I was really happy to see such a great turnout for today’s session on how to get started blogging at Enterprise Data World (#EDW13).  I wasn’t just happy to have a full room, but that I got so many great, insightful questions and comments.

My Get Blogging slides are available for download now.

Some of the resources I mentioned during the talk:

• WordPress.com This is my blogging platform of choice.  You can set up a blog in 10 seconds, for free. 
• WordPress.org Same platform, but if you want to host it someplace yourself.  You can also find a third party host and they typically will have this ready to install from their catalog of approved applications.  It’s free.
• Windows Live Writer http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-live/essentials-other-programs  This is what I use to compose most of my blog posts
• TechSmith.com Home of Camtasia (video editor of my choice) and SnagIt (my screen capture tool).  You want these.
• ERwin.com Go To page for all things ERwin, including their blogs (under the community page)
• Embarcadero.com Where to find ER/Studio blogs
• Dataversity.net Home of numerous blogs and articles

Remember, if you start blogging, I want to hear about it so that I can share, comment, and help you promote your writing.

Get Blogging!

I was reading an ACM blog post by Judy Robertson about strutting, a tactic used by audience members at event.  Robertson discusses a specific type of this behaviour, done by IT people: nerd strutting. 

Garvin-Doxas and Barker (2004) refer to "strutting" as a style of interaction where people show off their knowledge by asking questions carefully designed to demonstrate that they know a lot about the topic, and quite possibly that they know more than everyone else around them. The problem with this in a learning situation is that students who lack confidence assume that they are the only person who doesn’t understand, and quickly feel even more demoralised.

The full paper is available if you’d like to read about the study these researchers did on Defensive Climate in the Computer Science Classroom.

I’m betting you’ve seen this behaviour before.  In fact, I’d bet that if you attend enough events, you could name the people most likely to nerd strut before the speaker has even gotten 15 minutes into her presentation.  They ask questions, often sprinkled with references to product codenames, Greek philosophers, small startups and archaic error numbers.   They use highly jargonized terms.  They use insider terms. They want you to feel outside the inner circle.  They want you to know just how freaking smart they are.  But you know what’s funny?  The vast majority of the people in the room can see what they are doing and silently smirk.   

I’m interested in hearing just what sorts of people fall for this bravado.  Everyone else in the room talks about how insanely annoying the behaviour is, but no one wants to do anything about it.  I’m not even sure what we can do about it, other than to ask audience members to stop.  

Insults R Us

Another tactic that nerd strutters do is sit in the audience and stage whisper criticisms of the speaker and the topics.  I find this incredibly annoying as an audience member.  It doesn’t impress me, nor does it make me feel as if the strutmaster is actually convincing anyone he is superior. A variation of this is a group of people, chatting with each other and loudly snickering about the speaker or the topic.   

If you are sitting in a presentation and you find it too "level 100” for your tastes, you should just get up and find a presentation more fitting for your enormous brain…or whatever body part is keeping you from learning anything.

Why it Matters

I know, some of you are saying “But Karen, just ignore the @$$#@+s that do this stuff”.  I do, mostly.  However, Garvin-Doxas and Barker found that the effect of many types of negative communication, even when it was not intended, has a negative impact on many students, especially women.  Yes, women should suck it up and learn to play the game of competition.  But we don’t do it that well.  In general, women prefer a collaborative environment.   We love a bit of friendly competition. But one where team members insult others in public? Not so much.

The authors point to the fact that IT work is highly collaborative.  Supporting and enabling a culture of jabs, insults, mockery and distain works against that goal.  I hear people constantly ranting that topic X should not be on a conference agenda because it is isn’t what *they* want  learn.  I say “choose another session – there are several other tracks”.  When I see someone nerd strut in front of an entire audience, I want to call them out – tell them they are showing off.  We can all tell when a question isn’t really a question. I don’t do call people out on this, though, because no one else does.

What to Do

Robertson gives 3 tips in her blog post on dealing with nerd strutting.  Go read them.  I’d love to see the community deal with this in a consistent, collaborative way.

I’d like to add to them:

1. Encourage others to ask questions during presentations.  One of the reasons why many nerd strutters can do what they do, often several times in the same session, is that very few people ask questions or give commentary.  If enough people are asking legitimate questions, then the strutters get less show time.

2. Ask the Insult R Us people to take their conversation elsewhere. It’s annoying enough to hear anyone ramble on while you are trying to listen to the speaker.  It’s not rude or unfair to ask people, no matter what they are talking about, to either be quiet or to wander somewhere else.

3. Stand up to people who insult the work of others.  This one is the biggest pet peeve of mine.  It’s fine for people to be proud of their own work.  It’s not cool for them to insult the work of others just because they think it’s easy or low-level stuff. I don’t just draw boxes and lines all day.  BI professionals don’t just draw bar charts all day.  Developers don’t just type all day.  We all have difficult jobs.  I don’t need to step on someone else to raise myself up.  I will continue to speak out to the people who need to insult others.  I’m hoping you can, too.

Community Impact

From the paper:

Finally, when people communicate certainty in a dogmatic fashion, they also tend to communicate a low tolerance for disagreement. When defensive communication becomes habitual in a social context, it engenders a "defensive climate." Distrust of others becomes the norm, resulting in a social environment privileging competition over cooperation.

