Web Services Magic at the November PHP Users Group Meetup

Posted on November 6, 2010 by mwparks

The November 2010 Atlanta PHP Users Group Meetup held on November 3rd covered web service APIs for Twitter, Facebook, and Amazon.

Moses Ngone gave the fist presentation, an introduction to web services. Moses did a good job explaining the main components of web services…access, request, and handle response. He then drilled down into more detail on each component. First on access methods…none required, basic authentication, and OAUTH which is quickly becoming the standard. PHP requests consisting of curl or file_get_contents. And finally response takes the form of xml, json(p), or serialized.

Next up Joey Rivera presented on the specifics on using web services of Twitter, Facebook, and Amazon. Joey’s presentation included lots of good code examples and useful tips like using the ZEND framework to handle all of the oauth magic for you. All of Joey’s code examples and presentation can be found here on his website.

The meetup was packed with only a handful of empty seats. I counted 32 attendees.

I always enjoy these technology meetups and seeing first hand the enthusiasm and passion of Atlanta’s technology community.

Funny thing after the meeting (which was held in room 577 at Colony Square) I stepped onto the Arts station Marta platform and to my surprise there stood my next door neighbors waiting for the same train. For anyone not living in Atlanta…this is a once in a lifetime coincidence I can assure you. So I even got a welcome ride home from the Marta station…a nice ending to a nice evening.

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Practice Fusion’s Cloud Based EHR Solution Obtains ONC-ATCB Certification

Posted on October 28, 2010 by mwparks

Practice Fusion, a free Software as a Service EHR solution, recently announced obtaining ONC-ATCB certification in accordance with the applicable certification criteria adopted by the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS).

I have already discussed my interest in Practice Fusion in an earlier post. This cloud based system provides a free service to healthcare providers who are adopting Electronic Health Records in response to the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act.

Other interesting developments for the Practice Fusion team is partnership with EMF Financial Services, a health IT consulting company in Michigan, and a partnership will Dell to provide a bundled hardware/software EHR solution complete with three months of free financing. And on No 5th they will be holding the first Practice Fusion User’s conference in San Francisco. And “surprise” the conference is completely free to attend.

No I don’t have any affiliation with Practice Fusion…but I do know a disruptive technology innovation when I see one. Health IT is an area where I have personal interest, hope, and concern about the ability of small providers to handle the cost, installation, and ongoing maintenance of an on premise solution. So when I first read months ago about Practice Fusion and their freemium pricing model…and being a huge fan/proponent of Google (the classic freemium pricing model)…I was immediately stuck by the idea that Practice Fusion may just be the silver bullet necessary for successful wide spread adoption of electronic health records by thousands of small physician practices throughout the USA.

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Atlanta Salesforce User Group Meetup September 2010

Posted on September 28, 2010 by mwparks

This morning I made it to the September Atlanta Salesforce User Group meetup. The September meetup was held at Manhattan Associates on Windy Hill Road in Marietta. I have to compliment Manhattan Associates on the quality of the facility…it was very nice to say the least. And I so appreciated not having to hassle with security to get into the building…just walked right in. Once I discovered there was free and open WIFI, I settled in for what I anticipated would be an enjoyable meetup.

The presentations were great…focusing mostly on sales automation, lead strategy, and tools/resources for force.com developers…I took lots of notes….signed up for a free sales automation account at LoopFuse…and came away with tons of links to development tools that I will need to research. Some of the more interesting tools mentioned were Jitterbit and Talend, both of which are free open source data and application integration platforms. Oh and I learned a new technical term, “dirt bound,” as in “dirt bound system” or “dirt bound database.” Dirt bound is opposite from ”Cloud Based” of course

Props to the presenters, Roy Russo co-founder of LoopFuse; Ernie Megazzini, founder and CEO of Redxlerant; and Bill McGinnis of Astadia Inc.

The whole meetup experience was very good. I attend a lot of meetups around Atlanta and this is one of the best.

Finally I have to mention the refreshments were outstanding…an amazing array of bagels, pastries, fruit, coffee, juice, etc. I was a little overwhelmed by the variety and quantity actually…felt like being a kid in front of a huge candy counter

I think I will be attending many future Salesforce User Group meetups!

Thanks to Venkat Polisetti for organizing and running the group.

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Google IT Executive Summit

Posted on September 21, 2010 by mwparks

Today I attended Google’s IT Executive Summit at the swanky Westin Buckhead…which was nice since the hotel is located just two miles from my house…making my morning commute so much better than usual.

