Erik on Software

New Book Review: "Patent, Copyright & Trademark"

New book review for Patent, Copyright & Trademark: An Intellectual Property Desk Reference (11th Edition), by Attorney Richard Stim, NOLO, 2010, reposted here:

Good introduction to intellectual property law, which consists of four separate and overlapping legal disciplines: (1) patent law, (2) copyright law, (3) trademark law, and (4) trade secret law. Following an introduction that provides a high-level overview of intellectual property law, the remainder of the text is broken down into each of these disciplines, with the bulk dedicated to patent law and copyright law. Each of these sections provides an overview of the discipline covered, along with definitions associated with the corresponding discipline and explanations of forms that need to be filed, together with sample completed examples, followed by the actual legal statutes.

While the bulk of what Stim provides here is dedicated to patent law and copyright law, definitions are what carry this text across all of the four disciplines. That definitions comprise a majority of this text is important, because depending on the needs of the reader this may or may not be an effective format. This book is one of a number of self-help legal resources that Nolo provides, and so it is important to realize that this 600-page effort should probably be seen as just a good place to start one's journey in intellectual property. At the same time, it is also likely that the reader will not need to read this book cover-to-cover, because Nolo publishes separate texts dedicated to each of the four disciplines covered here.

Nolo has been updating this text regularly since the mid-1990s, so the reader can be assured that the content that is provided is up-to-date at time of publication. In each of the overview sections, Stim provides several pages under the header "What's new in patent law since the last edition?" that explain the major events in each respective discipline since the last edition of the book was published. In my opinion, this information mainly serves as a reminder that the law continues to evolve, and is probably best used by the reader as a starting point for further investigation, since the legal decisions provided are highly summarized. It is also worth pointing out that the author provides references to abundant web site resources that provide additional information.

The overviews and definitions are written clearly for those new to these legal disciplines. Compared to the last text I read on related subject matter, "Inventing Software: The Rise of 'Computer-Related' Patents" by Kenneth Nichols (see my review), I also find the material that this book provides to be very well organized. As a consultant in the software industry, the definitions that Stim provides for such terms as "algorithms", "software patents", "reverse engineering and trade secrets", and "software and trade secrets" are especially appreciated, and as a blog writer I also appreciated some of the tips that the author provides on copyrighted material. Recommended to anyone looking for an introductory text on intellectual property law.

Past Book Review (July 6, 2007): "Inventing Software"

 Past book review (i.e. posted prior to starting this blog) for Inventing Software: The Rise of "Computer-Related" Patents, by Kenneth Nichols, Quorum Books, 1998, reposted here:

From the first lines of the preface of this work by Kenneth Nichols, it is apparent that what was initially planned to be of more concise scope grew into a discussion of all things associated with software patents, and therein lies the rub. It is interesting that the author notes in just the second sentence that he "came to the conclusion that the particulars of the debate [within the programming community over the desirability and ultimate effect of software patents]...are not that interesting or enlightening". Really? I find it odd that an individual with a J.D. and an M.S. in Computer Science would make such a statement. Of course, his follow-up statement that the "larger and more important story" involves the fact that "software development is a new kind of creative activity, one that defies the neat and mutually exclusive categorizations of intellectual effort as either artistic or scientific" might be true, Frederick P. Brooks wrote extensively on this topic in his classic tome on software engineering long before the USPTO permitted the filing of related patents. Fortunately, Nichols dedicates most of his work to the more boring subject matter, although unfortunately the explanations provided are a bit boring themselves.

Putting aside the fact that this book was written in the late 1990s, however, there is a lot to offer here to the professional software engineer as well as the non-technical management community associated with software interests of this nature. For example, the author's concise 20-page introduction introduces well much of the background subject matter. Nichols also discusses well the topics of algorithms, programming, computer science, software engineering, and how patents fit in with this universe. The heart of the text, the third chapter which presents various software patent examples, however, is very poorly constructed in my opinion, although the explanation in its first few pages on major terms such as "novelty" and "nonobviousness" is concisely written. The diagram provided that depicts concepts related to nonobviousness, written in the style of a Venn diagram, is especially well suited for the discussion. The fourth chapter covers the software patent controversy, and the reader is well rewarded in my opinion when reaching this point in the book after 50 pages of rambling.