We all need to recognize that this negative behaviour hurts everyone.  It poisons the community.  It drives people away, especially new community members and those who want to work together to solve problems and build the community.   And we all need to work together to keep people focused on making the community an inclusive, inviting environment.

Garvin-Doxas, K. and Barker, L. J. 2004. Communication in computer science classrooms: understanding defensive climates as a means of creating supportive behaviors. J. Educ. Resour. Comput. 4, 1 (Mar. 2004), 2. DOI= http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1060071.1060073

.

In a wilful privacy breach in 2011, a clerk at British Columbia’s insurance bureau (ICBC) accessed customer data in order to intimidate employees of another organization. One of the victims has launched legal proceedings against ICBC for failing to have suitable data protections in place.   ICBC is a sort of universal automobile insurance organization in BC – everyone who wants a driver’s license there must get their insurance via this organization, so their data collection covers most adult BC residents.

Annette Oliver isn’t just worried about sensitive information being made public, but about how that data was used to terrorize her family and co-workers.

Annette Oliver alleges in her lawsuit that her husband’s van was torched on April 17, 2011, at about 2 a.m., which police believe was an arson.

Then on June 1, 2011, Oliver claims, she was at home when she heard three loud bangs at about 5 a.m. and discovered three bullet holes in the front of her house.

Oliver says her husband and two daughters were home at the time.

This wasn’t an isolated case: others had their cars burned and homes shot.

Three months later, on Dec. 14, 2011, the RCMP revealed the investigation had found a link to an ICBC employee, who allegedly accessed personal information of 65 people, including 13 identified as victims who were targeted.

ICBC said at the time the employee under investigation was a woman who had been at ICBC for 15 years before she was fired in August 2011

It appears from the lawsuit that ICBC did not use monitoring technologies to monitor access.  Or that they weren’t using them correctly.  I’m always surprised by organizations that steward customer data and don’t do much to properly care for that data.   We’ll see in the end whether or not ICBC had suitable protections.

Myths about Data Protection

1. Data privacy breaches don’t really hurt people.  This one makes me mad.  Even something less physically harmful like having their identities stolen can cause years of trouble for your customers, not to mention great financial harm. But data breaches can and do physically harm people. 
2. Data privacy is about secrecy.  No, data privacy protection is about controlling the usage of data for only the reasons for which it was collected. Among other things.
3. If the data is available elsewhere, it doesn’t need to be protect in our database. No, IT professionals still have a duty to protect personal and sensitive data in their care.
4. Data wants to be free, so we shouldn’t control how it’s used within the organizations.  Yeah? My cats want to be free, too.  And we still don’t let them outside.
5. Data protection is just a technology issue.  Data protection is just a training issue.  Data protection requires technological, process and people-based solutions.
6. Encryption is all we need to do.  No, because if people can read the data or download it, it’s not encrypted any more.  Encryption helps when people walk away with the data.  But people who use the data don’t see encrypted data.
7. Data privacy requirements can be applied after the system goes into production.  This one drives me crazy.  Data protection requires effort at all phases of a project.  There architectural, design, development, deployment and maintenance components to be addressed.  There are policy and procedures to be developed.  There is monitoring and alerting to be practiced. 

You know my mantra. Love your data because it’s not really yours.  You have a professional duty to ensure it’s safe.

Read the full story at Metronews

Justice Institute employee sues ICBC for privacy breach that allegedly led to her vehicle torched, bullets fired at home

Today’s SQL Server 2012 Anniversary question is:

I thought the image I created above might inspire you.

Follow @SQLServer on Twitter and answer their daily questions to win fame and prizes.

Good luck!

I’ll be participating in this year’s Enterprise Data World 28 April to 2 May in San Diego, CA.  If you register using the coupon code DATACHICK you can get $200 off a multi-day registration.  That code saves you $50 on a one-day registration.

On Thursday, 2 May I’m giving a half day workshop on the data modeling process:

S5: Advanced Data Modeling: Be Happier, Add More Value and Be More Valued

Karen Lopez
Sr. Project Manager & Architect
InfoAdvisors

Thursday, May 2, 2013
01:15 PM – 04:30 PM

Level: 
Advanced

In this advanced workshop, Karen Lopez covers how to make data modeling more relevant in 2012 and removing pain points for modelers and other team members. It includes how to be successful in an agile/scrum environment, how to make models valuable in a NoSQL project, how to better work with DBAs, Developers, Project Managers and how to sound and be more valuable.

This follows a workshop format, with both individual and team exercises. It is expected that attendees will have more than two years of hands-on data modeling and database design skills at the enterprise level.

Starting a Blog for Data Professionals

On Wednesday I’m doing a professional development session on getting started with blogging:  Starting a Blog: Easy Step Show and Tell for Data Professionals.  This session is nicely placed between the coffee and desserts segment on the exhibit floor and the ice cream social that happens right after.  I’m expecting a lot of sugar-motivated potential bloggers.

I’ll also be doing some special activities with vendors and sponsors: watch your inbox for information from them about their events.

EDW is one of my favourite conferences of the year – part technical education, part data professional reunion, part data community revival.  You don’t want to miss it. 

