I would have bought the Packt JPBM workflow book even though I got a free review copy. I wish I had it when I was first learning Workflow / jBPM

Long Review

I like workflow, which doesn’t tend to make me very popular at parties. But, since you’re reading this blog, I’ll assume that you have some interest in Workflow, and will now proceed to tell you all about it (if I’ve got this wrong, and you’re using Google Reader, hit the ‘J’ button now to speed on to something more interesting. We’ll forget all about this in the couple of days when I next blog).

Still here? While most computer programs aim to finish as soon as possible, workflow programs can run over many hours , days or weeks (stick with me, this gets better). Most of the difficulties that programmers face when coming to workflow aren’t technical (workflow is no more difficult than using one of the many web frameworks out there) but  conceptual.

1. Trust the force, Luke; If you’re used to writing your own programs, it can be a bit of a switch to writing small actions to be embedded into a larger workflow framework.
2. Forget about Hello World. Workflow is used to solve complex problems. It’s going to take a bigger investment of your time to appreciate the true power of  workflow .
3. Tip of the iceberg (aka Why can’t I write my own?) Most people start out not needing an entire workflow framework, but to solve a specific problem. So they begin to write their own framework. Then they find another requirement, then another. By the time they realise that they need an ‘off the shelf’ framework, they’re reluctant to to dump their investment.

So where does the book come into this?

jBpm Java Business Process Management book cover

Put simply, the book lets you overcome those  three big problems more quickly.

Yes, it deals with the ‘nuts and bolts’ of workflow – how to setup the framework. How to use the Eclipse based editor to draw / design your workflow. How to the use the various tasks that come bundled with the framework, and how to write your own. How to persist your workflow so that even if the system fails, the business can still recover. But all of these are covered quite well in the JBoss jBPM documentation, even though having it in book format is very useful.

Where the book is really good is that it talks you through the concepts of workflow, why you should be using it, and gives you the big picture straight away. It also will help convince you (or your boss) that an off-the-shelf framework is much, much better than even thinking of writing your own.

Combined with the fact that jBPM is open source, and is available for free download from JBoss / RedHat (i.e. it is low cost to start, but is credible enough to deploy in the enterprise), this make the book an ideal way to experiment with workflow. Even if you choose (or somebody else chooses for you) to use an alternative workflow framework, once you mastered the concepts (which are the same for most frameworks), picking up the technical details is relatively easy.

Things I didn’t like about this book; One is partly jealously – the style of the book (making a complex subject easily available to beginners) is one that I wish I had mastered in my own book. The other is that while the examples are very good in each chapter, it would have been good if each sample built on the one previously, so that you ended the book with quite a sophisticated system. Given my interest in other JBoss projects (such as JBoss Rules / Drools) it would have been good if these were mentioned and explained (e.g. the Drools rule engine integrates well with decision making nodes)

Minor gripes, and all very specific to my interest in JBoss technology.  I would still buy the book if despite knowing all of this, given that it introduces the concepts and technology so well.

Link to Book on Amazon.

I’m pleased to announce the (soft) launch of Enterprise Ireland’s third blog – BestConnected. (For the record , the other two are the very successful EI Americas, and EI Research and Commercialisation blogs).

Best Connected is the overarching theme of Enterprise Ireland’s software strategy (pdf). It aims to take advantage of Ireland’s size (where everybody knows everybody elses cousin) and link together the tech community, EI Client Companies, Multinationals , 3rd Level Education and the Public Sector. The BestConnected Blog also features specific channels for Public Sector , Financial Software and Services, and Cloud / Software as a Service providers (with more to come).

In line with Enterprise Ireland’s mantra of promoting exports, export led jobs, there are specific sections for company profiles for software and solutions companies.

Company Profiles on EI Best Connected Blog

• Brand and Customer Care
• Business Intelligence
• Business Process Management
• Capital Markets
• Card Products
• Case Management Systems
• Content management
• Custom Software Development
• Customer Management & Analysis
• Development Tools
• Documentation Solutions
• Education and e-Learning
• Finance Sector
• GIS
• Health
• Health Software Specialist
• Infrastructure Services – Security
• Insurance
• IT Services
• Justice and Security
• Local Government
• Managed Services
• Mobile Solutions
• Payment Solutions and Supplier Management
• People, Time and Project Management
• Product Management
• Record; Document Management and Search
• Semi-state & Federal Government
• Software

The best method of gauging when a technology idea is going mainstream is the Economist Magazine. When they publish an article about an emerging idea / technology, they’re doing it on behalf of their readers – the ‘informed mainstream, including the decision makers that you’ll be pitching you proposal based on that technology to. So far , they’ve called it right about the Internet, Agile Projects, Open Source and Cloud computing.

So, for all that have been calling for the last 18 months that ‘Social Networking is going mainstream’ , the Economist has published a special report on the issue.

Well worth a read, even if you think you know it all about Social Networking already.

It’s now free, and fixes the traditional problem with the Outlook task list of not being able to handle anything beyound the most simple of projects. Watch this blog for how it goes.

jBpm Java Business Process Management book cover

So, I’ve been asked by Packt (the guys how published my book) to review the new jBPM Developer guide book. So, not only do I get to help a fellow author (Good Karma), I get the catchup on features of jBPM I may not have used yet in my professional capacity, and I get a free book. What is there not to like?

Disclaimer – getting free copy, but am otherwise free to write good / bad / or completely off the wall ideas about it. Watch this space.

