VSTS Database Edition for SQL 2008 is Available

Just announced at the PDC:  the Visual Studio Team System Database Edition GDR Release Candidate is available.  See this link for information, or skip right to the download page.

There are no new features since the September CTP release, just bug fixes and performance enhancements.

You must have Visual Studio 2008 SP1 installed, as well as SQL Server Compact Edition 3.5 SP1.  If you have a previous version of the GDR installed, you must uninstall it before installing this version.

According to an earlier post, this version is a "go-live" release, meaning you can use it to develop code that you intend to go live with, though you'll need to wait for the RTM version before doing so.  However, there is no mention on the latest blog post as to whether this is actually a "go-live" release, so do your own due diligence before assuming anything.  I've pinged the blogger, GertD, about whether this is the case, and I'll update this post when I have an answer.

SpringCM Document Management Solution

SpringCM delivers a broad set of content management functionality and is available as a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS).

About SpringCM

SpringCM is the leader in on-demand document management and workflow. Their solution makes customers more profitable, competitive and effective with resources that accelerate revenue, reduce costs and improve content leveragability. Capture of print and electronic content, secure hosting with full-text search, routing and approval workflows, document delivery, out-of-the-box configurability and many other features make SpringCM the award-winning document management and workflow choice.

SpringCM: Company History

SpringCM was named to the 2007 list of "100 Companies That Matter in KM" by KMWorld, a leading content, knowledge and document management resource.
Their seasoned executives are industry veterans from companies such as Open Text, FileNet, Interwoven, Hyland, Stellent and others. Thanks to the executive team's leadership, SpringCM has experienced double-digit growth each quarter. In their customer base there are great name brand businesses like GE, Avon, Stratus, Comcast, Dresser Industries and Cox Communications; public sector groups like the State of Alaska; services firms such as Corefino and Pacific Crest Securities; and a host of smaller companies, all of which are reaping the benefits of on-demand ECM.
SpringCM is headquartered in San Mateo, Calif. and maintains a major regional office in Chicago, Ill. The company is backed by Foundation Capital, a premier venture company that was an early investor in leading content management companies, including Documentum and Interwoven.

Online Language Barrier for networks

By Brenda Zulu
Community Information and Communication Support Centre (CAICC) a joint initiative of national organizations working in the field of community ICTs is still finding it difficult to access information beyond Brazil for its network online because most of the content online was not in Portuguese.

Polly Gaster Eduardo Mondlane University Information Communication Technology for development (ICT4D) Director asked if there were other sources apart from Brazil where they could access relevant content for their network as most online databases where in English and French.

Gaster explained that they get a lot of resources information from Brazilian websites which have been of great help in terms of information provision for their networks.
She explained that equitable access to education and communication and the means to produce and disseminate information were key factors in social-economic development and civic participation. Local activities were reinforced through building horizontal and multi-directional networks- national, regional and international.

Over 50 of Mozambiques’s 128 districts already enjoy the benefits of community radios, community multimedia centres or telecentres and that the number was growing every year. She said they were providing local access to information and communication tools, the opportunity for citizens to acquire new skills, and services for local institutions and civil society.

This factors was discussed during the workshop that was held on Sustainable Rural Telecentres for Africa held in Lusaka last week.

Chuckwalla: Digital Asset Management Beyond The Enterprise

Digital Asset Management (DAM) has become one of the digital content delivery industry's most familiar buzz phrases. Coming out of the enterprise database management space, Santa Clara, Calif.-based Chuckwalla, Inc. is developing Digital Asset Management technology that manages rich content across multiple communications channels.

"What Digital Asset Management has done for a number of industries is establish a difference between elements stored in a database that have value and those that do not. An asset has value," says Jon Lewis, vice president of sales & marketing for Chuckwalla.

"There are three sets of tools in the digital asset management space," Lewis continues. "There are desktop products, workflow tools, and enterprise models that are client server based." Chuckwalla develops products for the entire enterprise. "Because digital content comes in multiple formats, we have to be agnostic to all content," he says. "That's the only way to ensure that once an asset has been created it can be used over and over again."

One of the biggest problems content-owning companies and even major corporations face according to Lewis is the inability to locate specific materials once they have been created. "No one ever loses an asset," says Lewis, "but they often can't find one when they need it. And that's what asset management is all about: being able to find what you need, when and how you need it."

Digital Asset Xchange (DAX)

Digital Asset Xchange (DAX) is a highly secure, web-based, content exchange and asset management solution for film and television production companies. It enables studio personnel to upload, stage and collaborate on all digital content from anywhere in the world. Simply put, DAX is a universal command center for every aspect of production, post-production, servicing, distribution, marketing and publicity. DAX services the following industries:

• ilm & Television Production Studios
• Broadcast and Cable Networks
• Production and Distribution Companies
• Stock Footage Libraries
• Post-Production Facilities
• Advertising Agencies

Digital Asset Xchange: The Production Workflow Accelerator was created by industry workflow experts with backgrounds in production, post-production, marketing, e-commerce and digital media. By incorporating collaboration, workflow and full digital asset management capabilities,
Digital Asset Xchange: The Production Workflow Accelerator creates a secure online environment where producers, creative, clients, management, distribution and licensing partners can share ideas, information and content created throughout the production or campaign lifecycle; or required for trafficking, distribution and archival of final product â€" from script to screen to archive.
Using Digital Asset Xchange: The Production Workflow Accelerator results in faster time to decision; a dramatic reduction in hard and soft cost expenditures; streamlined collaboration; more creative control; and the simplification of managing and distributing of production content and information worldwide.

Subscription is Disabled When User!UserID Global Variable is Used in SSRS Report

I recently had a problem where I was unable to create a data-driven subscription for a SQL Server Reporting Services report.  I opened SQL Server Management Studio, connected to Reporting Services, navigated to a report, then right clicked on it's Subscriptions node and both the New Subscription and New Data-Driven Subscription menu options were grayed out.

The report in question had five parameters that the users could enter at runtime.  I wanted to implement the data-driven subscription to execute the report with all possible combinations of the parameters in order to get every possible version of the report to be cached.  Since the data for the report was only refreshed once a week, this seemed like a good idea.

I eventually found the answer in Books On Line.  Subscriptions are disabled when you use the User!UserID global variable.  The User!UserID global variable contains the domainusername of the user running the report.  In my case I used the User!UserID global variable to filter the various dropdown lists for parameters so users could only run the report for specific regions and/or offices that they are allowed to see.

Extensis Portfolio 8.5.1

Extensis Portfolio 8.5.1 has been released on January 28th. The new version of Extensis Portfolio 8.5 digital asset management software family is recommended for all Portfolio, Portfolio Server, Portfolio NetPublish, and Portfolio SQL Connect users.

The updated version of this digital asset management software has implemented full compatibility for users of Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) and also the following general performance improvements for all users:

• Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) support for all components
• Additional Raw file formats added:
  • Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III, EOS 40D, and PowerShot G9
  • Nikon D3 and D300
  • Olympus E-3
  • Sony DSLR-A700
  • etc.
• Enhanced metadata support and management via Adobe® Bridge.
  
• Support for saving and exporting Catalog Types
• Improved asset usage logging in NetPublish
• Additional enhancements to performance and stability

The price for Extensis Portfolio 8.5.1 starts at US$199.95. The update is free for version 8.5 users.

SharePoint SSRS Manage Menus

Issue:
After uploading a Reporting Services Report to a SharePoint site, clicking on the drop down next to the report to bring up Manage Data Sources, Manage Subscriptions, Manage Paramters and Manage Process Options returned the following error:
The resource object with classname of “ReportServer” and key of “DataSourceList” was not found. DataSourceList was replaced with either SubscriptionList, ParameterList or ProcessingList dependent on which menu was selected.

The environment is setup with Two Front End Web Servers and One Central Application SharePoint server.

Answer:
It turns out that it had to do with the Web Front End servers not configured the same as the Central SharePoint server and this is what was causing the error.

The following are the steps that were done to get the menus the work as intended:
It turns out the ReportServer.resx was missing on the two front ends. In IIS on the Web Front Ends, navigate to WebsitesDefault Web SiteApp_GlobalResources and paste a copy of ReportServer.resx which was found in the InetPub folder tree.

The ReportServer.resx is the resource object XML file that has sections for DataSourceList, ParameterList, SubscriptionList, etc., which would explain the error we saw if the file was missing.

In the event that you run into this in the future, checking the Web Front End servers as well as the Central Admin server and ensuring that the files are in synch is a good troubleshooting tactic to solve any strange behavior.

