David Chalk on CKNW am980 Vancouver, BC
http://www.citizensforsafetechnology.org/David-Chalk-on-Smart-Meter-Hacking,2,2041

CKNW AUDIO VAULT
Select 9am at 7:15 minutes >> April 16, 2012
http://www.cknw.com/news/audiovault/index.aspx

CKNW PODCAST
Select April 16 – Hour 2
http://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-bill-good-show/id284809691

This week a very talented filmmaker and social entrepreneur, Josh del Söl, will release a movie trailer and press release for a documentary that will shake the public to its core. The movie TAKE BACK YOUR POWER takes one forward on a quest for security, health, privacy, and democracy in the fight against SMART METERS.

Over the past 2 years, Josh and his colleagues have spent thousands of hours compiling evidence, and proof, that our society is at great risk if we allow our regional power suppliers and the Power Grid industry to continue to install SMART METERS on our homes and businesses.

And take action through one of these links:
www.thepowerfilm.org
http://www.stopsmartmetersbc.ca/html/
http://stopsmartmeters.org/
http://citizensforsafetechnology.org/

Causal information is based on the universal law of cause and effect. For everything that happens in the universe, there is a cause. A singularity is a unique event in the universe. Under the theory of cause and effect, the only singularity in this universe was the big bang.

It is always easy to see the effect of an action. But it is often difficult to trace the cause. When a computer system fails the effect is obvious, but we don’t know what caused it. After recent catastrophes: the Japan nuclear crisis, the BP Deep Water Horizon oil spill and other incidents we all know of are cyber-related, the reports always come back to not enough causal information.

If the world had causally-related systems in technology, we would know what caused the effect to occur. Until system processes and software are developed and implemented to radically change the way computers work, almost to a level of artificial intelligence, no computer will ever be able to predict a disaster.

Unlike modern computer systems, the human mind has an amazing ability to go through its CTS (condition, timing and sequence). We can see the condition, we can see the timing its taking, we can see the sequence that the pattern is taking. So, causality gives us the ability to monitor everything, such that an intervention can occur before an anomaly/disaster actually occurs.  If computers had CTS, nuclear power plant meltdowns, shutdowns of the power grid, the Stutnex virus shutting down a nuclear power plant or BP would never happen.

With causality, which is sort of the secret to the universe, we would understand and be able to know what would happen next without predicting it, without looking at patterns (algorithms). Therefore only one thing would be left to cause us damage: an act of God. The British Petroleum oil rig would not have exploded because computer systems would be looking at the CTS and along with causality would know what is going to happen next. We would live in a world, some might say, of peace.

For more information visit www.decision-zone.com

Some people think the word “cyber” is synonymous with “cyberspace”; things going on out in the distance. Cyber really refers to everything that is online and electronically communicated. Everything in the cyber world is invisible: information, data, technology.  For example, over 99% of all the money in the world is electronically transferred. It doesnʼt even exist. So the information that is now being stored electronically is what pertains to the “cyber world”, and the entire networked world is now at risk because of the fact weʼre electronic.

The reported cost and damage that is caused by  inappropriate cyber activity is over 10 trillion dollars a year, and thatʼs going to go up exponentially because itʼs just a matter of time before something will slip through the system, which isn’t entirely being protected today. You are going to hear more and more about these illicit cyber attacks the more things are connected together.

We will continue to see threats such as the Stuxnet Virus being used in areas beyond industrial software and equipment to threaten countries. Terrorism will grow. On the Internet those threats are a clear and present danger that brings a massive scare to society – our power grid, our air space, our institutions, our banks, everything that we depend on today.

The only technology that can prevent a disaster is one that employs causal information where the decision-maker knows the root cause of a potential incident before it occurs and makes the appropriate choice to prevent a crisis. We are very close to getting causal understanding of events or what we call “anomalies” to determine what the forward process will be, such as awful things including a shuttle blowing up, airliners crashing, an oil rig blowing up or even Reagan Airport’s control tower going offline recently. We don’t hear about the root cause of these incidents because decision-makers don’t know the true root cause until months after the incident, if they’re lucky, and they never have causal information before the incident occurs – this is the limitation of today’s technology. The only solution in the area of Cyber Protection is Decision-Zone, and it is going to change the entire planet soon…

When someone wants to motivate themselves to work harder they first have to look at
who they are and look backwards through their life. Ask questions such as, “Am I a person who does what I say I will do when I say I will do it?” Or “Do I tend to procrastinate and avoid doing things?” You have to be honest with yourself.

