Watching this has been almost as bad as watching someone burn bacon! Almost.

Kevin Kline (blog, twitter) has asked a number of leaders in the community to participate in the discussion through a series of guest posts on his blog. I believe that he’s trying is to bring the various sides together in a constructive way. With all of this passion in the community, we should be able to improve things. This is my contribution to the series.

Before going further, however, I’d like to first frame the discussion by describing the essentials of the debate as I see them. There are certainly a lot of nuances, however insomuch as the different facets can have one voice, I’ve tried to capture that. There will be, of course, deeper issues and varying opinions. And it’s entirely possible that I’ve missed the point altogether.

The Community Side

Steve Jones (blog, twitter) has proven himself time and again to be a staunch advocate for the community. His qualifications for community leadership are unmatched.

• He’s a renowned SQL Server expert and Microsoft MVP
• He has the media experience that PASS once coveted
• He’s a good businessman with a proven track record of success
• He’s a polished speaker and regular blogger
• He frequently donates his time at conferences, SQLSaturdays, and User Group meetings
• He’s wildly popular in the community

Steve would easily navigate the Nominating Committee (NomCom) and most certainly be elected. So I thought when I wrote a recommendation letter that accompanied his application.

Like most in the community, I was utterly shocked when I learned that he didn’t make the final cut. Many, if not most, in the community were outraged. And rightfully so. The NomCom rejected someone that the community obviously wanted, someone who would most certainly have been elected if allowed to be on the ballot.

But, this isn’t about Steve. This isn’t even about the election. This is about PASS putting itself before the community that it supposedly represents.

The PASS Side

For the past few years, PASS has taken quite a bit of heat from the community to be more transparent in its processes and decision making. The community doesn’t want a benevolent dictator; it wants peers who are willing to lead on our behalf because we don’t have the time or inclination . That message was made clear years ago.

Since then, PASS has worked really hard in this area and has made clear progress in many, many ways. Its finances are posted for all to see. Unabridged meeting minutes are published on the web just a few days after each board meeting. More of the board members and key volunteers blog about their PASS activities than ever before. We asked for transparency and we’re getting it. All we have to do is log on and look at the information as it’s made available.

The NomCom, which has bore the brunt of the community’s ire for the election controversy, is a prime example of the newfound transparency. The NomCom is charged with vetting each candidate and presenting a slate before the board. Before the NomCom was formed, the procedures and guidelines under which it was to operate were created and distributed for review. After a series of reforms and tweaks, the NomCom was given its marching orders and asked to do their job.

After weeks of work, the NomCom, a group of our peers that we’ve entrusted to do the grueling grunt work for us, reached a conclusion using the formulas and procedures given it. The NomCom members realized that their conclusion would be questioned and controversial. And they paused to reflect on that.

The question: Should the NomCom discard the quantitative results and replace them with on its own subjective feelings? Should it do what it felt the community really wanted by disposing of the pesky procedures that had been so carefully refined?

To do that would have really opened the doors to allegations of PASS being an old-boy-network . To discard the rules at its own discretion and pick the candidate it thought best would be the height arrogance.

The NomCom was in a pickle. Stick with the approved procedure and eliminate a popular candidate? Or dispense with the approved procedures and make a subjective call? You can’t win with those as your two options.

So they made the call to accept the wrath they they knew was sure to come. They stuck to the approved procedures set forth in the NomCom’s mandate. The integrity of the process is too important to toss it aside. It would be a huge step backward in the quest for transparency to do anything else.

I thank the members of NomCom for serving. I also commend them for doing what they believed to be the right thing even though they knew it may not be popular. That takes guts. It takes character. It takes integrity.

And it’s people who possess those characteristics that we want leading the community.

So Who’s Right?

To me the answer is obvious: both sides are right. On the one hand, I’m very frustrated that the candidate for whom I wanted to vote wasn’t on the ballot. I cast my ballot yesterday and it felt a bit hollow.

Yet I would have been equally, if not more, angered if the established process had been subverted to put Steve on the ballot at the expense of one of the other candidates.

The NomCom is not at fault here. The PASS Board is not at fault here.

At fault here are the procedures that governed the election process. I have every confidence that those procedures were far better than in prior years. Yet in this case, as extreme as it may be, they fell woefully short.

