ALFARIS - TheTech-Savvy

The Google Wave invite rollout extravaganza started more than a month ago. While in some respects the buzz around Google Wave has started to subside, the term is still constantly one of the top trending topics on Twitter, and new gadgets, extensions, and applications are now starting to appear on a daily basis.

Each day more and more people are opening up their email inbox to find an invite to Google Wave (). With that shiny new invite comes the inevitable quest for ideas about to how to put the medium to good use.

Should you happen to be one of those people, we’ve got a number of different resources that you can use to get up to speed with Google Wave. This time around, however, we wanted to look at how people are actually using it now. From process modelling and customer service, to project collaboration, annotation, and gaming, the examples listed here highlight the power of the newborn medium, and in part, showcase what we can expect as the platform matures.

1. SAP Gravity: Modeling within Google Wave

Understanding the power of real-time collaboration and its relevance to clients, SAP Research in Australia () has developed a business process modeling tool called Gravity that works within Google Wave.

The sophisticated tool, which can be embedded within a Wave as a gadget, allows for team members to remotely build complex models in unison, or after catching up via playback, without having to leave Google Wave.

Gravity and Google Wave work together harmoniously to create a modeling environment that appears to be just as robust as, if not more flexible than, expensive desktop software built for the same purpose.

We think SAP is certainly on to something here, and we encourage you to watch the video demonstration of Gravity in Google Wave in action.

2. Salesforce: Google Wave for Customer Service

Salesforce, like SAP, has figured out that they can use the Google Wave platform to support client needs and tackle real-life problems. As such, Salesforce has created a Google Wave extension that clients can use to help automate, and even personalize, the customer service experience.

Watch the demonstration video to see how the Salesforce extension gives customers the ability to use Google Wave to interact with an automated support robot. Of course, customers can request assistance from a human within the Wave as well.

What makes this example stand out is the fact that not only is the Google Wave dialogue being stored as a case record within Salesforce, but, because the robot is connected to the Salesforce Service Cloud, the robot can access previously stored customer data for tailored service. Ultimately, Salesforce has found a way to potentially save clients money on customer service efforts, all the while maintaining active records, with the assistance of Google Wave.

3. Mingle: Integrated Project Collaboration

Mingle is a project management and team collaboration tool developed by ThoughtWorks Studios, who realized that they could add Mingle’s project management metadata to conversations in Google Wave.

The integration is still a work in progress, but a demonstration of the concept was highlighted at Enterprise 2.0, and the basic idea is to give Google Wave users/Mingle clients the ability to bring their Mingle task data, which takes the form of cards, into Google Wave. Existing Mingle cards can be embedded into Wave conversation threads, and new Mingle cards/tasks can be created within Google Wave.

This particular use case highlights how Google Wave can work with existing project management systems for more streamlined and cohesive communication, creating parity regardless of where the user is accessing project data.

4. Ecomm Conference: Annotating a Live Event

Just last week our CEO, Pete Cashmore, wrote about how the savvy people behind the Ecomm conference doled out Wave accounts to attendees so that they could collaborate, in real-time, to annotate presentation content. The result was arguably a much better way to consume conference content than attempting to follow hashtag tweets on Twitter ().

You can read the full account, which was documented by Charlie Osmond, on the FreshNetworks blog, but here’s an excerpt that we think drives home the utility of the use case.

“Here’s what happened: an audience member would create a Google Wave and others in the audience would edit the wave during the presentation. The result would be a crowd-sourced write-up of the presentation: a transcript of key points and a record of audience comments.”

We happen to think this particular use case is genius, especially for content-rich seminars and events where attendees are typically taking their own individual notes. With the shared Google Wave experience they can combine forces to create a more meaningful and accurate recounting of information shared in conference sessions.

5. Gamers: Google Wave RPGs

A very detailed Ars Technica post highlights that there’s a growing collection of Google Wave users who are using the medium to play wave-borne RPGs (role playing games). As mentioned in the post, there’s a even a Wave dedicated to serving as an index for all the Wave RPGs currently in existence, and the last time we counted it included upwards of 300 contributing members, and a combination of 30 different ideas or full-fledged games.

According to Jon Stokes, the author of the post, Google Wave is adequate for some RPGs, but it could certainly be improved to allow for a more enjoyable experience. In the excerpt below, Stokes describes the current RPG () experience within Google Wave:

“The few games I’m following typically have at least three waves: one for recruiting and general discussion, another for out-of-character interactions (”table talk”), and the main wave where the actual in-character gaming takes place. Individual players are also encouraged to start waves between themselves for any conversations that the GM shouldn’t be privy to. Character sheets can be posted in a private wave between a player and the GM, and character biographies can go anywhere where the other players can get access to them.

The waves are persistent, accessible to anyone who’s added to them, and include the ability to track changes, so they ultimately work quite well as a medium for the non-tactical parts of an RPG. A newcomer can jump right in and get up-to-speed on past interactions, and a GM or industrious player can constantly maintain the official record of play by going back and fixing errors, formatting text, adding and deleting material, and reorganizing posts. Character generation seems to work quite well in Wave, since players can develop the shared character sheet at their own pace with periodic feedback from the GM.”

