Keep on Learning

Have you been taking advantage of the rich content available from IDUG?  IDUG is the Worldwide DB2 User Community and if you don’t yet know about them, but work with DB2, you should take a look at what they offer:

1) A very rich website filled with resources that you can access to deepen your skills.  Resources include CDs filled with conference presentations, webcasts, videos, blogs, articles, Solutions Journal e-Magazine and more.

2) Three full conferences each year: one in North American, one in Europe, and one in Asia. In 2011, the conferences will be:

IDUG North America 2011, May 2-6, 2011, Anaheim, California, USA

EMEA - 14-18 November 2011 in Prague, Czech Republic

ASIA – To be announced.

3) Regional symposiums and events throughout the year and the world.

4) If your educational budget is limited, please remember IDUG's Mentor Program where you may qualify for a special low rate if you bring a first time attendee to an IDUG conference.

5) Volunteer opportunities.  You can speak, teach, organize, plan, or get into leadership positions.  More about this:

IDUG is a volunteer run organization. In order to appropriately recognize excellent work from our many IDUG volunteers, the Volunteer Management Committee of the Board of Directors is now accepting nominations for IDUG Volunteer of the Year. If you have seen exceptional effort, exemplary work, or outstanding performance from an IDUG Volunteer, please send the specifics to vmc@idug.org.

Have you ever thought of serving on the IDUG Board of Directors? Do you know someone who might?

The IDUG Board of Directors is responsible for setting the overall strategy for our organization, and coordinating the activities of our various volunteer teams around the world. We are beginning the process of putting together the 2011/2012 slate, and would like to invite nominations for a role on next year’s Board of Directors. This is a great opportunity to help shape the organization and grow the worldwide DB2 community.

If you have a clear vision for IDUG’s future, can think strategically as well as tactically and are passionate about IDUG’s mission, we want to hear from you! If you know of someone else who fits these criteria and would like to nominate them, that’s fine too!

Please complete the form by clicking here and return it to vmc@idug.org no later than Monday, 27 December 2010.

  

 

Join IDUG for free and get connected to a fabulous community of people who will quickly and easily become a second family to you.

 

Susan

 

This is an interesting concept!  Education classes can be rather expensive and if the course doesn’t fit your needs, the price is even higher.  Now you can try a class for free to see if it gets into the depth that you need or at the pace that you need.

Experience the benefits of instructor-led online (ILO) and self-paced training with our no-charge class samples and trials. These popular no-travel training formats offer the same rich content and labs as our classroom courses. Check them out:

• IBM Systems: test drive an ILO class
• Information Management: self-paced virtual class trials
• Lotus self-paced virtual class sample
• Lotus Multimedia Library: 15-day trial
• Rational self-paced virtual class trials
• Tivoli: free online training
• Tivoli: multimedia library demo
• WebSphere: sample lessons from ILO courses

Personal Tidbit:

Yesterday I spent the afternoon at the IBM IOD Virtual Conference and virtually attended several sessions.  I like the fact that I can sit at my desk with my computer and headphones and take in the content from amazing speakers.  If you haven’t tried it yet, try one of these classes and see how useful they are.  You may prefer this type of education to any other once you give it a try.

 

Susan

 

Join Scott Hayes and Klaas Brant on the last show of this season.

The DB2Night Show Episode #36

HIGH AVAILABILTY: Comparing DB2 (pureScale), Oracle (RAC), and SQL Server (Cluster)

Friday, December 17, 2010 11:00 – 12:00 EST

 

DB2 has some great high availability options like HADR and Pure-Scale. But how about the competition? How does DB2 compare to Oracle and SQL Server? In this episode we will look at the architectures that enable high availability and show you why DB2 Pure-Scale is superior to Oracle RAC and SQL Server Cluster.

Special guest Klaas Brant, IBM DB2 GOLD Consultant & Owner KBCE, returns to our show for a second appearance.  You might recall Klaas was on our show earlier this year (Episode #18 on 7 May 2010) talking about the Top 10 DB2 LUW mistakes that people make - an Episode that was extremely popular with viewers.  Watch the replays on the DB2Night Show website.

If you'd like to learn about DB2 PureScale and competing technologies, then this show is for you!  Also, take a look at a previous blog entry I did where I compiled a collection of DB2 Purescale resources: More on DB2 pureScale.

 

Personal Tidbit: For those keeping score, my blog views are now over 980,000! Lately I’ve been getting nearly 20,000 new views every week, so there is still a chance that I can get to 1M before the end of the year.  Thanks for all your support this year!

 

Susan

 

Have you seen the news on this yet?  Deep data analytics…. indeed!