Where Do We Go From Here?

I think that the one thing on which we can agree is that we don’t want to find ourselves in this predicament twelve or twenty-four months from now. We want to learn from this, take corrective action, and move forward.

So what do we need to do to ensure that this doesn’t happen again?

• Acknowledge that it was the process that failed and stop pointing fingers at our peers
• Take heart that we have a slate full of good candidates even if our preferred candidate was left out
• Accept partial responsibility for the community and get more involved

Should we throw the baby out with the bathwater and dispense with the NomCom? I don’t think so, but it’s a conversation that should take place.

Should we refine the existing procedures to handle situations like this? We must be careful in codifying too many things since situations will arise in the future where flexibility is required.

We need to have these conversations.

A Note About Transparency

Many years ago when Kevin Kline was the VP of Finance for PASS and I was Director of Logistics, we shared a cab to the airport after a Community Summit event. During the ride, we talked. I remember telling him that as a member of Ducks Unlimited, I receive an annual financial statement from the conservancy. It contains detailed information about the group’s finances. Knowing that makes me feel good about giving to the group.

I commented that as Directors of PASS, we should provide that kind of information to our members. And if we are not comfortable delivering that level of detail, we should do something about our finances so that we are comfortable with it. It took a while, but we did. We changed management companies and implemented a lot of other changes for the better. We took the first of many steps toward better fiscal and procedural transparency.

PASS is no longer a monolith that speaks with one voice. It has truly made great strides toward being a group of our friends and colleagues who are willing to freely give of themselves for our benefit. That’s not to say that PASS has completed its journey toward transparency. It hasn’t, but it is much further down the road than it was just a few short years ago when Kevin and I had that conversation.

And this is another opportunity to further refine the way PASS works, for the better.

I’m currently working on a guest blog post for a series that Kevin Kline (blog, twitter) is starting on the election process. In the coming days my guest post will appear on my site and on Kevin’s blog. I’m hopeful that Kevin’s series will help to provide some good, creative, and perhaps even actionable discussion around the PASS election process.

In the meantime, there has been one aspect of the brouhaha that I’d like to call attention to that may not be immediately obvious – the passion we all have for the community.

Aw, Come On Man!

It’s been said that the opposite of love is not hate; it’s apathy. Love and hate are strong emotions. If you love someone or something, you do it with a passion. Likewise if you hate something, you have a certain fervor about it. Whether there is love or hate, strong emotions abound and you care deeply about it.

Where there’s apathy, though, there is a lack of caring, a lack of passion or fervor. There’s an emptiness and the once loved/hated object ceases to have relevance in your life. It’s a sad state, apathy.

If nothing else, the latest PASS controversy has proven that people in the community have deep-seated emotions about PASS. It’s shown that PASS is a relevant and important player in the SQL community.

So in that respect, I’m glad that this election debate has stirred emotions and passion in most people in the community. If it hadn’t, I’d have been really worried about PASS and the community as a whole.

Where Do We Go From Here?

Now let’s see if we can turn this into a positive experience that, while difficult to go through, makes PASS and the community a stronger and more vibrant place.

Look for a post with my opinion on the election process soon. After that, I’ll get back to the “So I Got Promoted, Now What?” series.

It’s A Small World After All

The SQL Server Community is a close-knit community. It’s not small mind you; there are hundreds of thousands of SQL Server professionals from around the globe. But still, it’s close-knit. People in the community know and regularly exchange emails with others in the SQL Community from all over creation. We don’t get to see each other often, but we’re still close.

Conferences are one place where we do get to see each other. When I’m attending a conference, I love catching up with members of the SQL Community. I would gladly forego many a technical sessions – as good as they are – to sit and have coffee with a friend from another part of the world. To me, that’s what makes a conference great, it’s the people who are there.

You Can Be In Two Places At Once

But alas, sometimes you simply cannot make it to a conference. You can only travel so much, you can only afford a certain number of trips out if the office, or other obligations get in the way. That doesn’t mean you have to completely miss out on the event. You can still be there from the comforts of your own home or office through the wonder of Twitter.

