I am interested to know if acceptance would change if survey respondents were asked specifically about retail sites who produce informational videos (WineLibraryTV comes to mind--note: I'm just using the show as an example as I've never seen an ad on any episode I've watched). For me, I would still watch Gary Vaynerchuck's wild tastings. He's so entertaining, I'd take an ad--even two! But, a host that wasn't so engaging...I'd probably go another direction.

Here's the article,

Most Say Ads a 'Reasonable' Cost of Free Online Video

Survey: Viewers Most Amenable to Ads in TV Shows, Movies but Not Amateur Video
By Megan McIlroy

Published: July 17, 2008

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Good news for the growing number of ad-supported video services popping up online: The majority of digital video consumers will find the inclusion of advertising a "reasonable" expectation for accessing free online video content.

That's according to a new survey of U.S. internet users aged 12 and older conducted by market-research company Ipsos MediaCT in February 2008.

Give and take
"Nobody is going to tell you they love advertising," said Adam Wright, director of Ipsos Media CT. "But the [survey] confirmed the notion that people get the give and take. That can be reassuring for many of the people who are trying to crack the code [of ad-subsidized video models]."

The percentage of internet users who found advertising to be a reasonable price of admission for free video content varies by content but, in general, respondents were more likely to embrace advertising in long-form professional programming. At least three in four digital video consumers said they would find it "reasonable" for advertising to appear in the free digital distribution of full-length TV shows and movies, while about two out of three said the inclusion of advertising would be reasonable with free access to music videos, short news or sports clips.

"If it's premium content, people are willing to sit through ads. It's something that consumers already expect," said Mr. Wright.

Bad news for amateur content
But it's a different story when it comes to amateur digital content, where viewers are much less likely to accept advertising as a price of admission. Just over half of the respondents in the survey who have downloaded or streamed a video online say they would find it "not reasonable" to have advertising embedded within free amateur or homemade video offerings.

That finding could raise an important question for video-sharing websites like You Tube that are diversifying content to include longer, professionally produced material. According to Mr. Wright, these providers will have to "carefully consider" ad-subsidized models since their current audience has grown accustomed to free streams without any advertising.

One way to approach advertising for different types of content is to use different kinds of advertising, Mr. Wright said. For instance, an amateur video might use a 15 second pre-roll or a pop-up ad, depending on consumer reaction.

Said Mr. Wright, "You have to get into what are consumers are OK with and what they aren't, and [ask] when do you start to reach a negative impact?"

_________________________________________

Here's a selection of responses from the Ipsos MediaCT survey:

How reasonable is it to have advertising in the following free video content?

Full-length TV show:
82% Very reasonable/somewhat reasonable
18% Not very reasonable/not at all reasonable

Full-length movies:
75% Very reasonable/somewhat reasonable
25% Not very reasonable/not at all reasonable

Music videos:
68% Very reasonable/somewhat reasonable
32% Not very reasonable/not at all reasonable

Short news or sports clips:
63% Very reasonable/somewhat reasonable
37% Not very reasonable/not at all reasonable

Movie/TV trailers or previews:
62% Very reasonable/somewhat reasonable
38% Not very reasonable/not at all reasonable

Amateur or homemade video clips:
48% Very reasonable/somewhat reasonable
52% Not very reasonable/not at all reasonable

The floodwaters have (mostly) receded and national media attention has turned elsewhere. For those directly impacted by the floods of 2008, the work of restarting, rebuilding, and managing the ongoing PR challenges continues.

Mercy Medical Center in Cedar Rapids, IA found themselves at the center of this crisis as the water rose, eventually leading to a closure and partial flooding of their main hospital facility. Mercy managed crisis communications well under challenging conditions as they gradually lost communications and power.

Now back to full operations, Mercy continues to face ongoing communications challenges with public perceptions, employee relations, and community support and rebuilding efforts in which the organization has been, and will continue be, involved with.

There are many lessons that we can take away from their experience and we’re fortunate to have the opportunity to do so as Melissa Erbes from Mercy takes us through their experience in this month’s Education Series Webinar – Crisis Communications: How an Iowa Hospital Dealt with Historic Flooding on Thursday July 24 at 2:00 PM CDT.

I hope you’ll join us!

Why is connecting to SAP BI/BW Queries a best practice?

There are several reasons for connecting via SAP BW Queries:

• Performance - The BW OLAP Engine performs its processing against the query cube. In the event, you connect an external analysis tool directly to an InfoCube, a query cube consisting of all the characteristics and key figures in that InfoCube is generated on the fly in order to handle the request processing. This process adds significantly to the processing time of the request made by the end-user when compared to reporting against a pre-defined BW Query.
• Capabilities - There are several capabilities exposed via the interface to BW Queries that are not exposed when connecting directly to the cube such as calculated and restricted key figures to name a few.
• Flexbility - The BW Query Designer offers an extension to the data modeling environment in which changes are relatively easy to make as compared to the effort required to change an InfoCube.

Is this required across all the reporting tools? (WebI, Voyager, Crystal Reports)

Its mostly applicable to WebI and Voyager. There's more flexibility with Crystal since it has more connectivity interfaces to SAP and it is not designed to be an ad-hoc reporting and analysis tool. Xcelsius will typically be built against scheduled content since most dashboard data is usually only updated every 24 hours.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of this different approaches to SAP Connectivity?

Advantages of BW Query - The BW Query can take advantage of Query capabilities such as CKF and RKF. The BI Team can also provide better control over how much data user can request.

