Rick Bauer Posts

It’s Earth Week—that period of the year now set aside for all the “green topics” that we should be thinking about all the time—but most of us are just too doggone busy to really “go green” in some significant way. I admit it—I get “guilted out” during these Green Days and Earth Days and such (although I do like the band Greenday and American Idiot). I hate my low-flush toilet. I like long showers (and my friends seem to encourage me to spend more time in there). I can’t stand separating all the ...

It’s Earth Week—that period of the year now set aside for all the “green topics” that we should be thinking about all the time—but most of us are just too doggone busy to really “go green” in some significant way.I admit it—I get “guilted out” during these Green Days and Earth Days and such (although I do like the band Greenday and American Idiot). I hate my low-flush toilet. I like long showers (and my friends seem to encourage me to spend more time in there). I can’t stand separating all the g ...

I love the TechRepublic website, and my last Monday morning’s reading included Jack Wallen’s “10 Reasons for Quitting IT” article. Lots of comments and suggestions—some of them humorous like farming and Buddhist monk, etc., but some of them observations from some pretty frustrated IT folks. As someone who has moved around for most of his IT career (production manager in database/imaging service bureau, IT manager, CIO in several places, storage industry executive leadership, now working for Comp ...

During the 11th annual Health Information Management Systems Society conference in Orlando, Fla., this past week, I had the chance to discuss CompTIA’s plans to produce a certificate in Health IT later this year with a number of potential customers. I am more enthused than ever that CompTIA’s plans are well grounded in a good understanding of the market, and our credential will help IT professionals make the move into the exciting vertical market of healthcare IT with great success. ...

In the past few months, I have had the privilege of working on CompTIA’s strategy for developing cybersecurity credentials to meet the unprecedented challenges to securing technology networks at home and abroad. I have been to meetings, talkfests, lobbying sessions; I’ve had meals and meetings with 3- and 4-stars and civilian leadership at the highest levels in our government.It’s been a privilege to sit down with C-level leaders of companies who are providing the talent and the tools to secure ...

Part One of an Occasional SeriesWe recently tweaked a few people by announcing the need for some certification holders in the federal government to maintain a current certification level, essentially updating their skills every three years.The reaction in a few circles was immediate, swift and passionate—CompTIA had reneged on its “certified for life” promise, this was some sales jive for getting people to take more exams, and in other places the reaction was even more extreme—it was the sure si ...

A serious discussion about the value and sequencing of a college education is long overdue.As the class of 2010 graduates into the deepest economic downturn since the Great Depression, the prospects for employment are bleaker than in anytime I can remember. For high school graduates under 25 and not in college, the average unemployment rate is 22.8%, according to recent data.The solution, we are told, is to send more of these high school graduates to college, where, having spent in many cases we ...

So spoke Strother Martin in his role as the sadistic captain in the movie Cool Hand Luke, having just delivered a wicked beating to Paul Newman. Not that I have any greater interest in beatings than anyone else (not sure you get health insurance coverage for sadism around here), but today I am thinking about a form of abuse that is growing with the near-universality of Microsoft PowerPoint.™ Some of us nodded with smiling familiarity at a recent New York Times article about the overuse and abuse ...

Last week I had the opportunity to meet with the leaders of a company that you will be hearing more about in the coming years. The company is Knowledge Factor and what they are doing in learning and assessment theory is game-changing.Traditional assessment theory concentrates on a binary mode of responses that boil down to “correct/incorrect.” Since Mrs. Jones’ 2nd grade geography class, that’s been pretty much the way things go in assessment theory. What Knowledge Factor has done is add a diffe ...