43 IT Things to do in 2009

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No better timing than right now to contemplate your plans for 2009. And why not use good old 43Things to do it in true web 2.0 style? Until now, I have been using the site to write down and share my own personal, silly targets. Meditate more. Pick up Chinese boxing training again. Create the first Yellow Raincoat painting. Write a book about Slow IT. You know, just the basic, ordinary stuff we can all relate to.

But why not do it a bit different this year? What if the CIO would share his or her ’43 IT Things to do in 2009’ with the company. Wouldn’t that be a simple and transparent tool to communicate and share the IT strategy? And wouldn’t it be an interesting exercise to condense that complete strategy into a couple (7, 12, 43, whatever) of simple, straightforward targets that others can understand and comment on?

Or why not use the list to create a wish list of personal IT activities that we should definitely consider in 2009? I really hope that you readers – since many of you will now have a few days off – can help me to compile a list of 43 items that we will then publish on the site for everybody to see and work with.

To get the discussion started, here is my first list of IT activities that people may want to plan for in 2009:

1. Build your own mashup application
2. Become a Togaf 9 certified architect
3. Give and get one OLPC laptop
4. Use a cloud application
5. Blog about your project
6. Install Ubuntu Linux on a PC
7. Start a community on Ning
8. Get a personal KPI gadget on your desktop
9. Try an Android smart phone
10. Use social networking tools within the IT department

These are just my first ideas. I am sure the wisdom of the crowd can deliver much better than that. So I’m most interested in learning from your ideas and I promise to publish the entire list once we have enough input.

And if you are looking for inspiration, why not visit 43things first and do their quick self-test to find out more about yourself? I did the test too and turned out to be a ‘Spiritual Organized Self-Knower’. Not so sure about either of these things, but sounds good anyway. If you are sharing your ideas for the list with us anyway, why not also tell us what type you are? After all, self-knowledge is one thing, but knowing the community around you, should be even more fun.

I took the 43 Things Personality Quiz and found out I'm an

Spiritual Organized Self-Knower

Posted by Ron Tolido on December 22, 2008 in Fun :: Strategy :: Technology | Digg this | Seed Newsvine

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Comments

# on December 22, 2008 12:50 PM, Nikhil Nulkar said:

Hi Ron,
Nice post! Thanks!
I took the quiz and apparently I am a "Self-Knowing Traveling Extrovert" and there are 0% people who are like me till the time I took the quiz.
On the things I would like to do in 2009, I will put down a few bullets in a while...
Thanks,
Nikhil

# on December 22, 2008 1:40 PM, Niels van der Zeyst said:

This self-knowing tree-hugger has a few things on his mind:

1. Build a google-app with google app engine
2. Remember to Remember the milk
3. Finalise Blog / website
4. Organise more RDV sessions
5. Realise a “factory” approach (Rain -> RDV -> Off-shore)
6. Understand 2 weblanguages
7. Get rid of MS outlook!!!
8. Consolidate your online life into one channel: downsize the clutter
9. Unlock my iphone!!!
10. Get your whole family to Twitter!

Gr8 post!

# on December 22, 2008 2:00 PM, Fava said:

Hi Ron,

Intereting Post

I took the 43 Things Personality Quiz and found out I'm an Extroverted Lifelong Learning Money Manager and there are 0% people who are like me at the time of the test. I find that hard to believe :)

My Targeted list is 1. Get the family on Twitter, 2. Create my own blog 3. Find out what Ning is. I will figure out the other stuff as I go.

Happy Holidays

# on December 22, 2008 2:07 PM, Ron Tolido said:

@Nikhil: Very anxious to learn what things a self-knowing traveling extrovert will come up with... Must be loud!

# on December 22, 2008 2:09 PM, Ron Tolido said:

@Niels: that's a very good list thanks! For those of you that don't know about Remember the Milk: just visit their website http://www.rememberthemilk.com

# on December 22, 2008 2:11 PM, Ron Tolido said:

@Fava: thanks, and nice to see that you are picking up some ideas. Any other suggestions for the 43 items list? and a happy holidays to you!

# on December 22, 2008 4:28 PM, Sondre said:

Hi Ron and thanks for the quiz!

I'm a Self-Improving Extroverted Builder and there are 0% like me (out of 7703 others).

Few things on the list I left unchecked and there is one thing I would have added: "Remove and Insert the Engine of a Car". That's something everyone should do once in their lifetime ... it's an experience!

Here are some of my quick suggestions:

1. Remove and Insert the Engine of a Car.
2. Install and Try Windows 7 beta.
3. Install and Use Windows Live Essentials.
4. Make your applications (if you're a programmer) more social! (http://morphi.me/)
5. Contribute to at least one Open Source project.
6. Throw a Geek Beer party for your local geeks!

