Less than 72 hours to go and I'll be in Las Vegas at the SAP TechEd, joining me is some pretty powerful company...
| Alvaro Tejada | |
| Jeff Nolan | |
| Michael Cote | |
| Susan Scrupski | |
UPDATED START TIME
Not sure if you caught it but Nadim just announced the session he is doing at the Las Vegas SAP TechEd funny thing is though he's not actually going to be in Las Vegas.
So how is that possible you might ask? Well because he's going to do the session live from the SAP Open Forum, this is a brand new location part of the new SAP Office Park within Second Life.
Join us for a conversation about KPIs inside Second Life with LIVE
broadcast to SAP TechEd in Las Vegas: October 2nd, 09:45am PDT (18:45
CEST)!
Remember this will be live in Second Life as well as at the Community Clubhouse Theater! Two places to check it out and both Live!
What to expect!
Benchmarking has become more and more important
in today's business world. Every company wants to compare its
performance to the one of market leaders. However, when talking about
benchmarking of business KPIs it is very often the same story. You want
to compare your company’s performance to your peers, but you just don't
know whether your pears are using the same KPIs and the same
defitnitions.Very often the definitions of the KPIs vary,
sometimes the KPIs are even named different but the definitions are the
same. Finally you simply don’t know whether you are comparing apples to apples or apples to oranges.As a consequence, there have been several
approaches to KPI standardization in the past, e.g. the Supply Chain
Reference (SCOR) Model in the SCM area. However, there is no standard
covering all aspects of the business.Therefore we launched a project to create a
unique and consistent set of KPIs that are commonly understood, used
and accepted by the market. Of course, SAP or any other party could try
to define such a set alone. However, we believe that it is the best way
to involve all stakeholders (i.e. SAP customers, partners, SAP experts)
in the process of defining the common KPI language. Everyone can
participate and contribute.The KPIs will eventually be delivered as
pre-configured content of our software in the future, hence, everyone
can influence the development.Business KPI are always tightly related with business processes, therefore SDN / BPX is the ideal platform for our project.
I would like to invite you to share your opinion about the definition of business KPIs on our wiki.
In the tradition that is community and TechEd, last year we had SAP Facts, this year we have SAPanese.
(noun) the obscure langague spoken by users of SAP technologies.
What is SAP Addictionary?
Those
of you who work for, or have worked with SAP already know there is a
rich vernacular that has grown apace with SAP's amazing rise to one of
the most influential software companies in the world. A few SAP
user-community members thought it'd be cool to have a place to share
that language with each other and the world, and we talked the nice
folks at the "Original Addictionary" to give us a place of our own.
Here she be.
Rules
of engagement aren't lengthy--
So get your thinking hats on and start adding!
So here am almost 12 hours later and stil fiddling with the new MacBook Pro I have for work now.
Yep this is my new work computer and I'm just blown away by it but I've also learned I've a long way to go before I can think of myself as a "real" user there is jus so many new little things I keep discovering.
The "delete" key though still escapes me and why is the @ attached to the L and not the Q like other German keyboards?
Now since this is one of the first Mac's as a user laptop I found out that there's not a whole lot of support so I'll be pinging the folks in Palo Alto next week for some tips and help as there, well there are several more users...
To get me started though I got Frefox, Skype and Second Life installed and was able to finish off the rest of my day quite easily. Next week I will get my current project files transferred over and be ready to go I think, followed then y some of the more secure connection stuff to get me fully integrated back into my work environment.
Wish me luck!
Friend and fellow irregular Jeff Nolan just put out a two parter on the "Future of Enterprise Software",
The future of enterprise software will depend on how independent software vendors define their solution set and how and where they go to market; it will also be shaped by the tighter integration of customer communities with vendors, and lastly, by a restructuring of IT itself.
Source: Enterprise Software’s Future Lies With ISVs « The Future of Software
Jeff of course has a wide range of experience in the industry and mine is mainly "developer" focused but it got me thinking back to January where a conversation took place around a portion of this.
