Privacy should be a priority

Ever since Snowden started telling the World about the doings of the NSA and other government agencies, privacy has become much more of a focus area for a lot of people - this includes Tim Bray, who debuted a new talk at GOTO Copenhagen called "Privacy and Security, Policy and Tech".

At GOTO Copenhagen, the room was unfortunately full, and I didn't get to see it, which is why I was quite happy to get a second chance the week after at GOTO Aarhus.

The overall message of Tim Bray's session was that privacy is important, and that we, as developers, should make sure to project the privacy of our users' information as much as we can.

A lot of people have a quite relaxed opinion about privacy and security, though this has started to change after Snowden. As Tim Bray said:

A lot of people has realized that the internet is a bad place, and that their information is hanging out places where it shouldn't be.

Also, people have started to realize that just because they have nothing to hide now, it doesn't mean that they won't have in the future - if nothing else, then when laws change, and formerly perfectly legal things become illegal.

A historical example of that could be membership of certain political organizations in the US, which was prefectly legal, until the red scare and McCarthyism kicked in.

Another, more recent example, is simply being a LGBT activist in Uganda, which carries high risks of prosecution, even if their "kill the Gays" law was Struck Down.

Again, quoting (or rather, paraphrasing) Tim Bray:

Most people at this conference probably live where the government is fairly civilized, and won't get their door kicked in at the middle of the night. But while it is probably true for people at this conference, it is not true for a majority of the World population as a whole.

This is an important point. Even if we have nothing to hide, and don't expect ever to have anything to hide, the same doesn't hold true for most of the World's population, perhaps including a large proportion of your end users.

This should be obvious, but a lot of people tend to forget that, and don't even enforce the most basic of methods for enabling privacy such as HTTPS.

HTTPS was an area that Tim Bray dedicated a lot of time to, exactly since it is such a basic method, and so many systems don't support it.

This has to change.

Using HTTPS is such a low-cost, easy solution that there is absolutely no reason not to use it at all times, no matter whether privacy is needed. And as Tim Bray also pointed out, there is an asymmetrical cost to using vs. not using HTTPS. Using HTTPS costs a little all the time even when it is not needed, but not using HTTPS can come at a huge cost when it was needed. This is an unacceptable risk.

One thing Tim Bray didn't get into, which I also find important, is that if everybody runs HTTPS, and thus encrypts their Communications, it offers a type of herd immunity to those who really need to protect their privacy - their communication doesn't stand out from the rest.

This is the reason why Google encrypts its user's traffic (they were actually inspired by Cory Doctorow's book Little Brother).

So, all in all, the overall message of the session was that we need to think about how we can protect the privacy of the end users, and at the very minimum we need to ensure basic privacy measures like HTTPS.

Size doesn't matter

Big data.

A couple of years ago, at a GOTO Aarhus conference, I took a break from the sessions, and walked around in the vendor area. Here I was lucky enough to be able to listen in on a conversation between Dave Thomas and Jim Webber, where Dave Thomas was explaining to Jim Webber why graph databases, like neo4j, were not suited for the type of stuff he was doing. Basically, what Dave Thomas did, was to take all global stock data several times a day, and run some analysis on it (I am obviously simplifying it, and probably explaining it wrong).

This is the sort of things I think of when I hear the words "big data".

Since that's the case, I have been somewhat skeptical when people start talking about big data in Denmark, because we have very few domains where there are anything remotely close to such data amounts (health care probably being the one exception).

It turns out that I've basically misunderstood the concept of big data, and that I underestimated the amount of data out there.

At GOTO Copenhagen, I went to a talk with Eva Andreasson, where she gave an overview of the big data landscape, mostly at the vendor level. During this session, she made a number of important points, which made me realize I have to change my view on big data and its usage in Denmark.

First of all, Eva Andreasson made clear that only about 10% of all data out there is what we traditionally would consider data (e.g. data about companies or people). The rest of it is all the trace data that people leave around when they navigate the internet, doing whatever shopping or browsing they want.

Such trace data, put together with traditional data, allows companies to analyze end-user behavior much better than traditional data alone. E.g. while traditional data will tell you what customers bought, trace data will tell you what products customers spent a long time looking at, without buying them at the end - allowing the company to do some further analysis on what it would take to get the customers to buy the product.

