This has really been an active month. Google's had a lot to do with it. Google Wave looks like an exciting collaboration tool. Picture a white board accessible to everyone invited to participate online. Think of what a planning tool this would be. I use the example of planning a family reunion – everyone chips in, adds to the white board, erases, discusses, and finally agrees. Everyone knows who is bringing what – where and when. Anyone who missed the meeting can view the whiteboard later. The next thing they've done is announce Fusion Tables. This is an early version of a new type of from Google that's designed to remove the limitations of conventional relational databases and work beautifully in the cloud. Fusion Tables is an early version and carries a "Labs" label which puts it in the experimental arena, but the comments I read indicated that Oracle and IBM had better pay attention – this technology could be a disruptive technology.*

Catch my Blog and follow me on Twitter at susan_semco. This is how I pass on the IT news I think you'd like to know. Also, see what we're doing on Facebook (see article below).

Keep up – and keep in touch.

* Disruptive technology = one that makes companies change the way they use technology.

Here's the schedule or you can view the complete schedule on our Website:

CSTA Web sessions:
July 15, 16
August 12, 13
September 16, 17

UITJ (Understanding IT Jobs) Web sessions:
July 16
September 17

TR Web sessions:
July 8

The Cloud Web sessions:
July 29
August 26
September 23

Keep in touch and keep up with technology!

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TechKnowledge

Middleware

Middleware grows in importance as we increasingly have programs communicating with each other. After all, that's what middleware does. The word "communicate" gets broad usage. Communication can be described as one program invoking – or deploying - another. Technically, all deployment programs are middleware. This includes WebSphere and WebLogic; in fact, all the application servers. Invoking another program is the start of program communication. The programs then exchange data. This is what we usually consider to be communicating. We call a friend to start (invoke) communication. But we communicate by talking back and forth. Software communicates by sending data back and forth and this is what we usually consider to be the main function of middleware.

Middleware is relatively new in technology. The term was introduced in 1968, but only became popular in the 1980s. Its popularity really jumped in the 1990s with the introduction of client/server architecture and the growth of the Internet (everything on the Internet is client/server). Now middleware is not just popular, it's necessary with Web 2.0 and with Web services. So, what exactly is it? And who needs to know it?

Middleware started as a layer between the operating system and the applications running under that system, and that's still a current definition. Even in the 1960s application programs needed, e.g., to retrieve the current date from the operating system to display on a screen or put in the header of a report. This was handled by a system call, and operating systems include a library of these calls. The system documentation includes listing these calls, what they do, and how to use them. Linux, for example, has over 300 calls that developers can include in applications. Using standard system calls is part of programming.

We've also had middleware between application programs and DBMSs (DataBase Management Systems) for decades. The payroll program, written by an application developer, does not go out to the payroll database and retrieve a record. The payroll program sends a message to the, e.g. Oracle, database system. This message is created by an SQL statement, and application programmer just needs to know SQL. He or she doesn't have to know the middleware. The technical programmers need to know the middleware, and some of these names will be familiar – ODBC, JDCB, ADO.Net. Techies need to know the middleware because it handles different hardware and software. This database could be on another system, running under a different operating system, and the job of techies is to ensure that applications run on any combination of hardware and software.

The biggest interest in today's middleware world is in APIs (Application Programming Interfaces). An API consists of a set of routines, protocols, and other tools used to let programs communicate. ODBC and JDBC are, in fact, APIs that were written to provide cross-platform, and multi-database connectivity. APIs are really important in today's Internet applications – especially with Web services.

Have you ever visited friends in another state? You decide you want to go to the local Target and get on the Internet. Then you go to the Target site and "find a store.". Ask your friends for the zip code (because you really won't remember it). Key in the zip code, and you get a map and a list of nearby stores. Pick a store, and then get directions. And, it all looks very familiar. And, did you notice that in the upper right of the map it said "bing." And in the lower left it said Microsoft…

This is how Web services are working. Microsoft publishes the Bing Maps API in their developer center, and the Target Web site developers went there, followed the instructions, standards, etc. to include Bing Maps on their site. They could have chosen Google Maps, or Yahoo Maps; all of these APIs are published. The Target site is a Mashup (build a site that gets content from other sites). Well, that's a bit of a stretch as a mashup is usually plural with multiple other sites involved, but you get the idea. Have you heard of the programmableweb (yes it's one word) site? It lists over 1300 APIs for different Web services, including Bing Maps. Dice is listing over 1000 jobs with API listed as a skill.

Middleware is important. It's more important than it was yesterday, and it'll be even more important tomorrow. We've seen the transition in IT from large multi-functional programs to smaller single-function programs that are linked together to build the complete application. We're even getting used to the new names for these little programs; first objects, then components, now services. And, we know that middleware is what makes the whole thing work.


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TechCheck

1. What criminal behavior is good job training?

2. Why is multi-tenancy important?

3. Kindle is the best known ereader – and the Kindle DX with its 9.7 inch screen is just out. What is its major competition?

4. What middleware vendor is entering the cloud?

5. Are you using Chrome?


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Facebook

You will be getting an invitation from me to become my friend on Facebook, and I'm certainly going to be looking for an acceptance! I'm slowly getting excited about all this "interactive Internet" stuff. As you all know, I spend a lot of time researching IT. It's my job to keep up on technology – and then pass the information I find on to you (in plain English). We know how quickly Information Technology changes and that keeping up can be a problem, so we're constantly looking for new ways to get information to you, and Facebook looks like a good channel.