1. User Experience. User Experience. User Experience
2. iPhone currently the leader, revolutionized Mobile app sales, but market (and devices) evolving very quickly.
3. Good case for usage in Enterprise (cost reduction, growing use of iPhone platform in Enterprise, New channel to customers) but be flexible, be ready for the evolution.

The iPhone as an Emerging Enterprise Platform

1.15pm Wednesday 2nd December 2009
Venue – The Alexander Hotel  Dublin .

The iPhone has captured significant mindshare since its launch in 2007, and in particular the application development model and the iTunes App Store, which has had over two billion downloads of over 100,000 applications.
There has been a move from games and other ‘fun’ applications to software companies looking to add mobile channels for their products. Enterprise focussed companies like Intuition are developing iPhone applications in order to add to the value of their core product or service.

As part of the Enterprise Europe Network, Enterprise Ireland are hosting an information and networking event on December 2nd in Dublin.

This is a chance for software companies to explore the opportunities presented by mobile applications and Apple’s iPhone in particular. Topics covered will include:

• What is so special about the iPhone?
• How does one develop applications – what are the skills required?
• What are the costs?
• How to deploy enterprise applications?

There will also be an opportunity to meet with the iPhone developer community in Ireland.

Enterprise Features iPhone – Dermot Daly, Tapadoo

What is an iPhone?

• Basics ; phone, location/direction/tilt aware , quality web browser and multimedia,Document and pdf viewer)
• And apps

Enterprise features

• Originally consumer (02 contracts reflected this)
• Latest iPhone 3GS had enterprise (not emphasised) e.g. Compass Video Cameria
• Enterprise Mail (e.g. ActiveSync from MS, but also POP/IMAP/CALDAV/LDAP)
• Centralised Config (e.g. App lockdown, can prevent changes)
• Security Enhancements (e.g. FindmyIPhone, RemoteWipe)
• VPN out of the box (all internet standards)

All stuff Nokia/ Blackberry do, but iPhone slicker

Apps

• iPhone enhanced website
• Website with iPhone specifc css
• Similar to Mozilla Prism?
• No deployment / easier to deploy
• No access to underlying hardware.

Native Apps (code to phone)

• Underlying hardware access
• Objective C & SDK Libraries
• Number of ways to deploy

iPhone SDK (4 layers 20+ frameworks each)

• iPhone OS / based on MacOS/ derived from BSD Unix
• Core Services (e.g. Core Data, backed by SQLLite on phone) , contact , addressbox, GPS, StoreKit (for upsell) within app e.g. eBooks)

• Media (Quartz 2d animation, Open GL 3D in Hardware, iPod Library and Core Audio / Video)
• Coco Touch – User Interface / controls ; Messaging UI; Map Kit (with Google Maps); Game Kit (P2P Games)

Sample Native Applications

• iPhone version of existing e.g. RTE Breaking news
• Own staff to allow

Challenges

• Deployment to public via App store
• To own own staff
• Enterprise Deployment (more than 500 employeees – Limited e.g. University of Ulster)
• Ad Hoc Deployment (Management Overhead – need to gather specific device ID’s – limit up to 100)

The Market

• Nobody will release figures on iPhone in Ireland (est 50k – 150k based on app downloads – guess)
• 02 -> Vodafone Q1 next year (around Feb?)
• Expects Market to double overnight
• Expect Vodofone business plan
• UK – 5% – 1m phones and pushing other platforms
• Better than any other single handset (as opposed to single manufacturue) – one app works on all iPhone
  - e.g. no problem of testing like Java phones
  - Worldphone – 50m devices (inc iPod touch)

Developer

• Need to develop on Mac
• Object C, DSK and App store process (need to learn)
• xCake Developer community / apps.ie
• Cost (people expect it to cost less / yet usage pattern very differnt – little and often) similar to Senior Java
• Base on Spec (like most software projects)

Intuition Keith O’Loughlin (CTO)
“Intuition’s experience with iPhone”
Scaling / eLearnging

• Don’t repeat same mistkaes; think of user experience
• Intuition provide professional learning applicaiton to corporates globally
• Mobile started Blackberry, client demand led to iPhone – also on Windows Mobile
• Mobile allows eLearning in users time / on their terms
• Not a Laptop as that experience is more akin to desk based (e.g. phone always there, always ready unlike Laptop)
• iPhone Experience (Emotional attachment)
• Three modes of use (Bored Now / Repetitive Now e.g. stock or Football news/ Urgent Now ) – from Google
  - 6 Month old can use iPhone (but not Blackberry!)
• iPhone has created market for mobile applicatoins (Blackberry, Orange, Vodafone all trying to copy idea)
• Free apps; usage over time ; shelf life tails off sharply over 3 days ; What is user call to embed in their

Lifestyle (use again and again, evangilise) – doesn’t happen for PC’s.  All about the user experience

iPhone and Enterprise

• Blackberry v Apple
• 2 millon  Apple iPhones  in Corporate , growing hughely , 35m Blackberry, overtake in 3 years at current rate of growth
• Beware of Google (space evolving very quickly – like 1980 in PC space)
• More smartphones sold last year than Laptops
• Enterprise benefits : rich apps / improve effecienct / workflows / reduce costs / grow revenues
• Issues: Security (percieved issue) / difficult deployment / Early adoptor days

Developer: good that single screen size and form size (develop once) , only 3 OS v Java experinece

• First app on apple platform in 6 weeks
• Some API missing e.g. to turn off phone API not exposed

Apple; focus on qualiy and brand – control!!