This past weekend at SQLSaturday #51 in Nashville, I monitored the #sqlsat51 hash tag on Twitter. There were lots of tweets from attendees throughout the day. Some asked questions, others made jokes, and others still shared what was taking place. Tweets made the day even more enjoyable.

A nice byproduct of event tweeting is that they open up the event to others who couldn’t be on-site. Twitter allows people who couldn’t make it to the event to still participate, to still interact, and to still network with those at the event. From afar, friends can crack jokes, ask questions, and add to the conversation.

Is it really as good as being there? No, but it sure beats missing it altogether.

Twitter can also be leveraged by the speakers to extend their reach and include an even wider audience. I first saw this at PASS last year when Paul Randal tweeted during Kim Tripp’s pre-con. He tweeted major bullet points and answered questions in the Twitterverse. Very cool! I know Brent Ozar has done similar things. I’ve used a plug in to PowerPoint that will automatically send tweets as I progress through my slide deck.

How Do I Get Started?

If you’re not familiar with Twitter, it’s free. Just go to the Twitter site and sign up. Then download Brent Ozar’s short ebook and read it in one sitting. It’ll give you the information you need to know to get started.

Let’s see how you do.

The Trivia Questions

Question 1:

True or False. The following T-SQL statement is valid.

CREATE TABLE # (Column1 INT);

Question 2:

What’s the maximum number of nonclustered indexes per table for a 64-bit instance of SQL Server 2008 R2?

Question 3:

There was a little known and cancelled upgrade to Windows 95 that eventually became known as Windows Desktop Update, Internet Explorer 4.0. What was its codename?

Question 4:

For what processors was SQL Server 4.21a SP4 available?

Question 5:

When did Mainstream Support end for SQL Server 2000 Enterprise Edition?

Question 6:

What is the maximum number of columns you can have in a single SELECT statement in a 64-bit instance of SQL Server 2008 R2?

Question 7:

What was the final name of the SQL Server feature that originally was known by the code name Rosetta?

Question 8:

What command displays information about the installed versions and registered instances of Notification Services?

Question 9:

How many task in SSIS for SQL Server 2008 R2 are designed for SSAS?

Question 10:

On what operating systems did SQL Server 4.20 run?

Question 11:

How many copies of a query plan can be in memory at one time in SQL Server 2008 R2?

Question 12:

In how many different North American cities has the PASS Community Summit been held?

Question 13:

Name one aspect of SQL Server that separate it from any other Microsoft product.

Question 14:

For which operating system was SQL Server originally developed?

Question 15:

In SQL Server 2008 R2, how many DMVs are related to Indexes?

Question 16:

How much was an unlimited user license for SQL Server 1.1?

Question 17:

When was SQL Server 1.1 released?

Question 18:

When SQL Server 1.1 was first released, it was considered to be well behind in sales compared to Oracle Server for OS/2. How many licenses had Oracle sold already?

Question 19:

True or False. SQL CE can be managed from SQL Server Management Studio 2005.

Question 20:

When AUTO_UPDATE_STATISTICS is ON, updated statistics or cardinality changes to which of the follow tables cause a recompile?

a) User Tables
b) Temporary Tables
c) Inserted Tables
d) Deleted Tables

The Answers

Answer 1:

True. But it’s scheduled to be deprecated in a post SQL Server 2008 R2 release. (http://bit.ly/sqlsat51-1)

Answer 2:

999 (http://bit.ly/sqlsat51-2)

Answer 3:

Nashville (http://bit.ly/sqlsat51-3)

Answer 4:

SQL Server 4.21a Service Pack 4 was available for Intel (x86), MIPS, and Alpha-based computers. (http://bit.ly/sqlsat51-4)

Answer 5:

April 8th, 2008 (http://bit.ly/sqlsat51-5)

Answer 6:

4096 (http://bit.ly/sqlsat51-6)

Answer 7:

Reporting Services (http://bit.ly/sqlsat51-7)

Answer 8:

NSControl ListVersions (http://bit.ly/sqlsat51-8)

Answer 9:

3 (http://bit.ly/sqlsat51-9)

Answer 10:

Windows NT 3.1/Windows NT Advanced Server 3.1 (http://bit.ly/sqlsat51-10)

Answer 11:

