Friday, October 30, 2009

Aweekstweets October 25-November 1 2009

Aweekstweets October 25-November 1 2009

SUNDRY WHATEVER TWEETS: JK2---Yes, I love music, plus verbiage, beverage, reportage—as well as dwelling on this age and signs of my aging.

  • I only have one symbol in my handy emoticon vocabulary: the winking/in-confidence/between-you&me eye: ;-). My Latin vocabulary far richer.11:39 AM Oct 27th from TweetDeck
    • JK2--I’ve always felt that emoticon resembles a nervous eye tic. So it makes sense that I favor it.
  • FYI, "sine qua non": without this, nothing: absolutely essential element for success. It's actually in my working vocabulary of handy Latin.11:35 AM Oct 27th from TweetDeck
    • JK2—Which reminds me. What does The Onion’s motto “tu stultus es” mean? Is it real Latin? My guess: “You are stupid.”
  • Monday Morning Wake-Up Song of the Day: Ulrich Schnauss "A Clear Day" from "A Strangely Isolated Place." UK-based ambient electronica artist8:23 AM Oct 26th from TweetDeck
    • JK2—Ulrich is UK-based. I suppose you thought he was from Dusseldorf or wherever in Germany. Did you realize that folk singer-guitarist Jose Gonzales is from Sweden? True. He was born in Argentina, but his family immigrated when he was young. This archaic notion of nationality needs to treated as the mighty mashup that it truly is. I’m a hypermongrelizing American, so I know this stuff from birth.
  • Listening to XTC "Senses Working Overtime." To wit: "Trying to take this all in..tell the diff btwn a lemon & a lime" Ain't that the truth!3:00 PM Oct 25th from TweetDeck
    • JK2—It’s very important for me to unload my sensory cache regularly so I can breathe easier. Tweeting, blogging, chatting, meeting, schmoozing—so now you know me a bit better. As if you didn’t already sense all this.
  • This tweet sponsored by "Tazo Organic Iced Green" brand all-natural green tea w/ spearmint & lemongrass. Actually, not sponsored--but good!12:44 PM Oct 25th from TweetDeck
    • JK2—It’s non-filling, non-jangling, non-tooth-decaying. And it comes in a solid glass bottle with a resealable cap. A perfect tweeting tea.
  • RT @donalddotfarmer "'CNN Global Minute'...all...news u need?" JK-CNN is to hi-quality journalism what Bazooka Joe comix R to graphic novels12:37 PM Oct 25th from TweetDeck
    • JK2—OK, that was a bit harsh. In all fairness, Wolf Blitzer doesn’t have an eye patch or pull a turtleneck up over his mouth.
  • No, I won't pay for Hulu on-demand programming. I rarely spend time watching TV of any form any more. Don't need additional sedentary habits12:17 PM Oct 25th from TweetDeck
    • JK2—Which is why I tweet standing up whenever I get the opportunity.
  • Fairly fed up with most US continuous news cable channels. Just no journalistic depth. Only one I learn something from is ABC News.12:14 PM Oct 25th from TweetDeck
    • JK2—I regularly turn to ABC News’ cable channel on my Verizon FIOS at home to get a deep dive and broad context that the sensationalistic partisan-compromised breaking-newshound channels just seem incapable of.
  • RT @rwang0 @kitson "Morrissey is 50...I can't be the only one troubled by this." JK--With ya. I mope about his age as much as mine (50->51)1:52 AM Oct 25th from TweetDeck
    • JK2—Morrissey was prematurely old in his/our 20s. He’s growing into a physically appropriate curmudgeonly mopage-dotage. I like to believe I’m avoiding the mopage-dotage fate. Let’s wait and see.

SUNDRY TECH TWEETS: JK2---Yes, I continue to mash up all my current focus areas (predictive analytics, data mining, data warehousing, BI, etc.) with all my priors (identity management, messaging/collab, network/app security, etc.), and throw in all my key cross-cutting themes (cloud, social networking/media, SOA, virtualization, etc).

  • RT @SethGrimes: @ManyaMayes “entity analytics?” JK—Identity (of people, groups, things, objects, etc) analytics (classify, associate, link)4:43 PM Oct 27th from TweetDeck
    • JK2—Essentially, this is at the core of the MDM focus on governance of the definition of vocabularies for domain entities (customers, employees, organizations, products, finances, etc).
  • WashPost just emailed first “afternoon update” to my morning paper. What if hardcopy reverted to Sunday-only digest, w/ daily email updates?4:07 PM Oct 27th from TweetDeck
    • JK2—Essentially, this is going to happen, and sooner than we like to think. The Washington Post, great traditional newspaper that it is, continues to run at a loss, and lose classified ad revenues.
  • Upgraded to TweetDeck v0.31.3 this A.M. Funny how tiny little visualization enhance—tweet goes white-background on-click—makes big diff.1:58 PM Oct 27th from TweetDeck
    • JK2—Seriously. User-personalized, interactive, flexible visualization is so fundamentally important to the future of Twitter and all other social media tools. If we’re going to live and breathe in these environments, we need to feng-shui them to our idiosyncratic hearts’ delight. I love the black-on-white display of traditional paper-based news delivery.
  • RT @cmooreforrester: #IOD2009 "ERP structures biz process;BI measures [it]+pred analytics optimizes [it]" JK--Keys to predictive enterprise8:06 PM Oct 27th from TweetDeck
    • JK2—For me, predictive enterprise is the uber-theme of this past week’s Vegas conferences: IBM beginning to absorb SPSS, SAS continuing to deepen its data mining value-prop, and SAP continuing to ignore predictive analytics, and settle deeper into its core-BI rut, at its competitive peril.
  • Usual first-thing-in-morning e-mailing activity: moving false positives from spam folders, moving false negatives to everlasting oblivion.8:26 AM Oct 26th from TweetDeck
    • JK2—Reminds me: Spam filters everywhere should incorporate inline predictive models that can be auto-trained, auto-scored, and auto-updated to assess the spam-likelihood of inbound stuff, but to auto-learn from each of our “move to inbox” “leave in spam folder” and “delete obvious spam or leave to moulder in bulk mail folder” behavior.
  • Curious whether someone's running bimbo-bot generating bogus babe-lure Twitter followme requests when sees tweets re Las Vegas. Been getting12:01 PM Oct 25th from TweetDeck
    • JK2—There seems to be this cultural assumption that male business travelers to Las Vegas are surreptitious (actual or potential) sex tourists. Dear Twitter-body-botters: Please opt me out of that annoying assumption.
  • “The Web’s Creator Tweets” (http://bit.ly/2TLSZz) @timberners_lee: JK—Hey Tim, how’s about them Twitter hashtags? Semantic Web or apostasy?11:54 AM Oct 25th from TweetDeck
    • JK2—OK, at this point, 10 years or more into this “Semantic Web” initiative, let’s stop pretend this is the next big tech-religion thing. And let’s give up this “Web 3.0” branding on its all. Tim’s got his knighthood, but his Holy Grail quests feels a bit quixotic at this point.
  • RT @JeromePineau "Does it sound like this ... when you read stuff about clouds? http://bit.ly/fGipU" JK--Yep: nebulosity key cloud criterion11:30 AM Oct 25th from TweetDeck
    • JK2—The zeitgeist cloud on this will pass. As soon as it precipitates the mature, pervasive, distributed, ubiquitous enterprise-grade environment of the coming decade. Which is almost here.

