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

.

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. 

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.

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.

During this month’s Big Challenges in Data Modeling we’ll be talking about the state of data modeling. 

Last month Tom LaRock (@sqlrockstar | blog) wrote a post Data Modeling is Dead, Long Live Data Modeling. 

Data modeling is dead. It is a product of an era that has passed; that of corporate silos that created their own versions of software to suit their own needs.

That is no longer the world in which we live. That era was one that had high costs associated with building and maintaining a database of customers.

Today’s era is one where you can subscribe to Salesforce.com for just a few dollars a day. You can decide for yourself to run a new report. How much did that same report cost in the old era? How long would it take for IT to deliver that report? That’s why businesses today are using such services, because it reduces time and costs.

You need to read the whole post to get his position, but I find that his take on the state of data modeling is common in the IT world.  I posted a link to his blog post to a LinkedIn group and there was an extensive discussion.

I’ve invited Tom to join a real-world data architect and me to talk the current state of data modeling and what the future holds for data architects. 

This Month’s Panelists

Thomas LaRock

• Thomas LaRock is a seasoned IT professional with over a decade of technical and management experience. Currently serving as a Technical Evangelist for Confio Software, Thomas has progressed through several roles in his career including programmer, analyst, and DBA. Thomas holds a MS degree in Mathematics from Washington State University and is a member of the Usability Professional’s Association. Thomas currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Professional Association for SQL Server (PASS) and is a SQL Server MCM as well as MVP. Thomas can also be found blogging at http://thomaslarock.com and is the author of DBA Survivor: Become a Rock Star DBA (http://dbasurvivor.com).

Gabriel Tanase

• Gabriel Tanase is a Data Architect currently with a mid-size business consulting organization. He has accumulated some tough years of ordinary real-life data modeling experience and the not-unheard-of distinction of having taught it academically before really practicing. He is currently specializing in keeping everybody else in the project happy while quietly enforcing information meaning and integrity.

This webinar is free to attend, but you must register.  It officially starts at 2PM EST, but you can join us at 1:45 when we start our prep. We’ll be taking questions via the Q&A and we offer a real time chat so that you can be part of the conversation, too. 

Today Chris Hadfield of the Canadian Space Agency talked from the International Space Station to students at Chris Hadfield Public School in Milton, ON.  One of the questions was “How can I become an astronaut?”.    In answering this question, Hadfield addressed career aspirations in general:

“The things I’m doing now, it’s because I started working at it when I was your age.”

“Decide what you might want to be and then start turning yourself into that person.”

“You can start to turn yourself into an astronaut today. It doesn’t happen just like that, but every single decision you make turns you a little bit into the person you want to be tomorrow and the day after that…”

“You have to turn yourself into who you want to be.”

By the way, the kids certainly did prepare for the event:

By the way, the CAPCOM for today was Astronaut Clay Anderson, who is retiring after 30 years of service to NASA.

I thought Cdmr. Hadfield’s answers were pretty good advice for the kids.  And for us.  What are you doing today that will turn you into the person you want to be?

So how does this happen? It’s usually a several phase process, which starts with a new high level executive (usually the CIO or perhaps in larger organizations a Senior Vice President). He or she brings in a team of overpaid consultants (no, not consultants that fix problems—these tend to be big 5 organizational consultants who haven’t actually worked in IT). And the new CIO, if your karma is really dented, will bring along a new team of direct reports to help him get his quarterly bonuses.

Then, the project gets a really cool, exciting sounding name.

So The Parabola Project usually starts in late summer, just after vacation season. You may notice strange requests for information from your manager, also you may hear undercurrents about the latest hot methodologies (Agile, ITIL, Scrum). Around Thanksgiving, the rumors will really kick into overdrive. “The whole IT org is getting outsourced to Moldovia”, or “The reason why Senior Director X left for BjgReallyCoolNewTech, Inc. is that he was going to lose his job in the reorg”, are some examples of the types of rumors you will hear. Then eventually in early December, just before everyone leaves for Christmas, a new organization will be announced, there will be grumblings, and your IT organization will continue to have the same problems it had before. Only now the problems will be even more complex due to the recent organizational changes and for two months people will be way less productive because they don’t know what they are supposed to be doing.