If you are a driven person then you have something to strive for. It could be as simple as wanting to help someone like your kids. Itʼs sort of a passive thing but if we are talking about real motivation, we have to have goals. The more vivid, the more clarity and the more you live and you desire, the more you will have the energy to achieve them. You have to desire something.

Iʼve been asked what advice I would give an entrepreneur that has lost motivation and feels beat. The reality is that having been ʻbeatʼ really has little to do with future success because if you could strategically remove that particular memory from your mind, you would go back to having the passion and belief you started with. Being demotivated is a condition you are bringing on yourself and amplifying it by making it your dominant thoughts. Therefore, take a lesson from what hasnʼt worked, but donʼt use it as a map or a path for going forward. You are always full of great potential. It could be all that you really desire to be and nothing more, but there is no limit on desire. The key is to take responsibility for how youʼre feeling and, in so doing, feel empowered to act.

Here is how I stay motivated: I focus on the things I want in my life. I do ʻwork unitsʼ, whatever they may be, and exchange those for money, which I then exchange for the things that I want. By having a very clear vision of what it is that I want, it makes it very easy to stay motivated. I live my life as if I already have the goals I want. For example, Iʼm looking to be more successful in accumulating real-estate, so I just act in an appropriate way as if I have them already. I think of them in the here and now as if I posses them and then they manifest themselves because deep thoughts are handled by the subconscious mind and the subconscious mind knows neither true from false nor good from bad. It is what it is fed; therefore, if it is fed a way of being, it responds and attracts that way of being.

If you have questions or comments on this blog leave them here or Tweet me at @askdavidchalk.

Assess Your Views on Money and Review Your Emotions

The first thing to understand if you want to be successful in business is that money is a motivator regardless of how you or others perceive it. Money can give you freedom, let you travel and the have the ability to do the things you want to do, such as help others. The challenge is that a lot of people see money as a negative or an evil. Itʼs merely an intermediary tool to help you reach your goals.

If you have challenges becoming or staying motivated you have to desire something, badly. It could be material, something to help others or just enjoying your life more, but the way the free world has developed is that we must trade our time and energy for these desires. When people look at desiring money as greedy, they are simply objectifying money.

If you ask most people what they think about money they will say itʼs a tool, it helps them get what they want.  People without money will say itʼs bad to focus on money, and people with money will tell you that it isnʼt about focusing on money, rather that money is a means to an end.

The ironic part is that you will never find a successful person that has a negative thought about money and you will never find an unsuccessful person that has a positive belief in it.

Besides earning money, one of the biggest challenges in staying motivated to achieve your goals has to do with the way we relate to our emotions. We are all human and a chemistry set of emotions. Our emotions are actually chemical reactions in your body whether you want them to be or not.

For example, Iʼm here right now, a thought has gone through my body and Iʼm having negative thoughts, therefore itʼs very hard to keep positive thoughts.  When a negative thought comes over me I flush it out as fast as I can and “let it go, let it go, let it go” and within a brief period of time the mind will let it go, but I recognize that I let the thought do that to me because if someone says something that affects me, I let it occur. If I choose to accept it, I will notice a change in my body chemistry and I will feel a certain way. I look at what happens and say to myself how amazing this is that a simple thought in my head that I acknowledge can change the way I feel, such as a rush through my stomach, and I acknowledge the fact that it did it. I let it occur and by taking just a few seconds to think about it lets me minimize it for the next time. Iʼm simply conscious that
no one does that to me, I do it to myself, so to master staying positive you let the
emotion go as fast as you can but acknowledge it happens.

Emotions really are just another chemical process in your body on the positive side of things which can include endorphins, dopamine, and adrenaline – we really are just a chemistry set. When we learn to understand the chemicals we are releasing, we learn to understand the reaction and then we have more control over the chemicals that are released in the body.

