Isn't it a bit ironic that Cleantech is a dirty word? Analysis of 60 Minutes piece

It wasn’t too long ago that people would proudly say they worked in Cleantech.  Now Cleantech is a dirty word associated with failure.

60 minutes had a piece on Cleantech which focused on the failure part.  I couldn’t put my finger on what bothered me about the 60 minutes video.

Then GigaOm’s Katie Fehrenbacher wrote her analysis of what 60 minutes got right and wrong in their story. 

What 60 Minutes got right and wrong in its story on the “cleantech crash”

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JAN. 5, 2014 - 6:50 PM PST

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Dogpatch Biofuels
SUMMARY:

60 Minutes just aired one of the more mainstream looks yet at the Silicon Valley cleantech rise and fall. While they got some things right they also got some wrong. My take here.

Katie had the benefit of months of knowing the 60 minutes broadcast was coming out.

Full disclosure, I spoke with the producers of the 60 Minutes piece on background a few times over the past few months as they were putting it together, just to try to help them go in the right direction.

Katie presents her view of what 60 minutes got right and wrong.

Contrary to the reaction of many of my Twitter friends, I think 60 Minutes got some key things right in the story, but they also got a couple of things wrong in there, too — most importantly they’re overlapping the Valley story with the government funding story. Here’s my take on their piece, which — to their credit — is one of the more comprehensive mainstream media looks at what was the VC cleantech phenomenon:

 

Gifts of Coal to 113th Congress make it a high carbon impact to the political environment

The Holidays are a time of gift giving.  CNN has a poll where the most popular gift of the 113th congress is Coal, making it the highest carbon impact in history according to those surveyed.  The frustration is the lack of action taken which just like bad environmental practices has an overall negative impact.

 

Here's your gift, lawmakers: Coal

...

That's the verdict from two-thirds of Americans about the track record of the 113th Congress, according to a new national poll. And a CNN/ORC International poll released Thursday also indicates that nearly three-quarters of the public say that this has been a "do-nothing" Congress.

Two-thirds of those questioned said the current Congress is the worst in their lifetime, with 28% disagreeing.

Sometimes the least impact is when you leave things in a natural state.  At the current state the Repubicans, Democrats, and Obama is viewed as being bad for the political environment.

"Negative attitudes extend to both sides of the aisle: 52% believe that the policies of the Democratic leaders in Congress would move the country in the wrong direction; 54% say the same about the policies of congressional Republicans," Holland said.

And 54% say the same thing about President Barack Obama's policies

Who would have thought the Enemy of the NSA is its Methods of Operations

The NSA has had decades to refine how it operates.  The personnel and technology are meant to fulfill the mission of the NSA.

Mission


OPS 2A and 2B BuildingsThe National Security Agency/Central Security Service (NSA/CSS) leads the U.S. Government in cryptology that encompasses both Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) and Information Assurance (IA) products and services, and enables Computer Network Operations (CNO) in order to gain a decision advantage for the Nation and our allies under all circumstances.

I never noticed until now that in the Mission Statement is “under all circumstances.”  This means the NSA spent a lot of time thinking about threats to its operations. Out of all the scenarios that the NSA went through, it is very unlikely they foresaw the case where they are in a PR disaster and are being attacked by Allies and the USA.

Just check out the latest Google News search for “NSA."

New York Daily News

 

Hill lawmakers battle over future of NSA spying, in wake of White ...

Fox News-5 hours agoShare
FILE: Oct. 28, 2013: A photo illustration of an NSA logo and a cellphone simulating a call to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Frankford, ...

In the Sen Mark Udall post on Huffington the call is made to change NSA operations.

WASHINGTON -- Colorado Sen. Mark Udall (D) said on Sunday that any arguments against reform of the National Security Agency's surveillance programs crumbled this past week, following the release of a White House report that criticized the programs and a judge's ruling that questioned their constitutionality.

