An e-mail I sent to UC Berkeley School of Information Management and Systems (SIMS), where I earned a Master's degree in 1987.
Looking to meet with someone there while in San Francisco in a couple of weeks...
We'll see what (if anything) comes of it.
Wm.
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Inquiry from '87 M.L.I.S., re: Document Engineering & OXF
Date: Yesterday 02:16:04 pm
From: William Reilly [wreilly@alumni.sims.berkeley.edu] (reilly2001.info)
To: glushko@sims.berkeley.edu
BCC: Lorie Reilly [lorie.reilly@pearsoned.com], Bob Doyle [bobdoyle@skybuilders.com]
Reply to: wreilly@alumni.sims.berkeley.edu
Dear Professor Glushko,
I write you as a recently laid off Boston-based alumnus (M.L.I.S. 1987) who
will soon be paying a short visit to San Francisco, in the hopes that what I
propose below [re: an informal meeting] is something you might be willing to
assist in arranging.
Led by the appropriately prominent link on the SIMS homepage, I have now
looked over a good amount of the web pages on your Document Engineering
courses from the past year, and am quite intrigued - perhaps in particular by
the use of Orbeon's OXF (and the comparison with Cocoon, Struts, etc.).
My own work is closely involved in some aspects of this (XSLT pipelines
(chained by Ant); DTD/XSD; XML Spy; some Cocoon); and not so close in others
(more web publishing than web services; I can work in some Java/J2EE, but not
a real developer; have some WS/WSDL/SOAP knowledge, but not real practice).
[Note: I've pasted in my "UCB SIMS Alumni Profile" at the bottom of this
e-mail.]
I would appreciate the opportunity to meet and "compare notes" with someone
(or some couple of people) from your classes whom you think might be good
choices, and who might be willing and available, while I am in the Bay Area:
[ DATES = Monday Sept. 8 through Thursday Sept. 11 ]
[any evening, also, Monday afternoon available (prob. preferred?)]
I am in San Francisco to attend the Seybold Conference
http://www.seybold365.com/sf2003/conference/glance/
and the Gilbane Content Management (sub-)Conference
http://tinyurl.com/l8yz
[I am a (new) Contributing Writer to CMS Review:
http://www.cmsreview.com/Editors/ , and will be reporting on the conference.]
Many thanks for your time in reviewing this e-mail inquiry, and thanks in
advance if you feel there is the possibility of some kind of informal meeting
that might be arranged.
Best regards,
William Reilly, M.L.I.S. '87
william@reilly2001.info
(617) 290-9689 cell phone
Somerville, Massachusetts
====================
P.S. -- As I see you just taught a Summer Short Course, I'm guessing you will
see e-mail (not away on sabbatical, etc.), but I suppose if for some reason I
don't hear back from you before Sept. 3, I hope you will not mind if I employ
a small "broadcast" e-mail to the people I list below (some "Document
Engineering" students). (Though I'd much prefer to coordinate through you,
if possible! Thx.)
======================
Some Discussion Topic Ideas
======================
* Information Architecture vs. Programming? *
* Platform Technology Evaluation *
* Relationship (?) of Document Engineering to Content Management *
* Any Opportunity for Alumni Distance Learning/Contribution?? *
* Other?... *
--------------------
* Information Architecture vs. Programming? *
I went to SLIS (fewer computer requirements), not SIMS, and so I suppose one
essential question I would have concerns the extent to which the emphasis in
this design and implementation appear to be on information modelling and
information architecture, and there (appears to be?) a de-emphasis on the
need or call for Java coding/development, per se.
That is, the hard work to discover the COURSE and ROLE schemas, etc., that you
have prepared permits for a higher level contribution from a SIMS(/SLIS) kind
of graduate (as opposed to more strictly computer science/developer) to the
design and even implementation/deployment of such a system:
"[OXF permits] an ease that allows our students to find success with
building advanced systems in a far shorter period"..."quicker to market"
lesson, etc.
This seems to state it: http://dream.berkeley.edu/CDE/cas/website/
"...[we are] conducting model driven software development using XML Schema
as a basis. Our project demonstrates how Information Architecture, one of the
core competencies of a SIMS education, can be used to generate deployable
systems with a minimum of code customization."
And from Orbeon: http://www.orbeon.com/oxf/doc/intro-oxf
"we strongly believe that enterprise developers should not have to put up
with the intricacies of J2EE development."
On the other hand, the DE definition doesn't shy from including "distributed
computing," but it does make clear it's a multi-disciplinary undertaking.
http://cde.berkeley.edu/ "synthesis of information and systems
analysis, business process modeling, electronic publishing, and distributed
computing"
-------------
* Platform Technology Evaluation *
http://dream.sims.berkeley.edu/CDE/report/go-five-final-report.html#S5.4
The case for OXF looks good
http://dream.sims.berkeley.edu/CDE/report/go-five-final-report.html#S5.
but I'd be interested to learn more, perhaps esp. re: "Ease of Development
(how difficult to use the framework)" (see above discussion point). Also,
the open source vs. commercial discussion. Finally, any consideration of the
use of Relax NG as compared to W3C Schema XSD?
I've had some exposure to working with Cocoon and Cocoon/Lenya (more limited
re: Struts), and so read with interest the table in this report assessing it
against OXF, Struts(CX), and the models (MVC etc.).
