Ian Stavros with DIDO Solutions

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Welcome to the industrial talk podcast with Scott Mackenzie. Scott is a passionate industry professional dedicated to transferring cutting edge industry focused innovations and trends while highlighting the men and women who keep the world moving. So put on your hard hat, grab your work boots, and let's go.

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Alright, once again, thank you very much for joining industrial talk. And thank you once again, for your support. I say it every time. Because this platform is dedicated to industry professionals all around the world. We celebrate you here. You're helping me learn more, you're making my life better because you're bold, brave, you dare greatly you collaborate like the guy here next to me in and you're solving problems and you're making the world a better place. That's why we celebrate you because you are heroes. Okay, you can there's no buzz buzz. It's really wrap it up. This is the OMG meeting. This is the fourth quarter meeting. And it has just been a great event. And it is a collection of really intense professionals focused on solving problems, industry problems and everything else in between. They just have these conversations just because in the hot seat we have a gentleman by the name of industry, Stavros? Yes. Stavros All right. And the company is Jackrabbit consulting. And we're going to just talk about you know, this event and all the stuff that's going on. A

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pretty well it's been an enjoyable conference so far. So Right.

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When did you arrive? I

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arrived Sunday. So I've been here for a little while. Yeah. Usually Sunday's a nice time to arrive. Because you get to go to the bar with a couple of the older people and learn from them.

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Did you go across to that one? That bar that or that? So yeah.

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Now unfortunately, they were all booked. We decided to go too late. But we ended up in Italian north, which is actually pretty good food. So if you're in Austin, Texas, check out Italian north.

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It was Italian fare. Maybe tonight, maybe that's what I do. Because I've had my brisket. I've had my south of the border food. Let's see. Let's do something to international like, that'd be great. All right. For the listeners, let's level set, Ian, give us a little background on who you are.

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My name's as as introduced in stabbers I got went to West Virginia University for undergrad as a D one athlete and something for the team there. And I worked on swimming is hard. Yeah, it can be for sure.

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Go, I sink like a rock. Congratulations.

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And I got there. And I went and I got my biology and computer science degree from there. And then I went off to OHSU to get a master's in bioinformatics. And then after that, or in between that I jumped in and joined OMG and have gotten to learn a lot from the people here. It's It's a humbling experience with all the experience these guys have. Yeah, but

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but again, we've been talking about and I think that there's this sort of mentor side that they've been part of OMG for 30 years, right. And they've seen it all, and they've just sort of been on that journey. But then there's this necessity to also bring in some youth, that brings a different perspective. Now, without a doubt, which is important. Because even just like in organizations like this and others, you start finding, there's this culture, this rhythm that happens and we need to sort of shake that up sometimes just, ya know,

03:24

my father and a couple others have a running joke that it's also known as the old man group. So we're

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all just, I don't support that. But I do support. It's, it's, it's full of really smart people.

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Yeah, it's definitely full of smart people. And if you have a young guy that's working for you, that you feel like really knows his stuff and can contribute to the world, get them out here because they're gonna learn a lot from these guys and be able to actually make an impact in the future.

03:51

So when I was alignment a long time ago, a long time ago, climate towers, I was a part of an apprenticeship program. And there was no way that I was going to be a jerk. I had to go through that process and learn from the individuals that are there and then be able to do it yourself. And I agree with that. 100%. Now you're, you're you're part of your dad was a part of this.

04:11

Yeah, my dad's been a part of it for over 20 years. And he had this idea where he was working with Mars and working on DDS, which is a technology used for the interoperability of military vehicles, automated vehicles, and space travel. And so he wanted to show a case and idea of being able to use that over the web. And so he got me and my friend involved and then we jumped from that which led into a DARPA funded research grant, which led into the company that we've tried to start.

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That's pretty good. I've had a number of conversation while I'm here. Haven't not had any conversations around Mars, or blockchain, even though I know I know more about I don't know if anybody really knows too much about blockchain. Maybe you do, but not me. I try and I pretty much jettison real quick. Can you sort Take us through the Mars group, what is that about?