Advantages of InfoCube - The BI Team can expose entire dataset to user without additional work from BI team

Disadvantages of BW Query - Using BW Queries requires additional work from BI team to setup queries specifically around areas of the business, e.g. marketing, sales, etc. It limits amount of information available to user for a given query. That being said, the adhoc report designer can combine multiple queries within a single report. In addition a well defined BW Query can serve as the data sources for multiple reports. (whereas traditionally in SAP BW, we saw 1 query = 1 report)

Disadvantages of InfoCube -Users can get lost in the large amount of data available to them. There is a lack of CKF and RKF, which will lead to users creating more filters and calculations at the report level. These efforts will likely be duplicated across multiple reports. Duplication leads to duplicate work and the potential for different answers based on different formulas (i.e., no "single source of the truth" for those formulas)

Performance of BW Query - Better. Because of the constraint on information available to the end-user, the query design can test a subset of data and guarantee a certain level of performance.

Performance of InfoCube - Vulnerable. Because the entire cube is visible, there is no what to know what combinations of information the user might pick. Without specific controls over the type and amount of data returned, it is impossible to determine who long the query might run.

Flexibility of BW Query - The BW Query is more flexibility in regards to exposing "processed" data (CKF and RKF). It also provides flexibility when it comes to making changes to underlying data because not every change to the InfoCube will impact a BW Query.

Flexibility of InfoCube - The Infocube is the most flexible with regards to the data exposed.

What data structures in SAP are supported within BusinessObjects?

WebIntelligence/Voyager supports: Standard and Transactional InfoCubes, Remote InfoCube (not recommended due to performance), MultiCube, MultiProvider.

Crystal Reports supports: Standard and Transactional InfoCubes, Remote InfoCube (not recommended due to performance), MultiCube, MultiProvider, ODS, R/3 Infosets, ABAP Queries, ABAP Functions. ABAP Data Clusters, Transparent Tables, Pool Tables, Cluster Tables, zTables, InfoViews

Conclusion

It's been exciting to see how quickly SAP customers have been able to unlock the data that they have in there Business Warehouse to a whole new groups of users.  Users can now create their own reports from scratch using the WebIntelligence interface.  Executive users and front-line contributors can have their personalized data delivered directly to the desktop.

I can't wait to see what will unfold within our next generation of tools.

1. Do not just convert your webcast audio into a podcast unless you just have talking heads. How many times have you listened to a podcast where the participants say "Now as you see here" or "If you look at this particular example?" It's an almost immediate turn off for an audience member since they now know they have not picked the best medium for the presentation they are listening too.

2. Don't have long 30 second music intro's. Get straight to the point. Most audience members only listen to the first few parts of a podcast, would you rather they listened to 30 seconds of dialogue and information or 20 seconds of music and 10 seconds of only the company name. This is all about grabbing attention and maintaining it. Don't get me wrong I think musical intro's are a great thing just don't let them take over the limited time you have.

3. Make sure if you have more than one person (which I do recommend) that they have different sounding voices. I cannot express the amount of times I have listened to podcasts where I have trouble distiguishing between the guests. This brings variation to not only the person but also in the overall tones and emphasis of the presentation (it really prevents those boring monotone presentations).

4. Reherse, reherse, reherse BUT don't sound rehearsed. Think conversational with a point. Yes this may be a strange thing to say but you need to know what's happening. Think about following and rehersing a general outline or bulleted points. Avoid exact scription like:

                 [pause] "What does this mean Joe?"

                 "Well, Sally, this means we're the best." [pause. Joined laughter]

                 "You are funny Joe."

5. Actually have something to say. People today have limited time and limited patience and if you're just providing a giant sales pitch with sales/marketing language do not expect them to stay long or follow through with any type of call to action.

6. Go through different avenues besides iTunes. There are many podcast hosting sites for specific genres and industries so make sure and find the best place for your execution.

7. Spell your website especially if you have a unique (or even if you don't) name or host site. SLOWLY!

I would love you hear some of your podcasts successes and woes!

Enter Callwave!  (www.callwave.com) I signed up for a free 10 day trial to see how this product can help me.  Where has it been all my life?  Callwave is an alternative voicemail system (works on any network) where if I miss a call, the call is transferred to their network and recorded.  Callwave then translates the call to a text or email message and SENDS it to me.  I can read my voicemails!!!  What is better, the call back number is embedded and all I need to do is highlight it and hit send.  How cool is that?  What if the translated text is incoherent?  No problem, a .wav file is attached to the email so i can listen to the message if I need to.  I can even listen to a caller leaving me a message in real time and interupt the message to handle the call live if I desire - try that on a few people, it freaks them out!

There are more features with this service.  Click on the link above and view their demos.  This is a product from the heavens for those of us who cannot tolerate voice mail.  Thank you Callwave.

My answer was that in Agile, customers are an active stakeholder in the success of the project, and ideally would be committed to its success. They would play an active part in its progress in order to help the team aim the project in the right direction.

If anything, a project's value proposition should be based on the idea of delivering the highest value possible early on (and obviously throughout the project lifecycle). Customers love this, and why wouldn’t they? They can see what they’re paying for right at iteration one (i.e. within the first few weeks of development), and can suggest amendments if necessary instead of waiting for months for a final deliverable only to realise that it’s not really what they need. There are many reasons why one would want features delivered sooner rather than later, and this is a key selling point that can be used to gain customer buy-in at the start of an Agile project.

I also came across an interesting post on Visualizing Agile Value, which I thought was worth sharing.

Today's issue of the excellent marketing how-to publication Marketing Profs answers this question:

How a Small Internet Publisher Doubled Its Email Database & Reduced Marketing Spend With Cost-per-Lead Advertising [site registration required].

The case study focuses on Tripmela.com, a small company that aggregates the top Indian travel bargains and maintains a weekly '10 Best Deals' email newsletter.  Jared Blank, Tripmela's CEO, wanted to aggressively grow the user base of the newsletter which is at the center of their business model.

