Ruby on Rails is a website application development platform known for its easy deployment, clever framework, and cutting edge features. In this workshop, we will begin by installing the platform and tools necessary to write a Rails application. We will then write a sample website application, and then deploy it on the Internet. Methodologies and the philosophy behind Rails will be explained along the way. By the end of the workshop, everyone will have built and deployed their first Rails application.

Prerequisite: Bring your own laptop.

SPEAKER:
Casey Rosenthal, Chief Software Engineer, Port Forty Nine

The process of designing elearning has gotten easier with the introduction of rapid elearning tools, such as Articulate Presenter and Adobe Presenter, which work off of Microsoft PowerPoint. With tools such as these, those comfortable with producing presentations can begin to dabble in the world of creating effective elearning. But are the skills required to develop dynamic presentations the same skills needed to produce quality elearning? Are such skills transferable?

This tutorial introduces the skills and key steps involved in creating quality elearning modules, highlighting how to leverage and augment the skills used to produce presentations.

SPEAKER:
Margaret Kelsey, President, Kelsey + Company

The release of PHP 5 was a major step in the evolution of PHP. Its new features not only provide the tools for developers to keep up with the latests technologies, but also brings PHP to a level where it is ready for and is actively being adopted within the enterprise. This session is not an introduction to coding with PHP 5, but rather an overview of the benefits and features it provides. During this session, developers will be introduced to the tools and benefits provided by using PHP 5, opening up potential new possibilities in development. At the same time IT managers will gain an understanding of why, where and how PHP might fit within an existing organization. From the possibilities of faster time to market to higher returns on investment, companies and developers alike simply cannot ignore the potential impact PHP can make within an organization.

SPEAKER:
Rob Richards, Author, Pro PHP XML and Web Services

It is no longer acceptable to have payment and other business management systems existing independently. Businesses need and want complete solutions that not only facilitate acceptance of payments (in person, over the phone and online), but that also facilitate inventory control, time management, order management, customer relation management, customer marketing and standard back office functions such as accounts receivable and payable. In addition, it is a tall order for businesses to stay abreast of, and in compliance with, Payment Card industry (PCI) data security standard regulations. Payments are the core of any business and businesses want payment solutions in their software and on their websites that help them better manage their business and keep them in compliance. As a software or web developer we will demonstrate how you can integrate ecommerce, online bill payment, shopping carts, recurring billing and integrated credit card, debit card, EFT/ACH and eCheck processing solutions into your customers software, that extend into their back office and keep them PCI compliant.

SPEAKER:
Jim Plunkett, CEO, Integrated Payment Processing
Ben Scott, Director of Integration Services, Integrated Payment Processing

A half-day workshop with deep code diving into Adobe Flex 2, as we code a small e-commerce application. Topics will include: Flex Components and Containers, Working with Remote Data, ActionScript 3, States and Effects, Skinning and more. Bring your laptop and follow along as we code up an integrated Flex e-commerce application. Adobe Flex 2 is a development solution for creating cross-platform rich Internet applications (RIAs). It allows programmers to access the Rich Goodness of the Flash platform, using MXML (Flex specific XML) and ActionScript 3. Flex 2 targets the Adobe Flash 9 plug-in/player, so developers can target PC, Mac and Linux users. And by integrating with the Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR), developers can deploy cross-platform desktop applications, including access to the client file system and a client database API (based upon SQLite). AIR 1.0 will be released by the end of this year for PC and Mac. A well-architected Flex application can be easily re-purposed for a variety of deployments.

SPEAKER:
Kirk Holbrook, Founding Member, Omnautic LLC

Those ubiquitous white ear buds no longer pump music-only. As our hyperactive iPod culture consumes multi-terabytes of daily audio and video news and entertainment, corporate educators are tapping into this time-shifted training phenomenon.

More than just fun and informative, this workshop de-mystifies all of it. You will learn and employ simple yet powerful techniques (plus a few tricks) to develop content, record, produce, encode and publish your own MP3 audio podcast! The traditional classroom is indispensable, but business cannot afford to ignore the cost savings that come from blending this hot technology, so engrained in everyday life, with conventional training. You will walk out of this session ready and able to podcast.

Required gear:

• Laptop.
• Audio recording/editing software.
• Download and install the free AUDACITY by Sourceforge. It comes in all the popular flavors: Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.
• Microphone. - Any decent USB headset mic will work (but not a phone headset). An alternative is a relatively inexpensive desk mic. Several good ones out there (see list below).
• Headphones. - Ear buds are fine. Any headset that plugs into laptop’s sound card 1/8” jack.
• LAME MP3 Encoder. - Free utility. Allows Audacity to export MP3 files. Download and install (after installing Audacity).
• Optional. - Juice aggregator (free) to “catch” favorites. Download & install.

