Disqus - Latest Comments for dsonnen

Re: Response Times-Time To Get Real!

David Sonnen — Tue, 28 Oct 2014 07:07:11 -0000

Bill, this is a hugely important topic. But, having an open conversation will be difficult. There are many sacred cows wandering around the response time pasture. Here's one: What is the role of Federal grants in artificially supporting the crippling high prices for PSAP and dispatch technologies? (Yea, that's a leading question.) But, until we can measure effectiveness with better rulers than response time, change will be tough.

Do you see better ways to measure and improve emergency services?

Re: Audi Robotic Racecar Relies on GPS

David Sonnen — Fri, 17 Oct 2014 11:07:52 -0000

Sure, raw GPS signal is weak and noisy. A-GPS is better. RTK corrected GPS is accurate to a centimeter in real time. Hybrid GPS, like Audi is using, can be very accurate and hardened against jamming or spoofing.

Re: There’s Ebolota Shakin’ Going On

David Sonnen — Sun, 03 Aug 2014 22:42:06 -0000

Mr. Trump is the class clown. His pursuit of unfounded rumors is apparently a hobby that he enjoys at the expense of public good and, in this case, public safety.

Re: 2013 is still the year of the PDF – U.S. Forest Service brags about PDF on mobile

David Sonnen — Mon, 25 Nov 2013 16:51:53 -0000

You can pay for free data. Or, you could download the US Topo app for Android for free. The Trimble for Outdoors app for Android is pretty cool too. Also free.

Re: An inside look behind Romney's loss: An epic failure of its Orca big-data app

David Sonnen — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 11:09:00 -0000

Sounds like the Rs did the same kind of relentless testing as Apple did with their Maps...

Re: Is the New Location Graph Just Psychographics Revisited?

David Sonnen — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 12:31:24 -0000

Joe, Interesting webcast. I agree that Jiwire is just developing psychographic data, much like Claritas or Neilsen. I'd be cautious about assuming that big data analytics will produce "better" results than other statistical methods. We don't have evidence that super-large samples or even whole-population analysis consistently produces more reliable or useful results than ordinary statistics.

Big data analytics do change a lot of assumptions the ways that populations are analyzed and represented statistically. But, so far big data has been about "new-cool-stuff" rather than proven results. Occasionally-disastrous results from Wall Street quants give us an insight into how big data analytics can be misleading. I think that it's too early to tell if or even how big data analytics will play out as an analytic tool. It's probably even too early to tell what big data analytics means.

Re: Verizon's botched 'Share Everything' launch could sink carrier

David Sonnen — Wed, 13 Jun 2012 17:09:27 -0000

Our ATT contract just expired and we were looking at Verizon. Fortunately, now we don't need to do that. Verizon just built a solid case for avoiding their service.

Re: Google says snooping on Wi-Fi networks isn't illegal

David Sonnen — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 12:07:27 -0000

This is a non-issue.

Every web-based business, telecom, in fact almost every commercial organization, keeps "private" data about users, customers or prospects. There is a global data provisioning industry that acquires and sells "private" data. This kind of data is necessary, or at least useful, to conduct business.

Get over it.

Re: ACLU: Cops often violate Americans' privacy by warrantless cell phone tracking

David Sonnen — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 11:03:09 -0000

I think that the ACLU is off-base here. There are many uses of cell phone location data that are simple extensions of established law enforcement practice, like following a vehicle that is being driven erratically.

A local case illustrates my point. In January, hubby was drinking, went home, punched his wife, breaking several teeth. He then got in his truck and drove away. Wife called 911, giving the call taker a description of hubby's truck and his cell phone number. 911 Dispatch tracked his cell phone to a local town and notified the local police. Within 30 minutes, the local cops arrested hubby.

The DA charged him with felony assault and DUI. He was convicted and sentenced to 2 years in prison.

The ACLU contends that this practice and this arrest should be invalid without a warrant. However, if the local cops had just seen the truck and made the arrest, everything would be fine. I believe that invalidating this arrest because the cops didn't have a warrant to use cell tracking data is arbitrary and in this case harmful to the public good.