Radio, Cell phone and Television most owned ICT assets

Brenda Zulu

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) 2006 Living Conditions Monitoring Survey (LCMS IV) results in Zambia indicate that the most owned assets were the radio at 55.6 percent, Cell phones at 24.2 percent and Television at 24 .1 percent while the least owned asset was the internet connection with 0.1 percent.

The CSO June monthly publications shows that the 2006 LCMS IV collected information on information communication and technology (ICTs) facilities which included radios, televisions, video player, land phone, cellular phone, satellite dish and decoder, computer and internet connection.

Analysis by rural and urban shows that, ownership of a radio, cell phone and television was more in urban areas that in rural areas. The proportion of households that owned a radio in urban areas was 65.8 percent compared to 50.1 percent in rural areas while that of those who owned a cell phone was 53 and 8.8 percent in urban and rural areas respectively. The proportion of households that owned a television was 54.6 percent in urban areas compared to 7.8 percent in rural areas.

The survey also revealed that there has been an increase in the proportion of households that own cell phone while those that owned land telephone lines declined. The proportion of household that own a cell phone increased from 10.8 percent in 2004 to 24.2 percent in 2006. The proportion of household that own land telephone line declined from 5.2 percent to 1.2 percent during the same period.

Analysis of ICT assets by sex of household head shows that male headed household own more ICT facilities that female headed households. About 62 percent of male headed households and 35.5 percent of female headed households own a radio. The results also indicate that 26% male headed household owned a cell phone than 18.4 percent female headed households.

Digital Asset Management with MediaBin

Interwoven MediaBin helps companies to deliver a more solid customer experience by effectively managing, distributing, and publishing the thousands of customer-facing digital assets used to their promote products and brands.
MediaBin is a leader in Digital Asset Management (DAM) solution sphere. It lets marketing teams give their global sales force and business companions instant, self-service access to current, approved marketing content â€" including pictures, photos, logos, presentations, CAD drawings, marketing collateral, audio, video, and others.
MediaBin speeds the delivery of brand-correct, current marketing content so that internal departments and external partners can get what they needâ€"when they need it. Marketers can speed time-to-market for marketing campaigns, product launches, and other marketing initiatives. And the more quickly sales people can get what they need, the faster they can sell and increase top-line income.
MediaBin helps organizations raise control of their brands by providing easy access to the most up-to-date, brand-approved marketing materials. Marketing and brand managers choose which content to make available to internal employees and external partners, thereby protecting and controlling the brand more carefully.
MediaBin reduces costs associated with manual processes by automating the production and distribution of marketing content. By providing constituents with self-service access, marketing personnel no longer have to spend time fulfilling content requests from the field. For example, Presentation WorkBench makes it possible to assemble custom PowerPoint® presentations in MediaBin, using brand-approved templates. This not only saves the company finances, it also frees marketing staff to work on additional marketing activities to yield further income.

If you are migrating DTS packages to SQL Server 2005 or 2008...

… your options include
1. Saving the DTS packages to the new server and executing them directly.
2. Running DTS Migration Wizard and letting it convert the packages to SSIS packages for control flow invoking DTS components for the data flow.
3. Rewriting DTS packages completely in SSIS.

Neither option guarantees a performance gain. In fact, moving data directly from a source to a destination table without much transformation logic you will likely see similar performance for all the options. So unless you are taking advantage of new features in SSIS, you are better off selecting the option that fits best into your operating procedures.

If you continue using DTS packages on the new server, you will certainly need Microsoft SQL Server 2000 DTS Designer Components. That applies to options 1 and 2. With option 2, the Migration Wizard generates SSIS control flow, but creates an embedded DTS package for every Data Pump, instead of converting it to a Data Flow Task. Option 3 will likely require the most amount of work, and that's where the fun begins!

SCC MediaServer

SCC MediaServer is a fully integrated Text, Graphics, PDF Page, Sound, Photo, and Video storage management system, composed of an industry standard SQL relational database and incorporating free-text search technology licensed from Autonomy Corporation. Optional MediaServer modules allow to perform the following:

• management of assignments and news budgets;
• automated delivery of content to Web sites and online vendors;
• hosting of electronic Tearsheets;
• dynamic integration with Microsoft Word;
• offsite MediaServer database replication.

Access to the MediaServer database available from a standard Web browser or from the SCC MediaGrid client (for Windows and Macintosh OSX) . The SCC MediaGrid client, which is oriented at super users such as Librarians or Photo Editors, includes many powerful features made to simplify the data enhancing, data manipulation and delivery processes. Files for inclusion in the SCC MediaServer database are simply saved to one or more network folders from where they are automatically inserted and cataloged within the database. Text and preview metadata is extracted automatically during insertion and indexed in real-time for fast full text searching. Files from live wire feeds can be simply directed into one or more of these server folders for automatic insertion into the SCC MediaServer database.

Southern Africa Telecentre Network underway

By Brenda Zulu
Efforts to set up Southern Africa Telecentre Network (SATNET) are underway with the Zambia Association for Advancement of ICTs (ZAA-ICTs) being the lead network for the project.
ZAA-ICT Executive Coordinator, Dean Mulozi said there was need to have this network to help support the information development of rural telecentres. He said they were facilitating the development of the SATNET.
A visit to Chinyunyu Community Multipurpose Telecentre in rural Zambia showed that when a community is involved in the setting up of a Telecentre the people embrace the centre as their own. Set up in 2006, the centre last year installed solar energy and a very small aperture terminal (VSAT) with the help of UNIDO which has enabled farmers to charge their mobile phone barriers and have access to the internet.
It is important that the centre realizes the money that it pays to the Communications Authority of Zambia as regulators fees and also the monthly subscription for the VSAT connection which is a very big challenge as the centre was in a rural location.
Austin Chilala Head of Kasis Agricultural Training Centre said the centre had received a seven acres of land as a donation to the project from Chief Bunda Bunda. The steering committee now plans to put up demonstration plots for the farmers and housing for stuff.
It is clear that Chinyunyu Telecentre does not need to exist in isolation but needs to learn from other telecentres are sustaining themselves which makes initiatives of setting up SATNET relevant.
There is also need of creating an electronic network before creating a physical network as this is very vital now that telecentres are being encouraged to provide internet services to their communities.
So far feedback from Chinyunyu farmers include that fact that they had learnt how to process chili and expand their fish farming activities as they accessed information from Chinyunyu Telecentre.

Radiance Technologies Digital Asset Delivery System

Radiance Technologies is a provider of asset delivery systems (ADS).
In April 2007 Radiance Technologies announced that it was planning to deliver a completely integrated, single platform that combines digital asset management (DAM) with its field-proven digital asset delivery system.
Tom Engdahl, president and CEO of Radiance Technologies, said:
"Radiance becomes an ever more robust and cost-effective delivery infrastructure for any high-value, asset-driven collaborative workflow through this integration with leading digital asset management products.
With this unified platform, customers not only have the ability to manage, transform and format content but they can remove the time-consuming manual tasks of delivering their ever-larger files such as video, audio, and high-resolution images while gaining greater control over distributing those assets.
The first unified digital asset management and delivery solution for immediate implementation will be announced in 2007 through a technology integration and co-marketing partnership agreement between Radiance and a leading digital asset management provider."
Radiance Technologies will integrate its TrueDelivery asset delivery software with LightBox Live, a set of flexible editing tools that enable collaboration between photographers and videographers and their customers - including print houses and editors and re-touchers at magazines, newspapers and retailers.
Radiance Technologies, in tandem with LightBox Live, virtually automates the process flow from the moment a photo or video image is shot, all the way through post-production and publishing.
Radiance Technologies enables the delivery of those digital assets to creative professionals in the collaborative environment.

Content DSI Digital Asset Management System

A widespread increase in the amount of electronic files that companies need to maintain has been given rise by the evolution of the Web and by the shift to digital print production. It quickly becomes challenging for companies to keep track of the following digital assets for use in publications, product catalogs, marketing collateral, Web sites, broadcasts, or other output with all of the different logos, photos, illustrations, audio clips, video clips, and other media.
Content DSI can help your company implement a digital asset management (DAM) system that enables you to organize digital files and support their use in multiple output media. digital asset management systems from Content DSI can help address critical business needs, such as:

• Providing a central repository for enterprise-wide digital assets
• Supporting multiple outputs from a single source
• Automating conversion to different formats and sizes for multiple applications
• Reducing time spent looking for existing assets
• Enforcing rights management for both internal and externally-licensed assets

Content DSI builds digital asset management systems on a solid Enterprise Content Management (ECM) foundation, spanning the entire process from content creation to management to delivery. This approach ensures that the system will support multi-media management from an individual to global level, allowing for more efficient collaboration among users and reducing costs.
Content DSI also offers a wide range of capabilities that can assist with the implementation of the system and the various business processes involved, such as:

• Data Analysis
• Data Conversion
• Data Repository Design
• Workflow Automation
• Systems Integration Services

Content DSI maintains partnerships with leading technology vendors to support the implementation of digital asset management systems. These systems offer robust functionality and clear upgrade paths to support future growth and initiatives.
Content DSI can also help you implement a media asset management system to help manage your digital and electronic files.

