Emerging Technology: when to adopt?
Often, I’m a late adopter regarding technology. I really don’t IM because it seems too instrusive and I only Skype occasionally. The only reason I’m not using Pine for my mail client at the moment is due to my job’s exchange environment. I did look at Alpine (the new Pine) and it looks nice. Too bad U of Wash laid off so much of their IT staff. I wonder what this bodes for Alpine’s future?
But sometimes I’m an early adopter, and I’ve led organizations which, though we didn’t realize it at the time, were actually pretty innovative and risk tolerant. Sometimes we deployed beta-ish software for critical services because we could see immediate gains and long term potential.
Here’s my short list of reasons to consider trying a new technology:
- when staff or customers are excited about its potential
- when you can explain the potential use or benefit in less than 40 words
- when you can test it without disrupting current services
- when the possible benefits outweigh the known risks
- when you just think it’s cool and you’re not sure what it’s impact might be but it’s not going to cost much to check it out
g-lo said:
Aug 14, 08 at 4:08 pmYour list is wrong. You made a list for deploying the new technology not trying it out.
Unless your organization is only going to deploy technology that you personally: 1) have been bitched at about, 2) care about marketing, 3) have the time to deal with while dealing with your other full time job, 4) understand the known knowns and the unknown knowns and 5) enjoy.
I believe in you Admin. I know you can do better than that list. Time to grow.
What is your list for developing a skunk-works team for assess the value of the technology to your core constituency? How can your beta-team deliver you the intel you need to deploy the technology? Are you the only one there that can do it? Do you have time for this?
g-lo said:
Aug 14, 08 at 4:10 pmPlease mock my Chinglish but still consider my point. Ad hominems prove the man.
admin said:
Aug 15, 08 at 8:08 amIs my list for deploying new technology wrong? I mean, is your concern about the word “adopt”? I’m not too caught up in my list and don’t want to reduce your excellent comments to a semantic debate, so let’s leave the list aside. Your questions are good and I can’t really do them justice as a comment to a comment on a blog. But points taken.
When you ask “do I have time for this”? I’m not sure what “this” refers to. If you mean the blog, then, well, I don’t know. I enjoy it and like the comments most of all. But there is a whining tone, which you’ve noted elsewhere, that bothers me. However, it is nice to feel you can be frank and perhaps a little whiny among friends. And I’m not happy with the private nature of this blog nor with the one->many aspect of a blog. It’s not as if I’m an expert. So I wonder about opening it back up again and about adding more admins. I don’t know. I’m coming on the 6-month anniversary of this thing, and of me at my job, and so have a lot of questions.
cec said:
Aug 15, 08 at 9:16 amAdmin – fwiw, I tend to agree with your points regarding reasons for deploying new technology. But then again, I often think of myself as a modern Luddite. It’s not that I don’t understand the technology, I just don’t have a use or interest in much of it. Certain infrastructure improvements make obvious (or at least easily articulated) sense, but the whole social-software scene completely escapes me. You couldn’t pay me to use Twitter. Skype is okay, but I have almost no use for it. My mother sent me an SMS message and I had to ask her not to do that in the future.
For my money, the idea that you need to be able to explain why a change in technology is beneficial should be self obvious. But beyond just saying that if technology X would allow us to do Y better/faster/etc.; you need some sense that it would actually be used in that productive manner (i.e., your customers are excited by it). At my last place of employment, I was a known sceptic of a project designed to connect IT staff through a web bulletin board. I didn’t think it would work because the IT staff (customers) weren’t very excited by it and I didn’t think we had a culture where a bulletin board would work well. Last I knew, that was a completely failed project with no one logging in and posting for weeks or months at a time. The project sponsors should have determined if their customers wanted what they were proposing.
g-lo does make a good point in that one needs some way of evaluating the items on your list, but it doesn’t mean those aren’t the right reasons for considering new technology.
oh, and regarding opening up the blog – i think that’s a good idea. if you thought that keeping it closed was allowing you to be more frank, then it might be worth keeping it closed. but i suspect that you are still self-censoring wrt your current job, so i’m not certain of the advantage of a closed site.
g-lo said:
Aug 15, 08 at 12:13 pmSorry for not being clear, Admin. I meant do you have time to personally do all of the things on your list in terms of evaluating new technology.
I really hope you continue to have time for this blog. Sorry for coming off like a twit.
admin said:
Aug 18, 08 at 4:51 pmThanks, both. The excitement factor cec mentions is probably the most important reason of all. Timing is everything, and levels of excitement are the best way to measure timing. The horrible project he refers to might have gone very well if it had occurred oh, say 10 years earlier….