Category Archives: Events

Big Data, Events

For the Data Scientists: 5 Upcoming Big Data Conferences You Shouldn’t Miss

Big data is a big deal right now, and it’s only going to become a bigger deal in the future, so it makes sense to learn about as many of its aspects as you can, as quickly as you can. Or pick one and learn it very well. Or don’t pick any, if you are a staunch believer in the shelf-life of traditional data warehouses. From a machine learning deep-dive to an open-source buffet,  the following five conferences provide educational and networking opportunities for both the specialists and renaissance persons among you. Attending a cool one I’ve missed? Let me know in the comments!

 

 

Big Data, Events, SharePoint

Boston SharePoint Salon: Go Big or Go Home

Big as in data, home as in “out of business.” Because there’s only going to be more data, and people are finally realizing that not only can it be sliced and diced and visualized in formats comprehensible to the business analyst—it needs to be. The questions are: how should it be stored and queried and where should the visible representations of these queries be displayed?

Hadoop, Apache’s open source, distributed computing and storage framework based on Google’s MapReduce model is one answer to the first question. Or you could buy a supercomputer, but, those are kind of expensive! And less fun to say!  As for the second question, of course the answer depends on the type of data. As this is a SharePoint-focused Salon, though, I’m going to nominate SharePoint as one potential answer. Why? Well, Microsoft’s new Big Data Solution will put enterprise Hadoop solutions on Azure and Windows Server, including the now available SQL Server Connector, which lets you transfer data between Hadoop and SQL Server.  So, if you plan on upgrading to SQL Server 2012, you’ll be able to access data stored in Hadoop from SharePoint, and do all your slicing and dicing and displaying in PowerPivot and Power View. Presumably.

Interesting, no? We think so. If you agree, please join us at Tico (Berklee Street) this Thursday, from 7 to about 9:30 pm. You can RSVP here, or email me! And if you can’t make it, but know someone whom you think should attend, please spread the word!

Events

BoSS and Beyond: Upcoming Boston-Area Tech Events

In case you missed my or Geoff’s or Sadie’s or Jason’s tweets, know this: the members of the Boston SharePoint Salon, or BoSS, will convene this Thursday, 10/27, at Eastern Standard in Kenmore, between the hours of 7-9pm. We’ll be talking about Power View and self-service BI, among other things. All are welcome, and you can RSVP here and get more info , here or here.

Can’t make it? Hate SharePoint? Don’t even know what Power View is? No worries—there are plenty of other upcoming events on the Boston tech horizon. Below, a subjective listing of the best, in chronological order.

1.       Boston Code Camp 16

a.       What:  A veritable multi-platform, polylingual workshop bonanza. If you have interest in HTML5, cloud architecture, ASP.NET MVC3, jQuery, LINQ, Netduino, Metro Style Apps, SharePoint, iOS5, XNA 4.0… you should go.

b.      Who: Patrick Hynds, Bob Goodearl, Chris Bowen and Chris Pels

c.       When: 10/29, 8:30am-6:40pm

d.      Where: Microsoft, 201 Jones Road, Waltham

e.      How: by registering on eventbrite

f.        Cost: Free

2.       WhereCamp Boston

a.       What: A two-day conference devoted to the intersection of technology and geography, with sessions on GIS, web mapping, start-ups, mobile computing, social software and more. Cartosoft’s Andres Ferrate, Development Seed’s Tom MacWright and Unterbahn’s Jeff Warren are keynoting.

b.      Who: Ignite Spatial Boston

c.       When: 10/29-10/30

d.      Where: Microsoft NERD Center, One Memorial Drive, Cambridge

e.      How: by registering on eventbrite

f.        Cost: 10$/day

3.       Network Visualization: Everything You Wanted to Know (But Were Afraid to Ask)

a.       What: IBM’s Frank van Ham will give a practical overview of the common algorithms used in drawing network visualizations, and the common pitfalls associated with implementing these algorithms.

b.      Who: Boston Data Visualization

c.       When: 11/1, 7pm

d.      Where: Bocoup Loft, 355 Congress Street, Boston

e.      How: by registering on BDV’s meetup page

f.        Cost: Free

4.       Nicholas Zakas on High Performance JavaScript

a.       What: Ex-Yahoo! front-end engineer and  High Performance Javascript author Nicholas Zakas will take you through some of Javascript’s speedblocks, and how to dismantle them.

b.      Who: Web Performance Boston

c.       When: 11/3, 6:30pm

d.      Where: Wayfair Offices, 177 Huntington Ave, 24th Floor, Boston

e.      How: By registering on WPB’s meetup page

5.       Google Analytics for Developers

a.       What: An evening spent investigating what lies under Google Analytics’ hood, and which parts contain information that the business users on your team will want to know.

