This blog has moved!

Please update your bookmarks to reflect the new location for the blog: http://danieljohnsonjr.com/main

If you use a feed or news reader, please add the RSS feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/DanielJohnsonJr

Awesome time at LinkedCincinnati LIVE last night

• Had a tremendous time meeting lots of new people at LinkedCincinnati LIVE last night! I do hope our connections will be mutually beneficial, and I look forward to keeping in touch.
  
• More information about Please check out the LinkedCincinnati LIVE Online Silent Auction. will be coming soon.
• Next New Media Cincinnati meetup will be Saturday, September 20, 2008 from 2-4 PM at Buffalo Wild Wings in Norwood, Ohio. More information to be found at http://newmediacincinnati.com/ and http://newmediacincinnati.wetpaint.com/
• Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/…ljohnsonjr
• Send DANIELJOHNSONJR to 41411 to get my contact information, if you didn't get it last night.

Mobile post sent by danieljohnsonjr using Utterz.  Replies.

-----
Check out my other blogs:
Daniel Johnson, Jr.
Get That Job!
Journey Inside My Mind Blog
Journey Inside My Mind Podcast
QuotesBlog
Twitter.com/danieljohnsonjr
Connect on LinkedIn
Interesting Things I've Read

Related tags: daniel+johnson+jr linkedcincinnati

LinkedCincinnatiLIVE Tonight!

Tonight I and over 200 other folks from the Greater Cincinnati area will be meeting together for LinkedCincinnatiLIVE (more details below). I am so glad, too, that my schedule freed up at the last minute for me to do so. I hope to connect with as many of you as possible.

Here is a recent picture of me, in case you're looking to connect:

LinkedCincinnati LIVE - Details

If you have not signed up for LinkedCincinnatiLIVE tonight, August 27th, you need to do so right away! Over 200 attendees have pre-registered, and we’ve got some seriously incredible items up for grabs in the silent auction.

For those in the local recruiting community, we have a FULL ADMISSION ticket to SourceCon 2008 in Atlanta in just one week for auction, a FULL ACCESS ticket to ERE’s Fall Expo in Hollywood Beach, FL at the end of October, AND a ticket to RecruitFest coming up in Toronto on Sept. 19th. The RecruitFest ticket is worth $220, the SourceCon admission ticket at $1,195 and the ERE Fall Expo ticket at over $2,000. You’ll want to make sure to come to LinkedCincinnatiLIVE and put your bid in for one of these can’t-miss events!

In addition to these event tickets, we have some really cool things that will be on the auction tables, including:

• Design/promotional/marketing consulting services
• Recruiting services
• SEO consulting services
• DBA services
• Skin consultation services
• A B&B weekend package in WV
• A guided upland hunting trip
• Books written by some of our attendees
• A private flight tour from a local pilot
• …and much more!

The silent auction is optional participation, and money raised from these auctioned items will go to help fund an aid trip to South Africa being taken by two LinkedCincinnati members, Jennifer McClure and Amybeth Hale. The $5 door cover will go to offset the facility rental and refreshments and will enter you into a raffle drawing during the course of the event. Cash bar will be available: soft drinks: $1.95, beer: $3.25-$3.75, wine: $5.00, cocktails: $5.50+.

Our auction items range in cost from around $10 all the way up to $3500 so there is something for everyone to check out. Business owners and managers, consider bidding on some of the consultative services for your company.

Don’t miss this opportunity to meet other local professionals in the Cincinnati area (and beyond – there are people from as far away as Florida attending!). Bring your business cards and get ready to mingle! Hope to see you there!

-----
Check out my other blogs:
Daniel Johnson, Jr.
Get That Job!
Journey Inside My Mind Blog
Journey Inside My Mind Podcast
QuotesBlog
Twitter.com/danieljohnsonjr
Connect on LinkedIn
Interesting Things I've Read

Related tags: daniel+johnson+jr linkedcincinnati

Special Date Functions in SQL, Part 1

For our internal dashboard work, we're looking at metrics for the previous month. While I could create a SQL Server stored procedure to pass these dates from a user form, I really want to create a SQL view that will show last month's information. That way, whenever the view is opened, it always shows data for last month.

