Saturday, February 28, 2009

Steak and Storage - March 4

If you’re a network and/or storage manager looking to…
  • · Deploy a virtualized storage environment with VMware and Microsoft
  • · Consolidate your storage environment
  • · Implement a tiered storage strategy
  • · Streamline your backup process
  • · Implement a disaster recovery solution
  • · Deploy a high performance storage platform for your Oracle or SQL environment
Then check out this event hosted by DLP Technologies at Smith and Wollensky (Easton TC) on Wednesday, March 4th from 11:30a – 1:30p At this free event, you’ll enjoy a mouth-watering steak and a deep technical dive into iSCSI SAN solutions for network storage in a virtualized server environment. The Dell EqualLogic™ award-winning PS Series family of iSCSI storage arrays, as recognized by the storage industry, will be featured. Click here to register: http://www.regonline.com/Checkin.asp?EventId=702640&RegTypeID=135726

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Think Green Columbus event - Wed March 4


Wed March 4 6pm


Click here to register: http://www.meetup.com/techlifecolumbus/calendar/9626032/



This event will provide an opportunity to meet others interested in everything "Green"; from alternative fuels and energy efficiency, to environmental protection and water conservation. Of course, this is also a social event; drinks will be on special until 7pm and some appetizers will be provided.

Mayor Coleman's Environmental Policy Advisor, Andia Sangale, will be sharing information about the City's GreenSpot program and will be able to answer a few questions afterward. In addition Tad Dritz, Lead Organizer for Green Columbus, will be sharing information about Columbus Green Drinks as well as Earth Day '09 activities.

This is a networking event as well and a chance to meet new people and share ideas. We hope to build an ongoing community effort to keep Columbus on a path toward environmentally responsible growth and development, and to promote new and innovative ways to build our City's Green economy.

Please answer the optional questions as well when you RSVP, we would like to know how many related groups will be represented at this event.

. . . And as always . . . Have Fun!

Letter from KidsLinked.com CEO - Greg Yoakam

Hello everyone!

I hope you are each having a great month. I keep telling myself that winter is just about over (I hope).

Alright, the last month for KidsLinked.com (www.kidslinked.com) went very well. It was highlighted, as you know, by winning the Tech Columbus Innovation award – very exciting! Here are the key things we are working on:

*Note: please continue to use and tell your friends about KidsLinked.com (www.kidslinked.com)

· New Family Calendar to be released on Monday: We are incredibly excited to be releasing our new, super enhanced family calendar. This is a true, on-line shareable calendar that integrates well into what we are doing on the website. The best part is it’s free for users of the site. We will need your help – when it is released please use it and let us know what you think (this will be extremely helpful).

· Next Release: We have 2 very exciting releases coming in the next 2 months – Wish Lists & Coach Pages. By late March, parents will be able to build their own wish lists on our website! This is through our partnership with Clearwish. This will be a great resource for parents to build birthday party, Christmas, new born, etc wish lists. This will be incorporated into our Birthday Party planner when launched this summer. Also, by late April we plan to release our new Coach pages – this is where a coach will be able to manage their entire team – practices, games, snacks and much more! This will be a great tool for coaches!

· Licensees for KidsLinked.com: We are starting to chat with two groups about licensing KidsLinked.com. The conversations with both groups are very productive and should be promising. Here is where I need your help – we are planning to launch in Cincinnati in April and Pittsburgh on June – if you know anyone in those two cities that might be interested in licensing KidsLinked.com please let me know. This is a great opportunity for a person to grow with our company.

· Fundraiser Card – Online Purchase Option: We recently added a new option to our fundraiser program to allow people to purchase the fundraiser card on-line. This makes it very easy for organizations looking to raise money and provide great discounts to parents (we have over 60 discounts in the total program). If you know any group that is looking for a fundraiser, as always, please let me know.

We are now moving into our next phase of KidsLinked.com – web based tools for parents. Our goal from starting the company has always been to be a tool website for parents. Now that we have delivered the core, starting with the Family Calendar, then the wish list, coach pages, and birthday party planner we will move into our first delivery of tools for parents (more to come after that).

This continues to be a very exciting time and I very much look forward to what the future holds for KidsLinked.com. Please continue your help in spreading the word and I greatly appreciate your support!

Thanks,

Greg Yoakam

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

President / CEO

Columbus, OH

(614) 354-3227

KidsLinked.com

Family life made easy

2008 Tech Columbus Innovation Award Winner

Register now - it's easy and it's free - Please tell your friends!!

Technology helping nonprofits - GroundWork Group member spotlight - YWCA Columbus

For more info about GroundWork Group go to: http://www.groundworkgroup.org/
GroundWork group is the collaborative and empowering community solution that enhances the capacity of nonprofits to achieve their missions through information management and technology.


The YWCA of Columbus began in 1886 by providing safe shelter for 25 young women. Over the last 120 years, YWCA has worked to eliminate racism and empower women. Today, YWCA Columbus programming serves over 40,000 women and families. Chasity Kuttrus, Partner, Ray and Barney Group and board member of YWCA Columbus shares with us her experiences with the YWCA and GroundWork group.

"Almost four years ago, I was elected to the Board of Directors of the YWCA Columbus. This responsibility has proven to be one of the most rewarding that I have ever taken on. Our YWCA Columbus has a proud 122-year history of serving the Central Ohio community. It touches thousands of lives each year by operating one of the largest family shelters in Central Ohio, improving race relations by facilitating dialogues, providing child care and youth development, and promoting health and fitness. I currently chair the Technology Committee as well as the GenY Committee. I am also the current Chair-elect."

"GroundWork group is currently our primary outsourced IT service provider! More importantly, they are also a partner and an advisor to the YWCA. From the very beginning of the relationship, GroundWork group provided educational opportunities surrounding ‘all' areas of technology. We started with an overall technology assessment of our entire infrastructure. We found the associates of GroundWork group to be both knowledgeable and approachable. Our partnership was strengthened because our values are in alignment: integrity, wisdom, community involvement, and collaboration. Their service offerings are tailored to their clients' needs, their pricing structures are reasonable and their support is scalable. Their pricing structures are reasonable and their support is scalable. In addition to the technology support, we also utilize their CIVIC Toolset to conduct registration for one of our key events every year, the YWCA Women of Achievement Awards. We are excited about the stable environment that GroundWork group has helped us establish, and we look forward to continued support!"

For more information on the YWCA, please visit their website www.ywcacolumbus.org.