Two people (Dan and Thomas) I like a lot have been hitting on a subject lately and it's centered around the user experience and how darn picky the end user I guess is. I think it goes far beyond that to a simple matter of choices, openness and the future.
Of course lots has happened since January, and in the current world we live in it's hard to put your finger on things for long, however one thing has remained throughout my experiences with computers, that is the fact of "services".
Which brings me to this post I made back in December, the one where I made the comment "I really don't care what anyone's UI strategy is." which has come back to me a few times but I stand by it.
It's also what I clearly see as the future of software, be it Enterprise Software or any type. Software applications come and go and one thing remains constant - the data. Personally I have moved my data (e.g. my book list) from one location to another several times in the past 18 months or so. Why did I do this?
Sure they sound like an individuals reasons but do business look at that many different reasons?
It's all about the portability of my data, can I take it with - there is of course the conversations around Facebook right now but so far I've not found a single application I use on a regular basis privately or for work where I can't "take it with me" and that is the key and the way to the software of the future - it's all about portability be it via a full blown API or simply RSS/ATOM feeds if that's there I can migrate the data over to another app, sure sometimes I might have to do a bit of work but that is changing as well. Slowly but surely we will see the days where every application offers the easy export/import features even the automatic "send my data", perhaps that's why people like Google and Amazon are so focused on "data" centers...
Fellow Irregular Julia French is helping to to put together the "She's Geeky (un)conference" in Mountain View, CA, October 22 and 23rd.
What is She's Geeky?
The She's Geeky (un)conference will provide an agenda-free and friendly environment for women who not only care about building technology that is useful for people, but who also want to encourage more women to get involved.
It is designed to provide women who self-identify as geeky and who are engaged in various technology-focused disciplines with a gathering space in which they can exchange skills and discuss ideas and form community across and within disciplines.
Our goal is to create an open space forum for women in tech to come together to:
- Exchange skills and learning from women from diverse fields of technology.
- Discuss topics about women and technology.
- Connect the diverse range of women in technology, computing, entrepreneurship, funding, hardware, open source, nonprofit and any other technical geeky field.
This is an unconference so it will have an agenda created by the people who attend.
Source: She's Geeky - HomePage
So what can you expect?
She's Geeky will include women working in:
- Open Source
- Web 2.0
- Biotech
- Hardware companies
- Enterprise IT
- The Nonprofit Technology Sector
- Portals
- Search Engines
- Social Networking Sites
- Research for and about technology/people
- Startups generally
- Product building/management in large organizations
- Robotics
- Gaming
- Mobile
- Using the tools of the Web (like blogging).
- Technical Writing
- Your definition of geekiness (if you don't see it here add it)
She's Geeky is for:
- Women of all ages who self identify as geeks. You don’t have to code. You can like and use the tools.
- Women who care about the issues facing women as they work in or around technology development.
- Women who are passionate about building technology that’s useful for people and believe that the presence of geeky women in our industry leads to more opportunity, a more supportive and civilized environment and better technology goals for all.
With our current ramp up to SAP TechEd at the moment I understand some of the pressures of organizing and arranging and also of the "unknown" factors surrounding (un)conferences.
All the best Julia on an awesome event and I look forward to following the blog activity!
With so much happening inside of Second Life right now around SAP I've been hard pressed to do anything else but that, it's enjoyable though and I look forward to it.
My job role and focus have actually shifted a bit and it's slowly becoming a bigger part of my day to day. The Metaverse is a big huge place though so I'll be calling out for some help from some online friends...
More of course to follow!
In other news, The End of Chapter One, nope it's not a new book, although who knows one may come; it's actually a new path...Wish you the best of luck Rich in whichever path you choose!
I don't often get "random" press releases and such - I enjoy when I do though, especially when it's something interesting.
Over on Starship Enterprisey Radio, Thomas and I just were talking about Virtual Köln and accessibility and one of the things we both agree on is that a book is sometimes not enough when you are wanting to see something or explore and area but often times many people are preventing from doing this in person for multiple reasons.
