

NB: Well it’s usually only high-profile cases that bring several different government agencies together in the hunt for a suspect. And naturally, the bigger the case, the more people and agencies get involved, and the more the investigation is slowed down. It’s interesting when people think there are these big government conspiracies at play all the time, but when you actually see how dysfunctional the government can be (in all kinds of cases) you realize how difficult that would be.

PS: What’s your opinion on Ross Ulbricht? Was his sentence just in your view?

NB: After reading Ross’s writings about legalizing drugs, I could completely understand his arguments, and you can see why he believed legalizing drugs would make society safer. But when you see what actually happened with the Silk Road, you can comprehend why the judge chose to hand down such a harsh sentence. There were teenagers and college students who died from bad drugs or overdoses. Guns and other weapons were sold without any thought for who was buying them. And when you see the results of the opioid epidemic in America, that is another layer of what can happen with sites like the Silk Road. The site connected buyers and sellers with the simplicity that Uber has connected drivers and riders. The ability to buy drugs from overseas meant that people could now buy lab-made heroin, called fentanyl, which is 50 to 100 times stronger than traditional heroin. And as several agents in the Federal government explained to me, the ease with which these drugs can now be purchased from places like China, have definitively helped lead to the rise of opioid deaths in America. While we all may not agree with the judge’s statement during Ross statement, I find it hard to disagree with her statement to him: “What is clear is that people are very, very complex and you are one of them. There is good in you, Mr. Ulbricht, I have no doubt, but there is also bad, and what you did in connection with Silk Road was terribly destructive to our social fabric.”

PS: Considering what he did, Carl Force seems to have gotten off light? Thoughts?

NB: I think he got a lighter sentence because he pled guilty and turned himself in. If he would have gone a different route, fighting the case and then losing, he probably would’ve ended up with a sentence five to ten times as severe. It’s interesting that the sentencing aspect of the story has become one of the focal points of the aftermath of the Silk Road. Some people see Carl as getting off light and Ross as being handed too high of a sentence; others see it the other way around. What everyone can agree on is that the sentencing guidelines in America don’t make a lot of sense and should really be rethought for today’s crimes.

Originally published on HuffPo. Click here to read it there.

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Book Trailer for Analytics: The Agile Way

Below you’ll find the trailer for the new book. Props as usual to the amazing folks at Birch Tree Video.

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A Look at the Evolving Role of the CIO

Introduction

As someone who has spent years consulting on new system implementations, I interacted with my fair share of CIOs. I’ve been reflecting on those conversations lately in the context of a new breed of challenges. Today I’ll discuss three of them.

The Rise of other CXOs

For starters, the last decade has seen the arrival of a new role: the chief data officer (CDO). As I’ve argued before, a CDO is no elixir to organizational data issues. I for one can see how this new position partially usurps the CIO’s role and others evidently agree. Ask garden-variety employees in your company to explain the difference between data and information. I would be shocked if you heard cogent and consistent answers across the board.

And we’re seeing the ascension of another data-related exec: the chief analytics officer (CAO). I can only imagine the confusion that results within an organization that employs all three. The potential for overlap and conflict is impossible to ignore.

New Delivery Mechanisms

A decade ago, the notion of cloud computing was still very much new and unproven. As Doug Bonderudm writes, this is no longer the case. Google Trends shows the precipitous rise in its interest since 2004:

It probably doesn’t make sense to move everything to “the cloud.”

Many mature organizations today still rely upon legacy applications. Maybe it’s a proprietary point-of-sale (POS) system or a key reporting tool. It probably doesn’t make sense to move every conceivable application to “the cloud.” Some ought to go the way of the Dodo. What’s more, there’s no magic button. Porting an application over might save money, but it also introduces some issues that firms need to deal with.

Business Challenges

The CIO’s job was never a picnic—and that goes double today. Disruption is coming faster than ever. A single large-scale public hack could end the budding career of any CIO. BYOD allows organizations to save money on hardware and employee training but increases the risk of security breaches. And we haven’t even seen the full arrival of the Internet of Things yet.

What if the CIO wasn’t just responsible for security, provisioning, and other traditional IT functions? What would that role look like then?

Simon Says: The CIO role will continue to evolve.

Against this backdrop, I am cautious about offering specific predictions and recommendations, especially in today’s political environment. Who knows what’s going to happen tomorrow, let alone a year from now?

Still, it’s fair to say that the role of the CIO can and must continue to evolve. Changes may not be permanent, but change is.

Feedback

What say you?

This post was brought to you by IBM Global Technology Services. For more content like this, visit IT Biz Advisor.

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The Increasingly Digital Workplace

Introduction

In my new position as a faculty member at the ASU’s W. P. Carey School of Business, I often reflect on how much the world has changed since I attended college.

I’m no spring chicken. I remember receiving my first e-mail in 1991. It blew my mind. Back then, nary a student nor a professor came to class with a portable computer. During my second year of grad school, I accessed the nascent Internet with Cornell’s Bear Access.

Since I teach seniors, most of them will soon move from the classroom to the workforce in a few months. (Some are intent on pursuing graduate degrees.) Against this backdrop, I found several of Adam Kornak’s questions particularly interesting:

Should PCs, Macs, or both be used? Will firms support all them?
What applications should an organization build?