Tripmela first tried CPM and CPC campaigns to acquire users, but found them to be cost-ineffective and problematic: the actual costs and results associated with CPM were "unpredictable" which made it difficult for Tripmela to effectively plan ahead and "CPC gave a false sense of control--a control of costs--but what we really cared about was the cost to acquire a subscriber."

Tripmela started working with Pontiflex in April.  Tripmela used Pontiflex's CPL (cost-per-lead) pricing model which help guarantees tangible results.  Advertisers pay only for actual leads received, not impressions and clicks that may or may not result in an actual customer signup.

Pontiflex's transparent GENList publisher directory allowed Tripmela to carefully select publishers to run their advertisement, ultimately deciding on Komli, Yahoo india, and Rediff.  Besides the increased control that Pontiflex offered Tripmela, our CPL model also proved to be more cost-effective:

"In terms of acquisition metrics, [CPL is] at least 100% better than getting leads with CPC," said Blank. Compared with CPM, CPL performed "somewhat better to much, much better," he said.

The leads generated also performed better than those generated via CPM and CPC:

"The open rate was 20% higher, and the click rate was 75% higher with Pontiflex leads," said Blank

Read the full article at Marketing Profs.

Category management, which is based on sound business principles, has heightened awareness of the importance of category level planning, and it has changed, for the better, behavior throughout the industry. It is producing favorable results with a vast majority of those retailers who are implementing the concept. There are countless examples of how category management has contributed to sales and share growth, reduced costs, improved profits as well as how it has influenced customer count, transaction size and market basket composition.

Despite the many successes, the concept is receiving mixed reviews from both retailers and suppliers. Retailers are concerned about the exhaustive resources required to implement the textbook version of the concept, and the apparent inability of suppliers to remove brand biases and truly focus on total category performance. Suppliers are questioning the return-on-investment for resources deployed to support category management initiatives. Whatever the case, there is a growing consensus that while the concept is producing favorable results, it is falling far short of achieving its fullest potential.

When category management is not measuring up to expectations, the causes can usually be found in one or more areas related to the implementation practices being pursued: the retailer has not been able to translate the “Best Practices” textbook to practical application; there is no formal retailer/supplier collaborative relationship strategy, plan or commitment across the organization; the focus is more on internal measures than on the consumer, and category plans are poorly executed at store level.

Our perspective regarding each of these areas follows:

· The publication of industry “Best Practices” four years ago established a common understanding of category management as well as standardized practices. A good “starter kit” that is must reading for all beginners. But over time this textbook has proven to be too theoretical, too comprehensive and template driven. It does not provide adequate guidance on how to translate theory from the classroom to practical application in the marketplace. Consequently, those retailers who are trying to follow the “Best Practices” guidelines are having difficulty doing so within existing resources and capabilities. Several leading retailers have flatly rejected the guidelines. This has led to broad ranging applications and considerable compromise of the concept. We have learned, beyond a doubt, that one size does not fit all. In fact, a recent industry survey indicated that less than ten percent of retailers are following the guidelines.

It appears that category management may be moving forward like a rudderless ship in the sea… with a dire need for course correction. The direction must shift toward practical application with specific guidelines to tailor the concept to fit individual retailer situations.

· Establishing collaborative relationships between trading partners is an essential component of category management. Collaboration aligns strategies, systems, processes and people for the sole purpose of reducing the cost of conducting business while better serving the consumer. There has been good progress in this area driven primarily by technology and logistics initiatives. Overall, relationships between trading partners have definitely improved. But not to the extent required to support the evolution of category management.

A very small percentage of retailers are doing it right. A large number of retailers do not believe collaboration is an important part of the category management process; some believe in collaboration only when it is self-serving; few have formalized collaborative relationship strategies and plans; and investment in upgrading collaborative skills is limited to a handful of retailers. This situation is compounded further by behaviors such as charging slotting allowances, charging for category captaincies and diversion of product.

In many instances, supplier behavior is also undermining the concept. This includes marketing programs and policy decisions that erode retailer profits, inconsistent business practices across markets, channels and retailers, as well as quarter-end-load programs designed to shift inventories instead of building consumption. The inability to put brand biases aside and focus with the retailer on total category performance is also an issue. Over 80% of retailers surveyed say suppliers are too brand biased when participating in joint category planning.

Most relationships between trading partners have only moved to a more sophisticated level of the traditional buyer/seller relationship. A few have reached the level of true collaboration. There is still a long way to go to achieve the levels of collaboration necessary for both parties to achieve the full benefits of category management.

· During the past nine years we have stated time and time again that unless the focus is on consumer satisfaction, category management will not deliver the desired return-on-investment for retailers or suppliers. Unfortunately, our warnings went unheeded. The emphasis has been on cost management, not on the consumer. The majority of retailers practicing category management have been focusing on internal measures instead of using balanced scorecards that include consumer based measures. The pressure on category managers to manage margin percentages and achieve buying income goals has resulted in short term decisions based solely on cost… at the expense of good consumer based decisions that deliver quality sales and profits.

This internal focus has also been a key barrier in moving collaboration forward to a higher level.

As we look to the future, we are very encouraged by an apparent shift in focus toward the consumer. A growing number of retailers are investing more on consumer research, upgrading marketing competencies, taking advantage of supplier consumer knowledge and encouraging suppliers to invest in retailer specific consumer research at the category level. A few progressive retailers are routinely analyzing the composition of the market basket and incorporating consumer loyalty program data into the category planning process.

Several retailers are moving away from their traditional category management structures to more advanced concepts that better position them to “touch the consumer.”

These are encouraging developments that we hope will continue.