$4mm expansion - Ohio Supercomputer Center to boost state bioscience efforts, economic development with high performance computer expansion

COLUMBUS, Ohio – February 25, 2009 - The Ohio Supercomputer Center today announced the purchase of a $4 million expansion of its flagship supercomputing system, a strategic addition that will more than double the Center’s current computing power and memory, significantly increase the Center’s computational capacity dedicated to Ohio’s bioscience and research efforts and further increase the state’s competitive advantage.
The expansion will integrate a new generation of IBM hardware into OSC’s IBM Cluster 1350, which become operational in January 2008. Because of the pent-up demand by Ohio researchers for supercomputing access, the new system reached operational capacity in just three months.
“By adding badly needed computing resources for academic and industry researchers, this expansion can further propel Ohio to the forefront of biosciences research and job creation,” said Stanley C. Ahalt, executive director of OSC. “With critical supercomputing resources, Ohio researchers can increase the state’s share of national bioscience funding.
“We appreciate the continued support of The State of Ohio and The Ohio State University. Their approval of the expansion leverages the State’s prior investment in supercomputing and is a testament to their foresight regarding OSC’s role in the turnaround of our economy.”
Ohio policymakers in recent years have moved to strategically align Ohio’s research and technology portfolio, identifying 12 institutional and industrial platforms most promising for statewide economic impact. Of these dozen platforms, OSC officials determined that the biosciences – along with advanced materials and data exploitation – would be one of the most productive areas in which the Center could focus investments, collaborations, research and market solutions.
“The Ohio Supercomputer Center has fostered close ties with the state’s bioscience research community, especially within bioinformatics and biomedical sciences,” said Anthony Dennis, president and CEO of BioOhio. “Expanding the availability of high performance computing resources for academic and industry researchers will further Ohio’s growth as a national leader in the biosciences.”
An example of OSC’s partnerships includes work with Nationwide Children’s Research Institute on the innovative Virtual Microscopy to Microarray cancer identification project, which has garnered attention from national oncology groups. And, OSC’s partnership with the Ohio State University Medical Center’s Department of Biomedical Informatics, working on its caGrid infrastructure and related bioinformatics software, provides a national information network that may speed cancer research discoveries.
“High performance computing resources, such as the resources provided by the Ohio Supercomputer Center, speed research in cancer and infectious diseases; they also enable us to attract the best talent and funding,” said Daniel Janies, an associate professor in the department of biomedical informatics at the Ohio State University Medical Center. “Enhanced supercomputer resources complement the significant investments Ohio and OSU already have made in biomedical research, especially in informatics.”
Expected to be fully operational by summer, the total expanded system will increase in computing capacity from 22 teraflops to 75 teraflops and more than double available memory, from 8.4 terabytes to 24 terabytes. A teraflop represents the processing of one trillion instructions per second, and, similarly, a terabyte is equal to one trillion bytes of computer storage space.
The expansion will add 5,328 processing cores housed within 600 nodes; combined, there will be more than 9,500 processing cores on the IBM Cluster 1350 available to researchers. Each node in the expansion provides 24 gigabytes (24 billion bytes) of memory. The expansion also adds 300 terabytes of workspace storage, complementing the Center’s existing robust mass storage capabilities.
Qualified researchers interested in obtaining an OSC account to access the new system can visit www.osc.edu/supercomputing for instructions.
The Ohio Supercomputer Center is a catalytic partner of Ohio universities and industries that provides a reliable high performance computing infrastructure for a diverse statewide/regional community. Funded by the Ohio Board of Regents, OSC promotes and stimulates computational research and education in order to act as a key enabler for the state's aspirations in advanced technology, information systems, and advanced industries. For additional information, visit http://www.osc.edu.

CIDUG (Columbus iPhone Developer User Group) - first meeting a great success




CIDUG (Columbus iPhone Developer User Group) had their first meeting at OCLC's auditorium on Feb 24th. It was an unexpectedly large turn out with 50 people in attendance. The meeting started with pizza and networking time. Then Christopher Judd, president of Judd Solutions, provided a short presentation on how to get started developing iPhone SDK and web applications. Then two iPhone applications developed by local Columbus developers were spotlighted. The meeting ended with discussions about the future direction of the group and web site

If you are interested in learning more about the group and how to get involved, please join the CIDUG Google group at http://groups.google.com/group/cidug.

California Company with Columbus thought leadership - KACE Continues Rapid Expansion in Asia Pacific with 300% Customer Growth in 2008


Another California company with local connections:

Editor's note:
Mike Gray (who live in Columbus is chief architect of this company)

Mike Gray

Chief Architect

Prior to joining KACE, Mike Gray was a Senior Researcher in the Department of Biomedical Informatics at The Ohio State University with a focus on grid computing. Before joining OSU, Gray was the Architect and Manager of Core Engineering at AvantGo (formerly NASDAQ: AVGO, since acquired by Sybase) where he oversaw development of the AvantGo Mobile Internet service supporting more than 8 million registered subscribers and the AvantGo Enterprise mBusiness Server (now Sybase M- Business Anywhere). Gray holds seven patents in various areas relating to mobile software and systems management. Prior to AvantGo, Gray held engineering and management positions at companies including Netscape, IBM, and Healthcare Research Systems, Ltd.

Gray holds a BS degree in Computer and Information Sciences from The Ohio State University and an MBA from Franklin University.

KACE Continues Rapid Expansion in Asia Pacific with 300% Customer Growth in 2008

Leader in Systems Management Appliances Appoints Martin Ryan Managing Director for Asia Pacific Region

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. – Feb. 24, 2009 KACE™, the leading systems management appliance company, today announced its continued rapid growth in the Asia Pacific region, with a 300 percent increase in customer bookings in 2008. A sampling of new wins includes Philippine Airlines, Telecom Brunei, Indonesian Post Service, and Y&R Brands out of Australia.

The award-winning KBOX family of appliances is currently offered throughout Australia, New Zealand, China, India, Pakistan, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, and also Brunei. Each country contributed evenly to the strong growth result. High customer demand for KACE’s innovative technology, the KBOX Systems Management and KBOX Systems Deployment appliances, is supporting further regional expansion. In 2009, KBOX appliances are also expected to be available in Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and Vietnam.

Today, KACE also announces the appointment of Martin Ryan as the company’s managing director for the region. Ryan has spent more than 15 years focused on assisting global technology companies in the development of successful business practices in Asia Pacific. Ryan will lead KACE’s expansion by providing the necessary structure to grow and support customers and alliance partners.

“I am very excited to join a company that is bringing such technology innovation to the dynamic Asian markets,” said Ryan. “Customers in Asia Pacific and around the globe are reaping the benefits of a truly comprehensive, easy-to-use, and affordable systems management solution that is enabling IT organizations to do more with less. KACE should be at the top of every CIO’s priority list in 2009 and beyond. I look forward to building on the success KACE experienced in 2008 and am excited to help further our expansion in the region in 2009.”

Momentum highlights for KACE in the Asia Pacific region in 2008 include:

  • 300 percent customer growth over 2007;
  • Representation in 11 countries, expanding to 15 in 2009;
  • Five new partnerships signed in 2008.

Consisting of 22 countries and nearly 4 billion inhabitants, Asia Pacific is one of the fastest growing regions in the world. The region has long been plagued by IT shortcomings, largely due to severe bandwidth-starved network infrastructures. The KBOX family of appliances offers a low-cost, high-quality solution providing affordable systems management, which includes remote systems management and deployment, software distribution, patch management, vulnerability assessment and remediation, and policy enforcement. With KBOX, customers can run mission-critical tasks from a central hub to remote offices, or to remote PCs thousands of kilometers away including low bandwidth sites.

Melbourne IVF is a leading infertility treatment centre providing access to the latest assisted reproductive technologies and techniques. The company provides a personalised and professional service within a caring and compassionate environment and helps and supports patients to explore their assisted reproductive options.

“Ease-of-use and affordability made KBOX an easy systems management solution choice for us,” says David Owen, IT Manager at Melbourne IVF. “We were able to efficiently manage our entire PC fleet within days of receiving the appliance, which is unheard of for KACE’s competitors. The KBOX appliance has enabled us to work much smarter with our limited technical resources.”

About KACE™
KACE™ is the leading systems management appliance company. The award-winning KBOX™ family of appliances delivers easy-to-use, comprehensive systems management capabilities. KACE customers usually install in one day and enjoy the lowest total cost compared to software alternatives.