SUNDRY ANALYST-LIFE TWEETS: JK2---Yes, I’m a road warrior who loves to reconnect with my peers/friends/colleagues/competitors at these events. I live for it.

  • Notion that industry analyst is invited party crasher really applies. Vendors love having us around. Then we start calling 'em as we see 'em12:49 PM Oct 27th from TweetDeck
    • JK2—Vendors actually want us to challenge them. They’re doubly impressed when we can do it persuasively. And when we can hold a drink or two while doing it. And when we can do it over and over. To the extent we’re still being invited to their tables, in spite of what we tweeted last night, we’re doing our job. To the extent we’re not being invited to their table, all the better: that means we’ve identified their true competitive sore-points.
  • Wait a darn minute: I can tell Hackathorn v. Winter. Check my Facebooked foto of Hackathorn from Mon. Blame it on desert dust! Or exhaustion2:57 PM Oct 25th from TweetDeck
    • JK2—Actually, blame it on somebody else at a vendor-sponsored party saying I have to meet Richard Winter, and then leading me to Richard Hackathorn. I was tired and stressed from trying to carry on a lively tech conversation in a noisy room. Momentary “Huh? Where am I?” brain fart.
  • Sitting here in hotel room working on my #Forrester PA/DM Wave scoring.1:27 PM Oct 25th from TweetDeck
    • JK2—Speaking of being tired and stressed on the road, even in a quiet room by myself, when my head is noisy.
  • RT @JAdP: @NeilRaden @jameskobielus @rwang0 "At 53, I'm planning my next 2 careers." JK--Going on 51, I'm into my third quarter-life!11:55 AM Oct 25th from TweetDeck
    • JK2—First Q-life: education. Second Q-life: building. Third Q-life: capstoning.

VEGAS TWEETS: JK2---Yes, Vegas is a city that I’ve visited far more times on business over the past few years than I care count. The smart money is on me continuing to have to go there as a central requirement of my job as industry analyst.

  • OK, Vegas fancypants THEhotel: None of this "hair cleanser" "hair masque" "body balm" hoohah! Why not THEshampoo, THEconditioner, THElotion?19 minutes ago from TweetDeck
    • JK2—I have to be careful not to condition with lotion. Same color. Same bottle size/shape. Funny names I have to read through watery eyes and translate through tired mind.
  • Seriously ferocious winds in Vegas today. On the positive side, mostly sunny, and pleasantly (for jacketed people) cool.about 2 hours ago from TweetDeck
    • JK2—When it’s not the middle of the broiling summer, and your sinuses have adjusted to the particulate matter in the air, Vegas is a fairly pleasant outdoor environment to walk around in. Away—as far as possible—from the Strip.
  • Las Vegas is such an extraordinarily efficient high-thruput biz conf city. When's last time Obama came here to do anything but give speech?11:44 AM Oct 25th from TweetDeck
    • JK2—While we’re on the subject, when’s the last time I came to do anything but attend a tech show? 1994, specifically: stop on multi-city consulting trip. Before then: 1976—family driving tour of the country.
  • Cool air in Las Vegas tonight. Cooler coming. Refreshing desert breeze will build to stiff desiccating stay-inside batten-everything wind.12:39 AM Oct 27th from TweetDeck
    • JK2—Did it ever?!!! Glad I kept my lip balm handy.
  • Early morning Vegas. City Ctr project appears nearing completion. Thrill to watch first rays of rising sun glint off its towering insolvency10:44 AM Oct 25th from TweetDeck
    • JK2—It’s fun to walk around and contemplate all the massive at-risk investments that are not mine.
  • Definitely delaying that lunch. First 24 hours in Vegas always stealthy brutal on the system. No need to binge anything from the get-go.3:09 PM Oct 25th from TweetDeck
    • JK2—Acclimating to Vegas requires a week at last. I never stay that long. Hence, I’m always slightly off on business in this city.
  • Predawn Vegas. Always tough to find decent breakfast. Walked harrowing Sinatra, cut to Harrah's, down Strip till sidewalk narrows. Starbucks10:42 AM Oct 25th from TweetDeck
    • JK2—Seriously. Why don’t they put a decent IHOP or Dunkin’ Donuts on the Strip?

SAP TWEETS: JK2---Yes, I made good on my commitment to do three Vegas vendor shows in 3 days. Shoulda also made Penn & Teller, just to lighten things up.

  • RT @nenshad "SAP R&A conf...SAP's reptg options... No product strategy?" JK--Some of that: BOBJ Voyager, EPM. Mostly best practices, though.about 2 hours ago from TweetDeck
    • JK2—But these were nothing new. SAP re-presenting roadmaps that they’d long ago brought to the attention of Forrester and other analysts, not to mention their customers.
  • SAP R&A conf. Attendees mostly SAP ERP R/3 users, who may/may-not have Ntwvr BI/BW and/or BOBJ. Vendor/users tend/extend massive legacy.about 2 hours ago from TweetDeck
    • JK2—SAP’s burden and boon. Some vendors would die for such problems. Some vendors will die trying.
  • SAP R&A conf. Caught talk on SAP's EPM Suite roadmap: v7.5 (this year), v.8.0 (2011). Two years till next major rev? Why so long a wait?about 2 hours ago from TweetDeck
    • JK2—I fear that BOBJ’s product development and innovation metabolism has slowed to a sluggish trickle as more SAP runs through its veins.
  • SAP Rptg & Analytics conf. Caught talk on SAP's reptg options: R/3, BW, & BOBJ. Blessing of flexibility or vexation of complexity & legacy?about 2 hours ago from TweetDeck
    • JK2—I think it’s more the latter. SAP needs to migrate R/3 customers as soon as possible to full BOBJ stack on BI front end, and to migrate BW customers to BWA (but with BWA expanding in scope to offer a truly enterprise-grade, scalable, high-performance, real-time, massively parallel EDW appliance for hub-and-spoke, federated, and cloud deployment).