Citizens have a right to talk about activities

By Brenda Zulu
Telkcom has recognised that democracy requires that citizens have the right to know about activities that affect their lives and the recognition of the importance of their participation within the democratic system to make it work and flourish.
In her welcome address Bintu Petsana, Acting Group Executive: Corporate Communication at the opening of Highway Africa said that it was important to have the right of expression and human rights culture .
Petsan said the precondition was that people could not be regarded as consumers or markets or passive recipients in a multi-directional social dialogue.
“We look at the media to provide the framework for such a discourse and to act as a mechanism that allows citizens to develop their level of awareness,” explained Petsane.
She observed that when one speaks of informed citizens with a heightened level of awareness, one would have to search far to better illustrate the power of the media in the 21st century information society, than the war in Iraq.
Looking at Media Columinist, Stephen glover who writes:
“ As any armchair general will tel l you, the second Gulf war is something else. It is the first media war. This means that we experts, safely ensconced on our sofas, can follow battlefield events almost before they happen. It has never been remotely like this before. The advances of technology allow reporters to stand before a camera in the middle of Iraqi desert an dbring the war into our sitting rooms.”
Petsan observed that since these words were written a few years ago, the proliferation and increasing sophistication of information communication technologies (ICTs) has given the war and other events be it mundane or global importance, an immediacy unparelled in the history of Journalism.
“It is citizen Journalism in action, and it is here to stay. It is driven by ICTs and it will change the way we evaluate information and view the world,” said Petsan

Lookup Cache

Lookup transformation supports 3 types of cache.
Full Cache - This brings the reference table into memory - Its good if you have lots of memory. Partial - It adds rows to the cache as they are used - Good if using less memory or the range of rows looked up could be less.
None - Always queries the Database every time - useful in low memory conditions

Users sometimes run into a puzzling situation when they use caching in the lookup. With caching settings set to Full Cache they get no hits - all the rows flow to the error output. However, with caching set to Partial or none, (memory restriction is enabled), things work as expected. The common reason for this is that they are comparing strings which have leading or trailing spaces, for example: “John” with “John “

When caching is Full (memory restriction is off) SSIS builds a hash table for the cache in order to do the comparisons more quickly. The hash values for the strings quoted are, of course, different.
When memory restriction is on, string compares are used and the two quoted strings match.
You can trim incoming datea in the source query or using an expression.
Trim reference data using a SQL query rather then selecting a table in the lookup. SQL queries are better in lookup anyway because you only cache the columns (and rows) you asked for, rather than the entire table.

Lookup is case sensitive, so you may need to force the case for the test to succeed.
Data types must match exactly. The join columns, between the input or source data and the reference data must be of exactly the same type.Lookup does not support the full range of SSIS data types. The following types cannot be used as join columns.

DT_R4
DT_R8
DT_TEXT
DT_NTEXT
DT_IMAGE

Southern Africa Postal Administrators invest in ICTs

By Brenda Zulu
The call by the Zambian government to urge Postal administrators in the Southern African region to invest in Information Communication technologies for them to provide value added products and services to their countries is valid.
Press reports show that Deputy Minister of Communications and Transport, Mubika Mubika said this in Siavonga on Monday June 17 when he opened the Southern African Postal Operators Association annual general meeting. Mubika urged Postal administration to reform their traditional operation led organizations and adopt customer and service led organizations.
For Zambia it should be noted that, in 1994, Parliament enacted the Telecommunications Act, which resulted in the restructuring of the telecommunications sub sector by separating the Posts and Telecommunications Corporation (PTC) into two commercial entities which are the Zambia Telecommunications Limited (ZAMTEL) and the Zambia Postal Services Corporation (ZAMPOST). In additional this included the removal of regulatory functions from the PTC; thus resulting in the establishment of an autonomous regulatory agency, the Communications Authority of Zambia (CAZ). On the other hand regulation of the postal sub sector was still carried out by the Ministry of Communications and Transport through a Licensing committee comprising various stakeholders.
Postal and courier services are mainly provided by ZAMPOST. The Corporation covers the country through a network of about 116 Post offices, 64 Sub Post Offices and 55 Postal agencies.
A large percentage of the 72 districts have an operational post office. In addition, there are private courier services, which are concentrated along Livingstone Copperbelt corridor for delivery of parcels. However, some private courier operators now service provincial centres as well.
In relation to provision of ICTs, ZAMPOST offers a money transfer service called “SWIFT CASH” which has enabled many people within the country to receive and send money. Many Zambians are happy are please with the services as it is an alternative to Western Union a money transfer service which many Zambians now use to receive and send money to people living out of the country.

Tips to get optimum performance from large dataset manipulation

Here is a non exhaustive list of ways to get the best performance from large dataset DML.
Depending on system configuration and design, the effect of these recommendations may vary.

1-Do not create more than 16 exact match joins.

2- make sure indexes are created on exact match columns only if necessary for reporting

3- Avoid join on large views use temporary tables instead; Proceed by loading data from the view into a temp table then use the temp table in the join instead.

4- Avoid as much as possible creating indexes on temporary tables as it will impact insert performance

5- Avoid grouping as much as possible, if necessary make sure that the non- aggregated columns actually regroup data.

Most of the times as developement advances more columns are added onto the query. At some point the columns in the 'group by' clause may become candidate key to the dataset causing grouping to be ineffective; on a large query the effect on performance can be very important.

--The classics

6- Avoid table scans

7- Avoid nested Sql queries; join are more effective.

8- Avoid cursors. An effective use of Case statement can replace the use of cursors and deliver much better performance.
This sample query is for illustration only:

SELECT VENDORID, PRODUCTID,

SUM(CASE WHEN MONTH(SALESDATE)=1
THEN SUM(ISNULL(SALESAMOUNT,0))
ELSE 0 END) AS JAN_SALES,

SUM(CASE WHEN MONTH(SALESDATE)=2
THEN SUM(ISNULL(SALESAMOUNT,0))
ELSE 0 END) AS FEB_SALES,

SUM(CASE WHEN MONTH(SALESDATE)=3
THEN SUM(ISNULL(SALESAMOUNT,0))
ELSE 0 END) AS MAR_SALES

--...

FROM SALES S (NOLOCK)
JOIN PRODUCT P (NOLOCK) ON P.PRODUCTID=S.PRODUCTID
JOIN VENDOR V (NOLOCK) ON V.VENDORID=P.VENDORID
WHERE SALESDATE BETWEEN @PERIODSTART AND @PERIODEND
GROUP BY V.VENDORID,P.PRODUCTID

NetXposure' s Advanced Digital Asset Management

NetXposure, Inc., a leader in providing focused Web applications, today announced they have extended their long-standing relationship with Adobe Systems Incorporated by completing a worldwide OEM agreement for Adobe Graphics Server and will simultaneously release Image Portal 2.0. NetXposure' s Image Portal 2.0 is a customized web application that leverages Adobe Graphics Server software to provide businesses with the capabilities of an enterprise digital asset management system at an affordable price point. "Image Portal 2.0 was designed to fill the void in the digital asset management solutions market," said Devin Donnelly, president of NetXposure. "We focused on the specific digital asset management requirements for marketing, IT and creative managers in corporations and agencies. Today we are delivering a product that provides the vital functions of an enterprise digital asset management solution without the heavy price tag."

Until now, enterprise digital asset management solutions have been out of reach for most organizations, offering extensive, yet often unused functionality. Image Portal 2.0 makes dynamic imaging and image management affordable by unlocking the value of digital assets and streamlining workflow in browser-based solution that eliminates the need for special software and frees users from platform limitations.

"Throughout our long-standing relationship with NetXposure, as both a customer and partner, they have demonstrated a deep understanding of our products and capabilities," said Shawn Cadeau, director of product marketing at Adobe Systems Inc. "Image Portal 2.0 leverages the power of Adobe Graphics Server to streamline the process of managing large image libraries."

Image Portal 2.0 provides a layer of management, control, and access functionality to an image repository. Image Portal supports XMP, EXIF and IPTC image metadata that can be searched, viewed and edited with the same interface that is used to browse, process and download images. Individual image control allows administrators to customize fields for expanded flexibility and tailor access to individuals or groups with a simple tiered structure.

