Massachusetts on Track for ODF Implementation Tuesday, August 29, 2006
Posted by Bear One in eGovernment, Enterprise Architecture, Open Source.add a comment
Louis Gutierrez, The CIO of Massachusetts ITD (Information Technology Division) is qouted for saying that “After implementing ODF (OpenDocument Format) at the early adopter agencies, Massachusetts plans “to migrate all Executive Department agencies to compliance with the standard, in phases, by June of 2007, noting that these target dates “are not set in stone; they are dependent on a number of factors.” These factors include how fast the vendors of translators for Microsoft can complete its plug-in software, adhering to MS recent give-in to pressure to be more open, particularly with regard to its Microsoft Office Open XML file format and interoperability with the ODF alternative.
The ITD also now plans to review its ETRM (Enterprise Technical Reference Model) every six months to reflect the changes in IT, evolving standards and new accessibility concerns.
The progress is partly due to Google, who recently joined the ODF Alliance. Chris DiBona, Google’s open source program manager said that the company had asked the SFLC (Software Freedom Law Center) to look at ODF, where it came from, and give it a clean bill of health for open-source usage. That investigation took about a month, and once the center gave the ODF its approval , Google joined the ODF Alliance.
Massive Attack with Friends Sunday, August 27, 2006
Posted by Bear One in Life in general, Music.1 comment so far
Friday night I went to a triple concert at Forum, here in Copenhagen. I arrived just as the first band was finishing their performance and so, I cannot comment on it.
After a 20 minute break, the next band – Spleen United (DK) came on-stage. They really impressed me, but it is hard to put them in a musical style box. I thought it sounded somewhat between electronica with an umph and symphonic rock. The instruments they play are: two synthesizers , an electronic organ, a bass and heavy drums 
According to a comment on their website about their first album – Godspeed into the Mainstream – “Spleen United sounds like no other band in Denmark today. They have replaced bass and guitar with synthesizers on many of the tracks, and they insist on playing synthesizers as if they were guitars, lending an organic feel to the electronic aspects of the album.” Like I said I was well impressed and so where the rest of the audience apparently.
Next band up was good old The Cardigans (S) who are currently riding the airwaves with “I need some fine wine and you, you need to be nicer“. They played well, but they had the worst sound of the night. They also have a totally different style and maybe that was why their sound engineer never got it right in the not-very-wellsuited-for-music venue of Forum. I disagree with you, Julie – I like the band and Ninna’s lyrics and I have a suspicion that it is her you dislike and not their music?. Anyway, if you missed this gig, don’t worry – they are playing Minsk tonight and are signed up for 3 concerts in Brazil after that.
Finally, Massive Attack (UK) went on around 10:30 pm. and treated us to an extremely well played concert. There was a slight problem with the balance between the sound of the instruments and the chorus, but it was still a good performance, if only you positioned yourself close to the sound engineers. I warmed up all afternoon, listening to their superb album – Collected. But I tell you, this is a band You should see live. It was a great concert and they played for nearly 90 minutes. I will be back
Achieving Maturity Wednesday, July 12, 2006
Posted by Bear One in Enterprise Architecture.add a comment
While I worked for The Danske Bank Group they introduced a plan to achieve CMMI (Capability Maturity Model Integration) level 3 by the end of 2007.
The Bank was probably inspired by the Sikorsky case: the helicopter manufacturer, ’encouraged’ by customers, managed to go from CMMI level 2 to level 3 in just 18 months.
Danske Bank has been assessed by Delta over the past few years and was recently found to be at level 1,25 which is still on the Performed level.
This means that they intend to go from level 1 to level 3 in 24 months - very ambitious, when the litterature suggests that an organisation needs 22 months (on average) to go from one level to another.
I think that management raised the bar to much and that they will possibly achieve level 2 (Managed) by the end of 2007, but in no way level 3 (Defined).
There is many reasons for my scepticism. One being that it is a group of companies, which has been brought together within the last decade and the different cultures has not really ’merged’ – all the formal frameworks and guidelines are in place, but in my experience there is a kind of “keeping up appearances” attitude throughout the orginasition and you can not afford to be that optimistic under such circumstances. You can of course, but you will have to readjust your goals sooner or later.
I was recently interviewed for a position at Credit Suisse in Zurich, they also had a plan to improve their CMMI level – but had a much more reasonable approach: they intend to go from their current level (on par with Danske Bank) to level 2 in 24 months with an identical deadline.
Let’s see – anyone willing to have a bet on the outcome is welcome to write me a comment 
Beatiful Roskilde ! Monday, July 3, 2006
Posted by Bear One in Life in general, Music.add a comment
I just spend a hell-of-a-weekend at the Roskilde Festival. I have been a regular guest in the past, but have not been there in this century. This years program, and the fact than I am between contracts for the moment, meant that ” I had to go”.
I was planning on starting friday afternoon, but altered that decision as Guns & Roses was on thursday night. I made my way down there, but Axl – You silly old buggar !! – why did you let us wait for an hour and then deliver an abysmal performance.. ? I will officialy renounce myself as a G&R Fan from hereon-in.