My point here is that the use of location tracking data can help address real, immediate law enforcement problems. The use of location tracking data should not be arbitrarily restricted without careful consideration of the impacts of that restriction.

Re: Mozilla, Microsoft debut Bing-ed Firefox

David Sonnen — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 08:07:19 -0000

The issue isn't privacy. The issue is Microsoft's long and consistent history of "Embrace, Extend, Extinguish". To me, this move looks like "Embrace".

Re: Mozilla, Microsoft debut Bing-ed Firefox

David Sonnen — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 17:46:01 -0000

There goes my last contribution to the Mozilla foundation. Who ever decided to take MSFT's Bing bling was and apparently still is unaware of how deeply the Open Source community distrusts MSFT.

Re: Social Media: What Most Companies Don't Know - Harvard Business Review

David Sonnen — Tue, 31 May 2011 20:15:10 -0000

Personally, I will not go through an on-line slideshow. They rarely work well, they take too much time and, like PowerPoints, obscure the key message in "chart junk". This one appears to be a fine example of all three problems.

If you're going to start using slideshows, please also provide a prominent link to a text or PDF version.

Re: Osma bin Laden raid: Four fresh twists in the story - Pakistan knew? - CSMonitor.com

David Sonnen — Sat, 07 May 2011 10:41:02 -0000

How did the Monitor infer that one SEAL was "surprised that the US had actually found its man" from a comment made during a high-risk raid? It is truly fortunate that our intelligence service develops their information more carefully.

Re: Will Robots Drive Google to Distraction?

David Sonnen — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 14:30:15 -0000

Distraction? Not really. Besides being the top dog in search, Google is one of the top mapping companies on the planet. One of their competitors, NavTeq, has had an automated driving group for at least 4 years. (You remember NavTeq? They're the little mapping company that Nokia bought for $8.1 billion)

All the major auto makers have been pursuing the automated driving concept for a long time. It's just an extension of the automation that applies your brakes, controls skids and balances acceleration in most modern cars. Most of the auto makers work with NavTeq as part of their automated driving research.

Automated driving is certainly in its research stage, but may eventually have a positive impact on energy independence and the annual carnage wrought on unautomated vehicles and passengers.

Google's geographic data, technology and crowdsourcing abilities might well be a part of an eventual solution. It seems to me that Google is just doing what they do best -- pushing technology boundaries into new, valuable areas.

Re: How Reframers Unleash Innovation in Their Companies (And Beyond)

David Sonnen — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 12:48:40 -0000

As William Gibson said, "The future is here. It's just not evenly distributed". Large organizations like Pepsico, Tata and GE have the ability to distribute on a massive scale. Perhaps You've identified a way that the "future" that people want is realized in broad markets.

Health consciousness has been an upward trending topic for at least a decade. CK Prahalad articulated the case for economic inclusion of people at "the bottom of the pyramid" in 2004. The issues of MML in health care have been vigorously debated for a decade or so and have finally been addressed by legislation in the US. These are not new issues. They are deep problems that require new approaches that current markets do not satisfy.

The leaders that you cite are finding ways to focus the immense capacities of their organizations to satisfy broad and deep demands that lie outside current dominant markets. It would be interesting to trace these leader's actions back to some of the thinking and insights that defined and shaped their new markets and demands.

Thank you for your thought provoking article.

Re: A New Tool for Understanding Sustainability Drivers

David Sonnen — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 17:39:57 -0000

I certainly agree that your model should be and is directionally correct. That jumps off the page, even at first glance and makes your Wheel a powerful tool for framing questions and gaining insight.

Additional modeling might help get past an 80% insight. Some of the models that have sprung up around Paul Krugman's "New Economic Geography" might be a good place to start. That's a guess, but sustainability does seem to be sensitive to geographic constraints and magnifiers.

If the business and research communities cycled through observation and modeling of some relationships in your Wheel, we might gain additional insights into how the elements of sustainability are interrelated. There is an intriguing possibility that additional modeling and observation might uncover best practices or even some first principles that aren't obvious now.