• Won’t allow apps with bugs (and Apple decide what bug is!)
• Limited develop support
• App store very easy to use
• A lot of applications – easy to get lost
• Low cost of entry / but slow process / very thoroought process

Repeat: Not about the technology, about the user
Average phone replaced every 2 years – very easy for market to change

Opportunites / Pitfalls

• Scale
• Devices Big Picture (be flexible; devices will change, Apps will not) – iPhone good place to start.
• Style v Substance
• Platform subsistence
• 2 models
• consulting / developer
• existing product , new channel

MyHome.ie Keith Mahon
“Experiences with MyHome.ie on the iPhone”

Head of Technology , Irish Times digital group.

• Phoneware created local based search engine, fitted with what MyHome where thinking of doing.
• Involved since Dec 08 (12 months); 4 Months to develop while Irish Times learned
• Apple is ‘blockage’ in systems – useful to get professional advice!

Lessons Learned

• Reduce functionality to what users really want
• Traffic with not reach mobile (yet) for iPhones – set expectations – more strategic move for future.
• Estimates market at 15,000  users (note – estimate of user based  much less than Dermot Daly)
• At least one month to get on Appstore, 1 week for each update; but no committment to dates from
• Need to promote, like any other website

Success

• Number 1 Irish app store 12 days / top 50 for 2 months- will change up and down over time.
• Give credibility with other users, even if they don’t use iPhone themselves.
• Strong commuter audience (morning and evening spikes).
• Agents started getting calls / emails directly from iPhone – very visible change!
• Writeup in Sunday Business Post – can lead to spike in Traffic.
• 449,000  page views within 15 days; Tiny v Main web sites (15million  in same time) – but new and growing audience

App

• Shows map with homes for sale (will include rental)
• Virtual overlay (look through camera, see available houses around you)
• Give app away free , but looking how to get people to subsribe

Strength and Weakness

• Smaller , restriced audience – shortage of supply of devices, being kept expensive. Maybe wider when Vodafone sell iPhone Q1 2010.
• Does not work on stardard iPhone – needs 3GS iPhone
• No SMS integration like normal mobiles (maybe later versions)
• A lot of strengths (Locaion aware, excellent delivery channel)

iPhone -  a new Frontier for payments
WorldNet TPS

Enterprise Ireland  HPSU ( Startup) – provide secure online payment (Payment Gateway) going 2 years, product 1 year.

See Opportunity as enabling business – promote iPhone as payment terminal
Complements existing business / other virtual access points such as laptop / PC

For business this means  e.g. Tour Operator / Sell items on Tour Buses while promoter is still on road

Competitor to iPhone in payments space is Desktop – very different proposition (good and bad)

PCI Compliance (part of Visa contract) means storing credit card info on PC / or paper means fines up to 25,000 Euro  for each infringement

Moving to (all ideas that have been tried before , with various success, mainly due to societal factors

• Cardholder present transation
• Pay by mobile instead of credit card
• P2P payment applications

A lot of the leading payment players behind these ideas – will market take off?

OS3 – Damian O’Suilleabháin
“Approaches to iPhone development & the Irish iPhone Developer community”

OS3 develop iPhone apps (3 public , more on way)

Can’t activate iPhone without giving Credit Card details – very low friction sell through AppStore – like DoCoMo model.

Why iPhone?

• Trip to future; demographics – about 25% Western world only know internet on mobile / social network natives . Don’t like ads,  but friends think it’s cool.
• Growing rapidly.
• 2 Billon n apps downloaded in last 18 months – last month 500m
• Major brands have apps available
• Opportunity; Extra revenue / new customers through new channel / association with coolness

Web Apps v Native Apps

• Web development use existing web technologies (Simple) Apple Browser the best mobile browser – compares well to many desktop browsers. Doesn’t do flash.
• Web App +: Write in (web) langugae teha you’re familar with) Easier upload – no dealings with Apple. Dynamic. Reused web application for other mobiles / from Desktop.
• Native Apps gives (almost)  full power of API.  Mac Based Operating System – very powerful. e.g. Gesture Capture, Compass.
• Native App can be used offline. Easier to Monetize app (sell through appstore).

InHouse v Outsourced Development

• Same as traditional software development pro’s and con’s.

iPhone Developer Community in Ireland

• xCake - loose developer community / act as group when talking to Enterprise Ireland , O2
• Apps.ie – evolved from XCake – showcase for Irish iPhone apps, evangilize mobile applications in Ireland.
• Members; available on site include 21 developers from companies to individuals

Here are the important points;

1. It’s Big.
2. It’s the first data centre that Microsoft have built outside of the US. Kudos to the  Microsoft Ireland team and the IDA for their success in getting the data centre located here.
3. It’s a big deal for Ireland – maybe only 20 seconds on the RTE News, but that’s because stacks of servers don’t hit the ‘Human interest’ angle. This might be as important a decision as Intel coming to Ireland in the late 80’s.
4. Did I mention that it’s Big? 300,000 Sq feet. That’s a lot of football pitches.

Seriously lads; forget about having a server under your desk, or even your own server room down the hall. Leave it to the professionals. Data Centres and the cloud is the way software is going.

Want to say a big thank you for the guys who did all the hard work in putting the camp together. Keith, Emily, Alan and Jason, do ye not have a business to run as well?!

Key people that I’m looking forward to hearing are the two EI guys (David is talking at 11.30 about Business plan mistakes and Gerard’s on at 15.30 about how your startup should approach EI for the first time). I’m also looking forward to seeing Ciara talk about personal productivity (10am), Ronan about Microsoft Bizspark (10.45),  Justin talking about Service (14.45) and Steve talking about Software as a Service (16.15).

