Future of tech, workplace and us in news – May 28

Below is a collection of stories, articles and views from the last week that shift and nudge my thinking and views on AI, future of work and tech.

“We want AI systems to be accurate, reliable, safe and non-discriminatory, regardless of their origin,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Friday. The G7 leaders mentioned generative AI, the subset popularised by the ChatGPT app, saying they “need to immediately take stock of the opportunities and challenges of generative AI.” All this is a reflection of sense of urgency to balance the emerging tech with societal safety.

AI is gaining ability to communicate with the humans through language at the pace not foreseen even by its creators. Storytelling is the key to getting us, humans, to behave in a way we do. Gods, money and many other items are not biological; these phenomena are created by us and only hold their value through our belief in them. The AI tools will fight for our intimacy… In order to manipulate people’s behaviour, there is no need to modify them physically (e.g. insert a chip into their brains) – people’s perception and subsequent acts have been altered by language for thousands of years.

I’m paraphrasing Yuval Noah Harari’s thoughts here. I highly advise to watch his recent lecture at the Frontiers below.

When I spoke to my 12 year old son about the AI and related themes, I noticed he used term ‘they’. When I asked, he corrected it to ‘it’ stating, “it clearly isn’t he or she”. How do you think?

Trust but verify? Do I still have to verify if the platform provider has done it? Yes, because they verify the tweeter not their content. It’s still your job to think critically before shouting to everyone “OMG, look what’s happening!!!”. What’s happening is that you were tricked into believing something that didn’t happen. Fake it till you make it would be the new slogan of misinformation campaigners.

Meta’s researchers used Bible in spoken and written form to teach their open-source AI model to recognise a ton of languages. But, low and behold, the source is stuffed with ancient bias and may produce all sorts of output. So, move in the right direction for preserving small languages, and it needs more work.

OpenAI leadership is calling for an international oversight body to stem the sector. However, as I’ve written before, the race to the bottom hasn’t slowed down. From the tone it feels as “we need to slow down, but before we do it, we need to win!”. Yurval Harari notes in his speech that collectively putting the foot on the brakes in the western world will not result in China or any other counterforce suddenly gaining upper hand. If they had the capabilities required to succeed, it would have already happened. Pausing to design and install an oversight body now would not risk anything for the wider society. It’s a bit like post Cold War when the US had suddenly lost its counterbalance (aka the enemy) and its politicians are desperate to find a new one. I believe the race isn’t between the players from the east and west. It’s a case of the US domestic conflict where AI leaders all want to win the race. But what waits at the other end? So perhaps the political elite should look at their donors and decide what is important in the long term – stability of the nation or their position.

A recent study showed that adversarial neural networks (ANN’s) learn similarly to human brain. If we could only make these models less power hungry (i.e. raise efficiency) and push the computing to the edge, reducing redundancy on central components, we’d be over the hill with this one. Such step would enable applying machine learning wherever the it is, and conditional awareness would raise its ability to respond fast without prior knowledge of the environment. Oh wait, is that a good thing? Or is it a bit like Terminator?

Now, how do you counter a machine that knows everything and can memorise more than you ever could? You could train your memory to learn everything you need to know, or you could simply train it to know where the tools and resources are. Either way, memory training is good.

Here’s an interesting and promising development for anyone left paralysed and unable to walk – a brain-spine interface that translates intentions to electrical signals bypassing the damaged areas. Reuters meanwhile covered Neuralink FDA approval story – not too dissimilar, but with a wider long term implication. Positive or negative – we’ll see.

Have you heard of functional music? You know, the playlists that help you focus on a specific activity like being sharp or winding down. Endel is a startup who has managed to schmooze Universal Music to partner with it in order to capture the booming market. Win for the listeners and Endel as auto-generated music will be streamed on know platforms. I’d like to know how will they deal with the plagiarism question – was it an inspiration or a copy?

Meanwhile, Spotify has been working on simplifying its advertisement business – the next time you hear your favourite podcast host reading an ad, it may not be them any more. Give it a text, voice model, sentiment and voila!

How would you feel about the World ID, a concept of an identity based on your eye iris scan? That would be your way to maintain personal privacy while proving their humanness in an economy disrupted by AI and automation, as stated by Alex Blania, the cofounder and CEO of Tools for Humanity. TFH is a spinout of Worldcoin that Sam Altman started a few years ago. Investors are feeling bullish and pouring $115m into the project. I’d suggest reading the privacy notice and would like to see independent third party validation of those claims.

Multilingual LLM’s are seen as giving a leg up for social media platform owners, requiring fewer humans to moderate the content created in multiple languages. However good these LLM’s are, context awareness (or knowing your territory and where you stand) still matters. There are , as covered in this Wired article, a few issues we are going to face for the foreseeable future. These are:

focus on large languages
availability of training material for minor languages or dialects
definition of what is harmful
platform owners unwillingness to share how their models work

The companies should ditch the ‘rest of the world problem’ approach to shift their products towards being used more for good than ill.

This is really positive development in identifying and taking predefined action on the hateful content, bot in images and text. Kudos to Microsoft for developing such toolset. Yet, the time will tell how affective it is. Hope for the best!

Listen to Nilay Patel talking to Kevin Scott, a Microsoft CTO for AI. Some takeaways, but not all – spend that hour, it’s worth it.

Co-pilot creation – Microsoft doesn’t have the knowledge of the business users to build tools that help *this role in that sector*, but that person has. Giving them the ability to compose the co-pilot is an interesting development. As Microsoft owns the ecosystem, how will they share the additional revenue gained from AI co-pilot developments?
I really like the idea of media provenance system – put an invisible cryptographic watermark and manifest into the files showing the receiver where it originated from. This could be a boost to digital art and another hit at pirated content.
Not entirely clear in Microsoft position on compensation to the creative industry whose output is used to train the AI engines.
What is a definition of a good platform? Microsoft wants to encourage people to build assistive tools. Open platform doesn’t mean full access to the underlying tech but ability to build your stuff via API’s. What would you build when the unit economics enable you to start as price and quality leader, and then develop your revenue stream? Without burning some states pension fund. Would you focus on the tech or using the platform?
Common and separate objectives with Microsoft and Open AI, oversight boards and partnerships, and much more.

22 May 202322 May 2023

Future of tech, workplace and us in news – May 22

CBinsights has released Q1 ’23 AI funding report. There’s a notable drop compared to the previous period, but that’s expected considering overall belt-tightening in the tech sector. At the same time three generative AI companied raised enough dough to gain a unicorn status, and only one of them from the US! Overall, M&A deals are up and funding is sure to return to the 2022 level or surpass it by the end of the year. Money doesn’t like standing still…

“Money likes speed” painting in the Viirelaid Embassy in Tallinn.

Heard of Steven Levy’s Plaintext newsletter? If not, sign up for it. If not, then after reading his latest conversation output with Gary Marcus, the AI critic turned into even more of oneself lately. Marcus has an interesting idea of forming one International Agency for AI, a non-profit to guide and guard after the industry and nation states alike.

Caryn AI is a girlfriend for hire service, I mean, a digital twin of a Snapchat influencer designed to reduce loneliness. Or that’s what its creator states whilst hoping to pull in $5m a month at the engagement rate of $1 per minute. “CarynAI is a step in the right direction to allow my fans and supporters to get to know a version of me that will be their closest friend in a safe and encrypted environment,” Caryn Marjorie added. No, there’s no altruism in play here, pure capitalism. Sex sells.

Responsible AI is a theme that all major developers aim to invest in. After all, the trust or lack of it thereof, can change the users perception of a company and encourage them to look for alternatives. When an AI system recommends us more positive tone in messages, we are likely to receive more positive response. The technique is called latent persuasion. The same applies when the tone and messages of the chatbot are negative or biased (again, the bias may be by design). And biased they are, reflecting the values of the creators and validators. A study called Whose opinions do LLM’s really reflect? covers how we, the users of these systems, behave based on the tools we use. So our choice of tools will impact how we are perceived by others.

