We started watching Leverage this week. Best thought of as an American version of the BBC's rather fun grifter story Hustle, it pits the wits of a crew of assorted thieves against the dark underbelly of America's corporate kleptocracy. The thieves are the good guys, robin hooding their way through assorted cons and capers, extracting money and revenge from the corporate crooks.

Leaving aside the obvious parallels with the current state of the economy, there's an interesting thread that links this and other caper stories.

They're tales of project management.

No, really.

If you look at Leverage as an example, we have a team of misfits, creative people who under normal circumstances can't function in society, let alone as a team. Then along comes a man with vision and project management skills, who can find ways to fit those skills and resources into a project plan, and then execute it. He only operates on the fringes of the action, listening and guiding.

The same is true of George Clooney's Danny Ocean in his trilogy of films. Danny and Rusty are a project management team that builds on the strengths of the various individuals, manipulating them where necessary. Danny Ocean leads from behind.

The list goes on. How about Mickey Bricks in Hustle, running a crew and training a successor at the same time? You could argue that the fourth season of the series was Danny Blue learning project management skills on the fly. And how about Michael Caine's role in The Italian Job (and yes, even the role played by Mark Wahlberg in the film with the same name)?

I'm finding it interesting to rethink old favourites in this light - and it's giving me more ideas around the caper story I've been noodling with on and off for some time now. Somewhere out there are a firm of consultants who outsource caper management.

"Crime process management", anyone?

According to El Reg, the servers have been stolen from the data centre where they've been running both his and the WOMAD sites...

Maybe someone was listening to this song as they walked off with the hardware...

I know something about opening windows and doors
I know how to move quietly to creep across creaky wooden floors
I know where to find precious things in all your cupboards and drawers
Slipping the clippers
Slipping the clippers through the telephone wires
The sense of isolation inspires
Inspires me
I like to feel the suspense when I'm certain you know I am there
I like you lying awake, your baited breath charging the air
I like the touch and the smell of all the pretty dresses you wear
Intruders happy in the dark
Intruder come
Intruder come and leave his mark, leave his mark

Still, the site is slowly coming back - so score one for data recovery.

Oddly Gabriel is keynoting at Salesforce.com's European DreamForce event in London this week. I don't think this makes him quite the poster boy for SaaS!

A while back I came to the conclusion we were living in a John Brunner future.

But now it's sliding into a Philip K. Dick future, too. According to an article in the Times, UK police forces are setting up a pre-crime department...

Criminal profilers are drawing up a list of the 100 most dangerous murderers and rapists of the future even before they commit such crimes, The Times has learnt.

The highly controversial database will be used by police and other agencies to target suspects before they can carry out a serious offence. Pilot projects to identify the highest-risk future offenders have been operating in five London boroughs for the past two months.
[...]
Experts from the Metropolitan Police’s Homicide Prevention Unit are creating psychological profiles of likely offenders to predict patterns of criminal behaviour. Statements from former partners, information from mental health workers and details of past complaints are being combined to identify the men considered most likely to commit serious violent crimes.
[...]
Ms Richards said that once an individual had been identified, police would decide whether to make moves towards an arrest, or to alert the relevant social services who could steer those targeted into “management programmes.”

The big question is: How accurate are these models? I'm sure the intentions are good (but then, we all know what paves the roads to Hell), but the risks of ruining innocent people's lives are just too great.

"If it saves just one child" is a delightful sentiment, but how many families will be blighted by an incorrect profile?

A Philip K. Dick future, without the drug cushion...
[Link via wendyg]