Talk to you there!

Enterprise Ireland in association with IT@Cork, ITAG and ISA would like to invite you to a seminar entitled ‘Opportunities in The New Software Economy’. These seminars will be held in Cork (Sept 8), Galway (Sept 9) and Dublin (Sept 10).

The New Software Economy is driven by the growth of the Internet and changes in the software value chain. It is underpinned by new technologies such as Open Source, Services Oriented Architecture (SOA), Cloud Computing, Semantic Web and Web 2.0. It is characterised by demand for greater flexibility, global delivery and cost effective solutions. Partnerships and collaborations predominate. Learn more about the New Software Economy

This seminar will give you the opportunity to network with key stake holders in the software industry in your region from different sections of the ecosystem: – SME, multinational companies, financial sector, public sector and academia.

Additionally, the seminar will provide insights from key thought leaders on the important topics at the forefront of the New Software Economy.

The speaker line-up will include:-

Chris Hofmann, Director of Engineering, Mozilla Foundation

Fergus Gloster, former VP of Business Development, Salesforce.com

Joe Drumgoole, CEO, Putplace.com

Seminar cost:  Admission is €50 and will include tea/coffee on arrival and tea/coffee/sandwiches on conclusion

The full amount of €50 per person is due on registration. Spaces are limited and allocated on a first come first served basis.

Cancellation Policy

No refunds will be issued on cancellation, however if a registered participant cannot attend the seminar, he/she may nominate a substitute. Cancellations or substitutions must be notified by email to tina.cahill@enterprise-ireland.com.

Invoicing Policy

A sales order acknowledgement will be issued to you on receipt of your registration form. Invoices will be issued after the event has taken place.

Methods of payment

Payment can be made online by credit card.

JBoss Drools Business Rules

Paul Browne

Best Price £45.31
or Buy New

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What, you’re still here? Well if it takes a bit more to convince you to buy it, here’s the info on the Business Rules and Workflow book direct from the publishers (Packt) own site. If you can’t wait, and want to dive right in, the code samples from the book are available on the Red Piranha 2 website.