Another thing that Eva Andreasson made clear, is that big data isn't just about working on large data amounts. It is also about aggregating new data sources into existing use scenarios of existing data, and about making new use scenarios of the data that you work with, allowing you to look at things in new ways, hopefully gaining new insights.

Based on these two points, it is clear to me that I have to reevaluate my understanding of when big data is relevant. And judging from the conversations I've had with other people about big data, I am not alone in this.

Aim for the stars

One of the great things at most conferences is the keynote talks, since they are usually picked by the conference organizers in order to expand the mental horizons of the conferences goers.

The organizers behind the GOTO conferences are, in my opinion, particularly good at this.

Every time I've been to a GOTO conference (or a QCon conference where they have been involved), there has been at least one keynote talk, that made me rethink things, and look at the field in new ways.

At GOTO Copenhagen, there were several such talks, but one of them stands out in particular.

Very moving keynote speech by @russolsen on the moon landing and the lessons we can learn from it #GOTOcph
— Kristjan Wager (@kriswager) September 26, 2014

On a two-day conference, the least attractive keynote slot must be the early one on the second day (after the conference dinner the evening before), and I am always impressed by the speakers who can go on stage at that slot, and leave an unforgetable impression.

At GOTO Copenhagen it was Russ Olsen who gave his "To the Moon" talk.

I hadn't heard Russ Olsen before, but judging from the keynote talk, he is a great speaker, and I'll definitely check out any talks of his I come across in the future.

So, what was so great about Russ Olsen's talk?

Well, as my tweet embedded above states, it was about the Moon landing and what we, as a field, can learn from it. Most people would probably find this interesting as it is, but my description doesn't do the talk justice at all - Russ Olsen manages to express the feelings of nerverousness and wonder behind the whole process, especially during the last 10 minutes of decent towards the moon.

Russ Olsen also has a great message - quoting Kennedy, he reminds people that they shouldn't do something because it is easy, but because it is hard, and that nothing is impossible.

So, if you're at GOTO Aarhus, I would highly recommend going to Russ Olsen's keynote talk on Tuesday, even if the conference dinner made you get to bed late. But in case you miss it, it can apparently be found online.

Ahead of my time

If you follow me on twitter, you'll undoubtfully have noticed that I've spent the last couple of days at the GOTO Copenhagen conference.

If you look at my last couple of blogposts, that might surprise you, since they were about going to GOTO Aarhus, not GOTO Copenhagen. Well, that's because I am going to GOTO Aarhus in my capacity as a blogger, while I went to GOTO Copenhagen as a "civilian" (i.e. together with some of my colleagues). Since GOTO Copenhagen and GOTO Aarhus have the same sessions, this means that I probably get to see more of the sessions than anyone else, perhaps excluding the speakers themselves.

Even though I didn't go to GOTO Copenhagen as a blogger, it won't keep me from writing a bit about my impressions from the sessions I attended there - this also allows me to make some suggestions for what people should go to at GOTO Aarhus.

Below is my schedule during GOTO Copenhagen:

Thursday:

• New Linting Rules - Kyle Simpson (Enterprise Architecture)
• From 'Agile Hangover' to 'Antifragile Organisations' - Russell Miles (People & Process)
• Fast Delivery - Adrian Cockcroft (People & Process)
• Deep Dive into the Big Data Landscape - Part I - Eva Andreasson (Enterprise Architecture)
• Lean Enterprise - Part II - Jez Humble (People & Process)

 

Friday

• The Future of C# - Mads Torgersen (Enterprise Architecture)
• What I Learned About Going Fast at eBay and Google - Randy Shoup (People & Process)
• Responding in a timely manner - Microseconds in HFT or milliseconds in web apps, its all the the same design principles - Martin Thompson (Enterprise Architecture)
• A retake on the Agile Manifesto Part I - Katherine Kirk/Prag-Dave Thomas/Jez Humble/Tatiana Badiceanu/Martin Fowler (People & Process)
• A retake on the Agile Manifesto Part II - Katherine Kirk/Prag-Dave Thomas/Jez Humble/Tatiana Badiceanu/Martin Fowler (People & Process)

 

As with most conferences, there is a rating system, where one can indicate what you feel about a given session. At GOTO it is the classic green-yellow-red system. All of the sessions I attended, with one exception, I gave a green - and the one I gave a yellow, I actually think in hind-sight also deserved a green.