A management information system (MIS) is a subset of the overall internal controls of a business covering the application of people, documents, technologies, and procedures by management accountants to solving business problems such as costing a product, service or a business-wide strategy. Management information systems are distinct from regular information systems in that they are used to analyze other information systems applied in operational activities in the organization.^[1] Academically, the term is commonly used to refer to the group of information management methods tied to the automation or support of human decision making, e.g. Decision Support Systems, Expert systems, and Executive information systems.^[1]

Overview:

At the start, in businesses and other organizations, internal reporting was made manually and only periodically, as a by-product of the accounting system and with some additional statistics, and gave limited and delayed information on management performance.

In their infancy, business computers were used for the practical business of computing the payroll and keeping track of accounts payable and accounts receivable. As applications were developed that provided managers with information about sales, inventories, and other data that would help in managing the enterprise, the term "MIS" arose to describe these kinds of applications. Today, the term is used broadly in a number of contexts and includes (but is not limited to): decision support systems, resource and people management applications, project management and database retrieval application.

Definition:

An 'MIS' is a planned system of the collecting, processing, storing and disseminating data in the form of information needed to carry out the functions of management. According to Philip Kotler "A marketing information system consists of people, equipment, and procedures to gather, sort, analyze, evaluate, and distribute needed, timely, and accurate information to marketing decision makers." ^[2]

The terms MIS and information system are often confused. Information systems include systems that are not intended for decision making. The area of study called MIS is sometimes referred to, in a restrictive sense, as information technology management. That area of study should not be confused with computer science. IT service management is a practitioner-focused discipline. MIS has also some differences with Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) as ERP incorporates elements that are not necessarily focused on decision support.

Professor Allen S. Lee states that "...research in the information systems field examines more than the technological system, or just the social system, or even the two side by side; in addition, it investigates the phenomena that emerge when the two interact." ^[3].

References:

1. ^ ^{a b} O’Brien, J (1999). Management Information Systems – Managing Information Technology in the Internetworked Enterprise. Boston: Irwin McGraw-Hill. ISBN 0071123733.
2. ^ Kotler, Philip; Keller, Kevin Lane (2006). Marketing Management (12 ed.). Pearson Education.
3. ^ Lee, Allen S. (2001). "Editor’s Comments". MIS Quarterly 25 (1): iii-vii.

What is .NET?

• A set of .NET languages that can be said to function in a common environment.
These languages all execute in a common runtime and all make use of a common library of components. Visual Studio .NET includes a group of Microsoft-built languages that conform to the .NET standard.

• Full interoperability with existing code
Existing COM binaries can be mixed together with newer .NET binaries and vice versa. Besides, Platform Invocation Services allows you to call C-based libraries from .NET code.

• A truly simplified deployment model
Using .NET, there is no need to register a binary unit into the system registry. Moreover, .NET allows multiple versions of the same .dll to exist in harmony on a single machine.


• A distributed application service
More and more services will be accessible from the Internet as network bandwidth increases and waiting times decrease, so it is possible to provide real-time services through the Internet.
The .NET platform makes use of XML and SOAP in order to describe and manipulate data.


The .NET Platform
Architecture of the .NET platform is made up of:-
• .NET Framework
• Common Language Specifications (CLS)
• Common Language Runtime (CLR)
• Microsoft Intermediate Language (MSIL)
• Base Class Library (BCL).



- The CLS—Common Language Specifications (We are now all speaking the same language)
In an object-oriented environment, everything is an object. Once you have created an object, your object needs to communicate with many other objects. These other objects may have been created in another .NET language, but that doesn’t matter, because each language sticks to the rules of the Common Language Specifications. The CLS defines such things as common variable types, common method specifications, and so on.

- The CLR—Common Language Runtime
All .NET-compliant languages run in a common, managed runtime execution environment.
Advantages of having a common runtime environment:-


• Simplified development and integrated development with other languages
Because of the CLR, you can rely on code that is accessed from different languages. One coder can write one module in C++, and another can access and use it from C#.


• Automatic Garbage Collection
The CLR has a service called the Garbage Collector (GC), which automatically manages memory for you.
• The GC automatically deletes objects from memory that your program will no longer access.
• The GC relieves the programmer of traditional tasks such as deallocating memory.

• Replacement of DLLs with versioned assemblies
The CLR uses the version information that comes packaged in an assembly to make sure that the application will load the correct component. This was a nightmare for DLL programmers, even though COM (Component Object Model) was supposed to correct most of the problems.


- Microsoft Intermediate Language
Microsoft Intermediate Language (MSIL) or, as it is known, Intermediate Language (IL). In its simplest terms, IL is an assembly-type language.
Let’s look at the steps you follow to create, compile, and run a C# program. By exploring this, you will be able to see where the MSIL fits in and how it works with the .NET Framework.



- The BCL—Base Class Library
The Base Class Library (BCL) is a large class library used by the .NET Framework and available for you to use in your programs as well. The BCL is a runtime library that describes many classes that can be used in any software project. Essentially, this means that you have at your fingertips an arsenal of prebuilt blueprints to assist you in your programming effort. Let’s say that you have to create an application that provides network communication between two computers. Your first step would be to create a socket, which is a combination of the IP address and a port number. So you would set about creating a class file that describes this process. In anticipation of this, Microsoft has created a Socket class within the Base Class Library. You simply create an object of that class and call the methods you need.

Some of the built-in classes:
• General base classes: Classes that provide you with an extremely powerful set of tools for a wide range of programming tasks, such as string manipulation, security, and encryption.
• Collection classes: Classes that implement lists, dictionaries, hash tables, and bit arrays
• Threading and synchronization classes: Classes for building multithreaded programs
• XML classes: Classes for creating, reading, and manipulating XML documents