· The ability to execute category plans at store level is a real dilemma and the potential Achilles heel of category management. Most retailers are spending an exorbitant amount of time preparing category plans, but not enough time on store execution. Consequently, new item speed to market plans, planograms, promotions and other initiatives are executed poorly, and sometimes not at all. As we tell many clients, “Don’t allocate resources to developing category plans unless you can execute at store level. It will be a waste of time and money.” We are now at a stage in the industry when there are many questions regarding whether the retailer, supplier, broker or other third party is responsible for store level execution… and who pays?

We find that many store execution issues are directly related to business process and activity ownership. The category management concept has never been presented to most store managers, so they do not know its value relative to their specific stores or the company, and they are not aware of the plans for signature and priority categories. Thus they seldom accept ownership of the execution of category plans. In addition, there is often a misalignment of key performance measures and business processes between category management and store operations. Merchandising standards are often poorly defined and compliance disciplines are not in place.

Only a few retailers are positioned to execute category plans effectively. For most, this is a major problem that must be addressed.

Having said all of this, we believe the road ahead is very encouraging, and the direction is quite clear. Category management will continue to evolve as a way of conducting business, but more as a part of a total business process. The charted course will not be any easier than the journey to its current state… there will be speed bumps and land mines along the way. Here’s how we see the future:

· Category management will evolve to where it will simply be referred to as category planning, an essential component of total business planning, by retailers in its advanced stages of implementation. The emphasis will be on a fully integrated business planning process. Beginners will continue to call it category management.

· Category management will evolve from the “Best Practices” guidelines to a value-based opportunity focus that puts much greater emphasis on the business question to be addressed, the need to know information, better allocation of resources and simplification of the planning process. It will deliver a much higher return on resources deployed by both retailers and suppliers.

· Retailers will focus their category planning processes more on the consumer, with a significant increase in the utilization of consumer information for strategic value and tactical application.

· Retailers in advanced stages of implementation will internalize the annual category planning process. Suppliers will be used as a resource to provide consumer data and gather market level information to support the planning process. Suppliers will be involved in joint category planning only when the retailer needs to address major opportunities. Suppliers will continue to be actively involved in joint planning with retailers at the beginning and mid stages of implementation, and with retailers who do not have sufficient resources to “go it alone.”

· Retailers in advanced stages will integrate the chainwide advantages of category management with a market focused process designed to align category planning with store cluster and store specific planning. In other words, planning will move closer to the consumer. This will require the evolution of organizational structures, roles and responsibilities beyond the current textbook guidelines.

The alignment of category planning with local market and store specific planning will heighten the importance of timely and efficient execution at store level.

· The rules of collaboration will be redefined and will more clearly align expectations between trading partners. The level and type of collaboration will depend, for the most part, on who most directly influences consumer behavior… the retailer or the supplier. In addition, activity based costing will become a more important component of the collaborative equation.

· The evolution of category management will place new demands on suppliers and brokers. The changing roles and responsibilities of multifunctional teams will lead to organizational restructuring. The store execution dilemma may necessitate a major reallocation of retail resources. And, the role of brokers has yet to be defined. There will be much greater emphasis on maximizing efficiencies, allocation of resources, and return on investment.

If retailers and suppliers pay attention to our learnings to-date, with an eye on the road ahead, category management can measure up to initial expectations. This means moving beyond current implementation practices and making those changes required as the concept evolves to where it is an essential component of a retailers total business planning process.

ABOUT WINSTON WEBER & ASSOCIATES, INC.

Winston Weber & Associates, Inc. (WWA) is recognized worldwide as a leading architect of category management and the one consulting firm that knows how to translate the concept from theory to practical application. The two retailers in the U.S. that industry surveys identify as the best practitioners of the concept are WWA clients. Clients also include a select list of retailers across trade channels, manufacturers, brokers and industry associations. WWA is a global management consulting firm with current clients in the U.S., Canada, Latin America, Asia, and Australia. For further insight into Win Weber’s leading edge thinking, please contact us in one of the following ways:

Phone (901) 763-0263
Fax (901) 767-4157
Emai: winweber@winstonweber.com
Website: www.winstonweber.com

If you read a lot about the challenges of offering good customer experience or if you attend conferences on that subject, you will most often "learn" about the same old reasons why dealing with customer facing employees is rarely something consumers look up to. And when you think of it, that is not a realistic objective. No CEO wishes for its customers to love its call centre so much that they would call just to chat a little with the nice people that work there. Still, you want to avoid these customers to hang up in rage, which happens way too often. The funny thing with the experts writting about the reasons why so many companies fail to offer good customer service is that they almost always neglect a very important element, probably because they don't offer consulting services in that area...

Here is what you usually get told :

1. Customers have raising expectations these days. You should stop everything and launch a major customer research that will help you prioritize their needs and set new standards to meet their increased expectations. This is not a bad thing and you're lucky because many consultants and research firms can help you do that customer research. No efforts on your part, besides spending the money.
2. You're dealing with isolated data silos. That's bad and extremely common. Almost all the customer facing facing employees are working with systems that don't gather all the relevant data on the customers ... or they have five different systems from which they can get the information if they know where to search. This is an IT problem, extremely costly to resolve, but you can do it, they're only machines and databases after all.
3. A similar challenge is not having the complete information on your clients, hurting your performance when you want to serve them properly. Maybe you can create new fields in your system interface ... and allow a few more seconds to your agents so they can ask for the missing data. Again, this is nothing you can't do if you really want to solve the problem.
4. A profound lack of resources, either monetary or in terms of body counts is also very common. Unless you can really prove that a lousy customer experience makes you lose a lot of money, you can't solve that challenge. This is a simple case of ROI calculation. You can't go to your boss and say we are going to spend 5 millions to integrate all the databases we have related to customer information and, by the way, we need to hire 50 additional agents.