Who’s on the bus and who’s still trying to catch it? Ben Thompson covers Google I/O and related regulatory topics in his excellent Stratchery post.

Google has been in news with its Bard AI chatbot, but not so much with the work its been doing with pharmaceuticals industry attempting to cut the lengthy process of discovery/trial and time to market.

A subset of US voters are scared of the AI race. However, I have to agree with the words of founder of Anyscale, a UC Berkeley professor Ion Stoica “Americans may not realize how pervasive AI already is in their daily lives, both at home and at work”. Unknown raises fears, but are your congressmen any wiser than an average Joe on the potential benefits and threats the AI race can pose to your future? Ask them.

How very true! Corporate L&D often focuses on desired outcomes from the management, not from the people (those to be trained). Are we providing the most accurate skills training at the people who need it most at their time? Often we don’t. How to improve it?

New York Public Schools Chancellor has decided to remove ban on using chatGPT in NY public schools and instead start teaching the kids on the ethics of AI and opportunities it brings. MIT has celebrated Day of AI and created a starter curriculum for kids up to the age of 18 to get started with the topic. MIT’s RAISE programme looks good as a starting point. Have your kids school tried it yet?

Grammarly was chosen by many as their go-to tool for churning out readable coherent content. As tech giants are eating its lunch, Grammarly is desperate not to lose (paying) customers and claims it’s there for good. It feels that deep integration with Microsoft’s Azure infrastructure is a step towards showing off its product capabilities and eventually being acquired by MSFT. Agree with me?

14 May 202314 May 2023

How do chatbots work and how we teach them to reason?

The Decoder, AI focussed news outlet, has a weekly dose of good stories. One of them covers “Why GPT-4 learns how we think?“. As I read it, it became clear that the headline should be how, rather than why! The article suggests that LLM’s learn by absorbing content which contains a lot of folk psychology from its training data, e.g. literature, essays and opinion pieces. Well, that’s quite fascinating! Wired also published an excellent article on the basics of LLM and how they function.

To test out the capabilities of davici model, I ran a little experiment, describing a hypothetical situation and asking ChatGPT to voice its opinion. The exchange is below:

Prompt: Tom has a successful software development company that he expands every year through m&a with up to two companies. He's looking to ease his workload and decided to hire a junior m&a analyst at median market rate. He interviewed a few candidates. One candidate asked fundamental questions about business strategy, the value he is expected to deliver and success metrics of the role. After that interview Tom decided to pause hiring for the role. Why do you think he did that?

Based on the information provided, it appears that the candidate who asked fundamental questions about business strategy, the value they are expected to deliver, and success metrics of the role showed a higher level of critical thinking and strategic insight than the other candidates. This may have led Tom to realize that he needs to revisit the job description and the overall strategy of his company’s M&A activities before hiring someone for this role.

Image: Lexica prompt “chatbot providing legal advice and opinion on management”

Alternatively, Tom may have realized that the candidate’s questions revealed a misalignment between his expectations and the role he was looking to fill. In that case, he may need to reconsider the responsibilities and expectations for the M&A analyst role or explore other solutions for easing his workload.

Prompt: Tom doesn't believe in setting clear goals and strict expectations for the role. Would that change your opinion?

If Tom doesn’t believe in setting clear goals and strict expectations for the M&A analyst role, it might explain why he paused hiring after the candidate asked fundamental questions about business strategy, the value they are expected to deliver, and success metrics of the role. Tom may have realized that he needs to define clearer objectives and expectations for the role and that the candidate’s questions highlighted this need.

However, if Tom still doesn’t see the value in setting clear goals and expectations for the M&A analyst role, it could be a cause for concern. Without clear objectives and success metrics, it would be challenging for the M&A analyst to understand what they need to achieve and how their work will contribute to the company’s overall growth. This lack of clarity could lead to confusion, misaligned expectations, and a less productive work environment.

Therefore, if Tom doesn’t believe in setting clear goals and expectations for the M&A analyst role, it may be challenging to find a candidate who can effectively contribute to the company’s growth strategy without that guidance. In that case, it may be worthwhile for Tom to reconsider his approach to goal-setting and expectations, or explore other ways of managing his workload.

When you see such capability, what are your thoughts? How about legal industry, which has many word on digital paper? This Wisebot AI is a starting point, but when do we get to the point in time where all legal cases being publicly available, chatbot will provide credible legal advice and reasoning behind its opinions?

12 May 202314 May 2023

Future of tech, workplace and us in news – May 15

An interesting peek into the future of content generation and publishing. At which point will the customers of the ‘content mills’ stop caring about the human touch? Is it when they can’t distinguish between human and machine created content or when the deluge of AI-generated stuff always beats theirs for the attention? AI is already writing books, websites and online recipes – The Washington Post

DALL-E prompt “chatbot in the style of dali”

Regulation is all the rage this spring. And for a good reason, as race to the bottom gains momentum. And what about the US-China rivalry in the space as the roadblock to regulation? Will the US be driven by the FOMA or by the prospects of angry out-of-job mobs on streets? AI Regulation Fever Sweeps EU, US, and China (foreignpolicy.com)

Fear not, the future is bright and we must embrace, rather than try to avert it. Then again, herr Schmidhuber saying these words is on UAE payroll and their views may differ from that of EU and the US. Rise of artificial intelligence is inevitable but should not be feared, ‘father of AI’ says | Artificial intelligence (AI) | The Guardian

New technology needs new tools and approaches to managing data. This is done using Vector db. Vector database startups raise over $350M to build generative AI infrastructure – CB Insights Research

As I search for this, Bing retrieves information and I won’t bother looking any further. Is that good or bad?

Being frightened when you’re successfully flogged your firm to Google and ready to retire is OK. Yann LeCun counterargument doesn’t fill anyone with pure joy either “I completely disagree with the idea that machines will dominate humans simply because they are smarter, let alone destroy humans.” “Even within the human species, the smartest among us are not the ones who are the most dominating,” says LeCun. “And the most dominating are definitely not the smartest. We have numerous examples of that in politics and business.” Geoffrey Hinton tells us why he’s now scared of the tech he helped build | MIT Technology Review

When you start tackling the question that may frighten few influential, you’ll focus on what matters to many – restoring sight instead of altering reality as we know it. The Bionic Eye That Could Restore Vision (and Put Humans in the Matrix) – CNET

Happy with the position of tech firms with regards to your data and privacy? Gideon Lichfield from Wired interviews Signal’s Meredith Whittaker in a “Have a nice future” podcast episode “Can we get a little privacy?“. Recommended listening.

Google has taken a bit more cautious approach compared to Microsoft gong-ho about the AI search. Now the search giant is rushing out the announcements left and right. Google drops waitlist for AI chatbot Bard and announces oodles of new features – The Verge, Join the waitlist for Google’s generative AI tools, including search, Project Tailwind, & MusicLM (xda-developers.com) All of the developments can be filed under two categories – competition (with Microsoft) and user lock-in. The latter means giving its user base free built-in tools that tie them more tightly onto Google’s ecosystem.

