Enterprise and eBusiness Search Technology & Security Loopholes and Hacking Updates

April 10th, 2011

This Thursday evening, BCS brings two distinguished speakers to Douglas.  Following their presentations, BCS Isle of Man members and guests are invited to join the speakers in the Claremont Hotel restaurant.

17:00 Doors open – Drinks, complimentary snacks, and networking opportunity

18:00 “Enterprise and eBusiness Search Technology”

Connie Chen, Transparensee, New York City (speaker kindly supplied by US Department of Commerce)

18:30 Q & A

18:45 “Security Loopholes and Hacking Updates”

Mark Mann, Webtech Software, Ballasalla, Isle of Man

19:15 Q & A

19:45 Optional meal with the speakers and BCS Isle of Man committee

(£15 for 2 courses in Coast restaurant)

This event is being held on Thursday 14^th April 2011 at the Sanderson Suite, Claremont Hotel, Douglas Promenade, Douglas.

If possible, please confirm your intention to attend, and any guests, by email to events@bcs.org.im; and, if you wish to join the speakers for a meal and continued discussions, please state MEAL, total seats, and any specific points of interest.

Connie Chen Presentation Summary:

How can search be better when the user doesn’t know what the user really wants?   Users frequently, initially, have not defined their search boundaries as precisely as websites anticipate.  Their imaginations can be triggered by what they see in the periphery.  In typical searches, the more information a user gives on wishes and desires, the worse the results.  A better search produces better results with more information from the user.  A better search produces better results for your organization too.

Connie Chen Biography:

Connie Chen leads business development at Transparensee Systems.  Formerly the VP of Marketing for NewsBank, Connie owned market strategy, product management, and new product initiatives for this premier digital archiver of news and information.  As the COO and the VP of Business Development of Morris DigitalWorks (MDW), Connie led MDW’s efforts to become a primary software vendor to more than 150 newspapers and several major newspaper groups in the US.  She has been in information technology sales, marketing and business development for over 20 years, with the last 15 years directly in the Internet space. Her previous employment includes ten years at IBM, several start-up company experiences ranging from Internet consultancies to Foofoo.com, a luxury commerce, content and community B2C site, to sales and marketing for Infragistics, one of the top Microsoft Developer toolkit manufacturers. She has a B.S. in applied mathematics, computer science from Yale University.

Mark Mann and Webtech

Webtech design specialist software products to support International Finance, Trust and Corporate Service Providers, Banking and Regulatory Authorities. The Isle of Man based company was founded in 1992 and has a wealth of experience with finance industry systems, some of the leading names in banking and insurance rely on Webtech’s Genesis Life 3 to manage their complex multi-currency investment structures. Webtech’s Genesis system framework is designed to be highly flexible with secure internet integration and is developer and user friendly.

Tags: search, security
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Public Sector Open Data “Unconference”

February 17th, 2011

The BCS will be organising an Unconference focusing on Wednesday 23rd February 2011 being held at Claremont Hotel, Loch Promenade, Douglas. The program for the event is as follows:

PART ONE: SANDERSON SUITE
12:00 TRAVEL TIME or SOCIAL NETWORKING DEBATE: “QR CODES IN THE ISLE OF MAN”
12:10 WELCOME & OPEN DATA COMPETITION GRAEME JONES, VICE CHAIR & EVENTS, BCS ISLE OF MAN
12:13 EVENT VIDEO DAVID CAMERON, PRIME MINISTER, UNITED KINGDOM
12:15 MOBILE APPS IN THE ISLE OF MAN – SESSION #2 ANDREW GLEAVE, REDROBOTSTUDIOS.COM
with contributions from Kristin Kanaar (Twitter), Graham Shimmin (Manx Telecom),
Rob Mercer (previously with Mersey Travel), Tom Brew (iombusandrail.info), etc.
12:35 HOSTED QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
12:50 TRAVEL TIME or SOCIAL NETWORKING DEBATE: “BUDGET SPECIAL: THE 6 BILLION POUND QUESTION”
Dr Rufus Pollock at Cambridge University estimated that the public sector open data policy is worth about £6 billion to the UK economy. How much do you think it is worth to the Isle of Man?
13:10 ANY SURPRISES IN LOCAL GOVERNMENT DATA?
CHRIS TAGGART, OPENLYLOCAL.COM, OPENCORPORATES.COM, OPENCHARITIES.ORG
13:40 HOSTED QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
13:50 TRAVEL TIME or SOCIAL NETWORKING DEBATE “EU DIRECTIVE 2003/98/EC” (Yes, really!)
The European Parliament recently reviewed the policy on third party reuse of Public Sector Information. Do you think we could beat Luxembourg, Malta and Gibraltar with local techys and faster amendments to legislation?