SAS TWEETS: JK2---Yes, my primary research focus right now is in-database analytics which is the convergence of my two core Forrester coverage areas: predictive analytics and data mining (PA/DM) and data warehousing (DW).

  • Had a very stimulating day at SAS #M2009 at Caesars. The dinner with the SAS team was fun. Social media, text analytics, shape of the futureabout 23 hours ago from TweetDeck
    • JK2—Manya Mayes drilled me for vision on integration of social media (current and future) with text analytics, BI, PA/DM, EDW, and cloud. Well, “drilled” is too harsh a word: She engaged me in an interactive brainstorming session over a delicious meal, surrounded by herself and other smart/nice SAS products people.
  • SAS #M2009: Very research-infused conference. Section of the exhibit floor dedicated to PA/DM projects from higher ed. I learned stuff!8:15 PM Oct 27th from TweetDeck
    • JK2—My mnemonics for SAS are one part “subject area specialists” and one part “statistical and analytical software.” Both SAS facets were in abundance at the show.
  • SAS #M2009. What SAS & Aster are discussing sets stage for radical scaling of SAS predictive analytics: regression, scoring, data prep, etc.5:39 PM Oct 27th from TweetDeck
    • JK2—And I expect SAS to continue engaging with Teradata—and with other large DW vendors (Aster’s a startup, of course)—to keep pushing that envelope on the EDW platforms in which their customers have invested.
  • SAS #M2009. SAS' Shamlin sez: "Aster is a lovely thing to SAS. Aster 'ecosystem' is open and extensible to us."5:30 PM Oct 27th from TweetDeck
    • JK2—Aster has painstakingly architected their platform for openness and extensibility with all partners, not just SAS.
  • SAS #M2009. EDW as analytic app server? Tell us more. Well, you can check out my recent #Forrester tconf, or #TDPUG preso, or coming report5:20 PM Oct 27th from TweetDeck
    • JK2—Coming out 2 weeks from now, my editors tell me.
  • Remember @ManyaMayes and everybody forevermore: i before e except after c and especially if it's me no i before u so u no wot to do.4:53 PM Oct 27th from TweetDeck
    • JK2—Me enforcing my “personal brand nomenclature orthography” with SAS and the world through this tweet. A losing battle. I’m vigilant about all the misspellings and mispronunciations. James Kobielus-brand caffeinated anlaysis.
  • SAS #M2009. NEvangelopoulos, U-Nrth TX: "Understanding Latent Semantics in Textual Data." Assoc txt with root social idea-belief constructs4:00 PM Oct 27th from TweetDeck
    • JK2—To be honest, my brain glazed over. But he clearly knew what he was talking about. Great audience Q&A.
  • Conferences such as #M2009 are key recurring industry events where predictive analytics and data mining professionals share best practices.2:03 PM Oct 27th from TweetDeck
    • JK2—IBM’s and SAP’s shows this week were also excellent in that respect.
  • SAS #M2009, Kim Larsen, Charles Schwab, "Net Lift Prediction Models": core topic in evaluating model quality, robustness, predictive power2:01 PM Oct 27th from TweetDeck
    • JK2—Model quality is the sine qua non of the predictive enterprise. Invalid business models drive businesses out of business.
  • SAS #M2009. Got great update from John Brocklebank on SAS' social network analysis tools and on customer applications. Very impressive.1:48 PM Oct 27th from TweetDeck
    • JK2—SAS has a significant headstart on the industry in research and commercialization of social network analysis.
  • SAS #M2009. Berthold/Univ.Konstanz. Interactively labeling images. Discussing the relative accuracy and uncertainty of various classifiers.12:39 PM Oct 27th from TweetDeck
    • JK2—He discussed his research in detail.
  • SAS #M2009, Berthold, UnivKonstanz. Interactively learn classifiers of images: bio expert labels examples w/ auto-classify rest (20M imgs)12:25 PM Oct 27th from TweetDeck
    • JK2—This is such fundamentally important research for the age of social media. I absolutely must read the original research at my nearest opportunity.
  • SAS #M2009:Neafsey/Ford's awesome PA/DM dictum: "If don't start with good segmentation, you'll be chasing mirage." Sine qua non of targeting11:34 AM Oct 27th from TweetDeck
    • JK2—It’s all about understanding the real customer: past, present, future. Not seeking out reinforcing evidence for your self-serving stereotype of the customers as you wish they were.
  • SAS #M2009, Neafsey/Ford:"Junky data makes junky segmentations. Sometimes simplest segmentation is best." Right: don't overcomplicate models11:30 AM Oct 27th from TweetDeck
    • JK2—Dwelling on the underlying stat and math of these models, overcomplication is an occupational hazard.
  • RT @swaynette: "Tuesday's #M2009 Agenda http://bit.ly/2MqJuM Try "Advanced Analytics on Multi-Terabyte Datasets" at 3 pm" JK--I'll be there11:27 AM Oct 27th from TweetDeck
    • JK2—The SAS/Aster Data preso.
  • SAS #M2009 , Neafsey/Ford. Customer stat segmentation enables rollup into "voice of the customer," w/o need for myths anecdotes hunches11:04 AM Oct 27th from TweetDeck
    • JK2—Fact-based predictive enterprise. Not fiction-based.
  • SAS #M2009, Neafsey/Ford. "Whiz kids" (R McNamara et al.) in 50s/60s instilled deep Ford analytics culture, which remains strong.11:02 AM Oct 27th from TweetDeck
    • JK2—Too bad McNamara didn’t apply fact-based predictive modeling to our Vietnam fiasco. Clearly, he didn’t predict soon enough the fate we experienced. Or, maybe he didn’t, but his customer (LBJ, and the US at that time) was in love with myth anecdote hunch—of the fictional self-serving variety.
  • Looking forward to full day at SAS #M2009 today. Data mining projects, though deep on math/stat, are always fascinating at biz-level too.8:00 AM Oct 27th from TweetDeck
    • JK2—SAS’s M2009 conference was in fact primarily business-focused, but with a strong grounding in statistical and mathematical research.

IBM TWEETS: JK2---Yes, I’m positive on IBM’s SPSS acquisition, and many other information management initiatives. But IOD often leaves me a bit dissatisfied: it’s not the best environment for deep drilldown on the IBM offerings and directions in which I’m most interested.

