So you need to take your company to a higher technology level… Welcome to the MESDA version of "Tool Time"! We explore the latest "power" tools and environments that can help make your business more professional.

Fifty years into the First Computing Era some of us in the computing arena have come to realize we’ve made a false start that can’t be fixed, and for us to finally be able to produce lasting, correct, beautiful, usable, scalable, enjoyable software that stands the tests of time and moral human endeavor, we need to start over. Perhaps we’ll be able to salvage some of what we’ve learned from the First Era, but Richard expects almost everything except the most mathematical fundamentals to be brushed aside.

Join Richard, as artist, scientist, philosopher and Open Source expert as he outlines the future of software development.

SPEAKER
Richard Gabriel, Distinguished Engineer and Chief Scientist, Sun Microsystems Bio

Network Identity with William Green
As organizations require more financial, organizational, and competitive agility to compete in the marketplace, it is imperative to secure the delivery of business information, improve the user experience through Web single sign-on, and put a federated identity framework in place to create new revenue opportunities through enhanced affinity relationships with business partners and customers.

This presentation will cover many of the concepts, considerations and approaches required to implement an enterprise-ready Network Identity strategy. In addition, several customer case studies will be explored to highlight some of the challenges faced by business and technical teams alike.

The Business Advantage of Information with Kurt Rosenfeld
Many Business and IT Managers are painfully aware that valuable business information exists in their systems and is going to waste. After all, their business is rich with data: customers, products, orders, inventory, fulfillment, product returns, problem dispatch, supplier purchasing, profit measures, and so on.

But do their executives or your frontline workers have access to what seems natural - all the related information they need to do their job? Often the answer is "no".

Many companies are rising above their competitors by solving this conundrum and dramatically improving how they serve customers, work with partners and suppliers, control their costs, improve margins, and increase sales and marketing effectiveness.

This presentation will explore some of the key issues, technologies and approaches for creating business advantage through more effective integration of information.

SPEAKER
William Green, Senior Technology Engineer, Sun Microsystems Bio
Kurt Rosenfeld, Vice President, Business Information Integration, Corporate Technologies, Inc. Bio

Content remains king. Look behind the throne -- often it’s powered by a Content Management System, driving content for single websites or entire enterprises. At Fairchild Semiconductor, CMS manages content enterprise-wide, says Ken Lloyd, director of knowledge management, who will discuss how, reviewing tools and vendors for large scale solutions. Content management systems for small to medium size businesses don't have to be exorbitant, says Joe DiStefano of Sephone in Bangor, which has just polished up DatAvenger™, an application specifically for that market. David Addison, principal of Dirigo Development in Portland, will discuss practical concerns for content management.

PANELISTS
David Addison, Principal, Dirgo Development Bio
Joe DiStefano, Partner, Sephone Internet Solutions Bio
Ken Lloyd, Director, Corporate Knowledge Management, Fairchild Semiconductor Bio
   moderated by: Anne Kennedy, Beyond Ink Bio

The business of technology can be downright boring… but making money never is. These sessions will help you keep your company in the black while explaining the ins and outs of legal issues, venture capital funding, and marketing in high-tech.

The past year has been extremely eventful. Our speakers will open with a discussion on the current state of affairs of the legal world in the Maine IT community and explore the events that will shape future development activities. Learn about recent legal issues affecting technology companies, including information about intellectual property laws, licensing terms, distributing software over the Internet, Web site and domain name issues, other current topics, and Q&A to address other areas of interest.

SPEAKER
David Crocker, David P. Crocker, Esq. Bio
Chris A. Caseiro, Verrill & Dana Bio

Do you have a brand name or a Name Brand? How do you own the leadership position in your market category? It's not brain surgery, but sometimes common sense ideas are the hardest to implement. This presentation is perfect for the CXO that wants to hear marketing put simple. Leave with a mindful of questions to ask yourself and your team about your brand strategy.

SPEAKER
Peter Lee Getman, CEO, MicroArts Corporation Bio

Creating a Corporate Structure for Success

Wondering what it takes to build an effective corporate structure? This presentation outlines the important steps necessary for building a successful high technology business around a software or hardware product idea. In order to create a thriving technology enterprise, the entrepreneur or intrapreneur must have the right vision and attitude, and have access to information and working capital. If engineering doesn’t communicate with sales and marketing or visa versa, what will the customer think? Here’s a question to ponder: Who is the best salesperson in a high-tech company? Answer: tba. A real-life success case study will be presented and discussed.

Purpose: To provide attendees with a roadmap of how to build a market-driven, high technology business from the ground up, using a lean-and-mean, focused, scalable corporate structure.

Objective(s): Attendees who are contemplating starting a technology-based enterprise will learn what to be thinking and how to plan for success in an ultra-competitive marketplace.

Topics covered are: the entrepreneurial mindset, who makes a good founder, essential contents of a working business plan, finding the right people, creating a harmonious corporate structure, outside business resource partnerships, funding with smart money, planning for sustainable growth and planning for liquidity.

