Dell does Tablet Computing

I hate to part with my four-year old Dell Latitude notebook, but now that the E key is causing me grif, I am rady to gt a nw on.

While looking for a replacement, I came across the new Dell "convertible" called the Inspiron Duo -- it switches between being a netbook and a touchscreen tablet.  Like an Apple iPad, accessories like speakers convert it even further into an entertainment center.

Perhaps not coincidentally, Dell priced this tablet computer just below the Apple iPad.  See it here. 

University takes iPad into Trenches of Pompeii

Years ago I took an archaeology course at the University of Cincinnati.  At the time, the professor considered the appropriate technology choices for recording ancient finds a clipboard, paper, and pencil.

Using a gridded piece of paper you brought to the dig site, you drew a major physical landmark as a reference point in a topmost grid and then marked all of your dig finds relevant to that spot. This sheet of paper became a valuable work artifact for the archaeological project.

Of course, your paper might get dirty, wet, partially destroyed, or lost. Plus, somebody later had to decipher and transfer all of your pencil marks into an electronic document for computerized analysis.

The common archaeological task of recording field data is changing. To this point, computers have not been portable or durable enough to take down into a dirty pit nor have they had adequate battery life.  Today, touch-screen tablets may have overcome those issues and could provide a great platform for dirty field work.

On a recent project, the University of Cincinnati adopted the Apple iPad to simplify the massive data collection involved with archaeology. Steven Ellis, the assistant professor of classics at UC, used a half-dozen iPads to digitize his team's findings from excavating an entire neighborhood in Pompeii.

The team used iPad apps such as  FMTouch, Pages, iDraw, and OmniGraffle. 

For more information, read about the Pompeii project in general and the use of iPads on the project, or see the UC case study on the Apple website.

Big Blue Knows How to Blog

IBM does a great job supporting employees who have personal blogs.  While other vendors might try to police what employees and/or partners say publicly (or just shut them down completely), IBM actively helps internal bloggers.

IBM started an internal blogging site called BlogCentral in 2003.  IBM realizes it is in the company's best interest for employees not only to learn personally but to contribute to others' learning. Knowledge stored in one person's head only is of limited corporate value; if you can get each person to formally document his or her know-how then many others might benefit.

Of course, IBM does not want a creative writing free-for-all.  The company has put together formal guidelines for those individuals with personal web blogs read by the public. Basic advice from Big Blue to their employee bloggers includes: be yourself, add value, don't pick fights, and don't forget your day job.

While investigating IBM's blogging practices, I also came across an interesting research paper on IBM's Blog Muse, a tools to help connect individuals looking for specific content with those who could provide it. See the document here.

See the IBM public blog site for more information.

Eponymous Pickle Blog

Here it is the middle of November and Franz Dill has blogged over 1220 times this year -- that is about five times every workday.  And Franz is not like Guy Kawasaki with automated tools to generate random posts (sorry, Guy).

Franz manually writes each day on his Eponymous Pickle blog, providing readers with high quality content related to emerging technologies.

I was lucky enough to have lunch with Franz this week and learn more about his work.

At the beginning of 2005, Franz started his personal blog, but was already a professional blogger for the Procter & Gamble Company where he was a chief scientist and an emergent technologist.  Franz wrote content for P&G's innovation centers, which specialize in consumer product research and development.

Franz often writes articles of interest to individuals interested in Business Intelligence software.  For example, please see the following:

Data Mining for Education
SpotFire on the Apple iPad
New Data Visualization Tool
Cindi Howson on Cool BI

Where are the BI Jobs?

Every so often, I skim through the Business Intelligence software jobs posted in Monster and file away some numbers in a spreadsheet.

Do you know where 80% of the BI jobs are?

It's probably obvious, but these openings are consolidated into some mega-vendors--SAS, SAP, IBM, and Microsoft.  Here are my unofficial, unscientific counts:

• SAS -- 25.7% of the BI jobs that I tracked for major vendors (non-open source)
• SAP BusinessObjects -- 17.38% (does not include Crystal Reports)
• IBM Cognos -- 15.67% 
• Crystal Reports -- 12.86%
• Microsoft Reporting Services -- 9.79% 

SAP BusinessObjects and Crystal Reports
Okay, here's the problem.  I may be counting SAP BusinessObjects Crystal Reports jobs in two different categories.  If the jobs for BusinessObjects and Crystal Reports were mutually exclusive, then SAP would be the clear winner with over 30% of the BI jobs.  But I suspect that many Crystal Reports job postings have BO.