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Znode gets $1.6mm project

Central Ohio .NET Developers Group (CONDG) meeting notice - Feb 26

http://condg.org/

Sponsorship

Food and beverages for the meeting are being sponsored by Quick Solutions.

Topic

Unit Testing JavaScript Using Test Driven Development

Abstract

Much emphasis has been placed on writing unit tests for .NET code, but most people have never written unit tests for JavaScript code. In this talk we'll show you test driven development in action as we review JavaScript unit test frameworks and write unit tests for JavaScript code.

Speaker

Jon Kruger
Jon Kruger is a Project Engineer with Quick Solutions where he provides technical leadership for .NET development projects. Jon has over 6 years experience in various different programming languages (mostly C#/.NET) and is always looking for ways to create better quality software and speed up the software development process. You can follow Jon on his blog (jonkruger.com) or on Twitter (twitter.com/jonkruger).

When

Thursday, 02/26/2009, 6:00 - 8:00pm

Where

Microsoft Office - Columbus

Project management offices grow more essential during recession

Project management offices grow more essential during recession
By Kristen Caretta, Associate Editor
27 Jan 2009 | SearchCIO-Midmarket.com

Project management offices (PMOs) are becoming more critical to the midmarket during the recession, as they offer important IT governance in making sure all IT projects are aligned with corporate goals while also cutting out waste

Though often created during booming economic times to focus resources and priorities on the most strategic projects, PMOs are no luxury in tight economic times, interviews with midmarket CIOs indicate. Today, project management offices are uniquely positioned to cut projects that have spiraled out of control and identify those critical to meeting changing business needs and increasing business efficiency. They have even staved off IT layoffs.

At extreme sports goods maker Sole Technologies Inc., the PMO "actually has a stronger role now: analyzing and making sure we're doing the proper work in the most cost-effective way and separating the nice-to-haves from the need-to-haves," said George Bock, vice president of IT at the Lake Forest, Calif.-based company.


........click here for the rest of the story


Thanks to Angela Mickley for sharing this with me. I currently faciliate a Central Ohio PMO LeadersForum and have found that "smart" companies continue to invest in the PMO concept to make sure that they "do the right things" not just "do things right"


Peace out,

Ben


Tuesday, February 24, 2009

CallCopy Ranks First in Overall Vendor Satisfaction


CallCopy Ranks First in Overall Vendor Satisfaction in DMG Consulting's 2008-2009 Quality Management/Liability Recording Product and Market Report
COLUMBUS, Ohio - February 24, 2009 - CallCopy, a leading provider of innovative performance management solutions, today announced that it has received the highest Overall Vendor Satisfaction rating in a recent survey conducted by industry analyst DMG Consulting (DMG). The "2008-2009 Quality Management/Liability Recording Product and Market Report" is designed to assist contact center and IT managers in selecting the best solution, technology and partner to meet their organization's current and future needs.


For the report, DMG surveyed customers from 11 leading workforce optimization (WFO) solution providers. Participants were asked to rate their vendor in six categories, including product, implementation, service and maintenance, training, professional services and overall vendor satisfaction. CallCopy received the highest overall vendor satisfaction rating, with a score of 4.6 (highly satisfied), and was the only vendor to receive a 5.0 (completely satisfied) for implementation. In addition, the company did not score below a 4.3 (highly satisfied) for any of the six categories.


"CallCopy fared very well in the workforce optimization customer satisfaction survey," stated Donna Fluss, president of DMG Consulting. "The company received the highest score in both the Implementation and Overall Vendor categories, which indicates that CallCopy is highly committed to its customers and to successfully implementing its solutions."


DMG analyzed each company's strategy, products, functionality, technology, implementations, packaging, pricing, training, workshops and customer satisfaction ratings. Combined with strategy, ability to execute, revenue, and market activity and share, in-depth company profiles were generated. The final report provides the most detailed and accurate market information available and enables end users to choose the right solution at the right price for their contact center.


"CallCopy has always focused on developing and implementing products that consistently meet and exceed our customers' needs and help them grow their businesses," said Patrick Hall, director of professional services for CallCopy. "The results of the DMG report certainly validate our efforts and reinforce other recent awards and recognition. The fact that we were rated so highly by our customers says a lot about our company and products. We appreciate our customers' confidence and their positive feedback, which serves as constant motivation for us to continually innovate and improve."


To review DMG Consulting's full vendor profile of CallCopy, as well as the results of the satisfaction survey, visit http://www3.callcopy.com/e/514/ocuments-dmg-html/BYV2E/44770462.


About CallCopy
Through its commitment to the highest standards of customer and employee satisfaction, CallCopy has established itself as a leading provider of innovative performance management solutions. The highly scalable, award-winning cc: Discover Suite delivers advanced call recording, screen capture, quality monitoring, speech analytics, customer satisfaction survey and workforce management capabilities to contact centers, trading desks, financial institutions and healthcare providers worldwide.


CallCopy empowers organizations to gather business intelligence, which is leveraged to maximize performance through improved employee retention, compliance with government regulations, and a more customer-centric environment.


For more information, visit www.callcopy.com.


About DMG Consulting
DMG Consulting LLC is an advisory and consulting firm specializing in contact centers and real-time analytics. DMG Consulting is also the leading provider of industry research for many segments of the contact center market, including: Quality Management/Liability Recording, Speech Analytics, Performance Management, Surveying/Feedback, Workforce Management, Contact Center Outsourcing, Hosted Contact Center Infrastructure Solutions and Interactive Voice Response Systems. For more information, visit http://www3.callcopy.com/e/514/2009-02-24/BYV88/44770462.
###

CallCopy
1177 Olentangy River Road
Columbus, OH 43212


Startup Weekend Columbus II - what are you waiting for?




Startup Weekend Columbus II (SWC2) has been scheduled for April 3-5.


For those of you new to SWC II its an opportunity to get get caught up in the excitement of starting up a business. Think (tech business startup meets extreme home makeover weekend) . This is an ideal way for those of your who've ever wanted to get involved with a startup take a crash course over the weekend of April 3-5.

What are you waiting for?

To register:
http://www.eventbrite.com/event/289850952

http://startupweekend.com/open/columbus/
Here's some info about the first startup weekend.
http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/business/stories/2008/07/12/startup_weekend.ART_ART_07-12-08_C8_NPANTS5.html?sid=101


http://www.scribd.com/doc/4966987/Columbus-Monthly-SWC-2008-article

State of Technology Roadmaps- call for contributions

Thornton May, Futurist, Dean of the IT Leadership Academy, and author, is conducting a global study called the ‘State of Technology Roadmaps’. Read on!

Thornton says:

The skill which sets us apart from the lower orders is not our ability to communicate, to use or create tools, or to collaborate. The capacity which makes us supremely human is the ability to simultaneously entertain, evaluate and imaginatively inhabit multiple future worlds. Americans are better than most at the art of futuring. In a brilliant book, UCSB historian Patricia Cline Cohen tells us that we are - A Calculating People - ‘unceasingly weighing risks, computing advantages, and gauging the ability of any particular course of action.’

Ray Kurzweil, National Inventors Hall of Fame inductee, winner of the Lemelson-MIT Prize, National Medal of Technology recipient and author of The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology argues that:

“‘You can’t predict the future’ is the common wisdom. But the overall progression of information technologies is remarkably predictable. The price-performance of computing has grown at a remarkably smooth, doubly exponential pace for over a century, going back to the data processing equipment used in the 1890 US Census.”