My general advice on this question (and I get it a lot) focus more on fit to your organization and technical environment than on specific features. I should disclose that we partner with most the major data modeling tool vendors, but we don’t make any money from the sales of such tools.  We aren’t a reseller and don’t get any referral fees.  The partner programs I’m part of with these vendors is closer to an MVP or Ace program.

Target DBMS and Development Tool Support.

It depends on what your target DBMSs and data stores are, of course.  While I am a huge fan of modeling for the knowledge, to document the business, and to be able to communicate requirements, ultimately to get the full value of modeling we need to ensure that our modeling products are directly able to support development and implementation activities as well as all the requirement gathering.

I see weaker returns on the value of modeling when the chosen modeling tool cannot be easily consumed by developers in their tools, or when the tool cannot forward and reverse engineer databases.  This also include XML files, non-relational DBs and even the most common database in the world, Excel.

I consider this one factor the most important of all in the post. 

Modeling Not Just Drawing

Every obstacle between the data models and another person’s ability to consume them is an obstacle for the models being integrated into the full development and support lifecycle.  There’s very little chance of Model Driven Development being successful if all that wonderful data model goodness has to be retyped (and reinterpreted) into someone else’s process or products.

A data modeling tool needs to support the highly-iterative nature of data modeling.  Drawing and database diagramming tools rarely have the ability to compare and resolve differences between models and databases.  I do these types of compares many times a day, across many models and databases.

Data modeling tools also allow data architects to design and record important information beyond what might appear in an ERD or DDL.  These features include security, encryption, capacity planning, data privacy and a slew of other critical data requirements.  In shops where a diagramming tool such as Visio is used for data modeling, these important meta data items are typically buried in a spreadsheet or document.  They can’t be easily searched or reported on, nor easily shared across projects.

Vendor Tech Support

When you buy a data modeling tool you aren’t just buying a product – you are investing in a vendor.  Log a few tickets during evaluation.  Learn how well support works.  Remember, the vendor will never treat you better than when you were considering a purchase. If support is slow or non-existent it’s not going to get better after you buy.  Don’t use your sales person as the support person.  They may be great but they might not be your sales person tomorrow. You are evaluating the support process and system, not one person.

If the vendor says that tech support isn’t available to evaluators, ask them why not and tell them you need to evaluate them as well as their product.

Future Support

The technical architecture landscape is changing faster than most vendors can respond.  The good news is that often that means it’s changing faster than your organization can change as well.  However, you need to review the history of releases of the product to assess the responsiveness of the vendor to changes in the industry.  Sure, past performance is not a guaranteed indicator of future behaviour. It is something to consider, though.

Ask to see public roadmaps or presentations about products/features in development.  Vendors can’t always share a lot of details but generally they have information they can share either at a high level or features that are currently in beta testing.

Licensing Options

I don’t know about you, but my work happens in many locations and across many devices. As much as I’d like to buy a separate license for every desktop, laptop and tablet I own, I’m not going to do that. I do most of my modeling on a desktop with three screens because it makes me more productive. However, when I am in a meeting I want to use my laptop or tablet. If the only licensing scheme available is via device or MAC address I either have to buy multiple licenses or remote into my desktop to do the work. Neither one reflects how modelers really work. Licensing options such as floating/concurrent or user-based do.

Usability

If common tasks take hours instead of seconds the cost of using the tool may exceed the value it can deliver no matter how pretty your models are.  If publishing models takes more than a few minutes you won’t publish (share) as often. You’ll want to evaluate the full lifecycle of modeling, including forward and reverse engineering, printing, publishing, sharing, exporting, importing…everything a professional data modeler needs to do to get his job done.

Version Control

A team of data modelers (even a team of one + co-workers like developers and DBAs) must have real version control for models.  That means not at the file level but at the object level within the model.  A tiny change in one part of the model can ripple throughout the model completely unseen on the current diagram.  The ability to compare the impact of a change to previous versions of the model is critical. Because data models are typically persisted in a proprietary format third party version control tools like Subversion can only detect changes at the full file level, not at the object level.

A drawing tool isn’t going to have these features.

Enterprise-readiness

If the tool doesn’t fit well within a corporate IT environment it’s going to be difficult to get support from your own IT resources. Support for the types of requirements you’d have for a business application is key.  Active Directory, password complexity requirements, installation permissions required, target DBMSs supported, data file location configuration are just some of the examples of things to evaluate.

Your data models are production data for you, the modeler. You want production level support from your company’s IT resources.  If the product isn’t enterprise ready, you’re going to have a tough time getting that support.

Community Support

A vendor that participates and supports professionals in the field is one that is demonstrating how much they want to see users of their products succeed.  Do they have product evangelists who help users succeed by blogging, creating videos, speaking at events, etc.?

Does the vendor sponsor user groups? Conferences you attend?  Do they have a user group they fund?  Do they they have a form product advisory group that helps product management understand the needs of data modelers in the field?

A vendor that gives back to the community is more likely to deliver the product features you need, plus help you be successful at data modeling.

