Injecting Your Own Bias

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Injecting Your Own Bias

Steve Jones - SSC Editor

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March 23, 2010 at 9:32 pm

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Comments posted to this topic are about the item Injecting Your Own Bias
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Ben Moorhouse SSCrazy Points: 2385 More actions · Answer 1

I'm not sure my opinion really carries any weight here because I live in the UK and simply can't afford to travel that far. Plus (as you mentioned in a previous editorial), I think convincing my wife to let me go would be rather difficult - leaving her with 2 kids and 7 ducks to cater for on her own.

That being said, whilst I think it's important that there is a healthy range of Microsoft reps in attendance, I think that even Microsoft would get more out of it with the focus being put on the other attendees. After all, that's really where the real-world development ideas come from.

Steve Jones - SSC Editor SSC Guru Points: 728164 More actions · Answer 2

That's a good point. MS should be learning from the attendees. I know that I prefer real-world presentations, someone talking about what they have done, not what they've contrived to teach.

I do know that I've had many MS reps attend sessions I've been in or have given, so they are listening to what people present. There are also lots of discussion times, though I think they are often the places where people ask questions of MS rather than provide ideas.

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Ben Moorhouse SSCrazy Points: 2385 More actions · Answer 3

I totally agree about people talking about what they've done - it shows that not only is it possible in "real companies" (as opposed to the likes of Adventureworks), but it's been successful enough for them to want to show it off.

It's really good that Microsoft are listening to their customers, and no doubt one of the reasons they are where they are today. Hopefully they can take ideas away from the questions too though - learning about what people are wanting to do, capturing those ideas which dont go through their connect system.

Grant Fritchey SSC Guru Points: 397721 More actions · Answer 4

I'll try to attend the Summit regardless of where it's held. That said, I'd still like to see it move around a bit. Seattle is a pretty major travel commitment which basically adds two days to the length of the summit and that's a burden. Less travel time occassionally, would be a nice break.

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NYProjectLeader SSC Veteran Points: 295 More actions · Answer 5

It would be nice if it moved around. Given our current budget situation, there is no way we would be permitted to send one DBA, much less our DBA team to Seattle. If it moved around and came to the Northeast once in a while, we would be able to attend.

OCTom SSChampion Points: 11785 More actions · Answer 6

I agree with moving it around. It would be great to attend PASS but it's just not in the cards in Seattle. Being in the Midwest, anywhere East of the Mississippi would be great (Minneapolis, too, though).

Gail Shaw SSC Guru Points: 1004494 More actions · Answer 7

I don't care much where the PASS Summit is. I've done checks and comparisons and it's at most a difference of 2 hours travel and about $100 for various cities.

Somewhere with reasonably cheap hotels and good public transport, Seattle has both.

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jay-h SSCoach Points: 18816 More actions · Answer 8

The concept of objectivity in journalism, as well as other informational fields, is a modern concept, and probably mythical in the real world.

In distilling knowledge, whether news, science, business information, we DO inject a bias. That is the nature of distillation. Better to be open about it so that the reader can comprehend it than to pretend it does not exist.

...

-- FORTRAN manual for Xerox Computers --

Scott Arendt SSCrazy Eights Points: 8148 More actions · Answer 9

I am sure that there are many people who will never have the opportunity to attend if it is always held in Seattle. There is zero chance that I would be able to attend unless it was held in Minneapolis.

So, I guess it really comes down to determining the goal of the Summit. Is it to provide as much access to Microsoft as possible? Or is the goal to reach as many customers as possible?

Scott

Jack Corbett SSC Guru Points: 184388 More actions · Answer 10

While I have been critical of the decision by PASS, I agree that where ever the Summit is held it is worth going. I also will say that I'm sure my interpretation of the survey results is colored by my bias towards moving the Summit. I'm definitely interested int he is discussion and hearing more opinions. I know I have a tendency to focus on the impact on US attendees not the international attendees and we do need to consider them.

Jack Corbett
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jay-h SSCoach Points: 18816 More actions · Answer 11

I'm not sure that it makes such a big difference where it is held. Other than people within a few hundred miles of the target city, flying on a plane is not that much different in cost by distance (pricing is more affect by all sorts of details as the time of flight and the scheduling details). Indeed flights to major target cities like LA, NY, Seattle are often much cheaper than flights to smaller cities.

Other costs (food lodging) are pretty much the same no matter where it is held.

...

-- FORTRAN manual for Xerox Computers --

@DBA_ANDY SSC-Addicted Points: 482 More actions · Answer 12

It's interesting that this is so much an "East vs. West" issue - but living in the Midwest (Nebraska - smack dab in the middle) it is pretty much a wash either way....travel to Seattle or Miami is equally prohibitive.

Maybe if it were somewhere nearby (did somebody previously suggest Minneapolis?) it would be different...

jay-h SSCoach Points: 18816 More actions · Answer 13

Andy-452557 (3/24/2010)
It's interesting that this is so much an "East vs. West" issue - but living in the Midwest (Nebraska - smack dab in the middle) it is pretty much a wash either way....travel to Seattle or Miami is equally prohibitive.
Maybe if it were somewhere nearby (did somebody previously suggest Minneapolis?) it would be different...

True but flights to Minneapolis are generally more expensive than to LA or NY, no matter where you are.

In the overall cost of a trip, the exact dollars of flight cost difference (assuming the flight is properly shopped for) are only smallish percentage.

...

-- FORTRAN manual for Xerox Computers --

Bill Nicolich SSCommitted Points: 1865 More actions · Answer 14

We ought to put lots of thought and effort into making the most of the Microsoft resources that are available at the Summits - regardless of location.

Let's be sure they don't just show up. Let's survey and discover what it is that we want from them beforehand.

Dr. DeWitt's keynote is a compelling model. Let's find some people in the Microsoft labs working on database technologies and let them share their theoretical ideas.

At the 2009 Summit, I tried before, during and after to connect with some key people at Microsoft who could answer some very specific questions about Full-Text features. In the end, I got nothing. I have a particular problem to solve, but beyond that, I'm just plain curious about how the features are able to identify generational terms like "cacti" from "cactus." Language changes all the time - so I'm curious about whether those internal resources are fixed, or if they are adjusted during product patches and so forth. Were linguistic experts brought onto the project to provide assistance, or is there some ISO standard that was used? Does the feature set use a Backus-Naur-like metasyntax to parse and provide rules for the feature, or is it all just look-up?

For Microsoft, I'd think that these conferences are a chance to dig deeper and go beyond marketing the key features that they already spend a good bit of time and effort marketing. Instead, they could focus on areas where they face significant competition - like the area of search capability. Full-Text is a perfect example. It's complicated. It goes largely unused because the technical community doesn't have a good grasp on it. Resources like books and training are fairly slim. This is where Microsoft can step in and do something about it.

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