 

IBM’s supercomputing machine “Watson” will compete on Jeopardy (Feb 14, 2011) against the two top champions of the game show: Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter.  Read the article.

This first-ever competition will air on February 14, 15 and 16, 2011, with two matches being played over the three days.

Watson was built by a team of IBM scientists who set out to accomplish a grand challenge: to build a computing system that rivals a human beings ability to answer questions posed in natural language with speed, accuracy and confidence. The "Jeopardy!" format provides the ultimate challenge because its clues involve analyzing subtle meaning, irony, riddles and other complexities. Humans excel at this, but computers traditionally do not.

 

Interested in learning more?  See the links below to see what everyone else is saying:

What is IBM Watson? – NY Times Article

Video: Why Jeopardy?

Smarter Planet Website – It’s just a game, but what can we learn from this?

Smarter Planet Blog

Crunch Gear Article - Latest Jeopardy Contestant: A Robot Named Watson

Man vs Machine: IBM's supercomputer Watson to take on Jeopardy stars – International Business Times Article

 

Have some fun with this!  Join the Watson group on Facebook and share your thoughts!  

 

Who will win?  Vote now :)

 

 

Susan

 There are a few new things that I'd like to tell you about the DB2 Certification Guides that you don't already know:

1) Judy Nall's book was the latest to publish and I've been told it is selling VERY well!  I hope those who are purchasing the book are taking and passing exam 737 as a result! 

2) Susan Lawson and Dan Luksetich are beginning to update their Certification Guide and hope to have the new version of the book to match the new exam by IDUG in May 2011.

3) Roger Sanders is in discussions with the publisher to create a V9.7 update to his very popular V9 Cert Guides.

To prepare yourself to pass the exams read through a previous blog entry that I did called Certification 101.

Buy or borrow a Study Guide related to the exam you are taking.  These books are available electronically through Books 24x7 or Safari Books Online.  The suggested books are:

DB2 9 System Administration for z/OS: Certification Study Guide: Exam 737

Judy Nall

DB2 9 Database Administration Certification Study Guide for Exam 732
Susan Lawson and Daniel Luksetich

DB2 9 Advanced Database Administration Certification Study Guide for Exam 734
Roger Sanders, Dwaine Snow

DB2 9 Fundamentals Certification Study Guide
Roger Sanders

DB2 9 Database Administration Certification Study Guide for Exam 731
Roger Sanders

DB2 9 Database Administration Upgrade Certification Study Guide for Exam 736
Roger Sanders

Note that all of these books were written by members of the exam development team and each chapter contains sample questions along with answers and explanations.

Susan 

 

Congratulations to Tony for the upcoming publication of his first book:

Data Integration Blueprint and Modeling 

Techniques for a Scalable and Sustainable Architecture

by Anthony Giordano

 

 

Product Description

This is the Rough Cut version of the printed book.  Rough Cuts is an interactive publishing service from Safari Books Online that provides you with first access to select pre-published manuscripts.

Data integration accounts for some 70% of the cost and risk of data warehousing and business analytics projects. Now, the leader of IBM's Global Data Integration Practice for Business Intelligence presents a complete reference architecture and best-practice blueprint for higher-quality and lower-cost data integration. Anthony Giordano shows how to build data integration processes that use standardized architectures and processes to support the capture, rationalization, and loading of exceptionally high volumes of data. He introduces data integration patterns for SOA, EAI, and ETL and covers every phase, task, and step required to build mature data integration environments.

This book also:

• Provides a common and consistent method of defining and designing data integration processing environments

• Shows how to implement reusable processes that reduce the size and complexity of data integration environments

• Introduces graphical design techniques for data integration

• Covers analysis, design, prototyping, and key information management disciplines such as metadata and data quality

• Explains why data governance is crucial and how to get it right

As data analysis has become increasingly important and more tightly integrated with strategy, the processes required to combine data from different sources into meaningful information has become its own discipline. Data Integration Blueprint and Modeling is the definitive guide to that discipline.

 

About the Author:

Anthony Giordano leads IBM's Global Data Integration Practice for Business Intelligence (BI). He has been part of both PricewaterhouseCoopers and IBM's Global Business Services BI Senior Leadership Team and is one of the coauthors of IBM's Business Intelligence Reference Architecture and Methodology. Giordano has worked in BI and Data Warehousing for more than 20 years. He has extensive experience in both the financial services and automotive industries and has served in roles ranging from partner and consultant to team leader and programmer. He has also taught information management/data warehousing courses at the MBA level.

Susan

Until December 15, 2010, you can save 45% on any Information Management eBooks.  Simply use the coupon code at the checkout.    Coupon code = IMNIBMEBOOKS45

 

What do I suggest?