Funny enough, I address these very issues in my System Design class (CIS440). Many of my students will have to grapple with them sooner rather than later.

Building Applications

I know of a pharmaceutical company that for years built its own back-office systems and standalone applications. This never made sense to me. Does Facebook manufacture its own aspirin for employees?

Can and should are very different things.

In an era of open-source software, cloud computing, near-zero data-storage costs, and software development kits (SDKs), just about anything is possible. Make no mistake, though: can and should are very different things. In fact, firms may not need to build proper applications at all or even provision equipment. After, we live in an era of BYOD.

The old rules for controlling employees just don’t apply. In the mid-1990s, few employees could access the Internet at work. IT departments could easily restrict browsers via tools such as Websense. No espn.com or, er, adult sites for you on company time.

Not anymore.

Now just about everyone is carrying around at least one device that can connect to their carrier’s network (not the enterprise’s). How does an organization control untoward employee behavior? How do you stop someone from taking pictures of sensitive information? What about employees live-tweeting internal meetings? Doing so may very well solve one problem but cause others. In other words, the cure may be worse than the disease.

Simon Says: There are no simple solutions.

To paraphrase from Mike Ehrmantraut on Better Caul Saul (spoilers), You know what is happening. The question is, How you live with it?

Locking down networks, tokenization, and requiring two-factor authentication may make things more secure, but measures such as these also increase friction and frustration. Depending on the stakes, the juice may be worth the squeeze.

I can say, however, that “de-digitizing” the workplace isn’t an option. If teaching Millennials has taught me one thing, it’s that they love their tech. Rather than fight it, why not embrace it?

Feedback

What say you?

This post was brought to you by IBM Global Technology Services. For more content like this, visit IT Biz Advisor.

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Update on Analytics: The Agile Way

On Friday, I sent my editor the 61,000-ish word manuscript for Analytics: The Agile Way.

Credit a combination of the following: lack of sleep, mad typing skillz, moderation issues, fear of turning on the news today or looking at a social-media feed with a psychopath/man-baby running the country, the fact that this isn’t my first rodeo, and the desire to use the book in class during the summer. (I’m teaching at ASU over the break.)

Beyond that, most of my favorite TV shows such as Better Call Saul premiere this month as well and my students will be taking their final exams soon. Translation: My window theory is alive and well.

Here’s some other data on the new book:

Chapters: 15
Parts: 5
Proper case studies: 5
Tables and figures: 66
Estimated total pages: 282 – 298
Pop-culture references: Tons

Books Are Puzzles to be Solved

In the decade that I spent as an enterprise-system consultant, I used to obsess over database design, reports, and data-related issues. I suppose that my OCD is also alive and well in the book sphere. I look at writing books as interesting puzzles to be solved. Finding the right words, transitions, overall flow, chapters, and case studies is certainly challenging.

And I like challenges.

Check it out on Amazon if you like. Wiley has moved up the publication date to mid-June.

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Analytics: The Agile Way Now Available on Amazon

I’m pleased to announce that Analytics: The Agile Way is now up on Amazon. At present, the title and subtitle aren’t correct. (Ironical given the book’s subject, but I digress.) Click here to pre-order it.

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Why Analytics Today Are More Democratic

Introduction

In my last post, I discussed the need for IT departments to meet their constituents’ needs. If they cannot, then it’s reasonable to expect their lines of business to go elsewhere.

Let’s say, though, that IT has adequately met the analytics and technology needs of each organization’s different departments. In this context, where should the responsibility for analytics lay? That is the subject of today’s post.

A Little History Lesson

Throughout the 80s and 90s, organizations spend hundreds of billions of dollars deploying enterprise technologies. They purchased massive ERP and CRM systems. These typically linked to relational databases built to get data in—not out. (This is not a trivial distinction.)

One by one, these organizations redesigned their manual business processes for this new and digital world. As I write in Why New Systems Fail, IT played a key role in building, configuring, supporting, and often customizing these massive systems.

Make no mistake: This role was critical. Your average recruiter or AP clerk didn’t possess anywhere near the programming chops to deploy these applications—and there was really no need. When most business users needed to obtain information from the new enterprise system, they did of the following:

Ran a standard report
Created an ad-hoc report
Asked IT to provide the information to them in a usable format (typically a CSV)
Accessed some type of business-intelligence tool or separate reporting database

To the extent that relatively few technically inclined “analysts” could understand ERDs and write complicated SQL statements, IT historically needed to be involved in just about all involved “analytics projects” by definition.

Analytics is no longer the sole province of IT.

Fast forward to today. While the above scenario continues to exist in countless large organizations, IT’s role as central information gatekeeper and provider is no longer unquestioned, but don’t take my word for it. Echoing the same sentiment, Chris Nerney writes that “analytics is no longer the sole province of IT.” No argument here. In fact, I’d argue that today IT shouldn’t be remotely responsible for analytics. Analytics today can be more democratic for several reasons.