It is strange that the seventh chapter is dedicated to a definition of programming, a discussion best suited for the introductory pages of the book, although some of the quotes provided in these pages are quite entertaining, such as the W. Saba quote from an IEEE periodical that "hardware engineers have gone further than their software counterparts because hardware design became a science...Unlike hardware engineers, software engineers still deal in magic and witchcraft". Interestingly enough, it was just recently that The Economist discussed the emergence of computer science as the foundational branch of science. Last of all, while the sixth chapter boldly begins by proclaiming "we've finally come to the good part" because it deals with recommendations for software developers, only 6 pages are dedicated to the subject! If Nichols is to write further on software patents, I recommend an entire book dedicated to recommendations.

New Book Review: "To the Cloud"

New book review for To the Cloud: Cloud Powering the Enterprise, by Pankaj Arora, Raj Biyani, and Salil Dave, McGraw-Hill, 2012, reposted here:

The authors of this text rightly explain in their introduction that the path to cloud adoption is bound to be different for every firm. Because much of what is provided here is based on Microsoft IT's own experience with cloud adoption, and most of the software that Microsoft IT consumes is built in-house, the authors point out that they recognize their enterprise is unique, so they chose to focus on concepts rather than specific technologies when guiding the reader through the cloud adoption learning process. While the reader should readily recognize that this is a Microsoft text because the foreward was written by Microsoft CIO Tony Scott, what the authors present here is for the most part product agnostic. And since they share as case studies what they have accomplished as Microsoft IT, it should be no surprise to readers that Microsoft Hyper-V and Windows Azure are periodically mentioned.

The material presented here is broken down into four parts: (1) Explore, (2) Envision, (3) Enable, and (4) Execute. After first discussing the cloud computing paradigm, and the value proposition that it offers, the authors provide practical advice for developing a business case and building consensus with key stakeholders once there is momentum in making a move toward the cloud. The following focus then shifts to various adoption approaches, and a number of topics surrounding cloud execution. Having also just recently completed a reading of "The Cloud at Your Service: The When, How, and Why of Enterprise Cloud Computing" by Jothy Rosenberg and Arthur Mateos (see my review), another high-level introduction to cloud computing that follows a similar line of presentation, as a consultant who works with technical and non-technical stakeholders I see the need for these two texts to share the same shelf space, with this other work catering to a technical audience.

In my opinion, what Arora, Biyani, and Dave provide here is akin to an expanded white paper, due to its format and sub-100 page length, perfect for mid-air reading. One aspect of this text that I especially appreciate is the well executed style of diagrams reminiscent of Harvard Business School Press offerings, which always provide ideas as to how the material might best be presented visually to a non-technical audience. Judging from the frequency and location of dog ears that I left behind after my reading of this book, I found the first half of what the authors present to be material to which I will return, with the parts on Explore and Envision especially well done. The section on "demand patterns", for example, in which the authors describe application usage patterns used to determine best fit based on analyzing user demand and usage patterns, as well as workload characteristics, although brief, was surprisingly not covered as a topic in the earlier work. Well executed. Recommended especially for non-technical management.

New Book Review: "Influence"

New book review for Influence: Science and Practice, by Robert B. Cialdini, Pearson Education, 2009, reposted here:

The quote by Tom Peters on the cover of the fifth edition is what helped compel me to purchase this text: "If everything were on the line in a negotiation, I can't think of anyone I'd rather have advising me than Bob Cialdini." A colleague of mine noted after the fact that this book recently appeared on a top-20 list of leadership books to read this year, but I have read my share of leadership texts, so what interested me was its apparent focus on negotiation. To some extent, this book is faintly reminiscent of an audio tape called "The Psychology of Selling" by Brian Tracy that a former colleague of mine recommended early in my career, because the focus here is looking at the factors that cause individuals to say "yes", and the techniques that most effectively use these factors to bring about such a decision.

This book is organized around the 6 psychological principles that direct human behavior and give these techniques their power: reciprocation, consistency, social proof, liking, authority, and scarcity. Although this book may have been written to engage the popular reader, the conclusions that the author, a psychology professor at Arizona State University, reaches are based on controlled, psychological research. As Cialdini entertainingly walks the reader through what he learned during his 3-year period of participant observation that served as input to this book, in my opinion although he is both successful at instruction as well as keeping the reader engaged, as with many texts the reader will need to extrapolate in order to apply personally, especially if what is sought is application to the workplace.