Price

All of the above features come at a cost, as do all enterprise class tools.  But organizations are going to pay those costs whether or not they use Excel, Visio or FreeDrawingTool to manage their data architectures or a real data modeling tool.  In my experience the real costs using these “cheap workarounds” greatly exceeds the costs of using a real enterprise data modeling tool due to lost productivity, data modeling errors, lack of reuse and wasted business user time in recreating the same data models over and over again. 

Finally…

Data modeling is more than diagramming tables.  ERDs show about 10% of the information in a professional data model.  You need tools that support your environment and data modeling goals.   It’s less expensive, faster to model and your models will continue to deliver benefits for years and decades afterwards.

This month’s Big Challenges in Data Modeling webinar is Thursday at 2PM EDT.  We’ll be talking about better collaboration with developers and the development process.

I have a great panel:

Missy Wittman, Information Modeling Engineer Specialist, American Family Insurance

Missy Wittmann is an Information Modeling Engineer Specialist at American Family Insurance. Missy has worked in the data modeling field for over fifteen years in various roles. She started out as a business partner on a project that did some data modeling and enjoyed the process so much that she changed career paths. Missy has facilitated projects for Business Modeling, Logical and Physical Data Modeling. Most recently she has been participating in projects that are creating XML Schema’s. Data Modeling is an exciting place to be in the world of technology. No matter what technology is being used to get the end result, we always need our blue-print!

Joe Devon, CoFounder, Diamond Web Services

Joe Devon is the co-founder of Diamond Web Services, a boutique web development shop based in Venice Beach; Startup Devs, a “Prototypes as a Service” company building MVP’s for startups, and founding partner of Television Four, where he is building a technology channel.

Joe has been a computer programmer for more than 20 years, working on projects spanning Search Engine technology, Performance Management, scaling Wide Area Networks; for Internet backbone providers, Investment Banks, Telcos & Media.

Joe serves on the advisory boards of leading development industry conferences (Zendcon, Semtech) and for the educational program of Cross Campus. Joe is an organizer of several technology oriented meetup groups in Los Angeles and CoFounded Global Accessibility Awareness Day, bridging the gap between disabled citizens and the Internet.

Gwen Thomas, President, Data Governance Institute

Gwen Thomas is a Data Governance pioneer, founder of the Data Governance Institute, and publisher of the web’s largest Data Governance resource at www.datagovernance.com. Gwen has personally assisted many large, mid-sized, and small organizations with their data strategies, data governance and stewardship programs, master data strategies, and other information practices. Gwen is a frequent presenter at industry data events and contributor to IT and business publications.

I’m expecting a lot of good discussion and sharing of tips about how data models and data modelers can best work with developers during fast-paced, get-er-done projects. 

Registration is free, but you need to do that to get the information to join.

We often work with Anthony, Pierre and Mitch, the evangelists from the IT Pro team at Microsoft Canada. They asked us to share this important message with you.

The team at Microsoft Canada is focused on ensuring that they help set you up for success by providing the information and tools you need in order to be get the most out of Microsoft based solutions, at home and at work.

Twice a year, Microsoft sends out the Global Relationship Study (GRS for short); it’s a survey that Microsoft uses to collect your feedback and help inform their planning. If you receive emails from Microsoft, subscribe to their newsletters‚ or you’ve attended our any of their events you may receive the survey.

The important details:

• Timing – March 4^th to April 12^th 2013
• Sent From – “Microsoft Feedback”
• Email Alias – “feedback@e–mail.microsoft.com”
• Subject Line – “Help Microsoft Focus on Customers and Partners”

Many of you already read the Microsoft Canada IT Pro team’s blogs‚ connect with them on LinkedIn and have attended their events in the last year or so. So you may already know that you’re their top priority. So they want to hear from you.

Pierre, Anthony and Mitch use the GRS results to shape what they do, how they do it and if it’s resonating with you. Tell them what you need to be the “go-to” guy (or gal). Tell them what you need to grow your career. They want you to be completely satisfied with Microsoft Canada.

Online Resources

This year, Pierre, Anthony and Mitch have delivered 30 IT Camps and counting across the country. Giving you the opportunity to get hands on and learn how to get the most value for your organization. They have a few more events planned this year, so keep an eye on their plancast feed for events near you. Based on your feedback, topics they’re planning to cover will include:

· Windows 8

· Windows Server 2012

· System Center 2012

· Private Cloud

· BYOD – Management and Security

That’s not all. They’ve heard you loud and clear so in addition to hands on events, they’re also delivering more technical content online via the IT Pro Connection Blog. Windows 8 continues to be a big area of focus for them. They covered a lot of great content at launch and they’ve complimented that with new content like:

· Security Concepts

· Enterprise Focused Content

· Windows 8 and System Center 2012 Integration

In addition to this, there are some valuable online resources you can use like Microsoft Virtual Academy, Microsoft’s no-cost online training portal. Or software evaluations (free trials) on TechNet that allow you to build your own labs to try out what you’ve learned.

There are some great SQL Server labs there, too.

Let Microsoft Canada Know What You Need

Regardless of how you engage with the team at Microsoft Canada‚ you’d probably agree that they hear you. They’d also encourage you to continue to provide that great feedback. They thrive on it‚ they relish it‚ they wallow in it and most importantly of all‚ they action it. So please keep connecting with them and keep it coming! Pierre, Anthony and Mitch are listening.