The ‘State of Technology Roadmaps’ is a global study of how organizations ‘look ahead’ and how they ‘bring the future to the present.’ It’s examining how modern organizations:

  • Develop strategies for pursuing future technologies
  • Assess the trajectories and impacts of ‘of interest’ sets of future technologies
  • Consider how views of the future manifest themselves in current period investment processes

Specifically, answers to these questions are needed:

  • When doing technology planning, how far out do you look [one year, 18 months, three years, five years]?
  • How do you visually represent your technology plan [what pictures do you use]?
  • How does your IT roadmap impact the current IT budget?

Send YOUR confidential contribution to Thornton directly: thorntonmay@aol.com.

Monday, February 23, 2009

Six Ways to make Web 2.0 work - McKinsey Quarterly Article

Following is an excerpt from the McKinsey Article - Six Ways to make Web 2.0 work - click here for the full article

Management imperatives for unlocking participation

To help companies navigate the Web 2.0 landscape, we have identified six critical factors that determine the outcome of efforts to implement these technologies.

1. The transformation to a bottom-up culture needs help from the top. Web 2.0 projects often are seen as grassroots experiments, and leaders sometimes believe the technologies will be adopted without management intervention—a “build it and they will come” philosophy. These business leaders are correct in thinking that participatory technologies are founded upon bottom-up involvement from frontline staffers and that this pattern is fundamentally different from the rollout of ERP systems, for example, where compliance with rules is mandatory. Successful participation, however, requires not only grassroots activity but also a different leadership approach: senior executives often become role models and lead through informal channels.

At Lockheed Martin, for instance, a direct report to the CIO championed the use of blogs and wikis when they were introduced. The executive evangelized the benefits of Web 2.0 technologies to other senior leaders and acted as a role model by establishing his own blog. He set goals for adoption across the organization, as well as for the volume of contributions. The result was widespread acceptance and collaboration across the company’s divisions.

2. The best uses come from users—but they require help to scale. In earlier IT campaigns, identifying and prioritizing the applications that would generate the greatest business value was relatively easy. These applications focused primarily on improving the effectiveness and efficiency of known business processes within functional silos (for example, supply-chain-management software to improve coordination across the network). By contrast, our research shows the applications that drive the most value through participatory technologies often aren’t those that management expects.

Efforts go awry when organizations try to dictate their preferred uses of the technologies—a strategy that fits applications designed specifically to improve the performance of known processes—rather than observing what works and then scaling it up. When management chooses the wrong uses, organizations often don’t regroup by switching to applications that might be successful. One global technology player, for example, introduced a collection of participatory tools that management judged would help the company’s new hires quickly get up to speed in their jobs. The intended use never caught on, but people in the company’s recruiting staff began using the tools to share recruiting tips and pass along information about specific candidates and their qualifications. The company, however, has yet to scale up this successful, albeit unintended, use.

At AT&T, it was frontline staffers who found the best use for a participatory technology—in this case, using Web 2.0 for collaborative project management. Rather than dictating the use, management broadened participation by supporting an awareness campaign to seed further experimentation. Over a 12-month period, the use of the technology rose to 95 percent of employees, from 65 percent.

3. What’s in the workflow is what gets used. Perhaps because of the novelty of Web 2.0 initiatives, they’re often considered separate from mainstream work. Earlier generations of technologies, by contrast, often explicitly replaced the tools employees used to accomplish tasks. Thus, using Web 2.0 and participating in online work communities often becomes just another “to do” on an already crowded list of tasks.

Participatory technologies have the highest chance of success when incorporated into a user’s daily workflow. The importance of this principle is sometimes masked by short-term success when technologies are unveiled with great fanfare; with the excitement of the launch, contributions seem to flourish. As normal daily workloads pile up, however, the energy and attention surrounding the rollout decline, as does participation. One professional-services firm introduced a wiki-based knowledge-management system, to which employees were expected to contribute, in addition to their daily tasks. Immediately following the launch, a group of enthusiasts used the wikis vigorously, but as time passed they gave the effort less personal time—outside their daily workflow—and participation levels fell.

Google is an instructive case to the contrary. It has modified the way work is typically done and has made Web tools relevant to how employees actually do their jobs. The company’s engineers use blogs and wikis as core tools for reporting on the progress of their work. Managers stay abreast of their progress and provide direction by using tools that make it easy to mine data on workflows. Engineers are better able to coordinate work with one another and can request or provide backup help when needed. The easily accessible project data allows senior managers to allocate resources to the most important and time-sensitive projects.

Pixar moved in a similar direction when it upgraded a Web 2.0 tool that didn’t quite mesh with the way animators did their jobs. The company started with basic text-based wikis to share information about films in production and to document meeting notes. That was unsatisfactory, since collaborative problem solving at the studio works best when animators, software engineers, managers, and directors analyze and discuss real clips and frames from a movie.4 Once Pixar built video into the wikis, their quality improved as critiques became more relevant. The efficiency of the project groups increased as well.

4. Appeal to the participants’ egos and needs—not just their wallets. Traditional management incentives aren’t particularly useful for encouraging participation.5 Earlier technology adoptions could be guided readily with techniques such as management by objectives, as well as standardized bonus pay or individual feedback. The failure of employees to use a mandated application would affect their performance metrics and reviews. These methods tend to fall short when applied to unlocking participation. In one failed attempt, a leading Web company set performance evaluation criteria that included the frequency of postings on the company’s newly launched wiki. While individuals were posting enough entries to meet the benchmarks, the contributions were generally of low quality. Similarly, a professional-services firm tried to use steady management pressure to get individuals to post on wikis. Participation increased when managers doled out frequent feedback but never reached self-sustaining levels.

A more effective approach plays to the Web’s ethos and the participants’ desire for recognition: bolstering the reputation of participants in relevant communities, rewarding enthusiasm, or acknowledging the quality and usefulness of contributions. ArcelorMittal, for instance, found that when prizes for contributions were handed out at prominent company meetings, employees submitted many more ideas for business improvements than they did when the awards were given in less-public forums.

5. The right solution comes from the right participants. Targeting users who can create a critical mass for participation as well as add value is another key to success. With an ERP rollout, the process is straightforward: a company simply identifies the number of installations (or “seats”) it needs to buy for functions such as purchasing or finance and accounting. With participatory technologies, it’s far from obvious which individuals will be the best participants. Without the right base, efforts are often ineffective. A pharmaceutical company tried to generate new product ideas by tapping suggestions from visitors to its corporate Web site. It soon discovered that most of them had neither the skills nor the knowledge to make meaningful contributions, so the quality of the ideas was very low.

To select users who will help drive a self-sustaining effort (often enthusiastic early technology adopters who have rich personal networks and will thus share knowledge and exchange ideas), a thoughtful approach is required. When P&G introduced wikis and blogs to foster collaboration among its workgroups, the company targeted technology-savvy and respected opinion leaders within the organization. Some of these people ranked high in the corporate hierarchy, while others were influential scientists or employees to whom other colleagues would turn for advice or other assistance.

When Best Buy experimented with internal information markets, the goal was to ensure that participation helped to create value. In these markets, employees place bets on business outcomes, such as sales forecasts.6 To improve the chances of success, Best Buy cast its net widely, going beyond in-house forecasting experts; it also sought out participants with a more diverse base of operational knowledge who could apply independent judgment to the prediction markets. The resulting forecasts were more accurate than those produced by the company’s experts.