I don’t get the opportunity to attend many Google events so I made sure not to miss this one (someday I’m going to make it all the way to Google I/O in San Fran).

Presentations were packed with information about Google Enterprise Apps…which I love and use constantly all day every day. I picked up some useful tips from the demos…several of which have already been of benefit. And learned a few new interesting facts I can use to amaze friends, for example, I didn’t know Google is the 4th largest server manufacturer in the World…how’d that happen?

I also learned some useful info I’d been missing with regard to storage limits on Google Apps accounts. I manage a premium Google App account at work, and I’ve never understood how much storage space we actually have on all the different services…both for the individual and for the overall account. It turns out each individual gets 25 gig for gmail and unlimited storage for Google Docs! Now that we can upload any type of document into a docs account there is a limit on storage for these non Google Doc documents of one gig per account. And for Google Sites a premium Google Apps account has 10 gig plus 1/2 gig per individual account. So for example if your premium account has 100 individual accounts the total storage you would have available for all sites is 10 + 50 gig for a total of 60 gig. Good to know!

The venue at the Westin was packed with customers and fans of Google….it was a very good turnout. Actually I believe it was full…a “sold out” free event.

Oh and I have to mention the breakfast was wonderful…eggs, bacon, ham, fruit, grits, and more….yum

Looking forward to the next Google event in Atlanta.

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July WordPress Meetup was all about SEO

Posted on July 24, 2010 by mwparks

Really enjoyed the July WordPress meetup at Urban Oasis B&B in Inman Park. Bret Phillips gave a great presentation on SEO techniques for a WordPress site. He provided some cool tips which I plan to explore with my sites. After Bret’s presentation the room broke up into groups for discussing specific topics. I was sitting on the couch in the back which ended up being the WordPress beginner group led by Judi Knight. The woman sitting next to me is trying to startup a WordPress consulting business…just now learning about WordPress. I really enjoy meeting all these people who are running new creative class businesses based on WordPress…it’s one reason I like to attend the WordPress meetups every month. As usual Judi provided beer and food (pizza) for the meetup. This is still the best meetup in Atlanta IMHO. I look forward to it every month.

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SaaS Based Electronic Health Record System (and it’s free)

Posted on June 7, 2010 by mwparks

I’m pretty excited to find out about a SaaS based EHR system, Practice Fusion, that is also free…completely free including support. And unlike most “free” SaaS (Software as a Service) solutions they don’t have a “lite” version that’s free while trying to up-sell you to the “professional” version for a fee. According to their website “There are no hidden charges, consultant fees, software costs or support subscriptions. Licensing, hosting, training and support are all included. Your practice always retains ownership of its data and you can export any time if needed.”

News flash! If you have a medical practice that qualifies for $44,000 in economic stimulus incentives for adopting an EHR as specified in the HITECH Act…and you adopt a “free” EHR package…then obviously you get to pocket the entire $44,000.

Practice Fusion runs on Salesforce.com‘s cloud development platform, Force.com, the Cadillac of cloud app development platforms. And recently Dell, Inc. announced a partnership to bundle hardware with Practice Fusion’s SaaS solution including zero interest financing (for 3 months) for medical practices.

Unlike on premise client/server solutions a SaaS (Software as a Service) solution runs completely in the cloud. So you don’t have the expense of servers and even more importantly the people resources that are necessary to support the servers. Your annual savings with a SaaS solution can easily be 10′s of thousands of dollars over what you would pay for a solution requiring on premise hardware maintenance and support.

I took advantage of Practice Fusion’s academic program to signup for an account and have been reviewing their extensive library of youtube training videos. The availability of these videos make learning Practice Fusion’s features a snap.

So who’s using a SaaS EHR solution? On their website they claim that over 30,000 physicians and practice managers in 50 states currently use Practice Fusion’s Electronic Health Record which sounds pretty impressive to me.

So what’s the catch? How do these guys make money? Well Practice Fusion is an ad-supported product. On their website they say “medical advertising placements are non-intrusive, completely private and never pop-up.” And if you really can’t stand the ads then you can switch to an ad-free version for a $100 a month per practitioner at any time.

Given that the top driver for slow adoption of Electronic Health Records is misalignment of costs and benefits then Practice Fusion stands to make a significant impact in this market.