I know in VB that there are FirstDayOfMonth and LastDayOfMonth functions, but I've been unable to find similar functions in SQL. In my research, I've found "Date and Time Manipulation in SQL Server 2000" helpful. I came up with this SQL:

SELECT
CAST(CONVERT(CHAR(10), DATEADD(dd,-(DAY(GETDATE())-1),GETDATE()),101) AS smalldatetime) AS StartDate,
CAST(CONVERT(CHAR(10), DATEADD(dd,-(DAY(DATEADD(mm,1,GETDATE()))),DATEADD(mm,1,GETDATE())),101) AS smalldatetime) AS EndDate,
CAST(CONVERT(CHAR(10), DATEADD(dd,-(DAY(DATEADD(mm,-1,GETDATE()))-1),DATEADD(mm,-1,GETDATE())),101) AS smalldatetime) AS PrevMonthStartDate,
CAST(CONVERT(CHAR(10), DATEADD(dd,-(DAY(DATEADD(mm,1,GETDATE()))),GETDATE()),101) AS smalldatetime) AS PrevMonthEndDate

It returns these results:

StartDate	EndDate	PrevMonthStartDate	PrevMonthEndDate
2008-08-01 00:00:00	2008-08-31 00:00:00	2008-07-01 00:00:00	2008-07-31 00:00:00

The SQL seems a bit convoluted, especially since I'm going to be using the start and end dates as criteria in a WHERE clause. So, I'm going to create a User-Defined Function (UDF) for each. I'll share scripts for those in a follow-up post.

-----
Check out my other blogs:
Daniel Johnson, Jr.
Get That Job!
Journey Inside My Mind Blog
Journey Inside My Mind Podcast
QuotesBlog
Twitter.com/danieljohnsonjr
Connect on LinkedIn
Interesting Things I've Read

Related tags: daniel+johnson+jr sql+server

Twelve Ways to Sell Social Media to Your Boss

Twelve Ways to Sell Social Media to Your Boss

Posted using ShareThis

Moving to WordPress!

Hi folks! I am making the move from Blogger to WordPress, so if things may get a bit wonky in the meantime.

-----
Check out my other blogs:
Daniel Johnson, Jr.
Get That Job!
Journey Inside My Mind Blog
Journey Inside My Mind Podcast
QuotesBlog
Twitter.com/danieljohnsonjr
Connect on LinkedIn
Interesting Things I've Read

Related tags: daniel+johnson+jr

New Media Cincinnati - August 2008 Meetup Information

At the request of several of the members, we are moving the location to be more central to the Cincinnati area.

New Media Cincinnati meetup:

When: Saturday, August 9, 2008 2:00-4:00 PM EDT
Where: Panera Bread Company, 3806 Paxton Avenue, Cincinnati, OH 45209 (map)

This is an informal meetup for people in the Greater Cincinnati, Northern Kentucky, and Dayton areas involved with or who have an interest in new media (podcasting, video podcasting, blogging, Facebook, Twitter, social networking, etc.). The purpose of the group is to promote awareness of new and social media in area.

Everyone is welcome to come.

For more information on the store, please visit their local website: http://www.panera-centralohio.com/

The restaurant management has reserved the meeting room for us and politely requests that the group collectively spend at least $25 while we're there. I don't think this will be a problem.

The store has free wi-fi, so feel free to bring your recording equipment (audio and video) and laptops.

** If you're unable to make it to this meeting but have some opinions, or if you have any specific announcements you'd like to make, please contact me.

If you have any questions about this event or the group in general, please contact:
Daniel Johnson, Jr.
(513) 373-4442
danieljohnsonjr [at] newmediacincinnati [dot] com
http://twitter.com/danieljohnsonjr

Facebook Group: http://www.newmediacincinnati.com
Google Calendar: http://tinyurl.com/2caxxp
Twitter: http://twitter.com/newmediacincy
Jaiku: http://jaiku.com/channel/newmediacincy
Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/groups/newmediacincy/
Wiki: http://newmediacincinnati.wetpaint.com

Facebook event: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=21878733892

-----
Check out my other blogs:
Journey Inside My Mind Blog
Journey Inside My Mind Podcast
Get That Job!
QuotesBlog
Twitter.com/danieljohnsonjr
Interesting Things I've Read
Are we LinkedIn?