 

 

Data Integration Blueprint and Modeling

by Anthony Giordano

Note that this title is in ROUGH CUT format: Access future best-sellers as they’re being written.

Data integration accounts for some 70% of the cost and risk of data warehousing and business analytics projects. Now, the leader of IBM's Global Data Integration Practice for Business Intelligence, Anthony Giordano, presents a complete reference architecture and best-practice blueprint for higher-quality and lower-cost data integration. He shows how to build data integration processes to support exceptionally high volumes of data, introduces data integration patterns for SOA, EAI, and ETL, and covers every phase, task, and step required to build mature data integration environments.

****************************************************************

Viral Data in SOA: An Enterprise Pandemic

• By Neal A. Fishman
• Jul 6, 2009

*****************************************************************

The New Era of Business Intelligence

Mike Biere, author of The New Era of Business Intelligence, contributes to the BI tools debate on IT World, offering some evaluation points for ROLAP solutions vs. OLAP.

******************************************************************

DB2 pureXML Cookbook: Master the Power of the IBM Hybrid Data Server

• By Matthias Nicola, Pav Kumar-Chatterjee
• Aug 10, 2009

******************************************************************

Art of Enterprise Information Architecture, The: A Systems-Based Approach for Unlocking Business Insight

• By Mario Godinez, Eberhard Hechler, Klaus Koenig, Steve Lockwood, Martin Oberhofer, Michael Schroeck
• Apr 1, 2010

******************************************************************

Enterprise Master Data Management: An SOA Approach to Managing Core Information

• By Allen Dreibelbis, Eberhard Hechler, Ivan Milman, Martin Oberhofer, Paul Van Run, Dan Wolfson

******************************************************************

Understanding DB2®: Learning Visually with Examples, 2nd Edition

• By Raul F. Chong, Xiaomei Wang, Michael Dang, Dwaine R. Snow
• Dec 29, 2007

******************************************************************

DB2 9 for Linux, UNIX, and Windows: DBA Guide, Reference, and Exam Prep, 6th Edition

• By George Baklarz, Paul C. Zikopoulos
• Nov 19, 2007

******************************************************************

 

Understanding DB2 9 Security

• By Rebecca Bond, Kevin Yeung-Kuen See, Carmen Ka Man Wong, Yuk-Kuen Henry Chan

******************************************************************

 

Why choose an eBook versus a printed book?

 

1.  eBooks are electronically searchable

2.  You can carry hundreds of eBooks around with you at one time

3.  eBooks are often cheaper than printed books

4.  eBooks are the way of the future!!

 

Susan

 

The other day I posted an entry listing the 30 IBM Redbooks that were created this year for the Information Management products: 30 IBM Redbooks from the ITSO

Today I’m listing the top 15 Redbooks in this area that were downloaded this year.  Notice that most of them have reader feedback.

 

1.
Servlet and JSP Programming with IBM WebSphere Studio and VisualAge for Java, SG24-5755-00
Published 16 May 2000, Rating: (based on 5 reviews)

This IBM Redbooks publication provides you with sufficient information to effectively use the WebSphere and VisualAge for Java environments to create, manage and deploy Web-based applications using methodologies centered around servlet, JavaServer Pages, and JavaBean architectures.

2.
Stored Procedures, Triggers, and User-Defined Functions on DB2 Universal Database for iSeries, SG24-6503-02
Published 24 October 2006, Rating: (based on 6 reviews)

This IBM Redbooks publication includes some of the announced features for stored procedures, triggers, and UDFs in V5R1, V5R2, V5R3, and V5R4. Among the topics in this book, you will find suggestions, guidelines, and practical examples on how to effectively develop DB2 Universal Database for iSeries stored procedures, triggers, and UDFs.

3.
VSAM Demystified , SG24-6105-01
Published 12 September 2003, Rating: (based on 20 reviews)

This book helps to demystify VSAM and gives you the information necessary to understand, evaluate, and use VSAM properly. It clarifies VSAM functions for application programmers who work with VSAM. The practical, straightforward approach should dispel much of the complexity associated with VSAM. Wherever possible an example is used to reinforce a description of a VSAM function.

4.
IBM InfoSphere DataStage Data Flow and Job Design, SG24-7576-00
Published 7 July 2008, Rating: (based on 6 reviews)

This IBM® Redbooks® publication develops usage scenarios that describe the implementation of IBM InfoSphere DataStage flow and job design with special emphasis on the new features such as the distributed transaction stage (DTS) in Version 8.0.1, slowly changing dimensions stage ( Version 8.0.1), complex flat file stage (Version 8.0.1), and access to mainframe data.