6. Balance the top-down and self-management of risk. A common reason for failed participation is discomfort with it, or even fear. In some cases, the lack of management control over the self-organizing nature and power of dissent is the issue. In others, it’s the potential repercussions of content—through blogs, social networks, and other venues—that is detrimental to the company. Numerous executives we interviewed said that participatory initiatives had been stalled by legal and HR concerns. These risks differ markedly from those of previous technology adoptions, where the chief downside was high costs and poor execution.

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Columbus Tweet Sweet Meet footage

Check http://www.meetup.com/techlifecolumbus/ for more events like this

Cbus Tweet Sweet Meet
This video short captures a 2-hour happy hour at The Chocolate Cafe in Grandview, Ohio sponsored by Assist Data Recovery, Clarity Technology Solutions, and Mark Pi restaurants. Entertainment provided by Dan and Paul Acoustic, and Magician Comedian Michael Kent. Thanks to Amanda Callicoat, and Cheryl Harrison for their assistance in coordinating. New Tweet Up in Cbus Coming soon.


Friday, February 20, 2009

Attn: IPhone developers!!! - CIDUG Meeting - February 24th Getting Started Developing for the iPhone and meet up‏

The first ever Columbus iPhone Developer User Group will be held February 24th at the OCLC Kilgour Building Auditorium at 6:30 pm.

To stay informed of the group and be notified of up coming events join the Google group  at http://groups.google.com/group/cidug/.

Agenda

1. Quick Getting Started Developing for the iPhone presentation to give those who have not started an idea of what they need as well as describe the processes for getting started, beta testing and deploying to the App Store. 2. Opportunity to share applications you have build and already submitted or are about to submit to the App Store. If you have applications you would like to spot light, send information about your app and some screenshots to iphone@juddsolutions.com.
3. Discussion about what you would like to see CIDUG be.

Food provided by Judd Solutions
Drink provided by Fourth Frame
Door prizes provided by Fourth Frame and Apress

Time: 6:30 pm
Place: OCLC’s Kilgour building auditorium

Address:
OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc.
6565 Frantz Road
Dublin, OH 43017-3395 USA

Thursday, February 19, 2009

XPUserGroup - Feb 25

Next Meeting: February 25th,  2009
 
 
Agenda:
 
11:30-11:45am Networking
11:45- 12:00pm XP discussion topic of the month: Group discussion on experience with TDD and refactoring
12:00- 1:00pm Using TDD and Refactoring Practices on Existing Code?

Date and Time:
 
Next XP User Group meeting will be held 11:30 am to 1 pm, February 25th, 2009 at the OCLC Kilgour Building presentation room.

IBeam taking over data center

From Business First 2/17/09

Canal Winchester technology consultant iBeam Solutions Inc. has signed on to manage a high-security data center in Columbus.

IBeam parent iB3 Networks Inc. (OTC BB:IBNW) said Tuesday that it signed a 10-year agreement to operate the data center, which has about 10 clients. IB3 CEO Eric Schmidt declined to disclose details on the center’s previous operator or name its clients, but said they range from retailers to Web hosting companies. The data center is downtown but Schmidt wouldn’t be more specific.

The company, which expects to have clients notified of the change by next week, expects to disclose financial details of the deal in a later filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Schmidt said the company expects the center to benefit both IB3 and its shareholders.

The firm late last year closed a deal to buy NYC Mags Inc., owner of online dating startup MadisonAvenueMatch.com, and is working on due diligence for a deal to acquire social networking site plugmeister.com.

“Having a platform that we can host our other business units on is critical for the future of the company,” Schmidt said. “Secondly, it will be a very good revenue stream for our shareholders.”

The company estimated revenue from the facility could exceed $100,000 a month by the end of the year. IB3 through the first nine months of 2008 earned $261,395 on $986,990 in revenue, according to documents filed with the SEC.

The center will be run under 24-hour supervision by iBeam employees and local interns pursuing information technology degrees, Schmidt said. IBeam has 12 employees.

“With a lot of the high-end hosting, customers really want a data center that’s hands-on, 24/7, and many centers aren’t staffed 24/7,” he said. “This will give us a competitive edge.”

IB3, which hosts networks of tech-based and Internet-based companies, is the new face of the former Language Access Network Inc., which bought iBeam in late 2006. When Language Access sold its principal subsidiary in July, the company changed its name and stock ticker when Schmidt stepped in.

Lunch N Learn Social Media for Business People 2/27

Please join us for a Lunch N Learn 2/27 11:30-1:00 – Lunch provided.

Click here to register:
http://lunch-n-learn.eventbrite.com/

How big is your social media footprint? Are you one of the successful business people using social media for:

* recruiting
* sales
* marketing
* collaboration
* and more

If not, then you can gain understanding about today's shift in business practices, along with the strategies for using social media tools when you join us for this lunch-n-learn. Sandy Blanquera of Social Boomerang will be the guest speaker, sharing the information you need to get the path to success.

Cost is $10.

Click here to register: http://lunch-n-learn.eventbrite.com/

Where:
Ray and Barney Office
555 Metro Place North
First Floor Conference Room
Dublin, OH 43017

Hosted By:
Ray And Barney

We help humans find jobs. We work with many types of professional jobs, and our specialties are technology, web, sales and marketing.

We also offer business consulting services, technology services and HR services.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

State of Ohio Federal Stimulus Initiative

Message from John Carney
Representative to the 22nd House District
district22@ohr.state.oh.us
Office: 614.466.2473

"I have been informed of an exciting opportunity from the Governor's office. I wanted to ensure that you were aware of the portal set up by Governor Strickland to submit projects to receive federal stimulus dollars. This portal and information regarding how to bring such dollars to our community can be found at www.recovery.ohio.gov. We have been given a deadline of Friday, February 20 to submit projects via this website. "

Here's the welcome message on the website - http://www.recovery.ohio.gov/

A Message from Governor Ted Strickland

Welcome to Ohio's virtual headquarters for information regarding the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act — also known as the federal stimulus bill.

President Barack Obama is currently working with Congress to pass legislation that will kick-start the national economy through investments in areas such as:

* Producing Clean and Efficient Energy in Ohio
* Investing in Science and Technology to Advance Ohio's Economy
* Modernizing our Roads, Bridges, Transit and Waterways
* Developing a 21st Century Education System
* Implementing Tax Cuts that Make Work Pay and Create Jobs
* Lowering Healthcare Costs
* Providing Assistance to Ohio Workers Hurt by the Economic Downturn
* Saving Public Sector Jobs and Protecting Vital Services for Ohioans

We must act strategically and boldly to take full advantage of this unique opportunity to make lasting investments in our state. And we must do so in a way that is accountable and transparent and meets the critical economic development priorities of our communities across the state.

This website is an interactive portal for entities to submit expressions of interest in federal stimulus dollars and to view general information about the federal stimulus. Although the bill will not be finalized until signed into law by the president, it is expected that all stimulus grant and loan funds will ultimately be distributed to governments, business and other organizations and not directly to individuals. We will provide additional information on the stimulus as it becomes available.

Thank you for your interest and for your support in continuing to build Ohio's economy. Working together, we will invest the federal stimulus resources wisely to ensure Ohio's continued economic growth.

