Happy 2010

It's a tradition : in order to wish you the best for next year, I send you my best shots of last year.

Happy 2010 ! Here are my best shots of 2009 (Slideshow):

http://www.lowas.be/r/Happy2010/

If you prefer, the Photo Album is here:

BestShots2009

Best Regards,

Thomas, Mireille and Jean-François.

|-------------------------------------------------------
| Jean-François Declercq
| +32/476/359.667
| http://www.jfdeclercq.com/contact/
|-------------------------------------------------------

Nouvelle manière d'expliquer aux enfants comment ils sont nés...

Comment suis-je né ?



Un beau matin, un enfant demande à son père :
Papa, comment suis-je né ?

Très bien, mon fils, il fallait bien que l'on en parle un jour.
Les abeilles, les fleurs, les choux, les petites graines...

Tout cela est complètement dépassé !

Soyons modernes :
Voici donc ce qu'il faut que tu saches :

Papa et Maman se sont connectés sur Facebook.
 
Papa a envoyé un e-mail à Maman,

afin de lui fixer rendez-vous dans un cybercafé.

Ils ont découvert qu'ils étaient compatibles,

en ayant beaucoup de choses en commun.


Papa et Maman ont alors décidé de faire un partage de fichiers.

Ils se sont dissimulés dans les toilettes,

et Papa a introduit son disque dur dans le port USB de Maman.


Lorsque Papa fut prêt pour le téléchargement,

Papa et Maman réalisèrent qu'ils n'avaient pas mis de coupe-feu [Firewall].
 
Hélas, il était trop tard pour annuler le transfert

et il était impossible d'effacer les données.


C'est ainsi que, neuf mois plus tard,

le petit virus est apparu...

Cyclocross Overijse (Dec 13th 2009)

Find here some photos of the 2009 Cyclocross in Overijse : de Vlaamse Druivencross:

20091213 Cyclocross Overijse

More info on the cyclocross : http://www.desportvriendenoverijse.be/

I managed to screw my facebook profile

PS : The problem is solved now.



The other day I noticed my facebook profile was 'jdeclercq'. My Facebook profile page was than http://www.facebook.com/jdeclercq

Now in general I try to have "jfdeclercq" (See Social Networks). By hazard I was on a profile page where I could see that 'jfdeclercq' was available. I than changed my profile name to "jfdeclercq".

Since than I can't access my profile...

Nor via jdeclercq :http://www.facebook.com/jdeclercq
Nor via jfdeclercq : http://www.facebook.com/jfdeclercq
Nor via my profile number: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=773563635

I guess that's the best way to deal with privacy issues with facebook :-)

Shopping in Milano (Nov 28, 2009)

Click on the link to see some photos of our Shopping in Milan.

From 20091129 Shopping Milano

Encrypt your Documents with IBM SFED

Today I'm working on the Integration of IBM's Cryptography solutions for long term archiving in Content Management Solutions like FileNet Image Services.

The idea is to encrypt confidential documents on the desktop using SFED (Secure File Encryption for Desktops) and than post them to the Document Archive.

This design poses many organizational questions :

What if the person who encrypted the file forgot the password ?

In that case, there are two main possibilities:
1. Use a Password Store

or

2. Allow for password recovery. An Administration Interface allows to recover the password. This requires, in addition to the technology, a strong real life procedure such that the password recovery tool isn't misused.

In SFED, the Security Domain of the documents determines if password recovery is possible or not.

What garantees that one can decrypt the document within 10 years from now ?

The combination of the use of encryption standard like Encryption AES, HMAC-SHA-512 or PKCS#12 and IBM's promises to stay in Business...

How to avoid that people use the same password for unrelated files ?

(If this password would be revealed for a file, all the other files would be at risk)

This is an organizational and security governance issue... You need to learn your end users not to put their passwords on a post-it on the workstation's desk. Security is not only technology...

Oh you're having a sabbatical in 2010 ! What will you do next year ?

“What will you do next year ?” is the main question I have to answer these days. Last Tuesday (Nov 17th 2009) I got the message from IBM that my sabbatical leave has been approved. Therefore, in 2010, I will not go to work as usual.