5.
Up and Running with DB2 on Linux, SG24-6899-01
Published 25 June 2008, Rating: (based on 7 reviews)

This book provides both introductory and detailed information about installing, configuring, managing, and monitoring DB2 in a Linux environment.

6.
IBM FileNet P8 Platform and Architecture, SG24-7667-00
Published 22 July 2009, Rating: (based on 2 reviews)

In this IBM Redbooks® publication, we provide an overview of IBM FileNet P8 and describe the core component architecture. We also introduce major expansion products that extend IBM FileNet P8 functionality in the areas of content ingestion, content accessing through connectors and federation, the application framework, and discovery and compliance.

7.
IBM Cognos Business Intelligence V10.1 Handbook, SG24-7912-00
Published 25 October 2010, Rating: (based on 2 reviews)

This IBM Redbooks® publication addresses IBM Cognos Business Intelligence V10.1. You can use this book to:
- Understand core features of IBM Cognos BI V10.1
- Realize the full potential of IBM Cognos BI
- Learn by example with practical scenarios

8.
High Availability and Disaster Recovery Options for DB2 on Linux, UNIX, and Windows, SG24-7363-01
Published 8 February 2009, last updated 20 April 2009, Rating: (based on 3 reviews)

This IBM Redbooks® publication describes DB2's high availability functions and features, focusing on High Availability Disaster Recovery (HADR) in the OLTP environment. The book provides a detailed discussion of HADR, including setup, configuration. administration, monitoring, and best practices.

9.
Dimensional Modeling: In a Business Intelligence Environment, SG24-7138-00
Published 27 March 2006, last updated 19 May 2008, Rating: (based on 74 reviews)

In this IBM Redbooks publication we describe and demonstrate dimensional data modeling techniques and technology, specifically focused on business intelligence and data warehousing. It is to help the reader understand how to design, maintain, and use a dimensional model for data warehousing that can provide the data access and performance required for business intelligence.

10.
Business Intelligence Certification Guide, SG24-5747-00
Published 10 January 2000, Rating: (based on 7 reviews)

To help you become well prepared to perform this certification, this IBM Redbooks publication provides all the information required to pass the Business Intelligence Solutions test.

11.
Data Modeling Techniques for Data Warehousing, SG24-2238-00
Published 26 February 1998, Rating: (based on 13 reviews)

This IBM Redbooks publication gives detail coverage to the topic of data modeling techniques for data warehousing, within the context of the overall data warehouse development process.
The process of data warehouse modeling, including the steps required before and after the actual modeling step, is discussed. Detailed coverage of modeling techniques is presented in an
evolutionary way through a gradual, but well-managed, expansion of the content of the actual data model. Coverage is also given to other important aspects of data warehousing that affect, or are affected by, the modeling process.

12.
IBM FileNet Content Manager Implementation Best Practices and Recommendations, SG24-7547-00
Published 18 April 2008, last updated 12 May 2008, Rating: (based on 9 reviews)

This IBM Redbooks publication covers the implementation best practices and recommendations for P8 Content Manager solutions. It introduces the functions and features of P8 Content Manager, common use cases of the product, and a design methodology that provides implementation guidance from requirements analysis through deployment and administration planning.

13.
Integrating DB2 Universal Database for iSeries with Microsoft ADO .NET, SG24-6440-00
Published 13 April 2005, Rating: (based on 16 reviews)

This IBM Redbooks publication shows customers how to use ADO.NET effectively to harness the power of DB2 UDB for iSeries, showing examples, best practices, pitfalls, and comparisons between the different ADO.NET data providers.

14.
DB2 for z/OS Stored Procedures: Through the CALL and Beyond, SG24-7083-00
Published 29 March 2004, last updated 22 February 2006, Rating: (based on 20 reviews)

This IBM Redbooks publication helps you design, install, manage, and tune stored procedures with DB2 for z/OS. Stored procedures can provide major benefits in the areas of application performance, code re-use, security, and integrity. DB2 has offered an ever improving support for developing and operating stored procedures. DB2’s enhancements are related to tooling, language support, system environment, and have opened new possibilities for secure, highly portable applications in line with the e-business strategy of today's organizations.

15.
Database Performance Tuning on AIX, SG24-5511-01
Published 20 January 2003, Rating: (based on 20 reviews)

This IBM Redbooks publication is designed to help system designers, system administrators, and database administrators design, size, implement, maintain, monitor, and tune a Relational Database Management System (RDBMS) for optimal performance on AIX. RDBMS is usually a significant factor in building the profit line of a company. They represent an important investment and their performance is vital to the success of the company.

Wow… some of these titles are rather old.  I’m glad that they are still found useful to readers!