  • RT @craigmullins: #IOD2009 "attending stream computing overview" JK--IBM InfoSphere Streams--CEP w/ embedded pred analytics--is pioneering8:08 PM Oct 27th from TweetDeck
    • JK2---InfoSphere Streams has a proprietary language—called SPADE—for developing a pipeline or workflow of CEP processes that may include inline predictive analytics. I see SPADE as the forerunner of what hopefully will be CEP-oriented extensions to SQL-MR to process information in motion with as much agility as information at rest.
  • Yesterday & today, here in LV, I've been meeting with the most vertical-savvy adv analytics vendors: IBM/Cognos (#IOD2009) & SAS (#M2009).1:56 PM Oct 27th from TweetDeck
    • JK2—I should also mention SAP in that respect. By “vertically savvy” I mean that they have the widest range of industry-specific analytics solutions, including logical domain models and solution accelerators. I also mean that their product teams, partner ecosystems, and consulting groups are organized by verticals.
  • Going down to the exec breakfast with Ambuj. #IOD2009.8:48 AM Oct 27th from TweetDeck
    • JK2—Ambuj gave a good talk about IBM’s laser focus on delivering solutions that help customers achieve what he calls “information-led transformation.” It’s clear to me that IBM GBS’ Business Analytics and Optimization (BAO) consultant force is their focus on delivering this customer value. The products groups will increasingly provide platforms, packaged apps, and tools that incorporate logical domain models and solution accelerators developed in partnership with GBS/BAO.
  • RT @dadicool: "any plans to blog about what you learned during this [#IOD2009] conversation [re IBM Smt An Sys pricing?]" JK--Most certainly8:20 AM Oct 27th from TweetDeck
    • JK2—I will, as soon as IBM gets me that info. Still waiting.
  • Still pondering flat per-TB pricing on IBM Smart Analytics System solution appliances, announced today at #IOD2009. Still awaiting details.12:52 AM Oct 27th from TweetDeck
    • JK2—C’mon Jeff. I’ll have to ping you this week.
  • Hardly ate tonight. Hardly drank. Hardly had the hot tech discussions of the day subsided when cool evening chat on all the same got going.12:49 AM Oct 27th from TweetDeck
    • JK2—My brain was friend at the end of the day. But I recover reasonably well. I walk it off.
  • Reflecting on very interesting discussion w IBM execs on vertical pkging of IBM Smart Analytics Sys appliances leveraging Cognos blueprints.12:44 AM Oct 27th from TweetDeck
    • JK2—But I still need to see the details on which Cognos blueprints are incorporated into which ISAS versions.
  • Very good dinner conversation at #IOD2009 with Deepak Advani, Peter Griffiths, and Erick Brethenoux of IBM on advanced analytics--and life!11:20 PM Oct 26th from TweetDeck
    • JK2—I think Cognos and SPSS will complement each other nicely. But I’m still waiting for a more concrete roadmap for them to work together. Both are focused on “new analysts”—i.e., average information workers wanting to mashup their own BI views (Cognos) and build their own predictive models (SPSS). Make this stuff pervasive.
  • IBM has strong heterogeneous in-db analytics story with SPSS. The acquired vendor has integrated with most DW/DBMS platforms from long back.5:16 PM Oct 26th from TweetDeck
    • JK2—SPSS models can be exported through a wide range of interfaces to a wide range of third-party DW/DBMSs, enabling regression and scoring to be handled efficiently on the target platforms.
  • IBM #IOD2009 will soon open advanced analytics R&D centers in WashDC and London. Already in China and NYC. Significant investment.4:42 PM Oct 26th from web
    • JK2—That’s a very significant corporate commitment to advanced analytics. It will pay off richly for IBM in empowering smart researchers the world over to apply sophisticated mathematical models to a wide range of business and scientific problems.
  • IBM #IOD2009 has launched DB2 PureScale for extreme scaling for OLTP apps. But where intersect with InfoSphere Balanced Warehouse strategy?4:41 PM Oct 26th from web
    • JK2—I didn’t see any clear overlap. Considering that Oracle positions Exadata v2 as a combination DW/OLTP machine, that was a significant gap in IBM’s go-to-market messaging on the PureScale release.
  • IBM #IOD2009 has key diff in predictive analytics: in-stream live-CEP mining through InfoSphere Streams, now able import models via PMML.4:39 PM Oct 26th from web
    • JK2—That means that, in theory, any predictive analytics or data mining tool that implements PMML (i.e., them all) can publish models to real-time streams. I’m curious whether, how, and when the PA/DM tool vendors will adapt their tools to support regression, scoring, and assessment of CEP-optimal models.
  • IBM #IOD2009 has interesting Hadoop strategy. Looking forward to my discussions with Advani, Powers, Brethenoux, etc later.4:36 PM Oct 26th from web
    • JK2—But IBM still hasn’t productized Hadoop in its DW and PA/DM strategies. A lot of these futures stories were left largely unaddressed at this year’s IOD. I expect MapReduce/Hadoop, InfoSphere Streams, SPADE, DW/OLTP integration, and ISAS to be key focus areas at next year’s IOD.
  • IBM #IOD2009 has made predictive analytics uber-theme. Excellent talks by Mills/Goyal/Krishna/Advani, etc. Ample vision/solutions/customers.4:35 PM Oct 26th from web
    • JK2—This theme was obvious at the event itself. In the run-up to the event, in the pre-briefings, there was no clear big theme, other than the underwhelming “information-led transformation.”
  • IBM #IOD2009 discussed pricing on new Smart Analytics System solution appliances. Purely per-TB for whole stack, incl. deployment svcs!4:30 PM Oct 26th from web
    • JK2—If so (per Arvind Krishna on the dais at lunch at IOD), that approach--flat per-TB pricing on ISAS solutions--would seriously disrupt the DW market. But I’m still waiting for confirmation.
  • Thanks to IBM's T. Inman, A. Warzecha, D. Laverty, S. Soares, A. Ramirez, R. Rusting, & D. Dorman for well-done #IOD2009 partner showcase10:37 PM Oct 25th from TweetDeck
    • JK2—My third year in a row co-judging the IOD partner showcase. Hope to keep the streak going.
  • Vegas for IOD 2009: my 4th straight. Mandalay Bay always great convention venue. THEhotel is fave LV hotel: non-Vegas-y minimalistic decor10:54 AM Oct 25th from TweetDeck
    • JK2—The rooms are tidy, elegant, well-appointed, comfortable, and quiet.
  • Vegas for IOD 2009. As usual, IBM has so many announcements planned for tomorrow that I can barely wrap my head around them all. Good stuff.10:46 AM Oct 25th from TweetDeck
    • JK2—I have to diagram them to myself, then stare at the diagram. Still, I always leave stuff out, even after I double-check my pre-briefing notes.