Sincerely,
Ted Strickland

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

TED Talks Bill Gross: Great ideas for finding new energy

About this talk

Bill Gross, the founder of Idealab, talks about his life as an inventor, starting with his high-school company selling solar energy plans and kits. Learn here about a groundbreaking system for solar cells -- and some questions we haven't yet solved.
About Bill Gross

Bill Gross founded Idealab, an incubator of new inventions, ideas and businesses.




http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/450

Monday, February 16, 2009

Deputy CIO opening - update 2.19.09 - position closed

Update 2.19.09 - due to overwhelming response this position has been closed

A major state agency requires a technically competent, self-starting, creative leader to fill the Deputy Chief Information Officer position. The individual selected will assist the Chief Information Officer in the day-to-day operations of a large IT office. Daily duties will include oversight of the day-to-day data processing operations to include the agency's technical infrastructure and workforce which provides 365x24x7 services. Individual shall also perform senior-level management functions for the .Net, Mainframe, and Database Groups which provide application and implementation support for all Departmental systems. In the absence of Chief Information Officer, performs senior supervisory functions for the entire ITO. Selectee shall support the agency's strategic plan especially with respect to
new technologies and their adoption by the agency; individual will fully participate in the biennium budget build and subsequent IT strategic plan. Person selected will assist the CIO in the development of new policies, procedures and standards (e.g., evaluates current policies and procedures and makes recommendations for changes; also assists in the procurement of new hardware and software and performs continual appraisal and/or review of new systems and programs.
Individual will monitor and assist with preparation of budget (e.g.,
reviews requests for equipment and software, determines actual costs,
determines necessity of equipment requests); attends and conducts
meetings with current and perspective users of the Information
Technology Office Services; meets with other agency representatives as
well as vendors on specially assigned projects.

Interest parties please contact:
Dr. Rajiv Ramnath ramnath@cse.ohio-state.edu
Director of Practice, C.E.T.I. http://www.ceti.cse.ohio-state.edu
Associate Director, I.S.S. http://www.iss.osu.edu
Dept. of Computer Science and Engineering Tel: (614)-292-9358
The Ohio State University 291 Dreese Laboratories
2015 Neil Ave. Columbus, OH 43210

Can collaboration save our economy?

Thanks to Steve Gruetter @ the Platform Lab for bringing this great article to my attention


Web Informant 16 February 2009: Can collaboration save our economy?


The economic news is depressing, and yet I want to see opportunity where others see looming disaster. And I think one way we can try to make things better is become more productive and do a better job collaborating with each other. Think of it as a no-cost stimulus package that even the Republicans can love.

Remember when the PC was first introduced, everyone thought it was such a great personal productivity tool? Sadly, the more powerful that PCs have become, the harder it is to use them to collaborate. This is because we get used to using them as our personal machines, and most of us don't like sharing our computers, let alone our work products from them.

The primary collaboration tool today is still what it was ten years ago: I send you an email attachment with a Word or Excel file. You make changes and then email the file back for me to look at. This is really serial collaboration, because we alternate working on the same file. While this model is okay for two people, when you have a whole group that is trying to add their thoughts it gets very messy, to say the least. Also, one person can hold up the entire process and then the rest of the group has to wait until that person has finished their revisions. And if we don't agree, we pretty much have to start the process from scratch. A friend of mine is ghost writing a book for two of his bosses. I can't imagine what his editing cycle is going to be like under this model.

It is time to realize that serial email-style collaboration is so last year. Consider these trends:

First, the Internet is now ubiquitous and most of us are comfortable using it to connect to our partners, supplies, customers, and colleagues. It has also made email more powerful, and most of us have become addicted to checking our email several times a day and even during off hours too. Some of us have to check email so frequently that we start to get a bit jittery when we are offline for a few
hours, let alone when we want to take a week off on some deserted beach where there isn't any connectivity.

Contrast this with Lotus Notes, which has been around for about 20 years and supposed to be the be-all and end-all collaborative tool, or Microsoft's SharePoint, which is more recent. Both Notes and Sharepoint require everyone to run it, and develop to its own programming interfaces. That seems so quaint and outmoded now. And
both are very quirky to install and deploy, which makes them less desirable too.

Second, email is a great notification system and a great way organize your to-do list. You don't have to use it as the transportation system for sending documents around, though. As an example, you can set up a blog to automatically notify via email when someone posts a comment to a particular page, so people can participate in a discussion thread but don't have to continually return to that page to find out what has been posted.

Third, free or low-cost Internet applications have come of age, such as Google Docs, Google Calendar, Trackvia, Tripit, Timedriver, Hourtown and Setmeeting. All of these don't require any software to download, don't have a lot of upfront training or even any dough to use, which means that people can experiment with them and see if they
will be suitable for their needs. All of these products can offload some of the tasks that we are used to doing on email and make us more productive in scheduling meetings, sharing work product, and arranging our time. Look for a story from me in the New York Times next month on this topic.

Fourth, instant messaging has become more useful for connecting remote work teams together and can be used as another notification system that is more immediate and more potent in terms of bringing people together. Some firms are beginning to use the built-in IM features of Facebook and Twitter for this purpose too. Again, this takes some load away from looking at your inbox for starting a particular task or
trying to get a colleague's attention.

Finally, there are other tools for two-person collaboration that will work better in real time, such as LogMeIn or GoToMyPC, that allow two people to actually see each other's computer screen while they are talking on the phone. My podcasting partner Paul Gillin likes Yuuguu.com, which allows teams of 25 to share the same desktop, no
matter if they are on Linux, Mac or Windows.

We still have a long way to go when it comes to collaborating effectively, and I since we are talking about sharing do share your own stories with my audience and post to this entry on strominator.com. I will have more to say on this topic for a keynote speech that I am giving in Philadelphia in April for the American
Hardware Manufacturer's Association. If you want me to come talk to your organization, you can send me email, or better yet, just call me on the phone.

_______________________________________________
David Strom david@strom.com
St. Louis MO http://strominator.com
310 857 6867 http://webinformant.tv

Yehuda Katz Comes to Cbus TODAY - Ruby Rockstar

See the original posting at: ITMartini

One of the world’s best and brightest Ruby developers is making a special appearance at the Quick Solutions Development Studio TODAY at 6:30pm! Fresh from speaking at the acts_as_conference last weekend, Yehuda Katz (wycats) is in town to talk about Merb and its ‘merge’ into Rails 3.0.

For the uninitiated, Yehuda has his hands in many things: he’s a committer on the jQuery project, a member of the jQuery Plugins Team, Editor of Visual jQuery Magazine, and the maintainer of Visual jQuery. If that wasn’t enough, Yehuda is also an accomplished author, who’s speaking and participating at a ton of conferences this year. Check him out next month at Scotland On Rails.

Come for the talk, and stay for the fun at the Rusty Bucket. And thanks to the Columbus Ruby Brigade, EdgeCase, and Engine Yard for delivering Columbus a real IT celebrity.

Cheers!

John & Aladin

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Twitter? It’s What You Make It

DAVID POGUE - NYTimes
Published: February 11, 2009

Writing can be solitary work, but not when you write a tech column. Feedback pours in so quickly — by e-mail, on blogs, in online comments — that it’s almost real-time performance art.

For the longest time, my readers kept nagging me to check out this thing called Twitter. I’d been avoiding it, because it sounded like yet another one of those trendy Internet time drains. E-mail, blogs, chat, RSS, Facebook. ... Who has time to tune in to yet another stream of Internet chatter?