 

Susan

 

Did you notice this article that was written as a result of a meeting that Sam Palmisano took part in on November 30th?  The message is similar to one that everyone connected to education have been saying for years.  This education isn’t just aimed at our children, but rather at everyone.  Make sure you keep your skills as strong as they can be in order to make yourself a valuable employee and your company a strong competitor in your industry (best of breed). 

 

I’ve written a few blog entries that cover this area as well… and they end up being some of my most popular blog entries:

 

Trying to get fired?  - Written in September 2009… but the message is still valid.

Career Survival Skills – written this year in April.

Making it Big in Software  - written in May.

Certification 101 – written in Aug, 2009.

 

Speaking of certification, this is one way that you can easily put together an education plan for yourself and then have proof at the end that you have indeed learned what you needed to learn.

To prepare yourself to pass the DB2 exams, I have a few suggestions for you:

1) Read through a previous blog entry that I did called Certification 101.

2) Buy or borrow a Study Guide that you should read before the conference.  These books are available electronically through Books 24x7 or Safari Books Online.  The suggested books are:

DB2 9 System Administration for z/OS: Certification Study Guide: Exam 737

Judy Nall

DB2 9 Database Administration Certification Study Guide for Exam 732
Susan Lawson and Daniel Luksetich

DB2 9 Advanced Database Administration Certification Study Guide for Exam 734
Roger Sanders, Dwaine Snow

DB2 9 Fundamentals Certification Study Guide
Roger Sanders

DB2 9 Database Administration Certification Study Guide for Exam 731
Roger Sanders

DB2 9 Database Administration Upgrade Certification Study Guide for Exam 736
Roger Sanders

Note that all of these books were written by members of the exam development team and each chapter contains sample questions along with answers and explanations.

Susan

 

As usual it’s been a very productive year for the ITSO who publish IBM Redbooks.  Here is a list of 30 titles that were released for the Information Management area in 2010.  Notice that the ITSO allows you to give reader feedback and ratings for these books.  If you like a book, make sure you leave a comment.  Word of mouth feedback is impressively influential.

 

1.
IBM Scale Out Network Attached Storage Concepts
Published 1 December 2010

2.
IBM Content Collector Integration with IBM Classification Module
Published 11 November 2010

3.
IBM Cognos Business Intelligence V10.1 Handbook
Published 25 October 2010, Rating: (based on 2 reviews)

This one was handed out in printed format at the IOD conference, and it proved to be extremely popular. 

4.
IBM Cognos Business Intelligence V10.1: Intelligence Unleashed
Published 25 October 2010, Rating: (based on 1 review)

5.
IBM SPSS predictive analytics: Optimizing decisions at the point of impact
Published 18 October 2010, last updated 12 November 2010

6.
IBM Content Collector Deployment and Performance Tuning
Published 13 October 2010

7.
IBM Informix Developer's Handbook
Published 4 October 2010

8.
IBM Smart Analytics Cloud
Published 1 October 2010, Rating: (based on 1 review)

9.
IBM InfoSphere Streams Harnessing Data in Motion
Published 14 September 2010, Rating: (based on 1 review)

10.
DB2 9 for z/OS and Storage Management
Published 9 September 2010, last updated 17 September 2010, Rating: (based on 1 review)

11.
IBM Content Analytics Version 2.1: Discovering Actionable Insight from Your Content
Published 25 August 2010

12.
IMS 11 Open Database
Published 10 August 2010, last updated 12 August 2010, Rating: (based on 1 review)

13.
InfoSphere DataStage Parallel Framework Standard Practices
Published 30 July 2010, last updated 19 November 2010

14.
Migrating from Microsoft SQL Server to IBM Informix
Published 22 July 2010

15.
IBM Midmarket Software Buying and Selling Guide
Published 12 July 2010, Rating: (based on 2 reviews)

16.
InfoSphere Warehouse: A Robust Infrastructure for Business Intelligence
Published 18 June 2010, last updated 22 June 2010

17.
Disaster Recovery and Backup Solutions for IBM FileNet P8 Version 4.5.1 Systems
Published 16 June 2010, Rating: (based on 1 review)

18.
System z on the Go:
Accessing z/OS from Smartphones
Published 28 May 2010, last updated 10 June 2010, Rating: (based on 3 reviews)

19.
Federated Content Management: Accessing Content from Disparate Repositories with IBM Content Federation Services and IBM Content Integrator
Published 21 April 2010

20.
Best Practices for DB2 on AIX 6.1 for POWER Systems
Published 8 April 2010, last updated 22 April 2010, Rating: (based on 3 reviews)

