Is BYOD really about BYOA?

So here's a question for you: Is BYOD really about BYOA?

 

BYOA = BYO Application

 

You want to BYO Device so you can use an application or applications you have on that device but not others.  e.g. you iPhone, iPad, or Andriod equivalent has lots of Apps that are sometimes unique to the device (or class of device) and you just can't run them on your work's SOE device.

 

In my case its certainly a good part of the reason I BYOD, there are lots of Apps that I use every day in my work. The reasons I don't or can't install the same Apps on my work's SOE device include:

 

• they won't run on Windows
• I don't have a license to install on multiple machines (its already installed on my BYOD), and possibly
• its against your work's IT policies regarding installing non SOE software on work equipment

 So here's my straw poll: What's your main reason for BYOD? (where BYOD includes the OS part and anything essential to running the device, Apps are on top of that)

 

1. I love my BYOD over the work SOE alternative
2. I need the Apps
3. Its a 50/50 split between BYOD reasons and BYOA
4. Some other reason - please share :)

p.s. with the recent trend towards cloud Apps, BYOA may only be a fleeting concept as may Apps are available on just about any device. If this trend continues, maybe BYOA will become more about the legal right to use your Apps accross any device you have access to

Year of living paperlessly

With apologies to Christopher Koch (Year of Living Dangerously) I am trying a bit of a 'science experiment' this year, an attempt to live as paperlessly as I can this year, at least for my work as an IT consultant.

Here is an except from a Q&A post I published to LinkedIn a few weeks ago when embarking on my experiment...

==========

Year of living paperlessly**

** as far as possible at least

Just looking for some new ideas on how to live as paperlessly as possible this year - mostly from a work point of view but will also try out at home.

My ideal use case is:

When I come into contact with some paper I need, I 'scan' or take a pic and dont need the paper any more.
... be able to make notes on scanned/photo'ed paper I receive.
... tag the content I create/ capture and make search, discovery and retrieval easy where ever I am (assuming I have device with me or connection to 'cloud')

My current devices include an iPad, iPhone, Mac at home and PC laptop at work so anything cross device, cross OS would also be good.

The apps I currently use include:
- Evernote - plan to keep this but also looking for companion apps to collect and use content I collect
- Notetaker (for iPad) - ok, but looking for better ability to annotate and also 'tag' my content
- Dropbox - plan to keep for storage but would like to be able to tag content easier and search it better

Open to any other ideas on how to improve things, especially in apps that make it easy to scan/ take a pic of paper and then file it electronically. Currently I use Evernote for this and its ok but looking for ways to make it better.

============

Here is a link to some of the replies I have received so far... http://www.linkedin.com/answers/technology/information-technology/information-storage/TCH_ITS_IST/1087577-12337876?browseIdx=0&sik=1359662184595&goback=%2Eamq

I'll be following this blog up with a 'so far so good' post to share some of the ideas I have tried, some that have worked and some which Im still working on.

In the meantime, I thought I would also share this interesting site that I came across... http://paperfreeclass.wordpress.com/

Its a very interesting site that uses WordPress to provide the digital hub for the classroom and how the students and the teacher interact with each other and, as a by product, cut down on their paper usage.

Im using a Wiki to cut down on my own paper usage but so far its just a local one that uses TiddlyWiki ... http://tiddlywiki.com/

TiddlyWiki is great but I have aspirations to upgrade to Confluence http://www.atlassian.com/software/confluence/overview/team-collaboration-software so I can easily share my info with others and have others contribute as well

Helping friends switch to Mac from Windows

Wanna do your friends a favour helping them switch to a Mac from Windows?

I found this article on 10 ways to help people switch to a Mac From my own experience of helping some of my friends it has some good tips and tricks.

The best ones highlighted in the article for me were:

• Explaining the Dock - a key part of Mac OS X
• Providing an overview of Mail, Calendar and Contacts - as most people will need this and it’s a little different to (say) Outlook on Windows… more like using an iPhone, which many switchers will probably already have
• App store - something that a lot of people will get into, a new way of buying and maintaining software on your new Mac
• Printers - a must!
• System Preferences - so people can tweak the settings ‘under the hood’, or at least the easy and visible ones anyway… there are deeper ones that require a knowledge of Unix and use of the Terminal
• …. and of course…. loading Office for Mac (so they don’t get homesick ;) )

A few other tips I would have added are:

• Good tips on filing documents and how to make good use of Spotlight
• … and how to use iLife (Music, Photos) and maybe even iWork (Pages, Numbers and Keynote) to help them let go of Office, if they want to experience a more creative way of doing stuff.