So, this week I met many people who have heard that I'm having a year off. Their main concern is “What will you do ?” but also “Will you be back in 2011 ?” .

As the Black Eye Peas would sing, I have a feeling that 2010 is gonna be a good year.

What will I do ?

I will have 3 main objectives in 2010:

1. Business

I will work on the opportunity of starting a business in the field of ePaper. Concretely, there are many activities I want to undertake around ePaper

• Play with the eReaders technology (the IREX S1000, the Sony eReader or some Hanlin models for example): programming , integrating Content Management platforms like Alfresco, configuring for Personal Productivity, displaying Medical Information, downloading eBanking information or Marketing Material, Testing Notes Taking, Automatically producing content from RSS feeds...
• Blog on ePaper related technologies. I will launch 2 blogs on ePaper (one in French, the other in English). I already have created 2 associated websites : http://appepaper.com and http://appe.biz/.
• Determine an ePaper Reference Architecture that will be useful for documenting ePaper applications. Publish white papers on the subject.
• Gradually participate in ePaper projects, software, hardware and consulting as an independent consultant.
• Re-Write and start to execute my business plan for ePaper
• Participate to (or Organize) ePaper events
• Build a network of ePaper enthousiasts around the world who can achieve together great ePaper projects

2. Sport

Together with my friend Laurent Saublens, we decided to get to the top of the Mont Ventoux by bike. I hope he didn't forget it because I want to take up the challenge.


(Photo Source : WikiPedia)

3. Free Time

For the first time in my life, for one year, I will have no agenda, no obligation. It will be an interesting experience. It might sound crazy but I want to truly understand what I will choose to do of my free time when facing an empty agenda. Here is what I believe I will do:

• Cleaning – I have many things to tidy up at home
• Spend more time with my family, especially Thomas (my son)
• Painting, Drawing
• Reading, Writing
• Gardening (not 100% sure)
• Local Tourism: watching busy people in the street, drink coffee with my eReader.
• ...

And I'have just been told there is an additional objective:

4. Spoil my wife who deserves it (which was actually proposed by... my wife who was reading over my shoulder. But ok. Fair enough).

So, Will I come back (to IBM) ?

It will mainly depend on the successful execution of my business plan. If I'm happy being an independent entrepreneur, I will probably not come back to IBM. If on the contrary I'm not happy with the experience, I could come back to work for the Large Company. I don't know yet today.

IT Profiles: can do attitude ?

Today most technological companies are faced wihth the same problem : the explosion of technologies.

In the past there were maybe only 2 or 3 possible technologies for solving a specific problem. Today you have 10.

For example, in the 80s most of programmers in large companies would work on the IBM Mainframe. Today, there are several populations : J2EE, Oracle, Microsoft, open source, Web... You only have to look at the agenda of next week's devoxx conference to get an idea of some recent technologies which didn't exist 10 years from now.

As a result of this explosion, IT skills have to evolve. IT people have to deal with going out of their comfort zone. Here is what I identify as key skills for the future IT professionals:

• Capable of Abstraction : You should be able to design a solution even if you don't know about all the details. For example, If you don't exactly how does the Spring Framework works you still know what it does and where it fits because it's a "Model View Controller" System.

• Fast Learner - If you don't know at all what it is, than Google and Wikipedia are your friends. You can find out, learn, use new things very fast.

• Critic : a technology might be the best on the short term but never become a market standard on the mid to long term. Learn to find out what will stay and what will disappear. It's not about technology... IT Profiles must now be aware of the pro and cons of the new technology that is constantly proposed.

• Strong Communicator : Solutions become complex and being paid for implementing them requires to give trust to your customer that it will indeed work as designed. To receive and give trust, communication skills are essential.

• Customer Orientation : Don't use technology because it is cool (or just do it for yourself like me ;-)), use technology because it solves your customer's pain.
  