These 4 elements are pretty straightforward and I pretty much can't prevent myself from yawning if I'm sitting in a conference and the guy in front goes on about them. What I ear a lot less is the need to improve employee satisfaction as the most important element of customer satisfaction. Why? Because it's a nightmare to resolve and very few consultants actually specialize in that area. I don't and I wouldn't want to. But I'm always scared to go in a call centre and find demotivated and bored employees profoundly sceptical about anything management has to say. It's very difficult in these situations to think any improvement on the 4 elements listed above will make a difference.

On the filp side, it's amazing to see what motivated employees can do with bad systems, data silos and missing customer informations. They will definetely go the extra mile and you will hang up the phone with a smile on your face...

Charlie Feathers, "Bottle to the Baby" (click to listen or download)

There measures where you don't want to be #1; Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FASD) is certainly one of these. Unfortunately, the Oshkosh Northwestern reports that Wisconsin leads the nation in reported drinking among women of childbearing age and likely leads in FASD (hat tip to Madison NORML).

Each year as many as 200 Wisconsin newborns show the effects of prenatal alcohol exposure, according to the University of Wisconsin's Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders Treatment Outreach Project.

Dr. Georgiana Wilton, an associate scientist at the University of Wisconsin Department of Family Medicine in Madison, believes it's likely the state leads the nation in that category, though such data is not kept by every state.

Prenatal alcohol exposure is a leading cause of mental retardation and learning disabilities nationwide. By that standard, Wisconsin babies are at greatest risk.

Wisconsin leads the nation in reported drinking among women of childbearing age. The state has the highest prevalence of frequent alcohol consumption among women ages 18 to 44, according to a 2006 risk-factor survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention....

Exposure to alcohol puts a fetus at risk of a cluster of preventable developmental problems known collectively as fetal alcohol syndrome or the related fetal alcohol spectrum disorders — a term describing the range of effects that can occur in any individual whose mother drank alcohol during pregnancy.

Brain damage, facial deformities, growth deficits, heart, liver and kidney defects characterize fetal alcohol syndrome, as do difficulties with vision, hearing, learning, attention, memory and problem solving.

An individual with fetal alcohol syndrome can incur a lifetime health cost of more than $860,000, although the National Organization on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome says costs can be as high as $4.2 million. It costs the U.S. $5.4 billion annually in direct and indirect costs. Direct costs are estimated at $3.9 billion annually, which includes healthcare costs as well as costs associated with social services and incarceration.

Sixty percent of individuals with FASD will end up in an institution (mental health facility or prison). And it is estimated that almost 70 percent of the children in foster care are affected by prenatal alcohol exposure in varying degrees.

Not mentioned are the increased educational costs associated with FASD. Like lead paint exposure, this is preventable factor which adversely effects the future prospects of children, costs our schools time and money and contributes to inequality. It is also another example of why schools alone are not sufficient to address the needs of our children (and their parents) and why things like the "Broader, Bolder Approach to Education" make sense.

Thomas J. Mertz

המעבדה הוקמה בבניין החדש של בית צים במת"מ חיפה, והיא מהווה פריצת דרך טכנולוגית בכל הקשור לתשתיות חדרי מחשב בישראל.  החווה כוללת בשלב א' כ- 300 שרתים ביניהם שרתי האחסון של חברת NetApp מסוג FAS3000 ו-FAS6000 בעלי קיבולת אחסון של עשרות טרה-בתים.  בשלב הסופי החדר מתוכנן לאחסן קרוב ל 1 מגה-וואט של ציוד IT בשטח של כ-240 מ"ר בלבד ועו שה שימוש חדשני ביחי דות קירור מים המבוסס על קירור שורת ארונות השרתים.

היזמים ומנהלי הפרויקט מטעם נט-אפ היו המהנדסים ארז רוזנטל ואפרים גרינברג. הפרויקט בוצע  ע"י חברת אלכסנדר שניידר משלב התכנון, הבנייה והביצוע . שמנו דגש רב על חיסכון בהוצאות החשמל ויישמנו במידת האפשר כללים של IT ירוק כגון קירור מים ויישום מודולארי והדרגתי. כמו כן ביצענו  את פרויקט המעבר מחדר המחשב הישן של NetApp .

עיקרי הפרויקט:
240 מ"ר
100 ארונות שרתים (בשלב הסופי)
40 יחידות קירור מים - מבוסס לפי קירור שורה Row cooling
תכנון מודולארי ליישום הדרגתי
מיזוג אוויר מתוכנן לחיסכון בחשמל
KW 7 לארון שרתים בשלב א, 10 KW לארון בשלב הסופי
ניהול כבילה מתקדם
תשתית מים, כבילה וחשמל עילית
ללא רצפה צפה
מעבר החדר  - תוך 36 שעות

שלום אביטן-מנהל תחום Data Center באלכסנדר שניידר:
"האתגר הראשון בהעתקת החווה ובתכנון האתר היה לתמוך בציוד IT מתקדם ומגוון הנדרש על ידי מהנדסי החברה בעת פיתוח מערכות האחסון של הדור החדש", "סך הכול קיבלנו כ 240 מ"ר לאחסנת מאות שרתים ובצריכה כוללת של קרוב ל 1 מגה-וואט. נבנתה תשתית כבילה עילית, ויושמה צפיפות מחשוב-הספק ( high density computing ) של קרוב ל 10 קילו-וואט לארון שרתים, הרבה מעבר ל 4 קילו-וואט לארון שהוא הגבול הסביר להספק בחדר מחשב רגיל".

הפרויקט התאפיין בניהול כבילה בצפיפות לא שגרתית.  כבלי נחושת ואופטיקה נפרשו באתר החווה. "לצורך זה התקנו פתרונות ניהול כבילה בצפיפות גבוהה של חברת Panduit והגענו לרמה מאוד גבוהה של נוחות תפעולית למרות עומס הכבילה הרב

Excerpts from the recent New York Times article, "The Next Kind of Integration" (with links and emphases added).