• Snow Flake $79 retail; available commercially Nov. 1
• Snow ball Very COOL and very popular with podcasters.. not sure about pricing. They do give a local dealers link.

• Alesis USB Podcast Microphone Kit $99.95 retail.
• Behringer Podcastudio USB Podcast Package This could be too much "studio" for you (for now), but for $100 total with all accessories included -- it's a great price for a package you will likely want someday. Listen to a review

SPEAKER:
Ken Main, Founder, Penguin Pods

A question sometimes heard from PHP developers is why should they move to PHP 5 when PHP 4 seems to work perfectly fine. Other than for the simple fact that PHP 4 is coming to its end of life, PHP 5 provides numerous benefits that developers can leverage to keep up in the Web 2.0 age, as well as ease development when working on or integrating with enterprise systems. During this workshop we will explore working and coding with some of the new additions within the PHP family, such as:

• Object Oriented Programming in PHP 5
• Standard PHP Library (SPL)
• PHP Data Objects (PDO)
• XML and Web Services

SPEAKER:
Rob Richards, Author, Pro PHP XML and Web Services

Parallels Desktop for Mac
What's New in Leopard

PARALLELS DESKTOP FOR MAC gives you the flexibility of running Windows on a Mac at the same time without rebooting. Run important Windows-only software applications without giving up the security, comfort and functionality of your Mac! Use the best of both worlds today!

Leopard collects hundreds of features into one OS so innovative, it will completely transform your Mac. A dramatic new desktop. One-click data time travel. The power to see inside files without opening them. Discover the future of your Mac - from a tech perspective, of course!

SPEAKERS:
Dan Delvecchio, Senior Systems Engineer, Apple
Eric Williams, Project Engineer, Apple
Jason Krilich, National Sales Manager | Apple, PARALLELS Inc.

Have you ever visited a website or used an application that left you feeling confused and defeated? More to the point...have your customers? When it comes right down to it, “customer satisfaction” is determined by your ability to design and deliver high-quality user experiences. This is equally true for user interactions with any of your products or systems—web sites, software application, handhelds, gadgets, games, or any user-operated device. This year we've brought you 6 national experts who'll address how to enhance your design and development processes by being agile, going guerilla, getting creative, making it fun, and bringing it all back home with the latest in UX tools and perspectives!

Business methods and technologies continue to evolve rapidly. Design and development lifecycles become shorter, with more expected more quickly, and on tighter budgets. In this session, user experience experts Ann Marie McCarthy and Cay Lodine offer insight into what it takes to be agile and when to go guerilla! Ann Marie will offer a brief comparison of usability and experience design professionals in the waterfall v. agile environments. The talk will focus on the importance (and challenges) of gathering and incorporating user input in short, iterative cycles--within a process involving parallel tracks for development and design. Several research methods and tools will be recommended that lend themselves well to an agile environment. In many ways, the conditions of a hurried and under-resourced project are quite similar to working in an agile environment. In the second half of this presentation, Cay will discuss a pair of recent usability studies, conducted on the same product within weeks of each other-- with an extremely short timeframe and tight budget . The presentation will highlight the difference in usability test findings, and discuss the pros and cons of conducting multiple usability tests. Presented as a case study, the session will include a detailed discussion of the two techniques used--one being an independent off-site study and one being a more formal usability test--and why the usability testing methods were chosen. Special focus will be placed on the test results--including common issues and unique findings. The potential causes for these variations will be examined and the significance discussed. The session will close with a joint Q&A session, drawing out similarities and differences, pros and cons, of both agile and guerilla, so that you can thrive—instead of simply survive--in whatever environment you find yourself.

Takeaways

1. Report from the Field: first-hand accounts of different usability testing methods and approaches.
2. Forewarned is Forearmed: what to do before you go agile or guerilla; points to consider when selecting the most appropriate methodology for your project.
3. Tools Review: What to use when you get there—and an understanding of the differences that can occur when different approaches and methods are applied.