• Can Do Attitude : Finally, to get competitive advantage, you'll need to dare to innovate, to make new assemblies, to make new combination of the technology. The specialization of businesses makes that the designing a new solution or the winning of a new customer is a matter of pushing the limits further. Too often I see IT Professionals going back to their comfort zone and saying 'This is not a problem for me'. I believe they are wrong because IT comfort zones will tend to disappear : they can be automated (ex: DB Administration) or outsourced at a lower cost (ex: Off Shore Software Factories).

Digital Natives...

"Le Digital Native déborde d'idées, il est ambitieux, imaginatif et multitâches. Il aime travailler en équipe, tout en ressentant un fort besoin d'autonomie et d'indépendance. Il a tendance à rejeter l'autorité, mais accepte la compétition."

Ouille, ca me fait penser a quelqu'un...

Source : Brainsfeed : (réflexion) > Les Digital natives: une nouvelle génération d'employés

Testing Business Processes with iLog Business Rules

This morning (Oct 28, 2009) I attended a iLog Business Rules Management System (BRMS) Demo and it gave me an idea.

iLog has a great tool for testing rules. It allows to design test cases using MS Excell that are sent to the Rules Engine in order to determine if a rule set provides the expected decision.

In the past I ave been involved with the difficult exercice of generating test data for Business Processes. Using the iLog testing tool, this could be realized like this :

1. Before the process is designed, use the BRMS to design the process vocabulary.

2. Create some basic rules which from process inputs produce process outputs. In fact these rules simulate the process.

3. Create the rules test cases such that the rule responds the right process output from a given process input. In fact the rules set must simulates the process for the foreseen test cases.

4. Communicate the rules and their test cases to the Process developpers so they can design and build the process using the test cases.

5. For automating the tests, at the end of the process (or at intervals if the process is composed of serveral parts), send the process inputs to the business rules and ask the rules engine to compare process results with the expected process results (this requires a comparison rule which allows to determine of two result sets are considered equivalent).

To illustrate this, I used the opportunity to test gliffy to make a diagram:


http://www.gliffy.com/publish/1872505/

Autumn in Tombeek

BPMN isn't the Panacea for Business Process Management

A typical approach when thinking about Business Process Management is to try to draw two types of diagrams:

• the AS-IS Diagram: represents how the process is executed today
• the TO-BE Diagram : how we would like to execute the process in the future

The TO-BE diagram aims at improving the business efficiency by for example automating certain tasks. The Business Process Modeling Notation is the standardized notation for such Process Diagrams. Once the process is modeled in BPMN it can be implemented using the Business Process Execution Language (BPEL).

BPMN seems to be the way to go to manage a company's business process.

So the question is : Is BPMN the panacea (a cure to all pains) for Business Process Management ?

I dont think so. Here is why...

If the BPMN approach sounds logical, it has nevertheless some drawbacks:

• How to get non architects draw their processes, they prefer natural language = to talk about it. Drawing and agreeing the right process is a painful exercise in most companies.
  
  
• Some of the Process Drawing tools like ARIS, MEGA, System Architect require some training before they can be properly used. They are perceived as complex.
  
  
• BPMN diagram don't represent the reality. It's sometimes very difficult to draw the reality because there are numerous exceptions to the process (exceptions are the rule...)

Alternative approaches to BPMN are than very useful. One can find at least 2 types of alternatives : Middelware and Applications.

Middelware (other than BPEL Engines) allow businesses to manage their processes. Here are some examples:

• Business Rules Engines allow to determine what is the best next step to be executed in a process (decision), or determine how an activity should be performed (planning). At IBM this would be the iLOG BRMS.
  
  
• Business Activity Monitoring and Complex Events Processing allow to monitor a process though relevant events (product purchased, payment completed...). At IBM we implement this with Websphere Business Monitor and Websphere Business Events.
  
  
• Business Intelligence tools allow to create reports and dashboards which help Business Managers to lead their teams to execute the processes in the right way.

Companies have also been managing their business processes without modeling them. They have purchased applications or frameworks which contained ready to use processes:

• Horizontal Applications like ECM solutions include standard document flows for publication and approval of information
  
  
• Vertical Applications Packages like SAP, Temenos T24 or PTC Windchill include pre-canned business processes that "just" need to be customized to the company needs.
  