Judging by the location of dog ears that were left behind after my reading of this text, the portions I especially appreciated are the first chapter, "Weapons of Influence", the last chapter, "Instant Influence: Primitive Consent for an Automatic Age", and the many sidebars throughout the body of what the author provides called "Reader's Reports". In fact, it turns out that the author has found that the "Readers's Reports" are one of the most popular aspects among readers, and in my opinion these are similar to the "Letters to the Editor" one might find in a newspaper or magazine: people writing in to the author to share how the principles and techniques that are presented in this text have been encountered in the real world. Fascinating lessons learned rooted in science. Recommended reading.

New Book Review: "Dr. Peeling's Principles of Management"

New book review for Dr. Peeling's Principles of Management: Practical Advice for the Front-Line Manager, by Nic Peeling, Dorset House, 2003, reposted here:

The aspect of this text that originally drew my attention was that it is published by Dorset House, which has still yet to disappoint after reading several of their books, including "Waltzing with Bears: Managing Risk on Software Projects", by Tom DeMarco and Timothy Lister, as well as "The Secrets of Consulting: A Guide to Giving and Getting Advice Successfully" and "More Secrets of Consulting: The Consultant's Tool Kit", both by Gerald M. Weinberg (see my reviews for all of these books). However, I admittedly was not sure what to expect from this text, even though it is subtitled "Practical Advice for the Front-Line Manager", because of the name "Dr. Peeling" within the title, a name of which I was not familiar.

Like me, the author works in a technical field, and although Peeling presents his management principles from the perspective of managing technical people, these principles can be applied to non-technical fields as well. Potential readers might want to keep in mind that this book is intended to be practical. The author explains in his introduction that after being thrust into management, he came up empty handed while searching for books that explain the basic theory and practice of management. "What I did not find were books that encapsulated best practice for someone facing management responsibilities for the first time. By the time I found such a book, I was well into my management career and had learned enough to know that I did not agree with much of what it contained."

The content of this book follows the journey of the author through management, and seeks to present what the author wishes he had known when he first found himself in a management role. Topics include managing people as individuals, managing problem staff and staff problems, managing people in teams - leadership principles, managing the practice of team leadership, project management, managing different types of staff, managing team culture, managing a failing team, organizing your team (and yourself), managing your universe, managing people outside your organization, revisiting common management themes, and managing in the real world.

While Peeling views himself to be a competent manager, he also views himself at best as only an average project manager, so the potential reader needs to keep in mind that although the advice that the author provides can be applied to a broader scope of individuals than originally envisioned, because there are substantial differences between management and project management not tied to a specific project, his chapter on project management is only a brief introduction. Plenty of books that focus on project management are readily available in the marketplace, so if the potential reader is looking for project management focus, it is advised to go elsewhere.

However, as a consultant who serves in leadership and project management roles while architecting and developing systems and software, I can attest to the fact that there is enough relevant material here to recommend to others seeking an alternative perspective to what might be found in other texts. And in addition, because the content of this book is shared by a manager, Peeling also provides a number of take-aways that the consultant might find useful to keep in mind when working with managers on client engagements. And somewhat reminiscent of Gerald M. Weinberg, Peeling periodically presents tangible rules throughout, such as "The Golden Rule of Management, which states that "You will be judged by your actions, not by your words, and your actions shall set the example of your team to follow."

Chapters that I especially appreciate include Chapter 9, "Organizing Your Team (and Yourself)" and Chapter 10, "Managing Your Universe". In the former, the author recommends, for example, to "reduce your level of perfectionism on appropriate tasks", and that "two roles you might want to delegate are those of operations manager and routine personnel manager." In the latter, the author offers, in his own words, "the hard-won experience of my own mistakes." He writes, for example, to "remember that managerial incompetence is much more prevalent than conspiracy", and offers several recommendations with regard to managing office politics. And his brief instruction to "accommodate benign neglect" is one of the best take-aways for me personally.