Speaking on ABC's "This Week," Udall said, "The arguments for the status quo fell apart this week in Washington."

"It's now time to really fundamentally reform the way in which the NSA operates," he said.

Maybe it is worthwhile to think about what happens if there is a PR disaster in your data center operations and documents are in public domain as to how you operate.

Developing something new is hard due to Fog of War syndrome, Obamacare suffers

Developing something new is hard.  It is too easy to think you have answers to question you ask internally, confident you have things figured out and you ship.  When I worked on the Mac Portable, this occurred.  Everyone on the team thought the product was a winner, including the media.

Released on September 20, 1989, it was received with excitement from most critics but consumer sales were quite low.

...

In May 2006, PC World rated the Macintosh Portable as the seventeenth worst tech product of all time.[

The lesson I learned from this is the Fog of War syndrome.  The lack of situational awareness shipping new services can be crippling.

The fog of war is the uncertainty in situational awareness experienced by participants in military operations.[1] The term seeks to capture the uncertainty regarding one's own capability, adversary capability, and adversary intent during an engagement, operation, or campaign.

The enemy is not the other companies, but the act of customers not buying your service.

The latest manifestation of this problem is Obamacare.   And, the enemy Obama didn’t expect is his own Democratic party.

Washington (CNN) -- A private meeting on Capitol Hill with House Democrats and White House officials on Wednesday became heated when rank-and-file members expressed frustration about continued Obamacare problems, according to multiple sources in the room.

One congressional Democrat who attended the meeting said senior Obama administration officials Mike Hash and David Simas really "got hit" by House Democrats about everything from the troubled website to the broken presidential promise that people can keep the insurance plans they like.

Including President Clinton.

Boosting pressure further on Obama was former President Bill Clinton, who said on Tuesday that the President should find a way to uphold his initial promises about health policies.

Clinton: Obama should 'honor commitment' on keeping health plans

A growing number of Democrats have called for changes or delays to the program as many face tough reelection bids in 2014 and are feeling pressure from challengers and constituents.

There are some data center services I can think that were developed in the Fog of War, lacking the situational awareness.

Developing something new is hard due to Fog of War syndrome, Obamacare suffers

Developing something new is hard.  It is too easy to think you have answers to question you ask internally, confident you have things figured out and you ship.  When I worked on the Mac Portable, this occurred.  Everyone on the team thought the product was a winner, including the media.

Released on September 20, 1989, it was received with excitement from most critics but consumer sales were quite low.

...

In May 2006, PC World rated the Macintosh Portable as the seventeenth worst tech product of all time.[

The lesson I learned from this is the Fog of War syndrome.  The lack of situational awareness shipping new services can be crippling.

The fog of war is the uncertainty in situational awareness experienced by participants in military operations.[1] The term seeks to capture the uncertainty regarding one's own capability, adversary capability, and adversary intent during an engagement, operation, or campaign.

The enemy is not the other companies, but the act of customers not buying your service.

The latest manifestation of this problem is Obamacare.   And, the enemy Obama didn’t expect is his own Democratic party.

Washington (CNN) -- A private meeting on Capitol Hill with House Democrats and White House officials on Wednesday became heated when rank-and-file members expressed frustration about continued Obamacare problems, according to multiple sources in the room.

One congressional Democrat who attended the meeting said senior Obama administration officials Mike Hash and David Simas really "got hit" by House Democrats about everything from the troubled website to the broken presidential promise that people can keep the insurance plans they like.

Including President Clinton.

Boosting pressure further on Obama was former President Bill Clinton, who said on Tuesday that the President should find a way to uphold his initial promises about health policies.

Clinton: Obama should 'honor commitment' on keeping health plans

A growing number of Democrats have called for changes or delays to the program as many face tough reelection bids in 2014 and are feeling pressure from challengers and constituents.

There are some data center services I can think that were developed in the Fog of War, lacking the situational awareness.