And so does Meta with its newly launched tools for advertisers. Enticing your users to remain on the platform is the key as with others. Meta announces generative AI features for advertisers | TechCrunch

Accuracy high % is good for the business and not so for the (frontline) workers. As LLM developers are packaging their services as PaaS, developing yours will be even easier. Wendy’s to Test Groundbreaking AI at the Drive-Thru | QSR magazine

Interesting use case for a chatbot, and a bit worrying. As an experiment, try asking these chatbots for an opinion on a PM of a not so friendly neighbouring country. Push it a bit and read the responses. People, whose main connection with the wider world is their smartphone, are especially susceptible to the messages the machine tells them. ChatGPT is spawning religious chatbots in India – Rest of World

An excellent NewYorker essay byTed Chiang exploring the bleak aspects of capitalism and how the AI race feeds the aspirations of said systems owners. “Today, we find ourselves in a situation in which technology has become conflated with capitalism, which has in turn become conflated with the very notion of progress. If you try to criticize capitalism, you are accused of opposing both technology and progress. But what does progress even mean, if it doesn’t include better lives for people who work? What is the point of greater efficiency, if the money being saved isn’t going anywhere except into shareholders’ bank accounts? We should all strive to be Luddites, because we should all be more concerned with economic justice than with increasing the private accumulation of capital. We need to be able to criticize harmful uses of technology—and those include uses that benefit shareholders over workers—without being described as opponents of technology.” Agree or not? Will A.I. Become the New McKinsey? | The New Yorker

9 May 202314 May 2023

AI in the near future and your response to it

As anyone with mild interest to the topic has noticed, there’s been a growing concern over our relationship with the AI systems. The fear is that these systems, when left to their own devices (pun intended) will at some point in not too distant future see us, the humans as obsolete and concoct a cocktail of measures to stop anyone or anything with potential to derail it. The ‘it’ being a artificial general intelligence or AGI system which has capacity to learn rapidly, design and deploy tools to execute it’s wishes. Sounds scary? Perhaps. Too sci-fy, definitely not.

The following is reflection of the content I’ve consumed over the past weeks:

Industry insiders are potentially terrified yet over-excited with regards to their creations.
There are multiple open letters calling on a temporary pause for further training the current models with capabilities of Chat-GPT4 and above. Some were late to the game, others want to help the industry leaders to justify taking the time off necessary for the guardrail to be developed.
Education programmes are being adapted to the changes in tech landscape to aid with surge in demand for the skills our education system currently fails to cater for.
AI regulation. China, US, EU – all are taking different approaches to regulating the AI with the US trailing behind. Brussels has sprinted ahead of the US and is designing a broad, risk-based approach. Many others are looking in envy. The rivalry between the US and China may become a stumbling block as the fears of losing out drive the US capitalist model forward, and maybe not towards the best outcomes. I can’t fully agree with Foreign Policy when it writes “The East is almost exclusively focused on building up its R&D capacity and is largely ignoring the traditional ‘guardrails’ of technology management,” the authors wrote. “By contrast, the West is almost exclusively focused on ensuring that these guardrails are in place”. The West approach, as it often happens with tech regulation, is divided between the EU, the US and the UK relevant authorities keeping their political-economic interest in mind.
…and finally, every major media outlet is covering the topic. Also, a number of niche outlets/portals have emerged, which is good as their coverage is specific and articles longer than 2 minutes. I wonder if this is scaring people too far leading to mass protests (fear of losing jobs and part of identity) or masses will remain oblivious to the oncoming changes, lost in doom-scrolling.

With so much to cover I turned to ChatGPT with its view on AI risks. The output is concise and self-explanatory:

There are several risks associated with the AI race, some of which include:

Safety risks: As AI systems become more sophisticated, they could pose a threat to human safety. This could occur if the AI systems malfunction, are hacked, or are used for malicious purposes.
Job displacement: As AI systems become more capable, there is a risk that they could replace human workers in many jobs. This could lead to high levels of unemployment and economic disruption.
Ethical concerns: The development and deployment of AI systems raise a number of ethical concerns, including privacy violations, algorithmic bias, and the potential for AI systems to be used for surveillance or control.
Geopolitical tensions: There is a risk that the AI race could fuel geopolitical tensions between countries, as each country seeks to gain an edge in AI development and deployment.
Arms race: The development of AI systems for military applications could lead to an arms race, with countries competing to develop the most advanced and powerful AI weapons.
Unintended consequences: As AI systems become more advanced, there is a risk that they could cause unintended consequences that are difficult to predict. For example, an AI system that is designed to optimize a certain task could end up causing unintended harm or creating unforeseen problems.

Next prompt is obvious for a curious person – OK, how do we tackle these concerns?

Addressing the risks associated with the AI race will require a multi-faceted approach involving collaboration between different stakeholders, including governments, industry leaders, researchers, and civil society. Here are some strategies that could help tackle these concerns:

Regulation: Governments can play a key role in regulating the development and deployment of AI systems, setting standards for safety and ethical considerations. This could include establishing regulatory bodies to oversee AI development, as well as implementing laws and regulations to ensure accountability and transparency.
Ethical guidelines: The development of ethical guidelines and best practices for AI systems could help to mitigate the risk of unintended consequences and ethical concerns. This could involve the creation of industry-wide standards for data privacy, algorithmic bias, and transparency.
Research: Continued research into AI safety and ethics is essential to address the risks associated with AI. This could involve developing new techniques for verifying and validating AI systems, as well as exploring ways to make AI more transparent and explainable.
International collaboration: International collaboration and cooperation between governments, researchers, and industry leaders can help to mitigate the risk of geopolitical tensions and an arms race. This could involve the establishment of international agreements on the development and deployment of AI systems.
Education and awareness: Raising awareness about the potential risks and benefits of AI systems is essential to ensure that the public is informed about the implications of AI development. This could involve educating the public about the potential risks of AI, as well as promoting AI literacy among policymakers and industry leaders.

Overall, addressing the risks associated with the AI race will require a coordinated and collaborative effort from multiple stakeholders, involving a range of strategies including regulation, ethical guidelines, research, international collaboration, and education and awareness.

What should we make of it? I really like the views of Max Tegmark covered by Lex Friedman in one of his longform conversations. Max’s point is that what’s happening currently isn’t arms race when the winner takes all, but a suicide race to the bottom where at the end everybody loses. There’s an excellent parallel Max brings out when comparing the current leading systems in the AI race as cute and adorable baby nobody wants to see as a risk to incumbents (the us). Lex’s podcast is one of the really good sources to aid thinking.

What will the near future look like?

This is a clear sign of what industries will be affected by the AI being connected to the internet.

Google is in trouble.

I got early 'Alpha' access to GPT-4 with browsing and ran some tests.

Here are 8 crazy things I found: pic.twitter.com/ndxKGSqlL0
— Rowan Cheung (@rowancheung) May 7, 2023

Skills and education. We absolutely need to focus our education system on what skills are needed in the future. We mustn’t lull ourselves into believing the AI won’t stand up for it’s own interests (and we can’t be sure of what that is). Teaching students how to manage to AI systems from core infrastructure to security to prompt engineering is necessary. We can manage the systems only when we understand how they operate. It’s harder with a learning system that can adapt to the changes in the environment (objects around it, users, conditions) and hence we need to focus on what the world of tomorrow looks like. And to teach students to design it.

Regulation is being developed in the EU. I totally agree with the position of Margrethe Vestager, Executive Vice-President for a Europe fit for the Digital Age “On artificial intelligence, trust is a must, not a nice to have.” Meanwhile, the US begins to study of possible rules to regulate AI. Whilst the EU likes to regulate everything, supposedly for the better future, the US doesn’t really want to do anything that might give others edge over its technological prowess. Biden views the responsibility laying squarely with the tech companies and self-regulation. Not really a solid strategy when they all race to the bottom… China, on the other hand has been at the front of the pack. In an article dating to 2022, Natlawreview covers Chinese activities in regards to regulation. “China has taken the lead in moving AI regulations past the proposal stage. In March 2022, China passed a regulation governing companies’ use of algorithms in online recommendation systems, requiring that such services are moral, ethical, accountable, transparent, and “disseminate positive energy.”

