A trip to the mountaintop: Connecting the dots between health and well-being

Inside Wisconsin/Tom Still: It’s not easy being the Dalai Lama. Not only are you handpicked for the job at age two, with no real choice to become a firefighter, artist or cowboy, but you spend much of the rest of your life – at least, this reincarnation – answering the unanswerable. Such was the “what-is-the-meaning-of-life” tone of a Madison discussion with Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, at which six experts on human well-being sought to engage him on some of the mysteries of what it means to be a happy, healthy inhabitant of the planet.

Press releases and other news

• Google's flirtation with being a hardware company is over
  Source: ReadWriteWeb

Executives need digitally different thinking

CIO Executive Edge/Mark McDonald: Digital technology is on the mind of every executive from Sales and Marketing to IT and Operations. Executives concentrate many of these thoughts center around issues of responsibility, authority and budget rather than looking at what is possible, profitable and the other potentials of digital technology. It is a narrow mindset driven by the language of finance rather than the logic of value.

Press releases and other news

• How cloud computing will save Hollywood
  Source: ReadWriteWeb
• Sorry, IT still doesn't do attitude adjustments
  Source: InfoWorld

Wisconsin Tech Industry employs 86,000 in 2012

The number of jobs in Wisconsin's technology industry grew 1 percent in 2012, just a little under the rate for the national techsector, according to a new report from the TechAmerica Foundation. The foundation, which is the nonprofit arm of U.S. industry group TechAmerica, said in its annual Cyberstates report that Wisconsin tech sector added 800 jobs in 2012, with the total workforce numbering 85,200 people.

Mostashari urges healthcare change

“It’s systems that let ordinary people do extraordinary things,” national coordinator for health IT Farzad Mostashari, MD said during a Health IT Policy Committee meeting talk that vice chair Paul Tang described immediately afterward as “inspiring and challenging.”

Press releases and other news

• Building a better tech school
  Source: New York Times

Understanding the Limits of Convertible Debt Seed Financing Structures

Guest Column/Paul A. Jones: While Convertible Debt with a “kicker” of some sort (typically either in the form of warrants or a discount on the conversion price) was first used primarily as a structure for bridging companies between rounds of traditional venture capital financing, more recently it has become a popular vehicle for seed financing in advance of the first (“A”) round of venture investment. The structure offers two major plusses for entrepreneurs and investors.

Wisconsin’s long-term growth strategy at play in WEDC flap

Inside Wisconsin/Tom Still: Does the state of Wisconsin have a long-term growth strategy… or an economic development death wish? As stark as that question might seem, it’s worth asking as the political feeding frenzy continues over the performance of the state’s largest economic development agency, the quasi-public Wisconsin Economic Development Corp.

After Stage 3 meaningful use, how will you sustain the program?

Most healthcare organizations participating in the meaningful use incentive program are focused right now on achieving Stages 1 or 2, but the MU program goes on long past that, says one expert. Organizations need to start considering how they will make meaningful use sustainable into the future. Laura Kreofsky, principal at Impact Advisors and lead of the group’s meaningful use service line is also the program director for California-based Sutter Health’s MU program. As she describes it, she does nothing but work, eat, sleep and dream MU.

Press releases and other news

• How we can realize Health IT’s full potential by looking at its setbacks
  Source: Venture Beat

Social media versus knowledge management

CIO Executive Edge/Mark McDonald: What’s the difference between the two? On the surface they sound very similar, particularly for someone who had had experience with knowledge management. Both involve people using technology to access information. Both require individuals to create information that is intended for sharing. Both technologies profess support for collaboration.

How to avoid a regulatory nightmare: Establishing an effective data and records management program

Guest Column/Mark Garsombke, Kendra Conover: Patient data storage and access is becoming one of the most costly, challenging and risky areas of healthcare delivery. With the rapid proliferation of data, technology advancing faster than companies can keep up and increasing enforcement actions resulting from data security breaches, establishing an effective records management and data retention program is essential to an organization's ability to thrive and adapt to the dynamic changes it faces.

Mapping the U.S. in 100-meter squares to target phone users with very local offers

Guest Column/Tom Groenfeldt: If you’re coming out of a bar near a subway station on the upper westside of Manhattan at 1:30, and you’re hungry, Duncan McCall has a suggestion for you — maybe two or three suggestions — for nearby eating spots that cater to a late-night crowd. Well, not Duncan personally, but his company, PlaceIQ, which has handily cut the country into 100 x 100 meter tiles — about the size of a small city block — to track mobile phone users.

Press releases and other news

• How Google is throwing sand in Apple's face
  Source: ReadWriteWeb

Startups are fertile ground for CIOs in search of something new

Guest Column/Martha Heller: My good friend, Greg Fell, has been in “traditional IT’ for his entire career. He ran manufacturing IT operations at Ford for six years and then became CIO of Terex for the last seven.  Just recently, he made a major move. He is now Chief Strategy Officer for Crisply, a startup that quantifies work algorithmically and promises to revolutionize the timesheet process. Note: Fell is not CIO or CTO of Crisply; he is Chief Strategy Officer.

Entrepreneurs with (bad) attitudes

Guest Column/Paul A. Jones: Many high impact entrepreneurs have outsized personalities. They combine a big ego with incredible creativity, drive and energy. Pretty much all of them that I have known have had at least one serious personality … quirk. That said, there are quirks and there are flaws, the latter being defined, for my purposes here, as traits that rub most venture capital investors the wrong way.

The CIO’s rising star in the postdigital era

Some predict the slow demise of the CIO—as if IT will become a utility, managed as a distributed function across the business.¹ We predict the opposite. CIOs will likely not only become omnipresent on executive committees, but also become trusted advisors to CEOs as they navigate an increasingly digital business environment.

Press releases and other news

• UW wins greenhouse gas grant
  Source: Journal Sentinel
• 5 reasons you’ll regret hiring a PR firm for your startup — and what you should do instead
  Source: Venture Beat
• Yanking broadband from the slow lane
  Source: New York Times