tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-126839662011-08-20T15:15:55.893+10:00This is a business-focussed blog discussing (and debating) current and future issues in information systems management that face government, corporate, and medium-size organisations.Michealnoreply@blogger.comBlogger581100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12683966.post-1137722790201640332006-01-20T12:05:00.000+10:002006-01-20T12:06:30.203+10:00

I have decided to get quite serious about this blogging caper and so have moved my blog to www.michealaxelsen.com.This blog should now redirect, but if it does not, please go to that address.Thanks: Micheal Axelsen

Michealnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12683966.post-1137625742474675432006-01-19T09:02:00.000+10:002006-01-19T12:34:50.573+10:00

Apparently having been provided with a tag of "top blogger" and "blogging evangelist", I am down to speak to the topic of "Implementing Your Online Collaboration Strategy" for Key Forums on 29th March 2006 at Harbourview Hotel.It promises to be an interesting conference, given the people speaking:Jackson Wells MorrisThinking Home BusinessThe Podcast NetworkEducation.au LtdFairfax DigitalDeakin

Michealnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12683966.post-1137586919177197902006-01-18T22:05:00.000+10:002006-01-18T22:21:59.190+10:00

It would seem high time I made a blog entry again. It has been Christmas season as we all know and four weeks off with two small children has not been conducive to blogging - maybe my blogging gene has been defective.More (serious) blog entries to come. Incidentally, if you're reading this blog and have some comments to make, take a risk, live a little dangerously, and leave a comment (that

Michealnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12683966.post-1134616057018247872005-12-15T12:53:00.000+10:002005-12-15T13:07:37.030+10:00

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Knowledge is of two kinds, you either know it or you can find it on Wikipedia. This article discusses a study by Nature that took scientific, complex articles from both Britannica and Wikipedia and had them reviewed by experts. The result? Wikipedia and Britannica are reasonably close - the surprising thing is, they both had four "major" errors in 42

Michealnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12683966.post-1134518008788494532005-12-14T09:45:00.000+10:002005-12-14T09:53:28.806+10:00

The Australian Accounting Review (Supplement #37, November 2005) issue devoted to information technology/systems issues was released in November. I reproduce a small portion of the supplementary edition editorial (which was co-written by John Campbell, Shauna Kelly, and myself - but mostly John) below:The traditional objective of accounting is to provide information about the pecuniary affairs

Michealnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12683966.post-1134388060610101812005-12-12T21:26:00.000+10:002005-12-12T21:59:28.186+10:00

I did promise to post some photos from CPA PNG. The below photos, hopefully, communicate some of the breadth of the conference.This photo shows Jim Dickson with Peter Pokawin - Jim is being awarded his fellowship of CPA PNG. Jim is CPA Australia's International Director, and this was his fifth (?) trip to the conference - although it has been a while due to a small bout of Ross River fever.Peter

Michealnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12683966.post-1134348276878643762005-12-12T10:33:00.000+10:002006-01-03T09:45:53.230+10:00

Microsoft launched SQL Server 2005 on November 7 2005, and a month later it is a good time to see what people are saying about the new member of Microsoft's flock. Microsoft clearly likes it - no surprises there. OS News noted the event in passing but did point out that Visual Studio 2005 is a strong companion product. SQLServerCentral.com has an article recording its correspondent's first

Michealnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12683966.post-1133993189110867912005-12-08T08:02:00.000+10:002005-12-08T08:06:29.123+10:00

I note that CIO magazine's November 2005 edition has an article on business activity monitoring (BAM) which allows the business to respond to the changing environment, and be more responsive to problems in production. Although it can be simply about monitoring stock levels and sending a simple alert, it can be a whole lot more than that, and a lot more closely aligned with data mining and data

Michealnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12683966.post-1132893835560301822005-11-25T14:29:00.000+10:002005-11-25T14:43:55.573+10:00

Open source software continues to have an impact that its founders may never have envisaged, although I'm certain they would approve. The United Nations has supported an initiative of a $US100 laptop - being pursued by the One Laptop Per Child non-profit organisation.It's a hand-cranked (!) laptop capable of addressing most student's requirements. It includes a web browser, a word processor,

Michealnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12683966.post-1132756338750492152005-11-24T00:30:00.000+10:002005-11-24T00:37:37.876+10:00

