5 ms·

Gartner picks digital ethics and privacy as a strategic trend for 2019

110 points by RobertSmith 8y ago

infocollector 8y ago
Will that mean that technologies that are privacy centric will become important for some reason?
- abakker 8y ago
  Not quite, but it does mean that there is now "board level" justification for investing in these technologies. If Gartner says it, then it is important to not be "left behind".
Arubis 8y ago
Does this mean I can include "have had strong opinions on the Internet; 25 years experience" on my résumé now? While that sounds flippant, I'd actually love to have some input in this area; it's long been an area of passion for me, but I don't have a law degree. Which I suspect is true of a lot of people around these parts.
Jedi72 8y ago
Gartner manager: Ok boys, we got approval, heres $600,000 now go do the 2019 strategic trends report -- 11 months 1 wk later -- Joe: "Oh dam lol hey bill whats trending top of HN atm"
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
thrav 8y ago
Not surprising. Benioff has already created an official group internally to try to address people’s issues and avoid losing employees.
blakesterz 8y ago
It's not often I think "librarians are way out in front of this trend!" We've been crazy about privacy and "digital ethics" (though I'm not sure we've ever used that phrase) forever, or at least as long as I've been a librarian. Attorney General John Ashcroft actually picked a fight with the ALA years ago over this kind of thing because of the PATRIOT act.
- eksemplar 8y ago
  Really? In my country libraries did audiobooks before everyone except for audible. They did movie streaming before everyone, including Netflix. They digitised the way you order, rent and pick up books in a way that'd put most digital retail to shame, and they did it before 2010. They're almost exclusively open source, and they corporate across their sector to build and use the same standards, even though their management is as split up as everything else. I mean, I work in a muniplacity and we can't even agree to buy a standard component for our intranet even tough we're mainly looking for a new intranet because the old non-standardised component can't be upgraded, and meanwhile, the libraries across the country have developed and adopted universal standards for almost everything they do... Libraries did service design and user based fail fast methods before anyone else, and I think they're still one of the few business to actually succeed at it. They're really, really bad at marketing their successes though. Remember that movie streaming thing I talked about in the beginning? Well, almost nobody knows it exists. I bet, that none of the Danes who read this post will have ever heard about http://biblioteket.filmstriben.dk http://biblioteket.filmstriben.dk .
  - tekromancr 8y ago
    That's really fucking cool! Does it work by "checking out" the movie while it's being watched, then "checking in" when it's done? I could see a system like this working in the US if there was the funding for it. The library systems in the US have made pretty great strides in modernizing their offerings lately, lots of ebooks, lots of downloadable audiobooks. Unfortunately, much of it is closed source and driven by a company called OverDrive. It would be really cool to see a digital library revolution in the US. Anyway, libraries are dope. They need more support.
binarymax 8y ago
Make sure you pay the $25k now to get on the upper right of the quadrant.
- irl_zebra 8y ago
  Can you expand on this comment? I'm running into Gartner more and more in my current position and am wondering about how legitimate they are.
  - thrower123 8y ago
    Gartner has been sued about ranking companies that buy hefty consulting services from them higher on its magic quadrant rankings than other companies that don't. The case got dismissed[1] on other grounds, but the general sense I've gotten anecdotally is that it kind of is a payola scheme. [1] https://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonbloomberg/2017/09/29/can-netscout-get-the-respect-it-deserves/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonbloomberg/2017/09/29/can-n...
  - ams6110 8y ago
    Gartner is one of those companies that executives hire to provide backing for their big decisions, so that if they don't work out there is someone to blame. Gartner makes a lot of money to be the scapegoat-in-waiting.
  - lozaning 8y ago
    They win the JD power Award for longest lasting initial buzz in their award category every year.
  - zerkten 8y ago
    While I wouldn't ignore the original poster, these research companies do have a good reputation amongst their primary customer bases. Many HN commentators have opinions, occasionally an understanding of a technology/market, and infrequently have any large enterprise experience, so they don't see the need for services like Gartner. In the enterprise you can never get a decision wrong which is why these services have value. Stuff goes wrong all the time, but the culture is very much to cover your ass, which is why Gartner have such value. You'll get most value out of Gartner, Forrester, etc. if you are researching technology in an enterprise scenario and have done a lot of the basics yourself. You can use their write-ups as references to support decisions you are making, but if you have the option you are better submitting an analyst request and having them review your findings or add additional suggestions. On the vendor side it is a mixed bag. You have a IBM's and other entrenched players in the up quadrant for any market. It's hard to make the leap from being seen as a niche player because their analyses take into account all of the supporting services they offer. Unless you going really deep or plan to offer consulting services etc. then there doesn't seem much point to trying to get onto the Gartner Quadrant. You might be better off the radar completely because then a potential customer can't hear a detailed Gartner comparison which may be too generic to hold you in good light. IT people outside of the decision-making arena don't see the point in Gartner et al because they know enough about the business area to find and implement the solution. The problem is that they are often not trusted within the enterprise to make these decisions because of the culture and structure of the organisation.
andreygrehov 8y ago
See the list of predictions here: https://www.gartner.com/smarterwithgartner/gartner-top-10-strategic-technology-trends-for-2019/ https://www.gartner.com/smarterwithgartner/gartner-top-10-st...
saberworks 8y ago
I'm afraid of this because I don't think the execution matches the marketing. Sites like Ars Technica are wooing users into their subscriptions by promising that they will not track you and they will not show you ads, but then if you read their actual privacy policy they state very clearly that they sell their subscriber list to 3rd parties, including any advertising company that wants it. I do own an iphone and I think they're 10x better (or more) than google at privacy but it's clear that they still do slurp way too much data. I get it, they're not intentionally selling it to 3rd parties but I'd rather they didn't take it in the first place. Do they really need to record all my app store searches? All my "news app" views? Can I please just opt out of that altogether?
chris_wot 8y ago
Ethics and privacy have been trending... since the dawn of mankind.
- Arubis 8y ago
  The Spanish Inquisition would disagree with you. This is an area where society has slipped backwards before. I'd posit that the modern concept of privacy has only been a thinkable thought for a handful of centuries.
  - chris_wot 8y ago
    Trending indicates it is continuously developing. So we started from nothing, went to dreaful, then to bad, then got better. Now we have Trump.
olivermarks 8y ago
The irony of Gartner commenting and appraising 'digital ethics' is rather delicious...a common criticism of the company is that they are market makers with their business model that both takes money from the companies they appraise (who often also buy the rights to use the resulting glowing 'reports' as marketing) and also from people who want to research a market segment. There are lots of talented, perceptive people at Gartner but their business model sails very close to the wind ethically. Gideon Gartner never intended the notorious 'magic quadrant' to be so central to their offerings but boy has it been a money spinner via marketing buys and for exec powerpoint cut and paste graph proof points. https://youtu.be/g7zzl1RM02U https://youtu.be/g7zzl1RM02U