Personally, I'm shocked that Crystal Reports demand is so high. It's slightly down from when I started tracking it in January 2009, but showing a nice increase from January 2010.  Hmm, here is a legacy Windows-based desktop reporting tool that is generating job growth.  This comes at a time when some companies tell me they are getting rid of Crystal Reports.

But one of my healthcare clients clued me in on something else happening.  He is hiring three Crystal Reports developers despite owning a web-based enterprise BI product. Why? Because his organization is implementing a new EPIC healthcare system that comes with...drum-roll...Crystal Reports.

Getting your software product embedded inside other vendors' packaged applications is a winning business approach.  Just ask Oracle. But wait, where is mega-vendor Oracle on the BI job list?

Oracle
Perhaps I'm not fair to Oracle in how I search for BI jobs.  I want to filter out the gazillion Oracle database and application jobs out there and only count the business intelligence ones.  To do that, I just look for "OBIEE."  Right or wrong, those only add up to about 2% of the total BI jobs, but the figure has doubled since I started watching.

MicroStrategy
I should also mention that demand for MicroStrategy skills is right there above Oracle OBIEE.

IBM Cognos
IBM wants to be your one-stop business shop for all things computer related.  Before IBM acquired the company, Cognos had already transitioned into a billion dollar BI success. It is no wonder that job demand is high for IBM Cognos products.

SAS
Should we be awed by the tremendous demand for SAS BI professionals?  There are almost 1800 postings in Monster for SAS jobs, accounting for a quarter of all the BI jobs for all the vendor products.  Parents, send your kid to a statistics course!

Other BI Vendors
I don't want to embarrass the BI vendors at the bottom of the list.  But why is that -- how can a leading BI vendor have such little demand for its product in the job market?  I imagine they would tell me that their product is so easy to use that companies can use existing employees (LOL).

Legacy Reporting Tools and Open Source
Surprisingly, some old legacy reporting tools are still out there in slight demand but obviously declining--Brio and SQR are examples. For the open-source technologies (for example, BIRT and Pentaho), those just don't seem to be going anywhere quickly.

Emerging: QlikTech's QlikView
One BI product toward the bottom of the job list deserves attention.  Watch out for QlikTech's QlikView.  Demand for that at the beginning of 2010 was pretty much non-existent (but in January 2009 I might have looked only for company and not product name), but not so today. Companies are buying it and QlikTech is moving into the hot mobile BI tablet marketspace with an Apple iPad application.

Mobile BI 
Speaking of which, at the beginning of 2010 I also started tracking job postings for iPhone. The number of openings has since then almost doubled.  The same thing has happened with iPad jobs (and I didn't look until mid-2010).  If you are looking for a fun job in a hot software arena, consider the mobile space.

I will keep an eye on Monster for BI jobs for you. I am interested in your thoughts so please post comments.

Apple Prepares iPad for the Enterprise

In the 1990s, some of Microsoft's software products were not considered for wide enterprise usage.  Take SQL Server, for example.  It was okay for small departmental solutions, but for large amounts of data you had to use Oracle or DB2.  Microsoft changed all of that and became a major corporate IT vendor.

Watch Apple do something similar with the iPad.  Readers of my blog have commented that Apple is just a consumer company and will not really get into the corporate enterprise computing arena. 

I think the times they are a changing. 

Here is an indication that Apple is serious about winning in both the consumer and enterprise markets.  In November 2010, Apple will release the new iOS 4.2 operating system for the iPad.

Apple is adding the following corporate features to their tablet computer: 

• Data Protection (encrypted e-mails, attachments, and API calls)
• Wireless App Distribution (your company's very own WiFi App Store)
• Improved Corporate Mail (better support for Microsoft Exchange)
• Mobile Device Management (like how IT locked down business mobile phones)
• SSL VPN Support (secure connections to enterprise resources)
• WiFi Printing (background Print Center applications)

Of course, Apple isn't the only tablet maker eyeing the enterprise.  Microsoft and HP want their mobile products selling inside corporations and are sure to announce similar enterprise features.  Apple needed to preempt those guys. 

The bottom line here is that mobile tablet business computing is coming to your organization! 

Are you ready?

Hiring Manager of Talent Acquisition and Training in Cincinnati, Ohio

To prepare for its continued growth, Partner Professional Staffing, the parent company of Partner Intelligence, is hiring a Manager of Talent Acquisition and Training at its Cincinnati, Ohio, headquarters.

For more information, see this link.

Tweeting BI versus Blogging BI

Lately, I have been buried up to my neck in a large consulting engagement to automatically convert Crystal Reports applications to use a modern web-based BI product. 