NetXposure' s Image Portal 2.0 is available now in English and Japanese versions for both Microsoft Windows and Sun Microsystems Solaris with a base price of $24,995 (US) including a license for Adobe Graphics Server 2.0.

QuickBooks Pro for Mac Financial Management Solutions

QuickBooks Pro for Mac is a financial management solution for small businesses.

Store and organize your financial and employee data in one place with QuickBooks Pro for Mac. Save time on bookkeeping and stay on top of your finances with a single solution that lets you see the money coming in and going out of your business.

QuickBooks can help you understand how your company is doing, so you can make better business decisions. Track sales and expenses; invoices and purchase orders; inventory and sales tax from a single program. Getting set up and started is easy. The QuickBooks tutorial center offers guided interacted instruction to help you quickly learn key tasks.

With QuickBooks all your data is stored in one place, so you don't have to go through hundreds of files and papers. You can see everything at a glance: employees hours, customer contact information, outstanding and paid invoices, payment histories and future payments.

The data that is belong together is shown together, so you can find what you need when you need it. When you create an invoice - you enter a customer's contact information the first time and QuickBooks stores it and keeps track of how much they owe. When you receive a payment you can review the customer outstanding invoices and apply the payment to the right invoice. If you lock an expense to the customer, the next time you invoice them, you get remind of rebuild the expenses.

QuickBooks makes it easy to keep track the money coming in and money going out. It's great that my financial data works together. QuickBooks organizes your information, so it can be instantly accessed to make everyday accounting task easier.

Pivot Transformation

Pivot transformation converts rows into columns. I see most of the people are not aware of setting the transformation properties.

Here is a small example.

My source data looks like this




Pivot transformation organizes data as below.



To implement this, add a Data flow task. Take OLE DB Source and select the source table. Add a pivot transformation to it. Select all the three columns in the input columns tab. In the Input and Output Properties tab give 1 (setkey) as the pivot usage for customers, 2 (PivotKey) for product and 3 (Pivotvalue) for Qty. Note down the LineageID of customer and Qty.

In the Pivot Default output add a column for customer and give the SourceColumn as the LineageID of the customer in the input column.

Add columns for product. Since there are 6 products add 6 new columns and give them appropriate names. For ChairQty mention Pivotkeyvalue as Chair and the SourceColumn is the LineageID of the qty input column.

Repeat this for the other 5 columns. Add an OLE DB destination to this pivot transformation. When executed rows will be organized into columns.

Video Blooging a tool for for development

By Brenda Zulu

Creating local language video with a translation in the national language text is important for increasing participation and sharing observed Prince Deh, Ghana Information Network for Knowledge Sharing (GINKS) Assistant Country Director.
Talking about knowledge sharing Web 2.0 participatory tools called video blogging or vlogging, Deh observed that local language was important and this was an area which GINKS was going to explore as all their videos were in English. The term Video blogging or Vlogging may mean making videos and posting them on the Internet with the intention of getting a response from viewers.

Vlogging major challenges were listed as connectivity or access and getting people to share Information and Knowledge and cost of equipment.
From my his own view, Deh said Web 2.0 tools were important and even more important because of the deeper impact the tools would have on marginalized societies, even if these impact are not immediately felt.
He observed that many more rural communities have stories to share with the larger public and voices to amplify and saw Web 2.0 tools as perfect applications to project the voices of the rural poor in the future.

“How do we solve the problem of rural connectivity in order to extend the benefits of Web2.0 tools much wider beyond the scope of the cities?” he asked.
He pointed out that it was important to have knowledge of video editing and innovativeness in order to create story telling videos.

It was interesting to note that vlogs provided an alternative media for presenting an otherwise long stories or presentations in very simple and attractive manner.
Deh explained that short videos have an added advantage in view of the visual component that helps promote deeper understanding of stories, especially for people with less educational background and or for people who do not have a reading habit. He added that they also had the power to reach an unlimited audience with minimal cost as the vlogging process does not require specialised expertise and can be easily controlled by any non-technical person.

“It is technologically simpler and cheaper to maintain than a website. Videos are interactive medium often encouraging readers to comment” said Deh.
The experience of GINKS in using video blog and the importance of the tool in promoting Information and knowledge sharing has informed the network to extend the use of the tool to capture some of the interesting experiences from a two year Research project the network undertook with a community in Rural Ghana in collaboration with the International Development and Research Center (IDRC).

HBG Upgrades Digital Asset Management System with TeleScope Enterprise Solution

HBG USA (Hachette Book Group), one of the largest trade publishers in the U.S., has announced that it will upgrade its digital asset management (DAM) system with a solution powered by North Plains Systems Corp., a leading provider of digital asset management software.

The company plans to use the system called TeleScope Enterprise to manage rich media assets, such as Quark and Adobe InDesign files, for its base publishing business, and to integrate other content, such as audio and video, over time.

“We are streamlining workflow related to managing digital content, enabling our team to focus on creating and selling our content without extraneous processes impeding their work. In addition, as we develop new business ventures, TeleScope Enterprise will be an excellent resource, allowing us and our business partners to take full advantage of our digital content,” said Beth Ford, Chief Operating Officer of Hachette Book Group USA.

Ms. Ford added that the upgrade of HBG’s digital asset management system is one initiative in its ongoing digital strategy. This strategy includes investments in a state-of-the-art redesign of HBG’s website to be launched early next year, and its OpenBook program, which leverages technology to create online book widgets, offering readers a simple way to showcase their favorite book titles on their blogs and social networking sites without jeopardizing the copyrights of the authors.

“North Plains has a long legacy of success in providing rich media management solutions for businesses in the publishing industry,” said Hassan Kotob, President & CEO of North Plains Systems. “We’re extremely pleased that Hachette Book Group USA has selected TeleScope Enterprise to help streamline their publishing workflows, reduce overall costs, and provide foundational support for the growth of their business.”

The industry’s most advanced, feature-rich, scalable digital asset management platform, TeleScope Enterprise serves as the central repository for an organization’s digital media content, metadata and the business logic that turns content into currency. Leading organizations today rely on the TeleScope solution to provide an end-to-end digital media supply chain that supports the creation, integration and repurposing of rich media assets.

Founded in 1994, North Plains Systems Corp. is the leading provider of digital asset management solutions. Its pioneering technology, focus and vision have been recognized throughout the industry and are evident in such innovative products such as TeleScope Enterprise and TeleScope Video Manager. Utilizing North Plains’ platform agnostic approach to managing digital assets, more than 450 customers benefit from North Plains’ expertise in delivering industry defining solutions for video asset management, digital media management and distribution, centralization, workflow optimization, and virtual collaboration.

About IBM, Web 2.0 and Microsoft. Part I

January 28, 2008 IBM's Lotus Development Corp. unit has shifted its integration, social software and unified communications story into high gear as it prepares for a Web 2.0 scuffle that likely will dwarf its past e-mail clashes against Microsoft Corp.

The Web 2.0 battle will encompass many foes beyond Microsoft, including Cisco Systems Inc., and traditional telephony vendors and online giants such as Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc. It will also produce product and vendor options that are sure to test the strategic investment skills of IT executives who told Network World in 2007 that they view collaboration technologies as "important" or "somewhat important" to their future productivity goals.

At its annual Lotusphere show, IBM hammered away at the way it will integrate its product portfolio that includes messaging, real-time communication, and new social software and rapid application-development tools.

But compared with past editions of the conference, in which Lotus seemed to be steering the course of collaboration evolution, the company now seems to be playing from behind in many areas, including messaging, Web conferencing, unified communications and software-as-a-service, while Microsoft, Cisco and others are grabbing headlines.

But IBM has its gems as well.

The company's move last year into social software with Lotus Connections and this year's expansion of the platform give it perhaps the strongest set of tools built for corporate users in comparison with those of competitors that are working with adaptations of consumer products.

In addition, the delivery with Notes 8 of the company's open-client framework built on Lotus Expeditor and Eclipse, a container for executing XML-based application components, provides client integration. This is designed for users who want to buy and run only the components they need, dictate the pace of their adoption, and retain options to fill in any gaps with homegrown software.

In addition to Notes 8, the framework is the front end for Sametime 8 and Lotus Symphony productivity applications. It will eventually front every back-end server and service so users can get functionality a la carte while maintaining a single interface.

In addition, IBM said that integrating those same servers with other clients, such as Microsoft Outlook and partner software such as Carestream Health Inc.'s imaging tools, won't lock users into the Lotus platform and will expand its range of potential sales.