Second Life recently has seen an increase in these types of buildings, image a 3D history of an entire town, region or country - the thought alone sends my mind down 1000s of paths of possibilities.
The last I saw was Virtual Köln and the Dom, the next I am going to go visit is this one.
Con il progetto Second Life Assisi nasce un nuovo modo di fare visite guidate sfruttando le nuove tecnologie date dall'evoluzione di Internet.
Tramite fedeli ricostruzioni degli ambienti, delle opere e delle atmosfere della Basilica di San Francesco, il visitatore può totalmente immergersi in uno dei luoghi più affascinanti dell'Umbria e dell'Italia stessa, impermeato di religione, storia e mistero.
La Basilica di San Francesco è da ammirare e scoprire in ogni suo più piccolo particolare, dagli stipiti alle mostre, dai pavimenti alle grandiose e irripetibili opere affrescate da Giotto, Cimabue e Lorenzetti.
L'attenzione per i dettagli e la fedeltà nella riproduzione, fa di questo progetto qualcosa di unico e prezioso.Non rimane che entrare in Second Life e godere del fascino di questa città virtuale, in cui realtà e fantasia si fondono fino a dissolvere ogni linea di confine
Source: Benvenuti in Second Life Assisi
On 21st september at 6 p.m. italian time (9 a.m. pacific coast time, 12 p.m. east coast time, 5 p.m. London time) Assisi will open in Second Life (coordinates 1090,1200).
The project, built by Wedoit s.a.s. (Assisi) with the partnership of Metafuturing S.l. (Madrid) and Euromedia Italia (Terni), aims to provide a wonderful experience of the Saint Francis' Basilica in Assisi, one of the most famous religious sites in the world.
I know there are few more cities in there like Copenhagen, which is on my travel list for this weekend.
I wonder if someone like TravelMuse or expacklyMondo will look "in world" as well as the real world?
Today at 12pm PST IBM, Cornell University and Metaversed.com will be staging a trans world, tri-reality event in 4 separate locations, two of which will be 3D virtual world platforms glued together by virtual camera crews and IP telephony. A packed Metaversed Island in Second Life will interface with IBM's ActiveWorlds platform via Skype, inworld video and streaming web, as Prof. Robert Bloomfield speaks in front of a real life audience in Cornell's Sage Hall with Sandra Kearney, IBM's Director for 3D Internet about the companies vision for the Metaverse.
Source: SAP Network Blogs
I found this meme on Nigel's blog who found it on Charlotte’s Web and decided to give it a go as well.
I do but only because I use it as my "profile" so I certainly list it anywhere I have a profile - it's easier than explaining half the time.
I'm always curious where I am getting links from so I usually check daily - my topics tend to vary between a few different things so I'm curious which ones seem to be better for my audience.
My topics tend to range from Second Life, Office 2.0 to SAP but mainly how they all connect to together.
You do, you are reading this - that's enough isn't it?
I subscribe to 518 feeds of which 6 are "Shared" feeds meaning 6 that I subscribe to share the "highlights" of what they themselves are reading so normally each morning I have 300 to 600 new entries - good thing I've one of those photo copiers in my head - if only I could explain what a picture gallery of blog posts looks like...
Yep, very fast (see #5)
I tend to try things out a lot like the modified version of Oliver Kohl’s cool SDN Wordpress widget, then stuff from Facebook or MyBlogLog, etc. but I also tend to take things off as quickly as I put them up - my flickr badge I think is the only thing that has been there since day 1.
What's the point? If you have something to say, then say it and stand by it.
I use common sense, I mean if I'm questioning myself when I write it then how can I defend it or live with it later so often times it might sit in draft for awhile if not forever.
Have to agree with Nigel on this - it's all about connections and conversation!
In the interest of sharing we've decided to create a while new group for tracking events within our Second Life space.
Through the popular service - Upcoming.org
we now have the SAP in Second Life group. You can subscribe to the group via multiple means or if you have a user on Upcoming.org you can join the group.
