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On this date 38 years ago, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the moon. It still boggles my mind that some people still believe thew moon landings did not happen.

Here’s a picture of Neil during the first lunar excursion. If you look at the visor, you’ll see a reflection of the photographer, who was Buzz Aldrin, of course.

I do remember watching the moon landings on my family’s Zenith black-and-white television. Last year I set up a Facebook group for people who watched one of the six Apollo landings on television when it happened. For the youngsters, there’s always the “When I was your age, Pluto was a planet” group. Maybe I should I start a “Skylab sucked” Facebook group, because Skylab really did suck.

As I predicted on June 11, DirecTV will offer WiMax.

Clearwire has agreed to cooperate with two satellite television providers in the US. DirecTV and EchoStar will sell Clearwire WiMax Internet connections to customers.

Clearwire will also get to sell video services from EchoStar and DirectTV to its customer base. Reuters has a few more details here.

This agreement helps all three companies compete with AT&T, Time Warner, Comcast, and other telcos that are developing all-in-one service offerings for the consumer market.

One of my recent IS 6100 assignments addressed the Global Positioning System (GPS). Randolph Schmid of the AP reports that the system’s stability is threatened by powerful solar flares that are due to hit the earth sometime before 2011.

Recent findings indicate that the flares emit 10 times more radio frequency interference (RFI) than expected. The GPS satellites cannot broadcast a signal strong enough to overcome this static, and most civilian GPS receivers can’t filter out the solar noise.
The article also examines how IT has become dependent on GPS for a variety of tasks that have nothing to do with mapping, driving or transportation. Banks use the GPS atomic clocks to synchronize money transfers, for example.
In the end, the US government will have to replace the GPS satellites with stronger models, or tell users to buy new GPS equipment and antennas. My guess is that the latter plan will be suggested, unless the Department of Defense decides that GPS signal strength is a national defense priority.

The New York Times reports that a recent Chinese test of a space weapons system has left several hundred pieces of shrapnel in orbit. Unfortunately, the Chinese test happened at 530 miles above the earth’s surface. It’s likely that many of these pieces will never fall to earth.

This isn’t the worst accident in terms of space junk. According to Space.com, a US rocket exploded in orbit in 1996, spreading over 300,000 objects in the same orbit as the Hubble Space Telescope. Sections of the International Space Station (ISS) are armored to protect the station against very small orbiting objects.

But China’s recent test was irresponsible and may have long-lasting effects. It was the country’s first test of a space weapons system, which by itself is alarming. The explosion was a significant addition to to the field of orbiting debris that can disable current satellites and prevent the launch of new satellites. That’s a serious threat to the value chain of any company that depends on this data.

It’s unlikely that that some of these pieces will strike commercial communications satellites. It’s becoming more likely that a satellite will be damaged or destroyed as it launches through the debris field in the lower orbits, on its way to its permanent place in the sky. That includes weather satellites, GPS satellites, and other systems.
A 20-year old paint chip smaller than a punctuation mark in this blog almost blew out a window during an early Space Shuttle flight. The United States can track larger pieces of space junk, so that the Space Shuttle and ISS can avoid the objects before they strike, but the smaller objects are harder to track and almost as dangerous.

From CIO Insight: John Parkinson asks an important question - how well can business schools prepare their students to take leadership positions in information technology and innovation?

Graduate education emphasizes meta-learning, or the ability of learning how to learn. A successful master’s degree candidate has demonstrated that they understand and use the course material, and that they can continue to learn and grow as professionals and scholars.

The MBA degree program is fundamentally different from more specific degrees programs. I speak from experience - I earned an MBA as a full-time student at Rollins College in 1988, and I’ve been program chair of an MSIS program for the last 3 years. I also teach dozens of MBA and MSIS students every year. I have a bio page here.

MBA programs provide broad cross-training

An MBA program provides cross-training over several required topics (finance, accounting, marketing, management, law, technology, strategic management) and a handful of specific electives. However, some MBA programs have no electives at all. Other MBA programs have specific areas of interest, such as entrepreneurship, technology, or vertical markets.

A major part the MBA program’s value lies in the integration among the courses. As this is a master’s program, students must do the integrative work themselves, using the frameworks provided by their faculty. This represents the integration of functional areas into business, corporate, and enterprise strategies.

MSIS programs provide managerial and technical preparation

An MSIS program tends to focus on technical skills (telecommunications, software, hardware) and management skills (project management, knowledge management, strategic management). Again, the students follow a framework provided by the faculty as they integrate their knowledge.

If we treat IS as a functional area, and innovation as a process to be managed, the role of the IS professional is to help the organization deliver more value and effectiveness through technology and innovation.

Parkinson’s thesis - that deep scholars are difficult to find - has some merit. Many organizations select CIOs who have demonstrated management ability, but who have limited technological experience. These CIOs are expected to be “quick studies” as they master the technologies and processes that provide value in their organizations.

The MBA degree has often be derided as the “quick study” certificate. Because MBA students get only one or two classes in each of the core functional areas, they learn how to perform rapid analyses that may be sophisticated, but may also lack detail and rigor.

On the other hand, Herbert Simon pointed out that decision-making is usually constrained by the bounds of time, space, and our own cognitive abilities. Managers want to optimize, but they end up satisficing, or making do with less in oder to complete the task at hand. This Wikipedia article has more information and links about Simon’s work, and any good principles of management textbook should discuss Simon as well.

Information systems and technology allow managers to extract more precision and process more data in their everyday work. While IS professionals are essential to this task, they do not necessarily understand the strategic value of the systems they develop, implement and maintain.

In the end, MBAs depend upon IS professionals, and vice versa.