Getting started with business intelligence in SharePoint Server 2010

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=FC97D587-FFA4-4B43-B77D-958F3F8A87B9&displaylang=en 

I got in touch with the guy behind the Business Intelligence diagrams (Norm Warren) and he is also producing new posters highlighting common BI scenarios. His team has a site when you can find most of their excellent documentation.

I have had a problem with my brain for the past few years now and about 3 years ago had a ‘Brain Pacemaker’ fitted – now without going into the gory details (check my facebook for the pictures J) this involves placing a couple of electrodes into the brain on the left and right sides. When I first had the implant I was the youngest in the world to have it but the 12^th person overall.  So research was lacking on exactly the right place to put the electrodes. I was convinced for some time they were in the wrong place.

Since having the pacemaker replaced 2 weeks ago the change in the way the stimulator works is dramatic – this time they hit the sweet spot and instead of feeling like someone was sticking needles in my head in the same place at the rate of 5 a second it feels like the whole of my head is being stimulated  and this according to the neurologist is a good sign it will work well.

So my theory has been that because it is not an exact science or because people are different that placement of these electrodes needs a way better way of predicting where that sweet spot actually is.  The device is not only used for my condition but also for people suffering from Parkinson’s, Tourette’s Syndrome, back pain and even to give women orgasms at the touch of a button (the last one is not available on the NHS)

So I am expanding my knowledge of SQL Server 2008 Spatial beyond the Geography  data type – which alone has the potential to change the way we will navigate and visualize data in the upcoming years, to really understanding the  Geometry data type and develop a spatial map of the brain. Now I do not actually intend to map the whole thing but there must be data in the public domain that already holds this information in some form of importable / convertable format that could be indexed within SQL Server.

The goal then would be to map the electrode placement information gathered from all patient information and layer that over the map of the brain. Immediate placement pattern will be obvious but to take it a stage further may would look to use data mining to predict best placement.

It’s a fun little project that I aim to develop to demonstrate using spatial data in different ways, so if anyone has data of this type that’s available in the public domain give me a shout. The actual patient data will be fake I just want to demonstrate the principal of using spatial mapping with the Geometry data type

Nice :) If you have MSDN you can download MapPoint Europe or US or get the trial from the link below - will be trying this out tonight

View and edit your SQL data on a map. It’s quick, low cost, and doesn’t require special training. To get started you need the free Add-in, MapPoint 2009¹, and access to data in a SQL Server 2008 database

http://www.microsoft.com/mappoint/en-us/sqladdin.aspx

 UPDATED:

Right first I downloaded the 1.8GB European MapPoint and then remembered all my spatial SQL 2008 databases are US only :( so another 1.7GB later I have it all installed and tried out the add-in.

I used a US Airports table in SQL Server - approx 6000 records with a GEOGRAPHY column and added a layer onto the map of the US. Here is the result.

Still exploring the info further as there are many features. It would have been nice for the add-in to come with an example or a walkthrough on using the SQL 2008 sample spatial database but maybe thats for next time. This took less than 5 minutes from start to finish.

Hi,

I just finished my first live meeting for the UK SQL Server user group on the subject of creating a star schema and OLAP cubes. I think it went well, it was recorded so Ill let you all be the judge of that - presentation to follow.

I spoke way too fast, Tony Rogerson told me I sound "well Cockney" - but depressing as in my own head I sound like Hugh Grant. I spoke way too fast as I am inclinded to do but even though I got through most of my content I defintely forgot loads and apologies to anyone for that. I will follow it up by slowing the next one down and spending much more time on each subject.

 ps. I found out today my Neurologist wants to move my brain implant (not joking) to somewhere else in my body - scheduled for the 14th August

 I cant believe I have missed this blog for so long but I came across a site last night that is just plain exciting for people who love Transact-SQL.

"Thinking outside the box" - http://weblogs.sqlteam.com/peterl/Default.aspx has some of the best and unique examples of working with sql I have seen (Itzik quality)

I think Peter even won the recent String Grouping competition with his submission. I loved that Celko even posted comments on one of the articles dismissing the way Peter had solved the problem. Who cares :)

 Definatley one to check out.

During the past two weeks the company I work for was asked by the Princes Trust to provide a training course to them to explain the entire Microsoft Business Intelligence software stack. My company agreed to donate my time and a colleague’s time to put this training material together. Our remit was to provide novice to advanced training over two weeks on Microsoft SQL Server and Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server. So basically a minimum of 8 weeks worth of training material given over 2 weeks written in just over a week – no mean feat J

Because of the worthwhile causes that the Princes Trusts supports and the fact that talking about the entire Microsoft SQL Server product family is something I love doing this was a fairly exciting but somewhat overwhelming challenge. I called in some old friends back from when I was a SQL server MVP and asked Itzik Ben-Gan and Kalen Delany if I could use some of their content to assist me in my training plan – they both very kindly agreed to let me use some of their material and Itzik sent through a large number of his books to distribute and Kalen is sending through some of her SQL Server Architecture and Metadata training DVDs. The generosity of the SQL community never fails to amaze me.

So I have just finished my part of the training and am assisting my colleague with the Sharepoint and Performance Point stuff. I’m not a official Microsoft trainer but I do love seeing people excited by SQL Server and hearing people spending their own time over the weekend downloading SQL Express on their home machines and trying out some of the labs we developed for them to further understand the product.

So I would like to thank Audrius Pranckevicius, Igal Greenberg and David Haigh from Avanade for giving their time for free - obviously at the request of Avanade J and to Marina Rumyantseva and Richard Chadwick at the Princes Trust for making the whole experience very enjoyable and rewarding.

Extra special thank to Itzik Ben-Gan, Kalen Delany for their kind offer of materials and to Tony Rogerson for validating my entire two weeks’ worth of content.

"These views are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of Avanade."

http://www.princes-trust.org.uk

http://www.avanade.com

Hi,

Im Trevor Dwyer, also known as SQLARTIST, I have been involved with SQL Server for about 15 years, was a SQL Servr MVP for 6 years and made many good friends in the SQL community. I have spoken at SQL conferecences around the world, worked on a few SQL server books and currently work for a company called Avanade, a joint collaboration between Microsoft and Accenture as a director and principal solutions architect.

 I focus on Business Intelligence, Large SQL Server databases and my passions of Text Mining and Search. I have been recently been working on BI on Microsoft Surface.