This really is an outstanding example of the power of information architecture. Traditional intelligence focused on getting information up the chain of command, getting it analyzed, and getting a comprehensive plan back to the troops. However, this situation was too fluid, too fast, too rapidly changing to go through all that rigamarole. So, the oversight and aggregation process was automated.

This is fascinating for a couple of reasons:

First, it seems to highlight a general rule of technology: Once a process can’t move faster or be more flexible than automation, it will be subsumed. We have seen this a million times in a million different ways. Most of us have been a part of this process, either as an automator or being automated.

Second, it highlights how important it is for management and administration to improve as rapidly as the organizations they support. In the past, it has been the job of management to drive their subordinate organizations to improve, and often they did not hold themselves to the same standards. I can recall a time where the person who demanded that we automate everything possible required us to manually fill out and send an Excel spreadsheets that documented our progress.

I think that we are in the throws of new wave of organizational change based on newer, more flexible technologies like Wikis, Open Mapping Tools, and Social Networking. We should be seeing a lot more of stories like this in the MSM over the next year or so as it moves into the more public consciousness. And, in 24 months it will be a part of the common wisdom, and we won’t remember doing thing any differently.

When tech analyst John Gantz at researcher IDC began tallying up all the digital information generated annually, he first looked in the obvious places …

Gantz ultimately calculated that 161 exabytes of digital data — or about 161 billion GB — were generated in 2006. And the amount is expected to rise fast.

It is worth a quick read, although if you are a data geek a lot of this is pretty elementary, so you might just want to forward the URL on to your favorite business leader or project manager.

The article is a bit light on is the downstream ramifications of the data deluge. Obviously, there will be a lot of SAN units sold, but that opportunity is long gone unless you are able to take advantage of the innovators dillema. Looking over the horizon, there is a huge opportunty for people who can make this data not just searchable, but accessible and usable and trustworthy for decision-making.

NOTE: I originally spotted this on the upcoming page on Digg.

The Globe and Mail has an article about a dispute between a customer and a supplier that hinged on exactly that. Two Canadian firms (Aliant and Rogers Communications) had a contract to string cable lines across utility poles. The dispute arose where …

Page 7 of the contract states: The agreement “shall continue in force for a period of five years from the date it is made, and thereafter for successive five year terms, unless and until terminated by one year prior notice in writing by either party.

Because of the second comma, the contract could be canceled after 1 year instead of after 5 or 10. Aliant did so, and raised rates by 200%. Had that comma not been there, the move would have violated the contract.

This story is a great reminder why creating, maintaing, and following requirements is so difficult in technology projects. Make sure you know EXACTLY what you are agreeing to, especially when dealing with Service Level Agreements.

deeply regretted the highly unusual error, which was the result of a miscommunication between the hospital, the medical examiners office and the funeral home. The representative said it stemmed from one of the babies being registered inconsistently at the morgue and in the hospital’s admissions database.

The real travesty is that this isn’t the worst part of the story. You see, the death of this baby was a part of an investigation into a murder, as it had been left in a dumpster by the mother. While an autopsy had already been done its possible that the case will have to be dropped because the defense cannot challenge the results.

The representative said the hospital is reviewing its internal policies and procedures and taking steps to prevent this from happening again.

Let’s hope so. It is terrible that bad information quality and systems integration can have such a devastating result.