True, there’s nothing quite like Twitter. It’s a Web site where you can broadcast very short messages — 140 characters, max — to anyone who’s signed up to receive them. It’s like a cross between a blog and a chat room. Your “followers” might include six friends from high school, or, if you’re Barack Obama, 254,484 of your most tech-savvy fans. (Incidentally, he hasn’t sent out a single Twitter message since taking office. Where are his priorities?)

Meanwhile, you sign up to receive the utterances of other people. Eventually, your screen fills with a scrolling display of their quips — jokes, recommended links, thoughts for the day, and a lot of “what I’m doing right now” stuff.

Even so, I was turned off by the whole ego thing. Your profile displays how many followers you have, as if it’s some kind of worthiness tally. (See also: Facebook friend counter.)

Then one day, I saw Twitter in action.

I was serving on a grant proposal committee, and I watched as a fellow judge asked his Twitter followers if a certain project had been tried before. In 15 seconds, his followers replied with Web links to the information he needed. No e-mail message, phone call or Web site could have achieved the same effect. (It’s only a matter of time before some “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” contestant uses Twitter as one of his lifelines.)

So I signed up for a free account name (pogue) and stepped in.

It’s not easy to figure out what’s going on. Most people are supportive and happy to help you out. There is, however, such a thing as Twitter snobbery.

One guy took me to task for asking “dopey questions.” Others criticized me for various infractions, like not following enough other people, writing too much about nontech topics or sending too many or too few messages.

Determined to get the hang of it, I searched Google for “Twitter for beginners.” There were 927,000 search results.

(Of course, you get a staggering number of results when you search for anything on Google, which is why it’s such a lame trick when journalists use Google tallies to prove their points. But I digress.)

Most of these articles are lists of rules. One says to use Twitter to market your business; another says never to use Twitter to market your business. One recommends writing about what you’re doing right now (after all, the typing box is labeled, “What are you doing?”); another says not to.

One of these rule sheets even says, “Add value. Build relationships. Think LONG term.” Are we talking about Twitter, or running for Congress?

My confusion continued until, at a conference, I met Evan Williams, chief executive and co-founder of Twitter. I told him about all the rules, all the advice, all the “you’re not doing it right” gripers. I told him that the technology was exciting, but that all the naysayers and rule-makers were dampening my enthusiasm.

He shook his head apologetically — clearly, he’s heard all this before — and told me the truth about Twitter: that they’re all wrong.

Or, put another way, that they’re all right.

Twitter, in other words, is precisely what you want it to be. It can be a business tool, a teenage time-killer, a research assistant, a news source — whatever. There are no rules, or at least none that apply equally well to everyone.

Click here for the rest of the story:

IT Community events - week of 2/16 - courtesy Platform Lab

To register click here: http://www.platformlab.org/newsletter.asp?month=2&year=2009#963

Events Calendar

02/16 Ohio SuperComputer Center - "Customize Your Own" Workshop

02/17 Central Ohio VMWare Users Group meeting

02/18 Central Ohio ISSA monthly meeting

02/18 CareWorks Technologies - The DACRI©: Bottoms up!

02/19 Central Ohio SharePoint User Group - Monthly Meeting

02/19 SQA Zone's Software QA & Testing Meetup

02/20 The Circuit - Regional Entrepreneur Forum

02/20 e-Track Luncheon - "Market Sizing and Reach"

Opening for Lawson Financials PM - Careworks

Looking for a superstar PM to run a Lawson Financial/Procurement upgrade if you guys know of anyone. 10 month contract in Columbus.

For more info contact:

Linda Rasmussen
Director, Sales
614.336.4693
614.565.5121
linda.rasmussen@careworkstech.com

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Stimulus Bill Bears Imprint of Technology

By CHARLIE SAVAGE and DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK
Published: February 9, 2009 NYTimes
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/10/business/economy/10corporate.html?em

WASHINGTON — To rally support for his administration’s economic recovery bill recently, President Obama invited about a dozen chief executives, seven of them from technology and energy companies, to the Oval Office.

Some of their industries’ top lobbyists, meanwhile, gathered in another office where Jason Furman, a top White House economic adviser, delivered a private briefing for groups expected to benefit most from the stimulus bill.

While much of the sprawling $800 billion legislation consists of tax cuts and broad spending increases for existing programs, like $27 billion on highways and $8.4 billion on public transit, the biggest outlay on new initiatives is essentially a technology industry wish list: in the Senate version, about $7 billion for expanding high-speed Internet access, some $20 billion for building a so-called smart grid power network and $20 billion for digitizing health records.

Click here for the rest of the story..

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

TEDTalks Elizabeth Gilbert: A different way to think about creative genius

About this talk

Elizabeth Gilbert muses on the impossible things we expect from artists and geniuses -- and shares the radical idea that, instead of the rare person "being" a genius, all of us "have" a genius. It's a funny, personal and surprisingly moving talk.

About Elizabeth Gilbert

The author of Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert has thought long and hard about some large topics. Her next fascination: genius, and how we ruin it.




http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/453

Social Networks: Facebook Takes Over Top Spot, Twitter Climbs to #3 from #22

Written by Andy Kazeniac (contact - e-mail) -- February 9th, 2009 | Share - Save - E-mail
With Facebook officially turning five years old recently, combined with the site surging past MySpace in Monthly Unique Visitors, it seems like a good time to take a little deeper look at the social networking giants.
It’s hard to believe that last year around this time we discussing the effects of bad PR for Facebook and if the site had ‘jumped the shark,’ but those arguments now seem to more appropriately apply to other properties.
A year ago, we ranked the top 25 social networking sites by monthly visits, and I was curious to see how the positions would change if we re-ranked those same sites with the most recent figures.....

Click here for the rest of the story

http://blog.compete.com/2009/02/09/facebook-myspace-twitter-social-network/


XP User Group- Next Meeting Feb 25

XPColumbus
Next Meeting:
February 25th, 2009

Agenda:

11:30-11:45am Networking
11:45- 12:00pm XP discussion topic of the month: Group discussion on experience with TDD and refactoring
12:00- 1:00pm Using TDD and Refactoring Practices on Existing Code?

Date and Time:

Next XP User Group meeting will be held 11:30 am to 1 pm, February 25th, 2009 at the OCLC Kilgour Building presentation room.

Using TDD and Refactoring Practices on Existing Code?
Many times the Key XP practices are discussed in the context of Greenfield Projects where code does not yet exist. That is interesting but since I tend to be extending existing systems not that useful to me. This presentation will discuss the unique challenges using these practices within existing application code in place. It will review specific tools and techniques that will accelerate your ability to use these practices against your existing systems.

About the Presenter
Mr. Van Vleet holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Management Information Systems from Ohio University. He joined Pillar in 2005 as Vice President of Fulfillment for the Ohio Valley Region after years of notable accomplishments. Matt has developed a testing practice focused on functional test automation and application performance management. Mr. Van Vleet founded a company, Solstice Software, that wrote Automated Unit and Integration Testing Products and continues to push the envelope of what is possible with test automation. Within Pillar he is one of the key innovators around our approach, Speed To Value, focusing on the critical areas of project management practices, requirements management, and test driven development. Due to Matt¹s skills and experience, he has developed Pillar¹s Practice Management model that maximizes the impact of productivity by enforcing those proven concepts and training.