PART TWO: COAST
14:00 MASTERCLASS: WEBSCRAPING CLOSED DATA WITH PYTHON JULIAN TODD, SCRAPERWIKI.COM
14:15 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
14:30 ANY LOCAL PROJECT OPPORTUNITIES: FREE CONSULTANCY
15:30 BREAK

PART THREE: SANDERSON SUITE
17:00 OPEN DATA COMPETITION REGISTRATION:
RESEARCH CASH PRIZE (£50)
BEST IOM PRIORITISED PSI MAP OR LEAGUE TABLE BENCHMARK
DEVELOPMENT CASH PRIZE (£50)
BEST IOM MOBILE APP BUSINESS CASE OR MASHUP
Submissions from academic researchers, students and unemployed/underemployed IT sector workers are specifically welcomed. A placement may be offered to selected eligible entries subject to availability on specific dates. The audience at the next event on 31st March 2011 will be invited to help judge the competition.
17:45 SOCIAL NETWORKING DEBATE: “SOCIAL ENTERPRISE SELF-FUNDING AND INCOME STREAMS”
18:00 WELCOME & OPEN DATA COMPETITION – BOB SULLIVAN, CHAIR, BCS ISLE OF MAN
18:08 EVENT VIDEO – DAVID CAMERON, PRIME MINISTER, UNITED KINGDOM
18:10 DATA.GOV.UK & DATA.GOV.IM ANYONE? – LESSONS LEARNED, INTERNATIONAL TRENDS AND FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS – CHRIS TAGGART, DATA.GOV.UK
18:25 OPEN DATA DRIVERS IN THE ISLE OF MAN – DAN DAVIES, BUSINESS CHANGE MANAGER, CHIEF SECRETARY’S OFFICE
18:35 EGOVERNMENT UPDATE – ONE MANN PROJECT – OWEN CUTAJAR, ISD, DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
18:45 SHARED SERVICES UPDATE – CUSTOMER FIRST PROJECT – ANDY WILLIAMS, ISD, DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
18:55 HOSTED QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
19:15 BREAK

PART FOUR: SANDERSON SUITE
FUNDED BY POSITIVE ACTION GROUP
19:30 CASE STUDY: A WORLD CLASS NICHE WEBSITE FROM A BARN IN MAUGHOLD
RALFY, WHISKYREVIEWS.BLOGSPOT.COM
You could end up with half a million potential customers if you had original content. Some sobering thoughts for any export led economic development strategy!
19:45 MASTERCLASS: FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUESTS
JULIAN TODD, WHATDOTHEYKNOW.COM, a world famous MYSOCIETY.ORG project
The Ministry of Justice recently acknowledged that over 10 percent of all requests each quarter are logged and tracked with the WDTK “clearing house”. He could probably be persuaded by the audience to talk about eDemocracy tools such as THEYWORKFORYOU.COM (it is an election year), UNDEMOCRACY.ORG and THESTRAIGHTCHOICE.COM, etc.
20:15 HOSTED QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
ROGER TOMLINSON, POSITIVE ACTION GROUP

A PDF version of the event can be found here: bcs feb v5

Please book your attendance by emailing publicity06@bcs.org.im

Tags: events, open government
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