Stay tuned for Part 2 of how I stay motivated in my life…

While the features and functions of computers have drastically changed over the last 40 years, their underlying operation has not changed, as it is the foundation of all computing today. In other words, computers at their base level of operation function almost the same as they did from inception, only a lot faster. If there had been any idea that computers would be used for what they are today, much of their initial design would have probably been different.

Did you know that computers were initially designed to count and process numbers?  In fact, IBM came about in the early 1880s from the automated counting invention of Herman Hollerith to tabulate the national census of 1890.  IBM later evolved to support the large amounts of data that companies, insurance agencies and governments had to process. There was not even a consideration that computers may one day revolutionize our lives.

In fact, past IBM president Thomas J. Watson is known for his alleged 1943 statement saying, “I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.” Similarly, Charles H. Duell, an official at the US patent office, said in 1899 that, “Everything that can be invented has been invented.” And Ken Olsen, co-founder of now lapsed Digital Equipment Corporation, one of the largest corporate computer manufacturers in the world during its time, said in 1977 that, “There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in his home.” Can you imagine that?!

The fact that computers were designed to store and analyze data is exactly what has us facing the Cyber Crisis we have today.

Prior to the proliferation of the Internet, only corporate and government systems were really connected in any manner, as you may already be aware.  Those systems stored vast amounts of data for search and analytical purposes (a.k.a data mining). Computers were relatively slow and software was primitive.  No one ever expected data to be analyzed immediately, mainly because they could not do it.  Analysts could merely “predict” and model behaviour, not prevent it.

Rather than working on methods to have computers look at data in real-time, the industry chose to focus its resources on lowering the cost of storage and writing more efficient software and algorithms to look at the vast amounts of data now flooding in. This is exactly where the problem we face today started. It may seem hard to believe, but it can take hours or even weeks for system data to be reviewed. Case in point: data analysis from the BP oil rig disaster took months to analyze.

The world is now made up of millions of databases that store archived data for future analysis. There is no technology on the market today that can observe data flows in real-time, identify interrelated data relationships, and alert decision-makers of process breaches immediately. History’s solution is to write an infinite amount of rules and layers of software code in an attempt to keep the unauthorized out. In essence, it is a free-for-all for the intruder to read, download, change or destroy information until their heart’s content and risk possible detection and discovery later.  Case in point: WikiLeaks cables leak; nuclear power plant damage caused by the Stuxnet worm; Google being hacked by China; and, most recently, Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook fan page being hacked just as Facebook announced new security measures. Believe it or not, any system in the world can be hacked if enough effort is put behind it.

So… if we know the problem is computer design, why don’t we correct it and end the threat of Cyber Warfare? It is too late. As they say, you cannot “un-ring” the bell. Everyone is connected, virtually anyone can get in and the systems cannot even know you are there. Not much of a war is it?  More like shooting ducks in a barrel. The very fact that computers revolve around databases means that they are, in essence, working in the past. War is in the moment and the computer can’t play the game.  Hackers one, computers zero. The good news is there is now a solution, and it’s called Decision-Zone.

The National Oil Spill Commission’s Final Report contained numerous recommendations including raising the liability cap for drillers and creating an independent safety agency. The report did not, however, call for enhanced technology solutions to assist in the prevention of similar accidents, which is key to mitigating the inherent risks associated with relying on management alone to oversee complex oil and gas production processes.

Today’s technology relies on algorithms and millions of lines of code to predict every possible scenario that could occur and is incapable of monitoring simultaneous events in real-time. The only way to absolutely prevent another oil spill, of any magnitude, is to embrace a process-driven methodology that can detect process anomalies as they are happening and shut down systems without fail.

There are fundamental flaws in today’s historically-designed technology systems that were not built to observe business processes in real-time, rather to merely analyze captured information after-the-fact. At issue is the fact that all computer systems today are incapable of alerting decision-makers of process anomalies as they occur, and are thus powerless in preventing unintended consequences. It is like analyzing the contents of a black box after an airplane crash trying to figure out what went wrong, versus watching the plane go haywire, determining root cause immediately and providing an actionable audit trail to prevent a crisis from occurring.