New Book Review: "Diagnosing and Changing Organizational Culture"

New book review for Diagnosing and Changing Organizational Culture: Based on the Competing Values Framework (Third Edition), by Kim S. Cameron and Robert E. Quinn, Jossey-Bass, 2011, reposted here:

In the introduction to this book, the authors share the familiar Tom Peters quote, "If you're not confused, you're not paying attention", because the purpose here is "not to offer one more panacea for coping with our turbulent times or to introduce another management fad." In the words of the authors, this book "provides a framework, a sense-making tool, a set of systematic steps, and a methodology for helping managers and their organizations adapt to the demands of the environment. It focuses less on the right answers than it does on the methods and mechanisms available to help managers change the most fundamental elements of their organizations" at the cultural level.

While the authors also state that other proposed approaches to measuring organizational culture have been proposed, and that their intent is not to provide an extensive review of this literature, they also provide what I consider important background information to the Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument (OCAI), which includes the facts that the OCAI (based on the Competing Values Framework) is probably the most frequently used instrument for assessing organizational culture in the world today, and that although some versions are longer, some including up to 24 items that together describe organizational culture, the 6 items that are used in this book provide a simpler synthesis that addresses fundamental manifestations of organizational culture.

After walking through the OCAI current profile worksheet, which addresses basic assumptions (dominant characteristics, organizational glue), interaction patterns (leadership, management of employees), and organizational direction (strategic emphasis, criteria of success) that typify the fundamentals of culture, the authors present the two major dimensions organized into four main clusters that define organizational effectiveness. The first dimension differentiates effectiveness criteria that emphasize flexibility, discretion, and dynamism from criteria that emphasize stability, order, and control. The second dimension differentiates effectiveness criteria that emphasize an internal orientation, integration, and unity from criteria that emphasize an external orientation, differentiation, and rivalry.

These four main clusters can be visualized as the Clan, Adhocracy, Hierarchy, and Market quadrants of a graph. Because these quadrant names were derived from the scholarly literature, the authors also conveniently provide counterpart names to which they think business executives and other nonacademic audiences might better relate (Collaborate, Create, Control, Compete). The authors note that while designed to assess organizational culture, these clusters can also be used to assess leadership roles, organizational effectiveness, and management roles, and provide several examples that demonstrate applicability to these other areas. In chapter 6 and Appendix B, the authors even provide an extension to the Competing Values Framework based on the Management Skills Assessment Instrument (MSAI) to address the personal behavior change on which a change in organizational culture depends.

In my opinion, the nine managerial competencies addressed for management across the four quadrants are more tangible (Clan = managing teams, managing interpersonal relationships, managing the development of others, Adhocracy = managing innovation, managing the future, managing continuous improvement, Hierarchy = managing acculturation, managing the control system, managing coordination, Market = managing competitiveness, energizing employees, managing customer service), although while the authors present at length the fact that the four quadrants for organizational culture depend on a "Means-Does Not Mean" analysis to be completed by stakeholders in order to determine what chosen future state organizational culture actually means in a relative sense, this analysis is not provided in the context of managerial competencies directly since these are intended to lead to the desired future state organizational culture.

Overall, however, Cameron and Quinn present the process to diagnose organizational culture extremely well, and they do note repeatedly, as can be expected, that it is not possible to present a cookie-cutter approach because of the continuum nature of culture. From the perspective of a consultant, I especially appreciate the many examples that the authors provide that demonstrate example company profiles and shifts in company culture over time. The average culture profiles for various industry groups that the authors present are also well received, although it is important for potential readers of this book to realize that the categorizations for these groups are very broad.

For example, consulting services might technically fall under the "services" group, which obviously encompasses a wide spectrum of companies, although in such a case it might be beneficial to look at cultural profiles of client industry groups. As a consultant in the software industry, I could not help but notice that this book ties in well with a book I read several years ago entitled "Balancing Agility and Discipline: A Guide for the Perplexed", by Barry Boehm and Richard Turner. While that text is narrowly focused on choosing a software development methodology, a culture dimension of plots reminiscent of those seen in the book under review here can be seen as output from what Cameron and Quinn provide.

Interestingly enough, while the term "changing" sits alongside "diagnosing" in the title of this work, it is really not until Appendix C and Appendix D that the former is addressed with any substance. It is actually understandable why this is the case - change is multifaceted and covered by numerous other titles - but I would personally like to see the authors expand on these appendixes in another book, because the content provides hints for initiating organizational culture change and improving personal management competencies that specifically address the quadrants discussed in the book. Well written and focused business text recommended to anyone seeking understanding of organizational culture or personal management competencies as they relate to their own situations or to situations of customers and clients.

