Alan Turing, a founding father of artificial intelligence, was born on June 23, 1912 (100 years ago today). Computer scientists around the world are celebrating his centenary with conferences, museum exhibits and competitions, called Turing Tests, to find a computer program that can convince a human that it is human too.

Although there was controversy related to his life, his thoughts still drive innovative thought today.

This weekend is the amateur radio “Field Day”.

It is an international event where Ham radio operators all over the world set up temporary "emergency" communications systems and try to contact as many other Ham stations doing the same thing over a 24 hour period. This is a disaster preparedness exercise but also a lot of fun and it probably taking place somewhere near you so you can stop by and see what is going on.

Even though amateur radio is over 100 years old, Ham radio has actually grown over the last few yearsthrough the DIY movement and the integration of radio and the Internet. Efforts in these spaces will likely be on display at the field day sites.

I’ve been a ham since 1972 or so and my current call is AD5EN, so feel free to ask me if you have questions.

Everything in life is a game. Someone is always keeping score. Everyone is being measured, whether we like it or not. Gamification takes the concept of measurement, behaviors and engagement into the business setting in ways that can enable organizations to meet their objectives.

I was actually out a gamification conference this week as I read the book Gamification by Design. The foundational concepts are well covered within this book, although they have probably matured in the year since this book was authored.

Gamification by Design is a well written and accessible coverage of a dynamic topic that is important to business today. The real world examples are useful and help makes the content relevant.

This is a good book for someone technical wanting to learn about gamification.

The words fun and play are used throughout the book, but the serious value possibilities of gamification are far beyond the traditional definition of fun. People’s behavior is largely predictable and malleable to a large degree and gamification takes advantage of this fact.

For the next couple of days, I plan to attend the GSummit – gamification conference. Gamification is a topic I’ve blogged about a number of times in the past year (in chronological order):

•          Gamification and business functions
•          Gamification and innovation
•          Gamification and business performance
•          Overview of Gamification

Clearly I need to be a bit more creative in my naming of posts.

Gamification is being overlooked as a powerful technique within many enterprises today, so I am attending this conference to expose myself to a much more diversified perspective of the state of activity today. Understanding alternative techniques to subvert inertia for change adoption is useful to anyone who wants to be a change agent.

There are a number of agenda items at this conference that appear to address the concerns that I see in adoption and impact, hopefully these sessions will live up to the descriptions. Some of the sessions will be live streamed so anyone can partake.

The intersection and analytics, workflow, social… in the strategic planning of organizations will benefit from the integration of some gamification perspective. What do you think?

Recently HP embarked on an ambitious effort to develop a number of ebooks that describe and discuss about the technical world of 2020, with an accompanying website. Whenever I get a chance, I’ve been putting my 2¢ into the discussion. You can contribute your perspective as well, on how you think the enterprise technology relationship will change.

The introductory ebook for the 2020 project is already available. The project as a whole is described as an effort:

“To imagine the future of the enterprise, we need to understand the forces that are transforming our world and the technological innovations that are shaping the future. In what new and unexpected ways will technology work for us?” Read more

Every once in a while it is time to take a step back and look at your life, what you are doing, the impact it has and even your own value system. I had one of those moments thrust upon my family when HP offered me an early retirement option.

For me, I asked questions like:

1. How sure are you that you will be happy in the coming years?
2. How can you be sure that your relationships with your spouse and family will become an enduring source of happiness?
3. Are you having the influence on the company and industry that you should?

For technologists it can also offer an opportunity to think about how you are marketing your efforts to others. Fortunately for me, this was a career choice -- where decisions can be made.

Technologists should periodically take the opportunity for these kinds of personal assessments. I had a leader I worked for once who did this assessment  every Thanksgiving (for those outside the US, but this is a holiday focused on looking at the bounty available to us and actively being thankful for it). For whatever the reason, we should not passively accept the status quo, but actively ensure that we’re creating the future we desire.

I mentioned last week the changing role of the CIO. These factors are also a driver for all technologists to assess their future and can enter into the evaluation process.