2; one for parallel execution and another for serialized execution. (http://bit.ly/sqlsat51-11)

Answer 12:

6; Chicago, San Francisco, Denver, Seattle, Orlando, Dallas/Grapevine (http://bit.ly/sqlsat51-12)

Answer 13:

SQL Server is the only Microsoft product that allows you to set processor affinity. (via Buck Woody)

Answer 14:

UNIX; that’s why SQL Server still has processor affinity on a SMP operating system. (via Buck Woody)

Answer 15:

7 (http://bit.ly/sqlsat51-15)

sys.dm_db_index_operational_stats,

sys.dm_db_index_usage_stats,

sys.dm_db_missing_index_details,

sys.dm_db_missing_index_groups,

sys.dm_db_index_physical_stats,

sys.dm_db_missing_index_columns

sys.dm_db_missing_index_group_stats

Answer 16:

$3,995 (http://bit.ly/sqlsat51-16)

Answer 17:

August 20th, 1990 (http://bit.ly/sqlsat51-17)

Answer 18:

7,000 (http://bit.ly/sqlsat51-18)

Answer 19:

True. (http://bit.ly/sqlsat51-19)

Answer 20:

All of the above. (http://bit.ly/sqlsat51-20)

The Results

So how did you do? Got any other good trivia questions that I could have / should have added to the list?

And a very special thanks to our panel of experts – Thomas LaRock, Jason Strate, Kendra Little, Jeremiah Peschka, Louis Davidson, and Kevin Boles!

One of the talks was technical in nature, the other was a professional development session. These are typical of the presentations I give for conferences, user groups, and clients.  devLINK 2010 made a perfect time to try out my iPad for presentations.

But first a bit of background.

You Need An Adaptor

The iPad is sleek, it’s thin, and it’s attractive. And it doesn’t have room for any external connectors like SVGA outputs or even USB devices. Everything must run through the sole proprietary connection port on the bottom. Fortunately, you can buy a dongle that allows you to connect the iPad to a standard SVGA device. Unfortunately, it’s not the same dongle that the MacBook Pro uses so it’s an extra “thing” to carry around. Every time I pack up my stuff for a presentation I can’t help but mentally singing “I’ve got dongles that dingle dangle dingle.” to the tune of “I’ve got spurs that jingle jangle jingle.” I guess that’s just me though.

Simply connecting the dongle to the iPad and a projector does not automatically send video to the projector. That surprised me. Instead it’s software driven, but not at the iPad O/S level. You won’t find a configuration switch in Settings to send all video output to the SVGA device. Instead it’s driven by the presentation software. That’s disappointing. That means you cannot show apps on the big screen that are not specifically designed to work with a projector.

The Presentation Software

To make a presentation, I bought Keynote. Keynote is software for the iPad that’s similar to PowerPoint. It’s surprisingly rich and powerful. And it’s completely amazing for  a $10 piece of software. It has cool animations, charts, tables, and all of the other things that you’ve come to expect from PowerPoint. You can create your own presentations in Keynote on the iPad or you can edit and show PowerPoint presentations that you’ve created on your laptop.

As you proof your presentation, you see the output on the iPad’s screen. A swipe of the finger from left to right will advance to the next slide. Reversing the direction of the swipe with go back on slide in the deck. One nice presentation feature is that when you put your finger on the iPad and leave it for a second, a red dot appears on the screen and you can use that instead of a laser pointer. Nice.

Unfortunately there are a couple areas where the Keynote development team seems to have been short sighted. First, when you go into presentation mode while an external projector is connected , the iPad screen goes black and only displays buttons that allows you to go forward or back. It doesn’t show the slide that’s being displayed on the projector. That can be bad since you, as the speaker, will have to turn your head from the audience to see what they are seeing on the screen. The iPad doesn’t act like a monitor for you.

Second, if any other application on the iPad takes focus during the presentation, the output to the project is cut off. This happened to me during devLINK. A calendar reminder popped up, killing the SVGA output. Fortunately as soon as I closed the reminder, the presentation was immediately displayed again. It would be nice to have a universal setting to suppress every thing else while in presentation mode.

Putting It Into Action

So, how did my experiment at devLINK 2010 go?