Subscribe
So tune in and stay connected to find out what's happening next!
I've been hearing a lot about this lately, including here on ZDNet - Money mule recruiters get more brazen.
Now I got an email today which was scary since I read the ZDNet blog yesterday thanks to Dennis Howlett who pointed it out in Twitter.
So how do I know this email about a job opportunity is a scam? Well first it was sent from one person at and .edu address on behalf of the CEO and Founder of a Jewelry store in the UK. Now I of course checked the Jewelry Store through Google and found a site but with no contact info or names - in case someone got compromised and "used" I won't name names.
The other big give away, was the info they wanted me to fill out.
FULL NAME : ........................
FULL ADDRESS : ..............................
CITY : .............................................
STATE: ................................
ZIP CODE: ..........................
PHONE NUMBER (S) : .................................
GENDER : ..................................
AGE : ......................................
ALSO ENDEAVOUR TO INDICATE THE FOLLOWING REQUIREMENTS:
DO YOU HAVE A CHECKING ACCOUNT? YES/NO
The mail went like so (I removed the first part and the last part which contained names don't want to indicate someone if they are a victim),
Our company is presently in search of trustworthy representatives in the united states that will aid as a link between us and our customers in the USA and CANADA We would like to know if you are interested in representing us,thereby becoming our contract staff.
Respond only if you will like to work from home part-time and get paid weekly without leaving or tampering with your present occupation/studies.Kindly endeavour to respond promptly if you are interested in working with us, and furnish us with the following information via email
And the last point was the email address to reply to was one at Yahoo UK - sorry but such a successful Jewelry Store having a student sending mail on their behalf, no contact info on their website (which had it's own domain) and then have a Yahoo address as their main contact email, what's with their own domain?
Now sure I'm not one go against the use of email services like Yahoo, GMail, etc. but if you have a domain then have an email address from that domain even if (like me) redirects to your Yahoo or GMail.
Thanks ZDNet and Ryan for the post!
One thing I noticed when "renting" inside of Second Life is that you do have all the cool stats like with your own island so playing around a bit with Linden Scripting Languages and PHP I threw together a little object that would track both in world as well as RL visitors.
For everyone else this is where I get geeky...
<?php
// Read POST input
$post = file('php://input');
// If there isn't anything in the POST, don't do anything
if (!$post) {
die("go away");
}
// Read in the information that was sent
$grp = urldecode(chop($post[0]));
$name = urldecode(chop($post[1]));
// Make DB connections
$dbhost = 'localhost';
$dbuser = 'user';
$dbpass = 'password';
$conn = mysql_connect($dbhost, $dbuser, $dbpass) or die ('Error connecting to mysql');
$dbname = 'database';
mysql_select_db($dbname);
$sql = "INSERT INTO visitor(avatar,grp) VALUES ('".$name."', '".$grp."')";
echo $sql;
$sql_query = mysql_query($sql);
mysql_close($conn);
ob_flush();
flush();
?>
Just a small bit of PHP code to insert two passed parameters to a table in the database. It could be any database really...
The table is a simple table.
CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `visitor` (
`id` int(11) NOT NULL auto_increment,
`avatar` varchar(155) NOT NULL default '',
`timestamp` timestamp NOT NULL default CURRENT_TIMESTAMP,
`grp` varchar(255) NOT NULL default '',
PRIMARY KEY (`id`),
KEY `avatar` (`avatar`)
) ENGINE=MyISAM DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1 AUTO_INCREMENT=1 ;
"grp" in this case I added so I could track multiple areas with multiple objects.
Now once in world you'll need to create an ibject, any object really and then add a new script to it.
