12 Sep 2005
Rebecca Parsons has written an article advocating that successful Enterprise Architects should consider joining the development teams they’re working with.
Enterprise Architecture groups often get separated from day to day development. This can lead to their knowledge of development work getting out of date and development teams not taking a broad company-wide perspective. Having seen this happen frequently Rebecca argues that enterprise architects can be much more effective by joining development teams.
I think her arguments are well formulated and I agree with them for the most part. There is a certain degree of accountability required from both development and architectural teams, accountability that has a tendency to get lost or shuffled if there is too many organizational layers in between. It has been my experience that an architect garners far more respect when he’s down in the trenches.
The complete article is available online.
11 Sep 2005
This year marks the 25th anniversary of Terry Fox’s Marathon of Hope. An incredible individual, one of Canada’s greatest, I challenge you all to get out on September 18th and participate in an event near you.
About Terry Fox
Terry Fox was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and raised in Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, a community near Vancouver on Canada’s west coast. An active teenager involved in many sports, Terry was only 18 years old when he was diagnosed with osteogenic sarcoma (bone cancer) and forced to have his right leg amputated 15 centimetres (six inches) above the knee in 1977.
While in hospital, Terry was so overcome by the suffering of other cancer patients, many of them young children, that he decided to run across Canada to raise money for cancer research.
He would call his journey the Marathon of Hope.
After 18 months and running over 5,000 kilometres (3,107 miles) to prepare, Terry started his run in St. John’s, Newfoundland on April 12, 1980 with little fanfare. Although it was difficult to garner attention in the beginning, enthusiasm soon grew, and the money collected along his route began to mount. He ran 42 kilometres (26 miles) a day through Canada’s Atlantic provinces, Quebec and Ontario.
It was a journey that Canadians never forgot.
However, on September 1st, after 143 days and 5,373 kilometres (3,339 miles), Terry was forced to stop running outside of Thunder Bay, Ontario because cancer had appeared in his lungs. An entire nation was stunned and saddened. Terry passed away on June 28, 1981 at age 22.
The heroic Canadian was gone, but his legacy was just beginning.
To date, more than $360 million has been raised worldwide for cancer research in Terry’s name through the annual Terry Fox Run, held across Canada and around the world.
*Before Terry died, he knew that an annual event would be held to commemorate his Marathon of Hope. It would be called, appropriately, The Terry Fox Run.
The first Terry Fox Run in 1981 attracted 300,000 participants across Canada and raised $3.5 million. To date, more than $360 million has been raised worldwide for cancer research in Terry’s name.
Each year, thousands of volunteers organize Terry Fox Run events in Canada and around the world.
In Canada, the annual Terry Fox Run is held every September, usually on the second Sunday following Labour Day. In countries outside Canada, the Run is organized at a time that is convenient for organizers.
The Run is a non-competitive event where people get together as individuals, families and groups to raise money in Terry’s name. It is a day of celebrating Terry’s legacy and helping to keep his dream of a cure for cancer alive.
There is no entry fee and no prizes are awarded, although a certificate of appreciation is given when participants complete their journey. Run locations are organized in large urban areas attracting thousands of people and in small, rural communities where just about everybody knows each other. School events tend to be incorporated into the daily curriculum.
The emphasis of the event isn’t on how much you raise, but that you participate in Terry’s memory and help him finish his Marathon of Hope.
As Terry said in 1980:
“If you’ve given a dollar, you are part of the Marathon of Hope .”
07 Sep 2005
Very interesting post over on Scripting News.
For those following the details, this might get tiring. But for those wanting to catch up, John Battelle has done a good job covering the clawing and scratching in the wake of Google’s hiring of China expert Kai-Fu Lee away from Microsoft, which we first reported here.
First, Mark Lucovsky, an engineer at Microsoft who defected to Google in November of 2004, stated that he met with Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmer that month to discuss his planned departure:
At some point in the conversation Mr. Ballmer said: ‘Just tell me it’s not Google.’ I told him it was Google. At that point, Mr. Ballmer picked up a chair and threw it across the room hitting a table in his office. Mr. Ballmer then said: ‘Fucking Eric Schmidt is a fucking pussy. I’m going to fucking bury that guy, I have done it before, and I will do it again. I’m going to fucking kill Google.’
Of course, Microsoft responded with a statement from Ballmer claiming Lucovsky’s was exaggerated (though Gillmor points out that Ballmer’s reply was essentially a press release, and not taken under oath, like Lucovsky’s statement). Next, in Microsoft’s request for preliminary injunction, Microsoft makes some claims that, if true, makes you wonder why Google would ever trust Kai-Fu Lee in the first place. Microsoft says Lee actively tried to get hired by Google, even while working at Microsoft, using his knowledge of MSFT’s competitive plans as bait, including sending confidential information over to Google.
To which, Google responds copiously. Eye-opening is this NYT piece, referring to Lee’s expressed frustration at Microsoft’s lack of traction in China. He also said Microsoft’s Bill Gates yelled at him and said that the company had been done in by the Chinese people and its government.
AP has an interesting blurb on a line from Jonathan Rosenberg, Google’s director of business development: “I all but insist that we pull out all the stops and pursue him like wolves,” Mr. Rosenberg wrote of Mr. Lee. “He is an all-star and will contribute in ways that go substantially beyond China.”
I guess it’s all about each side building up their case. In the game of corporate combatance, there’s no love lost between these two and I don’t really blame either of them. Obviously you’re going to place a lot of emphasis on the recruition of A-listers and there’s a lot of fear and uncertainty when one of them decides to leave. It happens in professional sports. The rules of engagement are (probably) often broken, and the offenders rarely caught. In this case it involved someone of enough significance to both sides that a stink was raised.
It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out. In Dr. Lee’s favor, I wouldn’t say that Microsoft should have the right to restrict his ability to seek and gain active employment in his area of specialty. However, the flaunting of private and privileged information isn’t exactly above the board and should not be encouraged on any level. I guess it’s the precise definition of private and privileged that’s causing a stir. Everybody knows that Microsoft is going after Google and vice-versa. I’m sure (completely unfounded assumption) there already is substantial corporate espoionage going on between the two organization.
It’s interesting to see and hear first hand the types of things people will divulge over the course of recruitment. Dr. Lee might not end up working on technology complementary to his work at Microsoft but did his previous research direction (and not skillset) as leverge? Microsoft made an investment and obviously they don’t want to see it walk out the door.
Google’s offer definitely would entice me
…he was offered an extremely generous compensation package, described internally at Google as “unprecedented”…it included: (1) a signing bonus of $2.5 million, (2) an additional bonus of $1.5 million after the first year, (3) a base salary of $250,000 per year….(4) options for 10,000 shares of Google stock, (5) a grant of 20,000 Google Stock Units over four years (with a value of over $5 million…)