Friday, February 03, 2012
Come To The Mountains!
The lovely and vivacious Debra Lilley and I are co-presenting at the Utah Oracle User Group's Apps SIG on Monday, Feb. 13. We'll be talking about the Road to Fusion. You can learn more at www.utoug.org. Lunch, a gorgeous view of the magnificent Wasatch mountains, some leading edge information on Fusion Applications, and watching me tease Debra. What more could you want? Come to the mountains and join us!
Friday, January 27, 2012
Chairing The PDC
So I'm sitting in SFO waiting out a flight delay and taking stock of this week's events. It's been a big week: the IOUC Oracle User Group Summit and Oracle User Experience Advocate training (with a group of extremely cool pre-sales consultants).
But the biggest event of a big week, at least for me, was stepping up to replace Debra Lilley as Chair of the IOUC's Product Development committee. Debra and the group have done some great work around Fusion Applications over the past six years - there's really no replacing her.
I'm hoping for lengthen our stride in three areas as the PDC enters this new phase:
1. Expand the amount of information available to those using or considering Fusion Applications.
2. Provide more customer feedback to Oracle regarding Fusion Applications.
3. Increase the involvement of all Oracle user groups across the globe.
That third element is really important. Hopefully, the PDC can continue to work across user group and geographic boundaries - this stuff works best when we all work together.
It's going to be a big year. Join a user group and be a part of it.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
But the biggest event of a big week, at least for me, was stepping up to replace Debra Lilley as Chair of the IOUC's Product Development committee. Debra and the group have done some great work around Fusion Applications over the past six years - there's really no replacing her.
I'm hoping for lengthen our stride in three areas as the PDC enters this new phase:
1. Expand the amount of information available to those using or considering Fusion Applications.
2. Provide more customer feedback to Oracle regarding Fusion Applications.
3. Increase the involvement of all Oracle user groups across the globe.
That third element is really important. Hopefully, the PDC can continue to work across user group and geographic boundaries - this stuff works best when we all work together.
It's going to be a big year. Join a user group and be a part of it.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Form Factor?
I read RSS feeds...lots of them. It's how I get most of my news. But I've noticed lately that I use different apps on different platforms to read the same feeds. The Sage extension for Firefox on my iMac and MacBook, Pulse on my iPad, and Reeder on my iPhone. The differences seem to come down to which app renders content best on the screen size available. Wait, isn't that at the heart of something called "form factor"? Hmmm, maybe there's something to that idea after all. What do you think?
Thursday, January 19, 2012
We've Lost Our Perspective
A sure sign we've lost our perspective. I'm checking my favorite news aggregater sites on Oracle today. The top hits are all about the lawsuit with Google, the lawsuit with Montclair State University, and the latest plays on Oracle stock. No question the suits have taken over the headlines.
Note to the press: we seem to have lost our perspective. IT'S ABOUT THE SOFTWARE! COULD YA'ALL STOP WITH THE GOSSIP AND THE SPECULATION TO WRITE SOMETHING INTELLIGENT? YOU'RE CLOGGING UP BANDWIDTH WITH USELESS, NEGATIVE NOISE! PLEASE WRITE SOMETHING SIGNIFICANT ABOUT THE FREAKIN' SOFTWARE!
Sorry. Just couldn't hold it in anymore. I'll calm down now.
Note to the press: we seem to have lost our perspective. IT'S ABOUT THE SOFTWARE! COULD YA'ALL STOP WITH THE GOSSIP AND THE SPECULATION TO WRITE SOMETHING INTELLIGENT? YOU'RE CLOGGING UP BANDWIDTH WITH USELESS, NEGATIVE NOISE! PLEASE WRITE SOMETHING SIGNIFICANT ABOUT THE FREAKIN' SOFTWARE!
Sorry. Just couldn't hold it in anymore. I'll calm down now.
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Busy Busy Busy!
It's hard to believe, but the Oracle conference season is upon us again. RMOUG Training Days, UTOUG Training Days, Alliance, Collaborate, KScope 12 and then the big daddy - Oracle OpenWorld 2012. And I've come nowhere close to listing them all.
It's already shaping up to be a busy year for this boy. My calendar so far:
Alliance 12, March 18-21. Yes, I'm finally getting to Alliance after years to wanting to do so. I'm excited to be part of a joint effort between HEUG and ODTUG to put on some Sunday workshops: "Fusion Fundamentals - Back To The Egg" and "Oracle Fusion Applications CoExistence - Having Your Cake and Eating It Too". The Sunday workshops will rock this year - make your reservations early!
Collaborate 12, April 22-26. It'll be nice to put on my "apps hat" for a couple of presentations: "18 Months with Fusion Applications - Stories From The Trenches" and "Functional Setup Manager - The Key That Unlocks Fusion Applications". I'll have just finished up another Fusion Apps implementation a few weeks before Collaborate - much of the content for these presentations will share experiences from that project.
KScope 12, June 24-28. I've had the pleasure of helping put together the Fusion Middleware track this year. Kudos to OTDUG for a great experience - no hooey, no roadblocks, just a nice simple process focused on getting it done. The Fusion Middleware Track will rock this year. And don't forget the FMW Sunday Symposium. I'll be presenting for appstechs on "Design Time, Design Time @ Run Time, Personalization…What The Huh?"
It's shaping up to be a busy year. Hope to see you somewhere along the way!