 

I should probably add that I give a green based on either of two critierias:

1. Was it interesting/informative/entertaining
2. Did I get new insights out of it

This means that theoretically a speaker can be less than stellar, but able to give me new insights, and then receive a green vote. In reality, however, this happens very rarely, so green votes are usually given to great speakers, who usually are also able to provide me insights.

 

 

 

Is the Agile Manifesto outdated?

Looking through the program for GOTO Aarhus, I saw that one of the tracks is about people and processes. This is a track they have had at GOTO Aarhus for some years, and one that I usually go to most talks at. After looking at the program, I don't think this year will be any different.

The reason I go to this track, is that I feel that the greatest challenges in software development is not related to technology, but rather to the interaction between people - exactly what this track is all about.

Looking back at all the conferences I've been to the last few years, it has been talks about organizations and processes that has challenged my world-views the most, forcing me to re-evaluate my assumptions, and decide whether or not they were right or not.

A simple example - last year I listened to talks by both Jez Humble and Dan North, where they mentioned the fact that one has to understand the trade-offs in order to make informed decisions. Otherwise you don't know whether it is the right choice for your situation or not. This is a simple message, and one which is easy to grasp on the surface, but also one it is easy to ignore, when there is a choice that seems obvious.

Lets take source control, which most of us would always insist on.

Source control is without a doubt a must in just about all projects where there is more than one person working on code (and the majority of projects where there is just one person working on the code). Does that mean that we should always use a source control system? Well, no - we need to look at the individual situation, and decided whether it is appropriate or not, evaluating the trade-offs.

In most cases the trade-off is between risk-reduction versus speed and/or cost. Here most would err on the side of risk-reduction, but it could be that speed is of such paramount importance, that the time to set up the source control would make the project worthless, and in that case, then risk-reduction would be the wrong choice.

Personally, I have never been in this situation, and find it highly unlikely I ever will, but it is important to keep it in mind, even when the choice seems obvious.

This is just one of the ways talks related to people and processes has changed my way of thinking.

Another obvious way such tracks have changed my way of thinking, is to make me more cautious about Agile and especially the Agile Manifesto.

At GOTO Amsterdam 2013, Kai Gib gave a interesting talk How to Focus Agile so it delivers Value to your Stakeholders, where he correctly pointed out that the Agile Manifesto has very little focus on actually providing value to the business side (though it does pay attention to value in the principles). Since providing value is the actual reason for doing a project, it would seem problematic that this is left out of the actual manifesto.

Kai Gibs talk, and similar talks I've heard the last few years, have left me wondering if perhaps it is time to retire the Agile Manifesto, or at least put less emphasis on it. Given the fact that I see it presented less and less often as part of slides at a talk, I don't think I am alone in feeling this way.

Actually, looking at the GOTO Aarhus program, it seems like that even the original signees of the Agile Manifesto might feel this way, since there are two sessions on the first day of the people and processes track called A retake on the Agile Manifesto (part 1 and part 2), where five people will be takein "a closer look at what has happened in the last 13 years since the Agile Manifesto was published and evaluate where the development community is going in the future".

Three of those five people are co-signers of the original manifesto (Martin Folwer, Andrew Hunt and Dave Thomas).

I am very much looking forward to these sessions, and to to what they will bring. Maybe something new and exciting will come out of it.

One thing is sure, I expect that I, and everyone else listening, will learn a lot.

GOTO Aarhus changes format

It is no secret that one of the conferences that I really love is the GOTO Aarhus conference which takes place at the end of September. I've been there the last couple of years as a blogger, and expect to go there in that capacity again this year.

One of the things I've loved about the GOTO conference is the format, where there are several concurrent tracks spread across 3 days, where some tracks take up a whole day, while some only take up half a day. Many of the tracks are related, but the format allows you to spread your attention and explore areas you don't really have much knowledge about, without having to invest too much of your conference time.

Given this, it is with a bit of worry that I see that GOTO Aarhus has cut down the length of the conference to two days, and at the same time changed the format, so there are 5 tracks (including the vendor track) running across both days.

This seems like a step back to me, removing the possibility of the more quirky tracks like the open data / eGov track last year, which was only half a day, but which had some really fascinating speakers, presenting unique perspectives and problems.

Now, such tracks would have to be embedded in one of the more mainstream tracks, which is something I highly doubt will happen, especially given the fact that the conference is now one day shorter.

Having said that, I am sure the conference will still be great, and given the quality of the speakers I can see on the list, I am still looking forward to going there. I just think that the chances of having my mind blown has been diminished.