SPEAKER
Mark Waite, President, Launch Momentum Bio

If you forget about people, they will forget about you… Make sure your technology is usable. Understand how people and machines interact. See how the right technology can improve that fundamental business unit known as the project. These sessions explore the people side of the equation.

Many software developers are just beginning to think seriously about issues of usability and how to involve users in the design process. Other disciplines, such as architecture, furniture design, and exhibit and media design, have been doing this for years! Arthur Fink will moderate a panel with noted architect Scott Simons, industrial designer Doug Green, and media guru Dana Hutchins to share lessons from their practice that may help us all. Here's what is asked of them: "Emphasis should be on experience and practice, rather than theory. Thus ... here's WHAT WE DO to design {experiences / interactive systems / sales gimmicks / exhibits / buildings / chairs} that people can use. Your concrete examples will contrast with how the other panelists do it, or may have remarkable similarity. Imagine a world in which things worked effortlessly (exhibits were immediately comprehensible, kitchens were just right for the kind of cooking we do, our clothes would fit in whatever storage units we happened to acquire.) Now ask how you deal with the fact that this isn't so.

PANELISTS
Doug Green, President, Green Design Bio
Dana Hutchins, President, Image Works Bio
Scott Simons, Scott Simons Architects Bio
   moderated by: Arthur Fink, Arthur Fink Consulting Bio

Indeed, users are often blind to the possibilities that our systems can create, but we're often blind to what users really are trying to do. How to bridge this gap? The internal structure of our systems is of little interest to most users, but the "look and feel" and functionality should be of great concern. Arthur Fink will talk about how to involve users in the interface design process, while others work on the internal architecture and engineering. Really listening to users, and watching them interact with simple prototype models, can significantly improve the usability of the resulting systems. On the other hand, treating users like "technopeasants" almost guarantees dysfunction.

SPEAKER
Arthur Fink, Arthur Fink Consulting Bio

This presentation will discuss the various responsibilities of a product manager and why woman are particularly well suited for this position. In addition to its usually high paying rewards, product managers (PMs) are the epicenter of all software organizations. The role offers an exciting and challenging opportunity for well-prepared and hardworking individuals. Because successful Product Managers master soft people skills as well as maintain technical and business acumen, the requirements cater to the natural instincts of women. Good PMs are hard to find – perhaps because not enough women know about the position and how to be successful in it! This presentation addresses these issues and provides inspiration to those who are currently product managers or those who may be considering a career change towards product management.

Men are welcomed too!

SPEAKER
Alyssa Dver, Author Software Product Management Essentials Bio

Is there a method to the madness of technology development? There are several… and this track explores them. High-tech development is an art and a science, these presentations add a little more science (structure) back into the recipe.

This presentation will relate real world examples taken from the experiences of the presenters to show how to make your software project a success.

Part 1 of the presentation, "Fast Tracking by Back Tracking," will examine the mistakes made and the lessons learned during the early stages of a real software project to show how to avoid such classic pitfalls as retrofitting code, writing band-aids, and overrunning the schedule.

Part 2 of the presentation is "The Fight Begins Before the Battle." It will look at a month-long development initiative to show how creating the appropriate infrastructure is critical to the success of a team project.

Many discussions of the software development process focus on theoretical methodologies that are impractical in the real world. This discussion will help software teams to work smarter, not harder by providing practical suggestions for streamlining the development process.

SPEAKERS
Christopher York, President, Blue Ox Technologies Bio
Matthew Olson, Taxware Bio

10 Essential Strategies for Easing the Software Quality Blues

Are software quality problems getting you down? Do you still think that testing is the key to high-quality software? … that quality means "not breaking very often"? …or that high quality costs too much? This presentation debunks these and other common misconceptions about software quality and presents ten strategies that will help you produce world-class software without busting the project budget. Software quality has many dimensions. Without doubt, good software engineering strategies are important. Less obvious, but equally important, are effective software management strategies. This presentation will discuss essential engineering and management strategies followed by high-capability software teams that address:

• Having a clear understanding of what is required
• Performing rigorous in-process product reviews from the earliest stages of development
• Collecting and analyzing quality data to understand why defects are occurring
• Recording the technical information developers and testers need during a project and beyond
• Establishing plans that provide teams with a real opportunity to succeed
• Managing changes effectively
• Implementing disciplined methods at the team and individual levels
• Investing in learning

SPEAKER
Frank Koch, Principal, Process Strategies, Inc. Bio

The cost and complexity of building software applications can be dramatically reduced by adapting the formal, model-driven hardware design process to software. The speaker will present an introduction to the Hyperworx™ platform - a new open source framework that models component software systems in terms of electrical circuit metaphors. Hyperworx™, which comprises a high-level XML-based software modeling specification, a visual software design and application specification interface, and a generic integration/runtime core, will be demonstrated and the implications of drag-and-drop programming will be discussed. The demonstration will be followed by a brief period for questions and comments from the audience.

SPEAKER
Chris Russell, Encapsule Systems Bio

Please note that Session 1 "Make IT Go" in Track 1 has been cancelled.