The data-driven methodologies used by computer systems today can only look at single event processes, and unless an entirely new, top-down technology is implemented that can analyze and alert decision-makers of critical multi-event problems as they are happening, system control and disaster prevention can never be guaranteed 100 per cent.

I am currently working with a world-changing, disruptive technology company that is now getting the attention of government leaders and major corporations that are looking for a new approach to cyber defense, Internet security and complex process monitoring and compliance. Stay tuned for my next update…

Docket Branding

Aside from employees, brand is the most important thing a business can have. Note: I say have and not own. In the past Brand has always been thought of as a specialized company or product. The business owned brand and used it as a tool. However, as companies, markets, and social activity on the web have developed, this brand model no longer exists. Brand today is NOT a product, it is not a logo, and it is not an identity.

So, you may be asking, what in the world is a brand then? A brand is what people say and feel about a company, service, or product. This is the reason why Brand Loyalty and Brand Culture exist. A successful brand no longer sells products, it sells the “whole company”. A company has to understand and relate to their consumer in such a way that the consumer’s values are aligned with the company. Don’t believe me?

Today people are taking social or environmental issues into consideration as they choose from an endless supply of goods. Whether driven by a desire to be ‘eco-friendly’ with energy saving appliances, or purchasing ‘fair-trade’ goods, consumers set one product apart from the other based on their values.

People’s choice is no longer driven by finding the best, the fanciest, or the cheapest; They choose brands that have the right purpose and meaning. You need to have a brand culture that your clients will want to associate with, Apple being the poster child for this.

Successful companies now draw upon their core beliefs and values to create views of the world and ways of acting in the world that have become their central truths. These internal beliefs have replaced the traditional external brand images. Brands are created by employees living these beliefs inside the company, which will in turn drive external communications and consumer experiences. The consumer is attracted to the meaning behind those beliefs. Brand culture is an internal thing. This is why Nike’s first attempts at skater shoes failed. Nike did not fit the skater image, so even though the shoes were perfectly good, sales plummeted. Nike decided to hire actual skaters to break into the market, and once Nike had developed a skater friendly aura, the shoes became a hit.  If there is no alignment between company culture and the product, today’s consumers may reject the product.

Culture in this sense, is almost a living entity amongst the company, and this is what “brand story” really is today. Even if you have created the best clothing detergent on the market, you cannot sell it on feature alone. Instead, you have to sell yourself as a company that understands how that soccer mom feels, and shares the same values as her. Soccer mom has endless options of  ‘sensitive’, ‘brightening’, ‘softening’ etc. detergents, but if she feels that the values of your brand align with hers, she will select your product. The values of our consumer and your company must become one. (If you have been wondering about the value of social media in the market, you will have to catch the next addition.) Aligned values will lead to more sales, at higher prices. That is the power of brand.

David Chalk is considered one of the leading technology experts and brand developers in Canada, a maverick in the bold and unconventional positioning of new media. His client list is enviable, and his accomplishments are exceptional.

“I have known David for years and have seen him grow several great businesses. He has the ability to look at a need or problem and, as if out of thin air, come up with the right solution. He, and the team he has around him, can create an innovative and competitive edge for any business. David is a marketing genius!”  -Brian Scudamore, Founder, CEO 1-800-GOT-JUNK

David is a genuine entrepreneur with a unique and feel good manner of creating success. His knowledge comes from living and experiencing all facets of entrepreneurial challenges; he is not merely a sideline reporter, his knowledge comes from legitimate field experience, not books.

With more than 25 years of self direction, David has proven you can be as success can be as great as your vision and passion. In 1983 David was the first to publish a retail computer magazine in Canada, which caught the eye of Mclean Hunter Magazine Corp. and was purchased after the inaugural issue.

Realizing early on that computers would revolutionize everything, in the year of the Mac, 1984, David created what would become the chain of Computer Superstores, Doppler (with sales in excess of $120 million.) In order to manage and control what was reported as one of Canada’s fastest growing companies in the late 80’s, David designed and developed a retail sales management system, built in house to facilitate all operations by bar-code and multi location communications. The project was such a success. Earnst & Young audited its operation and then managed its sales to other industry clients.