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WordPress 3.0 at the Atlanta WordPress User Group

Posted on May 19, 2010 by mwparks

Had a great time and learned some good stuff at the Atlanta WordPress Meetup held as usual at Urban Oasis B&B on Krog street near Inman Park in Atlanta. The meetup was packed with standing room only. Mike Schinkel gave a good overview of some of the new features in WordPress 3.0. After Mike’s presentation everyone split into groups based on their WordPress interests and experience level. Some of the attendees are just getting started with WordPress while others are seasoned developers or designers with specific questions and interests. Judi Knight, the meetup host and facilitator did a great job of organizing everyone into small breakout groups. All in all a fun evening spent with other WordPress enthusiasts while enjoying beer, wine, and deli sandwiches. Already looking forward to next month’s meetup on WordPress MU and Buddypress…can’t wait!

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HTML 5 and CSS 3 Workshop at AWDG

Posted on April 29, 2010 by mwparks

Attended a sold out (estimated 150 in attendence) meetup of the Atlanta Web Design Group held at the Portfolio Center on Bennett Street in Atlanta. Obviously html 5 generates tremendous interest in the web designer community. Good information was provided by both presenters however a few more practical examples might have left us with more tangible take aways from the evening. My overall impression is that html 5 has more work to do down in the details before being ready for widespread adoption. And that html 5 is currently riding the normal technology hype cycle curve and maybe nearing it’s peak. I tend to agree with Michael Mahemoff’s blog post that HTML 5 is a brand which in general means “the technology that makes rich web applications”.

HTML 5 is an exciting technology and a game changer in the web multi-media space. Time will tell how it all plays out.

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Atlanta WordPress User Group Meetup at an Oasis on Krog Street

Posted on March 21, 2010 by mwparks

The March Atlanta WordPress User Group meeting was held at Urban Oasis B&B on Krog Street in Inman Park, hosted by the owner Judi Knight. I loved the venue!

The meetup had a good turnout of around 35 along with three Basset hounds and a small grey cat constantly wandering in and out of audience legs. These four animals seemed to be amazed to see all these people sitting in their living room.

Judi gave an interesting presentation about her approach to site development with WordPress, along with tips and tricks she has learned since starting her business 1.5 years and 45 WordPress sites ago.

I really enjoyed hearing the diversity of ideas and perspectives from attendees who represented a wide variety of backgrounds…designers, developers, consultants, experienced and in-experienced.

And I have to say this little area on the west side of Inman Park bordering Krog Street is one of the coolest places in all of Atlanta.

Notes from Judi’s presentation are at http://www.newtricks.me/.

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CloudForce 2010

Posted on March 3, 2010 by mwparks

A inventory application created in real time with Force.com in this breakout session

For the past few years I have attended this annual afternoon event by Salesforce.com which is usually held at the Buckhead Westin. As always this was an impressive first class event with food, drinks, give-aways, informative keynotes, and breakouts on the latest Salesforce technologies. Every year I learn something new and leave feeling freshly inspired and encouraged about cloud technology in general. As usual the event was packed with 300-400 attendees.

The keynote always starts out with a definition of cloud computing…(1) multi-tenant, (2) pay as you go, (3) realtime, and (4) auto upgrades and then provides an update on Salesforce statistics in terms of growth and customers. Salesforce now has grown to 72,500 paying customers, all without traditional marketing…basically word of mouth. Salesforce is ISO 27001 certified for those who worry about security in the cloud and boasts three global data centers…east coast, west coast, and Singapore.

Basically Salesforce wants to take the best of the consumer web and bring it to their customers. To meet this goal they are rolling out a new service called Chatter Collaboration Cloud, with a very facebook like feature set and designed into all of the Saleforce products. Like Facebook Chatter has a “wall” containing update posts from people, objects (like documents), events, and even Salesforce entities like Contacts. Chatter is currently in beta and will be available to all customers free of charge later in 2010.

Besides free food and beer/wine give-a-ways included three books, “Salesforce.com for Dummies“, “Service Cloud for Dummies”, and “Behind the Cloud: The Untold Story of How Salesforce.com Went from Idea to Billion-Dollar Company-and Revolutionized an Industry.”

Ok this year I really am going to take my new found inspiration, along with my Force.com workbook, “Building your first cloud app in 30 minutes,” along with my free Force.com developers account, create a fantastic application, and add it to AppExchange, Salesforce.com’s online marketplace for applications built with Force.com. Or maybe I’ll just return to this same Salesforce.com event in 2011 who knows.

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