So why do we do this? Companies lose a ton of productivity and pay consulting firms into the millions of dollars for what amounts to rotating the tires on your car. I feel like it’s a twofold process that relates to poor management.

1. Managers/Directors/VPs get bored in their day to day roles and want to make change happen
2. The same group of middle managers doesn’t want to address people problems, so they try to solve them using process
3. Calling something new (Special Knowledge Efficiency Workgroup will somehow make ineffective people, processes or technologies work better.
4. Reorg activity can take the focus of poorly performing projects as well as provide a great project slippage justification

Technology, Process and People

IT is a three-legged stool consist technology, process and people. You can mitigate some technology problems with people, and technology can be used to replace people (computers are more consistent than humans). Where it gets challenging is when companies try to fix people problems with process. Once in a while a reorg can help foster collaboration within an organization. I’ve been through one such reorg where functions were split into a global/regional/local model, which was really effective in fostering process standardization and opening communication channels. However, when people who or can’t do their jobs, changing the reporting structure won’t turn them into superstars. Instead, the constant cycle of reorgs annoys and drives away your good employees. The mediocre employees who are happy just to have jobs, will stay since they have fewer options. So what can you do when the inevitable reorg happens?

• Have a really solid internal network—it will let you know if you are being impacted well ahead of the reorg, which leads to…
• Always have your resume/CV up to date, if the reorg puts you in a less favorable position, it may be time to move
• Having a strong external network is also critical in helping plan your next moves

As long as there are companies there will be reorgs—middle managers need to keep themselves occupied. The best way to deal with this as an employee is to keep yourself extremely employable—keep your skills and network up to date, and you will always have a lot of employment options. If you have career options, you won’t need to sweat a reorg, and if the reorg really sucks, vote with your feet.

I’ve recently taken over director moderator duties for the monthly Big Challenges in Data Modeling webinar hosted by Dataversity.net.  Former moderator, Graeme Simsion, has moved on to exciting things in the writing and film industry, so I’m stepping up to take on the role of agent provocateur in engaging the data community to chat and debate about industry and academic trends in the data world.

Big Challenges in Data Modeling #BCDModeling

In tomorrow’s panel, well be chatting about a soon to be released research paper based on a survey of data professionals.  This paper covers:

• Role of Agile/SCRUM on data modeling projects
• Data Modeling tool features
• Data Architecture staffing
• Big Data trends
• ..and more.

Joining me will be a great cast of characters team of experts in data management as we chat about the paper and how these things have changed over the years.

• Chris Bradley, IPL @inforacer
• Donna Burbank, CA Technologies, @donnaburbank
• David Dichmann, SAP (Sybase), @ddichmann
• Missy Whittmann, American Family Insurance … and real life data architect

We run a fun and engaging webinar where audience members can chat with each other and the panellists, so you get to be part of the insight and fun, too.  So make sure you join a bit early so that we can pre-chat.

You need to register to attend.

It’s Friday again (we should have more of these) and I’m in the mood for a contest.  I have some mystery prizes, more than just swag, to give away.  But I’m not saying what it is until the contest is over. Let’s just say it will have data stuff, space stuff, and for certain one of those secret Canadian keychain bottler openers.  The value of the prize will be approximately $100… CANADIAN!!!!…which I think now is close to $100 million dollars USD.

How Many TLAs can you fit in a sentence?

Your challenge is to make a  grammatically-correct sentence that is dominated with TLAs.  What’s a TLA?  Why it’s a Three Letter Acronym, of course. But we’re going to be flexible.  You can use acronyms or initialisms and you aren’t limited to three letter ones.  You can also tack on verb endings and such. So things like RBARing, LOSed and SSDTed are fine.  We’ll have a group of prestigious fun judges to evaluate your submissions based on these guidelines:

• Length of sentence
• Length of TLAs
• Higher ratio of TLAs to “real” words – in fact, I want to see very few real words
• Higher weight given to non-product TLAs
• Originality is a real plus
• Higher weight given to a good mix of TLA “domains”.  If you can work in textspeak, space, tech, music, literature, arts and crafts, cycling and knitting, then you’re golden.
• The more snark the better.

Your TLAs should be commonly known or easily to lookup.   If we can’t figure out what it means, you’ll lose points.