Large software rationalization and modernization projects typically cost millions of dollars and take years to complete, but we are working hard on this one to automate most of the manual effort. 

By the time I get back to the hotel room each night, I have little energy to write blog entries. At a minimum, I have tried to do some quick tweets from my Apple iPad. 

If you do not follow me on Twitter, here are some of the things you may have missed:


Notre Dame evaluating iPads as textbook replacements.
See: http://lnkd.in/Xw98wr

MicroStrategy COO tells why tablets are here to stay.
See: http://lnkd.in/7-FuB9

Ohio bans government IT offshoring.
See: http://lnkd.in/vg9Af9

One of top IT skills in 2011? BI.
See: http://lnkd.in/KupuY8

SAS eyes BI growth in India.
See: http://lnkd.in/dKWAhJ

The Tablet War.
See: http://lnkd.in/jFx3X9

MicroStrategy BI vendor switches to iPads.
See: http://lnkd.in/zVPZ9c

American workers: be high-skilled or be left behind.
See: http://lnkd.in/HQKRcG

Free Audiobook of classic book on Christian Leadership.
See: http://lnkd.in/c5qFTQ

Salary Benchmarking led to crazy Executive Compensations.
See: http://lnkd.in/xNuUaX

CSC report examines Health IT Worker Shortage.
See: http://lnkd.in/ePF69E

Will iPad take Apple into the corporate arena?
See: http://lnkd.in/dWfm7v

Will e-Readers lose to Tablets?
See: http://lnkd.in/cUdukm

When we stop buying physical books, what will book stores sell?
See: http://lnkd.in/8ueWqt

Could a 1950s retro makeover help our USPS?
See: http://lnkd.in/QhqAKM

iPhones driving surge in Apple Mac enterprise sales?
See: http://lnkd.in/7sXGsM

Dresner ready to release Mobile BI Study results.
See: http://lnkd.in/GHh6Rm

Merv Adrian explains IDC BI market numbers.
See: http://lnkd.in/DsWSxn

Decline of American Television.
See: http://lnkd.in/4xBD_a

Come over to my Pad.
See: http://lnkd.in/f_dppD

Are You in the Steven Slater Fan Club?

On this Friday the 13th, our celebrity du jour is Steven Slater, a disgruntled jetBlue flight attendant who earlier this week gave a memorable job notice over the loud speaker and slid down the airplane's emergency chute with two beers.

Depending on your point of view, Steven Slater is either a hero, a jerk, or a criminal.

So which is it? Are you in the "Steven Slater Fan Club?"

Since a blog should contain personal opinions, here is mine. Every day, each of us plays a societal role. We are each a professional in a chosen profession. Steven Slater professes he loves the airline industry and this is the role he has chosen to play.  He just decided to stop playing that role on that particular flight.

In the excellent book "The Reflective Practitioner," Donald Schön wrote:

In the traditional professional-client contract, the professional acts as though he agreed to deliver his services to the client to the limits of his special competence, to respect the confidences granted him, and not to misuse for his own benefit the special powers given him within the boundaries of the relationship. The client acts as though he agreed, in turn, to accept the professional’s authority in his special field, to submit to the professional’s ministrations, and to pay for services rendered. In a familiar psychological extension of the informal contract, the client agrees to show deference to the professional. He agrees not to challenge the professional’s judgment or to demand explanations beyond the professional’s willingness to give them. In short, he agrees to behave as though he respected the professional’s autonomy as an expert.

Here is a summary of Schön's points. As a professional, each of us is expected to deliver our services in an agreed-upon way, respect the confidences given to us by the client, and not misuse our power. In exchange, we expect clients to render some type of compensation for our services, respect our authority, and follow the advice that we give.

The jetBlue story is still being sorted out, but initial indications pointed to an unruly foul-mouthed passenger who disrespected Steven's professional role. Responding in a likewise unprofessional fashion, Steven called it quits in a way that will be recorded forever in Internet History.

There was misuse of professional power; by deploying the emergency chute, Slater basically grounded the plane until everything was put back to normal (reports say three hours minimum).  Because of this, he probably delayed jetBlue passengers on several flights.

We might find that story erroneous and discover that Steven created the mess with no assistance (if so, he should have waited until Friday the 13th for more impact!).

Personally, I see an issue in our American culture where we have pushed the concept of individualism to a point where we have lost our personal humility (and I am speaking as an expert in lifelong humility issues).

It is one thing to have individual freedom, but quite another to go to an extreme where we become totally self-centered and lose compassion for other individuals. At that point, we lose sight of our personal role in society and behave inappropriately. We demand respect while dishing out disrespect on everybody else around us.

