SQLvariations: SQL Server, a little PowerShell, maybe some Hyper-V Rotating Header Image

Data Visualization

Help Us Build a Map of All PASS Chapters

Apr 29th, 2010
by Aaron Nelson.
1 comment

pass_logo
Hey Folks,

Have you ever been about to take a trip somewhere new and thought ‘hey, I wonder if I’m close enough to a PASS Chapter to catch their meeting’ or for speakers, ‘if I can speak at their meeting’?  Well guess what, I’ve had the same question.  So I went to the PASS website and tried to figure out if Abilene was close to Houston.  Unfortunately there was no easy way for me to figure that out because the chapters were all listed on separate pages and there is no map.

So I did what I’m sure everyone does, I sent an email to Blythe Morrow ( twitter ) saying hey Blythe, “we need a map off all the PASS chapters around the world”.  Blythe said “That’s a great idea Aaron!!  When can you have it done?”

Doh!  I didn’t realize that I was volunteering myself for this but I figure hey this is our PASS so I smiled and said “I don’t know, send me the data and we’ll see”.  I built out a map, and we ran into some issues with chapters not having quite the right address the software could recognize. Fun stuff like that. 

Along the way I realized Rob Farley ( blog | twitter ) not only knows how to do this stuff, but can even do it with Silverlight.  I roped him into my little guerilla-community-service project, but we quickly noticed a problem:  quite a few of the chapters have addresses that are not where the group actually meets but  instead where the chapter leader lives or works.  That being said, we quickly realized that we now need all 211 chapters to give us their meeting addresses, not their mailing address.

image

Right now all we can show you is a static map of the chapters in the US.  If we can get all of the addresses from all of the chapter leaders verified, we can give you a zoom-able map of all the chapters in the world sometime soon (*that soon part is completely up to the chapter leaders). 

What needs to be done?  We have sent out an email to all chapter leaders asking for at the very least their meeting address and which day of the month the chapter meets.  If they also want to include a twitter handle for the group and/or chapter leaders, a picture of the chapter leader(s), chapter logo, or anything along those lines we can add those as well.  Please send this information as a reply to the email that has been sent out to all of the Chapter Leaders.

[Click on the map for the full size version]

PASS_US

del.icio.us Tags: ,,

Quick Blog: SQL Saturday Map Updated

Apr 28th, 2010
by Aaron Nelson.
1 comment

Hey folks, I did a quick update to the SQL Saturday Map.  I went ahead and color coded the cities that have already done a SQL Saturday in a previous year as Green, cities that are holding their first SQL Saturday this year as Yellow, and cities that are in discussion to hold a SQL Saturday but aren’t official yet as Turquoise.

Has anyone else noticed that despite being home to a SQL conference, Las Vegas hasn’t held one yet?  Or as Brad Shultz pointed out, San Francisco nor Silicon Valley have held one.  I wonder if there’s a Chapter in Key West?  I know there’s one in the Cayman’s; I’d love to speak there. :-)

image

I also built another map using the same colors to show where you can still catch a SQL Saturday this year.  Did you know that you can learn some PowerShell at almost every one of these events? ;-)   I will update this one later and try to include the info off the location page and things like that.

image

del.icio.us Tags: ,

Quick Blog: US Map of SQL Saturdays

Apr 27th, 2010
by Aaron Nelson.
17 comments

Just a quick post here.

Yesterday there was a discussion around the notion of SQL Saturdays hitting a saturation point.  Statements like that remind me of the guy who was the head of the patent office and said that there was nothing left to patent.  I say that because I think that if we are in fact being successful with these events, as we expand the capabilities of DBAs DBDs and BIDs around the country, we will also expand what they want to learn next.  Not to mention the value proposition that these people bring to the table at their jobs.  Who knows, maybe I’m wrong and we’ll look back at this post 4 years from now and say “wow Aaron, that was a dumb prediction wasn’t it”. 

In any event Andy Warren ( blog | twitter ) thought before we got too far into this discussion we should have a look at a map so that we’re all working from the same frame of reference.  I’m currently working on some mapping stuff that you’ll find out more about later this week so I volunteered to whip up this map.  It’s basic and shows all SQL Saturdays past and currently scheduled on the home page.  If you click on the map it will take you to a larger version of it. 

image

There looks to be a lot of open space there in the middle, plus I hear they do SQL in Canada (or at least organize events around it).

I think a city the size of Atlanta could easily handle 2 SQL Saturdays per year depending on size; and the greater L.A. area could probably handle 4 per year so long as they move it around.  What do you guys and gals think?

del.icio.us Tags: ,