In a technological first, I am simulcasting this blog entry on the SAP Community Network and on my personal blog. The reason for this is that I am looking for some feedback on the Community Day event, and my personal blog allows people to post feedback anonymously if they wish. Anyway, on with the content...

What we did 

Nigel James and I organised the day as a community-driven unconference, and arranged for it to be on a Saturday, with free registration. This had a number of big advantages for us:

• Community-driven: all we had to do was put up a Wiki page and write some blogs to generate publicity. The SCN Community came along and volunteered to do sessions, filling in the Wiki and leaving us comments & suggestions.

• Unconference: This means that the sessions are designed to be discussions, with a host to keep things moving. In a "normal" conference, one expert at the front of the room talks with Powerpoint slides to a bunch of other experts. In an unconference, the whole room full of experts is contributing, making the session a lot more effective - everybody, including the host, comes away with more than they entered the room. Being an Unconference also meant that it was "fault-tolerant" - we had a couple of session hosts that couldn't make it due to illness. Instead of cancelling the session, we were able to find another person willing to host each session on the day; after all, there was no need to prepare a presentation - it was just a matter of keeping a discussion going.

• Saturday: It was easy to ask my company, Axon, to use their offices on a Saturday when nobody else would be around. This saved us a lot of effort in terms of finding a venue, paying to rent it, etc. Also, it meant that attendees were so passionate about SAP technology that they were willing to give up their own free time to be there, ensuring a high quality of discussion.

• Free registration: A double-edged sword, but the advantage was that we had very little administrative work to do. If we had charged people to attend, we would have had to deal with collecting fees, worrying about tax, and all sorts of inconvenient stuff like that. Anyway, the venue came to us for free, and Axon were even kind enough to buy us all lunch. The minor disadvantage to the event being free was that only about 50% of the people who signed up for the event could make it on the day - it was a beautiful, sunny day with a major football match on, and nobody lost any money by not turning up.

How the day went 

The day started well, with 20 people busy talking to each other in the Axon Cafe by 10am. In fact, this networking was going so well that it was hard to interrupt everyone to get them along to the Axon Theatre for the welcome session, but once there we had a great presentation from SAP's Ran Cliff, who gave us a sneak preview of what's in the pipeline for the SAP Community Network. There are some very interesting initiatives being discussed at SAP which, if they become reality, will help give SCN members the opportunity to play an integral part in how SAP develop and test new products. After this welcome session, and a "message from our sponsor", we started the two tracks of sessions for the day.

The two tracks were for Web Services and Everything Else - I pretty much only went to the Everything Else track, so you'll have to read some other blog to find out how the Web Services track went. 

My first session was about Active Directory integration. This started off with me talking a bit about how we have integrated AD with SAP HR and SAP CUA at one of our clients, but quickly turned into a discussion of the benefits of the NetWeaver Identity Management product. Next up was a Workflow Open Forum, chaired by workflow gurus Mike Pokraka and Mark Pyc. This session was really interesting for me, as we ended up discussing the future business process platforms from SAP, including such things as BPML, BPEL, BPEL4People, XI/PI, Galaxy, Guided Procedures and good old SAP Business Workflow. I came out of the session knowing a lot more than when I went in.

With two sessions out of the way, it was time for lunch. We had catered for 40-50 people, with half that number in the room, so there was plenty to go around. More wraps & sandwiches anyone? :-)

After lunch, Harald Reiter took us on an in-depth tour of the seldom-used PCD Filtering framework of the NetWeaver Portal, and showed us how to dynamically show Portal content based on any number of user attributes, including those coming from other systems such as HR. Then, after a coffee break to counter the growing effects of lunch, I ran a session on the Universal Worklist in a vain attempt to sell more copies of my SAP PRESS book. This would have worked much better if I had remembered to bring a copy of the book with me...