Lots of people might join the "Steven Slater Fan Club," but in the "I'm the Only Important Person Fan Club," there is room for just one member.

U.S. Taxpayers Fund IT Offshoring in Sri Lanka

When your August 9th issue of the InformationWeek magazine comes in the mail, be sure to turn to page 18 and read the short article on IT Outsourcing. If you do not have a subscription, here is what Paul McDougall wrote:

The U.S. Agency for International Development will contribute $10 million to $36 million to train workers, including 3,000 IT specialists, in Sri Lanka.

The federal agency will partner with private outsourcers in that country to teach workers advanced IT skills such as Enterprise Java programming, business process outsourcing, and call center support. USAID will also help the trainees brush up on their English.

Following their training, the workers will be placed with outsourcing vendors in the region that provide offshore IT services to U.S. companies looking to take advantage of the Asian subcontinent's low labor costs.

The outsourcing program is part of a larger effort to create 10,000 jobs in Sri Lanka in IT, construction, and the garment industry. But it's the outsourcing program that's drawing fire from critics. President Obama has pledged to retain more high-tech jobs in the U.S. in IT, biological sciences, and green energy.

I wonder who convinced the U.S. government to chose Sri Lanka as a new source of cheap IT workers (perhaps programmers in Tamil Nadu are getting too pricey)?  Evidently, the $60 billion offshoring industry could always use some assistance from American taxpayers.

A key phrase in the article might be "U.S. companies looking to take advantage of…"

We have come to accept the business fact that U.S. companies do not want to hire American workers because we are too expensive. Instead, highly-paid executives at those firms make a financial case for their wise decision to pay a fraction of U.S. salaries to individuals on the other side of the planet.

Unless things change, American workers will have to wait for the cycle to come full circle. At some point, U.S. companies will no longer pay any American citizens -- all wages will go to workers in other countries. Then, we citizens will be unable to buy products from U.S. companies who will then need to sell to their own non-American employees.

To afford U.S. products, those offshore employees will then need higher wages and, at some point, the U.S. executives will make a wise decision to give those demanding workers the boot. Once Americans have experienced a good economic depression, those U.S. executives can hire back U.S. citizens for a mere pittance. 

Perhaps here is a good place for President Obama to introduce some of his Change. For example, why not send some federal IT training money to low-wage workers in Jonesboro, Arkansas or Van Wert, Ohio?

It's an idea that many Americans are pushing. If you have not heard of "rural outsourcing," and how Arkansas might be able to compete with India, see the 2010 July CNNMoney article.

The UI for which You Will Shave Your Head

Researchers from down under in Australia want to bring the user interface up on top -- the top of your head, that is.

While it evokes images of Star Trek Borgs and jacked-in softies from William Gibson's matrix stories, a new "brain-reading" headset may just change the way we work with computers.  The tagline for the Emotiv EPOC brain-computer interface is "you think, therefore, you can."

Because each brain is different, Emotiv EPOC comes with software for calibrating each individual's thoughts.  You select a mental activity (e.g., pull, push, go left, go right, or disappear) and think about doing it for a few seconds while the application listens in on your brain's neural snaps, crackles, and pops.  Using EEG signals from the headset, the software records your brain-wave patterns. 

When you use other software, the headset watchs your EEG for similar activities, decides on your mental objective, and passes that command to your computer application ("Hey, WoW!  The gamer is thinking about moving to the right!").

In addition to capturing brainwaves, the headset watches for head tilting and facial movements that can be passed along as commands to an application.  One practical example of use would be for an individual in a wheelchair who is unable to use a joystick to control movement.  Instead, he or she can command the wheelchair to go left, right, straight, or back mentally and/or through head and facial movements.

While the technology's capabilities seem out of this world, its price is realistic -- just $299 for the headset and then some extra expenses for software that knows what to do with your brainwaves.  For developers and researchers, Emotiv offers a variety of software options, from a "lite" SDK for free download, all the way up to an "enterprise plus" development license for $7500.

You can watch a recorded live demonstration of the headset at the TED website.

If this really takes off, be prepared to see technology innovators with unique haircuts!

QlikTech meeting Consumer Expectations of BI with QlikView

Erica Driver at QlikTech just blogged about the difference between the technologies we use at home (such as the Apple iPad) and those at work (such as a Windows workstation). 

Wait...should there be any difference?

Why would your employer force on you a user interface that you wouldn't accept at home?

See how the BI product QlikView meets the "consumer" expectation of Business Intelligence software.