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The News - July 2, 2008
"Give me a fruitful error any time, full of seeds, bursting with its own corrections. You can keep your sterile truth for yourself. ” – Vilfredo Pareto
Top Picks
Upcoming Webcast: Governing IT in a Green World
Sponsored by IBM
July 9, 2008 (2 p.m. EDT, 11 a.m. PDT)
"IT is a key stakeholder in the definition of an organization's "green" strategy and therefore must work to support the strategy. In order to do this, IT must be aware of the issues facing the organization and then come up with measures that make business sense. This webcast will cover a number of high-level topics for environmentally conscious organizations to consider including, understanding the risks facing IT, skyrocketing energy costs, global warming, potential for new regulations, developing and implementing "green" strategies in IT, how IT can help the organization, and approaches relevant to IT."
Get Registered at:
http://solutions.internet.com/4986_default
The Green Data Center: Steps for the Journey
“This IBM Redpaper can help your IT organization as it begins the journey to becoming a green data center. IBM wants to help others, particularly our clients, to chart a course to reap the benefits of lower costs and improved sustainability that running a green data center can provide. Understanding what is possible can speed your journey to an optimized green data center with sustainability designed into both the IT and facilities infrastructures. Although this paper is not all inclusive, it provides a quick start for going green in data centers.”
http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/redp4413.html
[ This is an excellent document for groups looking at getting started in reducing their energy consumption in the data center. ]
Book Recommendation
Deming and Goldratt: The Theory of Constraints and the System of Profound Knowledge
This is an excellent book. Domenico Lepore is a Deming Scholar and Oded Cohen collaborates with Dr. Goldratt. Combined, the two do a very good straightforward job explaining Deming’s Profound Knowledge and Goldratt’s TOC and how they work together.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0884271633?ie=UTF8&tag=georgespaffor-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0884271633
IT Audit / Internal Audit / Compliance
Compliance Week Survey: Companies Aren’t Prepared for XBRL
“Nearly 80 Percent of Companies Lack Internal Expertise on the New Technology, While 59 percent Have Done Little or No Preparation, Despite SEC Mandate”
http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20080630005368&newsLang=en
Corporate Social Responsibility
This is an interesting Wikipedia article with links to many resources.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_social_responsibility
IT Process Improvement / Quality Management
Roles and Responsibilities in ITIL
“One of the benefits of studying ITIL is to understand more about the potential roles and responsibilities. Newcomers to ITIL see the ‘manager’ or ‘owner’ roles for the various processes and mistakenly assume that these are organizational titles and thus shy away from ITIL for fear of adding headcount. This is not the intent as ITIL doesn’t define organizational structure but, rather, provides a comparison other to learn from.”
https://swarm.jupitermedia.com/itsmwatch/2008/06/roles-and-responsibilities-in.html
Ten Things They Don't Want You to Know About ITIL v3
Rob England posts 15 things that people need to realize about ITIL. It’s a very good piece and worth a read.
http://www.itsmwatch.com/itil/article.php/3754741
ISO/IEC 38500:2008 on IT Governance has been released
Official site: http://www.iso.org/iso/catalogue_detail?csnumber=51639
IT Governance page: http://www.itgovernance.co.uk/products/1812?kbid=37797&sub=804
[ Thank you for the head’s up Julia! ]
Security and Risk Management
Security Analysis: The Case For Disclosing Breach Data
“Read this chapter from The New School Of Information Security before your company gets hacked, and learn why covering up a data breach is a bad short-term strategy and a risky long-term one.”
http://www.informationweek.com/news/security/attacks/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=208402864
Buy the book from Amazon at: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0321502787?ie=UTF8&tag=georgespaffor-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0321502787
[ The chapter at Information Week is very interesting as are the reviews on Amazon so I just bought a copy myself. ]
Where the truth is: Logs and breach-disclosure laws
“Still, as the Hannaford example shows, a compliant firm can still be successfully compromised and have information stolen. And always, the remaining question is: What are the guidelines for breach notification, the other half of the corporate security responsibility story?”
