I work for a large financial services company.  We take our responsibilities for protecting and enhancing our client’s wealth exceedingly seriously.  We are also one of the most highly regulated Industries – and of course we all expect that to become even truer in the aftermath of the recent recession.

When faced with new technology we always have to look at both how it can be used positively and also assess the risks it poses.  Social networking technology is one of those types of technologies that seem to have what I call a “bar bell” shaped profile: It has some incredibly strong benefits, and at the other end of the spectrum, some very big risks.  Technologies with these profiles are among the most difficult to manage because people really want to use them and the risks are very difficult to mitigate.

Since our industry is very risk adverse we always seem to focus on the risks first – so let’s look at the basic risks:  (continue reading…)

Kanye West is his recent online rant has perfectly and brilliantly put into words my feelings about Twitter in one sentence.   “Everything that Twitter Offers I Need Less of.” 

His main rant is about the fact that there are Kanye imposters out there that the service will not remove.  But along the way he hits a home run about the actual usefulness of the service. 

As a CIO I need to understand new technology and how to put it to commercial use.  It’s mandatory as part of my job that I understand new “cool new services” like Twitter.  So first I decided to see what my peers were doing.[1] They were Tweeting about conferences, new product announcements and new ideas.  While this was good information to share it was not as easy to find and not as comprehensive as what was on their blogs. 

For months I’ve scratched my head about Twitter.  I’m supposed to be the guy who understands and evangelizes new technology.  If I don’t “get” Twitter what’s wrong with me?  I personally found Twitter inferior to just about every alternative information delivery vehicle I compared it to and I gradually formed the admittedly self-serving view that something is wrong not wrong with me but with Twitter instead.  I think this video called the “Twouble with Twitters” clarifies it even better:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PN2HAroA12w

So I decided that I was going to write a really controversial post to the effect of “Twitter is just a fad – get over it”, or maybe even “Twitter: Pointless!” to goad you exploring this with me except almost all data points in the opposite direction.   Then Kanye’s post hit me like a lightning bolt.  (continue reading…)