Resources, Tools and Training

· Tim Horton’s Gift Card Contest – We’re giving away 350 Tim Horton’s gift cards, all you have to do to qualify is download a free qualifying software evaluation (trial). Download all three for more chances to win, but hurry, the contest closes soon.*

· Windows 8 Resource Guide - Download a printable, one-page guide to the top resources that will help you explore, plan for, deploy, manage, and support Windows 8 as part of your IT infrastructure.

· Windows Server 2012 Evaluation – Get hands on with Windows Server 2012 and explore the scale and performance possibilities for your server virtualization.

· Microsoft Support - Get help with products‚ specific errors‚ virus detection and removal and more.

· Microsoft Licensing -Visit the Volume Licensing Portal today to ask questions about volume licensing‚ get a quote‚ activate a product or find the right program for your organization.

*No purchase necessary. Contest open to residents of Canada, excluding Quebec. Contest closes April 11, 2013 at 11:59:59 p.m. ET. Three-Hundred-and-Fifty (350) prizes are available to be won: (i) $10 CDN Tim Horton’s gift card.  Skill-testing question required. Odds of winning depend on the number of eligible entries. For full rules, including entry, eligibility requirements and complete prize description, review the full terms and Conditions.

You know I’m a fan of standards, both internal organizational standards and external open standards.  Today was one of those days that made me feel like hugging a few more.

Have Surface Pro, Willing to Travel

I have a Surface Pro.  It has been fun to get to know it, but I’ve had one thing stopping me from making it my primary travel machine: I would need to use it as a presentation device.  When I bought it, the Microsoft store was out of the Surface Pro VGA adapters and due to hardware differences, the one for the Surface RT won’t work.  I figured this was a typical Canadian retail outage and I could pick one up in the US or online somewhere.  But then I started searching.  Amazon.ca,  BestBuy.ca. All sold out.  So then I tried BestBuy.com.  Not available online.  Unavailable for pick up in any store I searched for.

I did see that Microsoft online stores would let me order, but I was worried that if I ordered I would then get a dreaded “backordered” email a few days later.  So I resigned myself to wait.

But Wait…

Then I noticed something I should have noticed all along: the adapter wasn’t a proprietary connection like the power supply; it was Mini DisplayPort Adapter.  Where had I heard that before?  Thinking, thinking….BINGO.  My MacBook Air uses Mini DisplayPort adapters.  Could they work?  I doubted it.  I was sure there’s be something that just wouldn’t work.  But I grabbed my set of VGA and HDMI adapters (the bottom two adapters in the photo)  and hooked them up first to my TV, then a monitor.  Bingo.  They worked.  I didn’t need to wait for Microsoft or lug around my heavy Targus Dual Display Dock that I bought.  I could just keep using  the same adapters for both my MacBook Air and my Surface Pro.

I didn’t have to install any drivers.  All I had to do was configure the Surface to use an external device (Left side swipe to open the charms, click Devices, then Second Screen) and it all just worked.

Wired Ethernet

That left the USB Ethernet dongle (the top adapter in the picture), something else I needed because sometimes I stay in hotels that don’t have Wi-Fi but do have wired Internet.  I do travel with a small wireless router, but sometimes there’s an issue with the hotel’s proprietary login/charge screen. Having the option to wire up my tablet is a bonus.

I tried just plugging in my Apple USB Ethernet cord, but no joy.  So I did some searching and came across these two blog posts that made it work":

• Liu Bo’s post on where to grab suitable drivers for Windows 8 and how to modify them to work. It’s a simple text edit and save.
• Laslow’s post on how to temporarily disable signed driver checking to install the modified driver. He has great detailed instructions and it’s only temporary, so a restart means I’m back to checking drivers.

That worked.  So now I have two display options, HDMI and VGA and I know that I can find these in lots of retailers if I need more. 

Standards, FTW

This all worked because neither Apple nor Microsoft chose to use proprietary adapters or appware to support video out on their devices.  This is why standards are better for consumers.  I can Reduce the purchase of more eCrap and iCrap.  I can Reuse things I already had.  Hopefully, they are Recyclable as well. They will at least have a much longer lifespan that all my proprietary connectors from the last 15 years.

Standards help consumers, even if they cut a bit of icing out of the math for the manufacturers.  This is why Europeans have pretty much forced device manufacturers to use standard chargers.  We need standards.  Standards make stuff just work.

What are Office Hours?

I’m drawing from an academic practice of educators publishing set times when students could stop by to get help from an instructor on a more direct basis than in a classroom.  However, my intention isn’t for this to be an Instructor/Student dynamic, but more of a professional information sharing opportunity to talk shop outside the bounds of our regular projects.

There is no presentation or agenda set by me.  It’s all set by the attendees, sort of like an unconference call.

I see this as the types of conversations that happen during breaks at user group / DAMA meetings or at the end of a webinar.  Not all work, but primarily about topics we share an interest in.  I also see this as a type of tertulia, which is a conversation by a group of people with a share interest.

This is open to anyone and everyone who would like to be part of a virtual meeting of data professionals where there is no set agenda.

Please enter your real name or Twitter ID when joining the meeting. It helps us connect better, which is why we are having these meetings.