JBoss Drools Business Rules Paul Browne Capture, automate, and reuse your business processes in a clear English language that your computer can understand. An easy-to-understand JBoss Drools business rules tutorial for non-programmers Automate your business processes such as order processing, supply management, staff activity, and more Prototype, test, and implement workflows by themselves using business rules that are simple statements written in an English-like language Discover advanced features of Drools to write clear business rules that execute quickly For confident users of Excel or other business software, this book is everything you need to learn JBoss Drools business rules and successfully automate your business. In More Detail Code download Request a Review Copy Send us feedback on this title Ask a question about this title Sample Chapter 4 Guided Rules with the Guvnor [2.0 MB] Table of Contents Book Details Language English Paperback 305 pages [191mm x 235mm] Release date April 2009 ISBN 1847196063 ISBN 13 978-1-847196-06-4 Author(s) Paul Browne Topics and Technologies Open Source, Java A comprehensive, practical guide for business analysts and non-programmers to harnessing JBoss Drools Business Rules in your organization In Detail In business, a lot of actions are trigged by rules: “Order more ice cream when the stock is below 100 units and temperature is above 25° C”, “Approve credit card application when the credit background check is OK, past relationship with the customer is profitable, and identity is confirmed”, and so on. Traditional computer programming languages make it difficult to translate this “natural language” into a software program. But JBoss Rules (also known as Drools) enables anybody with basic IT skills and an understanding of the business to turn statements such as these into running computer code. This book will teach you to specify business rules using JBoss Drools, and then put them into action in your business. You will be able to create rules that trigger actions and decisions, based on data that comes from a variety of sources and departments right across your business. Regardless of the size of your business, you can make your processes more effective and manageable by adopting JBoss Rules. Banks use business rules to process your mortgage (home loan) application, and to manage the process through each step (initial indication of amount available, actual application, approval of the total according to strict rules regarding the amount of income, house value, previous repayment record, swapping title deeds, and so on). Countries such as Australia apply business rules to visa applications (when you want to go and live there)—you get points for your age, whether you have a degree or masters, your occupation, any family members in the country, and a variety of other factors. Supermarkets apply business rules to what stock they should have on their shelves and where—this depends upon analyzing factors such as how much shelf space there is, what location the supermarket is in, what people have bought the week before, the weather forecast for next week (for example, ice cream in hot weather), and what discounts the manufacturers are giving. This book shows how you can use similar rules and processes in your business or organization. It begins with a detailed, clear explanation of business rules and how JBoss Rules supports them. You will then see how to install and get to grips with the essential software required to use JBoss Rules. Once you have mastered the basic tools, you will learn how to build practical and effective of the business rule systems. The book provides clear explanations of business rule jargon. You will learn how to work with Decision Tables, Domain-Specifi c Languages (DSL)s, the Guvnor and JBoss Integrated Development Environment (IDE), workflow and much more. By the end of the book you will know exactly how to harness the power of JBoss Rules in your business. Read the full Table of Contents for JBoss Drools Business Rules What you will learn from this book Understand the basics of business rules and JBoss rules with minimal effort Install the required software easily and learn to use the Guvnor, which is a user-friendly web editor that’s also powerful enough to test our rules as we write them Learn to write sophisticated rules and import the fact model into the Guvnor and then build a guided rule around it, which makes your web pages a lot clearer Gain complete knowledge of what we can do with the Guvnor rule editor, and then use the JBoss IDE as an even more powerful way of writing rules, and automate processes for discounts, orders, sales, and more Know the structure of the rule file through the example of a shipping schedule, which will help you with your own shipping schedule Test your rules not only in the Guvnor, but also using FIT for rule testing against requirements documents; run unit tests using JUnit for error-free rules and interruption-free services Specifically, non-developers can work with Excel spreadsheets as a fact model to develop business processes without learning any other new technology Work with DSLs (Domain-Specific Languages) and rule flow to make writing rules easy; which makes staff training quicker and your working life easier Deploy your business rules to the real world, which completes your project successfully, and combine this into a web project using the framework of your choice to provide better services Benefit from concepts such as truth maintenance, conflict resolution, pattern matching rules agenda, and the Rete algorithm to provide advanced and faster business systems so that staff efficiency is maximized Chapter 1, Drooling over JBoss Rules. This chapter gives you a good platform to understand business rules and JBoss rules. We look at the problems that you might have (and why you’re probably reading this book). We look at what business rule engines are, and how they evaluate business rules that appear very simple and how they become powerful when multiple rules are combined. Chapter 2, Getting the software, deals with installation. This chapter explains setting up Java, setting up Business Rule Management System (BRMS)/Guvnor running on the JBoss App Server, setting up Eclipse, and installing the Drools Plug-in. It also details the installation of the Drools examples for this book and the Maven to build them. Chapter 3, Meet the Guvnor, deals with writing our rules using the ‘Guvnor’. Guvnor is the user-friendly web editor that’s also powerful enough to test our rules as we write them. We take up an example to make things easier. Then we look at the various Guvnor screens, and see that it can not only write rules (using both guided and advanced editors), but that it can also organize rules and other assets in packages, and also allow us to test and deploy those packages. Finally, we write our very first business rule—the traditional ‘Hello World’ message announcing to everyone that we are now business rule authors. Chapter 4, Guided Rules with the Guvnor. This chapter shows how to use the Guvnor rule editor to write some more sophisticated rules. It also shows how to get information in and out of our rules, and demonstrates how to create the fact model needed to do this. We import our new fact model into the Guvnor and then build a guided rule around it. Finally we test our rule as a way of making sure that it runs correctly. Chapter 5, From Guvnor to JBoss IDE. This chapter pushes the boundries of what we can do with the Guvnor rule editor, and then brings in the JBoss IDE as an even more powerful way of writing rules. We start by using variables in our rules example. Then we discuss rule attributes (such as salience) to stop our rules from making changes that cause them to fi re again and again. After testing this successfully, we look at text-based rules, in both the Guvnor and the JBoss IDE, for running ‘Hello World’ in the new environment. Chapter 6, More Rules in the jBoss IDE. This chapter looks again at the structure of a rule fi le. At the end of this chapter, we look at some more advanced rules that we can write and run in the IDE. Chapter 7, Testing your Rules. This chapter explains how testing is not a standalone activity, but part of an ongoing cycle. In this chapter we see how to test our rules, not only in the Guvnor, but also using FIT for rule testing against requirements documents. This chapter also explains Unit Testing using JUnit. Chapter 8, Data in Excel, Rules in Excel. This chapter explains how to use Excel Spreadsheets (cells and ranges) as our fact model to hold information, instead of the write-your-own-JavaBean approach we took earlier. Then we use Excel spreadsheets to hold Decision tables, to make repetitive rules easier to write. Chapter 9, Domain-Specific Languages [DSL] and rule flow. This chapter aims to make our rules both easier to use, and more powerful. We start with DSLs—Domain-Specifi c Languages. This chapter follows on from the ‘easy to write rules’ theme from the previous chapter and also discusses both ruleflow and workflow. It would be great to draw a workfl ow diagram to see/control what (groups of) rules should fi re and when. Rule flow gives us this sort of control. Chapter 10, Deploying rules in real life. This chapter shows you how to deploy your business rules into the real world. We look at the pieces that make up an entire web application, and where rules fit into it. We see the various options to deploy rules as part of our application, and the team involved in doing so. Once they are deployed, we look at the code that would load and run the rules—both home-grown and using the standard RuleAgent. Finally we see how to combine this into a web project using the framework of your choice. Chapter 11, Peeking under the covers. This chapter looks at what happens under the cover by opening up the internals of the Drools rule engine to understand concepts such as truth maintenance, confl ict resolution, pattern matching, and the rules agenda. In this chapter, we explore the Rete algorithm and discuss why it makes rules run faster than most comparable business logic. Finally we see the working memory audit log and the rules debug capabilities of the Drools IDE. Chapter 12, Other Drools features. This chapter deals with the other advanced Drools features that have not yet been covered. This includes Smooks to bulk load data, Complex Event Processing, and Drools solver to provide solutions where traditional techniques would take too long. Approach This book takes a practical approach, with step-by-step instructions. It doesn’t hesitate to talk about the technologies, but takes time to explain them (to an Excel power-user level). There is a good use of graphics and code where necessary. Who this book is written for If you are a business analyst – somebody involved with enterprise IT but at a high level, understanding problems and planning solutions, rather than coding in-depth implementations – then this book is for you. If you are a business user who needs to write rules, or a technical person who needs to support rules, this book is for you. If you are looking for an introduction to rule engine technology, this book will satisfy your needs. If you are a business user and want to write rules using Guvnor/JBoss IDE, this book will be suitable for you. This book will also suit your need if you are a business user and want to understand what Drools can do and how it works, but would rather leave the implementation to a developer. Author(s) Paul Browne Paul Browne’s first job was selling computers in France and things went steadily downhill from there. He spent millons on behalf of a UK telephone company’s procurement department and implemented direct marketing for a well-known Texan computer maker before joining the IT department of a company that builds bright red tractors and other seriously cool machines. Paul then embraced his techie side (he was writing games in machine code from the age of 11) and started a consultancy that used IT to solve business problems for companies in the financial and public sectors in Ireland, UK , Belgium, and New Zealand. Eight years later, he now works with an Irish government agency that helps similar software companies to grow past their initial teething pains. More formally, Paul has a bachelor’s degree in Business and French from the University of Ulster, a master’s degree in Advanced Software from UCD Dublin, a post-grad qualification in Procurement from the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply (UK), and will someday complete his ACCA financial exams. Paul can be found on LinkedIn at http://www.linkedin.com/in/paulbrowne , and via the Red Piranha (Business knowledge) project at http://code.google.com/p/red-piranha/ .