I'm building a Facebook profile that will link to and include both my tweets and blogs. Look me up next time you're there under "M Susan Hodges." This is where I publish "techie" news as soon as I find it, and many of you use these resources. If you are on Facebook and become my friend, you'll get an update (a tweet) when I publish news and you can then go to my profile to get the details when the timing works for you. This gives you both push and pull access to new technical information. The tweet will tell you it's there, and you can get the details when you have time. This way you can keep up – or catch up – on the timing that works for you.

If you're like me, you suddenly have a lot of networking opportunities. I'm on Facebook, Fast Pitch, Linkedin, Twitter and Zing. I'm loving the idea of combining these networks, and going to Facebook where so many of SemCo's friends are already. Look for your invitation!

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Short Vocabulary

BI


BI (Business Intelligence) remains a key area in most IT departments, and it continues to grow more and more important as computer systems – both hardware and software – increase in functionality. New speeds and memory capacity in servers and storage systems allow for more sophisticated data analysis on lots more data!

BI (Business Intelligence) Category of products that transform data into a meaningful format that can be used to make business decisions. Started with DSS (Decision Support System) and EIS (Executive Information System) software. The Internet and multidimensional technology provide new capabilities and the term business intelligence became popular with Internet based products that include ebusiness marketing functions.

content management Type of program used to build dynamic Websites. It enables non-technical users to create, manage, manipulate, and deliver content to multiple targets, including multiple Websites, email, and wireless devices. Content management moves beyond document management in that it allows information to be managed at the paragraph, sentence, or even word level.

data warehouse Enterprise-wide data access that interfaces current and legacy data. Data can be moved to a common data collection and integrated into a consistent format or can be replicated from one system to another to provide common access. Common usage is to take data from a production database and load it into an end-user database. Warehousing then includes the query and reporting tools to access the data. The technology was first defined in 1983 by William Inmon, and gained popularity in the 1990s.

data warehouse appliance Combination of hardware and software that is dedicated to data warehousing applications. Includes high-performance hardware with database, storage and other types of software. Often preconfigured for specific tasks, such as strategic analysis.

data mining Analyzing data from large data sets to detect trends and associations. Querying data collections with no expectations of the results. Data mining also describes using data from legacy systems for current management decisions. Commonly used with data warehousing, but can be used with any large collection of data. Report mining, text mining, and Web mining are variations of data mining that work completely with unstructured data.

data visualization Application development technique used in data warehousing and ecommerce applications. Used to build data mining tools that present graphical displays (i.e. pie charts, scatter charts, bar graphs, etc.) of information from different perspectives. Visualization tools let the user quickly see graphs of different subsets, or different summaries of data.

OLAP (OnLine Analytical Processing) Software used to help consolidate and analyze business information. Any query system that provides data manipulation, display and visualization of multidimensional data for reporting purposes. Includes EIS (Executive Information System), GIS (Geographic Information System), DSS (Decision Support System), data warehousing systems. Processes data in multi-dimensional datacube format. Also called OLAP server and analytical server.

predictive analytics IT function. Branch of data mining that deals with the prediction of future probabilities and trends. Chooses a predictor, which is a variable that can be measured to predict future behavior, e.g. insurance companies can use age as a predictor of potential insurance claims. Multiple predictors are combined into a predictive model which can be used to forecast future probabilities. The model is then revised as additional data becomes available.

text mining, Web mining Text mining is looking for regularities, patterns or trends in natural language text (unstructured data), and its goal is to extract useful knowledge from unstructured or semi-structured text. It includes functions from NLP (Natural Language Processing), data mining, knowledge management, and machine learning. Web mining is a form of text mining that searches Web sites for information.
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Answers to TechCheck

1. Hacking. In fact, hacking started off as a positive activity. In the beginning, a hacker was an intellectual member of an exclusive society, constrained only by his or her own imagination. They spent their time pursuing perfection through exploration, under the strictest of ethics which clearly defined them as anything but criminal. Now they're criminals, but often criminals who are hired by their victims. Major IT vendors like IBM, and Novell, have understood the vast benefits of employing hackers in their development departments, and have quietly done so for many years.

2. The term describes a system where a single instance of software is used by multiple clients (or tenants). The software partitions its data and configuration so that each client has its own data, but many clients run off a single program. In fact, vendors run a limited number of applications, each with thousands of users. This means that when the application is updated, all clients receive the update simultaneously. SaaS (Software as a Service) is defined by many people as requiring multi-tenancy. It's important because vendors have to limit the number of instances of a single program they have to maintain. If every time they make a change to a program, they have to update thousands of copies of the program, the logistics of maintenance get overwhelming. Very important in cloud computing, where it's not just thousands, but hundreds of thousands of users we're talking about.

3. Google. Again. Google plans to make ebooks available on a variety of mobile devices including netbooks. Same size screen – but a multi-functional device at around the same price.

4. That would be Tibco. Silver is a PaaS (Platform as a Service) system for large companies which emphasizes composite applications written in multiple languages and running on a variety of computer systems. It supports Java, C++, Ruby, .Net, and Spring. It's just been released to Beta on AWS (Amazon Web Services) with a planned general release at least six months away.

5. Chrome (Google's browser) hasn't made as much of an impact as many of Google's products do, but version 2.0 was released in May. You might want to take a look. Free download, of course.

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