Just in case you’re looking for our two opensource projects that were once accessible via the Plumtree Portal, you can now find them on BEA dev2dev’s CodeShare. Here are the links:
Mingle: https://mingle.projects.dev2dev.bea.com
PHP EDK: https://plumtree-php-edk.projects.dev2dev.bea.com
Enjoy!
I often get asked the question: what’s your relationship with BEA?
Without lapsing into buzzword bingo (e.g. synergy), let me just say this: bdg is a BEA “Select Services Partner.” We work on our own or team up with BEA sales and service folks (and sometimes other system integrators as well) to deliver ALUI solutions to our joint customers. Recently, our partner profile was approved by BEA for publication on their web site, where you can get the scoop on what we do here at bdg.
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Considering all the fun we had at last year’s Odyssey, we’re planning on making a big splash at this year’s BEAWorld, which will feature a “Portal Pavilion” to cater to all the old Plumtree customers, partners and fans.
I can’t reveal too much about our plans just yet, but we’re putting out a call to our customers for speaking opportunities and gearing up to defend our “Booth of Pain” title (should we be called upon to do so). Also, if you plan to attend BEAWorld 2006, be sure to stop by the bdg booth to pick up some goodies . . . last year it was mousepads, but this year we’re thinking along the lines of something far less pragmatic. I’ll leave it at that. . . .
I’m very pleased to announce that I’ve been selected by BEA to be one of their featured bloggers on dev2dev, BEA’s product community site for developers by developers. You can read my dev2dev blog for all the Plumtree/ALUI tips that you’re used to finding here, but continue to check this space for news about bdg.
Also, stay tuned for a new Plumtree/ALUI podcast . . . coming soon!
I’m very pleased to announce that Mingle, a prototype of a BEA/Plumtree Web 2.0 social networking application, has been posted on the BEA/Plumtree Code Share!
Mingle was bdg’s winning entry in Odyssey 2005’s Booth of Pain competition.
Mingle features a set of adaptive portlets that work together to help people find one another and form social networks based on personal interests, physical proximity, etc. The portlets consist of:
Adaptive User Search (JSP): each keystroke issues an EDK/PRC search API call to help people find other people quickly and easily. Clicking on a person re-focuses the Network Browser, causing the browser to center on that person’s network.
Network Browser (Java/JSP): built as a Java applet leveraging an opensource hyperbolic graphing project (HyperGraph), this portlet shows the physical connections between people and allows you to browse the network.
Featured Person Profile (JSP): when a person double-clicks on another person in the Network Browser, this portlet shows that person’s complete user profile, include all the EOD attached to that user (Name, Address, Hobbies, etc.).
Del.icio.us Hobby Links (C#.NET): when a person clicks on the featured person’s hobby of choice, this portlet makes an adaptive request to del.icio.us to download social bookmarks relevant to the hobby.
Google Map Locator (HTML/Javascript): when a person clicks on the feature person’s address, this portlet makes an adaptive request to a free geocoder and then to Google Maps to display an interactive map of the person’s address in the portal.
Mingle is bdg’s second open source offering to the BEA/Plumtree community. You can download the source and install it on your own BEA/Plumtree deployment.
Have fun, and if you run into problems, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
I just cut the third episode of the bdg Plumtree Podcast. I’m very happy to say that I’ve worked out a glitch in the connection between the mixer and my laptop which eliminates that awful high-pitched hum you hear in the first two episodes.
In Episode 3, I talk about the name changes that resulted from the merger between Plumtree and BEA Systems and the impact of these changes on the portal market.
I also talk about a thought-provoking podcast I heard yesterday given by Medsphere Systems Corporation’s CEO Larry Augustine. You can read more about the podcast or check it out on iTunes.
As always, we end with a trivia question.
I’m interested to hear your feedback — please send your comments to [email protected].
I rode public transit today (always good for the soul) and had a chance to listen to some of the many podcasts that I’ve downloaded to my iPod. One I found particularly interesting was a recording of Larry Augustine’s talk at the Open Source Business Conference held in San Francisco in April of 2005.
If you want to hear the podcast yourself, you can check it out in iTunes — it’s Episode 12.
Basically, Larry argued two things — one is that large applications (CRM, ERP, etc.) are the “next wave” of open source development and the other is that the open source business model can actually lead to more profits than the traditional “broken” model of selling enterprise software for large license fees.
bdg already offers one product as open source — the PHP EDK, but this podcast made me start to rethink our model. Perhaps all of our products should be free and we should continue to make our money off services, maintenance and support.
I ruminate (publicly) on this topic in the third episode of the bdg Plumtree Podcast, which also covers the Plumtree->AquaLogic name changes.
I’m interested to hear your thoughts as well.