SUNDRY OTHER VENDOR-LY TWEETS: JK2---No, I’m not just paying attention to the vendors whose shows I’m attending in any given week.

  • Discuss Netezza's in-db analytics capabilities in my soon-to-publish #Forrester report. Important for its adv analytics ISV partners.1:53 PM Oct 27th from TweetDeck
    • JK2—Just today (back at home) I saw another Netezza solution-partner press release: “Netezza Teams with NetIQ to Provide a Comprehensive Enterprise Data Compliance & Security Solution.” Netezza’s TwinFin platform is in big demand by both enterprises customers and ISVs looking for a scalable analytics platform.
  • Recent Oracle press release with 26 named Exadata customers: http://bit.ly/1DWz6F.12:36 PM Oct 27th from TweetDeck
    • JK2—I hope Oracle circulates a list of Exadata v2 customers within the first 6 months after shipping the platform (due to go GA within a month or so).
  • RT @davewiner: Amazon Releases Relational Database As A Service. http://bit.ly/2EInZZ JK--Wow. Geared for DW, BI, analytics? Briefing? Demo?1:03 AM Oct 27th from TweetDeck
    • JK2—MySQL in the cloud. Ironic that MySQL is the big cloud over Oracle’s plans to acquire Sun. Hopefully, Oracle’s acquisition of Sun won’t be rendered asunder by regulatory dunderheads.

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Saturday, October 24, 2009

Aweekstweets October 18-25 2009

Aweekstweets October 18-25 2009

JK2---BI vendors are making true real-time updates, via complex event processing (CEP), one of their big themes for the coming year. I see this across the board, with a few exceptions who I believe will come around. In-memory clients with interactive visualization against very large local memory caches will keep it an “real-enough time” experience even when connectivity’s interrupted or throttles down.

  • Orphaned context-bereft "mention" responses in Twitter: even when try to find whatever tweet of mine may have prompted, half of time I can'tabout 3 hours ago from TweetDeck

JK2---The larger issue is that we’ve adopted Twitter as an interpersonal messaging medium when it’s not entirely adapted to that purpose. So we’ve introduced as much mess as messaging into this medium. But, then again, e-mail’s not an ideal messaging medium either, as anybody who ever tried to follow an overextended back-and-forth e-mail discussion thread will attest. We’ve adapted our habits and heads to extract as much signal as practical from the noise.

JK2---Actually, the Forrester resport, “BI Polishes Its Crystal Ball” (August 18, 2009) was co-authored by myself, Boris Evelson, and Leslie Owens. Here’s the executive summary: “Enterprise strategic, tactical and operational decision makers want to understand past and present activity, but also anticipate the future to avoid being blindsided by seemingly hidden events. How do companies build a competitive “crystal ball”? They use advanced analytics applications integrated into their business intelligence (BI) applications and enterprise data warehousing (EDW) platforms. Many enterprises deploy siloed traditional BI and advanced analytics environments through fragmented, departmental, and tactical initiatives. In addition, vendors typically offer spotty or non-existent integration among advanced analytics and BI solutions. But large BI vendors are pulling together deeper advanced analytics strategies – a trend strongly confirmed by IBM’s recently announced plan to acquire SPSS. Forrester believes this strategic trend will continue, and will benefit business process & application (BP&A) and information & knowledge management (I&KM) professionals looking to build integrated traditional and advanced (predictive) BI applications.”

  • I tend to growl at a ringing phone, IM dialogue box, pop-up Web ad, or any other tech contrivance that screams for my attention RIGHT NOW!about 12 hours ago from TweetDeck

JK2---By the way, I’m not naturally anti-social. I’m more anti-interruption. No, not that, I’m anti-distraction. The fact that I’m often in mid-thought and mid-task makes every distraction, interruption, and call to interact in real-time ever more annoying. More than that: injurious to my bread and butter. I’m paid to focus on complex, ever-changing stuff. Every interruption defocuses me and makes it harder to resume where I left off. But I suppose you’re in the same fix, since most information workers face this same dilemma. I’m good about processing my asynchronous message queues, and tend to do so with a smile on my face. Because it gives me maximum control over my throughput.

JK2---A lone unconnected social network is my favorite. One in which it’s just me and a few kindreds talking about stuff that rocks our world, regardless of what the world thinks. It’s not as if the more connected public social networks are our enemy. It’s just that peer groups are our soul.

  • Interesting. Only one-third of blogs from my 4-year-old OPML list have gone dark. Thought it would be more. People still feeding blogs.about 15 hours ago from TweetDeck

JK2---I’ll bet there’s been a higher percentage of trade pubs going dark over that same period. Lots of people have found lots of approaches to keeping their blogs fresh with content. For example: my, mine, this.

  • Starting to explore the RSS feedreader in Internet Explorer. Far better than its sibling in Outlook. Think I'll default to the former.about 15 hours ago from TweetDeck

JK2---My browser’s my portal to the world. Of course I’ll spend more time there if I can keep it fresh with content feeds that I personally choose.

JK2---We’re living more of our lives in public now. It’s almost trivial now to listen into all kinds of conversational threads everywhere all the time. A good analyst—and that’s what’s at the core of the CIA—can piece together a substantial amount of valuable intelligence without putting agents in the field, or in harm’s way.

JK2---Advertising may be a dying art. Word of mouth—through social networks—may be replacing it as the “hidden persuader.” Spread a buzz for your product through Twitter, Facebook, etc, and see demand grow, without having to spend a dime on traditional or even online advertising media. Use search engines—such as www.bing.com/twitter--to track your influence and tweak your campaign in real time. Before long, Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo may find their search-socialnet-buzz services cannibalizing their search-keyword-ad revenues.

  • Windows 7. What's that? Microsoft counting years since I last paid attention to their next client OS? I have several OS versions. All's OK.about 19 hours ago from TweetDeck

JK2---I never pay attention to Apple’s either. Much like I never pay attention to new models of cars. Or new fashions. Call me a slob. But I’ll use/drive/wear whatever’s current and in the stores. And I’ll hold onto it all until it absolutely physically wears out. I prefer to live my life rather than fuss over stuff that’s good enough for my purposes. I’ll make the most of whatever.

  • Spread spectrum. Code frequency & space division. Many paths for encoding scattering & segregating signals. My adaptive smart array on fritzabout 19 hours ago from TweetDeck

JK2---Just spacing out, thinking back to my mid-90s stint at LCC International, product manager making test equipment for cellular system engineers. Betcha didn’t know that about me. I got a good layman’s grounding in cellular radio-frequency engineering, and have not used that knowledge in any way since that time. Much like my college calculus.