A couple of weeks ago, Rocketboom (an online video show) produced a show designed to demystify the idea of RSS (Really Simple Syndication). It's how you track blogs and alert readers of your blog when a new post has been entered ('zackly like this one).So for that online, 3-minute video introduction of Really Simple Syndication, take it away Rocketboom does RSS.Personally, I find bloglines the

Michealnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12683966.post-1132489916805604932005-11-20T22:30:00.000+10:002005-11-21T10:13:30.950+10:00

During the presentation in PNG - a nation not blessed with the infrastructure for vlogs, but it should be - vlogs, blogs and wikis were discussed.A future post is required on these, but two vlogs I sometimes watch are (note - since these vlogs are not mine, and they capture a bit of life as it is rather than airbrushed away, there can be 'rude bits' from time to time - just so you know, I am not

Michealnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12683966.post-1132488298388954892005-11-20T22:02:00.000+10:002005-11-20T22:24:31.556+10:00

My presentation slides from the CPA PNG conference, as promised in my previous post, have now been loaded up here on my blog (they're available in PDF). Also the text of the speech is available here as a PDF as well (although it does lack my impromptu embellishments).I very much enjoyed the opportunity to see an emerging profession in PNG, and it gives a bit of encouragement sitting back here in

Michealnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12683966.post-1132266941603836392005-11-18T08:17:00.000+10:002005-11-21T10:11:51.050+10:00

It has been a long time between posts - this seems to be the downfall of most bloggers.Some time ago I was asked by CPA Australia to present on the topic 'Management Information Reporting, including the IT Aspects' at the annual CPA Australia/CPA PNG joint conference in Port Moresby. I accepted despite the trepidation one gets when you know you'll have a 10-week-old baby, as well as a fractious

Michealnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12683966.post-1130794837673491862005-11-01T07:18:00.000+10:002005-11-01T07:41:24.763+10:00

It is interesting to contemplate business risk and business benefit in today's commercial world. If we think about how the world has changed over the past thirty years (I am of course referring to information systems - and am completely ignoring other somewhat less momentous issues such as the end of the cold war, the rise of Islamic extremism, and the invention of Viagra), there originally were

Michealnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12683966.post-1130363106113862552005-10-27T07:28:00.000+10:002005-10-27T07:45:06.123+10:00

CPA Australia has just released for purchase the IT & Management CoE's publication, IT Governance: A Practical Guide for Company Directors and Corporate Executives. The co-authors were Chris Gillies and Marianne Broadbent of Gartner. I was a member of the steering committee for this publication, and it is in the end a document that we are all proud of.In particular, Jan Barned - an unheralded

Michealnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12683966.post-1129674781230323802005-10-19T08:22:00.000+10:002005-10-19T08:33:01.240+10:00

ZDNet have an article by Steve Ranger called 'CIOs must bridge gap between business and tech'. The essential point of the article is that the role of CIO is not technical, it is about business strategy and implementing that in the technical sphere. The CIO is responsible for the stewardship of technological resources within a defined architectural framework - and then implementing strategic

Michealnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12683966.post-1129117018218098042005-10-12T21:27:00.000+10:002005-10-12T21:36:58.220+10:00

This week's CPA journal has an article in it - "It's time to Enter the Blogosphere" - in which your humble correspondent is quoted. The article came about partly because of a discussion our Centre of Excellence had regarding blogs and wikis and such like, and our biggest booster Jan Barned suggested the topic to the editor of InTheBlack. And then the genie is let out of the bottle!The article

Michealnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12683966.post-1129081479509053192005-10-12T11:25:00.000+10:002005-10-12T11:53:23.276+10:00

Australia's CIO Magazine has recently (well, yesterday) published an article entitled "ITIL Power" by Ben Worthen. This article is a relatively practical and in-depth review of the capabilities of ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) and when (and when not) to use it.It's worth comparing and contrasting this perspective with the view from Technology Executive Club in an article by

Michealnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12683966.post-1128986880082202492005-10-11T09:23:00.000+10:002005-10-11T09:32:16.943+10:00

Further to the Ark Group presentation on information taxonomies on Wednesday, Ark Group have put forward a moderated forum for the further discussion and comment on Information Taxonomies.You can click here for further information.The welcome message is reproduced below:"Welcome to the Ark Group Taxonomy Forum. Following on from Designing a Business Focused Taxonomy, we felt that it would be

Michealnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12683966.post-1128555123885805732005-10-06T08:32:00.000+10:002005-10-12T21:27:41.560+10:00

Last week I presented to Ark Group's Business Information Taxonomies Conference on the topic "Understanding the Purpose of Your Taxonomy and Ensuring Business Adoption" at the Avillion Hotel.My uploaded presentation can be found here.In case you are wondering, a (very loose) definition of information taxonomy is a way of classifying and categorising the creation of unstructured information in a

Michealnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12683966.post-1128410398602051902005-10-04T17:16:00.000+10:002005-10-04T17:24:37.406+10:00

ZDNet is reporting on the new OpenDocument standard (approved by OASIS) that may "turn the world inside out" (which, frankly, is one of those phrases to use when hyperbole just isn't enough). It does promise great things, as the promise of sharing documents independently of the application that created them may finally become a reality (although, predictably, Microsoft advises it refuses to

Michealnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12683966.post-1126048985545229672005-09-07T09:11:00.000+10:002005-09-07T09:25:35.186+10:00

You say tomato, I say tomato (say, that doesn't work so well in print). A rose by any other name is just as thorny, that much is certain at least, and there are often objections to the term 'best practice'. Although it is meant to capture practices that are generally accepted by everyone else, and that the 'man on the Bondi tram' might adopt if he thought about it, there are some who consider

Michealnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12683966.post-1125961553808042782005-09-06T08:46:00.000+10:002005-09-06T09:17:58.673+10:00

Disaster recovery and contingency planning have been highlighted in the past week as the biggest issue since sliced bread started getting mouldy, as Hurricane Katrina hit NOLA hard and fast. In its wake was left the startling realisation that even the richest country in the world can have infrastructure devastated and destroyed by the forces of nature. The cost of the disaster is $US100 billion

Michealnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12683966.post-1125264903910231872005-08-29T07:20:00.000+10:002005-08-29T07:35:42.126+10:00

On Friday I attended (with John Halliday, our Director of IS Audit, and several clients) a presentation by Internet Security Systems on "State of Security: An X-Force Briefing".This was, to say the least, interesting, and it is fascinating to have a little chink of insight into the cloak-and-dagger side of information security. The presentation was somewhat American - if you are Australian

Michealnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12683966.post-1124918964582405492005-08-25T07:19:00.000+10:002005-08-25T07:29:24.590+10:00

SearchCIO's Wayne Eckerson has has just issued an article on "Five Things You Should Know about BI" (where, if you don't know, BI stands for Business Intelligence).In essence, he is confirming the maxim that people issues are what get in the way when it is time to play in the world of business intelligence: Politics, Lack of available tools, Culture, Costs, and Business volatility are the prime

Michealnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12683966.post-1124408196100128072005-08-19T09:19:00.000+10:002005-08-19T09:36:36.106+10:00

In an earlier post I discussed my search for a desktop search tool in some detail, and promised that I would have a later post with some reasons why you wouldn't use Copernic (or indeed any other search tools). This is that post.Since the earlier post was written I have noticed that it was picked up by Copernic and added to their "blogs and user posts" page. Which is fine by me, but here are

Michealnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12683966.post-1123804552118840532005-08-12T09:51:00.000+10:002005-08-12T18:51:05.840+10:00

I have been running a poll at the top of the blog now since it started, so it's probably time to change the poll.However, before the results of the poll are obliterated and forgotten, I thought it was useful to just quickly record how well those readers passing through thought their colleagues treated password security:So, in a completely unscientific study, it rather indicates that most people

Michealnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12683966.post-1123192368778771972005-08-05T07:38:00.000+10:002005-08-05T07:52:48.783+10:00

CPA Australia has a story on its website of a survey by HP Australia of IT Governance being out of alignment for businesses. The research wasn't carried out by CPA Australia (or even the ITM COE) - it was carried out by HP - but it is an indicator of the ITM COE's effectiveness in bringing this to the business agenda (where CPA Australia is firmly ensconced). This story was also picked up by CEO

Michealnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12683966.post-1123191406710277542005-08-05T07:29:00.000+10:002005-08-05T07:36:46.716+10:00