b.      Who: Google Analytics author Justin Cutroni and Boston PHP

c.       When: 11/9, 6pm

d.      Where: Microsoft NERD Center, One Memorial Drive, Cambridge

e.      How: by registering on Boston PHP’s meetup page

f.        Cost: Free

6.       MIT Enterprise Forum: Changing the World: How  Innovators Are Using the Web for Social Action

a.       What: An roundtable on how innovative web strategies are being implemented in the non-profit sphere, moderated by Covestor’s Asheesh Advani. Water.org’s Mike McCamon, Boston Rising’s Tiziana Dearing, SoChange’s Mike Norman and Charity Partner’s David Wagner are speaking.

b.      Who: Doug Banks and the MIT Enterprise Forum

c.       When: 11/9, 5:30pm-9pm

d.      Where: MIT Stata Center, Kirsch Auditorium, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge

e.      How: by registering at mitforumcambridge.org

f.        Cost: Students and members, free, non-members, $25

7.       Babson Entrepreneurship Forum

a.       What: Three days of panels, lectures and networking events aimed at entrepreneurs and would-be entrepreneurs. Among the keynotes are HBS’ Michael Porter, General Catalyst Partner’s Charlie Baker, Kairos Society’s Ankur Jain and CNN Analyst David Gergen; speakers include Hubspot’s Andrew Quinn,  Flagship Venture’s Noubar Afeyan, Idea Paint’s John Goscha and 410Lab’s David Troy.

b.      Who: Babson College Graduate Student Association

c.       When: 11/11-11/13

d.      Where: Babson College Main Campus, 231 Forest Street, Wellesley MA

e.      How: by registering at babsonforum.com

f.        Cost: Students, $60-140; Professionals, $125-205

8.       HTML5 Game Camp

a.       What: A day devoted to HTML5 games and the tools, skills and standards you need to know to make them. The camp ends with a judging showcase, so come with a laptop and your listening cap.

b.      Who:  Microsoft

c.       When: 11/17, 8:30am-5:00pm

d.      Where: Microsoft NERD Center, One Memorial Drive, Cambridge

e.      How: by registering on eventbrite

f.        Cost: free

Events, SharePoint

SPC11: Porchetta, Pirouettes and a Whole Lot of Demos

[Jumpshot via the lovely and talented Marcy Kellar]

Unless you’re a vegetarian, teetotaler or Luddite, you’ll find nothing (too)incendiary here, folks! If I had to encapsulate our team’s SPC11experience in three words, they’d be: demos, sessions and networking. Since that is boring and vague, I’m going to break it down by numbers, instead.

24: Terabytes in Yahoo’s cube (from Kamal Hathi’s session “Vision and Strategy of BI”)

50,000: Organizations that signed up for Office365 within two weeks of its launch. So, 2.5% of what Call of Duty Elite got.

324: OfficeWriter Export to Word and Export to Excel demos shown. We were surprised to see that the demand for Word template generation was much higher than that for Excel, as outside the SharePoint world, that proportion is inversed.

Continue reading SPC11: Porchetta, Pirouettes and a Whole Lot of Demos →

Events, SharePoint

SoftArtisans and OfficeWriter at SPC11

[Image via Seeing Stars]
The big day is almost here! The normally child-clogged streets of Anaheim’s Downtown Disney district are filling up with performance polo-clad techies, my hootsuite is filling up with #SPC11-related tweets and my liver is already filled with anxiety. From Monday, October 3rd through Thursday, October 6th, David (@davidwihl), Chris (@chrisrbaldwin), Ben (@bcjonesey) and I (@softartisans, @officewriter) will be repping OfficeWriter and our brand spanking new SharePoint Solutions Gallery at booth 630. (If you can’t read numbers, just look for the guy in the Mohawk.) If you or anyone you know has a need for generating publishable Word and Excel reports based on SharePoint data and integrating them into your business workflows, we’d love to talk to you. We’re also bowing to the swag gods and giving away a BlackBerry Playbook. To put your name in the hat, just stop by the booth.   Continue reading SoftArtisans and OfficeWriter at SPC11 →

Events, SharePoint

Boston SharePoint Salon: A Shared Mobility

Technology-wise, ours is a nebulous world, but mobile’s increased prominence is one point of certainty. It’s not hard to imagine using our phones to unlock our apartments, start our cars, buy our groceries, record our sleep rhythms, yell at our significant other when he opens that container of Chubby Hubby… And on the business side of things, an increasingly accessible workforce translates into an increasingly accessible workspace. More and more workers have a need for a mobile replica of their brick-and-mortar office: they need to be able to do things like read and approve documents, fill out forms and assign tasks on the fly. In SharePoint, we have a potential vehicle for an empowered mobile workforce, but at this stage, both in-house and third-party offerings are underdeveloped. Continue reading Boston SharePoint Salon: A Shared Mobility →