21.
DB2 9 for z/OS: Using the Utilities Suite
Published 19 February 2010, last updated 28 April 2010, Rating: (based on 6 reviews)

22.
Leveraging IBM Cognos 8 BI for Linux on IBM System z
Published 1 February 2010, Rating: (based on 1 review)

23.
Developing Applications with IBM FileNet P8 APIs
Published 30 December 2009, Rating: (based on 3 reviews)

24.
DB2 9 for z/OS: Resource Serialization and Concurrency Control
Published 22 December 2009, last updated 30 December 2009, Rating: (based on 9 reviews)

25.
DB2 9 for z/OS: Configuring SSL for Secure Client-Server Communications
Published 18 December 2009

26.
Data Warehousing with the Informix Dynamic Server
Published 10 December 2009, Rating: (based on 1 review)

27.
MySQL to DB2 Conversion Guide
Published 1 December 2009, Rating: (based on 10 reviews)

28.
Using Integrated Data Management To Meet Service Level Objectives
Published 6 November 2009, last updated 25 November 2009

29.
Oracle to DB2 Conversion Guide: Compatibility Made Easy
Published 6 November 2009, last updated 29 April 2010, Rating: (based on 8 reviews)

30.
IBM Classification Module: Make It Work for You
Published 29 October 2009, last updated 3 November 2009

 

Looking for more e-books:

 

DB2 on Campus series of ebooks - 7 titles published, more coming. Free!

Read an e-book, you'll be surprised how much you'll like it!

ebooks are now mainstream... are you in?

 

Susan

 

Neal Fishman, author of book “Viral Data in SOA”, wrote this article “When to use an artificial field length” which was published by IT World.

 

Changing a data structure can be one of the simplest activities to physically perform. However, when considering the number of programs that act upon a data structure, any type of change to a data structure becomes a very complex activity - which may increase the potential for introducing viral data.   Read this article by Neal to better understand how you can avoid the massive problems that will ensue if you introduce viral data into your database.

 

Neal adapted this article from his book, so if you like it, check out the book.

 

The title of the book “Viral Data” implies that the book is about Data Quality… but there is much more in the book!  Check out these terms that also describe the content of the book: 

• data governance
• data modeling
• data quality
• master data management
• data architecture
• data integration
• data provenance
• metadata
• trusted information
• data quality assessment

For more information on Neal’s book, see my blog entry about his book signing.  This entry contains some reader feedback that you’ll appreciate.

Neal had several sessions at the IOD conference this year.  Did you catch any of them? 

• 3324A Unified Metadata Architectures for Successful Enterprise Metadata Deployments with IBM InfoSphere
• 3120A Data Governance Strategies and Their Value in Your Organization
• 2803B InfoSphere Data Architect and Data Modelers User Group
• 3324B Unified Metadata Architectures for Successful Enterprise Metadata Deployments with IBM InfoSphere

 

On Dec 15, you can take part in the Virtual IOD and can possibly “attend” one or more of these sessions.  Sign up: IBM Information on Demand Virtual Conference on Dec 15: http://ow.ly/3iLxE

 

Susan

Did you miss the IBM Information on Demand Conference that took place in Las Vegas in October?  Did you attend the conference and miss some sessions or would like to repeat some sessions?   Join us on December 15 for the Virtual Event that you can take part in directly from your home or office!  Free of charge!

Information On Demand 2010 is the premier conference for organizations applying information governance and analytics to drive innovation, business optimization and competitive differentiation. Information On Demand Virtual 2010 offers a unique opportunity to experience ‘a taste’ of the conference virtually.

Register now for this upcoming event!

December 15

• Attend presentations of conference sessions and customer success stories
• Chat with IBM information governance expert
• Experience keynote presentation on information governance featuring Forrester Research Principal Analyst Rob Karel and the conference’s general sessions on demand…at your leisure
• Experience presentations of the top five sessions at IOD Global Conference 2010 on demand…at your leisure

Register now. Attendees joining us December 15 between the hours of 1:00 - 3:00pm EST will receive a complimentary paperback copy of “The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right” by Dr. Atul Gawande author and keynote speaker at Information On Demand. Book recipients from the November 17 2010 event, government owned entities and IBM employees are not eligible to receive the book.

Doors open at 12:30pm EST and scheduled sessions begin promptly at 1:00pm EST.

My suggestion would be to replay the sessions by any of the authors of the books that we had featured at the conference.    See my post “Complete List of Book Signings at IOD Conference” for details.  I was working at the conference so was only able to attend the keynotes, but I did however here the comments from attendees regarding the authors who were signing books.  These attendees were really impressed with the sessions that were done by the authors. 