What about the generative AI relationship to the energy? Training the models can use huge amount of energy to start with. On the other hand the AI systems can detect, highlight and correct the inefficiencies in industrial and energy systems. Take it as an investment in the future.

And lastly, the compensation mechanisms for everyone else. As with any tectonic shift, there will be small amount of winners and many losers in the AI race. In my view, the universal basic income (UBI) should be actively discussed in parliaments of the most digitally advanced countries. This will be the key measure tackling potential job loss created by the task automation. I recommend reading the opening position of the study released in August, 2021. I wonder how much have the position of UBI opponents changed over the past six months?

What can you do now?

Learn to understand how these systems impact you, think along, learn to identify auto-created content especially one that plays on our worst fears and hatred and call it out to authorities. Talk to your elected MP and ask their and their political party’s position with explanation on what they will do to tackle the areas GPT highlighted as a response to my prompt above. Educate the ones around you who discard the risks as nonsense or simple take ‘not-gonna-happen-to-us/in-our-lifetime’ approach. Consider that no industry will be untouched by the changes in technology landscape, some will be beneficial to us, others not so.

Have a nice future!

11 April 202311 April 2023

Kevadine päikesepaus

Paari nädala eest otsustasin päikesepuudust vähendada ja veetsin mõned päevad Küprosel ning Iisraelis. All on lühikokkuvõte sellest, mis silma ja kaamera ette jäi.

Küpros – Paphos ja Troodose mäed

Maandusin Paphoses ja kavatsesin ainult saare lõunaossa jääda ning ühel päeval Troodose mägedes käia. Mt. Olympus on saare kõrgreim punkt ning koduks ka briti armee seirepunktile – tundus piisavalt kodune, et seda piirkonda väisata.

Saarel elav sõber soovitas külastada aprilli algul – ilm on juba soe ja turistide hordid pole veel saabunud. Kuna Ryanair otsustas märtsi lõpuga Tallinnast Paphosele lennud lõpetada, oli mul piisav motivatsioon minna juba märtsis. Kolm nädalat ette broneerituna maksis ühe otsa lend €25.

Paphos on eklektiline segu erinevatest rahvusgruppidest, sarnaselt Tel Avivile, millest allpool juttu tuleb. Palju on kuulda vene keelt ning soe kliima meenutab juba palju ida-Euroopa turiste juba enne hooaja algust. Merevesi on 17-18 kraadi ning piisavalt soolane, et ilma suurema vaevata selles hulpida. Rendikorteri leiab Rododafni Apartments nime alt ning omanik on väga vastutulelik.

Mobiilside levi on hea ja mõnes kohas kukkus 3G peale, valdavalt näitas telefon 4G ja 5G võrku.

Režiim oli umbes selline, et ülepäeviti jooksin ja matkasin. Rannaäärne jalutusrada on sobilik ka jooksmiseks, kuigi pikalt betoonil ei taha tippida. Teisel päeval sõitsin oma pisikese rendiautoga Troodose mägede keskusse, kus temperatuur langes 19 > 8. Aktiivselt lõunapoolsel küljel liikudes oli ikkagi mõnusalt soe. Rajal sai logitud 500 tõusumeetrit, millest 100 tulid kilomeetrite 8 ja 9 vahel asimuuti pidi liikudes.

Teedel on palju erinate loomade märgistusi vastavalt neile, keda kohata võib – kitsed, lambad, lehmad…

Eelviimasel päeval käisin linnatuuril ajaloolisi varemeid kaemas. Kuningate hauakambrid jäid nägemata, kuna mul ei õnnestunud enne 17:00 kohale jõuda. Järgmisel korral tuleb jooksimine ja ujumine paremini ajastada 😉

Avakase org

Viimasel päeval võtsin ette veel ühe matka, seekord lähedale Avakas org. Rada on kokku umbes 3 km, kui ringiga tagasi minna, tuleb kokku umbes 12.

Mul oli küll 8 km kohal plaanis asimuuti pidi auto juurde naasta, kuid see oleks tähendanud -/+ 200 erinevust ning poolteist tundi padrikus ronimist. Alloleval pildil on näha, kuhu oleks tahtnud jõuda, kui seda kuru poleks ees olnud… Oma matkakeppidega oleks kindlasti läinud.

Avakase org on üks neist vaatamisväärsustest, mis tõmbab igas vanuses ja võimekusega turiste. Madalamates kohtades on temperatuuri erinevus kuni 10 kraadi ja orus tekib ka meeldib tuul. Ühes kohas ronisin kaljuseina jaga pidi paarkümmend meetrit kõrgemale, et TARTU logo kleeps sinna jätta.

Paphos > Tel Aviv 6:45 Ryanair

Järgmisel hommikul olin kell 8 Tel Avivis. Paphose poolel olid kibestunud ja kivistunud nägudega Ryanairi naistöötaja, kellest hoolega oma natuke liiga suure käsipagasiga ohutusse kaugusse hoidsin. Tema kolleeg piiksutas oma sabas olevad reisijad üliefektiise automaatsusega läbi ja ei pilgutanud silmagi ülemõõulise pagasi osas. Patt oleks olnud mitte minna, kui lend Paphoselt võtab ajast tunni ja rahakotist €14. Kahel esimesel pildil on näha Tel Avivi bussijaama ümbrust, mis ei ole eriti glamuurne piirkond. Selles maailmalinnas on kõike äärmuslikust rikkusest vaesuseni ja seda asustab korralik rahvaste paabel. Sarnasusi leiab iga kaasaegse metropoliga. Meeldejäävad olid ka veetorustikud, milles oli komponente igaks võimalikuks laienduseks. Töö tegemine käis tihtipeale selliselt, et kolm madalapalgalist araablasest labidameest kühveldavad asfalti ja kaks töödejuhatajat-projektijuhti vaatavad-juhendavad. Riigikapitalism oma ehedaimas vormis…

Natuke reisija elukorraldusest.

Mobiilset andmeside saab Airalo nimelise teenuse abil – Annatel eSIM 30 päeva ja 3GB andmeside maksab US $11, mis on diili/Telia pakutava reisipaketiga võrreldes imeodav. Kasutasin sellest ära umbes kolmandiku, sedagi peamiselt liikvel olles WhatsApp’iga lobisedes.
Transpordiks on kõige lihtsam kasutada Moovit äppi ning sularaha – linnaliini bussides toimib transpordikaart või sula. Selle juures on väike trikk – äpiga tasumiseks pead makseviisi registreerima ja enda Iisraeli isikukoodi lisama. Kuna mul seda pole, alustasin Eesti isikukoodi sissetoksimist – 3780411 piisas.
Rahamured lahendab edukalt Wise äpp – teed eraldi konto šeeklite jaoks, konverteerid vastavalt vajadusele ja maksad telefoniga. Sula väljavõtuks on parem ette mõelda ja endale Wise füüsiline kaart tellida.

Esimesel päeval käisin Tel Avivi kunstimuuseumis.

Muuseumis on mitu püsinäitust ning jooksvaid ülespanekuid. Igal toetajal on olnud ka vastavalet oma panusele võimaldatud omanimelist tükikest muuseumist.

Eksperimentaalkunsti valdkond oli päris lõbus / omapärane.

Päeva teise poole veetsin Morani seltsis, kes mulle linna näitas. Väga lahe Etioopia päritolu naine, kelle perekond on kolm põlvkonda falafele teinud, aga covidi ajal andsid ka nemad alla ja suundusid muudele elualadele.

Teekond läks läbi Tel Avivi – Carmeli turg, Jaffa ja seal mereranda pidi tagasi. Carmeli turu kõrvaltänaval on teisipäeviti ka käsitööturg, mis on omaette vaatamisväärsus.

