Andrew Powell

Flash Camp is coming to Washington, DC on April 16th.  It will be a full day of great content on topics ranging from UX to Flex.  Admission is dirt cheap and lunch will be provided.  Come on out for a full day of great content and great networking with some of the area's industry experts!

When:  April 16, 2010

Where:  Navy Heritage Center (Naval Memorial stop on the Metro)

More Info:  www.capitalflashcamp.com

This month's issue of ComputerWorld contains a cover story titled: "Can Web 2.0 Save BI?".  SpatialKey is featured on the cover of the issue as part of the article!  The article goes into depth about how the Ogden Police Department is using Web 2.0 (SpatialKey Law Enforcement, in particular) to analyze data in seconds, rather than days.  Doug and Ben go into this article in a bit more detail if you want to learn more about it.  

Anyway, here is the cover:

Today, Universal Mind unveils SpatialKey. SpatialKey represents the latest cutting edge Information Visualization, Analysis, and Reporting; all powered by Adobe Flex. The heart of what SpatialKey does is that it enables you to quickly visualize your data over both space and time. Allowing for playback, map comparison, aggregate mapping, and visualization via heat index, SpatialKey lets you see your data as never before.

Compared to other mapping and visualization applications, SpatialKey is lightweight, yet still leverages a powerful set of advanced temporal tools. You can filter data with the histogram/timeline widget and modify your view of the data with the advanced heatmap component, just to highlight a few features. You can render data in to heatmaps, heat grids, and graduated circles with all datasets imported into SpatialKey. Each visualization can help your discern complex patterns and trends from your dataset as never before.

Whether you initially realize it or not, everyone's data has both a spatial and a time component to it. Where are your customers? Where are your suppliers? Where are your assets? When did your transactions occur? Where did the occur? When is delivery expected, When did it actually happen? The combination of any of these questions, plus many more not mentioned, becomes much clearer when visualized through SpatialKey. Time components as general as years and as precise as milliseconds are supported. SpatialKey also has a powerful, built-in geocoder that will automatically geocode addresses (or even just city names). You can also supply your own latitude/longitude pairs, if you have them.

So, who is this for? Well, there are three versions of SpatialKey to fit your needs:

• SpatialKey Personal: SpatialKey Personal provides the ability to import multiple datasets from Excel or a CSV file into the SpatialKey client. This data can be used with several different visualization templates and reports. Where other Internet-based solutions are limited to hundreds of points on a map, SpatialKey Personal uses advanced rendering techniques to visualize thousands of points on a map. Additionally, it provides multiple approaches to visualize your data with heatmaps, grids, and graduated circles. Instead of providing a one size fits all interface we provide specific, unique, visualization templates. Each template has its own capabilities allowing you to view your data in different templates and see it in different ways. One template will allow you to filter your data by date, location, and other parameters, then allow you to drill down into the data. Other templates will allow you to compare with two different maps. Another will allow you to playback the data over time. SpatialKey will continue to improve by adding new templates as we develop new features. There will be no need to import your data again just open it with a new template. With the current technology preview of SpatialKey Personal, users are limited to only viewing our sample data sets. If you are interested in a visualization of your own data, you can upload a sample data set. Also, you can sign up for the beta and be notified when the full release SpatialKey Personal is available with import capabilities as well as an expanded set of visualization templates.
• SpatialKey Enterprise: While the personal solution can provide visualizations and reports for thousands of data points, the enterprise solution can provide real time interaction with millions of data points through a unique architecture and data handling capability developed by Universal Mind. Complex data sets can be collected, analyzed, and navigated through using a number of approaches, including the ability to zoom into and out of geographic areas with automatic data clustering that ensures relavancy at different zoom levels. SpatialKey Enterprise combines the features of the SpatialKey Personal client with a Java based server side architecture that integrates into your existing systems through an SOA/component based architecture. This enables easy integration with a wide variety of data types including structured and unstructured data as well as custom maps exposed through ESRI ArcGIS Server. SpatialKey Enterprise includes a data publisher/importer service that allows SpatialKey to plug into nearly any existing system within your environment. One example of a SpatialKey Enterprise implementation is SpatialKey Law Enforcement.
• SpatialKey Custom Solutions: SpatialKey was created by the Universal Mind consulting team. Universal Mind is a recognized leader in developing Enterprise Class RIA Solutions, Application Frameworks, and Legacy Integration and Optimization Architectures that change the competitive game in the markets into which they are deployed. The Universal Mind consulting team can develop a custom solution based on your specific requirements using the SpatialKey Framework. If you are interested in a custom solution contact us to provide a quote.