Current Print Subscriptions: 4Q2011

My subscriptions to print periodicals as of October, November, and December 2011.

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Update:

• Discontinued IEEE Engineering Management Review
• Discontinued IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management

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Computerworld

• Information Technology.
• Weekly. Online version available here.

Consulting

• Consulting events, thought leadership, industry intelligence, and lifestyle issues.
• Bimonthly. Online version available here.

The Economist

• Business, political and literary newsweekly.
• Weekly. Online version available here.

IEEE Spectrum

• Technology magazine.
• Online version available here.

Information Management

• Business intelligence, analytics, integration, and data warehousing.
• Monthly. Online version available here.

The New Yorker

• Culture, art, politics, design, technology, and more.
• Weekly. Online version available here.

Runner's World

• Running magazine.
• Monthly. Online version available here.

The Wall Street Journal

• Largest circulation U.S. newspaper.
• Daily. Online version available here.

RSNA 2011: Observations by an Architect (November 27, 2011)

This past Sunday I had the opportunity to attend the annual RSNA trade show again. As in past years, most of my time was spent in the research exhibits, because from the perspective of an architect it is always interesting to not only see the move of technologies to the commercial space, but get a better understanding of what is inside the box. In the commerical space this year, I did happen to chance upon some whiteboard scribblings for the first time that were presumably intended to depict architecture to potential buyers (RSNA is heavily sales oriented), but it really just scratched the surface.

Unfortunately, due to my travels during the prior week of Thanksgiving I did not have as much energy available as in past years to speak with researchers, but I did manage to get a good demonstration from the researchers behind an exhibit entitled "Mobile Cloud-Computer-aided Diagnosis System for Colon Cancer Screening with Motion-based Virtual Colonoscopic Navigation". Somewhat reminiscent of one of my favorite exhibits from last year, "PACS 3D: Utilizing Cutting-edge Technologies to Create a Fully Interactive 3D PACS Interface", albeit the showcase this time revolved around a Microsoft Xbox 360 + Kinect rather than a Sony Wii, and no glasses were required.

This exhibit was much more sophisticated than its seeming counterpart last year, consisting of not just this Kinect user interface, but an iPad user interface as well as software hosted on an Intel cloud that virtually cleanses (prepares for analysis and viewing) the colon images served to these devices. As the researchers explained to me, this virtual cleansing took approximately 30 minutes prior to moving to the cloud, and now takes about 2.5 minutes. Their goal is to further reduce this time to about 20 seconds, which is the average time it actually takes to scan a patient to create the images.

After successfully performing extensive virtualization work for a client CTO this past year, and literally just completing a reading of "The Cloud at Your Service", by Jothy Rosenberg and Arthur Mateos, I was interested in hearing what these researchers thought about cloud security. They replied in the negative to my initial question as to whether a private cloud had been utilized, so I inquired as to whether they chose a public cloud perhaps because security is probably best left to specialists. Their reply was that security is not a concern of theirs, just the research, which makes sense, as long as the topic is revisited en route to the commercial space.

Cloud computing is actually one theme at RSNA 2011 that predictably intensified from last year. As expected, however, the definitions of "cloud computing" were all over the map. For example, one exhibit provided the graphic below that describes different means by which images can be accessed by users. According to the given definition, cloud computing "utilizes powerful servers which provide centralized data management and storage capabilities to facilitate collaboration and remote image access."

Not a very accurate definition. Clouds typically consist of commodity servers, which help enable cost efficient scalability, rather than "powerful servers". In addition, while it may be true that clouds provide centralized data management and storage, this aspect does not speak to any of the key differentiators that clouds provide. The table below, from the same exhibit (as always, sources are anonymous), seemingly provides additional information behind each of the image sharing methods in the above graphic, but is a bit awry.

Focusing on cloud computing, this table indicates, for example, that (1) cloud architecture is third-party, which assumes a non-private cloud, (2) again, "several powerful central servers" are involved, (3) something is secure,  not sure what - for example, that data at rest (data persistence in a database) and/or at motion (client communication with the cloud) is secure, and (4) cloud scalability is "limited by server power and storage space", which is always a limitation regardless of solution, but does not recognize one of the central benefits of using a cloud.