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It's just a bunch of middleware services, there's CORBA, some of the major things that have come through then CORBA, or DDS, and they work on making sure that that standard or that interoperability is going to be there, there is no concept of one's going to rule them all there. It's about working together to make sure that the technologies meeting up the standards, and it's going to work interoperability, because some of them are actually better at solving one problem versus another, but they're not going to be the total solution that you need. So you actually need that interoperability in order to get that full fledged system. You're actually looking for some

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of the listeners out there. Can you sort of just define for us what middleware is?

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That's a tough topic. I'm, you know, here at the standards, you can say one thing, and then someone will disagree and have

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your on this podcast. So whatever you say, probably go, Wow, that's great.

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Yeah, well, maybe next next session, there'll be some people who can define things better than I can. But it's basically just the software that runs in the middle between one the technology, the hardware, and people on the other end, and making sure that that stuff can communicate and work together.

06:14

See, there's so many things in that, that the masses me included, just FYI, we don't know. We just don't we just take it for granted. I know you got your cell phone, we just take it for granted. There it is. But there's mad tack and mad. So and a lot of debating and a lot whatever gnashing of teeth. And and we just take it for granted. And that goes for middleware. Is the world. The world of middleware, is it changing? as dramatic as all the other stuff that's going on? I mean, it's I mean, everything seems to be changing. Everything's changing.

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Well, it's really hard about the spec world is, you know, something will be in work for 20 years. Yeah. So this, this DDS stuff that you're still on the cutting edge has been around for 20 years, and they're still hammering out problems and improvements and making sure that you know, the technology is going to work the way that you don't even have to worry about it.

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Yeah, because all of a sudden, it was like COVID. And then all of a sudden, everybody became a supply chain expert, because well, I don't have my my paper towels. What's what's going on there? It's just like, I don't like this supply chain. What's going on? And now I'm, you know, it's it's when? Yeah, you if, if nobody knows it's happening. You're doing it, right. Yeah. Thumbs up. So as a member of Mars, are you I mean, you're just soaking it

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to connect to what you're saying. One of my favorite parts is a Futurama episode or Bender became God. And he finally meets God. And God says, if you're doing it, right, no one knows you've done anything at all.

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I liked that one. That's that's spot on. So how long have you been a part of OMG. And anyway,

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I came in in 2014. Holy cow, I came in right after you read. I'm 32 years old,

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holy Khan, just right out of school and right out of college

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that and they were willing to, you know, take my input, I shut up for most of it, because I want to absorb what these people have to say. But yeah, I've learned a lot over the years, I can't even believe I've been around for a party. And

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all of a sudden, you're one of those old guys. Yeah, I'm starting to become

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one of the one of the cool stuff is when I was first coming in, they were telling me about the heyday of the DDS and they're starting to get really rowdy where they started to get aggressive and fists were thrown and but that's the world you know, you have to make sure that this stuff is done, right.

08:53

No doubt, you're absolutely and and I'm thankful for that. Because I am just like, you know, this gloss over? Yeah, it looks fine. But that's just not how you really instill trust, there's a lot of trust, that is risk you're responsible for because once you start to release it into the world, people depend on the fact that you did your part, your due diligence, you you know, you debated it, and you came to the conclusion that that was whatever the best approach that's what that's a heavy thing to carry. It's important. Tell us a little bit about the blockchain side. So we got Marcin out blockchain and and yeah, just tell us about that. Yeah. So

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the blockchain pieces started to come out around I think 2018 Right. As you know, the the advent of everybody really starting to wonder what it was and when we first started there was a really big interest. However, there's this kind of libertarian bent in the in the cryptocurrency Liberty blockchain world. And so you know, they're really resistant to the idea of standards. So when we first started, everyone was like, Oh, I still think it was too early. The, for us to start talking about standardizing things. And it was well known this technology has been out since 2008, at least. And actually, I just learned, I went to a conference right after the September quarterly to add to the government blockchain Association. And they said that the first example of blockchain was actually done in I think, 1989.

