Running Magik Remotely from Google Talk

Bhimesh over at the Magik Fun blog has posted a video of how he uses the XMPP protocol to send/retrieve standard input/output from Magik. It kind of reminds me of the remote_cli class in Magik.

You can view the blog post here.

questions on the limitations of new GE Product on Oracle/Java

(For some reason the RSS feed does not show comment updates, so I wanted to respond to a comment in a new post.)

ninjacodemonkey had some comments on my original article about VMDS/Magik versus Oracle/Java that beg some questions. The comment ends with "Of course, this does depend on GE's willingness and ability to support two competing product lines. Obsolescence is a two-way street my friend."

Questions I have for GE:

• do you intend to support both Oracle and VMDS product lines into the future? I have heard some unofficial comments about continued investment in the VMDS product line into the future. Could GE communicate how much they plan to invest in Magik/VMDS in the next 5-10 years. Clearly the level of investment would indicate GE's commitment to both both product lines.
• I am at a bit of a disadvantage in that I was not at GITA 30. Were any readers of this blog at the conference and did any of you hear any communication from GE about investment in existing and new products on VMDS/Magik? I am interested in your comments.
  

Questions I have for ninjacodemonkey:

• you state "It [GE's Oracle technology] appears to be a far less functional, less flexible and lower performing application." At the risk of making this sound like a college exam question...
  
• can you give an example of less functional
  
• can you give an example of less flexible
• can you give an example of lower performing
• "mediocrity of Java"
• Why should customers choose the "proprietariness of Magik" over the "mediocrity of Java"? I think Pedro and Tom have some valid concerns about the cost of Magik developers compared to Java developers. Do you think overcoming the "mediocrity of Java" is worth the extra cost of acquiring Magik skills?
  
• It seems to me, though, that some customers might actually benefit from the Oracle/Java product. Can you think of any customer profile that would realize benefits with the new product line?
• Finally, what do you mean by "Obsolescence is a two-way street my friend."?

Those are my questions for the day. As always I welcome all opinions whether from ninjacodemonkey, stylechimp, casechimp, or any other form of primate.

talk to me GE

If you were able to attend GITA 30, you would have likely heard the announcement "GE Energy to Introduce New Oracle-Based Product Portfolio for Electric Disturbition Utilities" (be sure to read the comments for this article). It is also likely that if you had any questions and concerns at that meeting that there would have been plenty of GE representatives there to answer your questions and assuage your concerns. It sounds to me that GE had a consistent message that they were able to get out to the attendees.

If you were not able to attend GITA 30 it is likely that you now have more questions than answers about this strategic announcement by GE. I was unable to attend GITA so I count myself in that group of under informed Smallworld users/partners. If this year's attendance was any indication, then I imagine that many others in the Smallworld community were also not able to make use of the direct interaction with GE representatives to have their questions/concerns heard. And GITA attendance is largely from the Western Hemisphere. European, Asian and African Smallworld community members would have had even less chance to get their questions answered.

I suspect that this year's Smallworld Users Conferences will be dominated by presentations on this new architecture (and hopefully demonstrations), but it seems like a long time to wait until September/October to have our questions answered.

Maybe GE would consider some of the following communication options:

• press release
• been there done that
• send a more detailed note out to all Smallworld users/partners
• Smallworld Helpdesk has a fairly efficient mechanism in the SupportCentral site to send out blanket e-mails to all users. Use this feature to give a more-detailed-than-the-press-release announcement to the Smallworld community
• Online forum
• I understand that there might be concerns about making information available on an uncontrolled list, so extend the Global Customer Forums (see On-line Smallworld resources (closed and open)) to include a forum where customers/partners are invited to post any questions they have about the new product.
• Commit to having GE management/technical staff answer each post in a timely manner.
  
• FAQ
• As the questions start coming in to GE as phone calls and e-mails, compile a list of Frequently Asked Questions and post them in the forum.
• online demonstrations
• provide WebEx demonstrations of a more technical nature where we can see how the new tools are supposed to work.

Most importantly, please talk to us sooner than later. It would be helpful even to send out a note (another press release, maybe) that indicates dates and types of information will be made available. For example "GE will have a new customer forum opened by April 1", etc...

As always, I welcome readers' comments. In particular, I am interested in what kind of communication you would find helpful to address your questions or concerns about this new "non-GIS" spatial product announcement by GE.

Cutting out the GIS Middleman

As the days roll on from the original GE announcement to move to a 100% Oracle/Java solution, more details are slowly trickling in.

Directions Magazine has an article (Cutting Out the GIS Middleman: GE Energy Cements Relationship with Oracle to Build Enterprise Applications) that sheds some more light on GE's direction.

It seems to me that GE is trying to leap-frog over some of its GIS competitors who have used Oracle in the past but used it in a proprietary fashion.