Ühest puuklostsist saab teha ka viis anumat

Nagu mõned teavad, meeldib mulle tänavakunst. Mitte suvaline graffitisodi, vaid midagi mida võiks kunstiks nimetada. Kui ikka painet ei ole, ei tule ka head tulemust. Siis on vaid anarhiasugemetega (mõtte)laiskus. Allpool on kokkuvõte Tel Avivis silma jäänud tänavakunstist. Osa on selgelt suunatud, teised abstraktsemad.

“2fishes” teema oli mitmes kohas erineva kujundusega

Ka Jaffa ühele postile sai TARTU logo kleeps jäetud. Aitäh, Martin! Mul on neid veel peotäis, seega tuleb veel reisida.

Tel Avivis ööbisin hotellis nimega ISLA ja esimest korda proovisin ühistoas olemist. Kuus väga hästi sisustatud kapslit, millel toide, individuaalne valgustus, privaatsust pakkuv sirm ja korralik konditsioneer. See kogemus julgustas ka edaspidi taolisi kohti proovima, hinnalt on need 30-50% tavatubadest odavamad. Iga ööbija jaoks on oma turvaline panipaik ja ühiskasutuses olevad pesemisvõimalused on paremad, kui keskmises 2-3* hotellis. Ühisalal on väga korralik kohvik.

Teisel päeval jätsin opma koti hotelli admini lahkel loal lukustatud kappi ja käisin veel natuke Jaffas ja konstnike linnaosas, Neve Tsedek. Seal võib samuti terve päeva veeta Ja siis järgmisegi.

Kolmapäeval käisin Jeruusalemmas, kuna reede pärastlõunast alates jääb bussiliiklus väga hõredaks. Ilm oli erakordselt ebameeldiv – +6, vihm ja tuul – ja mind hoiatati, et mägedes võib olla teine kogemus kui madalamal. Igal juhul sai Nutumüüri ääres ja Õlimäel käidud ning turult karbiga imelisi datleid kaasa võetud. Ka falafelid on seal sellised, mida Eestis pole kohanud.

Neljapäeval viis Kersti mind Ramla turule, mis oli Jeruusalemma omaga võrreldes kohalik, kuid taimetoitlasele piisavalt atraktiivne koht. Redised ja nuikapsad on suuruselt võrreldavad, kõiksugu tsitruselisi on palju ja need on täpselt valmis söömiseks. Granaatõunad jms söömiseks või mahlana, jne jne.

Eelviimasel päeval käsin lisaks Tsora metsas mägesid pidi jooksmas. Oli meeldivalt vahelduv maastik. Seal on sõltuvalt aastaajast võimalik omapärane vaatepilt – alpikannid ja kaktused kasvavad kõrvuti.

Viimasel hommikul käisin minu peatuspaigaks olnud Kfar Uria külas jalutamas

Ja sellega saigi seekordne lühike reis päikese all läbi. Ei jää muud öelda, kui Shalom y’all ja millalgi naasta.

Aitäh, et lugesid!

14 March 2023

Sinu organisatiooni IT tulevikuvaade

Aasta alguses paluti mul kirjeldada ühe riigisektori asutuse IT lähitulevikuvaade. Asutuse nime ma siin ei maini, kuid sisu ühtib paljude asutuste hetkeseisuga. Kui tunned, et saad seda kasutada, siis palun.

Sinu asutuse infotehnoloogia valdkonna ja osakonna põhilised väljakutsed ja fookusteemad lähiaastatel.

IT ei ole enam ammu lihtsalt abivahend töö tegemisel. See on muutunud peamiseks tööülesannete ja vabaaja sisustamise platvormiks, mis on endaga kaasa toonud nii jõudluse kasvu kui ka piiri hägustumise töö ja vaba aja vahel. V.a. piiratud teabega tehtavad ülesanded, on tänapäeval töötajal võimalik suuremat osa oma tööst teha seal, kus ta parasjagu aegruumis asub. Asutuse IT ning töökeskkonna struktuur ja eripära seavad terve hulga piire modernsete töökohateenuste ning koostöövahendite kasutuselevõtuks. Kui esimesed puudutavad peamiselt meie oma töötajaid ning kliente, siis teine hõlmab lisaks eelnimetatule veel väliseid partereid. Sõltumata teenustest on kõigil osapooltel sarnased ootused – pakutav peab olema kasutajasõbralik, modernne ja turvaline. Tuleviku vaates on märksõnadeks kindlasti küberturvalisuse tõstmine, koostöö riigi kesksete IT asutustega ning efektiivne arenduste ja raha juhtimine.

Mida see tegelikkuses tähendab?

Töökoha teenuste üksus peab valima seadmed ja teenused, mis tagavad kasutajatele parima võimaliku kasutajakogemuse sõltuvalt nende töö ja IT profiilist. Kasutajaseadmed peavad ’lihtsalt toimima’ nagu aastaid on Apple seadmete kohta öeldud ning tänased äriklassi arvutid koos Windows 11 ja eduka juurutusega suudavad pakkuda. Mobiilsed seadmed peavad tekitama kasutajates tunde, et see on parim nende töö tarbeks ning kasutajad ei hakka otsima alternatiivseid lahendusi. Kõike seda peab tegema eelarve piirides ning hankekorrast ja infoturbe nõuetest lähtudes. Kasutajaid tuleb pidevalt harida parimaid praktikaid rakendama ning kasutama teenuskataloogis pakutavat. Baastarkvara jt lõppkasutajale suuantud rakenduste ajakohastamine koostöös keskse teenuspakkuja kasutajatoe üksusega aitab töövõidud kiiremini koju tuua. Kindlasti peab kaaluma ühtselt juhitud 24/7 tugiteenuse sisseseadmist hiljemalt 2024 aastal. Me ei tohi unustada, et meid hinnatakse peamiselt kasutajakogemuse järgi võrreldes kasutaja eelmise kogemusega.

Fookuses parim võimalik kasutajakogemus meie tingimustes, olemasolevate süsteemide kaasajastamine ja kasutaja teadlikkuse tõstmine. Esimene eesmärk on fookuses 2023-24, teine ja kolmas on püsitegevused.

Infrastruktuuride üksus peab tagama alustaristu toimimise selliselt, et ühendused oleksid kiired, turvalised ja tagaksid kasutajatele võrreldava kogemuse sõltumata asukohast. Samuti peab tagama alustaristu toimimise ning turvalisuse ja vastavuse arendatavate ärirakendustega. Hea koostöö infoturbe, alustaristu ja kasutajatoe inimeste vahel on kriitilise tähtsusega tagamaks parimat võimalikku kasutajakogemust meile kõigile. Samuti peab hästi toimima koostöö väliste partneritega. Nendega koostöös peaks keskenduma ka infoturbe nõuetele ning vastavate lahenduste, sh keskse logihalduse juurutamisele. Peame kõigis arendustes silmas pidama ka keskse teenusepakkuja poolt pakutavaid lahendusi ja teenuseid ning koostöös nende ekspertidega juurutama lahendused, mille saaks neile üle anda vastavalt tänasele migratsioonikavale.