  
• Industry Specific Frameworks include Business Processes. For example IBM proposes the Insurance Process Acceleration Framework. I the Media sector, IBM proposes the Media Hub.
  

The drawbacks and the alternatives of BPMN, demonstrate that BPMN isn't the Panacea for Business Process Management.

So, If you are interested in BPM, I would recommend you the following :

If you want to be closer to the business…

When thinking about BPM

Don’t think immediately BPMN, AS-IS and TO-BE

Rather, think

• Natural Language
• Business Intelligence
• Business Events
• Business Activities

Some HTML for the WII

What to do when there is nothing on TV ? Play with your WII.

I did that yesterday but not as you would expect.

I tried to develop web pages for my WII opera browser in order to:

• play web radios on the WII. I developped the page thanks to some hacking pages but... on the same pages they explain there is a memory leak in the WII flash player that makes that the music stops after a few minutes. I also tried http://www.wiihear.com/ but it seems also to suffer the memory management problem.
  
• Display photos on the WII. This works great thanks to Picasaweb.

I also tried iGoogle and Netvibes and it works, except when there is too much Flash.

Too bad there is this Flash memory leak because otherwise the WII could become a really great platform. My experience is that much of the new technology seems to have some glitch somewhere.

I just hope Adobe and Nintendo will upgrade Opera with a new flash player soon.

Entreprise Modernization : Switching between Web Applications with JavaScript

Some IBM customers have a lot of assets on "older" (or shouls we say more mature) platforms as zSeries or iSeries. Traditionnally those applications have "green screens".

Rational Host Access Transformation Services allows to easilly convert those 5250 or 3270 screens into Web pages exposing exactly the same functionality.

This allows to extend the reach of the i or z code.

End users also have an easier way to switch between their different screens. They can do that by:

• having several browsers and using ALT-TAB to switch between them
• having a browser with Multi-tab (like FireFox or IE7)
  
• toggle between web applications in a page using javascript and iFrames for instance

I have built a small demo to show the last possibility.

By showing or hiding a div containing an iframe, one can easilly navigate between different web apps and stay logged in and in context (the hidden iframe just stays on the same page, until i is shown again).

You can test it here in 2 different flavors:

• Explicit show/hide
  
• Show one application at a time

Of course this is a very simple and cheap solution, the ultimate way to do this would be to use Lotus Mashup Center.

L'eBook m a tuer : Réponse à Yann Queffelec

Hier matin (jeudi 15 octobre 2009) sur Europe 1, dans la Polémique Culturelle de Olivier Faugiel, il y avait un débat sur l'ebook, intitulé l'e-book m'a tuer. Vous pouvez le revoir sur le site de Europe 1.

Yann Queffelec y a détruit l'ebook :"Le livre sera toujours là lorsque l'ebook sera 6 pieds sous terre". D'après Mr Queffelec rien ne peut remplacer de sentir un bon vieux bouquin et le plaisir de le toucher d'une main à 5 doigts.

Mr Laurent Picard, co-fondateur de Booken a bien essayé de le défendre mais j'aurais voulu mieux défendre cette technologie face à un comportement qui me semble un peu trop fermé.

Si j'avais été présent, j'aurais voulu poser à Mr Queffelec les quelques questions suivantes :

• Quel plaisir y a t-il à sentir, ou plutôt à porter au container, les tonnes de publicité papier et journaux que l'on reçoit a la maison toutes les semaines ?
  
  
• Quel plaisir y a t-il a chercher à la main les spécifications d'une pièce d'avion dans un manuel de 5000 pages ?
  
  
• Quel plaisir y a t-il de stocker dans son grenier 10 mètres de classeurs de nos cours d'université qu'on ne relit jamais car on a aucune chance d'y retrouver le petit bout de théorie dont on a besoin et dont on ne se souvient que vaguement ?
  
  
• La lecture lire un sketch de Raymond Devos sur un écran d'ordinateur ou dans un livre ne procurent-elles pas le même rire ?
  