  • Kinda nice to have influence over vendor doings. Kinda not nice. Cuz when I comment on what they do, I'm also obliquely commenting on myselfabout 21 hours ago from TweetDeck

JK2---When I say I have “influence,” it’s more along the lines of this or that vendor saying they’ve tweaked their go-to-market message based on something I told them or tweeted. When I say “obliquely commenting on myself,” it’s usually the feeling of being flattered combined with the feeling of being dissatisfied with those ideas. I’m always moving onto some new or larger topic, context, or perspective on it all.

JK2---Perfect example of larger context. The EDW, enriched through in-database analytics, is becoming an analytic application server, embedding inline predictive models in SOA applications. It’s also becoming a convergence point for analytic and transactional applications. To become an enterprise-grade app server, the massively parallel EDW grid will need to isolate app services from data services and provide tools for scaling, optimizing, securing, and administering these disparate services in an SOA framework. More on this in November.

  • Quite interested in hearing what IBM will discuss re SPSS roadmap at next week's IOD. Still not sure there's a concrete roadmap.about 21 hours ago from TweetDeck

JK2---Not at all sure. I don’t see much mention of SPSS in all the prebriefings.

JK2---Key takeaway: “Your organization should adopt Service-Oriented Analytics practices to dissolve silos that prevent maximum reuse of predictive analytic apps, modeling professionals, and best practices across business and application domains.”

JK2---Maturity is knowing when your current status is a permanent plateau—butte or rut—and being satisfied with the view. You’re going to have to make your peace with whatever level you’ve attained, even if you make every effort to, as Stevie Wonder put it, “reach my higher ground.”

  • Interesting flanking maneuver: vendor positioning of next-gen EDW as completely extensible partner-enabling analytic-app delivery platform.about 23 hours ago from TweetDeck

JK2---I figure that Netezza will have to go this route, unless they acquire BI, ETL, MDM, and other complementary vendors/solutions. Or add a consulting arm.

  • Interesting flanking maneuver: vendor positioning of next-gen EDW as something more: complete ready-to-deploy biz analytic app suite in box8:50 AM Oct 22nd from TweetDeck

JK2---I figure that Microsoft will have to go this route, if they wish to truly make headway selling SQL Server “Madison” appliances into the vast small-to-midsized business market.

  • Interesting flanking maneuver: vendor positioning of next-gen EDW as something more: OLTP/analytic app server. Exadata v2? Maybe, sorta.8:45 AM Oct 22nd from TweetDeck

JK2---I figure that Oracle will deepen their focus on this theme as they integrate their huge application portfolio with their hugely powerful new EDW platform.

  • In DW market, only deep-pocketed lo-cost players can survive $/TB trench war. Marketing blitzes can work. As can innovation-driven flanking8:40 AM Oct 22nd from TweetDeck

JK2---Deep-pocketed? Reasonably, that term can only apply to those huge vendors with significant scale economies and lucrative cash-cow products. It fits Oracle, IBM, Microsoft, SAP, and HP. Who else?

  • In mature markets with huge legacies, competitive warfare mixes WW1 (trench), WW2 (blitz), Vietnam (guerilla), & Gulf (laser-guided) tactics8:32 AM Oct 22nd from TweetDeck

JK2---Guerilla tactics in the DW space? That’s FUD, right? Scaring the competitor’s legacy customers with end-of-life threats when a vendor rolls out a shiny new platform, and encouraging them (through special price breaks etc.) to migrate to your own product. Scaring an acquired vendor’s legacy customer with that same end-of-life bogeyman. Laser-guided? Acquiring the DW appliance competitor’s main hardware platform provider.

  • DW is a mature market. Even with all the startup activity and innovation, I'm struck by how many vendors & analysts have been at it forever.8:22 AM Oct 22nd from TweetDeck

JK2---Reading up on DW discussions from the 90s (Kimball vs. Inmon; OLAP best practices, etc.). Doesn’t feel all that different from today. And that’s good: stable body of time-proven practices that work for enterprise IT pros. Diverse schools of thought that debate perennial issues.

  • Another morning of glancing at my physical copies of WashPost & WSJ. Great journalism that can only be read in depth at night when exhausted6:38 AM Oct 22nd from TweetDeck

JK2---Old-style newspapers are becoming a bit like magazines: digests we read at leisure, rather than on the run. Most of the on-the-run consumption of news is online, mobile, social.

  • A week's delayed pondering on #OOW09. Oracle needs to ramp data mining strategy bigtime. Exadata v2's great promise is in-database analytics9:47 PM Oct 21st from TweetDeck

JK2---Oracle paid very little attention to data mining at OOW09. That’s unfortunate. They have a strong tool and a strong EDW for in-database analytics.

  • I prefer "business analytics" for its mouth feel: penultimate stress, saucy tongue-roll, redoubled short-i echoes, crunchy end-click.9:43 PM Oct 21st from TweetDeck

JK2---Reminds me. Here’s a triple-haiku I wrote extemporaneously for Kristina Kerr of Microsoft’s BI team last year at their show in downtown Seattle, over dinner, in response to my challenge to her to give me the seed word. She said “crunchy”:

CRUNCHY ANALYTIC

Thought is optional.
Have to have hands to grasp and
tear the text to bits.

Pulp's preferable.
Its immolation is a
blazing face of fire.

An unlocking of
energies that only hard
tedium can free.

Also reminds me, here, from 2000, is my first triple-haiku, which I wrote extemporaneously for no one, in my head, at an industry conference in downtown Atlanta, during my Burton Group days:

A RECONCILIATION OF FRIENDS

A hand on an arm
in the din of a disco
is without a doubt.

A gesture can close
the years and odd continents
we let intervene.

The touch of a hand
is a dove come home and
a world encircled.

BTW, I'll be in LV next week: Mon (IBM IOD), Tues (SAS M2009), Wed (SAP Inside Rpting). Will the roam the halls, meet you all, tweet it all.9:29 PM Oct 21st from TweetDeck

JK2---Tweeting has replaced versifying as my preferred mode of capturing the moment.

  • A day's delayed pondering on #TDPUG. Teradata needs to tout its innovations more forcefully. And go aggressive in industry price wars.9:25 PM Oct 21st from TweetDeck

JK2---Teradata continues to face account-erosion pressures. Their technical innovations are certainly impressive, especially those announced this past week. But that doesn’t change the DW industry competitive dynamic: a trench war over price-performance. They can lob these performance-related salvos all they want (cloud, all-SSD, virtual storage, etc.), but if they don’t withstand the steady attrition by neutralizing their opponents’ price advantages, they’ll be at a long-term strategic disadvantage.