Lotus last week also announced partnerships with SocialText Inc. and Atlassian Software Systems Pty. to integrate wiki technology from each vendor into Lotus Connections.

"The most beneficial part for customers is the integration," said Dwight Davis, an analyst at Ovum. "It's the fact I don't know that I am using Quickr [content management]; it's just a plug-in to my client."

Zambians fail to communicate on New Year's Day

By Brenda Zulu

Many Zambian Celtel subscribers failed to communicate to anyone on the 2008 New year's day. This failure was also extended to MTN and Zamtel subscribers who wanted to communicate with people on the Celtel Network.

Emelda Yumbe Coordinator of the Zambia Media Women Association(ZAMWA) said that she failed to communicate Celtel subscribers. Yumbe who is an MTN and Zamtel subscriber said she failed to communicate with people on the Celtel Newtork.

Shalom Investments in Mandevu who are retailers of Celtel Mobile Top Up White Nyerenda complained that he had lost business on New Years Day indicating that the money was trapped in the Mobile Top Up facility which was not operational on Christmas day.

He said many of his customers were annoyed because they were unable to top up and make phone calls.

Sally Chiwama a Celtel subscriber said she was very disappointed and upset because failure to communicate was not happening for the first time.She called on celtel to improve the services.

Mary Sathula a Celtel subscriber asked Celtel to be considerate especially during times such as the New years even when many people are known to have been using their facility. "Celtel should be considerate and they should improve their services," said Sathula.

Charles Kachabe another Celtel subscriber said he was very inconvenienced as he really needed to communicate and that this led to failure of some urgent business. He called on Celtel to apologies to the Celtel subscribers as they were robbed of a precious moment to even wish their friends an families a Happy New Year!

Meanwhile, Celtel management has apologized to it’s subscribers for network interruption during the festival season that resulted into clients failing to generated calls and short messages (SMS).

Celtel acting public relations manager Patricia Litiya said in a statement in Lusaka yesterday, the network interruption was as a result of micro-link failure in Mbabala area in Choma District on December 31. 2007 and was rectified on January 1, 2008

Ms Litiya said engineers could not access the site due to heavy rain hence the delay in resolving the problem and that areas affected by the micro-link failure were the entire Southern and Western Province.

She indicated that in Lusaka, Celtel experienced equipment failure on one of its switches and this affected the network performance in Lusaka, Eastern and Central Provinces. The effects could still be felt in some parts of the country until late in the evening of January 1, 2008.

Litiya said Celtel Zambia did not everything possible to ensure network availability and that capacity was adequate to cater for expected traffic during the festival season.
She said generally calls and SMSs were sustained until January 1 when they experienced the equipment failure.

Web 2.0 to increase online learning

By Brenda Zulu
Online learning is here to stay and the increasingly availability of Web 2.0 tools will making e-learning experience more rewarding though some challenges exist.

Making a case for online training of Journalists in Africa, Kwami Ahiabenu II from the International Institute for ICT Journalism (PenPlusBytes) observed that online training was going to become dominant means of training and that there was need to invest time and energy to ensure that it becomes part of a capacity building projects and programmes application.

He noted that though there are costs associated with online training in the long run online training was relatively cheaper and cost effective. An achievement was that online learning provided an opportunity for Journalists to learn about new tools and use them in the process of learning

In overcoming the challenges, Ahiabenu II explained that the course used a group e-mail list as their primary course delivery tool in order to ensure low bandwidth participants are not left out of the course.

Meanwhile, to over come issues of time and commitment, they encouraged the participants to devote more time to the online learning experience in order to derive maximum benefits. They had also developed strategies about coping with change and developing “online” mindset by adapting the course to the learner’s environment via flexibility.

“For example when participants could not participate in a session because his or her internet was down, we modify our time table to take this problem into consideration,” said Ahiabenu.

He explained that the tools of the online course were skype, blogging, yahoo groups, google groups, wiki’s, flicker, like del.icio.us, digg.com, flicker, youtube and myspace to allow for participants to comment on content of the web.

In order to facilitate group communication in real time he explained that they asked participants to create a skype account the unfortunate part was that this was not successful because skype was banned in some of the participants’ countries.

He said the three months online training organised with the help of partners’ course involved research, Web2.0 tools and Knowledge Management for newsrooms.

Some of the online topics included chat forums, reporting ICTs and Content Management System for Journalists.


“Our lecture notes designed for a quick read, straight to the point and written in a narrative format. At the end of each lecture notes reference are provided as well as mandatory further online reading. Links to additional relevant online resources are also provided,” he said.

In additional to online content, the trainers encourage participants to buy relevant books as well by providing them with a list of books. They also pointed out to participants relevant articles in magazines and newspapers as they are publish during the course.

About IBM, Web 2.0 and Microsoft. Part II

In the Carestream example, radiologists don't know their instant messaging and voice capabilities are Sametime; they just see new functionality in a familiar application.

It's a message that IBM will build on, Davis said. He said the company needs to accelerate the discussion away from the "product-centric fire-hose flow of information" and direct it to "looking at customer goals and showing [Lotus] can address them with integrated products."

Showing the breadth of its tools and integration across its software is key if Lotus wants to stand out from the pack.

The setup has begun and Lotus Connections is a prime example.

"The social software is where they can claim they are first with an enterprise comprehensive solution, and that is why they are pounding at it, " said Mark Levitt, an analyst at Framingham, Mass.-based market research company IDC. "You are seeing a lot more integration with things like Quickr, Sametime, Symphony."

Experts said the integration story is being driven in part by Microsoft's success with Sharepoint Server 2007, which is one of the foundation elements of Microsoft's collaboration and real-time communications strategy, as well as an entry point into social networking tools such as blogs and wikis.

"SharePoint Server 2007 is sweeping through the industry like no other software product that I've seen since the early heydays of Lotus Notes," wrote Burton Group Inc. analyst Mike Gotta.

"IBM is taking it on the chin right now."

He said that IBM should use its arguably superior social networking tools to switch the focus away from Sharepoint.

"IBM can use Connections to compete with Microsoft by changing the focus to social computing rather than collaboration and content," Gotta said. "IBM has to do superior and native integration between Connections and Microsoft productivity tools and integrate with SharePoint as well."

Later this year, Lotus will add replication to Connections, a feature that was always described as the crown jewel of Notes.

But Lotus's challenges are a multiheaded monster.

The introduction at Lotusphere of Foundations, appliances bundled with software to support small and midsize business, and Bluehouse, a set of services available over the Internet, shows that Lotus is playing catch-up to Microsoft and its strategy of software plus services, which includes Microsoft Small Business Server coupled with Windows Live services.

Also, the company has to find a way to make Sametime stand out. This year, it will release two new versions, including a telephony version slated to ship in the second half of 2008. However, both have a list of features and functionalities comparable to those of the other players including Cisco and Microsoft, which are quickly rising to the top of the unified communications discussion. In addition, some new partnerships with Cisco and Nortel Networks Corp. unveiled at Lotusphere are identical to those Microsoft has made.

"This has become a very competitive space," IDC's Levitt said. "And IBM is looking for places where it can claim leads."

Replication essentials

Replication is the copy and distribution of data and database objects from one database to another with the goal of maintaining synchronization between the two databases.

The origin database is call publisher and the destination database the subscriber. Each database has an agent (SQL Server agent) responsible of capturing the change from publisher and applying the change onto the subscriber.

In a distribution implementation you will have to choose between a pull subscription and a push subscription. In a push subscription, publisher agent carries the load of moving data over to the subscriber, in a pull subscription the subscriber agent actually is in charge of reading data from the publisher.

Sql server allows implementation of 3 methods of replications:

Snapshot replication

In a snapshot replication format, a copy of the publisher is send to the subscriber from time to time; the exact picture of data or database object will be copy in bulk over to the subscriber.

This method is recommended only if the destination database functionalities requirements include a reasonable degree of latency, the database receiving data will be in delay synchronization with the origin database.

Snapshot replication is the most commonly implemented method of replication; it is a good fit for low bandwidth network or low activity network.

Transactional replication

The term transactional here refers to the fact that SQL Server captures and applies changes using DML operations.

All committed changes are called transaction; the difference with snapshot replication here is the fact that changes are send to the subscriber as they occur.
It is possible to setup the publisher to cache changes and send them at a certain frequency or transmit all changes in real time. During the time interval transaction are stored in log files before transmission to the subscriber.

The initial step in a transactional replication is a snapshot replication where a copy of the publisher is send to the subscriber.

Transactional replication required a high bandwidth and reliable network connection; in case of delay in transmission, transactions are cached in transaction log before transmission. Depending of the size of data to replicate, transaction log can grow quickly.