Related tags: daniel+johnson+jr new+media+cincinnati cincinnati+meetup

Business Intelligence and Data Warehousing TeleForum Notes

Today I participated in a NOREX member TeleForum on Business Intelligence (BI) and Data Warehousing (DW). I'm including my notes taken here:

• Started off by defining BI and DW. I like the Wikipedia definitions myself. Also discussed what Master Data Management is; i.e., managing data that has become aged and may or may not be needed as much as current data. (The company I currently work for doesn't really think of what I do as BI and DW, but developing Decision Support Systems (DSS) is really at the crux of what I do here.)
• Two polls on where participants are in implementing BI and DW in their organizations. Most are either currently using or evaluating, versus implementing.
  
• Discussed scope of data definition and data modeling that should be done before getting into BI/DW. One caller will be building theirs from scratch versus buying something that was developed for someone else in their industry. (I wonder if different BI solutions have been developed for different industries.) Data cleansing is so vital when doing modeling. (Amen to that!)
• Discussed risks in software selection and implementation. Licensing brought up as part of risk. Making sure that appropriate number of licenses (user vs site) important. How solution builds report cubes (pre-calculated or built at run-time) can affect performance and user experience. sBase(?) mentioned.
• Practical support from vendors also brought up as consideration. Everything works great at the demo, but on the implementation there could be issues. Ask for references. NOREX mentioned that's part of the service they provide for members.
• Discussed tools that are used, and pros and cons of each. One member mentioned Sybase IQ. Others are using Business Objects, SQL Server Reporting Services, and Oracle tools. Crystal Reports also mentioned.
  
• Someone asked for experience with the Obvient strategies tool. No one on the call mentioned having any experience.
• Any local government entities using data mining tools? No one on the call had any comments. Topic to be passed on to the government members outside the call.
  
• SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services - how is it being used, other considerations. Has a lot of capability and interacts well with Visual Studio. Another member, however, saw a demo at Microsoft- some problems with creating a cube and error messages hard to decipher.
• Discussed how to implement SQL Server Reporting Services through Sharepoint. (We use Windows Sharepoint Services as our company's intranet and are looking at how to do this.) No one on the call had any expertise to offer.
  
• Discussed whether anyone uses Excel 2007 as a BI client. Some of the new functionality of Excel lends itself to an entry-level BI implementation. Some accountants in one organization using Excel to manipulate data from their other BI system. No one taking advantage of the BI capability yet. Concerns raised about quality of data, security, and versions.
  
• Poll on whether anyone using SAS to access Star Schema data: dimensional modeling vs entity-relationship modeling. (Not really applicable to us in our organization.)
• Release management best practices from Dev and Test to Production environments sought. How to manage things that are not necessarily files that can be version-controlled? Really speaking about reports and dashboard components.
  
• One member mentioned his process is such that a developer will create a report and work from it at his desktop. Then when it's ready for deployment, he will publish it.
• Other members mentioned a more rigid change management structure with development, QA, and production environments. (I guess it depends on the specific tools and systems being used.)
  

-----
Check out my other blogs:
Daniel Johnson, Jr.
Get That Job!
Journey Inside My Mind Blog
Journey Inside My Mind Podcast
QuotesBlog
Twitter.com/danieljohnsonjr
Connect on LinkedIn
Interesting Things I've Read

Related tags: daniel+johnson+jr

My 15,000th Update!

I would consider myself - and many others would probably agree - a power user of Twitter. I update over there. A LOT. In fact, I recommend that those who start following me immediately turn off device notifications, unless they have an unlimited text plan.

Twitter by far is THE most useful tool in my social networking arsenal. I know for a fact that actual business has been conducted through my use of Twitter.

I started using it back in August 2006, so I have had ample time to grow and develop community. Imagine my surprise earlier when I saw something magical about to happen:

danieljohnsonjr Whoa. My next tweet will be my 15,000th. Send me an @ reply and I'll put you in it. You have 10-15 mins. Starting.... now. 17 minutes ago from web

I initially thought I'd be able to string everyone who'd replied into a 140 characters or less message. I mean, what's the likelihood that many people would be paying attention at that precise moment. I must have forgotten what my previous post said:

danieljohnsonjr Okay, now, where are all you followers coming from? 20 minutes ago from web

I checked and I have close to 2100 people following my updates. Some are dormant accounts or may have not updated in awhile, but still, that's a lot of potential people to see my 14,999th post.