JK2---Sure, the blogosphere has Wikipedia, Google, and the like. But it doesn’t have a multi-decade, uninterrupted, pre-aggregated, institutionally governed and brokered repository reportage and commentary.

JK2---I’m not much into co-presenting on topics not in my core coverage areas, or presenting virtually by teleconference to faceless throngs who don’t ask questions, or whom I can’t have drinks with afterward. I do love speaking in person and up close, in large rooms full of professionals who pay attention, have a keen interest in my research, and are not shy about engaging me afterward. This Teradata preso was me at my best, and the audience responded with great Q&A. One fellow (forgot his name, sorry) engaged me in an extended hallway conversation after the preso. I live for that stuff.

  • I like to use all my msging, social ntwking, and Web 2.0 media as notepads: recording my thoughts for later reference (by myself & others).5:54 AM Oct 20th from TweetDeck

JK2---This is a great medium for sharing and validating my thinking in real-time with interested parties.

  • Managing today's hypersaturated media diet requires knowing when your cup runneth over, recognizing superfluous commentary and not refilling5:49 AM Oct 20th from TweetDeck

JK2---Distinguishing astute from stupid commentary is a never-ending job. The former is like a magic elixir. The latter is the intellectual equivalent of second-hand smoke. Just because everybody smokes something and says it makes them smart, sexy, and with-it doesn’t make it so. Standing apart, you feel your innocent bystander lungs fill with fluid.

JK2---Every medium can be a burden if you don’t retool your life to make the most of it. Which reminds me, someone sent me a cool link to a YouTube video that’s a joke: Google Wave meets Pulp Fiction http://bit.ly/3Xa09E. It’s the profanity-laced homicidal-screaming Samuel L. Jackson audio from that Tarantino film, but rendered in Google Wave with full utilization of text, fonts, pics, video, etc. Not only is it incredibly funny, but it’s an awesomely powerful adaptation of that scene for the new comms medium called Google Wave. Stretching the expressive possibilities of any medium or genre is the greatest thrill. E-mail isn’t dead. But the muscular infant called Google Wave hasn’t even begun to emerge fully from its promising cradle.

  • Microsoft has new name for forthcoming BI mashup solution (fka "Project Gemini")": Microsoft SQL Server PowerPivot for Excel. A bit wordy.4:52 PM Oct 19th from TweetDeck

JK2---“PowerPivot” is s cool name, by itself, uninflected, though.

JK2---What’s most interesting about their MapReduce/Hadoop implementation is how well they’re defining alternative deployment scenarios, in order to optimize MapReduce/Hadoop for diverse customer apps across the Teradata DW product family. Also, they’re not treating this as some big trade secret. This is a link to a published set of docs on their website.

  • Teradata has a strong MapReduce and Hadoop story. They haven't emphasized it at Partners, but it's deep. Stay tuned. #tdpug4:48 PM Oct 19th from TweetDeck

JK2---Teradata’s in-database analytics story is much more than simply the SAS partnership.

  • Teradata nu all-SSD "Blur" DW racks consume much less power/floorspace than rotating-disk DWs. SSD more expensive upfront, but excellent TCO3:38 PM Oct 19th from TweetDeck

JK2---Potentially, that is. Excellent TCO potentially. Talk about price-performance shooting wars. As soon as SSD prices drop by 50% or more, in the next 1-2 years, expect to see every DW appliance product everywhere incorporate them, and quickly obsolete and end-of-life the legacy rotating-disk DW platforms.

  • Teradata public (Amazon EC2) and private (VMWare) DW cloud offerings in beta. Their private (Agile Analytic) cloud DW available now. #TDPUG3:33 PM Oct 19th from TweetDeck

JK2---Teradata Agile Analytic Cloud (private cloud) similar in high-level respects to Greenplum Enterprise Data Cloud. Teradata’s entire cloud offerings/strategy (private and public) similar in high-level respects to Aster Data’s offerings/direction. Of the seven vendors in my Feb 2009 Forrester EDW Platforms Wave, Teradata’s the only one (so far) with a (more than) credible cloud story. But t hey certainly won’t be the last.

  • McDonald says Teradata has customer wins on very-hi-scale 1555 platform, and will discuss later. But 5555 remains core DW platform. #TDPUG11:58 AM Oct 19th from TweetDeck

JK2---I’m still waiting to hear how Teradata will position the (40 petabytes max! count ‘em) 1555 going forward. As a massively parallel EDW cloud platform for deployment by public cloud partners? By Web 2.0 pure-play app/service providers?

  • Asked Teradata re response to ORCL/NZ in DW price war. McDonald ackn price-perf weakness, but confident innovation will drive customer wins11:57 AM Oct 19th from TweetDeck

JK2---That’s assuming, of course, that competitors won’t be announcing and rolling out similar innovations in the coming 6-12 months. Teradata needs to get aggressive with first-mover (or close to first mover) value prop in DW cloud, SSD, virtual storage, and the like.

  • Gnau: new Teradata all-SSD 4555 "Blur" DW appli. #TDPUG. Alternative to in-mem & CEP engines. Loads 7TB/hr. Hyper-analytics. Demo on floor.11:49 AM Oct 19th from TweetDeck

JK2---I’m surprised they didn’t announce a petabyte-scale distributed in-memory offering as well. That would make perfect sense as the next generation of their Active Enterprise Intelligence strategy.

JK2---But Oracle Exadata v2, announced a few weeks prior to OOW09, was substantial enough for now. Considering that it is now in primary upgrade path for DW/BI deployments of Oracle market-leading RDBMS, and considering how scaleable and flexible it is to support OLTP/DW integration, we should not underestimate its impact.

JK2---Virtualization of the DW into the “cloud” (public and/or private). Plan to do a Forrester report on that topic in early 2010.

  • Teradata Agile Analytic Cloud. #TDPUG. Internal priv cloud, ease of mart provis, Elastic Mart Builder w actv wkld mg, prof svcs: free/GA now11:40 AM Oct 19th from TweetDeck

JK2---Elastic Mart Builder. That tool is the most noteworthy new element in Teradata’s cloud/virtualization story. The underlying self-service mart provisioning capabilities have been in the vendor’s DW platform(s) for some time.

  • Teradata's Scott Gnau on cloud. #TDPUG. Internal analytic clouds for POC, power user sandbox, testing, dependent virtual marts.11:37 AM Oct 19th from TweetDeck

JK2---Teradata’s now in major POC mode with customers on its Agile Analytic Cloud capabilities leveraging Elastic Mart Builder. A big ongoing customer outreach, education, and demonstration exercise. Energizing the sales force in this direction.