Transaction replication is recommended for data ware house and reporting databases where less transaction occurs and it is recommended to disable replication before massive load.

Merge replication

Merge replication is designed for systems where servers must have the same data at defined intervals. Think of this as a both ways differential backup where changes from all databases must be mutually applied; data are move both ways.

This method of replication obviously present risk of conflicts and data inconsistencies; it is the most difficult to implement and manage. Implementation includes creation of additional systems table and required adding new column to identify server to replicated tables.

Replication agent is here call merge agent and is equally responsible for carrying the replication workload.

Update for SQL Server 2008

In SQL Server 2008, you can also synchronize databases by using Microsoft Sync Framework and Sync Services for ADO.NET

REAL-TIME TEXT AIMS TO IMPROVE INTERNET ACCESSIBILITY FOR THE DEAF

By Brenda Zulu
The blossoming of multimedia content on the Internet in recent years has
revolutionised personal interactions, business communications, and
other online services. But for millions of Internet users with sensory
disabilities, many of the communication tools remain frustratingly out
of their reach.

In a press release, Mr Arnoud van Wijk, Disability Projects Coordinator for the Internet
Society (ISOC), who was born deaf, knows only too well the frustration
Internet users with a disability experience from many current Internet
services.

"During the past few years, the use of the Internet as a modern
replacement for telephony has accelerated," said Mr van Wijk. "The
ability to include more media in calls provides an excellent
opportunity to include people with disabilities in online
conversational services. But too often discriminatory voice telephony
services are simply re-created."

With this motivation, Mr van Wijk and other researchers have
documented a technique for "real-time text"; combining existing
Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) standards to enable text
streaming over Internet Protocol networks.

The technique uses Internet telephony protocols to ensure
compatibility with voice, video, and other multimedia services on the
Internet. It allows text to be sent and received on a character by
character basis, with each character sent and displayed immediately
once typed, giving text the same conversational character as voice
communication.

According to Mr van Wijk, "Internet Telephony is rapidly becoming a
major way of staying in touch. But it breaks the traditional text
telephone, which deaf and hard of hearing people used in the past to
call each other. The real-time text technique addresses this problem
and can be integrated with Internet telephony."

Along with fellow technologist Guido Gybels, Director of New
Technologies at RNID (UK), and with contributions from other experts
in communication and accessibility for people with disabilities, Mr
van Wijk edited and co-authored 'Framework for Real-Time Text over IP
Using the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)', which the IETF has just
published as an informational document in its 'Request for Comment'
series as RFC 5194.

To further progress work in this field, this week sees the launch of
the 'Real-Time Text task force' (R3TF), an informal forum for
engineers, motivated individuals, experts, companies and
organisations. The R3TF has received incubation support from ISOC, as
part of its "Enabling Access" initiative, under which ISOC promotes a
diverse range of projects aimed at breaking down the barriers to
Internet access.

Michael Burks, Chairman, and Cynthia Waddell, Vice Chairman of ISOC's
Disability & Special Needs Chapter, welcome the announcement of the
new task force.

"Accessibility for persons with disabilities is critical and must be
maintained in the coming convergence," said Ms Waddell, an
Accessibility Expert to the International Telecommunication Union
(ITU), who is hard of hearing herself. "But it is worth pointing out
that, like many disability projects, this effort has the potential to
provide more options and greater usability for all users in many
situations."

How to gain storage and then performance from data type

During the design phase of a database the choice of the proper data type can have a sizable impact on data base size then on overall performance.

1- Datetime

You may want to choose smalldatetime over datetime for the following reasons:
smalldatetime data type uses half the space (4 bytes) of datetime data type(8 bytes)
datetime stores up to the milliseconds and smalldatetime stores up to the minute,
Use smalldatetime if you need to store date from January 1, 1900 to June 6, 2079; datetime stores date from January 1, 1753, to December 31, 9999

2- Integer

Most of the time developer chose bigint over int as data type for identity key on transaction detail table.

bigint is probably the single most misused data type.
Here are some reasons why to use int over bigint:
Int uses half the space (4 bytes) of bigint (8 bytes); in a 100 million row table you could save about 400MB worth of space by choosing int instead of bigint.
Int can store values from -2147483648 through 2.147.483.647 and bigint can store values from -9223372036854775808 through 9223372036854775807; a huge number.

So it’s clear you should go for bigint only if you need to store values over 2.1 billion; most systems will not grow to this number.

3- numeric/money

It is highly advised to choose money type for currency instead of numeric or decimal. The default precision (number to the left of the decimal point) for both numeric and decimal is 18 not far to the maximum of 28 digits; the default scale (number to the right of the decimal point) is 0.

More than often developers leave untouched the default precision value of 18, higher that the maximum of 15 digits for the money data type. Money data type size is 8 bytes with a precision of 15 and scale of 4 digits while decimal and numeric data type use from 2 to 17 bytes.

4- Character, Text

It is recommended to use char data type over varchar data type in very precise circumstances: data in column must have the same size and contain no null values. Char data type size on disk is fixed, the space for null values remain allocated and smaller string occupied the defined size. varchar data type size on disk is variable and string data of n characters is stored in n bytes, giving a better handling of data size on disk.

Unicode data types nchar and nvarchar must be chosen carefully as they use twice as much space as the non-Unicode data type char and varchar. While char and varchar size is up to 8000 bytes nchar and nvarchar store only up to 4000 bytes. This means you will potentially store the same data on twice the space up to half the capacity.

It is highly advised to use Unicode data type only if Unicode data will be stored in the system. Please note that the proper database collation must be selected to match the Unicode set to avoid string manipulation mal function that may occur.


How is all this space saving impact the overall performance?

A good choice of data type will allow data to be stored in smaller space in the database, this will account for smaller result set and better performance in queries.

Deadlock in OpenXML When Called Twice Within the Same Transaction in each of two Concurrent Instances of a Stored Procedure

THE PROBLEM

We encountered a deadlock in a stored procedure that occurs when two instances of the stored procedure run at the same time in different threads. The stored procedure itself is a fairly simple operation that takes an XML document as a parameter and uses OpenXML to extract two hierarchical levels of content from the XML document. The procedure performs the following tasks in order:

1. Opens a transaction;
2. Extracts Order information from the XML document using OpenXml and INSERTS a row into the Order table;
3. Uses SCOPE_IDENTITY to retrieve the new Primary Key from the insert as @OrderID;
4. Extracts Order Item information from the XML document in a second OpenXML call and INSERTS 0 or more rows into the OrderItem table.
5. Commits the transaction.

The procedure deadlocks with another instance of itself in Step 4 if two calls are made at the same time from two different threads (i.e. the calling Web Service receives two orders from two users at the same time.)

Using SQL Server Profiler, we have observed that both procedures make it past step 3 and into step 4. There is a foreign key constraint between Order.OrderID (PK) and OrderLine.OrderID (FK). The execution plan suggests that a Clustered Index INSERT on the child table and a Clustered Index SEEK on the parent table at the same time. By design, SQL Server takes a shared lock on the Order table and an exclusive lock on the OrderItem table, not exactly the recipe for a deadlock situation. Yet there it was, time after time after time.

THE SOLUTION

The SQL statement that deadlocked was a standard INSERT INTO dbo.OrderItem (OrderID, (columns)) SELECT (@orderID, (columnList)) FROM OpenXML WITH (ColumnList) where @OrderID is the new OrderID from Step 3 and (ColumnList) is the result set of order items from the XML document. To solve the problem, we moved access to the OpenXml document outside of the transaction and stored its result set in a table variable. We did this for both OpenXml accesses (i.e. Step 2 and Step 4). The new step order for the procedure became:

1. Create two table variables: @OrderTable (OrderColumns) and @OrderItem (OrderItemColumns)
2. INSERT INTO @OrderTable SELECT ((orderColumns) FROM OpenXML WITH (OrderColumns)
3. INSERT INTO @OrderItemTable SELECT ((orderItemColumns) FROM OpenXML WITH (OrderItemColumns)
4. BEGIN TRANSACTION
5. INSERT INTO dbo.Order(orderColumns) SELECT (orderColumns) FROM @OrderTable
6. Use SCOPE_IDENTITY to retrieve the new Primary Key from the insert as @OrderID
7. INSERT INTO dbo.OrderItem(@OrderID, orderItemColumns) SELECT (orderItemColumns) FROM @OrderItemTable
8. COMMIT TRANSACTION.

The OpenXML calls were moved outside of the Transaction scope. This limited the scope of any shared locks on each OpenXml instance to the queries that accessed them.

So WHY Did This Fix the Problem?