  
• Les mots sont-ils différents quand ils sont sur papier ?
  
  
• Quel plaisir y a t-il à porter un Harry Potter de 1/2 Kg à bout de bras dans son lit, qu'on finit par en avoir mal au poignets ?
  
  
• Quel plaisir a t-on à lire un livre avec une loupe car notre vision ne sait plus de lire la police de taille normale ? (Dans ce cas, on voudrait peut être tout de même 10 doigts...)
  
  
• Quel plaisir a t-on a imprimer des documents dont on sait qu'on va les jeter dans une semaine ?
  
  
• Quel plaisir a t-on à lire ses extraits de comptes ?
  
  
• Quel plaisir à avoir une valise 5 Kg plus lourde dans l'avion car on lit beaucoup en vacances ?
  
  
• Quel plaisir à partir chez un client avec seulement 10 brochures papier alors qu'on a 100 produits à vendre ?
  
  
• Quel plaisir à imprimer des codes barres sur des papiers qui ont une durée de vie de 2 jours (produits frais), ou même 1 minute (tickets de caisse) ?
  
  
• Quel plaisir ont les écoliers à porter un cartable de plusieurs kilos chaque jour ?

Il est évident que le livre électronique ne remplacera pas intégralement le papier. Mais l'ePaper en général et l'ebook en particulier présentent cependant pas mal d'avantages par rapport au même contenu au format papier.

Et puis il y a certains eBook qui fonctionneront tant que le soleil sera la et n'iront pas 6 pieds sous terre. L'eBook solaire de LG, par exemple..

Thomas peint par Ward Lernout

Peinture par Ward Lernout, à la suite d'une action du Kiwanis de Overijse.

Balloon Trip we did this summer

Here are some pictures of the Balloon trip we did in August this summer above the "Vlaamse Ardennen".

It was our first time in an Air Balloon.

After helping to fill the balloon with ambient air, warm air was blown for take off.

Take off is quiet quick and at that moment you think "My god, what am I doing here ?". But after 2 minutes you figure out it's perfectly working and also very quiet : there is no apparent wind. You can than start to enjoy.

The pilot of Balloon Heli did - I think -a very good landing, we had only two chocs to stop.

Once again Thank You to Maggie, Dimi and Julie who offered us this trip as a wedding gift.

Click on the photo below to see the Album on Picasaweb.

20090816BallonVaart

Worst Web Shopping Experience ever : Kinepolis.be

Have your ever bought tickets on kinepolis.be ?

It's my worst Internet Shopping Experience ever:

1. You have to re-type your name and email address each time you change movie or schedule. If only flash was not used for that my browser could fill it for me...

2. You have to do the complete process before finding out the session is fully booked...

3. The payment process is scary, you have to pay without being sure it's the right cinema, movie and schedule.

4. In the payment process you are all a sudden required a ING password that you never use. Hopefully there was a forgotten password procedure that worked.

I have never liked the Kinepolis website because of its poor performance (Flash abuse). Now the content delivery seems to be faster, they managed to screw the next step : the shopping experience...

Entreprendre et réussir : Declercq & Associés - Philippe Declercq

Coaching and Transition !

Si ca ne marche pas, essayez de voir la vidéo sur le site de PME KMO TV.

Tout le monde, quelqu'un, chacun, personne....

« Il était une fois quatre individus qu'on appelait
Tout le monde - Quelqu'un - Chacun - et Personne.

Il y avait un important travail à faire,
Et on a demandé à Tout le monde de le faire.
Tout le monde était persuadé que Quelqu'un le ferait..
Chacun pouvait l'avoir fait, mais en réalité Personne ne le fit.

Quelqu'un se fâcha car c'était le travail de Tout le monde !
Tout le monde pensa que Chacun pouvait le faire
Et Personne ne doutait que Quelqu'un le ferait…

En fin de compte, Tout le monde fit des reproches à Chacun
Parce que Personne n'avait fait ce que Quelqu'un aurait pu faire.