What Office Hours are Not

The intention isn’t for us to provide 45 minutes of free consulting to solve a detailed data modeling problem for one person.  That’s what we do for a living. It also isn’t quite the bar discussion after a user group meeting where all topics are available.  However, I might be on a beverage break at the same time and so could you.  So think about the same sort of topics, approaches, and conventions you’d normally follow in the break room at work or over breakfast at a your local DAMA meeting.

This isn’t a user group meeting with a presentation or agenda.  Perhaps it is an “unmeeting” of sort.  You don’t have to join at the starting time, nor do you have stay all the way through.   If you want to bring your Barbie, GI Joe, or Wayne Gretzky action figure, please do so.

We are using a version of Go To Meeting that allows for 15 participants at a time.  That means that our group will be small at any point in time. I think that matches what my intent is.  It also means that we can share screens/applications and that you can use a computer headset or dial in to to talk.

If you’d like a meeting invite for you calendar, e-mail me Karen @ infoadvisors.com (remove those spaces).  You can also leave a comment here with a valid e-mail address so that I can send you the meeting invite.

So lets give this a try.  I’d love to hear your questions, comments, thoughts on DATA.  We talk about issues, challenges, funny stories, and whatever is going on in the news about data.

Office Hours Starting  1 March 2013

Due to my travel schedule, I may miss a few Fridays.  Check out my Twitter stream on Fridays to find out. 

If you are in an office environment with lots of background noise, please manage your own muting: Don’t Be That Guy. Also, it is good form not to use a speaker phone on a conference call.  This applies to all conference calls.

The Logistics

1. Please join my meeting.

https://www1.gotomeeting.com/join/269989161

2. Use your microphone and speakers (VoIP) – a headset is recommended. Or, call in using your telephone.

Canada: +1 (647) 497-9391

Australia: +61 2 8355 1040

Austria: +43 (0) 7 2088 1399

Belgium: +32 (0) 38 08 1855

Netherlands: +31 (0) 708 912 514

New Zealand: +64 (0) 9 909 7882

Sweden: +46 (0) 852 503 498

Switzerland: +41 (0) 435 0167 07

United Kingdom: +44 (0) 203 535 0624

United States: +1 (646) 982-0002

Access Code: 269-989-161

Audio PIN: Shown after joining the meeting

Meeting ID: 269-989-161

You can dial in or use your computer to hear the audio and speak – whatever works for you.  The audio pin isn’t required, but it is helpful if you dial in and give the pin so that we can tell who is talking.

A couple of months ago I talked about Project Parabola – It’s Reorg Season.  The project is basically concluded, and not surprisingly, resulted in a small number of layoffs. In a really sad situation an employee walked over to my cube and asked if I had a plastic bag or a box—at first I thought he was joking, but then quickly realized he wasn’t joking. I have to say: watching this was really painful, and frankly, his manager should had a box ready for all of his stuff. That was particularly crappy.

As part of Project Parabola, a small number of employees were let go—they got a basic severance package of a week of salary for each year they worked for the company, along with their vacation pay. Additionally, they get the use of an outplacement service, (I’ll talk more about this later). So how can you prepare for a layoff?

• Always be looking—never stop looking for jobs. Your company doesn’t care about you (seriously no box?) so why should you be loyal to them? I’m not implying you should job hop—but talk to human traffickers recruiters (I love the good ones, I really do), and see what’s going on. By all means, if you see something that looks interesting to you, wrangle your way into an interview for it.
• Keep your resume/CVs up to date and tailor them to the specific job description you are applying for. Notice that I have used plural forms there?  Yes, it’s fine to have resumes tailored to specific types of jobs.  In fact, it’s a good thing.
• Network with others NOW, not when you need a job. By networking, I don’t mean handing out business cards. I mean building relationships with people. You don’t have be BFFs, but you do need to know people well enough to ask them for a favour, later.
• Join user groups and participate in them. Attend some meetings. Most user group meetings are free. Take advantage of that.  My mantra is NetworkToGetWork.  Remember that.
• Participate in social media, even if you can do it only on a limited basis. Your reach is so much larger there. Still do local, in-person networking, but don’t ignore the virtual opportunities.
• Update LinkedIn—make sure your skills and profile are up to date. Don’t wait to do this when you need it. Do it now. In fact, in my presentations on Career Management for Data Professionals, I tell people to set a reminder to update their profile monthly. Not only does this keep your profile up to date, it notifies people in your network that something has changed. That gets your name in front of them on a regular basis. Regular updates also have the benefit of not signalling your boss that you might be looking for a job.
• Help people now, not when you need help. In addition to building a network you should have a reputation of helping others. I don’t mean just offering to help, but spending time to give others advice, write a helpful blog post, answer an email or to give someone a ride to a SQL Saturday or DAMA event.  Note: I may have had assistance in writing this post.  Thank you, anonymous helper. If you ever need a job, you are on my list of people to help.
• Read up on negotiation methods. Don’t wait until you need those skills. Get them now. Practice them. You’ll need them even during a layoff.  In fact, you should know what to do when you get a lay off notice a  head of time.  Your rights and obligations vary by jurisdiction, but generally you don’t have to sign or agree to anything right then and there, even if they tell you that you do.
• Have two month’s salary in savings—severance and unemployment will help, but having a nice cushion is very good. I know this one is really difficult. But having a cushion allows you and your family to choose better options.