In the last 40 years, Coleman’s findings, known informally as the Coleman Report, have been confirmed again and again. Most recently, in a 2006 study, Douglas Harris, an economist at the University of Wisconsin, found that when more than half the students were low-income, only 1.1 percent of schools consistently performed at a “high” level (defined as two years of scores in the top third of the U.S. Department of Education’s national achievement database in two grades and in two subjects: English and math). By contrast, 24.2 percent of schools that are majority middle-class met Harris’s standard.

There are, of course, determined urban educators who have proved that select schools filled with poor and minority students can thrive — in the right circumstances, with the right teachers and programs. But consistently good education at schools with such student bodies remains the rare exception. The powerful effect of the socioeconomic makeup of a student body on academic achievement has become “one of the most consistent findings in research on education,” Gary Orfield, a U.C.L.A. education professor, and Susan Eaton, a research director at Harvard Law, wrote in their 1996 book, “Dismantling Desegregation.”

Most researchers think that this result is brought about by the advantages that middle-class students bring with them. Richard Kahlenberg of the Century Foundation lays them out in his 2001 book, “All Together Now”: more high-level classes, more parent volunteers and peers who on average have twice the vocabulary and half the behavioral problems of poor students. And, especially, more good teachers. Harris, the economist, says that poor minority students still don’t have comparable access to effective teachers, measured by preparation and experience. The question, then, is whether a plan that integrates a district by class as well as by race will help win for all its schools the kind of teaching that tends to be linked to achievement. “The evidence indicates that it would,” Harris says.

Ronald Ferguson, an economist at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, is less persuaded. His research highlights the nagging persistence of a racial achievement gap in well-off suburbs. “What happens with the achievement gap in a place like Louisville,” he says, “will depend on how vigilant their leaders are to make sure high-quality instruction is delivered across the board.” Such teaching is more likely in a school with a critical mass of middle-class parents, he concedes. But he stresses that to reap the benefits, poor kids have to be evenly distributed among classrooms and not just grouped together in the lowest tracks. “To the degree a district takes the kids who struggle the most academically and spreads them across different classrooms, they’re making teachers’ work more doable,” he says. “And that may be the biggest effect.”

Whatever the exact answer, there is some support for the view that schools can handle a substantial fraction of poor students without sacrificing performance. In Wake County, test scores of middle-class students have risen since instituting income-based integration. Additionally, Kahlenberg points out that middle-class students are generally less influenced by a school’s environment because they tend to learn more at home, and that the achievement of white students has not declined in specific schools that experienced racial (and thus some class) desegregation.

Would schools need to track students by ability to protect middle-class students, who are more often higher-achieving than their low-income peers? Perhaps not. In a 2006 longitudinal study of an accelerated middle-school math program in Nassau County N.Y., which grouped students heterogeneously, the authors found that students at all achievement levels, as well as minority and low-income students, were more likely than the students in tracked classes to take advanced math in high school. In addition, the kids who came into the program as math whizzes performed as well as other top-achievers in homogenous classes.

This study underscores Ronald Ferguson’s point about the value of seating students of different backgrounds and abilities in class together, as opposed to tracking them. Still, it’s worth noting that less than 15 percent of the students studied in Nassau County were low-income. So the math study doesn’t tell us what happens to the high-achieving middle-class kids when close to half of their classmates aren’t as well off.

I've posted about the missed opportunities for Madison to be a leader in this new integration movements many times. Two examples are linked below. I do want to make clear -- as I wrote in one of those posts -- I believe that "[f]or the most part MMSD has done a very good, if relatively quiet and indirect job of addressing [all kinds of] diversity. " I'm still asking for more.

Previously on AMPS:

(Not?) Talking about Diversity and Boundaries, 2008 Style.

(Now?) Talking about Boundaries and Diversity, 2008 Style.

Talking is essential, but so are policies and actions. It is not too late.

Thomas J. Mertz

We've been writing this blog for a year now, with a total of 83 posts so far.

It's been a very positive experience.  We've had clients tell us "the reason we hired your firm was because of your blog". And we've gotten lots of great feedback from our partners (Oracle, IBM, SAP, Initiate Systems and Siperian).

What we've tried to do is to write for people who are new to Master Data Management (MDM) and looking for basic information (like "Useful Definitions for MDM","Five Essential Elements of MDM" and "Ten Best Practices for Master Data Management").

But we've also tried to cover more advanced topics too (such as "Master Data Management and the Art of Politics", "The Key Requirement in Choosing a Product MDM Hub", and "Data Governance Critical to MDM Success").

We thought that by presenting a mix of basic and advanced topics, and highlighting key milestones in the development of the firm, we could keep your interest, and hopefully keep you coming back.

The numbers tell a good story.  We've had a total of 8,100 hits in the past year, with an average of 32 hits per day (over the last 30 days), 200 hits per week and 835 per month (over the last 6 months).

Our "Top 10" posts have been:

1. Ten Best Practices for Master Data Management
2. Our MDM Partnership Strategy
3. How Master Data Management is Similar to ERP
4. Different Styles of MDM Hub
5. Metadata and Master Data Management
6. Five Essential Elements of MDM
7. Critical Data Quality Questions
8. The Key Requirement in Choosing a Product MDM Hub
9. Master Data Management and the Art of Politics
10. MDM Business Case Creation & ROI Analysis

We get most of our traffic from our web site at www.hubdesigns.com (there's a prominent "Blog" link there), and from the "Master Data Management" and "Customer Data Integration" tags at WordPress.com.  We also get a fair amount from Google Reader, My Yahoo, and my LinkedIn profile.

Our Top 10 search terms that people are using to get to the blog are: "Hub Solution Designs", "Dan Power", "Gaurav Arora", "data quality questions", "MDM vendors", "Master Data Management best practices", "critical to quality", "Oracle MDM", "ERP and MDM" and "Master Data best practices".