BizCamp is an opportunity for entrepreneurs and innovators to come together, share experiences, and possibly create new value out of the day. It’ll be a chance to meet up with people who’ve been there, done that and bought the t-shirt – members of the business community, VCs and investors, and representatives from the relevant state agencies. Lost your job or finding current market conditions tough? Come along to BizCamp, who knows what new opportunities might turn up?

People tend to associate *Camps with the Web and the tech start-ups, but our aim is to try and embrace as much of the Irish business community as possible. We want to see people from all streams – finance, operations, HR, legal, delivery specialists, R&D, marketing – and yes, even tech! Ireland Inc. has a wealth of knowledge and acumen, more than enough to help us out of these troubled times. By attending (and, more importantly, contributing!) you can help make BizCamp the first “good news story” of the recession.

A full list of people already signed up to attend is available at

http://www.bizcamp.ie/whos-attending/

Eircom, Bank of Ireland and other key digital companies will be sponsoring the event. The Bizcamp is being organised by a number of entrepreneurs who have businesses in the Leinster region, along with people active in the web from business and public sectors.

While most of the speaking slots are informal we are looking key business speakers for two panels on the day; Speakers should be recognizable figures, all with a good story to share. Suggested panel topics are raising funding and supports available for your business. A list of people already speaking at the event is online at http://www.bizcamp.ie/2009/01/speakers-sessions/

Aside from the business networking available at the event, Speakers will have an opportunity to promote themselves and their business in a friendly Q&A type session. If you think you’d have something to contribute to the panel,  please contact me (Paul) via the comment form on this blog.

Now, I’ve been known to follow previous Government advice and ‘shop around’ for the best value (including at the Quays in Newry). However, if everybody follows this ‘me first’ approach we’ll be quickly in a race to be first to leave the sinking ship. But what if, instead of cutting and running, we stayed to plug the leaks in the Irish economy and kept it afloat?

The trouble in staying to plug the leaks is that this requires consensus that everybody helps out– and consensus is in short supply at the moment. All groups in Irish society are fighting to shift the inevitable pain of the recession on to somebody else. The lack of consensus is worsened by the fact that those who did well in the boom, and those seen to be responsible for the bust, are not necessarily those that are feeling the most pain right now. Without consensus, you’ll be left alone with your bailer as the water closes over your head.

Unfortunately the site does not work with non IE Web browsers (such as Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome). That means about 1/4 of the people wishing to donate are being locked out.

Normally at this point I’d rant about whatever corporate decision maker let this one through. But I’m just sad – a deserving charity, always stretched for cash,  is 25% down due to some simple (JavaScript) errors.

I’ve emailed the address given, but I’m likely to viewed as some random web lunatic (and maybe that’s not far from the truth). So what can I do to help? All suggestions welcome.

Update: I got a fairly quick email back from SVP acknowledging the problem – better than many commercial organisations in that regard. But the question remains – how can somebody with technical skills volunteer to help a charity without coming across as a nutcase?

Update 2: A further update from SVP within 10 days – test the site again – appears to work normally.

• Even if the vote doesn’t go the way of the experts, the Judges get to save one option for the next week.
• We get to vote every week on more or less the same topic.
• People pay to cast their vote by premium text line, SMS or Website. 

The X-Factor is incredibly popular in the UK , so there must be something to it. What do you think – Is fact stranger than fiction?

Here’s the 2 minute overview of Securing a multi-tenant SAAS Appliction, just published on IBM Developerworks.

1. Software as a Service (SAAS) has a great pitch – let us host your software for you, cheaper and less hassle than managing it yourself.
2. Most SAAS companies host multiple clients on one server = New security concerns.
3. LDAP (Similar to Windows Directory) is a standard already in wide use for Authentication (making sure people who they say they are).
4. Spring Security (aka Acegi) is a well used Authorisation toolkit – i.e. make sure those people only do things they are allowed to do.
5. The article shows you how to bring SAAS , LDAP and Spring Security together to get secure, scalable , hosted applications using the very best in widely understood technologies.

Of course, I’m not going to spill the beans on how exactly they do it; for that you’re going to have to hotfoot it over to the IBM Developerworks website.

No, I’ve not found some ‘back door’ to allow us to take part, but the Economist is running an online poll to find out what would happen if the US President was choosen by worldwide vote.

Hmm … looks like Obama is leading 8,375 to 15. Those 15 come from Georgia (wondered what happened there recently) and Macedonia (next door to Kosovo with large scale Nato intervention).