It's already shaping up to be a busy year for this boy. My calendar so far:
Alliance 12, March 18-21. Yes, I'm finally getting to Alliance after years to wanting to do so. I'm excited to be part of a joint effort between HEUG and ODTUG to put on some Sunday workshops: "Fusion Fundamentals - Back To The Egg" and "Oracle Fusion Applications CoExistence - Having Your Cake and Eating It Too". The Sunday workshops will rock this year - make your reservations early!
Collaborate 12, April 22-26. It'll be nice to put on my "apps hat" for a couple of presentations: "18 Months with Fusion Applications - Stories From The Trenches" and "Functional Setup Manager - The Key That Unlocks Fusion Applications". I'll have just finished up another Fusion Apps implementation a few weeks before Collaborate - much of the content for these presentations will share experiences from that project.
KScope 12, June 24-28. I've had the pleasure of helping put together the Fusion Middleware track this year. Kudos to OTDUG for a great experience - no hooey, no roadblocks, just a nice simple process focused on getting it done. The Fusion Middleware Track will rock this year. And don't forget the FMW Sunday Symposium. I'll be presenting for appstechs on "Design Time, Design Time @ Run Time, Personalization…What The Huh?"
It's shaping up to be a busy year. Hope to see you somewhere along the way!
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Walk A Mile In My Shoes
If I could be you, if you could be me for just one hour
If we could find a way to get inside each other's mind
If you could see through my eyes instead of your ego
I believe you'd be surprised to see that you've been blind
Walk a mile in my shoes
Walk a mile in my shoes
Hey, before you abuse, criticize and abuse
Walk a mile in my shoes
----------------from Joe South's "Walk A Mile In My Shoes"
Walked into my bank yesterday to get a new debit card; my old one has taken up permanent residents with the dust bunnies and the missing socks somewhere in my house. The bank teller, while very nice, really struggled to help me out.
The cause of the teller's struggle? Seems the IT department at the bank randomly picks people on random schedules and requires them to change system authorization credentials: both user id and password. My teller's name came up in the "login lottery" about an hour before I walked in.
So, making a long story short, my teller fussed with the new login for five minutes and then simply called the IT department. She identified herself over the phone by simply providing her first name and her branch name; IT then verbally provided her user ID and password. She then logged in and helped me finish my business.
It was a slow day at the bank branch while I was there, so I took a moment to talk with the tellers about what happened. Seems my experience was a regular occurrence. I walked away with three thoughts:
1. I want IT security at a bank. We're talking about my money. I don't have much, but I am attached to what I have. But when the security process impedes a bank's ability to service it's customers, isn't that a huge problem?
2. Seems like the whole user authorization process was easily circumvented with a quick phone call. My teller called and received her credentials. No validations, no lookups, no nothing. I could call from a branch phone, tell IT I'm Pete from the Eastern Bohemian branch, and I'll get Pete's credentials. Hmmm....
3. Saving my best thought for last. I'm willing to wager big money that the entire "login lottery" process would change if the folks in IT had to perform as tellers for a few hours. The best way to improve the experience for users and tellers would be to have the IT security team "walk a mile in my shoes"...or the shoes of the tellers in this case. Once the IT folks experience the security disruptions for themselves, I'd bet that eliminating those disruptions with a better process would be at the top of their project list.
Thoughts? Feedback? Rants? Find the comments.
If we could find a way to get inside each other's mind
If you could see through my eyes instead of your ego
I believe you'd be surprised to see that you've been blind
Walk a mile in my shoes
Walk a mile in my shoes
Hey, before you abuse, criticize and abuse
Walk a mile in my shoes
----------------from Joe South's "Walk A Mile In My Shoes"
Walked into my bank yesterday to get a new debit card; my old one has taken up permanent residents with the dust bunnies and the missing socks somewhere in my house. The bank teller, while very nice, really struggled to help me out.
The cause of the teller's struggle? Seems the IT department at the bank randomly picks people on random schedules and requires them to change system authorization credentials: both user id and password. My teller's name came up in the "login lottery" about an hour before I walked in.
So, making a long story short, my teller fussed with the new login for five minutes and then simply called the IT department. She identified herself over the phone by simply providing her first name and her branch name; IT then verbally provided her user ID and password. She then logged in and helped me finish my business.
It was a slow day at the bank branch while I was there, so I took a moment to talk with the tellers about what happened. Seems my experience was a regular occurrence. I walked away with three thoughts:
1. I want IT security at a bank. We're talking about my money. I don't have much, but I am attached to what I have. But when the security process impedes a bank's ability to service it's customers, isn't that a huge problem?
2. Seems like the whole user authorization process was easily circumvented with a quick phone call. My teller called and received her credentials. No validations, no lookups, no nothing. I could call from a branch phone, tell IT I'm Pete from the Eastern Bohemian branch, and I'll get Pete's credentials. Hmmm....
3. Saving my best thought for last. I'm willing to wager big money that the entire "login lottery" process would change if the folks in IT had to perform as tellers for a few hours. The best way to improve the experience for users and tellers would be to have the IT security team "walk a mile in my shoes"...or the shoes of the tellers in this case. Once the IT folks experience the security disruptions for themselves, I'd bet that eliminating those disruptions with a better process would be at the top of their project list.
Thoughts? Feedback? Rants? Find the comments.
Saturday, January 07, 2012
Cleaning Up
I was recently hit with a big blast of irony. For a guy who continually preaches the goodness of UX, my own blog was a butt-ugly experience for anyone who stopped by. So I decided to clean things up. Hope you like the new look.
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