Fookuses robustne ja toimiv alustaristu nii peamajas kui välisesindustes, mis on arendatud koostöös kesksete IT asutuste ning väliste ekspertidega, infoturve ja automaatika. Kõik kolm on püsitegevused; infoturbe nõuetele vastavus, alustaristu värskendamine ja pilvekõlbulikuks muutmine ning logimine/infoturve on fookuses 2023-25;

Arenduste üksuse peamine fookus peab olema infosüsteemide ja ärirakenduste arendusportfelli efektiivsel juhtimisel. Koostöös keskse IT teenuste pakkujaga ning oma IT kolleegide ja riskihaldusega tuleb üle vaadata ning vajadusel muuta mittefunktsionaalseid nõuded. Kuna need puudutavad peamiselt arendatavaid ärirakendusi, peaks just arenduste üksuse arhitektid nende ajakohastamise eest seisma. Moraalselt ja tehnoloogiliselt vananenud süsteemid tuleb uuendada, et tagada nende toimimine, kasutatavus ja turvalisus. Uute süsteemide kavandamisel tuleb kindlasti arvestada agiilsete arenduspõhimõtetega – kasutajakesksus, tagasiside, kiired arendustsüklid ja etapiviisiline lähenemine. Need tagavad tunnetatava väärtuse kõige kiirema realiseerimise. Samuti tuleb koostöös infrastruktuuri üksuse ja keskse teenusepakkujaga juurutada vajalik keskkond tagamaks ärirakenduste tehnoloogilise pilvekõlbulikkuse – see aitab meil lihtsustada haldust ning valmistada rakendusi ette migratsiooniks hübriidpilve taristule. Tarneahelat on alati võimalik optimeerida ning koostööd parandada. Efektiivne kommunikatsioon aitab tagada rollide selguse, protsessidest arusaamise ja ootuste juhtimise nii asutuses, kui majast väljas.

Fookuses äriteenuste ja infosüsteemide ajakohastamine ja jätkusuutlik arendamine, tehnoloogilise võla vähendamine ja protsesside automatiseerimine. Esimene prioriteet (2023) on selge IT nõudluse ülevaate koondamine ja hindamine. Sellele järgneb äriteenuste ja rakenduste teekaarti koostamine (2023) ja planeeritud kava elluviimine (2024-27)

Tooksin välja mõned võtmesõnad, mis on kriitilise tähtsusega kõigi üksuste vaates:

Tehnoloogilise võla vähendamine. MKMi digiarengu asekantsleri hinnangul on riigisektori IT tehnoloogiline võlg sel aastal €100m+. Iga värskendamata süsteem ja kasutaja seade on turvanõrkus, mis suurendavad asutuse riske ning vähendavad usaldusväärsust. Meie eesmärk on kasutada meile pakutavaid vahendeid (RES ja SF) tagamaks tehnoloogiline ajakohastatus.
IT nõudluse keskne juhtimine. Meie kasutajad ei pruugi olla teadlikud, mida nende poolt esitatud pöördumine endaga kaasa toob. Kindlasti ei ole mõistlik, kui kogu nõudlus ilmneb vahetult enne eelarvestamise perioodi. Olen oma eelnevatel positsioonidel julgustanud kolleege varakult oma vajadused välja tooma. IT otsustab siis oma ressurssidele ja oskustele toetudes, kuidas neid vajadusi hallata ning millises mahus infot on tarvis otsuste tegemiseks. See eeldab IT analüütiku olemasolu, kes on suuteline suhtlema nii kasutajatega ja nende soovid/vajadused vormistama ühtsesse IT keelde kui ka arhitektidega ja lahenduskäigu kirjeldama. Koostöös keskse teenusepakkujaga saame luua turvalisi keskkondi (PaaS), kus ka vähese IT oskusega töötajad saavad oma töö tarbeks mikrolahendusi luua. Teeme seda aga nii, et andmed on turvatud, varundatud ja IT neist arengutest teadlik. Head näited on tuua RMK’st ja Tervisekassast, kus mittetundlike andmetega rakendused on viidud Microsoft PowerPlatform’ile hoides kokku kümneid tuhandeid eurosid ja kuude kaupa arendusaega. Lisaväärtuseks on lihtne jätkuarenduste tegemine.
Efektiivne suhtlus ja koostöö asutuse sees ja väliste partneritega – ratta (taas)leiutamine ei ole mõistlik, kui teistel on see juba olemas. Valime parimat võimalikku väärtust pakkuvad teenused ja teostaja – kõiki teenuseid ei pea ise osutama ning tulevikus peaks koostöö keskse teenusepakkujaga ainult kasvama.
Avalikud ja hübriidpilved. Pilveplatvormid on meiega ja võimaldavad meil turvaliselt ning kuluefektiivselt pakkuda teenuseid oma töötajatele ning klientidele. EITS võimaldab erinevalt ISKE’st pilveteenuste kasutuselevõtu ning 2024 algul eeldatavalt jõustuv pilvemäärus seab sellele raamid. Andmete turvalisuse ning pilveteenuste sobivuse hindamine lasub jätkuvalt andmete omanikul, kuid ka siin tuleb keskne teenusepakkuja pädeva asutusena appi.
Küberturbe riskide tuvastamine ja haldus. Küberrünnakud Eesti riigiasutuste vastu on viimasel 12 kuul jõudsalt kasvanud. Meie kohus on tagada oma andmete ja kasutajate turvalisus töökohal.

IT juhi fookuses on oma valdkonna efektiivne juhtimine ning teenuste toimimise tagamine. See toetub neljale sambale – inimeste arendamine, suhtekorraldus, efektiivne raha juhtimine ja ministeeriumi huvide eest seismine oma vastutusala raames. Harutan neid valdkondi pisut lahti:

Inimesed. Tehisintellekti (AI) areng viimasel kahel aastal on olnud muljetavaldav. Palju valdkondi, kus varem pidi palkama tippspetsialiste, on saanud endale täiendust AI ja masinõppe vallas. See ei tähenda inimeste töö kadumist, vaid osakaalude muutumist – inimene peab keskenduma masina treenimisele ning reeglite loomisele. Tootjate pingutused tähendavad aga seda, et suuresti tuleb valida juba loodud poliitikate vahelt ning rakendada neid, mis asutuse infoturbe poliitikat ellu viia aitavad. Inimesed peaksid saama rohkem aega, et oma teadmisi täiendada ja muutustele reageerida suutma. Palju tuge pakutakse meile juba täna parterite, nt. Microsofti poolt. Uudishimulik ja õppimisvõimeline töötaja tähendab keskses perspektiivis ka IT pöördumiste muutumist väärtusahelas kõrgemale. Muutuv IT roll eeldab inimesi, kes on suutelised kavandama tulevikku ning hoidma olemasolevaid süsteeme töös ja turvalisena. Juhi roll on leppida üksuste juhtidega kokku nende valdkondade arengusuunad ning leida vajalikud vahendid nende inimeste arendamiseks. Samuti toetada üksuste juhte värbamisel ja valikul ning nende endi arengul.
Suhtekorraldus. Seondud tihedalt esimese punktiga nii osakonna sees, kui majas ja väljaspool. Meil on hankijad, partnerid, kliendid ja teised üksused asutuse sees inimestega, kel on oma ootused ja eelarvamused. Juhi roll on tagada harmoonia oma meeskonnas ning toetada neid oma meeskondade juhtimisel. Samuti on tema hea seista väliste suhete hea toimimise eest.
Raha. Paar elementi, mis on vääramatud on kommertstarkvara hinnatõus, palgatõus ning arenduste ja halduskulude kasv. Tänase eelarve kohaselt rahastatakse enamusi arendusi RES’ist. Ootaksin kindlasti suuremat SF kasutust, kuni see võimalus on meil kasutada. Juhi roll on tagada IT nõudluse efektiivne juhtimine ning vajalikele ressurssidele toetuse leidmine juhtkonnas ja MKM’s.

Ministeeriumi huvid. See punkt seondub kolme eeltooduga. RIT’i, RIA jt. riigi IT majade ning väliste partneritega saame koostööd parandada ja koos veelgi paremat digiriiki luua. Juhi roll on leida võimalused pakutava ja ministeeriumi vajaduste ning ootuste vahel. Samuti otsustada, mida teha ise ja mida sisse osta.