 

Personally I'd encourage you to watch sessions by Steven Levitt, Stephan Dubnar, Mark Jeffries and Dr. Atul Gawande.  I attended these sessions and would be happy to watch them a second or even a third time!

 

If you’ve never attended a Virtual Conference before, I encourage that you do.  You’ll be very impressed with the level of interaction and the quality of the delivery method.

 

Susan

 

Earlier this year I wrote a blog entry entitled Year of the e-Book.  Indeed it has been a very popular year for people trying or switching to ebooks.  In the recently published article Top Trends of 2010: Growth of eBooks & eReaders, author Richard MacManus states that “eBook sales almost doubled over 2010 and now make up 9% of total consumer book sales”.

 

Although this is significant, there is still a long way to go before ebooks become widely accepted.  I’ve owned my Kindle for a year now and my son has a Sony, so from personal experience, two bookworms from different generations were able to make the switch and love the experience.  When I ask people if they’ve considered one of the ebook readers, they tell me that they would never be able to give up the feel of an actual book in their hands.  My answer to this is that most of us have converted from snail mail to email, so the conversion from printed books to ebooks will happen eventually, but it will need people to first step outside their comfort zone.

 

One of the things I really liked about Richard’s article was his comparison between printed books and ebooks.  I’ve copied his pros & cons here to add my own opinions:

 

5 Ways That eBooks Are Better Than Paper Books

1. Social Highlighting
2. Notes
3. Look-up of words
4. Ability to Tweet & Facebook quotes
5. Search

I’ve used all of these features on my kindle, but would like to add that my favourite features are 1) the ability to get sample books.  When I’m out with people and we’re discussing books that we recommend, I can easily build a wish list of books by getting sample chapters for free from amazon.com.  On a recent vacation, I read 5 of the samples that I had recently downloaded and decided that 4 of the 5 were books that I was interested in reading further.  2) The price of a new release in kindle format is much cheaper than the hardcover.  Along with this is the weight.  My wrists hurt when reading those heavy hard cover books!  So now I don’t need to wait for the paperback or trade version of the book, I can read it inexpensively and weightlessly on my kindle!

5 Ways That Paper Books Are Better Than eBooks

1. Feel
2. Packaging
3. Sharing
4. Keeping
5. Second-hand books

I still share books with others… mostly other people lending me their printed books.  I will still pick up used books when I see one that I’d like to read.  But for me, most of the books I’ll buy it the future will be gifts or keepsakes.  At the IOD conference I was able to get books signed by the authors.  Even though I already owned e-versions of these books, I purchased the printed copies to get their signature.  I purchased a few as gifts as well.  One guy had the Freakonomics authors sign his Kindle in permanent marker!!

 

There are so many choices for e-readers now and the prices appear to be dropping, so I presume many people will be getting these as gifts this Christmas.  If you do get one, step outside your comfort zone and give it an honest try.  You might learn that you like it… like I did!

 

How about technical books?  Well, I’ve noticed that some of the kindle sample books for technical books are not perfect yet.  One book I downloaded, I ended up with only the Front Matter.  I guess looking at the TOC is important, but I wanted to see what the chapters and diagrams looked like.  I contacted the publisher to suggest that they fix this.

 

Not all publishers have put their books in Kindle format.  There are still issues that need to be worked through with the profits and graphics quality.  The ipad fixes the graphics quality… so that might make technical ebooks more accepted.

 

From my perspective, all of our books are in electronic format.  Really if you think about it, IBM has been a leader in electronic formats for information.  IBM Redbooks have been a major source of high quality content for forty years now.  Product documentation with IBM products such as DB2 has been delivered in electronic format through the Information Center or online help for more than 10 years now.  Our published books are made available in Books 24x7 and Safari Books Online which are electronic book libraries.  IBM subscribes to Books 24x7 meaning that all IBM employees can access published books electronically, at no charge.  All IBM Press books and all of our Certification Study Guides are available in Kindle format as well as epub format that can be used on any e-reading device.

 

Check out another blog entry I wrote entitled “The Mainstreaming of e-Books” that gives a bit more information about some of the e-readers.  Also check out my blog entry from yesterday “DB2 on Campus Book Series” which is a set of books that are only available in electronic format.

 

Susan

 

Thanks to an amazing team of authors led by Raul Chong, people of the world have high-quality ebooks available to them to learn about DB2 and related products.  The authors who have worked on these books are experts in their area and they have volunteered to share their expertise with you for no financial gain to themselves.

 

The authors can be found around the world, so as a result, you’ll see that many of the titles have already or will one day be translated to another language.  We at IBM want to make sure that everyone in the world is able to benefit from the knowledge that is being shared.