SpatialKey has been a big Universal Mind initiative for a while now. My contribution was in the data importer service for SpatialKey Enterprise. It gave me a good chance to architect a very scaleable, flexible J2EE solution. We did some really cool, cutting edge work that I feel we can all hang our hats on and be proud of the job we've done, as a team, in getting this ready for prime-time. Big ups to the whole team who worked on this: Doug McCune, Ben Stucki, Brandon Purcell, Reggie Willbanks, Mike Connor, Zach Johnson, & Tom Link. There are a long list of other people within the Universal Mind Family who have put in blood, sweat, and tears as well and they all deserve a big hand for their role in this great achievement.

Are you really excited to start using SpatialKey? Well, head over to the new SpatialKey site and you can look at some of the sample templates we have up. You can also sign up for the beta and be notified when you can download SpatialKey Personal for use with your own datasets. Comments are open.

I've been a bit busy since leaving St. Paul, so I've not had the time to collect my thoughts on cf.Objective() until today.  

My initial thoughts are that it was a better show than last year. The content was, again, top notch.  The food and hotel were great, and the people were, as always, the best part.  It was good to meet new faces and reconnect with old friends & people I only know via blog comment conversations.

There were very few sessions that I went to that disappointed me and didn't meet my expectations.  The first highlight, for me, was the coming out party for Mate (http://mate.asfusion.com) & Swiz (http://code.google.com/p/swizframework/).  I think that by this time next year, they will have matured into full fledged alternatives to Cairngorm.  They're both well on their way now.  

The second highlight was the ColdFusion 9 BOF.  It was, without a doubt, the single most rowdy session I've ever attended at a conference (my & Brian's contributions not withstanding).  As much as there were a lot of truer OO functionality pieces asked for, I couldn't help but think:  "Why not learn Java?", but that's another blog post.  The knowledge gap in the room was almost palpable, but I think the "thought leaders" of the CF Community (as someone so eloquently put it in another review) should accept the challenge and step up and help close the gap for those that want to get into hardcore CF development.  How do we do that?  I don't have a damn clue right now, I'm just throwing ideas out.

I'm going to go on record as saying that for both price and quality of content, cf.Objective() is the single best conference for ColdFusion developers, hands down.  There is no competition.  And, yes, I was a shameless shill for my buddies at 360|Flex, the Flex world's equivalent.  

That being said, you sure better know what you're doing with ColdFusion when you walk in the door.  All content can be considered "200 level" and above.  If you're a cfNoob, you'll be way lost and over your head.  Plain and simple.

On to my session.... 

I had a LOT of blank stares in my session, but I kind expected that.  I know the stuff I was doing was going to be way over a lot of people's heads.  I will be posting a comprehensive HOWTO document on setting up Spring & Hibernate with ColdFusion in the next few days.  There are a few people who really got it and even extended it to work with ColdSpring (good job, Joe).   If I confused you, just try to remember to look at ColdFusion (the server) as just another J2EE app and it will be an easier task for you.

That's about all I've got.  Feel free to comment on my session or whatever you like. 

Do not try to understand Cairngorm; that's impossible. Instead only try to realize the truth: There is no framework. Then you'll see, that it is not Cairngorm that bends, it is only yourself.