// Global variables
list visitor_list;
float range = 20.0; // in meters
float rate = 1.0; // in seconds
// Edit these to your own specifications
string GRP = "Office";
// This is the URL of the intermediary script. Don't change it unless
// you are using an intermediary of your own.
string WA = "http://www.myhost.com/myapp";
// Functions
help()
{
if (GRP == "") {
llOwnerSay(
"BEWARE! You have not configured a `group` " +
"Open the object, open the script, and fill in the variables at the top.");
}
}
integer isNameOnList( string name )
{
integer len = llGetListLength( visitor_list );
integer i;
for( i = 0; i < len; i++ )
{
if( llList2String(visitor_list, i) == name )
{
return TRUE;
}
}
return FALSE;
}
key presence_send(string url, string name, string msg)
{
return llHTTPRequest(WA+url,
[HTTP_METHOD, "POST"],
GRP + "\n" + name + "\n" + msg);
}
// States
default
{
state_entry()
{
llSensorRepeat( "", "", AGENT, range, TWO_PI, rate );
llListen(0, "", "", "");
}
sensor( integer number_detected )
{
integer i;
for( i = 0; i < number_detected; i++ )
{
//if( llDetectedKey( i ) != llGetOwner() )
//{
string detected_name = llDetectedName( i );
if( isNameOnList( detected_name ) == FALSE )
{
visitor_list += detected_name;
presence_send("visitor_insert.php", detected_name, "");
}
//}
}
}
listen( integer channel, string name, key id, string message )
{
if( message == "help" )
{
llOwnerSay( "This object records the names of everyone who" );
llOwnerSay( "comes within "+ (string)range + " meters." );
llOwnerSay( "Commands the owner can say:" );
llOwnerSay( "'say list' - Says the names of all visitors on the list.");
llOwnerSay( "'say num' - Says the number of visitors on the list.");
llOwnerSay( "'reset list' - Removes all the names from the list." );
}
else
if( message == "say list" )
{
llOwnerSay( "Visitor List:" );
integer len = llGetListLength( visitor_list );
integer i;
for( i = 0; i < len; i++ )
{
llOwnerSay( llList2String(visitor_list, i) );
}
llOwnerSay( "Total = " + (string)len );
}
else
if( message == "say num" )
{
integer len = llGetListLength( visitor_list );
llOwnerSay( "Total = " + (string)len );
}
else
if( message == "reset list" )
{
visitor_list = llDeleteSubList(visitor_list, 0, llGetListLength(visitor_list));
llOwnerSay( "Done resetting.");
}
}
}
The in world interface here is not that much, the key is the RL database.
// Global variables
float range = 20.0; // in meters
float rate = 1.0; // in seconds
// Edit these to your own specifications
string GRP = "Office";
// This is the URL of the intermediary script. Don't change it unless
// you are using an intermediary of your own.
string WA = "http://www.myhost.com/myapp";
// Functions
help()
{
if (GRP == "") {
llOwnerSay(
"BEWARE! You have not configured a `group` " +
"Open the object, open the script, and fill in the variables at the top.");
}
}
key presence_send(string url, string name, string msg)
{
return llHTTPRequest(WA+url,
[HTTP_METHOD, "POST"],
GRP + "\n" + name + "\n" + msg);
}
// States
default
{
state_entry()
{
llSensorRepeat( "", "", AGENT, range, TWO_PI, rate );
}
sensor( integer number_detected )
{
integer i;
for( i = 0; i < number_detected; i++ )
{
presence_send("visitor_insert.php", detected_name, "");
}
}
}
So as you can see you can make the in world LSL script even smaller.
You see what you really want is the data in the database and manily the Avatar name and the timestamp. With that you can use your favorite DB reporting tool to find out the type of traffic and repeat traffic the area your object is in is receiving, setup to objects an "in" and "out" group and you might even be able to track how many users are passing through from one location to another although that doesn't account for those who teleport straight out or away or simply go out the same way they go in. But you get the idea...
While on the train this morning I was using Google Gears/Google Reader combo to catch up on my RSS feeds and I cam across this one reported by Engadget. I've not said much about "Green" in my blogs before although I have made a few references - this one however caught my eye so much I had to take the time to let everyone know about it.