In today’s podcast (Episode 2: What is Plumtree?), I cover the short and long answers to the question I get asked most often: what is Plumtree? In the long answer, I give the Plumtree story from a historic perspective, talking about when and why each feature was added and what makes each feature relevant to you, the Plumtree developer or Plumtree consumer.
I also answer last week’s trivia question and ask a new question. Lastly, I hint at the subject of several future podcasts.
Enjoy the podcast and please send your feedback (and the answer to the trivia question) to [email protected].
I’m very pleased to announce that bdg has officially kicked off our very much irregular and irreverent Plumtree podcast!
Please download and listen to our first episode, which talks about the background of your host, yours truly, Chris Bucchere; gives a rundown of recent news in the Plumtree world including G6 features and an Odyssey recap; and ends with a trivia challenge.
See if you can be our first winner by answering the question at the end of the podcast. Enjoy!
With a resounding victory this morning in the Booth of Pain, bdg put the wraps on what will probably be the last Plumtree Odyssey.
We sent five people this year: me (President & CEO), Eric Bucchere (Account Manager) and Rich Weinhold (Plumtree Developer) representing the East Coast and Howie Bagley (VP Sales & Service) and Steve Markoff (Plumtree Architect) representing the West Coast. We had the opportunity to meet many of you at our booth – thank you for stopping by and introducing yourselves! In the upcoming weeks we’ll be raffling off the iPod Nano that was on display in our booth. If you asked us to follow up with you, expect to receive a follow up call or e-mail in the next 2-3 weeks.
Although the official feedback has not been tallied up yet, the talk we gave with Wind River was standing room only and I personally received lots of positive comments including one person who said that our session was the highlight of this year’s Odyssey. Another piece of feedback I got from Jack Jones of DTIC was that without our training (given in 2004), they would have gotten nowhere with their Plumtree project.
Winning the Booth of Pain competition was the icing on the cake. Despite the heat, the claustrophobic booth and numerous distractions from David Meyer (including scaling my booth, firing projectiles at me and scrawling the word “LOSER” across my booth with Silly String), I was able to compile and assemble the PTMingle application in about 25 or 30 minutes and then give a demo, which was very well received by the audience. In a humorous moment, I clicked on a del.icio.us hobby link related to “Romance Novels” and it displayed a half naked, hunky long haired dude with a cheesy smile (think Fabio). I quickly closed the window amid quite a bit of laughter from the audience.
PTMingle at this point is no more than a concept application/prototype, but expect to see the code used in the Booth of Pain competition up on the Code Share within the next few days. Plumtree data visualization in hyperbolic trees, profile integration with del.icio.us and Google maps integration are all hot topics right now and all areas of interest that bdg would like to pursue, so you should keep an eye out for more offerings from bdg that exhibit these features.
In closing, I wanted to send a resounding THANK YOU out to Yi Hong Xu of Wind River for her help with the presentation, to Mattias Cudich for plugging this blog during his Holland presentation (more on this later), to all of you who attended our presentation or the Booth of Pain, to all of you who stopped by our booth and last but certainly not least to the stellar team of bdg-ers who made this event a huge success for bdg.
On a personal note, this year’s Odyssey had a bittersweet feel for me. It was my sixth Odyssey, having attended four as a Plumtree employee, two as a bdg-er and missing just one (in 2003) and it will most likely be the last. We do, however, look forward to seeing all of you again next year at BEA World in San Francisco.
Look for more posts from me regarding the material presented at Odyssey, especially on Project Holland, which has exciting implications for future BEA/Plumtree offerings.
We’re going for a big splash this year at the final Odyssey+ADC while Plumtree is still, well, Plumtree.
Plumtree just released the onsite guide showing bdg in several places, so I figured it was time to announce our plans for this great user conference, which takes place Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of next week.
For starters, we’re sponsoring at the bronze level, which includes a booth in the partner pavilion. At the booth, we’ll be handing out bdg mouse pads, marketing literature about PTSkinz and the PHP EDK, giving demos of PTSkinz and giving away an iPod Nano!
In addition to our booth presence, we’ll be co-presenting on Monday at 3:30 PM in the Regency 2 ballroom with Plumtree and bdg customer Wind River. The topic of our presentation is “Keeping it Simple: Best Practices in User Interface Design and Customization.”
Lastly, we’ll be competing in the Booth of Pain, a coding competition that will show attendees how to assemble a composite application in Plumtree from source code. That takes place at 10:15 AM on Wednesay in the Diplomat 3,4 & 5 ballrooms.
Please stop by our booth, pick up a free mouse pad, register to win an iPod Nano and join us for our presentation with Wind River and/or the Booth of Pain.
We look forward to seeing you at Odyssey!