We've tried to keep the blog vendor-neutral, and have resisted the temptation (so far at least) to accept any form of advertising.

In the coming year, we're looking forward to more in-depth coverage of the leading MDM and data quality platforms, more insights gleaned from working with our clients, more pointers to other places where our writing appears (like my monthly column in the online edition of DM Review), and continuing to try to break new ground and be thought leaders on MDM.

If there's anything in particular you'd like to see us cover here, please let us know via a comment. It's been an honor to write for you over the past year, and we'll work hard to make this a useful resource for you in the coming year.

Think about something as simple as a pair of headphones: where do they belong in the following hierarchy?

Audio Products

• CD Players
• MP3 Players
• Home Theater
• Speakers
• Stereo Receivers
• Accessories

First of all they are an audio product, so from a purely taxonomic standpoint they could exist as a direct child of audio. However if there is one thing we know from endless hours of user testing, its that people love accessory categories and anytime you ask them to find a product that is small in size they will immediately gravitate to accessories.

Ok, so what if we put them under audio, and then, under audio accessories. Great, but people often look for products in categories which they feel are related in more abstract ways. For example, it is not uncommon for users to say things like:

"I Iisten to my MP3 player with headphones so I would look there"

Now imagine other branches of the taxonomy such as Computers or Video Game Consoles. There are lots of headphones made specifically to work with these types of products. Do we place headphones there as well?

I am sure you are starting to get the idea, headphones are becoming ubiquitous in our taxonomy, but is that a problem?

There is no real hard and fast rule or best practice around polyhierarchy. It is an important part of the taxonomists’ toolbox and an essential feature of navigational taxonomies. However in our quest to accommodate a wide variety of users and achieve maximum findability, it can easily be overused.

One of the biggest dangers of overused polyhiearchy is that the principles that govern the framework of the taxonomy become diluted. This can result in the placement of products in categories based on overly abstract associations, and can lead to a whole slew of governance problems as the taxonomy evolves.

Another problem with polyhierarchy has to do with its implementation on websites. In some e-commerce applications of content management, polyhierarchy is achieved through a single master location of a given product that gets linked to from other locations in the taxonomy. This can lead to some very disjointed navigational experiences, especially when the polyhiearchical treatment involves multiple branches of the taxonomy.

For example if the master location of headphones is as a child of Audio, then the following pathway could be possible

Computers > Computer Accessories > Headphones

(select and be directed to a new breadcrumb trail)

Audio > Headphones

All of a sudden the user finds himself in an entirely different branch of the taxonomy. This can be a jarring experience that detracts from the learnability of the taxonomy structure.

The next question then is: does the average user really care? I would argue that most users are more concerned with finding products than the purity of the navigational pathway involved. They can always resort to the ever present “back” button.

That being said, the best way to determine where polyhiearchy should be used is with user testing. Products that are candidates for polyhierachy should be tested with a broad spectrum of users. Analyzing their chosen access points into the taxonomy will give you a clearer idea which associations warrant polyhiearchy and which ones do not.

As a general rule we tend to err on the side of too much polyhiearchy, even though our taxonomist spines may shiver at the thought of some navigational pathways. At the end of the day our goal is to help people find what they are looking for. If that means including headphones in computer accessories… so be it.

]]> http://wisangyenny.wordpress.com/?p=121 Mon, 21 Jul 2008 06:05:37 +0000 m2consulting http://wisangyenny.wordpress.com/?p=121 Victor Frankl

Ahmedabad SQL Server User Group is very fortunate to have Jacob Sebastian (SQL Server MVP) as President of the Usergroup. Jacob is co-founder and CTO of Excellence Infonet, Ahmedabad. You can read his articles at www.sqlserverandxml.com and www.sqlkatmai.com.

In recent meeting I had presented learning session about SQL Server Best Practices. I was very pleased as it was two way interaction. Many members of the User Group really took interest in the subject I was presenting and wonderful discussion about SQL Server technology had taken place. I would like to thank EVERYBODY who were present there. It was amazing that so many developer are eager to learn new things. Special thanks to Jacob for participating in Questions & Answers session along with me.

If you are interested in what I covered in my session of this user group meeting you can download my presentation SQL Server Best Practices in PDF here. If you want PPT of this please send me email and I will promptly reply you as well.

The official web site of the UG is http://ahmedabad.sqlpass.org/. To join the group, please visit http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/Ahmedabad_SQLServer_UserGroup/. Hope to see many of you in the next UG meeting.

Let us see some of the photographs of this event.

Jacob addressing crowd

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Pinal addressing crowd

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Jacob and Pinal

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Few of the User Group Members (I wish we had group photo of everyone who attended - may be next time - we took this photo after most of the members left)

Reference : Pinal Dave (http://www.SQLAuthority.com)

This diagram shows one key aspect of our development process i.e. 3^rd Line Support. It is critical to our operations because we support anywhere from the last 3 to 5 release steams. This includes monthly patch releases which address key customer defects and enhancements.

Prior to 2006 our development operation was UK based (in a single location). Everything was straight forward! However, when we opened up a development centre in Bangalore, that situation changed. Once we had recruited and trained the developers it was time to get them using our SCM tool, Serena Dimensions. This has served us well since 2000 but the performance of the connection to Bangalore meant that the PC and Web clients were totally unusable for shared development work e.g.

* It was taking over 5 minutes for them to browse change documents

* Editing the attributes e.g. to specify the fix times etc was taking around 10 minutes

* Making any kind of source code changes on a change document, especially one with a lot of additional related items or change documents was even longer.

* To fetch all 9000 items from the repository for a sandbox development and build was an overnight job (if it worked at all!)