First, few and powerful tools make it easier than ever to gather data, analyze it, and—most critically—act upon it. What’s more, much of the data of interest to business users doesn’t even exist within an organization’s walls. (Data “born” on Twitter doesn’t live in those same enterprise systems.) Finally, IT has its hands full with more critical priorities than end-user handholding—e.g., dealing with BYOD, securing the perimeter, and warding off increasingly sophisticated hackers.

Simon Says: With respect to analytics, it’s a new, more democratic world.

What is your organization doing about it?

This post was brought to you by IBM Global Technology Services. For more content like this, visit IT Biz Advisor.

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The Relationship between Infrastructure and Analytics

Introduction

More than six years ago I was actively researching my third book The New Small. The text explores many common themes among 11 small-business owners adopting emerging technologies. Perhaps my favorite was the “all-hands-on-deck” mind-set that permeated the group. Without exception, each individual displayed an astonishing degree of pragmatism. They understood that traditional job titles often didn’t correlate to their daily roles and responsibilities.

Of course, that’s not true across the board. Few employees in large or mid-sized organizations can routinely get away with like bulls in a china shop. Employees who fail to observe proper protocols run the risk of breaking things, ticking off colleagues and superiors, and causing audit and regulatory issues. Sure, we know that HR processes new-hire paperwork and AP cuts vendor checks. Yet sometimes responsibilities aren’t nearly so clearly define. As a result, things sometimes get muddy.

Who should be responsible for analytics?

Case in point: analytics. To be sure, there’s no one way to “do” them. I can think of several models that successful companies use:

A traditional center of excellence (CoE)
A completely decentralized approach
Splitting employee expertise, often via a chargeback method
Outsourcing analytics expertise to third-parties on an as-needed basis
Seeking ongoing support from consulting firms
Hybrid approaches

I can’t condemn any of the above methods as completely inappropriate. Some companies find logic in option number five: outsourcing, even on a permanent basis. For others, though, it might not make as much sense. Much like strategy, isn’t developing in-house expertise a critical business goal? What happens if that trusted third party goes away? What to do if it begins working with the competition? And what about privacy and security concerns?

To be sure, there’s no one way to “do” analytics.

I can think of several high-profile organizations that have outsourced their analytics needs on a regular basis. In each case, the problem didn’t solely stem from a lack of internal expertise (read: employee skills). No, they simply didn’t possess the technical capacity to store and analyze new and increasingly “untraditional” data sources. Put differently, their business needs changed and their IT support couldn’t keep up—at least as fast as its marketing and sales folks needed. Along these lines, Chris Nerney’s writes:

Without the right IT infrastructure in place…data initiatives can fail to deliver the benefits anticipated by enterprise decision-makers. [C]ompanies can’t reap the full benefits of their analytics efforts unless their technology organization is up to the challenge of managing the data that makes it possible.

Good point.

Simon Says: You can’t fault execs for looking elsewhere if IT can’t meet business needs.

It’s downright silly to ponder which departments, groups, and individuals should be responsible for analytics in isolation. After all, there are many different factors at play. At a high level, it may be ideal for organizations to handle its own analytics, but it’s hard to fault CMOs and their ilk for looking at external alternatives these days. Consider the following questions:

What happens if other IT priorities routinely take precedence?
What if IT budget cuts result in delays to the technologies supporting key analytics efforts?

Brass tacks: If IT departments cannot meet analytics needs, don’t be surprised if CXOs respond by looking outside the organization.

Feedback

What say you?

I’ll come back to this idea in my next post.

This post was brought to you by IBM Global Technology Services. For more content like this, visit IT Biz Advisor.

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Vote on the Cover of My Next Book

It’s official. I’ve signed a contract to write book number eight for Wiley.

Click on each image to embiggen it.

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So, what do you think? Vote below.

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Looking for Analytics Case Studies for My Eighth Book

Introduction

I’ve read more than my fair share of tech and business books over the years. It’s safe to say that many if not most are at best prosaic and at worst redundant and simplistic. Their problems often stem from poor writing, oodles of jargon, little originality, questionable research, obvious generalities, and a paucity of actual informative examples. (For more on why most case studies suck, click here.)

I’m actively searching for case studies for my next book.

I like to think that I’m not the world’s worst writer. Most accomplished scribes recognize that how you write matters as much as what you write. Put differently, even the world’s most beautiful prose in the world cannot overcome weak examples and a faulty premise.

To this end and as is my custom, I’m actively searching for case studies for my next book Analytics: The Agile Way.

In other words, this is a call.

Types of Case Studies

In general, I see case studies case studies falling into the following three buckets: the good, the bad, and the ugly.

The Good

If your organization uses Agile methods to glean insights from its data, then I’d love to talk. No, I don’t need to know your organization’s secret sauce, but the case study cannot be excessively vague. For instance, if the sum total of the example is “We use analytics and they rock!”, then we’re not a good fit.

The Bad

Let’s say that your current or former organization or department has used analytics in “the old fashioned” way and has struggled. If you’ve begun to take steps to become more agile, then I’m interested in talking.

The Ugly

Let’s say that your current or former organization spent boatload of money on a Waterfall analytics project and failed miserably.

Contact me if you’re interested.

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