My Technical Presentation

When I give technical presentations, I try to make them engaging and interactive. And the best way that I’ve found to do that it is to incorporate live demonstrations in the presentations. I strive to make each presentation approximately 50% live demos. I bounce between the presentation slide deck and the SQL Server Management Studio.

That’s just not possible with iPad. Obviously SQL Server Management Studio won’t run on a device made by Apple. I thought about connecting to a remote server via an RDP client called WinAdmin that I have for the iPad and doing my demonstrations on that server. But WinAdmin doesn’t support the SVGA output so I couldn’t get the graphics to the projector.

Unless I revamp my presentations and make the demonstrations canned images embedded into the slide deck, using the iPad for technical demonstrations won’t work for me. For devLINK 2010 used my MacBook Pro.

My Non-Technical Presentation

My non-technical “Conducting Effective Meetings” session at devLINK was in the Alumni Auditorium with a seating capacity of a couple of thousand and an on-stage projection screen that was at least 20 feet tall. The session was recorded by devLINK, that’s why I was in the room for the big boys.

The A/V guy came to help me get set up and miked right before the session. I could tell he was a bit hesitant when he saw my iPad. He gave me the “You’re on your own with this one.” glance. Fortunately, I plugged it up and it worked without any problems. The graphics, even on the 20 foot tall screen were excellent. And apart from the small interruption due to the appointment reminder, it worked flawlessly.

In fact, it worked well enough that I’m planning to use it for the SQLSaturday #51 opening keynote address in Nashville on Saturday.

Related Posts

• How I Use My iPad For Business
• Conducting Effective Meetings at devLINK 2010
• SQL Server Locking & Blocking at devLINK 2010

A Short Keynote And Great Intro Session

The day will begin with a short welcoming keynote, and by short I mean no more than 15 minutes. It’ll be just long enough to give you the logistical information you’ll need to make the most of the day.

Following the keynote, SQLRockstar, Thomas LaRock (blog, twitter), will give a presentation based on his book DBA Survivor: Become a Rock Star DBA in the cafeteria. For those who are somewhat new to the role of DBA, it’ll be a great way to start the day.

If that’s not you’re cup-o-tea, the other main sessions start at 8:30am as well.

Over 30 Great Sessions

SQLSaturday #51 is not this kind of conference

We had over 110 session abstracts submitted for SQLSaturday #51 and it was tremendously difficult to pare it down to a manageable number. We only have time and space for 30 sessions. If we’d only gotten a session on how to flex the whole space-time continuum thing using SQL Server 2008 R2 perhaps we could have accommodated more. Maybe next time.

In the 30 sessions we were able to provide, we have a good mix of SQL Server MVPs, authors, industry experts, and local professionals who are willing to share their experiences and their knowledge at the conference. The schedule is available on the SQLSaturday #51 site.

Quest Lunch Session & Stump The Experts

As if 30 sessions weren’t enough to saturate your brain with SQL Server know-how and best practices, we have two more fun yet informative sessions. During lunch, Quest’s SQL Server Expert and Nashville’s own Kevin Kline (blog, twitter) will share with us some things he’s learned over the course of his career.

At the end of the day while we’re raffling off some fantastic door prizes, we’ll play a game we’re calling Stump The Experts. A panel of well-known industry experts have agreed to submit themselves to your questions for a time of fun and humor. Can you stump an expert? Bring your questions and find out.

Don’t Delay, Register Today

This totally free event is sure to be fun, informative, and entertaining. But space is limited and there are only a few seats left. So head on over to the registration page and sign up today. If it’s full, you’ll be added to a waiting list and notified if space becomes available.

However, over time I warmed to the idea and even convinced myself that this device could and would help my manage my business better. I needed to be more productive and the iPad was just the tool to help me do that. So I bought one about a month ago with very high expectations.

Why I Needed An iPad

For years, I carried a nice moleskine made out of leather. I carried it everywhere. In meetings, I’d make notes. While working, I’d record my hours and accomplishments. At other times, I’d jot down ideas for blog postings or record items that I need to do. In Getting Things Done terms, the moleskine was my ubiquitous collection device. I even had a legend for flagging to-do’s, waiting-for’s, etc.