However, despite its flaws, this same exhibit reminded me one of the realities in the healthcare software space regarding competition: "Healthcare enterprises expend considerable effort to keep patients within their systems. Internally accessible integrated medical records that are not easily duplicated form a key competitive advantage. Open data networks that allow transfer of imaging or other records outside their enterprises erode this advantage, so competitive enterprises may not devote their scarce IT resources to implementing electronic image transfer." As someone who has experience in both the public healthcare space, and most recently, the private healthcare space, the former promoting standardized records, this is a dilemma with which I have needed to accomodate as a consultant. It will be interesting to see the degree to which this dilemma erodes in coming years due to available government funding.

Other notable common RSNA 2011 themes across commercial exhibits included "universal" this and that, which is marketecture to give the impression that said products play well with a wide variety of platforms, vaguely reminiscent of "DB2 Universal Database", which is actually multiple products, "innovation", which implies use of truly new ideas or methods, and "patient-centered" or "patient control", which imply that focus is on patients, even though the practical issue of competition just discussed seems to be the reality.

Somewhat disappointing was that the number of research exhibits in the information technology space mentioning open source software was less than in recent years, although when it was mentioned it seemed to have been presented better (for example, see the SIVIC graphic below), and it was a surprise to see that the number of research exhibits focusing on mobile platforms had decreased from last year. In fact, based on my experience at RSNA 2011, the amount of floor space dedicated to both commercial and research exhibits seemed to have decreased since last year.

RSNA 2010: Observations by an Architect (November 28, 2010)

Spent all day yesterday at McCormick Place - I had the opportunity to attend the annual RSNA trade show again this year. Most of my time was probably spent in the research exhibits, but I also spent a fair amount of time upstairs on the main floor visiting commercial exhibits. It's always interesting to see the move of technologies to the commercial space. The same technologies might exist in both spaces, but while researchers will usually be happy to explain what's inside the box, everything is black-boxed and shrink-wrapped by the time commercial products are made. I was fortunate this year in that I was able to interact with quite a few researchers, and got there early enough to get some good demonstrations.

One of the best exhibits in my opinion was "PACS 3D: Utilizing Cutting-edge Technologies to Create a Fully Interactive 3D PACS Interface". (A complete list of research exhibits is available here in the "Education Exhibits" section.) I had a chance to chat with the researcher before the lines formed. He integrated a Wii into his software at some point (he's been working on this research for 6 years). The demonstration was fairly smooth, but he said the ambient light was interfering with the Wii. Essentially, what his software provides is the ability to examine an image, click on an individual anatomical part (which I think he referred to as "segmenting"), and drag and rotate the part in space away from the original image. No photo of me in glasses - sorry - but here is a photo of some physicians who arrived a few minutes after me.

Mobile applications were just beginning to show some heavy presence at the show last year, but this year the number of exhibits showcasing iPhone / iPad applications increased several-fold. In addition, Android applications have begun to appear. And HTML5 was discussed in several exhibits. One of the better exhibits on this topic was "Comparison of Mobile DICOM Image Viewers and Mobile Platforms: Thick and Thin Clients on the iPhone, iPad, and Android". Thick clients included OsireX, eFilm Mobile (Merge Mobile), iClarity, Resolution MD, and Mobile MIM. Thin clients included Oviyam, Radiology Theatre, WebPAX, and Infomedica (not officially released yet). Most if not all of this software is open source. HTML5 DICOM viewers are reportedly being developed. All researchers I talked to developed the iPhone / iPad applications (most of which were either dashboards or DICOM viewers) they were exhibiting using Objective-C.

Another exhibit I enjoyed was called "CouchDICOM: The Use of Document-based Databases in DICOM Object Storage". No software on display, but a good overview of the NoSQL space and how document-based databases (with a focus on CouchDB) in particular fit in the health care space. Several exhibits focused on natural language processing, searching unstructured information in radiology and pathology reports. One exhibit, "An End-to-End Natural Language Processing (NLP) System for Capturing and Searching Unstructured Information in Radiology and Pathology Reports", involved use of open source software such as OpenNLP and METAMAP that might be used to parse through unstructured data and turn it into useful information (for example, my recent work with the Cerner Millennium database, in particular the fields associated with physician notes, comes to mind).