Re: A New Tool for Understanding Sustainability Drivers

David Sonnen — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 12:10:41 -0000

I like your concept of a Sustainability Forces Wheel. It helps to clarify and perhaps quantify the many interacting forces that impinge on "Sustainability". That clarity is going to be essential if we are to move policy and practice toward sustainable outcomes at any level.

The Wheel's strengths create some problems. The graphic implies distinct boundaries between various forces. Those crisp boundaries don't exist. And, the model likely excludes forces that arise over time. So, spinning the Wheel to align forces is likely to imply reactions and relationships that are incomplete or simply do not exist.

For the purposes of modeling likely outcomes, a more stochastic model might work as a complement to the Wheel. Models from fluid dynamics, ecology and economics come to mind. (I'm sure that modelers in the audience have better ideas.)

Your conceptual model coupled with stochastic models may produce results that would be useful in developing and understanding the impacts of better policies and practices.

Re: Forget OSM, how About ClosedStreetMap

David Sonnen — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 16:52:28 -0000

Well, this is "interesting". But, it is April 1st.....

Re: How Can We Expect Companies to Be Open If We Remain Closed?

David Sonnen — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 09:35:23 -0000

You've implied an important point: Is' "open" an ethic or a business strategy? I think the answer is both.

The earliest days of the 'net were about open communication between scientists. Now the Internet is a communication layer that touches society much more broadly. As you've said, people can share anything -- for free. "Anything" is an amazing and incomprehensible torrent of information. And, each of us is free to filter, judge and act on what we consider relevant.

But, what are our obligations to contribute to the information torrent? If we demand transparency from others, are we also obligated to be transparent ourselves?

It will be interesting to see how we the people sort this one out. We've got a very long way to go.

Re: ESRI Mapping via facebook and the Make A Map video? You betcha!

David Sonnen — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 17:33:26 -0000

Cool idea. Still needs a lot of work. But, it's good to see ESRI pushing out into social media.

Re: Keep A Close Eye on Chris Messina for the Web's Future

David Sonnen — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 09:55:47 -0000

Thanks! By pointing to other deep thinkers you've helped keep important issues of Web evolution open and visible. Make sure to keep yourself on that list.

Re: Keep A Close Eye on Chris Messina for the Web's Future

David Sonnen — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 09:53:42 -0000

Louis,

Thanks!! Your pointers to other deep thinkers is more than useful. You're helping to keep critical issues about Web evolution open and visable.

Dave

Re: The Science of Negative Results

David Sonnen — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 09:03:01 -0000

You've raised an extremely important point: Negative results are shunned. As a culture, we pretend that negative results don't exist. As a direct result, it is difficult to benefit from others real experience.

This broad problem with negative results pervades science, technology and particularly business.

Your solution, a Journal of Negative Results, would be a powerful step forward. You also pointed toward another potential solution. You mentioned a situation where your old research journals proved to have valuable information. Perhaps, as a general practice, we could simply post results to personal blogs or wikis so that they are searchable.

Blogs and wikis are not peer reviewed or particularly rigorous. But, they can contain useful information, incuding ways to contact the original researcher. With the right structure, this unsanctioned information could become a hugely valuable. resource.

Re: Be-BOP: Sudden Stop

David Sonnen — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 21:54:49 -0000

My guess on timing is based on an assumption that the couple trillion or so Treasury is pumping into banking institutions will take 24-36 months to clear the system and will not spur adequate productivity.

The Treasury's newly minted cash, as you've indicated, is phony -- not tied to real assets or productivity. The Treasury's bet seems to be that magic will occur and productivity will somehow climb to give their fresh cash adequate validity. Given your analysis of energy's future and the current down trends in real productivity, the Treasury's bet seems pretty sketchy, even desperate.

I hope I'm dead wrong.

Re: What Do YOU Think Of All The Recent Media Hype?

David Sonnen — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 20:49:32 -0000

Twitter's still growing up. We're going to see a lot more interesting developments than the current "Star Hype" over the next year or so. It's going to be fun!