Life’s unfair with McCain getting tarred with the legacy of 8 years of Bush. Especially after what happened him in the 2000 election (South Carolina Primary) where Bush hit him with some very low attack ads alleging that McCains wife had an affair (in reality, the couple have a daughter adopted from overseas).

Warning: This blog has a 100% failure rate when it comes to forecasting politics.

Our claim to fame is that FirstPartners.net went through this program in 2003. And failed. But failed quickly – we realised within months that the mad business idea (selling open source technology to accountants) wasn’t going anywhere. We were able to bring the lessons learned back into the main consulting business. Far better than a lingering , drawn out half-life.

More information is here (pdf format)

Enterprise Platform Programme
Enterprise Support for Innovative Knowledge based, High Tech and Information Technology Startups

Introduction
The Novation Enterprise Platform Programme (NEPP) is a programme of  support for graduate entrepreneurs with an innovative business idea in the Knowledge Based, High Tech or IT sectors.

The main objective of the programme is to develop the commercial and job creation potential of the participant businesses. The programme delivers comprehensive training in business and management to equip participants to successfully start up and manage a new business. The
programme assists participants in the achievement of personal and business development goals in relation to the project. It also assists participants in the completion of market or technical feasibility studies and/or the preparation of a business plan.

Past Participants
Since its conception in 2001, over 70 entrepreneurs have participated on the Programme. A survey conducted recently confirmed that over 54 businesses have been established by NEPP participants resulting in total employment of 311 people and sales of €27million per annum.
Participants have also raised over €39 million in VC funds.

 The programme will be managed by the Regional Development Centre, on the campus of Dundalk Institute of Technology. Participants may choose to be based in the professional, entrepreneurial environment of the Regional Development Centre, and will have access to the laboratories, equipment and resources of Dundalk Institute of Technology.

Eligible participants receive a consultancy / travel allowance of approximately €1150. Eligible participants may also apply for funding through Enterprise Ireland’s Commercialisation of Research and Development (CORD) grants, whereby they can receive up to 50% of their previous year’s verifiable income (the grant in total will be capped at a maximum of €38,000).

The Novation EPP is a comprehensive package of business development
support including:

• Project management and on-going monitoring of progress
• Travel / consultancy allowance
• Structured business and enterprise training to develop the knowledge and skills necessary to start-up your own business.
• Networking with entrepreneurs, industry practitioners, researchers and trainers. 
• Access to office space and specialist facilities, equipment and resources.
• Mentoring system which provides one-to-one advice and guidance
• Business Coaching which aims to optimise participants’ business performance
• The programme will commence in Sept. 2008 and there will be regular formal reviews of participants’ progress.
• Prize Fund. The 2008/09 programme introduces a prize fund for participants. Eligible businesses will be judged on a variety of criteria including best improvement, degree of innovation, presentation before a panel and performance at end of year tradeshow.

Java@cork 2008

Tuesday, September 9, Radisson SAS Hotel, Little Island, Cork
Featuring speakers from SpringSource, Sun Microsystems, Eclipse Foundation and much more…

Agenda

• OSGI and the Enterprise Ben Hale, SpringSource
• Lucene - Open Source Search Engine – Case Study, Phil Corcoran, RR Donnelley
• Eclipse Verticals – From Open Source Consumption to Creation , Ralph Mueller, Director, Eclipse Foundation
• Leveraging Eclipse For Desktop Applications - Case Study, James Sugrue, Pilz Ireland
• Demo of Spring plugin tools for Eclipse, Jonas Partner, SpringSource
• Spring Integration, Jonas Partner, SpringSource
• SOA In Practice, Oisin Hurley, Iona Technologies
• The Future of Java for Rich Internet Applications, Simon Ritter, Sun Microsystems

Fee: €80pp for members. €130pp for non members. Students fee is €40.
Registration: email admin@itcork.ie or visit www.itcork.ie

A tractor in a field yesterday

Many years ago, I used to work for Case, the company that builds big red tractors. It was great work, especially as people understood what you did – none of this ‘I work in computers’ malarchy. Only problem was that we were working in Navan Ireland, with most of our colleagues based in Racine, just north of Chicago.

Not too much of a problem for the first 15 or so people – people who worked out of Chicago for the first 4 or 5 months. We were able to build up personal relationships with a colleagues. We could ask later ‘how are the kids?’ or ‘are you still playing football?’. Small things, but make the real work discussions a lot easier.

The problem came with employees 15-100 – the ones that didn’t spend any amount of time in the US. Technically great people, but didn’t ‘click’ in the same way with Chicago. As a result, small misunderstandings became big misunderstandings, and projects got delayed.

And that’s where corporate blogging comes in. It allows people in far flung offices to connect. Doesn’t matter what you blog about – personal life, or some small project that’s happening in your local office. Chances are somebody else in the company will pick up on it and vital connections will be made.

And if you’re in the market for a big red tractor, click on the photo above. 125 BHP, Diesel Engine, a bargain at 16,500 Euro.

Girl 1: I can’t believe my car is only worth 15 thousand but the car loan is still 20. It’s so unfair.

Girl 2: What colour is it?

Girl 1: Red

Girl 2: That’s ok then.

And women are normally more careful with money. We’re all doomed.