Further, a study by IBM showed that his 35,000 sq ft stores had created the highest profit per square foot of retail in Canada, even surpassing that of Walmart.  David’s remarkable branding capabilities were even more apparent when Doppler became one of Canada’s most recognized retail computer brands, and as such was able to maintain margins above industry average; the “real” value of “Brand Development”.

Starting in the 90’s and to this day, David speaks publicly on brand, technology and the organic growth of companies.  David continues to speak to North America’s largest companies and organizations on the topics of Corporate Culture, Brand Development, the Future of Technology and Social media, and a number of topics on Education and Learning.  He is one of the highest rated speakers in the country and presented to more than 100,000 people. His audiences include, Stanford, Aerospace, Homeland Security, the Government of China, Comdex, Sunlife, Sprint, Ford, numerous national associations and educational institutions.

In the mid 90’s David had the opportunity to work with Bill Gates on retail strategies for Microsoft, including packaging and strategical store planning. This led David, in 1997, to takeover a $150 million US retail chain in Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and re-brand it. It was reported in the Wall Street Journal as one of the fastest Chapter 11 turn-arounds in US history.

During that period David worked on a project he created with Martha Stewart ~ OnmiMedia, to position her brand beyond domestic content to include home technology. As this project was evolving, Martha became embroiled in the ImClone Stock trading scandal. David went on to create his own shows that gained North American distribution, winning him three Telly Awards. In all David has produced Radio, Television and Digital Video for more than 17 years.

In 2002 David and his team were awarded the project of building the TELUS website. The site served as the nerve center for TELUS’s education & training.  Many other significant sites and applications followed in education and were designed and built for companies such as The Royal Bank, HSBC, Futureshop, Terasen Gas, IntraWest, and SAP Business Objects.

For his design and implementation work in the field of eLearning, David was the recipient of the Bandon-Hall Excellence Award, the highest level education award in the USA. David was also the recipient, in the Hague, of the Freddie award for best international educational documentary. An insight into life with Dyslexia & learning disabilities.

Microsoft, Intel, Coca-Cola, Air Canada, Macon County Police, Samsung, Fairmont Hotels, VANOC, UnderArmour are just some of the companies and organizations David has consulted with.  David has created everything from award winning broadcast TV commercials, Digital DVD sales marketing to interactive web based product launches, such as the North American launch for Sony interactive TV in 2005.

In 2008 RIM purchased David’s www.chalk.com for $23 million.

While David has won many awards for branding and business management, including the title  ”Most Outstanding Marketer in Canada” by the Retail Council of Canada, the AMA ( American Marketing Association) award for web design, and a finalist for the Governor General’s award of Canada, he has always operated in a personal, one to one grassroots manner. To that end, in 2010, David chose to further contribute to his real passion, the education and success of small and medium size businesses. He did this by creating the unique Digital Brand Agency known as The WoW Factory.

Combining his talents of unique branding, advanced technology deployment, and mentoring, David and his team of industry experts use The WoW Factory to implement “Brand Space Building”;  and “Brand 3.0”  strategies, a set of unique processes that create a large footprint (presence), enabling companies to accelerate their growth and play in a bigger space.

David Chalk is truly one of a kind. He has been interviewed in more than 200 articles, and although they are majorly based on his success as an entrepreneur, they have reminded readers that David himself has faced huge obstacles and challenges in order to gain the knowledge he shares with others. A severe lack of cognitive function in David’s left brain and acute learning disabilities, crippled David in his early years and complicated much on David’s path to success. However, through the coping skills he had to learn for survival, he mastered a unique process of thinking. He in essence, rewired the plasticity of his right brain, which took him to a new realm of thinking, that is completely innovative.

Recently, David received his greatest honour; a Doctorate Degree in Technology and Learning, for the work he has done and continues to do in the reform of our education system.

David shares his bold and unconventional methods of marketing, in all he does and has proven its effective power through his mastery of personal & corporate branding. David Chalk is the secret weapon that business & entrepreneurs dream of for success, and he is ready and willing to share.