And the list goes on :-)

Cheers and happy holidays!

# on December 22, 2008 6:08 PM, Tim B said:

2 additional IT things to do in 09:
- finally retire those legacy applications
- develop and execute a data archiving strategy as a best practice

Help your organization save money, improve application performance, reduce complexity, and contribute to achieving sustainability goals.

# on December 22, 2008 8:56 PM, Nara said:

Ron, excellent post and great ideas. A few thoughts on #4.

In addition to using/trying a cloud application, the trick will be for CIOs to start thinking about looking at their portfolio of applications in a systematic way and see where they can migrate applications to the cloud. There are some general criteria, e.g., forms-based apps with relational data, etc., but there will clearly be company-specific criteria as well. So two other things to add to the list would be developing a set of criteria that can be used to evaluate fit with cloud computing and developing a high-level roadmap to the cloud.

# on December 23, 2008 9:08 AM, Ron Tolido said:

@Sondre: these are excellent additions (I particularly like the Windows 7 suggestions, although not everybody may agree). Not so sure about that engine though... Happy holidays!

# on December 23, 2008 9:11 AM, Ron Tolido said:

@Tim: we could have a topic like 'retire at least one legacy application every month'. Very relevant, as many good, fresh ideas are stopped by these petrified, immovable legacy solutions.

# on December 23, 2008 9:16 AM, Anonymous said:

@Nara: interesting thoughts, and you seem to be pointing to migrating exisiting solutions to the cloud. Or actually rebuilding them for the cloud (e.g. with www.force.com)? Or replcace them by cloud-based solutions...? Or all of that...? Anyway, 'cloud' is destined to be one of the hottest topics in 2009.

# on December 24, 2008 1:02 PM, andy mulholland said:

good one Ron !

an irresistible holiday quiz, but not sure about the results as it seems that we are all coming out uniquely!

my result?

You are a Self-Knowing Self-Improving De-Clutterer

0% of the 9152 people who have taken this quiz are like you

doesn't sound too good to me!

# on December 24, 2008 9:52 PM, Nigel Walsh said:

Hi Ron - a good list...

Apparently, I'm "a Money Managing Organized Self-Improver" and 0% of the 9363 people who have taken this quiz are like you.

Added to my list includes:
- spend less time on email!

Happy Holidays!
Nigel

# on December 27, 2008 10:53 AM, Ron Tolido said:

Hi Andy, given the number of 'activities' that can be filled in, I can imagine that many people will find that they are 'unique' indeed. And you are a 'de-clutterer'.... Not even sure what it means, but it sure sounds unique to me...

# on December 27, 2008 10:56 AM, Ron Tolido said:

@Nigel: very good one, and probably the toughest to achieve in 2009. Still wondering why Google is not adding something extremely smart to Gmail that deals exactly with this. On the other hand, they probably want you to spend as much time as possible reading email, so that you can absorb their placed ads... And happy holidays to you!

# on December 28, 2008 9:46 AM, Ronk said:

Gentlepeople,

Based upon my own rating, which matched a previous rating in the comments above:

You are a Money Managing Lifelong Learning Extrovert

0% of the 11613 people who have taken this quiz are like you.

I kinda think only a few of us are as unique as these results are telling us we are. Apparently a Diebold voting machine is being used for tabulation!

RonK

# on December 28, 2008 8:01 PM, Ron Tolido said:

I guess it's just one of these 43 things we all want: to be truly unique. And if a simple quiz tells us, at least it's a start...

# on December 30, 2008 4:48 AM, Guru said:

Hi Ron, Thanks for this wonderful post. It's indeed quite a comprehensive list, I must say. The quiz is equally interesting. :)

While going through your list, it reminded me of the top 10 biggest bogus tech rumours that literally stirred the technology circles worldwide. Some of these include:
10. Diggsoft or DigGoogle?
9. Google Phone Delayed Until 2009
8. Zune Phone
7. The iPhone Nano
6. Xbox in a Blu-ray Player

You can visit THIS POST for the complete list and brief details. I wish, though, the iPhone Nano would have been a reality! :)

# on December 30, 2008 4:50 AM, Guru said:

Sorry, I think the link was usurped by the editor! :) Here it is: http://technology-nuggets.blogspot.com/2008/12/top-10-biggest-bogus-tech-rumors-of_26.html

# on December 31, 2008 8:57 AM, Ron Tolido said:

@Guru: and thank you for the link to this interesting post. Actually, the rumour that Obama owned a Zune was probably the most frightning one. Fortunately, just a nasty rumour.. And for that iPhone Nano: local Apple retailers currently can no longer order iPhones. Sounds like a familiar ouverture indeed.