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RE: Managing Innovation

• To: "'ari@c...'" <ari@c...>, xml-dev@l...
• Subject: RE: Managing Innovation
• From: "Bullard, Claude L (Len)" <clbullar@i...>
• Date: Wed, 1 Oct 2003 12:35:01 -0500

I was careful to say "in the systems market we see here".
The numbers don't lie.  And I don't say it can't change; 
just that the numbers go in the opposite direction 
in that market. This is part of what Andrew is trying to 
say and Daniel doesn't want to hear:  listening to the 
customers is everything.

The fascination in this thread is how many of us
can only focus on the security part of the question and then the 
MS vs Open Source trope.  This isn't about that.

The question was how to manage innovation and still 
get a trusted computing environment.  The reference was to an 
article from the Harvard Business School on using the theatre 
model for managing innovation (not the show, but how shows 
are produced, what about the culture that makes it innovative, 
and so on).  Let me summarize what I see so far:

1.  System security is an activity.  Any system can be compromised 
given sufficient effort and incentive.  All of the operating 
systems on the web are being hacked.  How is our culture coping?

2.  The theatre model relies on collaborative teams working hard 
and rehearsing to develop consistent behaviors among which
is the ability to improvise.  This is similar to the Extreme 
Programming model.  It is in contrast to the top-down design 
processes of other models.

3.  A major problem of security is 'sloppy code'.  It is possible 
that a just-in-time, improvised model will introduce sloppy code 
that opens security holes.  How frequently this occurs and how severe  
depends on the training and rehearsal of the individuals, but 
also on the collaboration of the team (eg, code inspection), 
inspection tools, and the policies of the managers with respect 
to emphasis on security. 

4. Regardless of the business model of the manager, libraries 
of vetted code are important.
 
Any vendor selling Internet-aware products must vette code 24x7x365.

len


From: ari@c... [mailto:ari@c...]

"Bullard, Claude L (Len)" <clbullar@i...> writes:

> Whatever 
> dominance Unix had ten years ago, it is 
> a fading memory in the systems market we 
> see here.  The numbers don't lie.

Len, I'm younger than you are and don't have your experience. But I've
been hearing this "Unix is on its way out" as long I've known what was
Unix was. Reminds me of this major, an experienced project manager I
met in the service. "Unix? There is going to be no more Unix when the
next NT comes out, it's going to kill it off." The "next NT" he was
talking about was 4.

Also reminds me of the old county. The dollar, they told us, keeps
loosing its value, steadily and surely, on account of the corrupt
American economy. The dollar is not what it used to be ten years
ago. The numbers don't lie. World revolution, they said, is imminent.

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