We're not quite sure. A search of Microsoft Technet did not reveal any articles that described the specific problem. However, it feels as if the two concurrent procedure calls, each running in its own process and accessing its own instance of OpenXML twice from within its own transaction, created a thread deadlock inside the OpenXML component.

In closing, we add that while OpenXML is still supported, Microsoft now considers XQuery to be the preferred method to do what has traditionally been done using OpenXML. We'll have more on XQuery as a replacement for OpenXML in a future post. Stay Tuned.

DAY ZERO fever

By Brenda Zulu

I asked people about what they learnt on Day Zero Web 2.0 fordev conference and what they where going to take home.

Prince Deh
GINKS Assistant Network Coordinator
Ghana

I am planning to host local language videos and translate the text in English because I realise that many people get my stories and information from the blog. Video blogging has enhanced my knowledge and sharing skills.
As you see people are attracted by video and they want to see and hear at the same time. I have learnt how to use delicious, wikis and tagging. One thing is that if you don’t tag your work not so many people will read about it.


William Eziniwa Nwangwu
Africa Regional Center for Information Science, Lecture
Nigeria

I have been wondering why Web 2.0? Isn’t it a new word for an old thing?
I have discovered how it is being used and sometimes it worries me as an academician. Some Universities in the USA have banned students giving reference to wikis as one of their sources of researched information. In wikis who is the author? Is the information peer reviewed? In my institution I limit the reference of wiki copies.


Makelesi Gonelevu, Anju Mangal - Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC), Fiji

We learnt about the potential of RSS feeds, wikis, tagging, blogging and the most interesting of all was the farmer blogging where farmers shared agricultural knowledge amongst themselves and also between experts. In the Pacific, we at SPC are trying to get farmers to access online agricultural information and have expert’s answers queries from the farmers.
Web 2.0 will enable us to implement the various ways of information sharing and collaboration between farmers and stakeholders. In the Pacific, we have to deal with accessibility issues and one of the main issues that we face is connectivity. Web 2.0 is an amazing tool; however, it may not work in the Pacific if we have accessibility issues. Low bandwidth is an issue and using vlogging can be a problem in terms of accessing online videos. We have discovered a lot on day zero and we hope to fully utilise Web 2.0

www.spc.int/lrd - SPC Land Resources Division website.

Mirjam Schaap, Wageningen International
I learnt about real relevant use of Web 2.0 tools for grassroots people (farmers, traders etc), the potential of bridging gaps between farmers / researchers. It was also interesting to have the impression that some people are concerned about a threat of use of Web 2.0 tools by ‘amateurs’ for the ‘professionals` (concerns about taxonomies, about traditional video professionals etc). I also learnt that some of the names I have come across online, actually are real people …, that they also exist outside cyberspace … Very nice to meet people in real life.
I loved the ‘online presentation’ and desktop sharing from Wageningen, and I got to know some handy tools which are used by others (desktop sharing, good cheap hosts, wordpress plugins etc.)
I really liked the energy during the day, and the willingness of everyone to share experiences.
I am still looking for tips on how to infect my colleagues with the Web 2.0 virus, how to convince my friends to share info using Web 2.0 tools, how to convince my colleagues to not just use text to communicate but also use video and audio. So on how to mainstream Web 2.0 tools use in my organisation and among our partners.
But we’ll have another 3 days of working together, and sharing and learning.

The Future for Africa is mobile- Media

By Brenda Zulu
The future for Africa is Mobile as it has been embraced by more than 200 million people on the continent..

Africa Interactive, the publishers of Africa News www.africanews.com a world wide interactive multimedia platform focused on Africa are piloting a new project called Voice of Africa where journalists use mobile phones to send news video clips to report news.

Elles Van Gelder said the Digital Citizen Indaba (DCI) said the project was launched by the Dutch who said Western media does not represent does not represent Africa and set up the project to show more balanced images of Africa.

She explained that sending video clips using the mobile phone was a new way of creating content. She said journalists who are part of the project are trained to become innovative reporters and how to use the cell phones.

Elles explained that they also looked at the technical side and provided the journalists with small keyboards because the cell phone keys where too small to enable Journalists do their work fast.

She observed that the media focus was on Africa and that this was a revolution as these Journalists will be reporting live in events such as elections in Kenya.

Peter Verweij of the University of Utrecht Netherlands observed that mobile technology brings Journalists back to the streets meaning one does not need to get back to the newsroom to send a news report.

With the GPS facility, editors in the newsrooms will also be in a position to supervise their reporters because they will be able to know where the reporters are and what they are doing.

Verweij said mobile phones will enhance journalists to report from anywhere for web pages and blogs. The content can range from text to Video and noted that for the first time anyone could be a reporter.

He also observed the challenges for Africa as being the level of internet connectivity as the work of Journalists is set to improve dramatically with innovations in mobile GPS technology.

In the same vein, Ndesajo Macha a Sub Saharan Global Voices editor in delivering his key note address at the DCI said the future was mobile. He said text messaging has been delivering news.

He said SMS was also used for social networking as much of the news now is known through SMS before the mainstrem media makes the reports.

The coming of new technologies thus has led to fear of adapting to new ways of doing Journalism.

Capturing the essence of convergence, Arrie Rossouw the editorial Director of Media 24 said there was need for people to stop talking about cries and insecurity and instead strive to move toward integrated newsrooms.

The discussion on convergence noted that in African news rooms remains largely unrecorded. Some newsrooms are marching forward, pod casting news items and music programmes and sending texts to cell phones, others are experimenting with video, sending sports clips and news to wireless services.

Matthew Buckland, the Mail and Guardian Online Manager told delegates attending the Highway Africa Conference 2007 that the Web 2.0 software was an important development for smaller role players.

Buckland noted that Media companies need to develop strategies for using the web 2.0 software for social networking and also to attract advertising.

He pointed out that the web 2.0 has played an important role in the improvement of technology and is also less expansive.

Web 2.0 is a term often applied to perceive ongoing transition of the World Wide Web from a collection of web sites to a full fledged computing platform servicing web application.

ZAMPOST “Stay Connected”

By Brenda Zulu

The government has urged the nation of Zambia to stay connected by utilizing modern postal services that are earmarked for lunch soon.

Minister of Communications and Transport Dora Siliya in a speech on the launch of the 2008 World Post Day reminded the nation of the vital link to people’s lives that Zampost plays especially in rural areas.

Siliya said the World Post Day Celebrations theme was “Stay Connected”; to emphasis the pivotal role that communication plays in the social, economic and structural development of the world economy.

“We live in a society where access to information lies at the heart of most human activity. Information about goods and services is increasingly driving global business, and the Postal systems finds itself providing that most important link to the global market as long as we stay connected,” said Siliya.

She observed that some Postal enterprises have realized the importance of the need to reform by using new technologies and have embarked on implementing measures designed to improve the quality of service and to expand the product and service portfolio.

She informed Zambians that Zamposts was implementing the theme for this years and had partnered with the Zambia Telecommunications corporation limited (ZAMTEL) by installing the Wide Area Network (WAN) to link all Posts Offices throughout the country. She said implementation of the project was at an estimated cost of USD 700 000 and that it had already stated and was expected to be completed by the end of this year.

Siliya observed that the Wide Area Network will bring many benefits not only to Zamposts but to the general populance through improved connectivity, wider internet access, automation of counter operations, operational efficiency through better financial monitoring and control, cost reductions and new business opportunities.

She said Zampost was acquiring more computers to ensure that counter services in all Post Offices wre efficient and effective.
“This initiative is expected to greatly improve service delivery and will minimize the long queues we are accustomed to see at post offices,” said Saliya.

She added that Zampost was taking full advantage of WAN comprising of 119 fully fledged post offices, 46 sub post offices and 58 postal agencies to expand its product set with new value added products and services such as more tarck and trace facilities, hybrid mail, post shops, automated teller machines, point of sale devices, banking services and Electronic Post (e-post).

She said the services combine both hardcopy and electronic express mail delivery and that customers will be able to send messages via e mail for physical delivery to post boxes and physical address.

She said her ministry was mandated to ensure that information and communication technology related services such as telecommunications and internet services were available to all the Zambian people including rural areas.

She observed that in this regard Post Offices have been identified as key institutions which will play a major role in achieving that national vision 2030.

“Despite predications of their demise not so long ago, postal services are alive and well and now more relevant than ever. E-mail and the Internet have not replaced them, but have interested created new opportunities. We live at a time where the different means of communication complement each other. The postal sector provides a precious service, not only to anyone who buys or sells online, but also to people not yet able to make full use of the new technologies and for whom a the mail is a vital and inter-regional trade, the development gap between postal services around the world needs to be narrowed so that businesses and individuals can benefit more from them,” said Edouard Dayan, Director general of the UPU.