SPEAKERS:
Cay Lodine, Principal User Experience Analyst, SeaChange International - Presentation
Ann Marie McCarthy, Senior Interaction Designer, Kronos - Presentation

Case Study Prototyping is widely regarded as an invaluable part of projects of almost any scale. Why? Because it leads to gathering user feedback and identifying potential usability issues early in the design and development processes—before too much time and money is spent writing code. This session focuses on two straightforward prototyping methods that might lead you to set aside your favorite high-end UI modeling tool in favor of a simpler more cost-effective approach to speedy iteration—and will debunk the myth: “If it's too easy; it can't work." Carolyn Snyder will cover paper prototyping (as per her book: Paper Prototyping: The Fast and Easy Way to Design and Refine User Interfaces). Kyle Soucy will clue us in to the oft overlooked, and surprisingly underutilized, value of creating prototypes in PDF. Both paper and PDF prototypes offer a surprising degree of flexibility. Paper prototyping—which arises from simple screen shots and/or hand-sketched drafts of windows, menus, dialog boxes, pages, popup messages, etc—elicits maximum user feedback with minimal effort. PDF prototypes, with only a little more effort, allows for inclusion of dynamic elements such as rollovers, embedded video, and calculations. The second half of the talk explores how prototypes can be usability tested with users, either in person or remotely—and offers a useful framework for deciding what prototyping methods best meet the needs of your particular project.

Takeaways

1. Purpose of a prototype is to get feedback before investing effort.
2. All prototyping methods are good - but for different purposes.
3. Prototyping with PDF and paper.

SPEAKERS:
Kyle Pero Soucy, Founding Principal, Lead Consultant, Usable Interface - Presentation
Carolyn Snyder, Principal, Snyder Consulting - Presentation

While most of us involved with experience design focus on software applications, graphical user interfaces and web sites, there is a whole other world creating highly engaging interactive experiences: the world of games. Delivered by avid gamers and user experience designers Sarah Bloomer and Marise Philips, this presentation explores the way games are designed to deliver engaging experiences, looking primarily at user interface details, such as: How are errors presented and dealt with? (certainly not pop-up dialog boxes) How do users interact with games? (not always through a cursor floating across the screen) How is navigation and orientation handled? (there are no global nav bars). We'll delve into the process of games design, and look at the evolution of interactive design to better understand where we are today. Popular games, both multi- and single- player games, will be used as examples. Some of the underlying principles of Csikszentmihalyi’s concept of Flow will be drawn upon as a way to focus the discussion.

Takeaways

1. How to make your applications engaging and learnable.
2. Why games are different.
3. How narrative can be used in design.

SPEAKER:
Sarah Bloomer, Founder and Principal, Sarah Bloomer & Co
Marise Phillips, VP of Product Design, MyQuire

This track is for people who own or manage technology-oriented businesses in the State of Maine, and will focus on information they need to survive, nay, THRIVE in Maine!

This session will present findings from a study that is currently underway for the Maine Technology Institute on the status of growing Maine's Technology related industry clusters. The study includes an assessment of the Maine information technology industry. This session will present recent trends, current status, and provide an overview of what is needed to further strengthen the industry.

Jim and Charlie are currently working as part of a team that inlcudes the University of Southern Maine Center for Business and Economic Research (CBER), the Battelle Institute, PolicyOne Research, and Planning Decisions to analyze Maine's technology related industry clusters.

SPEAKERS:
Charlie Colgan, Ph.D, Professor of Public Policy and Management, Edmund S. Muskie School of Public Service
Jim Damicis, Principal, PolicyOne Research - Presentation

MESDA has initiated legislation to create a unique private equity vehicle to fund technology start-ups. Join in on the panel discussion as we explore what this means for Maine, what a Fund of Funds is, and how it can catalyze entrepreneurial activity in Maine.

MESDA - Creating a $100,000,000 Venture Fund for Technology Firms
Mainebiz: A $100MM game plan for growing Maine’s tech sectors

SPEAKERS:
Peter Murray, CTO, Quantrix
Catherine Renault, Ph.D., Director, Maine Office of Innovation - Presentation
Stephen Ringlee, Managing Director, Cimarron Capital Partners LLC - Presentation
Susan P. Strommer, President and Chief Executive Officer, National Association of Seed and Venture Funds, Inc. - Presentation

There is a way to quantitatively simulate a demand generation system. It’s a model that can be used to weigh the costs and risks of a sales strategy before valuable resources (human and capital) are committed to the effort. That’s not to say that there is no room for more qualitative methods in program design; but, until now, there’s been no reliable way to systemically measure the effect that moves you make have on the bottom line. Think of The Science of Revenue as organizing the sales system (i.e., sales organization) in the same way a manufacturing business approaches product design; but in this case the product is the closed business deal. The development process is quite similar – value needs to be created at each link in the chain (from lead generation to fulfillment) and resources need to be applied in a way that keeps the system balanced to achieve the lowest cost per sale. The Science of Revenue is an underlying analytic model that makes “closed deal product planning” less dependent on trial and error experiments. It is a system for building sales in a dynamic market environment by analyzing the interaction of the more than 40 variables (internal and market), which exist within the typical sales strategy.