However, the moleskine was only where I captured incoming information. My daily work was driven by my electronic system. I use Omnifocus to management my projects and to-do’s; I use my calendar to management my schedule; I use EverNote to keep reference materials that I may need later.

So there was an inherent duplication of effort in my system. I’d initially record things in my moleskine and then transfer the information to my electronic system. I’m busy and transferring the information was a chore. So, I’d postpone doing it, neglecting it for a week or two at a time. It wasn’t uncommon for a deadline that I’d captured in my moleskine to have expired before I ever got it into my electronic system where it could be integrated into my workflow.

In short, I was dropping balls occasionally and I didn’t like that.

My Electronic Moleskine

I need a way to easily capture information, obligations, to-do’s, etc, no matter where I am. I want the device to be lightweight, instant on, not very intrusive, and fully integrated into my other electronic systems. The iPad promised all of that plus more. So, I bought one and it’s worked out very well for the most part.

I carry it wherever I carried my moleskin. In meetings, I can easily capture meeting notes directly into EverNote, add to-do items directly into OmniFocus, and add appointments directly into my calendar. I could do all this with my laptop but I’ve found two distinct drawbacks to opening my laptop in a meeting. First, the temptation to mentally check out of the meeting when it drags on and on is too much. I’ve written about that already. Secondly the laptop screen places a subtle barrier between you and the person on the other side of the table. It’s intrusive at times.

I always have the iPad have with me so I can record my hours, jot notes, and calendar appointments as they come up.

The Apps I Use Most

Since my primary objective for getting an iPad was to eliminate redundancy, every piece of productivity/business software that I consider for it must allow me to conveniently sync among my various devices – my iPhone, iPad, and MacBook Pro. I’ve already mentioned several of the applications I use, but it may be worthwhile to put them all in one place.

• Omnifocus. I use OmniFocus for my GTD implementation. There’s a client for my MacBook Pro, iPad, and iPhone and they all sync over the air using WebDAV. The only real drawback to OmniFocus is views each client as a separate stand-alone product. So buying all three can get expensive.
• EverNote. I converted to EverNote a few months ago in preparation for buying the iPad, and I’m glad I did. EverNote can capture pretty much anything and index it to make it completely searchable for you later. I use EverNote as my repository for reference materials I may need later.
• Mail. There’s a built-in mail client for the iPad. I have it configured for IMAP so messages that I read, delete, forward, etc, on my iPad appear that way in my other clients as well.
• Web. Safari is the browser provided on the iPad. I don’t know if there are others available. The only issue I’ve discovered with Safari is that it doesn’t support Flash.
• Calendar.  The iPad also comes with a Calendar application. I have mine automatically sync to my Google calendar over the air.
• Contacts. I use Google to manage my contacts and the built-in Contacts application on the iPad syncs directly to it.
• WinAdmin. At times I need to remote desktop into a client’s server to take care of an issue. I use WinAdmin for this. It uses the normal Remote Desktop Protocol and works well. There are other apps for this, too.
• TwitBird Pro. The most popular Twitter application for the iPad appears to be TwitBird Pro. That’s what I use. It’s pretty good, I guess. It has FaceBook integration as well so your tweets can become status updates on FaceBook if you choose.
• iBooks. I’ve been pleased with the iBooks app on the iPad. The graphics are nice and it’s easy to read.
• Kindle Reader. I’ve also downloaded the Kindle Reader so I have access to a much larger variety of books from Amazon.
• KeyNote. Presentations can be made from the iPad using KeyNote. It’s similar in many respects to PowerPoint. Actually I was quite surprised by the $10 app. It’s very, very, good. You can buy a dongle and drive a standard VGA device like a projector with your iPad.

The really nice part about these applications is that none of them require me to physically sync my iPad or iPhone to my MacBook Pro. All of it is done over the air. If I add a contact on the iPhone, it automatically shows up in the other two locations. If I delete an appointment on the iPad, it’s automatically removed from the iPhone and MacBook Pro calendars. All without syncing. That’s a big, big plus for me. I want all of my systems to be up to date all of the time.

No System Is Perfect

There are, of course some things I wish would change about iPad.