  • Teradata Virtual Storage: automated data placement on disk with multi-temperature storage. #TDPUG. Key DW cost-reduction tools for customers11:34 AM Oct 19th from TweetDeck

JK2---This is the most fundamental bread-and-butter enhancement announced at Teradata Partners this year: controlling and reducing storage costs. Teradata customers are always looking to make their deployments more efficient on the storage side.

JK2---Teradata could easily take a more thorough solution-oriented packaging focus, a la IBM Smart Analytic Systems, if they wished.

  • Teradata/SAS "350" claim reference engagements where in-db analytics "rising business priority." #TDPUG. Yeah, vague, but clear implication11:31 AM Oct 19th from TweetDeck

JK2---The fact is: most joint Teradata-SAS customers have made significant investments in a DW (Teradata) and predictive analytics and data mining suite (SAS). Hence, it’s safe to assume the majority of those 350 joint customers are looking to leverage, extend, and integrate those investments. Hence, in-database analytics (for which there are many ROI points to consider, per my upcoming Forrester report: “In-Database Analytics: Heart of the Predictive Enterprise.”

  • Teradata CMO Darryl McDonald: alluded to competitor 10x claims re their respective new platforms: "as if we all don't do that."11:28 AM Oct 19th from TweetDeck

JK2---Yeah. DW appliance vendors’ default “10x” claims are as meaningful as detergent vendors’ tendency to slap ‘new and improved” on their boxes. They all claim it. Let the customer decide whether in fact their queries indeed come out faster, and whether their whites come out whiter than white.

JK2---BTW, I plan to update the Forrester EDW Platforms Wave in 2010. There have been so many new products and announcements in the EDW market since I published that one (just 8 months ago), that it will be high time by this time next year.

JK2---Hmmm....maybe we need to distinguish between a database server, cluster, grid, and cloud in terms of number of distinct (physical and/or logical, processing and storage) nodes in a massively parallel deployment. Maybe the term “cluster” can max at 64 nodes, grid at 1000 nodes, and cloud for more than 1000 nodes. In that case, it makes no sense to refer to a single node of anything as a “cloud.” I can’t see any scenario in which a dataset as small as 1TB would be persisted and managed by 1000 or more server nodes (unless we’re talking virtual servers, and, even then, the overhead of maintaining that many virtual servers to manage the processing of so little data would be cost-prohibitive).

JK2---Vertica has many innovative approaches in R&D from what I can see.

  • Teradata CEO said "lowest cost possible" customer DW requirement. But didn't say if/how they'll match Oracle/Netezza $20K/TB pricing. #TDPUG10:34 AM Oct 19th from TweetDeck

JK2---Clearly, Teradata is aware of what they’re up against.

JK2---This is the most important groundbreaking announcement from Teradata this fall, just as Exadata v2 was from Oracle and TwinFin was from Netezza. Big difference among these announcements though: Netezza’s new platform is GA and shipping; Oracle’s is on the verge; Teradata’s is coming in a few months (see next Aweekstweet item).

  • Teradata's new all-SSD DW platform, "Blur" (aka "4555"), available Q1 10, one-ups Oracle Exadata (SAS/SATA) on storage. At what price?#tdpug9:59 AM Oct 19th from TweetDeck

JK2---Yes, inquiring analysts want to know. Oracle says Exadata v2 at $20K/TB. Teradata hasn’t indicated what multiple of that they’ll sell the 4555 at.

JK2---But Greenplum has a more mature MapReduce implementation.

JK2—Of course, this is just for POCs. As Teradata proves out its cloud offerings with actual customers, that capacity limit will surely grow.

  • Found Koehler's keynote at #tdpug disappointing. He rushed out actual news at tail-end. Spent too much time on EDW applepie/motherhood.9:35 AM Oct 19th from TweetDeck

JK2---Why is Teradata so shy about making bold announcements? This market is full of companies that have innovative stories being sold by brash, visionary product teams.

JK2---All of these announcements were for products that are either available now, or in GA in the next 3 months or so.

  • MapReduce is all about mining data/info at rest. Need a superset to mine info at rest and in motion. In other words, in-stream CEP mining.2:57 PM Oct 18th from TweetDeck

JK2---See my Teradata conf preso on in-database/inline analytics; my recent Forrester teleconference on same, and my soon-to-publish Forrester doc on same. I call this new paradigm “comprehensive cloud analytics.” Check out IBM’s InfoSphere Streams as key pioneer in in-stream CEP mining.

JK2---Check out Curt’s recent webinar with Aster Data. Good discussion.

  • Microsoft's first live Windows Azure SQL Data Services won't support cloud DW. Not for another 1-2 years they say. They'll be late to market1:50 PM Oct 18th from TweetDeck

JK2---I’m dismayed that Microsoft is totally dropping the ball on this. I’m hopeful for SQL Server “Madison,” but don’t understand what that and Azure SQL Data Services are stovepipe efforts. Clearly, Teradata isn’t stovepiping any of this.

  • Press release headlines, viewed in chronological sequence, tell interesting story: ratio of vendor meaty accomplishments to empty boasts.9:17 PM Oct 17th from TweetDeck

JK2---Each individual press release is a concoction of marketing communications and product management pros. But the sequence of press releases, and the number of fluff releases (e.g., our CEO spoke at this or that forum) shows whether the individual announcements add up to a significant strategic thrust or just scattered efforts without clear corporate-driven business direction.

  • A social network without a core of true friends is just anomie exacerbated via anonymity afforded by excessive connectivity. Not a community8:44 PM Oct 17th from TweetDeck

JK2---Social networks can be a very lonely crowd.

  • When vendor enhances platform more than once a year, don't know whether to laud them for innovation or dis 'em for ditching legacy customers1:08 PM Oct 16th from TweetDeck

JK2---Or dis ‘em, if they’re new, for innovating so desperately that potential customers never get a clear sense of who they are, where they’re going, whether they will last.

  • When vendor says haven't enhanced their platform for several years, don't know whether to laud them for stability or dis 'em for stagnating12:48 PM Oct 16th from TweetDeck

JK2---Or dis’ em, if they’re established, for resting on their laurels long after anybody cares. “We were pioneers 20 years ago in this market.” Yeah, but what have you done for customers lately?

  • Social media users segmenting: those nailed to single community vs. ones toggling btwn several vs. ones who aggregate for single experience12:12 PM Oct 16th from TweetDeck

JK2---No, I haven’t yet tried Google Wave. Sitting on the fence. Perhaps some Tarantino-esque cold-blooded threats from Samuel L. Jackson might be necessary to convince me.

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