Also, Cocoon's 2.1 is now available (not so in time for your project) - wonder
how that might make a difference (or not)?
http://cocoon.apache.org/news/
"The release of the long-awaited 2.1 version of Cocoon on August 13th marks
the transition from a publishing-oriented XML/XSLT server engine towards a
componentized XML-based web application development framework."
Additionally, I am at the moment intrigued by WebML (http://www.webratio.com),
as described in the book "Designing Data-Intensive Websites" (just purchased
it)
http://amazon.com/o/ASIN/1558608435/
"UML of the Web" - http://www.webratio.com/page2.do?link=page2.link
-------------------------
* Relationship (?) of Document Engineering to Content Management *
As noted above, my background is less on the side of "document" as business
process information exchange, and perhaps more traditionally in the use of
markup language for "documents" that are, as Elliotte Rusty Harold
http://www.ibiblio.org/xml/books/effectivexml/
puts it, "narrative" (e.g. DocBook; XHTML; content management & single-source
publishing, etc.)
And yet I presume that even in the area of "documents" as in an OXF framework,
etc., there still are needs for similar information-organizing principles as
found in "narrative" documents, especially the more granular the design in
composing narrative pages.
Interested to discuss some of those principles, information architecture
techniques, and see what is the relationship between the (comparatively
firmly established (!)) CM and the "evolving" DE. :^)
----------------------
* Any Opportunity for Alumni Distance Learning/Contribution?? *
(however informal)
Just a shot: the SIMS course offerings are always very appealing, but there's
never any continuing education that I'm aware of...
Is this Document Engineering by any chance a place such a precedent might be
carved out?...
---------------------
* Other?... *
==============
SELECTED LINKS:
==============
Orbeon OXF press release (May 19, 2003)
http://www.marketwire.com/mw/release_html_b1?release_id=053828
Why OXF?
http://www.orbeon.com/oxf/doc/intro-oxf
Spring 2003 - Platform Technology Evaluation : Cocoon
http://dream.sims.berkeley.edu/CDE/report/go-five-final-report.html#S5.4
Fall 2002 Document Engineering "E-Berkeley"
http://dream.sims.berkeley.edu/doc-eng/projects/COURSE/documentation/babl-course-documentation.html
Preliminary Design
http://www.sims.berkeley.edu/%7Eglushko/ebitf_030307/PrelimDesign.htm
Minutes: e-Berkeley Implementation Task Force, March 7, 2003
http://ebitf.vcbf.berkeley.edu/minutes_mar07_2003.html
First Sketch (yellow legal pad shot!)
http://dream.sims.berkeley.edu/CDE/cas/design0/DraftPrelDesign.html
==========
PEOPLE:
==========
Master's 2003 (probably/perhaps no longer in Berkeley area?)
(Document Engineering)
Patrick Garvey
pgarvey@sims.berkeley.edu
Marc Gratacos
gratacos@sims.berkeley.edu
John Jairo Leon
jleon@sims.berkeley.edu
Calvin Smith
calvins@sims.berkeley.edu
==========
Master's 2004 (presumably in Berkeley in early Sept.!)
(some of those I found listing "Document Engineering" on coursework pages)
http://www.sims.berkeley.edu/~allisonb/coursework.html#Spring2003
http://www.sims.berkeley.edu/~bdaly/spring2003.htm
http://www.sims.berkeley.edu/~french/index.html
http://www.sims.berkeley.edu/~ljordan/assignments.htm
http://www.sims.berkeley.edu/~leejane/coursework.htm
http://www.sims.berkeley.edu/~zhanna/coursework.html
http://www.sims.berkeley.edu/~atan/courses/courses.html
http://www.sims.berkeley.edu/~amyt/coursework.html
http://www.sims.berkeley.edu/~awilhelm/coursework.html#spring03
...
Others?
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
WILLIAM REILLY PROFILE (@ UCB SIMS Alumni)
===============================================
===============================================
William Reilly profile
https://alumni.sims.berkeley.edu/search/fulldisplay.php?id=257
===============================================
Home Location
Somerville, MA
617 290 9689 cell phone
william@reilly2001.info
Personal Bio
In "Job Search" at the moment (Aug. 2003)!
I will be attending the San Francisco Seybold Conference (Sept. 8-11, 2003),
in particular the Gilbane Content Management sub-conference.
* Looking for work in arena of XML, DTD, XSD, XSLT, CSS, Apache Jakarta
Cocoon, Java/J2EE, etc.
o Note: The SIMS project using Oberon XML Framework (OXF) looks
_quite_ interesting:
http://www.marketwire.com/mw/release_html_b1?release_id=053828.
I hope to be in contact with Prof. Glushko and possibly some of the students
involved...
* Till recently was V.P./Assoc. Dir., Technology, at Digitas, a marketing
& technology consulting firm in Boston. Example Digitas technology work, for
Fleet Bank: http://www.digitas.com/results/fleetboston_cs.asp
* Authored DocBook documentation on "XML-2-HTML" website build &
maintenance system, also known as "Trees Into Rectangles," as used at Digitas
on Fleet and Millennium Pharmaceuticals (Cambridge, MA) websites.
http://reilly2001.info/xml-2-html/ch01s02.html#table_raw-tree
* Recently joined CMS Review as a Contributing Writer.
http://www.cmsreview.com/Editors/
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