http://computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyName=standards_and_legal_issues&articleId=9104578&taxonomyId=146&intsrc=kc_feat
NIST issues guidelines to test agencies' network security
“NIST's instructions detail how agencies can assess their procedures for testing security controls for information systems. The release is the latest addition to the NIST Special Publication 800 series, which offers research and guidelines to help agencies implement the 2002 Federal Information Security Management Act. SP 800-53A explains how to evaluate a network's security controls, risk management processes, and security strengths and weaknesses of information systems that support missions and applications.”
http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20080701_4388.php
The “SP800-53A “Guide for Assessing the Security Controls in Federal Information Systems” can be downloaded at: http://csrc.nist.gov/publications/nistpubs/800-53A/SP800-53A-final-sz.pdf
Healthcare / Bio-Informatics / Care Delivery Organizations (CDOs)
Calif. hospitals begin reporting 'adverse events'
“California hospitals reported that during a 10-month period ending in May, doctors performed the wrong surgical procedure, operated on the wrong body part or on the wrong patient 41 times, records show. During the same period, hospitals reported that foreign objects were left in surgical patients 145 times.”
http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_9742335
E-Prescription Networks to Merge
“The nation's two electronic prescription networks plan to announce today that they are merging in an effort to encourage the adoption of their technology by doctors and patients.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/30/AR2008063002072.html
HIT and Public Policy: The Challenges Ahead
“A casual observer of recent Congressional action might think the road to a well informed federal HIT policy would be straight and smooth. A closer look suggests just the opposite: Congress is moving ahead with no idea of what it wants HIT to do.”
http://www.ihealthbeat.org/articles/2008/7/1/HIT-and-Public-Policy-The-Challenges-Ahead.aspx?ps=1&authorid=1570
Human Error / Safety / Environment
What’s Really Up With North Pole Sea Ice?
“The Drudgeosphere was all pumped up today about the ‘shock claim’ in the (UK) Independent that the sea ice that normally persists year-round at the North Pole (I stood on it in March, 2003) will be replaced by open water later this summer. Given the unpredictable short-term dynamics up there, which make the ice subject to vagaries of Siberian winds and a mix of currents, a lot of polar ice experts tell me it’s pretty much impossible to make such a prediction with high confidence.”
http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/27/whats-really-up-with-north-pole-sea-ice/?hp
Which of These Is Not Causing Global Warming Today?
“When 600 climate scientists from 40 countries reported in February that there was, for the first time, "unequivocal" evidence that the world is warming and greater than 90 percent certainty that man-made greenhouse gases have caused most of the warming since 1950, at least one expert demurred.”
http://www.newsweek.com/id/33510
Pay Up: Insurers Raise Rates Over Global Warming
“Plenty of companies are angling to make money off climate change sometime in the future. The insurance industry isn’t waiting around for the science or the politics to settle: It’s raising premiums now on the premise that rising temperatures will lead to more hurricanes, more damage, and more claims.”
http://blogs.wsj.com/environmentalcapital/2008/07/01/pay-up-insurers-raise-rates-over-global-warming/
Global News / Business / Economics
Global energy demand to grow 50%, U.S. agency predicts
“Global energy demand will grow by 50 percent over the next two decades with continued heavy reliance on environmentally troublesome fossil fuels, especially coal and oil, the U.S. government predicted Wednesday.”
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/06/25/business/25energy.php
Globalization Requires Safety Net, U.N. Says
“Pointing to food riots in dozens of poor countries whipsawed by soaring prices for wheat and other staples, and to the rising income inequality that has become a too-common feature of economies in the developed world, the report says that no one is immune from the sometimes cruel consequences of global economic forces. But governments should do more, both individually and collectively, to protect people from their harshest impacts, it says.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/01/AR2008070101562.html?nav=rss_business
US News / Business / Economics
Energy's easiest fix: Use less
“Want to help the country save a quick million barrels of oil a day? Drive 5% less. Slow down. Inflate your tires.”
http://money.cnn.com/2008/06/30/news/economy/energy_demand/index.htm
World energy use seen surging
“World energy use is expected to surge 50% from 2005 to 2030, largely due to an expanding population and rapid economic growth, according to a government report Wednesday.”
http://money.cnn.com/2008/06/25/news/economy/eia_outlook/index.htm?postversion=2008062512
CNN Special – Fueling America
This page has links to articles on videos that CNN has assembled relating to rising oil costs.
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2008/fueling.america/index.html
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