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Update
Hi, Digital Paladin is taking a break from posting; please check back in 2026!
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Corollary of the Third Law
“If technology is distinguishable from magic, it is insufficiently advanced” Corollary of Arthur C. Clarke’s Third Law as expressed in the novel “Foundation’s Fear”. As noted in a recent article from McKinsey “The state of AI in 2023: Generative AI’s breakout year”, a significant number of organisations are already using generative artificial intelligence (AI) in…
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Digital Maturity Framework – Risk
“You have power over your mind – not outside events, realise this, and you will find strength” Source: The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius. Following on from our recent post on digital maturity and strategy alignment, we turn to Risk which is another key aspect of the Digital Paladin Maturity Model. The following four books are…
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Good news, bad news!
In recent news, Google have announced the rollout of passkey technology which should eliminate the need for passwords on Google Accounts. As explained in a previous Digital Paladin post, this should significantly reduce or eliminate cyber risks associated with passwords such as phishing, easily guessed characters, and passwords being reused across multiple websites or apps.…
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Digital Maturity Framework – Alignment Part 1
“If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there” attributed to Lewis Carroll. “Business strategy refers to a set of actions and decisions that an organisation takes in-order to achieve its long-term goals and objectives. It should be based on a comprehensive analysis of both internal and external factors that may…
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“I’m sorry, Dave. I’m afraid I can’t do that.”
The recent announcement and release of OpenAI’s generative artificial intelligence chatbot “Chat GPT” has demonstrated the potential of this technology and generated much public interest. Other major technology firms have been fast to follow with their own chatbot versions. AI chatbots can fulfil simple tasks such as writing customised automatic email replies or more complex…
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Digital Paladin Maturity Framework
The Digital Paladin Maturity Framework assesses the effectiveness of an organisation’s digital and ICT functions, capabilities and investments. The framework is based on synthesis of experience across multiple organisations and industry best practice. It is particularly focused on linkages with an organisation’s broader objectives and outcomes and has six elements: Future posts will cover each…
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“K=R=P”
“Kindness equals Repeat Business equals Profitability” Tom Peters, Author of “In Search of Excellence”. Published in the 1980’s, “In Search of Excellence” by Tom Peters and Robert Waterman, remains one of the best business books of all time and which incidentally, significantly influenced my own career direction. In a recent podcast interview with Guy Kawasaki,…
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Reality Bytes Harder!
“Comedy equals tragedy plus blockchain” Mark Twain misquote. Following on from Digital Paladin’s earlier Reality Bytes! post on crypto, it’s important to differentiate between frequent crypto-currency heists and the failure of get rich quick schemes (including the recent collapse of FTX) and the underlying potential of blockchain technology. The Freakonomics Radio podcast channel has a…
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Are passwords finally dead?
Digital Paladin views Apple Passkey as one of the most important features incorporated in iOS 16 and macOS Ventura, the latest releases of Apple’s operating systems for mobiles and computers. Apple Passkey is based on FIDO – Fast IDentity Online – a fast, secure and most importantly password-less authentication solution which utilises public-key (asymmetric) cryptography.…
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“Honey I shrunk the tech again!”
Following on from the last Digital Paladin post “Honey I shrunk the tech!”, I came across an even more dramatic example of miniaturisation. In a recent “What’s Your Problem?” podcast, Emily Leproust, co-founder and CEO of Twist Bioscience, describes how his company is developing a DNA based data storage solution. While the technology is still…
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“Honey, I shrunk the tech!”
“As engineers, we have to see beyond existing technology and ask, ‘Is there a better way?’” James Dyson – Engineer and Founder. My first mobile phone was the size of a small house brick, weighed almost as much and didn’t do anything other than make and receive phone calls. Although the iPhone 13 is not…
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Further Perspectives on AI
“Researchers at the DeepMind Technologies artificial-intelligence lab said Thursday they had predicted the structure of nearly all known proteins, a significant advance in biology that will accelerate drug discovery and help address problems such as sustainability and food insecurity.” Wall Street Journal July 28, 2022 A recent article in the Wall Street Journal, “DeepMind AI…
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“Hard Valuable Fun!”
In this recent podcast from the “How I Built This” channel, Guy Raz interviews Max Levchin – “a computer genius from Soviet Ukraine, who joined Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, Reid Hoffman and others as they grew PayPal into a massively successful online payment service.” There was so much great content in this interview – including the…
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“Open the Pod bay doors HAL …”
“… I’m sorry, Dave. I’m afraid I can’t do that” – this conversation from 2001: A Space Odyssey is one of the most iconic movie quotes of all time. There is a fascinating story in a recent Wall Street Journal titled “Google Suspends Engineer Who Claimed Its AI System Is Sentient“, about a software engineer…
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Digital Tranformation Redux
In a recent McKinsey Podcast, Kate Smaje and Rodney Zemmel —global leaders of McKinsey Digital — provide a contemporary update on digital transformation: “what it really means, how to deliver on it, and why it should remain front and center on the CEO agenda.” Interesting topics include “the role of metrics in assessing the success…
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Perspectives on AI
I’m currently reading “The Age of AI: And Our Human Future” by Henry Kissinger, Eric Schmidt and Daniel Huttenlocher – an impressive group of authors to say the least. The book provides some very thoughtful and well-informed analysis on the potential impacts of Artificial Intelligence on human society and our future across multiple dimensions and…
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ICT Transformation Survey
McKinsey’s latest IT survey has confirmed that the gap between top performing IT organisations and others has increased over the last 12 months. 73% of the top performers “now say that their most senior tech leaders (the chief information officer or chief technology officer) are highly involved in shaping the company-wide strategy and agenda” versus…
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Five Essential Attributes
iHelm has published an insightful article on the importance of leadership capability in agile organisations as well as five essential attributes which cover culture, business process, operations, governance and performance measurement. The article is based on research undertaken by iHelm across multiple industries and geographic regions.
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Well-Architected Framework
While user design and functionality are obviously important, there is often insufficient attention given to non-functional considerations. Although the AWS Well-Architected Framework has been developed specifically for workloads running in the cloud, its six pillars are also relevant to non-cloud environments and should be considered on all ICT projects: Operational Excellence Security Reliability Performance Efficiency…
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