Examples

I REd a CRM DB to get the DDL for the CASE tool, FTW.

OK, my C4ISTAR PM FUBBARed* my PLoA due to a SNAFU* with a SME's PEBCAK bug.

NASA SCUBA SMEs are NEEMO FTEs, AFAIK.

The Rules

Entries accepted from locations where these sorts of contests are legal.  Check with local authorities.  If you are unable to accept the prize for a corporate or government restriction, just let us know.  We’d still love to honour your work.  Canadian residents must solve a particularly silly mathematical question.  Study up on square roots and factorials. But they won’t be in the question.

Decisions of the judges are final.

You must be 13 years of age or older to enter.

You agree to let us publish your entries, but you get to keep ownership of them.  We are nice like that.

Your sentence must be an original creation, by you.

No explicit, illegal or shameful content.  Yes, I know some of you are disappointed.

Contest closes on 29 October 2012, 2 November 2012 at midnight my time, wherever I am at that time.

* UPDATE * I’ve just received some new swag from vendors, so I’m extending the deadline for this contest.  We will now have 3 prizes to give away. *

Taxes, customs, duties and any other silly mandated stuff that makes it less fun to win are the responsibility of the recipient.

*The TLA example above has alternate, family-friendly definitions.  I looked them up. Trust me.

How to Enter

Leave your entry here as a comment.   Yes, you can enter more than once…let’s say no more than 4 entries per person.  Yes, you’ll have to use a method to post that allows us to contact you to arrange for the major award.  You can submit anonymously, but no prize for you.

The Judges

Denny Cherry (@mrdenny | blog ) Unofficial SQL PASS Party Planner and Trouble Maker

Joey D’Antoni (@jdanton | blog ) Biker, but not that kind, who architects on the side

Marco Frissen (@mfrissen | blog ) Opinionated space and tech geek. Token foreigner on this panel

Thomas LaRock (@sqlrockstar |blog ) DBA, Happymaker, and bacon lover

Shannon Moore (@ageekmom | blog )  SpaceTweep Wrangler and cyclist extraordinaire

Karen Lopez (@datachick) Loves Space and Data.  Almost the same. But Space Data is best. Another foreigner, sort of.

You can now download the recording from this past week on Modeling What Matters – Data Modeling Throughout, Beyond the Enterprise.  We had a great time chatting about the state of data modeling in a world of data sharing, standards, business alignment and NoSQL.

A wonderful set of panelists, too.

Registration is required, but you really should be registered on the Information Management website already.  Do it.

Also, at the end of the show I got a shout out for my presentation with Thomas LaRock (@sqlrockstar), Database Design Throwdown: The Blunder Games at ERWorld coming up in October.  You should go register now for that, too. 

The value of data modeling continues to grow in new directions. This is partly due to the lure of cloud computing, but also because of the increasingly interconnected world of enterprise partnerships. As always, the need for speed and efficiency prevails, as well as the desire to reduce redundancy and thus provide a clean view of an organization’s information architecture. Fine-tuning Master Data Models is another goal of the modern enterprise. What to do? Register for this episode of DM Radio to hear Hosts Eric Kavanagh and Jim Ericson interview data modeling expert Karen Lopez of DAMA, plus Donna Burbank of CA Technologies, David Dichmann of SAP Sybase and Lovan Chetty of Kalido

Registration is required, but it’s free.  Chat with you on Thursday!

I’ll be leading two data modeling courses in Des Moines, Iowa the first week of October. Register now as spots are limited. 

Basic Data Modeling: For New Data Modelers

Registration and Networking: 7:45 AM Monday

Monday and Tuesday 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM and Wednesday 8:00 AM to Noon

In this introductory workshop, Karen Lopez covers the theory and skills required to being working on data models in an enterprise environment on modern project teams.

Format

With demonstrations and several exercises, this training course provides the basics and tests attendees to demonstrate their new skills. This course follows a workshop format, with both individual and team exercises.

…but this isn’t your average "Here are all the Normal Forms, now go create a model" course.  Our goal is to make data modeling relevant to modern development practices and tools.  We’ll talk about some of the pain points modelers feel, why developers and DBAs sometimes don’t see the same beauty in our data models and how to ensure everyone, IT and business, sees the value of data modeling and data modelers.