• The Keyboard. The keyboard is, simply put, not a joy. When in landscape mode, it fits my hands well enough but there a reduced set of keys available. The biggest issue is the home key for my right pinky finger. On a traditional, full sized keyboard the home key is the semi-colon; on the iPad, it’s the return key. It doesn’t sound like much on an issue, but it happens more than you’d think. Additionally the reduced set of keys can be an annoyance when remoting into a client server using WinAdmin. I don’t have the control key available to me to use shortcuts.
• Inconsistent Keyboards. One nice surprise for me was that iPhone apps work on the iPad. That’s really convenient at times. However the iPhone has a different keyboard layout than they iPad. They are both QWERTY, but the backspace key is in the lower right hand corner for the iPhone and in the upper right hand corner for the iPad. So the keyboard layout on my iPad changes based on whether the app is a native iPad app or one designed for the iPhone. That’s bad.
• Single-tasking. I know studies show that individuals are less effect when they multi-task. They are even less effect when they try to multi-task on a system cannot multi-task. That’s the case with the iPad. It cannot multi-task. Supposedly there’s an update coming that will add that capability.

Parting Thoughts

Overall, the iPad has done exactly what I’d hoped it would do. It’s helped me to streamline the various inputs into my trusted GTD system. I can now enter information directly into the various applications and have it all available to me over the air to my other devices. That’s what I was hoping for.

It’s not perfect though. The keyboard leave something to be desired, however I found that with a little practice I can indeed keep up while taking notes. Also, since there is no multi-tasking, switching between applications (eg from EverNote to my calendar and back) does take longer than necessary. Hopefully that’ll be addressed in a future update of the iOS.

Question:

• How do you use your iPad?
• What applications have you found to be useful?

Early in my career, I didn’t think it was my place to try to improve the meetings. Later I assumed it was just the way things worked. Eventually I realized that I was wrong on both accounts. Meetings can and should be better than they are.

So, I actively sought ways to make every meeting better. After much research, trial, and error, I’ve discovered some best practices for conducting meetings. I’ve also learned some things I can do to help improve meetings that I attend but don’t run.

I’m going to share these best practices later this afternoon during a session that I’m giving at devLINK. Here’s a link to the slide deck I’ll use.

Here’s a summary of my best practices:

• Distribute an agenda prior to the meeting. Without an agenda, people won’t know how to prepare ahead of time and the meeting will wander
• Have clearly defined purpose & outcome. Let your attendees know exactly what you expect to accomplish during the meeting.
• Start the meeting with a welcome, an agenda review, introductions, & ground rules. This sets the tone for the rest of the meeting.
• Keep to the agenda. Don’t drift; don’t run over.
• Create and document action items. Make sure everyone leaves the meeting with a clear understanding of who agreed to do what by when.
• Appoint a scribe to take & distribute notes. The notes don’t have to be fancy; just cover the decisions reached and action items assigned.

Questions:

• Have I missed a good practice?
• Are your meetings productive?
• What do you do to make the run smoothly?

Thanks for hanging around until the end, too! At the beginning of the session, I said we’d have 45 minutes to cover 90 minutes worth of material. Even so, I had in my mind that the session would last until noon. So when I finished at 11:55pm, I thought I had finished 5 minutes early. I didn’t realize until later that I was actually 10 minutes late! I hope it was worth your while.

As promised, here is a link to the presentation slide deck and the demo scripts (Query 1, Query 2). Feel free to ask any follow up questions in the comments area below. And I’d appreciate your feedback on the session in SpeakerRate.

Lots More SQL To Come

If you’re interested in more topics and sessions on SQL Server, the Nashville SQL Server User Group is hosting a SQLSaturday #51 in just a couple of weeks (August 21, 2010). There are over 30 great sessions presented by SQL Server MVPs, authors, and industry experts from around the country. And it’s completely free. Space is limited so register soon.

Thanks again and I hope to see you at SQLSaturday #51!

Series Outline

• So I Got Promoted, Now What?
• Stop Doing Your Old Job
• Employ the Same Successful Tactics
• Get to Know Your Peers
• Get a Trusted System
• Manage Your Email
• Manage Your Calendar
• Start Having Weekly One-On-Ones
• Recognize the Tendency to Revert

Constant Change

It seems that Moore’s Law is on its seventh double espresso. The law, which was originally described by Gordon E. Moore in 1965, primarily relates to advances in computer hardware. But given the dizzying pace of changes in all technology , I think it’s more broadly applicable to other areas today. The affects on IT Professionals is fairly obvious.