So, since I couldn't fit everyone into a 140-character "tweet", I hope this suffices. Thank you so much for enriching my experience thus far. I sincerely hope I've been at least half as valuable to you as you have been to me. Here are the people who replied, in the order they came in:

1. radiodaniel: @danieljohnsonjr I want in:-)
2. doctoranonymous: Hi @danieljohnsonjr. Have a great weekend!
3. jaymartinez: @danieljohnsonjr tweeeeet
4. purpletrout: @danieljohnsonjr Congratulations Daniel!
5. mikeward: @danieljohnsonjr what if we dont wanna send you a tweet
   

   mikeward: @danieljohnsonjr d'oh
6. writer_mom_tn: @danieljohnsonjr heya! :)
7. melgallant: @danieljohnsonjr congrats on the tweet record!
8. chrbutler: @danieljohnsonjr Congrats on the 15,000th tweet!
9. TeriLussier: @danieljohnsonjr nice tweet up! ;-)
10. cossondra: @danieljohnsonjr put ME in there :-) we are such nerds arent we??
11. audiojunky: @danieljohnsonjr haha congrats on the 15,000...thats a lot im reaching my 1,000 soon
12. kate_the_great: @danieljohnsonjr OOH! Pick me! Pick me!!
13. zaldor: @danieljohnsonjr 15000 tweets?! That's insane! Congrats! And here i'm not even at 5k!
14. justinrains: @danieljohnsonjr Pick me!
15. kflake: @danieljohnsonjr congrats on the 15,000th tweet!

Because I'm a good sport and love you all, I'm including this direct message I received

editvdo me, too...me, too...me, too

and this message that came in while I was typing up this post:

akirk45239: @danieljohnsonjr I'm late. I'll go for the 15,001st. Congrats from Monfort Heights

Thank you and everyone else I know from Twitter for making it a fun journey thus far. Now, onto that 15,001st update.

-----
Check out my other blogs:
Daniel Johnson, Jr.
Get That Job!
Journey Inside My Mind Blog
Journey Inside My Mind Podcast
QuotesBlog
Twitter.com/danieljohnsonjr
Connect on LinkedIn
Interesting Things I've Read

Related tags: daniel+johnson+jr twitter social+networking

Managing Multiple Online Identities - Podcamp Ohio Presentation

Here is the presentation I gave at Podcamp Ohio, entitled "Managing Multiple Online Identities", and the folks from Coefficient Media recorded the audio and have posted it to the Podcamp Ohio Podcast.

| View | Upload your own

Thank you to everyone who attended the session! I feel like I learned at least as much from you as you may have learned from me.

The presentation has been getting some buzz from others in the blogosphere:

• PodCampOhio - Daniel Johnson Jr. - Managing Your Online Identities
• Introduction to Pod Camp...
• Managing Multiple Online Identities (Podcamp Ohio)
• So you think you can blog

Some folks mentioned the presentation on Twitter:

• RobRutkowski: Attending Managing Multiple Online Identities presented by @danieljohnsonjr.
• sMoRTy71: @danieljohnsonjr is having everyone introduce themselves. Nice mix of people in this session.

• shannanb: @podcampohio Just met the man- @danieljohnsonjr He's presenting a session on managing online identities.
• theRamenNoodle: pod @danieljohnsonjr has a packed out house for his talk on managing multiple identities. I better go see what my other ones are doing.
• Argon52: My friend @danieljohnsonjr is looking hot during his talk right now! Boo yeah!
• sMoRTy71: http://twitpic.com/2w4m - @danieljohnsonjr just showed the Profilactic home page during his session.
• shannanb: @danieljohnsonjr presentation on managing multiple online identities. Great presentation. Learned a lot.
• tw3nty3ight: Great session from @danieljohnsonjr It was a good time!
• kilodelta: @danieljohnsonjr Good luck with your talk! Wish I could be there, but knowing you, there will be a recording!
• ays: really enjoyed @danieljohnsonjr preso!

I also set up an RSS feed for the PodCampOhio Social Media Firehose, in case you want to track all the social media conversation related to PodCamp Ohio.

Also, if I've missed your link and you'd like me to include it, please leave it in the comments. Thanks again!

[IMG] "Startin' the day with @DanielJohnsonJr" by AnnOhio
-----
Check out my other blogs:
Daniel Johnson, Jr.
Get That Job!
Journey Inside My Mind Blog
Journey Inside My Mind Podcast
QuotesBlog
Twitter.com/danieljohnsonjr
Connect on LinkedIn
Interesting Things I've Read

Related tags: daniel+johnson+jr podcampohio social+media presentation public+speaking