*** MORALITÉ ***

Sans vouloir le reprocher à Tout le monde,
Il serait bon que Chacun
Fasse ce qu'il doit sans nourrir l'espoir
Que Quelqu'un le fera à sa place…
Car l'expérience montre que
Là où on attend Quelqu'un,
Généralement on ne trouve Personne !

Coming Back on our Honeymoon Photos

I eventually took some time today to blog on our Honeymoon we spent in July in Italy.

Here are some images illustrating the cities we visited (I chose 1 photo per city):

• Lyon
  

  From 20090601HoneyMoon

  
  
• Nice
  

  From 20090601HoneyMoon

  
  
• Antibes
  

  From 20090601HoneyMoon

  
  
• Vence
  

  From 20090601HoneyMoon

  
  
• Cannes (It was the Festival De Cannes)
  

  From 20090601HoneyMoon

  
  
• Monaco (There was the F1 Grand Prix)
  

  From 20090601HoneyMoon

  
  
• San Remo
  

  From 20090601HoneyMoon

  
  
• Genova
  

  From 20090601HoneyMoon

  
  
• Portofino
  

  From 20090601HoneyMoon

  
  
• Cinquale
  

  From 20090601HoneyMoon

  
  
• Lucca
  

  From 20090601HoneyMoon

  
  
• Pisa
  

  From 20090601HoneyMoon

  
  
• San Giminiano
  

  From 20090601HoneyMoon

  
  
• Firenze
  

  From 20090601HoneyMoon

  
  
• Bologna
  

  From 20090601HoneyMoon

  
  
• Como
  

  From 20090601HoneyMoon

  
  
• Switzerland
  

  From 20090601HoneyMoon

  
  
• Strasbourg
  

  From 20090601HoneyMoon

  
  

Security : The problem with Humans

Humans are incapable of securely storing high-quality cryptographic keys, and they have unacceptable speed and
accuracy when performing cryptographic operations.

(They are also large, expensive to maintain, difficult to manage, and they pollute the environment. It is astonishing
that these devices continue to be manufactured and deployed. But they are sufficiently pervasive that we must design our protocols around their limitations.)

Kaufman, Perlman and Speciner

Netweaver isn't a real middelware (Karl-Heinz Streibich)

01Net : En ciblant avec votre middleware les terres de SAP, vous vous opposez frontalement à Netweaver. N'est-ce pas risqué ?


Karl-Heinz Streibich: Non, car Netweaver n'est pas un vrai middleware. Il fonctionne pour des connexions internes à SAP mais n'est pas adapté aux problématiques B to B. Jusque-là, cette infrastructure n'a pas réussi à s'ouvrir. Et je doute qu'elle y parvienne dans les cinq prochaines années.

Source : O1Net
...

I doubt he has many SAP friends left now...

Madrid this weekend

Last weekend for the birthday of my lovely wife, we went to Madrid for shopping and party.

A (very small) part of the colorful shopping happened at Custo Barcelona and at Folli Follie. Wa also were impressed by the Telephonica Flagship Store (Gran Via).

The party was at the disco Joy Eslava. At Joy Eslava I found the DJ good but VERY conservative. The best of the music being David Guetta (I got a feeling) and Calle Ocho (I know you want me). I would have expected more special mixes and some new cool sound.

For the rest we enjoyed the good weather (30+ degrees) and the city.

Mode écriture aujourd'hui

Aujourd'hui je suis en "mode écriture" de ma thèse pour mon Master Program d'Architecte chez IBM.

J'ai recu hier un email de Christian Godefroid -
(c)2009 www.club-positif.com - dans lequel je me reconnais et que je trouve très relevant pour l'instant. Même si ce n'est pas très modeste, mais bon, je suis un Lion après tout...

"...Cela me fait penser aux élèves
et aux étudiants qui sont si
fiers d'avoir travaillé comme des
fous. D'avoir passé des nuits à
réviser. D'avoir refait leur
dissertation plusieurs fois.

Je vais vous faire un aveu: ce
qui me rendait fier lorsque
j'étais au lycée, c'était de
rédiger en 15 minutes, entre deux
cours, la meilleure dissertation
de la classe.