Participant Pre-requisites

As a basic course, it is not expected that attendees will significant data modeling experience.  However, we do expect them to have more than two years of hands-on information technology skills at the enterprise level.   We offer advanced courses for those who do have data modeling experience.  It is also common for attendees of the Basics course to sit in on the Advanced courses to get a better understanding of the issues that experienced data modeler see on a regular basis.

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

Registration and Networking: 12:45 PM Wednesday

Wednesday 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM and Thursday 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM

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.

Format

With demonstrations, exercises and peer-discussions its goal is to give attendees the attitude and skills to add value and be more valued on modern project teams.  This course follows a workshop format, with both individual and team exercises.

Participant Pre-requisites

As an advanced course, it is expected that attendees will have more than two years of hands-on data modeling and database design skills at the enterprise level.   We offer a basics course for those who do not have this experience or feel they need a refresher before participating in this course.

Instructor Bio

Karen Lopez is a Sr. Project Manager and Architect at InfoAdvisors. She has 20+ years of experience in project and data management on large, multi-project programs.  Karen specializes in the practical application of data management principles. She is a SQL Server MVP, an advisory board member for Zachman International, and an Advisory Committee member of DAMA International.

Karen is also the ListMistress and moderator of the InfoAdvisors Discussion Groups at www.infoadvisors.com.

Fees

Intro class: $500 for DAMA members, $550 for non-members

Advanced class: $300 for DAMA members, $350 for non-members

Important: Karen strongly recommends purchasing a copy of Data Modeling Essentials 3rd Edition by Graeme Simsion and Graham Witt. These classes will be based on this book.

See DAMA Iowa event page for information about registration and cancellation policies.

One of the things that annoyed me during computer science accreditation visits were the all too common references to women not being able to succeed in CS programs.  When I’d ask why, I was usually given one of these types of answers:

1. Women are incapable of thinking of complex topics
2. Women just don’t want to learn computer science
3. Women don’t want to study in programs where they are outnumbered
4. We’d have to dumb down the programs too much (see point 1).

It took all my might to simply record their responses and not fight it out.  I figured their answers might be a reflection of their program administration and management than of the women they are running out of their programs.  For instance, a computer science program chair told me directly that if he had to dumb down his program enough to get women to stay, "no one would be able to log in".  Tell me what sort of rewarding student experiences the females in his classes have on a daily basis?

Applied vs. Research Programs in Computing

One of the issues computer science programs have is managing the fact that they often exist as a research program but many students are more interested in studying computing at an applied level.  In other professions, applied means just that – learning to apply sciences in a practical, real world environment.  Other professions produce professionals just that way: lawyers, doctors, engineers, teachers. For the most part, they study in applied programs.  But in the research world, applied is the equivalent of dumbed down. So many computer science programs are designed to produce researchers even though the vast majority of students are there not to become researchers, but practitioners.  And yet most women are drawn to professions where they can see a direct link to studying and working on projects that will change the world.

I was thinking about this while speaking on the #SQLSat157 San Diego WIT panel this past weekend. When I got home, I found this great interview with Maria Klawe, president of Harvey Mudd College: Q&A What Women Want in the Communications of the ACM.  One of the questions was exactly what I experienced when choosing a program of study all those years ago:

You’ve talked before about the importance of teaching practical applications from the start, rather than waiting until students have mastered the building blocks.

We know from research that for women and minorities, the attraction of computer science is what you can do with it. It doesn’t mean they are not interested in complexity theory or other esoteric parts of the field, it just means that that tends to be the driving motivation. And in our experience, it’s not like women take one course or go to the Hopper conference and say, "I want to be a computer science major." It’s more like, you take one course or go to the Hopper conference, and you take the next course. And then you take the course after that, and by then you’ve taken three courses and you’re going, "Oh, I’m actually good at this, and it gets me summer jobs. Maybe I should be a CS major."

The curmudgeon computer science chair and his colleagues also had thoughts on programs that shifted their marketing and delivery, but not their content, to appeal more to women and minorities: it was cheating.  As an IT professional, I say "Let’s cheat, then".  Let’s ensure that computers science and other technology programs can step up their game to be more appealing.  As a business person and someone who interviews candidates for jobs, I want to see people who understand theory AND application of it all.  Cost, benefit , risk and all.  Saving the world.  Making a difference.