 

Seven books are already completed and at this time are only available in electronic format from the sites linked below. 

 

FREE ebook - Database fundamentals

Learn the basics of relational database theory and other information models. This book discusses database logical and physical design, and introduces you to the SQL language. Practice with hands-on exercises!

Authors:
Neeraj Sharma, Liviu Perniu, Raul F. Chong, Abhishek Iyer, Adi-Cristina Mitea, Chaitali Nandan, Mallarswami Nonvinkere, Mirela Danubianu

FREE ebook - Getting started with DB2 Express-C

This is the 3rd edition of this popular DB2 book. Learn what DB2 is all about. It's been updated for DB2 9.7 and has been translated to many languages.
Authors:
Raul F. Chong, Ian Hakes, Rav Ahuja

FREE ebook - Getting started with Adobe Flex

Adobe® Flex® is the technology of the future; it takes you to the next level of Web application development by providing a free open source framework to develop Rich Internet Applications (RIAs). Using the Flex framework, you can build software that can be used in combination with other server side technologies such as PHP, J2EE, ColdFusion, .NET, and so on. Learn how to use it and develop applications in conjunction with  DB2 Express-C, the no-charge edition of DB2; or IBM Data Studio, a free eclipse-based IDE that can help you develop data Web services in minutes.  
Authors:
Amitava Kundu, Charu Kundu, Charu Agarwal, Anushka Chandrababu, Mukul Kumar, Karthik Ramanarayanan, Raul F. Chong 

FREE ebook - Getting started with DB2 application development

This book introduces you to DB2® application development using DB2 Express-C. Learn about DB2 stored procedures, functions and Data Web services using SQL and XQuery.  Learn how to work with DB2 and Java^TM, C/C++, .NET, PHP, Ruby on Rails, Perl, and more!
Authors:
Raul F. Chong, Xiqiang Ji, Priyanka Joshi, Vineet Mishra, Min Wei Yao

FREE ebook - Getting started with IBM Data Studio for DB2

IBM Data Studio is an Eclipse-based tool that is the replacement of the DB2® Control Center and other tools for DB2. In conjunction with DB2 Express-C, the no-charge edition of DB2, Data Studio is ideal for DBAs, developers, students, ISVs, or consultants because it's easy and free to use. You can extend Data Studio with additional robust management and development capabilities from IBM to help accelerate solution delivery, optimize performance, protect data privacy, manage data growth, and more.
Authors:
Debra Eaton, Vitor  Rodrigues, Manoj K. Sardana, Michael Schenker, Kathryn Zeidenstein & Raul F. Chong 

 

FREE ebook - Getting started with open source development

Open source software development is a community-driven methodology to develop products, from the design and development stages to distribution. Developers across differents part of the world are passionate about their collaboration, and several successful projects including Firefox, Moodle, and Drupal are widely used today. Moreover, many companies are using open source software as the foundation to build their business models.
This book gets you started into the fascinating world of open source software development. Using the exercises and case studies provided, you will get good hands-on experience to contribute to and start open source projects.     
Authors:
Rachna Kapur, Mario Briggs,  Pedro Carvalho, Ulisses Costa, Tapas Saha, Raul F. Chong, Peter Kohlmann  

FREE ebook - Getting started with WAS CE

WebSphere Application Server Community Edition (Community Edition for short) is part of the IBM WebSphere Application Server family.  Community Edition is the free edition built on top of Apache Geronimo. Learn how to use Community Edition to develop Java EE applications in conjunction with Eclipse and DB2 Express-C, the no-charge edition of DB2.
Authors:
Jiang Lin Quan, Dai Xuan, Wang Lei, Juliano Marcos Martins, Chi Run Hua, Xia Ming, Tang Ying, Raul F. Chong

 

Coming Soon:

In addition to the seven completed titles… check out this ambitious list of books that are coming soon:

• Getting started with Web 2.0 
• Programming fundamentals 
• Software engineering and databases 
• Ten steps to career success 
• A career in databases
• Getting started with C and C++ 
• Getting started with cloud computing 
• Getting started with Data Warehousing
• Getting started with Perl
• Getting started with PHP 
• Getting started with pureQuery 
• Getting started with Python 
• Getting started with Ruby on Rails 
• Getting started with SOA
• Getting started with Eclipse 
• Getting started with InfoSphere Data Architect 
• Getting started with Java 
• Getting started with Mac 
• Getting started with mobile application development
  

Thanks to all the authors involved…. your efforts are very much appreciated.  Congratulations on your amazing accomplishment.

 

Personal Tidbit:

As of today, my blog has had 945,882 visits since April 2009. Thanks for helping me get to the 5th top blogger spot on DevWorks!

 

Susan