Monday, February 9, 2009

Quote of the Day

"You have a mind and other people. Start with those and change the world."
– Liz Coleman, Saturday, Feb. 7 - TED Talks 2009

Wyliemac's post on the Innovation Awards

Last Thursday, I was fortunate to attend the TechColumbus Innovation Awards. It was an awesome, well produced event that attracted about 1,000 people (view my pictures). Pretty impressive in a down economy.

Here were the winners of the various categories. Congrats to all who won and were nominated.

High School Student Innovation Awards

Mark Mahaffey (Dublin Coffman High School) and Claire Allen (Columbus School for Girls).

Mark founded mtek Media, Inc., which specializes in converting customers’ VHS tapes to DVD and creating custome videos for special events. Claire is active in Engineering, exploring various types of wind tunnels to investigate small model cars and airplanes. I would have been bummed if I were Mark or Claire since the Columbus Dispatch left out their accomplishment in their brief mention of the awards.

.....click here for the rest of the post - http://the270.com/2009/02/09/winners-of-the-techcolumbus-innovation-awards/

Jay Jordan's opening speech from the Innovation Awards

Jay Jordan, CEO of OCLC and Chairman of the TechColumbus board, provided opening remarks at the 2009 Innovation Awards Ceremony.  Jordan highlighted the advances and achievements of the region over the last year.  Below is the full text of his speech. 

Jay Jordan: 

"It has been just three years since a group of Central Ohio business, higher education and government leaders – led by CAS, OSU , Battelle and the BTC– joined forces to launch a new organization, TechColumbus, to accelerate the growth of the region’s tech economy.
 
No other city in the nation has a leading public research university across the street from one of the largest private research and development organizations in the world.  Together, Battelle and OSU represent a $9 billion enterprise dedicated to creating human and intellectual capital. 
The Central Ohio story goes deeper than OSU and Battelle, however.  Our region is home to many companies that apply the most advanced information technology available to manage their global enterprises.
Central Ohio is an emerging national leader in health care research and innovation, bioproducts, and advanced technology for automotive and alternative energy applications.
The past year has been exciting for the business of technology in Central Ohio.  Here are just a few highlights:
  • Forbes named Columbus the nation’s No. 1 Up-and-Coming Tech City in March of 2008.
  • That same month, NetJets announced its expansion in Central Ohio, committing more than $200 million to build a world-class campus and create the largest Flight Safety International training center in the world.  Thanks to Net-Jets decision, Central Ohio is a growing international business aviation hub.
  • In July, TechColumbus hosted the region’s first ever “Startup Weekend,” during which 150 budding and experienced entrepreneurs convened to brainstorm and create new companies in an intense 56-hour period.
  • In November, the Wall Street Journal’s MarketWatch announced that Columbus had jumped from 14th to 7th in its rankings of the 50 best metro areas in which to live and do business – ahead of New York, Dallas, Nashville, LA, San Francisco, and many others. 
  • This past year, OSU launched a master planning effort that includes a renewed focus on transforming its West Campus into a world class research park.  Combined with tech-focused developments in Dublin, New Albany, Rickenbacker and elsewhere in the region, we’re establishing venues to create, grow, and attract tech companies in the region.
  • Last month, Battelle announced a $200 million expansion of its operations in Central Ohio which could lead to the creation of more than 200 jobs and generate an annual economic impact of more than $450 million.
  • With the launch of the TechStart initiative in 2007 – a Third Frontier initiative to jumpstart new tech businesses across the state – we saw a tripling of ideas for new tech businesses in the 15 counties of Central Ohio.  In the past year alone, we infused $4.3 million into 32 companies through TechStart.  In the last five years, our investments have attracted over $200 million in follow-on investments from other sources. 
  • Just last week, TechColumbus reported that venture investment in Central Ohio companies grew almost 10 percent in 2008, despite the tough economy and a drop in venture capital investments nationwide.
  • In 2008, more and more individuals and companies connected through TechColumbus, as membership grew by more than 30 percent.  TechColumbus has rolled out new events – such as company-hosted after-hours – and new programs – such as an e-Track entrepreneurial membership – to help people in the region connect, learn, and grow.
This is all good, but I know what many of you are thinking – that was then and this is now.  There is no question that the world changed dramatically in the last half of 2008 and that we face unprecedented global economic challenges.  There is no question that these challenges are having an impact on Central Ohio and will continue to do so.  But it is also clear that Central Ohio has the underlying strengths necessary to pull through and be positioned for dramatic growth when the global economy returns to health. 
In talking with business leaders, owners and entrepreneurs, we hear a common theme – when the economy is troubled, there are opportunities to grow and prepare for the upturn that will come. Who just said “never waste a good crisis”? 
Tonight, we will celebrate the accomplishments of dozens of Central Ohio researchers, technology workers, and businesses who are energized by tough challenges and thrive on the opportunity to invest in a better future for all of us.  I believe these individuals, with the support of the entire community, will lead the way toward a much brighter economic future for Central Ohio. 
I thank all of you for your leadership and support. You demonstrate your commitment to building the technologies of the future by being here tonight.  Volunteer and get involved with Tech Columbus at a deeper level in 2009!

Saturday, February 7, 2009

COJUG Meeting Announcement - Feb 10

Lunch Meeting
Scala

eApps will be providing lunch.

NOTE: The lunch meeting is back in the Smith building dinning room to accommodate the growth of the group.

Abstract
Why Scala? A new age of JVM is upon us. JVM is no longer just for Java. As Groovy, Jython, and JRuby has proved, there is life for other languages on the JVM. Scala is different than most of the other popular JVM alternative languages. We’ll explore the origin, intent and the philosophy of the Scala programming language.  The unique combination of OOP and Functional programming will be presented. Major features of Scala such as actors, type inference and Java integration will also be discussed.
 
Bio
Mac Liaw entered The Ohio State University's Masters Program in Computer Science at age 15. He was a member of the CERN development team that established HTTP and HTML. He is active in the Linux Kernel, Groovy development and Haskell open source project.  Currently he is the CTO of GoAntiques, Inc leading the effort to develop a new antiques and collectible focused social network website using Grails and GWT.  He also serves as CylaTech.com Inc’s VP of Technology and oversees video games/special effects projects.
Time: 11:30 am
Place: OCLC’s Smith building private dinning room
Address:
OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc.
6565 Frantz Road
Dublin, OH 43017-3395 USA
Evening Meeting
 
Scala

eApps will be providing dinner.

Abstract
Why Scala? A new age of JVM is upon us. JVM is no longer just for Java. As Groovy, Jython, and JRuby has proved, there is life for other languages on the JVM. Scala is different than most of the other popular JVM alternative languages. We’ll explore the origin, intent and the philosophy of the Scala programming language.  The unique combination of OOP and Functional programming will be presented. Major features of Scala such as actors, type inference and Java integration will also be discussed.
 
Bio
Mac Liaw entered The Ohio State University's Masters Program in Computer Science at age 15. He was a member of the CERN development team that established HTTP and HTML. He is active in the Linux Kernel, Groovy development and Haskell open source project.  Currently he is the CTO of GoAntiques, Inc leading the effort to develop a new antiques and collectible focused social network website using Grails and GWT.  He also serves as CylaTech.com Inc’s VP of Technology and oversees video games/special effects projects.


Time: 6:30 pm
Place: OCLC’s Kilgour building auditorium
Address:
OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc.
6565 Frantz Road
Dublin, OH 43017-3395 USA