Information systems and technology programs are generally applied programs of study.  However, we tend to see them as lesser siblings of computer science.  Maybe we shouldn’t, especially as employers for organizations that don’t directly hire researchers.

Step Up

Do we need theoretical, research-only computer science programs?  ABSOLUTELY!  But we also need IT professionals who can fit solutions into a corporate environment.  One that can’t just think in terms of theory.  And I want a more diverse, educated workforce available to hire from.  Not just for the numbers, but because we get better solutions.  But in order to get this, our programs of study need to step up.

This past weekend I attended SQL Saturday San Diego, AKA, #SQLSat157.  This was my first time speaking at this event and I want to give lots of thanks and kudos to the organizers for putting on a fine event.

Because I arrived in town early to meet with friends from both the space and data world, I was able to visit the San Diego Air and Space Museum.  It was fitting that it was the 50th anniversary of President Kennedy’s Rice University speech on space exploration:

There is no strife, no prejudice, no national conflict in outer space as yet. Its hazards are hostile to us all. Its conquest deserves the best of all mankind, and its opportunity for peaceful cooperation many never come again. But why, some say, the moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask why climb the highest mountain? Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic? Why does Rice play Texas?

We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.

Not only is this fitting for motivating a generation to invest in space exploration, it’s fitting for professional development work, too.  We attend and speak at SQL Saturdays not because it’s easy, but because we need goals to serve to organize the best of our energies and skills. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been inspired to learn something new because I saw a fellow community member demonstrate how it could help make life for end users or co-workers better.  And SQL Saturday gives me a full day of these sorts of workshops and demos…all for free.  How great is that?  It means giving up a Saturday and for those of us who travel to speak, 2-3 days plus expenses.  And yet every time I leave one, I think "That was so worth it".

Sessions

I spoke three times at this SQL Saturday: DB Design Throwdown, the Women in Technology Panel, and Career Management for Data Professionals.  Between those, I was able to see just a couple more sessions.  I really enjoyed Lynn Langit’s (@lynnlangit | blog)  NoSQL for the SQL Server Developer.   Lynn did a fabulous job explaining the differences between SQL and NoSQL technologies, as well as demoing MongoDB and cloud-based technologies.  You should spend some time on her blog; she has a lot of great stuff with plenty of videos and demos.

I also had the pleasure of being on the WIT panel with Lynn.  This panel, moderated by Tara Kizer, focused mostly on how we can energize the next generation of girls (and boys) to be interested in IT careers.  Lynn is doing some fabulous stuff over on http://teachingkidsprogramming.org, where she and her partner, Llewellyn Falco (@llewellynfalco | blog )  are building a framework for, well, teaching kids programming.  

I talked about the importance of talking with girls in your life, which is my usual homework assignment for attendees.  Having someone in the IT profession share the fact that the industry isn’t just about typing and programming can make a real difference to a girl who just needs to hear that IT professionals can make a difference in the world.  In fact, I have another blog post coming up soon on that topic.

Download the Database Design Throwdown: The Trailer presentation.

Download the Career Management for Data Professionals presentation.

http://peopletalkingtech.com/eposide-001-karen-lopez

My comments focused on how at the NoSQL professionals understand that it means "Not Only SQL" and can’t mean "No SQL" and have much of a future.  Using the right tool for the right job.  Cost, benefit, risk and all.

One of the things we talked about on the closing panel is "how do you find somebody that is a good architect who can tell you which types of technologies you can use for which use cases…"

Even though many people talk about NoSQL needing no architecture, we still need people to help choose when and what NoSQL technologies to use.  Seems to me that having experience working hands-on with relational and NoSQL technologies is going to be hugely valuable in the next couple of years.  If you have relational experience, now is the time to start learning about non-relational ones.

By the way, we talked a bit about database security.  Denny’s new edition of his book Securing SQL Server, Second Edition: Protecting Your Database from Attackers has recently been released.  Check it out.

I also talked about people who think that there is no issue, or that continuing to work to ensure that obstacles are removed is wasted effort — either because there is no problem or that working harder at your job is a better solution.

My interview is part of series about women in Data Management.  Check out the interview and let me know what you think.  Are we wasting our time working towards a more diverse IT workforce?