Milestone Group has employed this approach for hundreds of early stage startups and Global 2000 firms in the technology, media and telecommunications industries. Our operational and process expertise in sales, marketing and branding, business development; and in product, strategy, launch and development means that we work from the first unique insight through implementation (often working on-site to help you achieve your goals.) Milestone Group is comprised of 25 technology, media and telecommunications (TMT) professionals operating from offices in Palo Alto, Boston, Amsterdam and Sydney.

SPEAKER:
Mark A. Zawacki, Managing Partner & Founder, Milestone Group - Presentation

This track will help business professionals make the right decisions on using and deploying technology to meet their business goals.

When most business professionals hear the term “outsourcing,” they think of companies using programming and other IT resources from offshore locations. However, not everyone realizes that outsourcing resources can be as close at hand as down the street. In this session, attendees will learn how outsourcing works for businesses adopting each approach. One Maine IT professional will discuss the company’s partnership with a local IT outsourcing firm to manage development work without investing the overhead and training of a full-time employee. Another Maine IT professional will discuss his company’s use of staff augmentation with a firm from India, and the management and budget review processes, metrics, and quality oversight that entails. In this interactive session, attendees will have the opportunity to ask questions of each panelist to learn how their approach helps them to achieve business results.

SPEAKERS:
Nick Pappas, US Director of Sales & Business Development, xwave
Jim Smith, VP, Acquisition Development Services, Unum
Dale Thomas, IT Director, Cianbro Corporation

An astonishing percentage of companies are ignorant of risk that is inherent in vendor relationships. This session will provide an overview of the major categories of risk but will move on to a practical program of best practices for basic due diligence and maintaining a sound vendor management program.

SPEAKER:
Leland Beachy, VP, Information Security, Laconia Savings Bank - Presentation

Making the right business decision when purchasing software should always involve hard cost/benefit analysis tools such as ROI and TCO, but making the right decision for your organization requires an additional qualitative approach. Are there additional opportunities that this purchase will bring your organization? How do you put a dollar value to things such as efficiency improvements, greater organizational flexibility and faster time-to-market? Learn how to define these indexes and weigh them in a financial manner that you can present to co-workers and decision makers. Whether you are selling software or purchasing software these tools help you make your business case.

Qualitative and Real World Approaches to ROI Analysis
This session goes beyond standard ROI methods and models and provides alternative methods for determining the ROI of IT investments. First, the panel will examine a qualitative approach to ROI. Are there additional opportunities the purchase will bring to a purchasing organization? How do you put a dollar value to efficiency improvements, greater organizational flexibility, faster time-to-market and other important business objectives? Second, drawing upon real-world lessons learned in a project involving implementation of new technology, the panel will present new tools and financial metrics that will enable a company to quantify IT investments and align them with business objectives. Whether you are selling or purchasing software, these novel ROI approaches will help you make your business case.

SPEAKERS:
Patrick Cunningham, President, Blue Marble Geographics
Tony Lewis, Director, IT/Software Development, Management Research Group, Inc.
Senthil Prabakaran, CEO, DWITA, Inc.

This track will focus on the nuts and bolts of technology, and sessions must delve deep into the subject matter that is of most interest to hands-on technologists.

This year, Facebook has exploded, becoming one of the ten most visited sites on the Internet. In May, Facebook did something no other social network had ever done: They opened their system - calling it the Facebook Platform - allowing third-party developers to create “apps” which Facebook members can add to their profiles and share with their friends. The next killer app might very well be a Facebook app. Creating successful, popular apps for the Facebook Platform requires an understanding of FBML (Facebook Markup Language), FBJS (Facebook javascript) and FQL (Facebook Query Language).

In this session you will learn…
· How to write code for the Facebook Platform
· What resources and tools are available to developers
· How to take advantage of the most important features of the Platform

SPEAKER:
Rob Landry, Principal Web Designer, Pemaquid Communications

Django is a high-level Python Web framework that encourages rapid development and clean, pragmatic design. We've used it at Emergent Music as a core framework to build mission-critical web features and web services for our Goombah Music Discovery products. It is clean, robust, powerful and very fast to implement. This session will include a quick introduction to Python, an overview of the Django framework and a discussion of how we have taken advantage of them to build Goombah.

SPEAKER:
Bob Swerdlow, Chief Engineer, Emergent Music LLC

Ruby on Rails came to the forefront of Web application development with breathtaking speed. This session will provide background on the development of Rails, show how it compares with other frameworks, discuss where Rails is headed, including take-aways from RailsConf 2007, quickly demo the creation of a Rails application, and advise ways to begin incorporating Rails into your projects.

SPEAKER:
Thomas Smith, President, Smith Internet Consulting LLC