110 points by RobertSmith 8y ago

infocollector 8y ago

Will that mean that technologies that are privacy centric will become important for some reason?

abakker 8y ago
Not quite, but it does mean that there is now "board level" justification for investing in these technologies. If Gartner says it, then it is important to not be "left behind".

Arubis 8y ago

Does this mean I can include "have had strong opinions on the Internet; 25 years experience" on my résumé now? While that sounds flippant, I'd actually love to have some input in this area; it's long been an area of passion for me, but I don't have a law degree. Which I suspect is true of a lot of people around these parts.

Jedi72 8y ago

Gartner manager: Ok boys, we got approval, heres $600,000 now go do the 2019 strategic trends report -- 11 months 1 wk later -- Joe: "Oh dam lol hey bill whats trending top of HN atm"

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]

thrav 8y ago

Not surprising. Benioff has already created an official group internally to try to address people’s issues and avoid losing employees.

blakesterz 8y ago

It's not often I think "librarians are way out in front of this trend!" We've been crazy about privacy and "digital ethics" (though I'm not sure we've ever used that phrase) forever, or at least as long as I've been a librarian. Attorney General John Ashcroft actually picked a fight with the ALA years ago over this kind of thing because of the PATRIOT act.

eksemplar 8y ago
Really? In my country libraries did audiobooks before everyone except for audible. They did movie streaming before everyone, including Netflix. They digitised the way you order, rent and pick up books in a way that'd put most digital retail to shame, and they did it before 2010. They're almost exclusively open source, and they corporate across their sector to build and use the same standards, even though their management is as split up as everything else. I mean, I work in a muniplacity and we can't even agree to buy a standard component for our intranet even tough we're mainly looking for a new intranet because the old non-standardised component can't be upgraded, and meanwhile, the libraries across the country have developed and adopted universal standards for almost everything they do... Libraries did service design and user based fail fast methods before anyone else, and I think they're still one of the few business to actually succeed at it. They're really, really bad at marketing their successes though. Remember that movie streaming thing I talked about in the beginning? Well, almost nobody knows it exists. I bet, that none of the Danes who read this post will have ever heard about http://biblioteket.filmstriben.dk http://biblioteket.filmstriben.dk .
- tekromancr 8y ago
  That's really fucking cool! Does it work by "checking out" the movie while it's being watched, then "checking in" when it's done? I could see a system like this working in the US if there was the funding for it. The library systems in the US have made pretty great strides in modernizing their offerings lately, lots of ebooks, lots of downloadable audiobooks. Unfortunately, much of it is closed source and driven by a company called OverDrive. It would be really cool to see a digital library revolution in the US. Anyway, libraries are dope. They need more support.