Other than the Informatics subspecialty, I also spent some time taking a look at Quality Improvement, where dozens of hospitals demonstrated how they integrated software (much of it open source) into their processes to solve cycle-time and other quality problems. I talked to the exhibitor of "Creating a Patient-centric Dashboard for Radiology using Open Source Software", for example, who demonstrated a dashboard very similar to the software I developed with some of my fellow consultant colleagues for a past client, and the hospital news feed at the bottom of the screen looked very similar to what I have seen at some area hospitals. Interestingly enough, his software incorporated an open source product called Mirth which I integrated into one of my proof of concepts for a past client. I've already posted about this topic before, so suffice it to say I will continue to not recommend the software to clients unless there is demonstrable improvement, but it was good to hear that the software was sufficient for this particular hospital (and that this was the only exhibit that mentioned Mirth this year).

If you haven't attended trade shows like RSNA before, I recommend you make an effort to do so sometime. It's a good opportunity to investigate both the research space and the marketplace in one shot if you can handle the walking and you are comfortable talking with sales representatives. I took quite a few photos, but it's not possible to give you a feel for the commercial space with a photo (none of the three rooms fit in a single photo because each is so huge), so I've attached a couple photos that show one of the largest exhibits in terms of footprint (Siemens) along with a photo of a group of firms from Germany (there were also groups like this from South Korea and China).

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RSNA 2010: Quality Improvement? - MRI Workflow

RSNA 2010: Quality Improvement? - MRI Wait Time

New Book Review: "The Cloud at Your Service"

New book review for The Cloud at Your Service: The When, How, and Why of Enterprise Cloud Computing, by Jothy Rosenberg and Arthur Mateos, Manning, 2011, reposted here:

Potential readers of this text, especially those familiar with Manning, might be interested in knowing that in their preface, the authors indicate they "had to convince Manning to publish a book that wasn't aimed squarely at programmers. When we told them the book had no source code, that didn't compute. We held firm, arguing that a huge need exists for a book that tells it like it is for the enterprise IT worker. The cloud will eventually have its greatest effect on the largest of organizations. But they're precisely the organizations that have the most trouble changing. We wanted to talk directly to you about how to undertake this shift, what it will mean to you and your organization, and how to proceed in a sane and reasonable manner."

The authors are correct that this need exists, and after reading what they have to offer here, this space will continue to need additional contributions for quite some time. As a consultant leading a virtualization project this past year, a prior reading of this text would have helped prepare me for some of the discussions that ensued with client personnel. While technical texts such as "VMWare vSphere 4" by Scott Lowe (see my review), significantly increased my confidence at a product level, the periodic conversations surrounding what can be seen as a possible next step following virtualization, use of a cloud, could have benefited from materials like the authors provide here, because quite simply there are very few product neutral, cloud focused texts.

The authors actually do provide some source code, however minimal, in this text, but it is mainly confined to what Amazon provides with its cloud API. Some code snippets from competitors such as Microsoft are also provided for contrast, even though the authors indicate throughout the text that Amazon leads the pack and predict that Amazon will continue to lead in upcoming years, mainly because Amazon got to the starting line earlier due to providing to the public what it first had utilized solely for internal solutions. The first few chapters, entitled "What is Cloud Computing?", "Understanding Cloud Computing Classifications", "The Business Case for Cloud Computing", "Security and the Private Cloud", and "Designing and Architecting for Cloud Scale", together with the concluding chapter, "The Future of the Cloud", were well done, but chapters "Achieving High Reliability at Cloud Scale", "Testing, Deployment, and Operations in the Cloud", and "Practical Considerations" feel at times rushed or out of place.

The target audience of this book is probably greater than what the authors surmise, which is to say that regardless of whether protential readers are managers or programmers, anyone interested in quickly getting up to speed with some of the core tenants of cloud computing can probably benefit from this book. As a consultant architect, I especially appreciated the persistence of the authors throughout the text of focusing on the five main principles that define cloud computing (pooled computing resources available to any subscribing users, virtualized computing resources to maximize hardware utilization, elastic scaling up or down according to need, automated creation of new virtual machines or deletion of existing ones, and resource usage billed only as used). In addition, the authors present the high-level business and architectural cases for cloud computing well.