For the last session of the day, I filled an open space with a last-minute session on something I've been exploring in the Java technology space: Comet-based applications written using the Lift web framework for the Scala language. Scala is a object-oriented and functional language which runs on the Java Virtual Machine. It has XML as a native part of the language, which makes web services really easy to do. Lift is the web framework being developed using Scala, which gives the power of a scripting language with the type-safety and performance of a compiled language. Lift makes it easy to do Comet applications, Comet being the next step on from Ajax. Where Ajax makes changes to the page as a result of a client request and server response, Comet works from the server side only - so for example, if an administrator sends a system message, a Comet-based web application can show that message on-screen instantly, without the need for the user to do anything. 

By the end of the day many people had gone home, having far to travel or having attended the sessions which interested them - and that's fine, all part of the relaxed nature of the day. The handful of us who were left decided that going all the way into London for an event and meal was too much hard work, so we instead took advantage of the last of the sun and went to a pub in Egham to sit outside, share a few beers and put the world to rights. It was at this point that we got a call from Mark Finnern to wish us well, which was a nice end to a great day. We also decided to hold another event in 3 months time, on 16th July - the plan is to do this as an evening event held on-line as a Webinar. 

Feedback

So, if you were there, what did you like best, and what did you like least about the day? How could we make it better for next time?

Those who were not there - what could we do to persuade you to turn up to a UK community event?

For our own part, we learnt a few things:

• It's really important to ask for the air-conditioning to be turned on for the weekend
• We should be more involved with the local SAP office at an earlier stage in the planning
• We should make sure we have contact details for people who have registered, so we can remind them the event is happening and confirm they are attending 

As promised, the resources for the Universal Worklist book are now on the SAP Community Network Wiki. You can use the commenting functionality on that page to discuss the content of the book if you like, and being a Wiki, any new developments to the content will be posted there - possibly even by you. The Wiki is open to all, and I encourage people to add to it.

 

I have a copy of "Universal Worklist with SAP NetWeaver Portal" in my hands, straight from the printers. Though I say so myself, it's looking good - in fact I've used for reference several times already. My only regret is that during copy editing the text has been translated from UK English to American English.

Turning "-ise" into "-ize" I can live with - but I wasn't prepared for the effects of the Chicago Manual of Style used as the basis for the publisher's house style. A few things I was taught about English in school are flatly contradicted by the CMS - things like the Oxford serial comma being de rigeur - but I'm happy with the result.

Right now I'm working on the website for the book, so in a few weeks' time you'll be able to download the source code for all the examples and get direct browser links for all the references to SAP documentation. I'm hoping to be able to do this in Wiki format so that readers can add to the content and make it (in conjunction with the book) the best UWL guide available.

 

It started as an idea here.

Nigel James plugged it here.

Now, it has a life of its own on the SDN Wiki, here.

The Community Day at TechEd Munich was transformational for me in one major respect - it turned my perception of the SAP Community Network from a really useful website and bunch of forums into a genuine community of really talented people, some of whom I got to know a little better. TechEd as a whole is a great conference from an educational point of view, but nothing packs a bang-for-your-buck punch like the Community Day. Instead of SAP telling you what's what, your in a room with some of the best minds in SAP practice - some from SAP but most from customers, partners and consultancies - discussing topics which you as a group have decided are worth talking about. It's like being able to design your own perfect conference from scratch.

 

So now it's time to do this in London instead of Central Europe. The beer may be warmer, and the comfort food may be more fish'n'chip oriented, but the meeting of minds will be as good as ever.

Please go over to the Wiki page and add your name to the comments page if you're interested in learning several things about SAP and what it could do that you never thought possible.

 

From my admittedly blinkered point of view there were two new things at TechEd in Munich this year - NetWeaver Identity Management (formerly known as MaxWare) and CTS+, the ABAP transport system which can now deal with Portal and Java objects. Pretty much everything else was either vapourware or an evolution of last year's themes.

I know I said it would be ready in time for Tech Ed, but there was a slight schedule slip (turns out it takes quite a long time to write a book when you only do it on Sundays).

The good news is that I managed to submit the first draft of the book just before Tech Ed (where SAP Press had a pile of "Order Now" flyers for it - thanks guys!). We are now in the editing process, so the book will most likely be published just into the new year.

I learnt a lot while writing this book - hopefully you will too. Guided Procedures are way cool...