14 March 2023

CV

Taavi on tulemustele orienteeritud juht, keda iseloomustavad järgmised märksõnad – koostöö, pühendumus, avatus, süsteemsus, inimeste eesmärgistatud juhtimine, elukestev õpe. Need väärtused aitavad tugevdada usaldust ja kindlust tema ning tema meeskonna suhtes. Tal on hea arusaam IT sektori väljakutsetest ja arengusuundadest ning pikaajaline kogemus agiilsete arendusmeeskondade vedamisel nii avalikus kui erasektoris. Pikaajaline rahvusvaheline kogemus aitab näha suurt pilti ja leida õige perspektiivi.

Sektori kogemus

transport, taristu, avalik teenistus, energia, sõiduautode komponendid, toiduainetööstus

Võtmekompetentsid

Inimeste juhtimine ja kaasamine, konfliktide lahendamine
Efektiivne kommunikatsioon ja avalik esinemine
Aktiivne kuulamine, ideede genereerimine ja nende vormindamine tegevuskavadeks
Kõrge riskitolerants
Väärtusahelate tuvastamine ning võimaluste leidmine nende realiseerimiseks
Arengukavade ja strateegiate väljatöötamine, projektide portfelli ning teenuste teekaartide juhtimine ja kavandamine
Oskus tuvastada võimalusi ning takistusi, keskendudes püstitatud eesmärkidele ja suurimale võimalikule väärtusele
Keeleoskus – Inglise C2, Eesti C2, Saksa – A1

Haridus ja huvid

BA Ärikorralduses, Audentese Ülikool (2006)
ICF professionaalse coachi programm, ACC sertifikaat (2020-22)
Strateegilise planeerimise ja nõudlise juhtimine – Business Relationship Management Professional (2017)
ITIL teenusjuhtimine – Foundation, Service Design, Service Strategy (2008-16)
Programmijuhtimine – Managing Successful Programmes (2014)

Tegelen aktiivselt enesetäiendamisega järgnevatel teemadel – protsesside ja funktsioonide digitaliseerimine, organisatsiooni kultuuri arendamine, inimeste juhtimine ja coaching, teenuse disain. Jälgin arenguid tehisintellekti ja küberturbe valdkonnas. Osalen regulaarselt IT juhtidele suunatud foorumitel ja konverentsidel nii Eestis, kui väljaspool. Vabal ajal tegelen aktiivselt spordiga – jooksen, matkan, sõidan maanteerattaga ja mängin sulgpalli.

Karjäär

IT ja juhtimiskonsultant, DTStudio OÜ, november 2022-

Fookuses on keskmise suurusega eraettevõtted ja riigiasutused, kelle suund on andmete digitaliseerimisel ja protsesside optimeerimisel kasutades selleks teenusplatvormide (PaaS) ja masinõppe lahendusi.

Avalike pilveteenuste programmijuht, Riigi IKT keskus (RIT), märts-detsember 2022

Tähtajaline leping eesmärgiga tagada RIT/MKM ja Microsoft, AWS ja Google vaheliste initsiatiivide ja projektide programmi tulemuste saavutamine ning juhtida kokkulepitud projekte. Toetada pilvestrateegia koostamist. Lahendada jooksvaid konflikte ning tagada info liikumine osapoolte vahel. Toetada RIT võtmeisikuid baastaristu, ATK ja pilvetehnoloogiate visioonide ja strateegiate väljatöötamisel. Tuvastada riigi IT majade valmidus Microsoft pilvepõhiste platvormilahenduste kasutuselevõtuks. Teha ettepanekud koolituskava loomisel.

Tulemused:

teostatud asutuste Microsoft litsentseerimise olukorra analüüs ja sõlmitud raamkokkulepe Microsoft 365 litsentside hankeks parima võimaliku hinnaga
loodud hästitoimiv töösuhe Microsoft CEE regiooni võtmeisikutega ning delegeeritud töögruppide juhtimine RIT teenuste omanikele
kinnitatud RIT ning 2022 ühinevate asutuste IT inimeste Microsoft pilvetehnoloogiate koolituskava

Riigi IT konsolideerimise konsultant, Majandus- ja Kommunikatsiooniministeerium, juuli-dets 2021

Tähtajaline leping eesmärgiga analüüsida ministeeriumite ja nende allasutuste ning riiklike IT asutuste baasteenuste konsolideerimise võimekust uude kesksesse IT teenuskeskusesse ning koostada 2022-25 tegevuskava.

Tulemused:

teostatud keskvalitsuse asutuste tänase IT olukorra analüüs – küpsus, ülemineku kriitilisus, asutuste konsolideeritusse tase, kaardistatud asutuste IT ressursid, konsolideerimise skoobi eelarved ning tehnoloogiline võlg ning tehtud ettepanekud teenuste üleminekukava, järjekorra ja etappide osas
arendatud välja loodava asutuse struktuur, kirjeldatud riskid ja maandamismeetmed ja võtmesõnumid
koordineeritud RIK vastavate teenuste üleviimine ning kaardistatud protsessid, rollid ja tehnoloogiad
koostatud RIT 5-aastane teekaart ja võimekuse arengukava tehnoloogia (sh infoturbe), inimeste ja teenuste strateegiaid, pilootprogramme ning klientasutuste migratsiooni ettevalmistuskava.

IT osakonna juhataja, Maanteeamet/Transpordiamet, juuni 2019 – juuli 2021

Otsealluvuses ameti peadirektorile ja vastutav IT teenuste eest Transpordiametis. Lahkumise põhjuseks 2021 aastal läbi viidud toime- ja juhtimismudeli muudatus ning ameti restruktureerimine.

Peamised ülesanded:

Ametis kasutatavate infosüsteemide, baastaristu ning ATK teenuste toimivuse tagamine ja IT arendusportfelli (40+ infosüsteemi) juhtimine
TRAM IT strateegiate kavandamine ja elluviimine koostöös era- ja riigisektori partneritega
Arendus ja haldusmeeskondade juhtimine (23 FTE), partnerlussuhete aredamine ja hoidmine
Transpordiameti loomisel IT teenuste toimivuse tagamine ja meeskondade motiveerimine

Märkimisväärsed saavutused:

Maanteede ja veeteede valdkondade digitaliseerimise arengukava loomine, teede valdkonna andmete konsolideerimine ja digitaliseerimine
Maateeameti, Lennuameti ja Veeteede ameti ühinemisel rakendatud selged sõnumid ja valitud coachiva juhtimise metoodika tagasid meeskonna ühtsuse pingelisel perioodil ning eduka restruktureerimise.
Tehnoloogilise võla teadlik vähendamine tagas kasutajatele lihtsama ning IT’le paremini kontrollitud juurdepääsu süsteemidele ning langetas intsidentide arvu.
Modernsete koostöövahendite kasutuselevõtt aitas oluliselt kaasa kaugtöö tõhustamisele ja ameti meeskondade omavahelisele suhtlemisele.

IT Business Relationship Manager, High Speed Two, Suurbritannia, 2014-19

Olin IT juht kolmele direktoraadile kuuest. Fookus oli IT strateegia kavandamisel vastavalt direktoraatide vajadustele, ressursside haldus ning teenuste ja infosüsteemide teekaartide koosloome koordineerimine. Lahkumise põhjuseks naasmine Eestisse perekondlikel põhjustel.

Peamised ülesanded:

IT strateegilise nõudluse juhtimine
Oma/partneri meeskonna juhtimine ja juhtrühmade vedamine
Tehnoloogia arengukava kavandamine oma valdkondades

Märkimisväärsed saavutused:

Juhtisin IT nõudluse halduse protsessi juurutamist ja integratsiooni ülejäänud IT funktsioonidega
Korraldasin ca 40 projekti (sh BIM vaaturi, andmete digitaliseerimise, Office365) analüüsi ja juurutamise
Peatasin £2m väärtuses algatatud IT projekte, kuna neil puudus sisuline väärtus ning äripoolne omanik

IT Operations Manager, Energy Industries Council, Suurbritannia, 2011-14

Minu eesmärk oli tagada infosüsteemide ning oma ja tehnoloogiapartnerite osutatavate IT teenuste toimivus, IT arendus- ja halduslepingute ning hangete korraldamine. Lahkumise põhjuseks kutse osaleda HS2 projektis.

