Today marks the 40th anniversary of those first, halting steps and those famous words delivered by Neil Armstrong, the first human being to set foot on a planetary object other than Earth.  Truly a universal event and one that will forever be remembered.

Others have followed in Neil's footsteps with equally imaginative and daring feats and many more are sure to follow as we humans continue our sojourn through time and space. With all that said, it is equally as true that no feat nor any human will ever be able to top Neil's and humankind's claim to inter-galactic history, 40 years ago today.

Video of Neil Armstrong's first steps and those famous words

Continue to relive the saga of Apollo 11 at We Choose the Moon.Org in real-time.

Update:  Today Popular Science Magazine publishes very recent images from the NASA Lunar Reconnaisance Orbiter (LRO).  In the images you can clearly see various artifacts left by our too brief exploration of our sister satellite, including the landing sites of Apollo 11 and 14 and the respective "litter" left by both missions.

Update 2:  Popular Mechanics joins the 40th birthday party with their compendium publication, APOLLO 11, THE UNTOLD STORY, PM's oral history with photographs, video, exclusive audio and more.

More to follow...

Braun Tacon

I am honored to have been asked to present at the ICMG Architecture World 09 Conference.  Due to travel limitations I will be presenting via teleconference.  The topic of the presentation is  The Major Incident Handling Plan; a Mandatory Requirement of any Enterprise Risk Management Portfolio  

For the benefit of my audience and because this is BraunsBlog, I am posting my goals, deliverables, and opportunities for this presentation below.  If you are attending I hope you can make an opportunity to catch this topic.  It is timely, useful, and mandatory in the world of today.

More to follow…

Braun Tacon

Goals – or “Why this presentation?”

• Major Incidents happen and they happen more frequently in complex environments.
• You should respect, not fear, Major Incidents.  The only fear you should have is if you have not prepared and / or you have not documented your Plan and Procedures.
• These Plans work best when they are built and integrated at the Framework and Design level.  In other words Major Incident Handling should be in scope for any Architecture engagement; developed of course with an Architectural perspective.
• Primary Risks – The absence of a tested and documented Major Incident Handling Plan is almost always a sure guarantee of dramatically increased Service Delivery failures in the event of a Major Incident.  Catastrophic Failure in this situation is also a possibility.
• Primary Benefits – The presence of a well developed and tested Major Incident Handling Plan helps insure that when individuals are called to act in an emergency they understand exactly what they are to do (and what not to do).  That is why the people who sit in the Exit Seat on commercial airline flights are given a second briefing.

What’s In it For the Audience – What I hope to provide the attendees

• A simple yet compelling case for Major Incident Handling as told from a “Without a Plan and With a Plan” perspective
• A demonstration of a Plan in action
• A Plan Model that can be used by many industries or occupations and at most levels, from Architectural Framework to Operational Processes and Procedures
• Other tools to help make the Planning process more effective
• A simple yet compelling business case that cannot be easily rebutted
• Discussion of hurdles to implementation
• Some suggestions on how to overcome those hurdles

What’s In it For Braun (WIIFB)– What I get by giving this presentation?

• An opportunity for peer review of my thoughts and premises on this topic (Confirm)
• An opportunity to hear countering opinions to my thoughts and premises on this topic (Challenge)
• An opportunity for better understanding diverse global requirements (Understand)
• An opportunity to interact with a large number of experts and specialists, albeit virtually (Experience)