As a postscript to my earlier post regarding a Telstra Bigpond user who was stuck on the wrong plan, a follow up invoice for about $580 (yes, that's right!) was received for June (the May one was about $350). According to the contract, this is how the world should look, of course, but to pay nearly $1000 for a total of about eight gigabytes of download would seem a little bit of sheer bastardry

Michealnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12683966.post-1123126331311960972005-08-04T13:26:00.000+10:002005-08-06T10:55:44.536+10:00

I note that the blog I referred to the other day (erp4it) has a link to an article discussing the application and history of ITIL in the United States (BTW, it stands for "Information Technology Infrastructure Library").I seem to be falling over ITIL a lot these days - in IT Governance work and other areas - so it's probably useful to note the source of all things ITIL: www.itil.org/itil_e/

Michealnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12683966.post-1123020312541219602005-08-03T07:46:00.000+10:002005-08-04T13:34:18.176+10:00

Hot on the heels of Microsoft's man-of-the-moment comments on passwords - he suggested you should write down passwords down in a "very secured place" rather than forcing users to remember umpteen dozen passwords - comes this article on CIO.com suggesting that the password has had its day. An interesting thought, yet to be proven, and until we see some true standards there I think we'll have the

Michealnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12683966.post-1122809596728456622005-07-31T21:30:00.000+10:002005-07-31T21:35:18.633+10:00

The world's most famous blogger (or at least, in IT world-dom that is) is possibly giving a demonstration of how to put your foot in it when blogging. This article on The Register shows Robert Scoble is blogging about new Microsoft program problems before the bug-fixers know about them. It now becomes an entertaining game of he-said-she-said - or perhaps the age-old "I was quoted out of context"

Michealnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12683966.post-1122606139350378662005-07-29T12:58:00.000+10:002005-07-29T13:02:19.350+10:00

As an aside, I was today interviewed for an article in InTheBlack about business blogging - not because anyone is necessarily reading my blog, but at least partly because the ITM COE suggested it to InTheBlack as a topic for the October edition. I know that Shauna Kelly of the COE is also writing an in-depth article for the CPA website to be published soon.It will be interesting - I note that Ed

Michealnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12683966.post-1122605507729824862005-07-29T12:49:00.000+10:002005-07-29T12:58:16.840+10:00

I today noticed the business blog of "alphasong", discussing IT Governance and the academic community's approach to it - it would seem that he/she is concerned that academic business research tends to be doing "hard IT" rather than looking purely at the business and IT crossover points. Having done some IS research in a business school, it is an interesting point of view - however, I think the

Michealnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12683966.post-1122467859954042632005-07-27T22:32:00.000+10:002005-07-27T22:37:39.960+10:00

Don't you hate it when you state "I will post every day to my blog" and then look up from your desk to discover it's been three weeks?Anyway, I have just flown back into sunny (well, actually quite dark) Brisbane - much to my annoyance, the plane was delayed by an hour. Apparently an oven was broken in the plane. I am somewhat concerned that an oven is so central to the operation of the plane

Michealnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12683966.post-1120428742046063822005-07-04T08:03:00.000+10:002005-07-04T08:12:22.053+10:00

A well-documented problem for many people - at least in Australia - is having Telstra Bigpond as your internet service provider (ISP). The problem is not so much having Bigpond as your provider, as understanding their approach to business and what you need to do to keep them on their toes. A colleague has been on a "1GB business plan" for $59.05 per month for the past three years. Not being

Michealnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12683966.post-1120039836759692892005-06-29T19:35:00.000+10:002005-08-19T09:38:04.913+10:00

One of the fascinating new tools that have come to the fore over the past several years is an array of tools to assist you to retrieve the work you have already done - the work that is currently sitting in what could loosely be termed your knowledge library (if you're not well-organised).These tools include things such as Google Desktop Search (which is just out of beta), the MSN Search Toolbar,

Michealnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12683966.post-1120036897968016062005-06-29T19:20:00.000+10:002005-06-29T19:21:37.973+10:00

One of the exciting things on the Information Technology & Management Centre of Excellence's work plans for this year is a special edition of the Australian Accounting Review. If you don't know of the AAR (and if you studied an Honours degree in business over the past twenty-five years, you probably should know about it), it is the pre-eminent Australian research journal for accounting and

Michealnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12683966.post-1119927261127630992005-06-28T12:48:00.000+10:002005-06-28T12:54:21.130+10:00

Somewhere along the way we may, just perhaps, have lost focus on the purpose of computers and personal information systems. This presentation (it's a little tongue-in-cheek) provides some good tips on organising yourself and some handy hints. I should note that this presentation was developed by Microlaw in the United States.

Michealnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12683966.post-1119320535297140562005-06-21T12:04:00.000+10:002005-06-21T12:32:57.810+10:00

Just in case you have ever thought about it (or never have), in cyberspace everyone sees what you type, eventually. The other day I quickly subscribed to a newsgroup about Mercedes Benz classic cars (I was doing some car research - even IT people can like cars - but I suspect I'll never get to own the car). About a week later, casually typing my name into Yahoo (as you do) suddenly brought up my

Michealnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12683966.post-1118925393620832042005-06-16T22:24:00.000+10:002005-06-16T22:36:33.626+10:00

Dr Kate Andrews suggested I take a look at the online business journal "Ivey Business Journal". This is the online version of a 70-year old journal. I note that the May/June 2005 edition carries an article "The Strategic Management Process In E-Business". This article provides several case studies from a scientific study of SME's that have adopted e-business, and those strategies that SME's can

Michealnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12683966.post-1118754804553757162005-06-14T23:11:00.000+10:002005-06-14T23:13:24.563+10:00

Voice Over IP Solutions seem to be maturing. This article from Technology & Business at ZDNet reviews some handsets providing VOIP capability, and almost gets one thinking about such things. Unless you have a real need, I am not convinced that the technology is mature enough just yet to recommend wholesale adoption by clients, although for clients with specific requirements and expertise it may

Michealnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12683966.post-1118269951491475682005-06-09T08:19:00.000+10:002005-06-09T10:38:52.576+10:00

I have had the opportunity over the last couple of weeks to take a look at what SAP calls its "MySAP All-in-One" solution. All-in-One is essentially the MySAP software combined with the skills, expertise and intellectual property of the business partner/software vendor (disclaimer: my firm, BDO Kendalls, sells, supports and implements the MySAP software, although I don't personally benefit from

Michealnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12683966.post-1117111582799754012005-05-26T22:44:00.000+10:002005-05-26T22:46:22.803+10:00

Blogging seems to have all grown up, gotten serious, and become a business tool if BRW is this week (27/05/2005) reporting on business blogging and its effect on modern marketing.Apparently it is the saviour of marketing (according to a marketing person), which will only be the case when marketing understands how it works and what the message really is.

Michealnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12683966.post-1117111377067965742005-05-26T22:29:00.000+10:002005-05-27T07:22:28.500+10:00

If ever there is a topic you need to know about, the web's free encyclopaedia will likely have the answer for you: en.wikipedia.comIf you read up on how Wikipedia works, it seems anarchistic, it seems strange, and it seems somehow machiavellian in the extreme, but there is no doubt that it works. With all those authors contributing and, hopefully, not making stuff up, the peer review process

Michealnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12683966.post-1116592337844503432005-05-20T22:23:00.000+10:002005-05-20T22:32:17.846+10:00

At the presentation on Tuesday night (on the commercial issues of Open Source software) I was asked if it was possible to manipulate the Sourceforge rankings. Unfortunately the website was mostly down at the time, so it wasn't possible to answer immediately.However, I have taken a quick look tonight and note that the Sourceforge.net rankings are able to be manipulated if one wanted to do so, as

Michealnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12683966.post-1116502551117182622005-05-19T21:16:00.000+10:002005-05-19T21:47:21.406+10:00

So far this year I have been to see several clients to review their approach to information systems. Almost all have struggled with the in-house development of software - in many cases a lot of effort has been put into developing in-house software, and although it must have sounded like a good idea at the time, they have come to regret it eventually.In my humble opinion (and I haven't really

Michealnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12683966.post-1116457048618262362005-05-19T08:45:00.000+10:002005-05-20T09:20:32.426+10:00

The presentation I gave on Tuesday night (regarding commercial issues with open source) touched somewhat on the legal issues around open source licencing, although not a great deal. I did, after all, only have an hour or so, and a legal issue is not always a commercial issue - until it all ends in tears and winds up in court, that is.Part of my research found this paper on the web entitled "Open

Michealnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12683966.post-1116334287351998592005-05-17T22:47:00.000+10:002005-05-17T22:51:27.356+10:00