One other thing to remember—you are going to lose all computer access. This means your files and contacts will be gone. Make sure you keep copies of your contacts and any scripts or tools that you would like to retain, at least the ones you are allowed to take with you. Be sure you keep your personal files and contacts separate from your corporates ones.

NetworkToGetWork

The Good News

Depending on what your data source is the unemployment rate for database professionals is between 1-3%. The US Government defines full employment at 3%, so that means it won’t take you very long to find a new job. The one thing I recommend highly is leveraging the outplacement services you’ll get as part of your severance package. Those folks are professionals and can help you write a really good resume. Aside from that some other things you should do are:

• Leverage your network. Let folks in your user group and personal network know that you are looking for a new gig (I’m assuming you are in a user group if you are reading this—if you aren’t, you should be). The best jobs frequently never make it to a formal posting. This is where all that user grouping, social media work fun, blogging, and generally being a great resource to others is going to pay off, in a big way.
• Update LinkedIn. Yes, I said above to do this regularly. You still need to do that.  But right now you need to let that network know you are looking for a job.  Do not under any circumstances change your title to Unemployed or something weak like that.  Change your title to the type of job you are looking for (and are qualified for).   This is the time to leverage your networks, so your networking profiles need to reflect the fact that you are looking for a new project.
• Take the downtime to rest, exercise and learn new skills. Is there a new database feature you’ve been wanting to play with, but couldn’t implement at your old job? Now is the time to learn it.

More Advice on Job Hunting and Layoffs

I’ve blogged about this topic before; you might find these posts helpful, too:

First Day of Work Karen: What I Would Tell Her
Looking for a Job? Some Free Advice That’s Paid For

Do you have a blog post with career advice?  If you leave a comment here on my blog, you can choose that post to share it, too.  Share the love.

My Lessons on Layoffs

I’ve been around a while (I’m not old; I’m experienced), and I know a lot of this stuff, but “Do you have a bag” was still a surprise to me. There weren’t many rumours of layoffs out of Parabola, so even though the total number was small, it was more eye opening. The number one thing I learned yesterday though, was to bring a bag, a plastic trash bag, and keep it in my desk, because MassiveMegaGlobalMegaCorp^TM probably doesn’t care enough about you to give you a box to put your belongings in.

Tomorrow, Thursday 28 February at 2;00PM EST, I’ll be moderating a panel of expert data modelers as part of my Big Challenges in Data Modeling Series at Dataversity.net .  In this month’s webinar, we’ll be debating the role of data architects in how we can best support business processes related to data privacy, data security and compliance.  We’ll start by talking about recent data breaches and privacy issues.

One of the more contentious debates I have on projects is whether or not data modelers and architects should even have a role in these processes.

Joining me for this month’s panel are:

• Eva Smith ( @datadeva | blog ) Director of Information Technology at Edmonds Community College (EdCC) where she oversees college IT functions and serves on the IT Commission for the Washington State Community and Technical College system.  Eva also volunteers for DAMA, International on the Editorial Board for the Data Management Body of Knowledge (DMBOK) Version 1, and as DAMA-I liaison to the Institute for Certification of Computing Professionals (ICCP).
• Loretta Mahon Smith( @silverdata ) is currently the IBM Global Business Services, Business Analytics & Optimization Lead for the Data Modeling Center of Excellence. She has an extensive background in the financial services industry and is also a long time DAMA volunteer.
• Peggy Schlesinger is a well-respected Master Enterprise Architect with Intel Corporation with a long history in Master Data Management.  She is currently working on the Semantic Definition for the enterprise to improve and accelerate Business Intelligence, and is moving the environment toward Self-Service Business Intelligence.
• YOU

As always, our last panelist is YOU! Unlike many webinars, we run these as highly-interactive events.  We have a formal Q&A for when you want to ask a question of the panel, but we also have a peer-to-peer chat open so that you can discuss what you hearing in real time.  We try to keep track of what’s going on in the chat so that we can comment and address the points being raised there.  I love this feature and hope you will join us to be part of this event.

If you have a topic or question you’d like us to address, leave a comment below and we’ll try to work it in.

Also, if you are unable to make the webinar, you can register now anyway and listen to the recording later.  So get registered now.

http://geek-and-poke.com/2012/06/no.html

NoSQL started out as meaning “No SQL” as in “No Relational Databases”.  It represented a movement to replace RDMBSs like SQL Server, DB2, Oracle, MySQL and Sybase.  Over time, the more adept architects realized that there’s a place for both relational and non-relational technologies. However, NoSQL was a brand at this point, so like KFC, they redefined this as meaning “Not Only SQL”.  This has been a nice turn of events, but it’s still a branding issue.

I believe the NoSQL community needs a new name – a new brand – to say what the community stands for.  In fact, I was on a closing panel at NoSQL Now! that discussed this need.  We didn’t really come up with an answer, but the general consensus was saying you aren’t isn’t nearly as helpful as saying what you are.

So what are those solutions that aren’t relational?  DocBlobGraphEVA?