binarymax 8y ago

Make sure you pay the $25k now to get on the upper right of the quadrant.

irl_zebra 8y ago
Can you expand on this comment? I'm running into Gartner more and more in my current position and am wondering about how legitimate they are.
- thrower123 8y ago
  Gartner has been sued about ranking companies that buy hefty consulting services from them higher on its magic quadrant rankings than other companies that don't. The case got dismissed[1] on other grounds, but the general sense I've gotten anecdotally is that it kind of is a payola scheme. [1] https://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonbloomberg/2017/09/29/can-netscout-get-the-respect-it-deserves/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonbloomberg/2017/09/29/can-n...
- ams6110 8y ago
  Gartner is one of those companies that executives hire to provide backing for their big decisions, so that if they don't work out there is someone to blame. Gartner makes a lot of money to be the scapegoat-in-waiting.
- lozaning 8y ago
  They win the JD power Award for longest lasting initial buzz in their award category every year.
- zerkten 8y ago
  While I wouldn't ignore the original poster, these research companies do have a good reputation amongst their primary customer bases. Many HN commentators have opinions, occasionally an understanding of a technology/market, and infrequently have any large enterprise experience, so they don't see the need for services like Gartner. In the enterprise you can never get a decision wrong which is why these services have value. Stuff goes wrong all the time, but the culture is very much to cover your ass, which is why Gartner have such value. You'll get most value out of Gartner, Forrester, etc. if you are researching technology in an enterprise scenario and have done a lot of the basics yourself. You can use their write-ups as references to support decisions you are making, but if you have the option you are better submitting an analyst request and having them review your findings or add additional suggestions. On the vendor side it is a mixed bag. You have a IBM's and other entrenched players in the up quadrant for any market. It's hard to make the leap from being seen as a niche player because their analyses take into account all of the supporting services they offer. Unless you going really deep or plan to offer consulting services etc. then there doesn't seem much point to trying to get onto the Gartner Quadrant. You might be better off the radar completely because then a potential customer can't hear a detailed Gartner comparison which may be too generic to hold you in good light. IT people outside of the decision-making arena don't see the point in Gartner et al because they know enough about the business area to find and implement the solution. The problem is that they are often not trusted within the enterprise to make these decisions because of the culture and structure of the organisation.

andreygrehov 8y ago

See the list of predictions here: https://www.gartner.com/smarterwithgartner/gartner-top-10-strategic-technology-trends-for-2019/ https://www.gartner.com/smarterwithgartner/gartner-top-10-st...

saberworks 8y ago

I'm afraid of this because I don't think the execution matches the marketing. Sites like Ars Technica are wooing users into their subscriptions by promising that they will not track you and they will not show you ads, but then if you read their actual privacy policy they state very clearly that they sell their subscriber list to 3rd parties, including any advertising company that wants it. I do own an iphone and I think they're 10x better (or more) than google at privacy but it's clear that they still do slurp way too much data. I get it, they're not intentionally selling it to 3rd parties but I'd rather they didn't take it in the first place. Do they really need to record all my app store searches? All my "news app" views? Can I please just opt out of that altogether?

chris_wot 8y ago

Ethics and privacy have been trending... since the dawn of mankind.

Arubis 8y ago
The Spanish Inquisition would disagree with you. This is an area where society has slipped backwards before. I'd posit that the modern concept of privacy has only been a thinkable thought for a handful of centuries.
- chris_wot 8y ago
  Trending indicates it is continuously developing. So we started from nothing, went to dreaful, then to bad, then got better. Now we have Trump.

olivermarks 8y ago

The irony of Gartner commenting and appraising 'digital ethics' is rather delicious...a common criticism of the company is that they are market makers with their business model that both takes money from the companies they appraise (who often also buy the rights to use the resulting glowing 'reports' as marketing) and also from people who want to research a market segment. There are lots of talented, perceptive people at Gartner but their business model sails very close to the wind ethically. Gideon Gartner never intended the notorious 'magic quadrant' to be so central to their offerings but boy has it been a money spinner via marketing buys and for exec powerpoint cut and paste graph proof points. https://youtu.be/g7zzl1RM02U https://youtu.be/g7zzl1RM02U