You can read all about the book at the SAP Press website. 

 

As promised, I was at Tech Ed 07. A full write-up will follow soon, but the high points were:

• Community Day - a hundred or so people sharing what they know, and they know a heck of a lot.
• Community Day evening event - talking and drinking way too much with Bruce Sterling.
• Meeting some old friends: Tim Kyle, Simon Griffiths, Paul Williamson
• Making some new friends: Gregor Wolf, Nigel James, Owen Pettiford
• The SDN Clubhouse, with its excellent coffee
• Presenting my sessions, one of them in a theatre in the main hall: 

Thanks to all who came along and gave such excellent feedback. I plan to do another session or two next year, this time with more in the way of live demos.

I'll be at TechEd 07 in Munich, presenting two of the SDN sessions:

Processing workflow tasks on a Blackberry handheld using Java Web Dynpro

  and 

Zero-administration user management: a perfect configuration?

See you there!

I've created a new blog on this site, dedicated to eating well in an office-based job - please head over and have a look!

I spoke to one of the guys on the SAP Press stand at Tech Ed in Amsterdam to see if they were looking for authors, and got a pretty enthusiastic response. Since I've been doing some fairly interesting stuff with UWL in the last year or two and have overcome a fair few challenges on the way, I quickly drafted an outline for a book on UWL, checked out the Authors section on their website and sent the outline to SAP Press a few weeks later.

There is a pretty detailed questionnaire to fill in. Not only do you need an outline of the proposed book's content, but you also have to demonstrate that you can write and you need to show that there is a market demand for the book. That wasn't too hard for me - the SAP Press Workflow book has less than one page on the Portal, and none of their Portals books mention UWL at all.

Fast forward a month or so of discussions, and I have now signed a contract to produce the book. I will have completed the manuscript by July, in time for the book to be released for SAP Tech Ed 2007.

I went to five sessions today:
Session:  Designing a Web Infrastructure for a SAP Netweaver Platform
Session: Web Page Composer: A New Way to Create and Publish Web Pages in the Portal
Session: SAP Corporate Portal as an Example for a Company Wide Intranet
Session: SPNego Login Module for Windows Integrated Authentication
Session: Undocumented KM Tips & Tricks

Beware: The following are hastily-typed stream-of-consciousness notes written in 15-minute spaces between sessions.

A busy day today - seven sessions:
Session: Creating Visual Composer Applications
Session: SAP Roadmap to Java EE 5
Session: Duet Developer's Guide to building Duet Applications
Session: UI Design Roadmap for SAP NetWeaver Tools
Session: Identity Management in Heterogeneous System Landscapes, the SAP solution
Session: SAML Authentication
Session: Service Orientation Made by SAP

Beware: The following are hastily-typed stream-of-consciousness notes written in 15-minute spaces between sessions.

I started off Tech Ed by going to Shai's keynote, then squeezed in four sessions, a chat with an exhibitor and a fruitless search for an exhibitor who wasn't there.
Keynote - Shai Agassi

Things that must be in place - foundations

Modernise the core

Optimise Business Usage

Drive strategic innovation

Session: Improving "Portal over a WAN" Performance
Exhibitor: VMware
Session: Advanced Portal Infrastructure
Session: Netweaver Mobile Roadmap
No Exhibitor: RSA
Session: Duet

Beware: The following are hastily-typed stream-of-consciousness notes written in 15-minute spaces between sessions.

Trac is a web-based software project management and bug/issue tracking system developed by the guys at Edgewall. It provides an interface to Subversion and an integrated wiki.

In response to popular demand (OK, one person who said yes when I asked) I have created a VMWare appliance so people can try out Trac easily.

Last year I was involved in a project where I needed to get an application built quickly with a team of five people based in the UK. This was going to be hard, but I knew that we had a base in Malaysia with some talented guys there, one of whom had worked on-site on one of our previous jobs. As we were delivering a fixed-price project and the guys working in Malaysia would cost a lot less per day than the UK-based team, the decision to use them seemed obvious.

That's the basic premise around outsourcing and that's why everyone's doing it, right?