Jonathan Spence

Authored By: Jonathan Spence Data and the internet are becoming ever more critical to the planet’s residents. Even the smallest rural villages in Kenya or India are likely using data services on a daily basis; services whose importance can often be placed far ahead of electricity or even sanitation. The rise of the likes of M-Pesa in what many in the developed world would (arrogantly) consider backwaters is testament to the power of communications and information to transform the lives of all. No matter whether its an SMS message, financial transaction, email, complex business process or cat video, almost all…

Authored By: Jonathan Spence I'll start by admitting it, efficienize is NOT a word. Yes I know, but without those who promote new words how will they ever be accepted into a language?! In any case I thought I would do a quick search to see what the linguists had to say on the subject matter and they were very much adamant that indeed it is not yet a word even though its use is arguably spreading. In one of the forums where they were discussing this, a user suggested a better word to use: Kaizen. Kaizen or 改善 (for…

Authored By: Jonathan Spence There are two big stories in the personal transport news these days, Uber (and of course its compatriots in the ride-sharing space like Lyft) & Driverless cars. Each is in itself quite an amazing proposition. Let's start with Uber. On the surface it looks like a win-win for both sides; the passenger and the driver. For the passenger it's an exceedingly easy service to use providing a known fare value, easy payment and potentially reduced prices for otherwise expensive taxi travel. On the driver side it "democratises" (I really dislike that term!) the ability for people…

Authored By: Jonathan Spence "I'll be back" - the infamous words of arguably the most famous & bad-ass cyborg around. Arnold Schwarzenegger does seem to be making a move back to acting after a stint "governating" California so those words could arguably hold true! For those who don't know, cyborg is a word to describe a robot which includes both biological and mechanical components, in the Terminator's case he was a robot on the inside with skin on the outside. Now I know you may be asking, how is this relevant to an Xtracta orientated post but stick with me!…

Authored By: Jonathan Spence Data protection, both physical and digital are key parts to protecting a business, organization or even an individual from loss of critical information. All too often when talking to a variety of organizations, I find little thought is given to the various scenarios that could occur and in such cases, what action plan would be implemented. A term you will be reading throughout this blog is "what-if" - it's something that sits at the heart of my decision making in this area. Being analytical and considering rare scenarios can open your thinking to new ideas and…