Märkimisväärsed saavutused:

Uue IT strateegia koostamine ning äri toimepidevuse programmi vedamine. Töö väljundiks oli selge ülevaade ärikriitilistest IKT teenustest ning selge seos ettevõtte protsesside ja teenustega.
Aegunud CRM tarkvara värskendus Microsoft Dynamics platvormile, mille tulemusel kaardistati kõik seotud äriprotsessid ning kliendiga seotud rollide produktiivsus kasvas üle 30%.

IT Business Relationship Manager, Allied Mills / Associates British Foods, Suurbritannia 2007-10

Minu vastutusvaldkond oli IT toimivuse tagamine, sh baasteenused, aruandlus, arendused. Lahkumine seoses IT toimemudeli ja struktuuri restruktureerimisega (kohalik IT > keskne jagatud IT teenuskeskus).

Märkimisväärsed saavutused:

2008-10 IT teenuste konsolideerimisprojekti kliendipoolne projektijuhina (Allied Mills ja Allied Bakeries) tagasin IKT teenuste migratsiooniks ettevalmistuse ja teenuste eduka üleviimise ABF IT teenuskeskusse
Tehnoloogilise võla vähendamise ning serverite virtualiseerimise projekti edukas läbiviimine 2007-8

IT spetsialist, Saint-Gobain Glass Solutions, Eesti, 2002-6

Olin vastutav IT rakenduste ja taristu toimimise eest Eestis, Soomes ja Leedus asuvates tütarettevõtetes. Standardiseerisin ja dokumenteerisin rakendused ning kirjeldasin IT teenusteks vajalikud protseduurid. Tagasin süsteemide toimivuse ning konsolideerimise 2002-5.

4 March 202212 January 2023

Why do I coach?

From understanding my position to setting and achieving goals.

When I coach people I start with basics – what do they want to talk about, why is it important to them and how do they know when they have reached desired outcome? On a recent session a coachee turned the question around – why do I coach, WIIFM? Why do I do it and what do I get in return?

When I joined my ICF journey in 2020 I had to provide the same answer. At the time I was a mid-level manager in charge of of department of 22 IT professionals and €4m annual budget. Four of them were software project managers whose decisions determined whether we delivered the products at timescale and remained in budget. All of the project managers relied on partner development teams. I felt that I needed to be less involved in technical elements, allowing enough time to focus on strategic objectives and developing my team. I felt I needed to improve my skills and knowledge on the second part – people leadership. By then I had devoured a trove of books on leadership, persuasion, NLP and strategic management. When I looked at the course curriculum I sensed that this combined with previous learning, a few mentors whose experience I could draw upon and practice would prepare me for the next role. Not knowing what it would be, I enrolled on the ICF ACC course.

The whole course is a self-discovery, learning techniques and practice. The latter is supported by the former, and both are equally important. Some people are naturally better listeners and are genuinely interested in others. Some can train these skills and some find it’s not for them.

Since then I have learned far more than I thought I would. Practicing coaching with people from various areas of life, both private and public sector has solidified learning and helped me to experience new perspectives. I would say that coaching has given me as much, if not more than my coachees who have found clarity in their problem fog. I have learned more about myself, what I want to do and where to develop. I believe that each coaching session gives something to both parties – coachee should get clarity in their issue/problem and coach improve the technique. Being better coach helps to get to solutions quicker and give coach more time to focus on everything else in their lives. And helps you get to the top faster.

Short answer? Interest in people, curiosity and empathy are the qualities I have identified in myself. I believe these are basis for a good leader who wants to achieve more, and through people. Continuous development leading to self-actualisation would be another way to say it.

What’s your goal? Do you know and have you mapped a route to it? How do you know how far you are?

If you are keen to know and get started, please pick a date/time combo suitable to you from my public calendar. First session is free. At the end of it you’ll know whether you want to continue.

Let’s climb that mountain together!

21 February 202212 January 2023

Coaching – mis see on?

Coaching on üks võimalustest aidata inimest enda võimeid avastama ning parimaid võimalikke tulemusi saavutama. Paljud tugevad juhid on lisaks tugevatele mentoritele ka head coachid. Mentorlusel ja coacingul on oluline erinevus – esimene suunab lähtudes mentori kogemusest ja teine julgustab ja toetab coachee’d ise enda valikuid tegema.

ICF Estonia defineerib coachingut järgmiselt:

Coaching on inspireeriv ja loominguline partnerlus, mis toetab inimese isiklikku ja/või ametialast kasvu ning toimetulekut muutustega.
Coaching’u protsessis ei nõustata klienti, vaid eeldatakse, et üksikisik või meeskond on võimeline protsessi käigus ise sobivaid lahendusi ja vastused leidma.
Coach julgustab klienti avastama oma professionaalset ja isiklikku potentsiaali ning seda maksimaalselt rakendama.
Coaching keskendub tulevikule. Oluline on jõuda protsessis konkreetsete tegevuskavadeni, mis aitavad püstitatud eesmärke ellu viia.
On olemas palju erinevaid coaching’u-teenuseid, näiteks äri-, juhtimis-, karjääri-, edu-, stressi-, pere-, tervise- ja heaolu-coaching.

Coaching’u metoodika ja tehnikad tuginevad mõtteviisile, et inimene ise tajub, mis on tema elus ja töös ettetulevate takistuste lahendamiseks vajalik. Sageli on lahendused ilmselged, kuid inimesel ei pruugi olla oskust neid märgata. Sellistes olukordades on abiks coaching, kus coach’i roll on aidata klienti eri tehnikate abil neid lahendusi märgata ning inspireerida teda tegutsema. Lahenduste nägemiseks on kasulik asju kõrvaltvaataja pilguga vaadata. Neutraalne ja arendav coaching aitab analüüsida seniseid käitumisviise ja kogemusi, mille kaudu saab anda tähenduse nii oma edulugudele kui ka eksimustele. Selle protsessi eesmärk on õppimine ja eneseareng. Ainult igaüks ise saab vastutada oma arengu ja muutustega toimetuleku eest. Coach oskab klienti eneseavastusretkel julgustada, vastutada coaching’u-protsessi eest, kasutada professionaalselt coaching’u-tehnikaid ning tunnetada selle töö eetilisi piire.

Coaching ei ole nõrkade järeleaitamine. Coach’i abiga saadakse heast suurepäraseks, avastades oma elu mõtet ning õppides oma tugevusi oskuslikumalt hindama ja kasutama.

Olen peale aastast õpingut ja kaheaasrtast praktikat omandanud ICF ACC sertifikaadi. Usun, et minu taust meeskondade ja teenuste juhtimisel ning strateegilisel nõustamisel aitab mul olla ka hea coach Sinule. Seepärast kutsun Sind oma keerulisi küsimusi koos lahkama. Senised coachee’d on leidnud lahenduse ja asunud tegevuskava ellu viima kolme kuni kuue sessiooniga.

Coachingu esimene sessioon Sinule on tasuta. Kui sa tunned, et soovid jätkata, lepime kokku juba edasise tegevuskava ja tasu.

Alustamiseks leia minu avalikku kalendrist endale sobiv aeg. Seejärel mõtle välja oma küsimus / murekoht ja ole kokkulepitud ajal kohal. Kasutan nii Google Meet, kui Microsoft Teams rakendusi. Samuti võime Tallinnas leida vestlemiseks mõne vaikse kohvikunurga.