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I was, yeah, there's, there's no test on it. So I'm gonna have to stretch it.

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So you know, the technology has actually been around a lot longer than people have realized. And you know, there is there is a need for us to sit down and start talking about like, Hey, what are the commonalities? What are things that are problems? So one of the things that we just pass just now, actually, a couple minutes ago, was the first electronic RFI system for the OMG, which is basically just an online survey. But it's a really extensive system. And then we're looking at trying to understand the industry's perceptions of smart contracts, the problems that they're dealing with. Were like, what are they using in terms of what's preferred and stuff like that? So we're really trying to dig into the understanding of the industry and where they think that it should go even?

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Yeah, it's not going away. No. And, and I, personally, I've had conversations around a private blockchain, but to be able to have that ability to be able to have confidence in the contracts have competence in what's the transactions that are being taken place, but I think the struggle sometimes and maybe it's just me, maybe I'm the one that lacks the the Insights is, is how to use truly outside of the Bitcoin world, you know, how do you bring it into something that's a little bit more mainstream.

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I mean, there's a lot of use cases that are being used. Blockchain is first and foremost, not the silver bullet that some people who are trying to get involved, they're going to tell you, but it does have a lot of use cases. So in the medical industry, they're looking at using the blockchain to help improve the resiliency of your electronic health record system. And now, they can't put all of your information in there, because within your lifetime, you're going to create 6000 gigabytes of data just in your medical history. And if you multiply that across to

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never go to the doctor,

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and if you multiply that across the world, you're going to boil the ocean just to create for this resiliency. So the way that they're applying it is they're doing references to the data that's low that's stored across the industry, or the different, you know, build medical facilities that are storing your data. And then that way, they're able to build up that resiliency without having to deal with the storage concern and energy consumption costs that are pretty prevalent within Yeah,

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but what is what's, what's the business case behind it? Why why is but like you said, there was this push that it made it like, it's the silver bullet, it will ensure whatever, and it's just sort of lumbers along sometimes. Well,

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you know, part of it is also just getting that hype, you know, it's really hard to sell a new technology, especially like IOT, right? super hype, the hype, right? I mean, without without the hype, you're not going to actually get the interest that builds the like actually getting involved. I know there's another company, I won't bring up the name, because I don't know, I don't have the permission. But they were saying that the way that they found the best use case for blockchain for them was consensus. They found because consensus sizing all of their data across the industry is really difficult. But with this system, they're it's the fastest way that they can end up getting that consensus for what they need to end up doing for their businesses.

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That's interesting. Yeah. And you're compressing that time down, because sometimes consensus and striving for consensus takes in the old way. As you can probably hear, and oh, gee, it takes a little while to get consensus. Oh,

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yeah. Sure. And, and if you're not, and from the business side, if all of your stuffs not on the same page, it can be disastrous for the company in terms of financial loss or, you know, PR. Nightmares.

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See, but the other thing is that it let's say, I'm a manufacturer, and I I hear all of this, I'm on, I'm googling stuff, right? And I'm getting I'm the leader of this manufacturing of googling all this stuff, and I'm just getting inundated with stuff in in a confused mind doesn't make a decision. It's just, I'm more apt to be confused because do I overload? Yeah. So do I need to go over here and digitize this? Or do I go over here and put a device out there? I know that I have to manage my asset but then I pull it and you're creating anxiety in me when I already have a business that's creating anxiety.

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Well, one of the beauties of the blockchain is that actually can help the reducing of anxiety for things that are part of your supply chain world. So one of the examples was when Chipotle had their incidents where there was the equal E. coli breakout. They assumed it was me because that's typically where E. coli came from. Then they did more research and they found out no, that wasn't the case. Oh, it must be the employees aren't washing their hands properly. Then they found out actually, on the very fringes of the farm wild pigs were breaking in and pooping over the last Oh, wow. So it's, it's

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took a long time. It that didn't happen overnight. It took a loss dictation took forever.