Can you name a database administrator, a solutions architect, a seasoned developer, or any other highly skilled, highly technical IT Professional that views his job as a run-of-the-mill 9 to 5 position? I can’t. Most successful people in our industry realize that in order to do their jobs, a certain amount of continuing education is required.

So over time, we’ve developed ways to keep up with the latest trends in our field. We listen to podcasts, read blogs, attend conferences, participate in user groups, and take training classes. These sources, among others, help us to do our jobs better.

There’s A Lot To Learn

It’s important to realize that once you’ve been promoted, your job has substantially changed. Many IT Professionals fail to recognize this shift and languish in their new role as Team Lead, Manager, or Director. I’ve seen it countless times at the companies where I’ve consulted.

Need proof? Think back to the first few weeks or months as a new database administrator or application developer. How much did you know, really know, about your job? At the time you may have thought you knew it all, but if you’re honest with yourself, you didn’t. Think about how much more you know now.

The same applies to your new job. You may feel like you know how to manage others and work at a higher level in the organization, but trust me when I say there’s plenty more to learn.

New Job, Same Preparation

That’s not to say that everything you learned in your last role is now obsolete. On the contrary, we can supplement that expertise with newfound and complementary knowledge and once again prepare to excel in our new role. The good news is that you already know how to do this – just take the same approach that landed you the promotion.

Dive Into Your New Role

In much the same way you seized your prior technical role and sought out every bit of information you could in your area of expertise, you can and should do the exact same thing in your new role. How?

• Seek out podcasts on how to manage a technical team. I like Manager Tools series of podcasts.
• Look for blogs that are dedicated to effective management.
• Attend a non-technical conference. Once again I hear good things about the Manager Tools conferences.
• Read books on effective communications and leadership. There are classics like anything from Peter Drucker and Dale Carnagie’s How To Win Friends and Influence People as well as more contemporary books like Good to Great.
• Join associations.

Expand Your Horizon

In your prior role, you may have found it valuable to learn some ancillary technologies to help you do your job better. The same is also true for your new role.

• Get involved with ToastMasters International.
• Read books about making presentations. Presenting to Win describes how to create an engaging presentation.
• Learn more about negotiations tactics.
• Look for opportunities to improve your budgeting and financial skills.

You Can’t Improve What You Don’t Measure

As a database or network professional, you may have found that capturing statistics and benchmarking data paid off in many ways. Metrics help determine when things are begining to depart from the norm. They can be used to help predict when upgrades will be needed. And they can be used to identify where the problem really is, and more importantly where it isn’t.

Metrics can be used in your new role, too. Capturing metrics can help you to justify new expenditures, identify gaps in your current levels and processes, and benchmark your areas of responsibility. Remember the adage: you cannot improve what you don’t measure.

Show Me The Money

Redundancy, high availability, and up-time are all good concepts and even measurements in some cases for technical people. We can see how they naturally help us to achieve our goals. However, oftentimes those concepts are a bit too abstract for other people, particularly those who may hold the pursestrings. In those cases, putting the concept or technology into financial terms often helps. For example the cost of a High Availability solution may be $200,000. That sounds expensive until you realize that the cost of being down for just one day is $500,000. In that case, $200,000 maybe well worth the investment depending on the probability of an outage.

The same tactics can be employed in your new role. Learn to associate your projects and requests with financial measures. Calculate the Return On Investment. The practice will help you to better understand the real need (or lack of real need). And it’ll help form a good basis for your request to your boss.

Carpe Diem

Although I couldn’t find a reference for it, I believe it was Tom Peters that once quipped “Nothing begets failure like success.” I believe he meant that once a company was successful at one endeavor, it was in danger of always trying to repeat that success and thus stifling true innovation.

As individuals, we are susceptible to that as well. If we, in our new job, continue doing the exact same set of tasks that made us successful in our prior role, we will doom ourselves to failure. However, we can employ the same fervor, the same passion, and the same tactics that lead to our prior success in our new roles and seize the day.