Anyway, the wheater was unusually fantastic and I was kind of following the main attractions (on the Orange Scene and in the Arena) – there where several musical high-lights as The Strokes, Franz Ferdinand, Bob Dylan and Primal Scream. I had a great time and it seemed that people where more mellow and relaxed, which contributed to a fine festival spirit..
Some of the other high-lights at the festival involved a group of four blondes, dressed in little but bast skirts. They surrounded me, while I was watching the France-Brazil game (saturday) – when I enquired, which of the teams they cheered, two of them wiggled their bums at me, where it was beautifully exclaimed that these chics where serious Brazil supporters . I loved the game – and had a little flutter on Henry to score in the match (which of course came through).
It turned out to be a very agreeable start of the Saturday night – I did go to Kanye West at 1 am, but cannot claim to have any clear impression of the performance to reveal .
Sunday was very relaxed and sunny – I got down there around 2 pm and followed the main gigs, until around 1 am.
In the early evening, it was very hot and I enterered the Zanzibar tent, where it was possible to see some of the beatiful girls defilate by, while nursing a cool drink in the depth of the shadows .
Finally, I squeased in Roger Waters, but then I had to begin the troublesome task of returning to Copenhagen – I think the clock was 4 am, when I finally gave in to the soft feathers of my pillow.
On a totally different note – have a listen to Pinks new album which is running non-stop on my player right now.
Report From The Finance Sector Thursday, June 29, 2006
Posted by Bear One in Mainframes.add a comment
I have recently ended an engagement with The Danske Bank Group. Prior to this I worked for The Danish Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation in their IT Strategic office and it was a bit of a cultural change to go back and do mainframe development again – no helmetclad acedemics there (and not a lot of students either ). The banks development center is situated on the outskirts of Copenhagen and house app. 1400 IT staff. I has never worked for the bank before, but in the past I worked for two of the other companies in the group (se CV), so as it turned out it was a bit like coming ‘home’ in that some 25 former colleages of mine also worked for the bank – mostly as contractors like myself.
The project I was hired to participate in was version one of a risk management system, adhering to the Basel II accord and also to the CAD 3 specification (EU). Essentially it is a way of monitoring your (capital) risks in a way that can save the bank money, they should otherwise have deposited in the national bank according to the current “one-size-fit-all” Basel I accord. The specification for the project was a bit fluffy as it was a matter of assessing the requirements in the accord and then implement an IT system with no fixed requirements to the output!. The whole project depends on the success of this system plus an application to Finanstilsynet (local Danish authority on finance) in the fall of 2006. The bank is supposed to exchange risk information via the XBRL standard, but the jury is still out on deciding a taxonomy for this particular area (where have we seen this before ? ). Anyway if the application is successful – the bank might save a billion or two around 2009, so seen it that perspective “this system will pay out like a slot machine” as a former colleage of mine once formulated it in his proposal for a new system.
The team consisted of 8 persons and had a good blend of permanent staff (3 including the PL) and contractors (5), females (4) and males (4), all experienced people with an average age around 42.
In the first couple of months there, I did some high-level design in the Operational Risk area and also took care of the logical design of the database, using tools like word and MS Visio..
Later on we had to split the development roles up, sothat some took care of the portal part (using .net C#), one wrote the integration modules in a combination of PL/1 code and some elements of the local ESB acting “behind the scene”. I was given the roles of writing all batch programs (PL/1)and implement the physical database on the DB2 platform. There where further roles to laiase with interfacing systems, refining the system specification (“The Bible”) and planning the testing phases.
The whole development phase went reasonably smooth, but as it oftens happens, the business side of the system and the technical PL took on requirements galore during the entire phase. This resulted in a system with advanced functionality, that has not been thoroughly tested - “To create quality software, the ability to say “no” is usually far more important than the ability to say “yes”".However, we did go into production more or less as planned and there will be room for amendments and refinement until the end of 2006.
At the end of april, the bank decided to reduce its contracting staff by 80%. This did put some pressure on our PL, as she had to reduce the project to 5 members and therefore say goodbye to 3 contractors, of which I was one.
It was a reasonably good experience and I might return to work for the bank, when they open up for contractors again.
Welcome to Bear One Blogged ! Tuesday, June 20, 2006
Posted by Bear One in Life in general, Uncategorized.add a comment
I used to blog when employed at the Ministry of Science – we had a blog called “Bredgade 40″, named after the address of the institution. This blog was renamed to “Afkalkeren” in 2004 in order to dilute any anticipation that the opinions expressed there belonged to employees of the ministry – partly because I was qouting some critics of the security in the Danish Digital Signature (sponsored by the ministry). However, this resulted in a sort of reluctance to express oneself in that forum, suspecting the management would deal with critical posts in unfavourable ways
I am a keen reader of several blogs and believe it is a great way of sharing knowledge, so I want to contribute to the blogosphere by blogging on: Enterprise Architecture, eGovernment, Mainframes, Open Source, Tools and Life in general – see you all out there
