Tom Bishop - The Hidden Podcasts - Part 1

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What does computer dating and BMC Software's Chief Technology Officer have in common? Well, writing code for a computer dating program introduced Tom Bishop to a world of possibilities in programming. At Cornell, he displayed early ambition, deciding on a flexible computer science program that enabled him to study exactly what he wanted. Tom left the Ph.D. program to apply theory in applications to real problems at Bell Labs. His work with voice switches in the telecommunications industry netted him a patent in record time. But he learned hard lessons along the way that still resonate today.

Tom gives critical advice about making economic assumptions in design, and when those assumptions can become fatal to your business. Be very deliberate when you build the DNA within an organization, Tom warns. You must be aware on an ongoing basis and ask, "Does this DNA serve us, or harm us?" There are organizational "givens" that sometimes may be harmful, and you will have to identify and discard these as quickly as possible. The industry is constantly evolving ... and this is the only way to stay ahead.

Resources

The Hidden Podcasts - Part 2

Thought Leadership at BMC Software

Tom Bishop's CTO Blog on TalkBMC

Bio

Tom Bishop was named one of the top 25 CTOs by InfoWorld Magazine in 2004, and is a well-known industry innovator who holds nine patents in fault tolerant computing and in leading the development of industry standards such as the Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF) and POSIX.

Production Credits

Ynema Mangum, Producer
Mike Smith, Publisher and moderator
Dana Farver, Communities Editor-in-Chief
Tom Parish, Audio Producer
Kimberly Stone, Web Development Manager
Scott Ebner, Music, Audio Mixing, Web Developer