Digital Asset Management Tools Run-Down

This is en example of ineffective managing your assets, a way of cataloguing. To make it successful you can use this general run-down of available cataloguing tools, or Digital Asset Management. The field is crowded and the product you choose needs to be tailored to your needs and budget. In rough order of power, features and cost:

iphoto - Comes bundled with the Apple iLife suite. The 08 version can archive thousands of pics and has basic editing functions. Category: You're Gonna Need a Bigger Boat Cost $80 * you also get iMovie, iWeb, GarageBand and iDVD. Cant beat it for the price but like I say: "If you have an $80 photo library, get an $80 tool to manage it.

MS Expression - The borg takeover of this software leaves me feeling very uneasy but it was a great product as iView Media Pro. Category: Nervously pessimistic Cost: $300 As is typical of microsoft, there are about 50 different versions to choose from. Best of luck.

Extensis Portfolio - Good brand name, scalable product to allow all levels to enjoy. RAW support and a 30 day free trial. Category: Too Good to be True? Cost:$200

MediaDex - The Cumulus single user product. Dont know a thing about it but Cumulus is a very powerful DAM thats not limited to photos (or you might say, not specializing in photos). Category: Dark Horse for Starters. Cost: $80

Cumulus: A real heavy hitter, probably overkill for all but the largest companies. Category: Grandaddy. Cost: Not Sure

Aperture 2: What a laugher V.1 of this was. Dont we expect better from Apple? Well, how about this? Not only offering powerful image cataloging but also a mid range adjustment function (Photoshop lite?). Maybe trying to do too much and no server option. Anyone try it yet? Category: Getting There? There? Anyone? Cost: $200

Montala - I say Montala, you say HUH?!. How about I then say 'free"? Yeah, this may just be the future but youre going to need a code monkey to start it up (easy) and maintain it. But you can also add in functionality to customize it. All web based, so theres no install and you can use it on any machine. Category: The Future is Now Cost: You Heard Me

AS is evident there are plenty of solutions out there at really reasonable costs. If you have specific experience with any of the above (and indeed any I may have omitted) please post in the comments. There is a lot to learn here and I think for the photographer of any level its only second to having a proper back up strategy.

Geof Bowie
www.thinkfixed.com

ISOC FELLOWSHIPS TO THE IETF BUILD TECHNICAL LEADERSHIP

The Internet
Society (ISOC) has announced the names of those selected as Fellows to
attend the next two Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) meetings.

As part of its long tradition of helping build technical capacity,
ISOC provides a Fellowship program that enables technologists from
developing regions to attend the IETF, while also pairing them with an
experienced mentor to integrate their participation rapidly.

This fellowship round attracted 70 applications resulting in nine
fellowships awarded. The Fellows come from nine different countries,
including Ethiopia, Pakistan, Fiji, Tuvalu, Congo, Chile, Costa Rica,
India, and Venezuela. Four Fellows will attend IETF 72 in Dublin,
Ireland, from 27 July - 1 August 2008, and five Fellows will attend
IETF 73, in Minneapolis, USA, from 16 - 21 November 2008.

"The ISOC Fellowships to the IETF are a key part of our work to help
build technical leadership and participation in less developed
countries," says Karen Rose, ISOC's Director of Education and
Programs. "The next billion users of the Internet will come
predominantly from the developing world. The Fellowship program helps
ensure that technical experts in these regions have the knowledge and
experience needed to more fully participate in global Internet
standards development."

"ISOC is very pleased to acknowledge Afilias, Google, Intel, and
Microsoft for their investment," notes Drew Dvorshak, Senior Manager
for Organisation Members. "The Fellowship is an important opportunity
for business leaders to benefit from ISOC's global resources by
funding a unique and effective effort to develop the next generation
of technologists. We are actively seeking additional Fellowship
sponsors as the potential for this program is enormous and a key part
of enabling the emergence of 'the next billion' users."

The selected ISOC IETF Fellows are:

IETF 72, Dublin, Ireland

* Tamrat Bayle, Ph.D. (Ethiopia) is an Assistant Professor at the
College of Telecommunications & Information Technology, where he has
been using IETF protocols in his varied research projects.

* Hugo Salgado (Chile) is an application developer at NIC Chile (.CL)
and is interested in Domain Name System Security Extensions and IPv6
issues after having previously followed the Cross Registry Information
Service Protocol mailing lists.

* Alejandro Acosta (Venezuela) is an Internetworking Coordinator for
British Telecom. He has been following the IETF Discussion list for
many years and is interested in the IPv6 Maintenance and TCP
Maintenance & Minor Extensions working groups.

* Kumar Saurabh (India) is currently a Senior Technical Leader at
Sonus Networks. He has specific interest in the Session Initiation
Protocol working group and had contributed to the Media Gateway
Control working group for over four years.


IETF 73, Minneapolis, USA

* Jean Philemon Kissangou (Congo) is currently employed by DRTVnet and
has been following the IETF IPv6 working groups discussions for some
time.

* Hamid Mukhtar (Pakistan) is a graduate student at Ajou University
(South Korea) and has co-authored an Internet Draft for the IPv6 over
Low Power WPAN working group and also follows the Mobility Extensions
for IPv6 working group mailing list.

* Terry Rupeni (Fiji) is the Network Analyst at the University of the
South Pacific where his work is closely aligned with the IETF working
groups in the Internet and Routing areas.

* Tenanoia Veronica Simona (Tuvalu) is employed by Tuvalu
Telecommunication Corporation as an IT Manager. Her interests include
the IP over Cable Data Network, Mobility Extensions for IPv6, and IP
Telephony working groups.

* Ing. Carlos A. Watson Carazo (Costa Rica) is interested in Domain
Name System Operations, Multicast Security, and IPv6 Maintenance
working groups as they directly impact his work at NIC Costa Rica (.CR).


ISOC is very pleased to acknowledge the corporate sponsorship from
Afilias, Google, Intel, and Microsoft in support of these IETF
Fellowships.

Deploy SSRS Reports in SharePoint Integration Mode

This blog addresses deployment of SSRS Reports and Report Models to a SharePoint 3.0 Site. This information can be gleaned from the following MS TechNet article, Deploying Models and Shared Data Sources to a SharePoint Site. The intent is to (hopefully) make the necessary deployment settings for SharePoint Integration Mode more explicit and straightforward.

Assumptions:

• Report Server has been configured for SharePoint Integration Mode.
• SharePoint Report Server Integration Feature is activated.
• Appropriate Content Types (Report Builder, Report Builder Report, Report Data Source) have been added to a Document Library within a site.

For further information on these configuration topics, see Deploying SSRS with SharePoint Integration.

Assume the following server/site/library/folder names:

• Server Name = MyServer
• SP Site = SiteABCReports
• Doc Library = SSRS Reports
• Data Sources Folder (optional) = Data Sources
• Report Models Folder (optional) = Models
• Reports Folder (optional) = Reports

Deploy Report Designer Reports

From within a SQL Server Business Intelligence Studio (BIDS) Report Server Project, go to the project’s Property Page (right-click project in Solution Explorer and select Properties).
Apply the following deployment settings:

• Overwrite ExistingDataSources = True
• TargetDataSourceFolder = http://MyServer/SSRS%20Reports/[Data%20Sources]
• TargetReportFolder = http://MyServer/SSRS%20Reports/[Reports]
• TargetServerURL =http://MyServer

Where [‘xxx’] denotes optional.

Things to note:

• A TargetReportFolder must be specified. The folder can be the document library or a folder within the document library.
• The TargetDataSourceFolder is optional. If one is not specified, the Data Source will be deployed to the TargetReportFolder.
• For both target properties, if the folder within the document library does not already exist, it will be created upon deployment.
• Relative paths are not valid.
• The replacement of the space character with %20

Deploy Report Models

From within a SQL Server Business Intelligence Studio (BIDS) Report Model Project, go to the project’s Property Page (right-click project in Solution Explorer and select Properties).
Apply the following deployment settings:

• OverwriteExistingDataSources = True
• TargetDataSourceFolder = http://MyServer/SSRS%20Reports/[Data%20Sources]
• TargetModelFolder = http://MyServer/SSRS%20Reports/[Models]
• TargetServerURL = http://MyServer

Note: The TargetModelFolder and TargetDataSourceFolder properties must be set to the document library or folders within the document library.

Throughout this blog, where a folder within a document library is specified, this folder is optional. Folders at this level merely serve to organize the different types of report support files.