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And not only that, if you have, let's say some of those mass recalls, the reason why they do such a mass release, recall is they they know like, Oh, it's from this general area. Therefore to be safe, let's make sure we pull everything from that. But with the blockchain, let's say you're transporting milk, you can track the data and then you'd have a ledger that says, hey, this is the temperature that that milk has been in throughout the whole journey. So then if all of a sudden something like that bad happens, they can pinpoint and more accurately pull back the product that is actually bad, rather than wasting so much in order to make sure people stay safe.

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Tell us about Jack Rabbit. What's that all about?

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Jack Rabbit was created by my father, as after he left working as an independent, or as a contractor for the Navy. And so he ended up just jumping in and doing a lot of like, he calls a jackrabbit consulting. And then, you know, so Jakob consulting is more of the standards body within our small group of of employees. And then we split off more on the product side is more data solutions. But the Jakobi Consulting has a lot of focus on standards and making sure that the standards are going to be easily understood. And up to snuff, just along with everybody else here it

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kind of never, ever, never ends. Now. So one last question before we wrap it up. You're You're young years, you're comparatively I was just getting ready, which I've been around for a long time. So sort of old, anyway. Is this a profession? And it's so it's so broad and deep? I mean, there's just so many things, how do we encourage young people, young professionals to see that this is important and have a passion for it? Why do you have it? Um, I mean, I think, you know, outside of the fact that your dad granted it on your

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Yeah, he kind of he kind of introduced me to the world. And you know, it's been a great experience, but it is hard to sell. Because you know, standards aren't the sexy topic where you go to the bar, and everyone wants to hear what you're talking about. But you know, if you're an individual or young guy who really cares about the tech and making sure that things work, the way that people are telling you, they're going to work. This is the this is the place to kind of come and do it. Because you get the you get to talk to all these people from all these different industries. And they're going to want to listen to you, you know, you're going to be treated as an equal here, you're not just going to be someone who's like, hey, children are meant to be seen not heard, Type value, don't do that. No, they're willing to hear you and they want to hear your input, because that's part of the process until

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you make a mistake. And now we all make mistakes. Good. How did they get ahold of you?

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You can reach out to me through data solutions, or en at data solutions.com or in gmail.com, Ian status@gmail.com. And I look forward to seeing some more young people showing up because, you know, help me out here. I'm drowning with all these old guys.

18:51

I don't I don't advocate that. No, I really appreciate it. And thank you very much. I really appreciate you.

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Let's keep going.

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I want young people in it. I had no, I'm not going down that road. Thank you, my friend. All right, we're gonna have all the contact information for Ian out on industrial talk.com. So if you're not reach out to this young guy, you will not be disappointed. So stay tuned, we will be right back.

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You're listening to the industrial talk Podcast Network.

19:22

All right, another industrial talk conversation in the can that was at the OMG. That was q4. Austin, Texas, is the location and that was it. And I'm looking at a stack guard out there on my trusty computer of Ian and yeah, he's got mad skills. Yeah, he addresses blockchain. Yeah. Standards all around that it's gonna happen. And probably the best part of the conversation that I can just sort of hang my hat on is his passion to encourage younger professionals to get involved the younger professional was to begin contributing to the standards that aren't that that we just take for granted that's out there. And now we just take it for granted. And Ian is leading the way. He's the tip of the sword and making that happen. So if you're a young professional, if you're saying, like what Dean was saying, then I highly recommend that you go up to O M G.org. Get some information, be a part of the organization, start talking to some of these, these leaders in industry leaders in technology leaders in innovation, and then be able to sort of contribute and get get engaged. I'm telling you right now, it's exciting. It's just just for us point of reference. I've been doing this for about five years, I've seen such a tremendous change in difference in conversation all around industry, all around innovation, and it's been sort of led by people like Ian Wright. Anyway, we're going to be doing a series on blinking f1 to industry. So be on the lookout for that. All right, be bold, be brave. They're greatly hanging out with you and you're going to change the world. We're going to have another great conversation coming from OMG one of the meetings right there shortly so stay tuned.