[Updated: 11:46 am 15March07... I did not know that Oracle ships with landbase data. Have a look at http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/spatial/pdf/navteq_faq.pdf]

All Points Blog podcast on GE/Smallworld/Java/Oracle

There is a podcast put out by the editors of www.allpointsblog.com that includes two stories from last week's GITA 30 in San Antonio, Texas, USA. The second of the two stories is an editorial on GE's announcement to move to a Java/Oracle architecture.

The podcast page is here. If you click on "Listen Now" you will have to wait until about 60% through the podcast to get to the editorial on GE. The story does not tell me too much new, but it is interesting to get a point of view from people that are not necessarily directly involved in the Smallworld community.

goodbye VMDS/Magik, hello Oracle/Java?

Well, not quite.

Earlier this week, GE issued a press release "GE Energy to Introduce New Oracle-Based Product Portfolio for Electric Disturbition Utilities". I had heard rumblings of such an announcement in the days leading up to the release and was very anxious to understand what GE Energy would be announcing.

At first glance, this announcement seems to suggest another significant paradigm shift in the Smallworld application. The most recent significant paradigm shift was the move to the Smallworld Application Framework (SWAF). Some customers are still preparing for the SWAF upgrade. To be faced with an announcement like this (Smallworld on Oracle/Java) might come as a bit of a shock. But if you read the press release carefully, you will see that this announcement is geared to small- and mid-sized electric utility companies.

If you are a larger utility company that has invested considerably in VMDS and Magik technology, Bob Gilligan states that this new product line will complement the current Smallworld offerings. I find it significant that Mr. Gilligan used "complement" and not "replace".

Clearly GE Energy needs to grow more license sales and it seems to me that offering Smallworld in an Oracle/Java environment will make the sale more appealing to smaller users who do not have the resources to commit to learning another database and programming language. Having said that, I suspect that as some of the mid-sized utilities start asking the Oracle/Java application to do greater and greater things (especially around long transaction management and customising the data model), it might be a more natural step to direct them to VMDS/Magik. I think VMDS/Magik will go away at GE Energy's peril. I am of the opinion that the current VMDS/Magik package provides better solutions for some of the Smallworld user's business requirements than Oracle/Java is capable of.

GE Energy may spend more energy developing the Oracle/Java side of things because that is where the revenue growth may be, but I would strongly urge them to continue to support VMDS/Magik either directly or via some Open Source framework so that the Smallworld user community can service it.

I have included some highlights (with my comments) of the press release. I have formatted direct quotes from the press release in Georgia font. All other comments are mine.

The highlights of the announcement include:

• GE Energy is collaborating with Oracle to expand GE’s geospatial product portfolio by developing a network design and maintenance application based on Oracle® Database 10g, Oracle Spatial 10g and Oracle Fusion Middleware.
• This solution is designed specifically to meet the needs of the small- to mid-size North American electric distribution market.
• One can take a half-full or half-empty view of this press release. The statement above makes me lean towards the half-full view. It seems that GE Energy is trying to increase its market share and trying to offer something that the smaller utilities are asking for. My half-full view continues when I realize that there are opportunities in this approach for current Smallworld customers. Let's say your large utility acquires a small- to mid-size utility. Would you rather integrate your GIS system with another Smallworld platform or with an entirely different GIS vendor? I think that any move that keeps Smallworld viable in the market place and does not take away the product that already works for current customers can only be good for the entire Smallworld user community.
  
• GE Energy has been working with selected customers in the development of the application and expects beta testing to commence later this year.
• I'm looking forward to seeing how beta testing goes.
  
• As a result, companies increasingly seek products to meet their needs with minimum customization, ease of install/upgrade and low maintenance.
• said Bob Gilligan, general manager of GE Energy’s transmission and distribution business. “Our new approach will complement our current offerings and result in products that leverage Oracle’s spatial software."
• GE Energy’s Smallworld Core Spatial Technology* remains a key technology for large utilities and telecommunications customers with complex solution needs. No existing products will be retired as a result of this new offering. The addition of applications based on Oracle Spatial will provide more options for companies with specific IT requirements.
• This is an important statement that no existing products will be retired. I think it is very important that GE Energy repeat that statement until it becomes very clear to all of its current customers. I have frozen this statement in time as a PDF file. In my view this is a very import statement and I will do what I can to hold GE Energy to it.
  

What is not included in the announcement:

• VMDS/Magik will be retired.
• Actually, the press release states the current CST will continue to exist for customers with complex networks.
• GE Energy’s Smallworld Core Spatial Technology* remains a key technology for large utilities and telecommunications customers with complex solution needs. No existing products will be retired as a result of this new offering.

I would be interested in your comments.

Cheers,

Alfred