Hence we had to put our thinking caps on and come up with another solution.

We tried making use of Subversion and associated tools and initially this looked very promising. However, when we started putting our Development processes on top of Subversion, in particular “Branching” and “Merging”, it became apparent that the underlying SVN functionality was not going to be mature enough for the tools to be available to cater for this. The solution we were looking at was Subversion running in UK and Bangalore, with the replication of data taken care of by a product called WANdisco and the Application Lifecycle management by Polarion. We had a number of meetings and discussions with all of the above parties, including the Subversion developers, who gave us an insight into the future plans. In the end the overall solution was not going to be elegant and satisfy all our needs. We carried on looking and eventually came across AccuRev.

At first we were reticent to go down this route as it was a proprietary system. However, when we were demoed the system by the AccuRev guys it seemed to fit in exactly with what we were looking for. Even with the addition of merge tracking in SVN, AccuRev is still head and shoulders above with its merge, change and namespace tracking.

We then obtained a demo license and spent a month evaluating the product against our list of requirements. The sort of checks we carried out were:

* How long does it take to create something e.g. stream, workspace in the UK and see it reflected in Bangalore and vice versa

* Can you create/delete hundreds or steams without affecting the system performance

* The critical one of can a number of developers on the UK and Bangalore work together on a set of changes in parallel and easily have those merged back together.

The whole thing ran so smoothly that we could no longer delay the decision to purchase. Last year around this time we purchased the required licences and then started the process of moving the development over to AccuRev.

So, where are we currently?

The intention has been to move over to using AccuRev and Jira combination (as Serena Dimensions covers both Issue Tracking and Source Control). However, as we have a limited number of resources available, and the fact that we require quite a lot of work to implement the appropriate workflow and associated build process, we have not had the time to do this. We are currently using AccuRev for ALL development and 3^rd Line support work but still use Dimensions for the Issue tracking and build process. Given that none of the developers in Bangalore or UK are impacted by this and can get on with their day-day work then I am cool with this. The only person affected is me as I have an additional step to perform by moving changes between AccuRev and Dimensions and vice-versa. I am confident that in the near future we will fully move onto the AccuRev/JIRA system and gain even more benefits.

I hope this will be of help to others and I would be more than happy to answer specific queries.

On the brighter side, now that we've got broadband at home I have dived feet first into the podcast section at iTunes and have been downloading hundreds of different podcasts on publishing, business, management, marketing, project management, and other related subjects. And for sure, there's one series of podcasts I've happily subscribed (and listened) to: MBA Working Girl Podcast.

This podcast series is the brainchild of Laura Adams who says that it "is a creative outlet that allows her to share knowledge gained from both her career and formal classroom education. Her mission for the show is to provide tips to help world-wide listeners advance their business knowledge." She first began doing shows in March 2007 and to date has 45 episodes---usually 6-10 minutes in length---that cover topics as varied as What You Do Speaks So Loud (#38), State the Facts Frankly (#22), and Learn a New Language (#14).

Each episode begins with a kind of offbeat quote. For example, episode #14 utilizes an old Czech proverb: "Learn a new language and get a new soul." After that she outlines the three topics for this podcast:

• Accounting Introduction
• Financial Statements, part 1
• Keys to Getting Promoted

In each discussion about these topics her approach is clear and engaging---after all she makes accounting, the official "Language of Business," almost sound cool--as she uses simple yet revealing examples to explain the basics of accounting and and the initial steps to reading and/or producing different types of financial statements. Lastly, to pull it back to the day-to-day issues, she has some excellent tips to keep in mind to get promoted:

1. Master your current responsibilities and duties to prove you are ready for new/more challenges.
2. Be willing to take on more and diverse responsibilities.
3. Show enthusiasm for learning new skills and take advantage of any training offered that relates to your position (or future position you'd like).
4. Improve your interpersonal skills as jobs higher up the food chain will probably require more people skills and less technical work.
5. Reveal your industry knowledge by reading its journals and then discuss industry issues with your boss.
6. Make yourself more valuable to the company however you can. If you don't know how, ask your manager what skills you need to develop to be considered for a promotion or position change.

Sure, much of this is common sense. But, that's what gives it its power. When you're on the job there is always the tendency to lose sight of the forest for the trees. A little straight talk like this, however, from Laura is the kind pep talk to regain some perspective about our place in the what and what to do about it that all of us need periodically.

As I'm always saying, my lack of a business background---hey! people get master's degrees in English because they like to read books, not make money or be otherwise gainfully employed---is not a factor that generally helps me on a day-to-day basis. So, when I come across information like this presented by Laura Adams that is clear, concise, engaging and useful, I'm going to keep taking advantage of it as long as I can, especially since her Web site that supports the podcasts also has additional information not contained in the podcasts themselves.

(And, besides, the TVs on the elliptical trainers are out at the gym for the next two weeks so while everyone else the is bemoaning the fact they can't have their regular selection of six sports channels to watch at 5:30 in the morning, I'm happily learning about financial statements, leadership styles, and time management strategies.)

Mark

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Here's a quick excerpt from my latest "MDM Insights" column in DM Review.

It’s a long journey from the first efforts of “customer cleanup” to a full-fledged data governance program. But that’s where many companies start. They gradually accept that there are issues with their customer data such as:

• A lack of consistently applied standards and controls,
• Problems arising from conversion of customer data from acquired companies,
• Lack of ownership of customer data,
• Invalid addresses leading to undelivered and returned mail or
• Customer service problems caused by large numbers of duplicate and inaccurate records.

So they form a committee, hire a consulting firm, and involve their internal IT folks. That’s a great start, but it’s important to realize that this is not a once-and-done project.

Click on "From Customer Cleanup to Data Governance" to continue reading.

And please let us know your thoughts by commenting here ...