I am sure there are many others I have forgotten, having used Macs for over 10 years its easy to take it all for granted now…. but part of the fun of switching IMHO is exploring and learning.

For those switchers out there, enjoy! and contact me if you need help, I’ll give you details of how to transfer donations to me PayPal account ;) lol

Managers have bigger brains... at least in the long run ;)

Here is an article from UNSW that confirms what managers have long known and the rest of us have long doubted ;)

Well it's official, not only do they get the 'perks', Managers also have bigger brains, at least in the long run.  Here's a quote from some research... 

For the first time, researchers have identified a clear link between managerial experience throughout a person's working life and the integrity and larger size of the hippocampus – the area of the brain responsible for learning and memory. It seems managing other people at work triggers structural changes in the brain, protecting its memory and learning centre well into old age. 

For the full article see Grey matter: How managing others... 

Towards a common schema for web content

For those interested in tagging, check out this article about schema.org which is described as

Schema.org -- launched in June of 2011 -- exists to support this initiative and develop the categories and tag sets for commonly used items across the Web.

To me, this is a great development. Well worth looking at if you need some ideas on how to classify and 'tag' web content and information published on the web.

VDI simplifies BYOD

One of the biggest challenges that any organization allowing BYOD will face is that of support. It is simply unrealistic to expect the helpdesk to be able to support all manner of mobile devices, so organizations may turn to VARs. Solution providers can sell revised maintenance contracts that include services such as provisioning end-user devices and offering support for certain mobile operating systems.

BYOD is a pet subject of mine.  Being an Apple user in a corporate sense is 'challenging' and I can't wait for the day when BYOD is a non event in terms of using any device you like inside and outside of work to get stuff done.

The latest thread in the BYOD discussion seems to be the use of VDI (Virtual Desktop Integration) to 'eliminate' the potential complexity and cost of managing physical devices.

Virtualisation is nothing new, its been around for a while, but the idea that VDI is an appropriate solution to facilitate BYOD is relatively new.

Some of the press, including articles by Gartner, indicate that the TCO for VDI is worth it over a 3-5 year period but that may companies balk at the initial costs.  Strangely, it seems to be 'business' pushing for it rather than IT... I think this is 'consumerisation in action' - what people now take for granted in their lives must ultimately be available at work.  BYOD is the 'norm' in real life, people just expect stuff to work on the device of their choice, the same expectation permeates their expectations at work.

A good blog I recently on the benefits of BYOD outweighing the costs makes the point that VDI is not a complete answer to all of IT's concerns about BYOD, there still needs to be a way of allowing people to properly deal with the data and handle data security and privacy issues.  Interestingly, the blog highlights that, using VDI often means that the data being used is on a server or a cloud somewhere and probably even more secure than on many different physical devices... or at least its possible to manage it as a whole rather than worry about the data being out on many physical devices.  This sort of speaks to the 'belief' by some IT shops that if its on an 'SOE device' its secure, if its not, it isn't.  I've always thought this argument was spurious at best ;)

Another article I came across recently, talks about the various technologies needed for VDI... including VMWare, Citrix, etc, etc.  Some of these technologies have been perceived as being 'too expensive' but I think that's just the initial outlay for new software and the TCO appears to more than pay for itself over a 3-5 year period, as highlighted in one of the earlier article I linked to.

As it stands, I think VDI certainly shows a lot of promise in helping some companies realise their vision for BYOD and to overcome some of the perceived (and real) issues.

One issue that does seem to 'stand in the way' is the way some companies are licensing their products and how this impacts BYOD and VDI, etc.  Microsoft has certainly been in the press with regard to this, as most of us use their software every day.  I know this has affected how internal IT departments have approached BYOD - as highlighted in  highlighted in this article about the risks of "violating Microsoft's licensing rules by letting end users access corporate email and applications on their personal devices" but, IMO, things appear to be changing and its important for businesses to review the situation periodically to see if things have changed and how this may facilitate doing more with BYOD.

I'd be happy to hear other people's feedback or latest news on this subject.  Please feel free to post back to the Blog :)

Its a scientific experiment!

Anyone who has seen the Back to the Future movies, especially Back to the Future III, you may remember this quote:

[Doc Brown and Marty are hijacking a train] 

Doc: Reach! 
Engineer: Is this a holdup? 
Doc: It's a science experiment! 





*My* science experiment is to create a blog post and then use it in another blog by using an iFrame... wish me luck :)