A gentleman from Erie named John Kanzius made a somewhat "shocking" discovery while he was working on a radio-wave generator he had developed for the treatment of cancer. While attempting to desalinate sea water using radio frequencies, he noticed flashes, and within a few days, had saltwater burning in a test-tube as if it were a candle. The discovery spawned interest from the scientific community, mostly concerned with whether or not the water could be used as a fuel, and of course, healthy doses of disbelief. Last week, a Penn State University chemist named Rustum Roy held a demonstration proving that the science is sound, noting that the water doesn't burn, though the radio frequencies weaken the bonds holding together the salt, releasing hydrogen which is ignited when exposed to the RF field. Mr. Kanzius and Dr. Roy say the question now is the efficiency of the energy, and are presenting the technology to the US Department of Defense and Department of Energy to investigate how useful the technology will be. Of the plentiful maybe-fuel (which apparently burns so hot it can melt test-tubes) Dr. Roy says, "This is the most abundant element in the world. It is everywhere," and (without recognition of the poetic irony, as far as we can tell), "Seeing it burn gives me chills." Check the TV report after the break to see the water in action.
[Thanks, Paul]
Now I'm also a movie buff so of course my first thought was to Chain Reaction and whether or not I can expect a wharehouse to explode anytime soon, certainly hope not!
Imagine if this really does work, or if at least a small "motor" unit was made available to the general public, my dream of the alternative energy car would be a step closer, always wanted an old Mini Copper to strip down and put a DC motor in to put-put around town in but this would just be that much cooler - for you science folks out there is it any combination of salt and water or only specific kinds?
I know both Matt and Kyle from SAP TechEd Amsterdam 2006 and both are extremely interesting guys. They showed up (OK I invited them) to our SAP event knowing little about SAP and during the week Matt kicked out a solution to one of our community challenges using SAP and Ruby on Rails.
Now here they are with Ted working on something new out in Cali. called Persai and they just launched into Beta and well I'm not sure about anyone else but I'm dying to give it a go!
What started as a simple curiosity turned into more of a challenge then an obsession which was solved in part tonight.
I was playing around with Veodia.com, broadcasting service which I struggled with quite a bit - now however they have become a serious contender for my attention. They provide a live RSTP stream (QuickTime format) which Second Life needs to play video something I could not find easily without investing my money in a server, etc.
Well tonight with a bit of playing I managed to entertain several folks (thanks mainly to announcing via Twitter) for 51:56 mins (~94MB) online in Second Life while they stood there (like me in the picture above) watching me at home at my desk live streaming through Veodia.com. So initially a success but I always like to try at least two services and thanks to Jeremiah Owyang I've contact to UStream.tv as well and Wednesday evening I will be talking to them to see if they offer a similar feature.
So my hope by the end of the week is that I have two options to evaluate for this purpose, Of course both would be perfect with a static live stream as Veodia seems to change unless I did something wrong...
Here's an excellent writeup on the conclusion of the "Coke in SL" deal that was taking place including a "Myth Busters" section...
MYTH: Coke built a destination and no one came.
REALITY. “No! We did not build an island. We rented space on Crayon Island for the duration of the campaign. There’s no reason to build an island without a long term plan.”
Makes a lot of sense, I came to the same conclusion around our own efforts, we are just starting and looking at possibilities to bring value to our community so renting space on Silicon City seems to be a prefect choice, the island has multiple activities from the various business already there, it's highly professional and extremely well done!
We are formulating a long term plan but these are just the initial days so stay tuned for more...
Once again a conference is coming up that I would love to attend but not looking like I will have a chance...
The 2007 Zend/PHP Conference and Expo (October 8-11, San Francisco) will bring together PHP community members from around the world for exceptional presentations and networking events.
At ZendCon 2007, sessions will highlight the use of PHP technologies for business critical applications.
Learn how to:
Conference highlights:
This would just be awesome to attend, think of the possibilities to expand your current PHP/SAP applications to the next level!
Anyone going? If so please - blog, blog and more blogging!