Tonight was the night of my presentation to the IT Discussion Group for CPA Australia. It was a packed house - well, it would have been if it had actually been a house. And if there had been a few more people there. Nonetheless, I'll claim it was delivered to great acclaim. I promised that I would upload the slides from the presentation, so here they are in PDF form - "Pits, Traps, and

Michealnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12683966.post-1116205283880640192005-05-16T10:53:00.000+10:002005-05-16T11:01:23.886+10:00

I note (thanks Phillip Smith) a Hewlett Packard research item (reported at cnn.com) that indicates that emails and text messages create a greater loss in a person's IQ than smoking marijuana. At least, that's the headline - but the study also provides a comparison showing that being constantly interrupted by emails has the same impact on your IQ as missing a full night's sleep. The study doesn't

Michealnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12683966.post-1116159018828542922005-05-15T22:07:00.000+10:002005-05-15T22:11:25.776+10:00

I note that the IT Governance Institute (it's chaired by Tony Hayes, my predecessor as Chair of the ITM COE for CPA Australia) has released a "Guide to IT Value @ Risk". The guide will be found here, while the IT Governance Institute can be found here.IT Governance is about the way that the information technology business function is managed, particularly in the context of the board's

Michealnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12683966.post-1115893327462008412005-05-12T20:01:00.000+10:002005-05-12T20:30:54.473+10:00

One of the things that I have often come across when consulting with clients is, obviously, the phenomenon of open-source software, and next week (17 May 2005) I will be presenting to the local CPA Australia IT discussion group on the topic of Pits, Traps and Windfalls of Open Source Software.Now, I happen to think that open source software is better than the proverbial sliced bread on a picnic,

Michealnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12683966.post-1115797931926240392005-05-11T17:46:00.000+10:002005-05-11T17:53:23.546+10:00

In another life, I worked for independent schools (Anglican Church Grammar School and St Margaret's Anglican Girls' School), and in so doing I came to a good appreciation of what schools try to do with what they've got available (i.e. a lot with not much). In my post-school career, I have had occasion to visit schools and evaluate how the schools organise and run their information technology.Each

Michealnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12683966.post-1115731943622421042005-05-10T23:25:00.000+10:002005-05-10T23:33:42.950+10:00

Going back through my old papers, I discovered this (rather more accessible, although it's still research) version of my thesis on Information Request Ambiguity. A riveting read? Probably not, but it's a good source for anyone wanting to take a look at the theoretical underpinnings of internal communication and its potential commercial effects.In case you're wondering, information request

Michealnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12683966.post-1115628965531164152005-05-09T18:50:00.000+10:002005-05-09T23:08:25.876+10:00

I note that John Halliday (a colleague at BDO Kendalls - Director IS Audit) has written an overview article on information systems security and fraud. This is a good short article raising the link between IS security, governance structures, and organisational fraud. John is promising a series of articles in this newsletter, so I am sure there is more to come here.From what I understand, this

Michealnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12683966.post-1115530036250666592005-05-08T15:27:00.000+10:002005-05-08T21:29:41.823+10:00

I note a completely unscientific study (by Verisign) - but it's probably indicative - that indicates that 2 of every 3 San Francisco pedestrians were prepared to provide their passwords in exchange for a voucher for a Starbucks coffee. Which is a remarkably similar result to that found in a UK poll. I wonder whether you'd get the same results by offering a Caramello Koala here in Australia?

Michealnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12683966.post-1115345100853118902005-05-07T09:19:00.000+10:002005-05-08T15:52:15.950+10:00

One of the things I do in my "spare" time is chair the Information Technology & Management Centre of Excellence for CPA Australia (since 2002). This has responsibility for looking at over-the-horizon issues in information technology (as they relate to the accounting profession).One of the interesting articles we published recently (thanks to Shauna Kelly who wrote it, I did review it before

Michealnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12683966.post-1115377549789038192005-05-06T21:05:00.000+10:002005-05-06T21:15:36.970+10:00

Just saw this article on zdnet which talks about how the US Army kind of mucked up when it released a confidential report but didn't convert it to PDF properly. So the censor's pen wasn't quite black enough - easier to see than holding it up against the light, I guess.Of relevance to those of us not in the US military though - never (well, almost never) send a document to a client or external

Michealnoreply@blogger.com0