Je me programmais mentalement
pour cela. Je me disais que si
mon cerveau pouvait, pendant mon
sommeil, inventer des histoires
passionnantes bourrées de détails
INSTANTANÉMENT, une dissertation
pouvait être écrite au fil de la
plume et être parfaite."

Christian Godefroid se positionne comme un Gourou du Marketing Internet, un "faiseur de Millionnaires". Vous pouvez le suivre ici :
http://twitter.com/ChrisGodefroy

Soulsister @ Druivenfeesten

Yesterday (Aug 27 2009) we attended the concert of Soulsister at the Druivenfeesten. The show really exceeded my expectations.

That's why I like Mountain Bike

First picture uploaded with my phone via Twitter

Yesterday I uploaded a picture from my phone (via Twitter/Twitgoo) for the first time. It's a picture of the Druiven Koers.

You can find it here: http://twitgoo.com/2pg6f

Live from Druiven Koers 2009

They just passed in front of my house... (Druiven Koers web site)

Online Communities

Netlash published today "5 tips to a successfull Online Community" (Deutch).

Many times I have tried to set up such communities (Bicycle Club, Work's Intranet, MBA distribution list, family, customers sites). very often those communities have died even before they were born.

There is one principle that I have kept out of all those web experiences : people use the communication tools only when they have a problem and when they are looking for a solution.

This is the "What's in in for me" principle : I have only recorded activities when people get an advantage out of the communication:

• Forums : people asking questions see their problems solved, get information. Answering people raise their visibility. That's why on Linked In you can be flagged as an expert. Another example I saw was during MBA exams: the Forum was suddenly alive.
  
• Distribution Lists are all a sudden used when someone wants to sell his car or quickly organise a barbecue.
• Social networks are useful when you want to see what the others are doing (a kind of voyeurisme)
• Viral marketing is like the new way of telling jokes (or stories). Why do people tell stories ?

I guess you can continue the examples by yourself : People communicate when they hope to get something out of it.

If you understand this "What's in it for me" principle, you understand that the web can be a very powerful tool to quickly find a solution to your problem. The range of problems is very wide : finding love, compiling Linux, buying Viagra, finding the perfect vacation, stay informed, find which WII game is cool and which one sucks... Identifying he community of people who have the same kind of problem than you can only bring you closer to the solution. This is for me the true engine of communities.

I use to say to my wife (as a joke ?) "Everything always comes back to 3 letters : SEX".
But in that logic that there are also 3 other letters : "EGO".

And than I guess there are some things like "Right man at the right place" and "Time to Market" also applicable to Online Communities...

Weekend in Frankfurt

This weekend we were in the area and Frankfurt as well as the Rhein valley.

Click on the following picture to go to the album:

From 20090821 Frankfurt & Rhein

Vacation at the Belgian Coast

97 Things Every Software Architect Should Know

FYI : 97 Things Every Software Architect Should Know


Well, I still have to go through the list... What is the best one according to you ?

Related : http://delicious.com/jfdeclercq/soa+architecture

Vacation at the Belgian Coast

Well, we had a very nice week at the Belgian coast on the second week of August (2009). There was a lot of sun. The Belgian coast is really great when the weather is nice.



Mainly, we enjoyed some biking, the swimming pool and the beach. We also enjoyed some drinks on a terrace



(especlially in Blankenberge on the pig pillows)


There was also the traditional mini-golf.

On monday we wanted to see the FireWorks in Ostende but there was nothing : we were told they were cancelled because of the crisis ??? Nothing is more frustrating than a canceled fireworks.


On Tuesday we went for a 30Km bike tour in the country.


On Wednesday we went to De Haan on the beach.




On thursday we went to have a look at the Belgacom Beach Soccer but there wasn't much animation.



On friday we went to Plopsaland. There wasn't too much crowd. We only found that some attractions like the fire extinction were very dirty. We have also seen the "Samson en Gert" show in French for the first time : "Fred and Sanson". It was ok but they should stop translating from Dutch to French because it's a difficult exercise.