It’s Valentine’s Day evening in North America.  I’m guessing that means that you and a loved one are waiting for a table at your favourite ChiBeeFridayGarden^TM.  Hopefully you’re not sitting in a crowded bar drinking sugary sweet margaritas that never came anywhere near a lime or real tequila.  But if you are, that also means you’re probably munching on some free chips and salsa.  Bueno.

As you know, I’m a data advocate…a data evangelist, even.  That means I want you to take care of your sweet snookums of data that you’ve entered into a commitment to love, honour and obey until the end of time.  Or at least until that next recruiter call comes.

So while working flying across Canada in my cubicle in the sky, I came up with these 5 tips for ensuring that your data feels loved, safe and warm.

1. Try some constraints.  I’m tired of seeing systems with no foreign key (FK) constraints or indexes on the data.  Vendors are especially straight-laced with their “we do all that enforcement in the application” answers as to why they don’t want to constrain their data.  That’s a subject of a future post. However, too many database designs lack even the most basic data quality rules.  There’s a whole lot of things we data professionals know about what makes for good (or good enough data).  Enforcing those rules as close as possible to the data is the best way to protect to that data.  To make it feel loved because it’s safe.

2. Be free. Don’t worry about backups.  What? No backups? No, that’s not what I said.  Don’t worry about backups; worry about restores.  You can have a perfect backup strategy in place and still not be able to restore because you’ve never tested that critical part of the process.  Sure, to restore there has to be a backup first, but too many people set that up and don’t realize that there’s another process out there deleting the backups, or destroying the tapes, or worse.  While you are at it, make sure you are monitoring the backups to see if they are actually working. Regular (and hopefully automated) restore testing will quickly point out failures in the backup and the restore strategy.

3. Put your data on a pedestal. I support systems with data that is more than a hundred years old. Over those decades, that data has been passed around between databases, systems, spreadsheets…well, you know how that works. Every professional who put their hands on that data had an opportunity to nurture it or to turn it into the broken, barely human data crying in a relation’s arms. There are certain data practices that make data less usable, less accurate and less strong. That weakness in the data translates in a general weakness in the entire system. That then translates into business weaknesses. Data last much longer than code. If you are optimizing database designs for the code, you may be harming it in a way that it can never love you back. Love it even on fast and agile projects.  Just enough design doesn’t mean no design; it means just enough to love it right.

4. Get familiar your data. Almost to the point of stalking it. You need to not only understand the structure of a database, but also what data is in it.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen someone reverse engineer table and column names, then use only that information to analyze what data is contained in the database.  Big mistake.  Want to be surprised?  Go look at a bunch of columns called Notes or Description or Address Line 4 and see what you find.  I’d bet you a bag of naughty candy hearts that you’re going to find a brand new set of data that few people knew was held in that database.  You might even find credit card data, tax identifiers or insulting customer comments buried there.  I’ve seen all of that.   Data profiling is something you need to do for the life of a data structure.  Misuse of data structures happens more often than you think.

5. Cozy up with your team members. If you are data modeling or designing databases and you aren’t physically next to the people working with those designs, you’re missing out on a hundred opportunities a day to answer their questions, overhear their debates about the difference between Department and Division and generally not providing support for the project you delivered to them.  What? Those people work thousands of miles away?  You need to build a long distance relationships via Skype or GoToMeeting with these people.  You might even need to answer their questions in the middle of the night.  Just like in real life relationships.  The key is to send a message of availability and wiliness to help.  I’m pretty sure I’d better stop this analogy here, but you know what I mean.  You say your boss pulls you off a project as soon as version one of the data model is done and puts you on another one right away?  Well, there’s a name for that type of a boss.  I’ll stop here, too.

Your data really isn’t your data.  It belongs to your business users and some of it to customers.  When you don’t love your data enough, it knows.  And others will know, too.  So spend some time tomorrow ensuring that your data is loved, safe and warm.  It will do the same for you and your team.

I’ve blogged about this data breach before: Federal Department Bans Use of Portable Devices (YAFF).  To add insult to the injury, a “printer error” has led to recipients of notifications about the breach receiving letters intended for other victims.

The federal government is blaming a printing error for the fact that some student loan recipients who received letters to say their personal information had gone missing along with a portable hard drive also got letters addressed to someone else.

Human Resources and Skills Development Canada revealed last month that a hard drive containing the personal information of some 583,000 Canadians had gone missing. The data included social insurance numbers and dates of birth of people who had received student loans between 2002 and 2006.

via Victims of student loan data breach get letters addressed to others | CTV News.

Sure, these sorts of errors do happen, especially when using automated printing and envelope stuffing equipment. I’ve got to say, though, that the timing on this error is more than … difficult.  I’m wondering if the IT teams are being blamed here, or just the outsourcing company that provides mailing services.

Because everyone needs more moustache in their lives, right? 

I can’t wait to visit with Commander Hadfield via the International Space Station this Thursday at the Canadian Space Agency Day in the Life of Chris Hadfield CSATweetup.  There’s even a phone call with William Shatner.  We’ll also hear from CSA scientists and investigators and Astronaut Jeremy Hansen (@astro_jeremy)

There may be photos and tweets.  Set your filters to stun.