1. Have a task / todo list. On Outlook , Excel , wiki or paper. Daily, pick off most important tasks and allocate time for them on your calendar.
2. Schedule your time in some sort of calendar. Use Outlook, Google Calendar , Mozilla Lightening or even a paper diary. Keep about 1/3rd free for the unexpected. Timeslots no shorter than 30 minutes; bunch smaller todo’s together to make up. Set your mail program to show first your calendar and not your email – that way your daily agenda is set by your plans, not somebody else.
3. Clear mail inbox twice a day (and only twice a day). Do same for phone calls (using voicemail) if that’s disrupting you too much. Only touch mails once: delete, respond, or make room on calendar / tasklist (action).

Adjust steps 1,2, and 3 as required. Get as fancy or as simple as you want.  Don’t aim for perfect, so you’ll be flexible enough when you need to change. Works for me. What works for you?

And yes, it’s probably already covered in ‘Getting things done‘.

There is one small change I’d like them to make – you have only the black or white option of either showing , or hiding your connections.

I think there should be a third option: ‘Show mine if you show me yours’. I’ve only met a handful of people that hide their connections; I’m still happy to connect to them – I typically scan my LinkedIn list when asked to recommend people. But there’s no incentive for them to open their list – they get a free ride no matter what they choose.

It may be co-incidence, but all of the people with hidden connections make their living from their professional network (e.g. recruiters, high end management consultants).

What do you think? Are these people being business savvy, or just parasites stealing our networking time?

The above picture is from the Irish Independent writeup on Toddle. And if you want to check out Alan’s mad-take-over-the-world-ideas , he blogs at PinStripe.

I’ll almost forgive him for being from ‘the faaaaaar soide’ – that’s the Meath side of Drogheda if you don’t follow our local tradition of ignoring people from the other side of the River Boyne.

So, it’s surprised the people I’ve told that I’m now going to be doing something completely different.

Why?
No it’s not the economy. I can see the effects of the slowdown but I’m one of the most ‘low maintenance’ people I know (anybody who lives in Drogheda and drives a ‘98 Toyota isn’t exactly into bling!) I’d be ok. And the uptick (in 18months – 2 years time) is the most profitable bit of the economic cycle.

No , it’s not through lack of clients. One of the most painful parts of the decision have been the 3 prospective projects that I’ve had to turn down. The sort of ideal projects that I’d working to land for the previous 2 years.

No, it’s not through lack of choices. Two other ‘life changing’ choices I had to turn down were to scale inside a well known consultancy, or specialise in one tool and go international (you know who you are guys, thanks for making the final decision so hard

So why then?
The basic reason is that I’m enjoying this now (as in big smile on Monday mornings), but can see that I might not be enjoying it in 3 years time. And chances like this one don’t come along every day. That, and I’m fascinated by the new area and people that these guys are working with.

And what you’re doing is?
This is a big change for me, so a bit nervous about it and will blog about the new job (and it is very much a job, rather than being self-employed) in due course. It will either be the very best, or very worst thing that I’ve done.

Luckily it’s still dealing with People and Technology so no need to change the blog title … and I’m still a techie at heart (in that I’ll play with the stuff even if I’m not paid to) so expect more in that area!

From Wordle (a beautiful Java Applet)

Yep, it’s just happened to me. Years working on the idea of the ‘Wisdom of Crowds’ (even prior to web 2.0 in the shape of Red-Piranha). Month’s working on a Masters Dissertation on applying Web 2 techniques to the Finance industry (pdf link). And somebody comes out and does it even better.

Not just better. But much much better.  The sort of better as in ‘If I had this earlier, I’d have just copied it and changed the words around a bit’. The book is available from Manning as ‘Collective Intelligence in Action‘. A free, first chapter (Understanding Collective Intelligence) is available here (pdf).

So what’s it about? We’ve all heard about the Wisdom of Crowds idea. But what if you need to actually implement it on your website? This book shows you how to (using both concepts and practical code, as well as the theory behind all of it that I was missing). It includes

• Intelligent, learning search, using Lucene.
• Extracting data from blogs using web-crawling.
• Executing Real time feedback on facebook-like sites.
• Scalable data-mining techniques to manage the torrent of information
• Making personalised recommendations based on all of the information.

Disclaimer:Manning provided me with a free review copy of the book – but no strings attached. And , maybe if I’m nice enough to the Author (Satnam), I can persuade him to talk about making millions using JBoss Drools and Complex Event processing in the book.

The best quote from the news report:

The driver of the Lexus declined to be interviewed.

For those of you that don’t understand the above line: It’s unusual for an island as small as Ireland to be blessed / cursed with an international border running through the middle. Bad for politics , good for shoppers as it’s much cheaper to travel from the southern part (in the Euro zone) to the northern bit (where they use Sterling) to save up to half on your weekly grocery bill.

Travel to Sainsbury’s supermarket in Newry on the last Saturday before Christmas and you’ll see something just short of a riot as southern punters fight over the last bottle of (cheap) beer. But they’ve never closed the door due to too many people before – which is what happened last Saturday evening. Even more unusual in that June / July are normally very quiet months for shopping in the North.

Now discuss (in less than 100 words): Did this happen because …

1. Irish people are fed up with rip off prices in Dublin and are finally voting with their feet?
2. There’s a lot of hidden pain out there – people with no money but desperate to ‘keep up appearances’?
3. Both of the above

Allthetopbananas.com shows not how to do it. Just be lazy and not bother to tell your website that Cork is not near Drogheda (for our non-Irish-based readers, they’re at opposite ends of the country, about a 4-5hr commute!).

Why should I bother to report to you that ‘Cork is not Drogheda’ if you haven’t done your basic research and looked at the map? Save your ‘wisdom of crowds’ stuff for items that you can’t find anywhere else.