Change of Publishing Strategy with my Tips

I have published a fair number of Tips over the life of this blog, pretty much all centered around Documentum.  While I am not going to change my writing of Tips, I am going to do a few things:

  1. Publish Documentum Tips on the EMC Developer Network: I started a blog there, Pie on Content Management, which I have infrequently used.  I am going to keep my tips there so that they are searchable by the community by the average user.
  2. Link to Remote Tips: As I create these new tips, I will continue to add links to them from my Tips page.  If I create other Tips posts in other locations, I will add those as well.
  3. Notification: If you don’t follow me on Twitter, you can still track the tips.  I will try and keep the alert on this page updated with any recent remotely posted tips.

I have just posted my first tip on the EDN titled Tips: Installing Documentum 6.6 on SQL Server 2008 and 64-bit.  I recently performed this feat and wanted to share some specific things that I learned.

Enjoy.

Stage 1 Complete, Documentum Helps Developers

I’ve been meaning to talk about the new Documentum Developer Edition for a while now.  I’ve referred to it in previous posts and twittered about it.  More recently, Marko over at Big Men on Content has talked about the benefits of freely available ECM platforms for development and proof-of-concepts.  I thought some spare vacation time, and the release of the 6.5 sp2 version, was a perfect time to write-up my thoughts.

To start with, ABOUT TIME!!! Okay, that may be a little strong, but in the age of open source and when Microsoft and Oracle have been offering developer editions of their core products for years this was way overdue.  If you want the developer pool to grow, which is one of the major costs of a large-scale deployment, you need to allow them to use the tools.  There are lots of independent consultants out there that have trouble keeping-up with the technology because they can’t afford to become partners for the requisite fee.  The Developer Edition makes it easier on them (and harder on me, but that is another post) to deliver into the market.

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The Source Code from the AIIM iECM CMIS Demo

I’ve been promising this for a while, but it is finally available.  I had all these plans, but I decided to just get the code out for everyone as I seem to keep getting busy.  You can tell that the code was written to work and not to be supported.  All you critics can relax, I know already.

Before I go any further, I want to thank Craig Randall for his sample application that helped me get started. That application is also available on the EDN as well. Read his write-up, Consuming CMIS WSDL in Visual Studio and then go to the EDN for his code.

I also want to thank Thomas Pole for helping to write the User Interface, design the object model,  and leading AIIM’s efforts around iECM and CMIS in general.  Some of the code you will see is his.

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My Floating Head on the EMC Developer Network

Have you ever read my blog and wondered what I sound like in normal conversation?  Have you looked at the new EMC Developer Network and you weren’t sure where to start?  Want to solve all the problems in the ECM world by starting to document our Design Patterns?

Are you in luck!  Alan Z and the crew over at the EDN patiently waited while I filmed myself talking to space and put together a quick little video explaining how we can start working together to capture our Design Patterns.  This video focuses on some content in the Documentum portion of the EDN, but this approach can work for capturing any knowledge in the EDN.

So go out there and start adding content.  I’m sure the EDN team will reward heavy contributors to the Design Patterns.  I know I will owe a debt of gratitude to the heavy contributors and I will pay-off that debt at the next conference.  More importantly, do it to help each other.  Set an example for others.  Even if you add one fact to the process, that is a fact that someone will need that nobody else may know.

Let’s go people.  Time to become more than just implementers.

The New Developer Network and ECM Design Patterns

It has been a while since my last real post.  It hasn’t been for lack of things to talk about, I’ve just been extremely busy.  I am still behind on things, but I can see the light and this is a topic that just won’t wait.

One of the things that I’ve set as a goal is to build a better, stronger community for Documentum experts.  This isn’t just for developers, or only a place to go to ask questions.  It is building a sense that we are all in this together.  For those that haven’t noticed, the EMC Developer Network recently went through the promised upgrade into a tool that will allow us to build that Documentum Community.

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A Year in the Life of Pie

As I sit here in the plane, flying back home from Vegas and the chaotic, fun, learning experience that is EMC World, I am taking a moment to reflect on the last year. It was one year ago that I started this blog. I was sitting in Orlando waiting for my flight and I wanted to share my thoughts on EMC World. A year later, I found myself blogging my way through the conference. I don’t want to talk about conferences right now though. I just want to reflect on my first year in the blogsphere.

Word By the Numbers

I don’t care about the numbers much. I care about the message. All the numbers do is tell me if you, the reader, care about the message. They can be fun to look at though.

A Brief History of the Word

It started simple enough, discussions about new features of D6. I started anonymously so that if I got bored, nobody would know. I didn’t get bored. My posts attracted the interest of James and over the course of a few weeks, I got a crash course in public discourse over the blogsphere, and a more diverse audience than I ever expected. The conversation expanded to included others and then it went a little downhill.

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See Pie at EMC World 2008

As if there was any doubt, I will be attending EMC World 2008 this year in Las Vegas (May 18-22). It is the best place to corner the product managers to see what is coming down the pike. The sessions are mostly useful, but the highlight is getting to talk to other users and the EMC staff. I strongly recommend attending if you have a Documentum installation.

Watch for the Word

I plan on blogging during/after every session that I attend. While I can’t share many of my offline conversations, some of what I hear is not for public dissemination, I will share everything from the presentations.

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ECM Design Patterns

Recently, the EMC Developer Network has started posting some “Design Patterns”. I use the term loosely to mirror their terminology. Each “pattern” is really just a quick description of the problem and two approaches to solve the problem. It is all very high level.

Before I get any further, kudos to them for actually taking the time to begin developing these “patterns”, starting last fall. There is a definite need, and their choices for the first two are ones that are encountered quite frequently, at least by myself. All I am doing here is offering some feedback, most of which I have already shared.

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Participating in the EMC Developer Network

Over the last few months, the EMC Developer Network has been starting the process of trying to build a community. They’ve recently added forums and are working at getting members of the Documentum community to not only write articles, but to comment upon them. Alan Zenreich, the main man behind the curtain at the Developer Network, is working to increase member involvement beyond just a few individuals.

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