The importance of data standards in 2012

2012 promises to be a watershed of new technologies heading to maturity; particularly cloud computing. Larry Ellison was way of his time back in the late 90's in trumpeting the Web PC and the demise of the local PC with all of its associated issues and costs.

Like almost all revolutions, the cloud will be additive and help make all the rest work better, faster and longer. PCs will interact with phones and tablets, and an increasing number of automated sensors will be feeding cloud based applications across a wide range of functions.

Standardizing the data "bullets" will make the issue of whose platform and technology largely moot, and allow greater interoperability across partners, government, vendors, competitors and internationally. There are plenty of issues - security, scalability, resiliancy and total cost of ownership are going to be with us for a long time to come.

You've gotten a taste of how this can work with Twitter - for people to people transactions, keeping it to 140 charachters (though with links, people reference huge data sets including the library of congress) makes brevity a necessity.

Google has embraced CAP (Common Alerting Protocol) for their newly launched Public Alerting System - allowing for a wide range of alerts to be consolidated into one map. For the private sector security market, Pinkerton/Securitas has launched a product called Vigilance that is heavily embracing CAP as a means of integrating public, private, premium, open source, sensor, and internal data all into one interface.

It will take time, but this is a growing trend! Big data with no structure is tough to utilize. Big data with structure is far more searchable by mere mortals.

Grim Reaper: Zero (0) --- Pete O'Dell: Still playing......

Wow, what a week. While I was lying the the intensive care unit and receving what seemed like the best medical care in the world for some blocked arterties that decided to seal up/give up/collapse on April 16th, the world of interoperability kicked in and helped give me a new extension on planet Earth:

The global network: I connected with people everywhere - more globally than in my own neighborhood (going to work on this). Response and outpouring of support was incredible.

AED: These little defibulators were the lifesaver - preventing any initial damage and restoring the heart rhythm. Highly recommneded for any place that has more than a few people, and I suggest that you get a training class on them.

Prevention: would have been best - some signs, but none of the major (pain, shortness of breadth, etc). I'd been working out a lot and at a pretty intense rate - you would have thought that I would have triggered a mild event sooner. Get checked.

Stents: The docs put in 3 stents to allow flow through the bad heart atteries - no need for open heart surgery or bypass, which I think I'm very grateful for....

More to follow as I figure this all out......I'll use the interoperability as a theme to tie it all together. Today, I'm thankful to be alive, thankful to all the people who made that happen, thankful for the extended opportunity to make a difference in the world. I'm hopeful that God has it all figured out for the next couple of weeks, as my brain is still a little mushy. Any thoughts appreciated.