Well it is time to start posting again,

After a blogging break over the last couple of weeks it is time to look at what this year will hopefully bring in for this blog.

First, I am hoping to continue blogging regularly and to work on some new series of posts.

Some of the things I have in mind:

• A revisiting of some of the posts I made from the 2 conferences I attended in the fall. Blogging the conference is always crazy so now it is time to revisit some of those topics
• A series of interviews with some really interesting people from the industry (I haven’t started that yet)
• A review of a few books related to Business Rules and BPM
• Possibly a few product reviews
• And of course if I can, Coverage of conferences on business rules and maybe even some vendor conferences

If any readers have suggestions for related topics to cover on the blog, feel free to suggest them!

Finally, although I’m a bit late in doing so, I wish everyone the best for 2010.

The Business Rules Forum in Las Vegas (http://www.businessrulesforum.com) is just about 4 weeks away now.

As I mentioned a while back, I have been confirmed as a speaker for this conference for a talk titled: Business Rules Governance and Management: A Case Study

I have a series of posts on the topic of Rules Governance and Management planned and will start posting those in a little while.

If you read this blog and are coming to Business Rules Forum 2009, feel free to come talk to me!

The October Rules Fest in Dallas, Texas (http://www.octoberrulesfest.org/) is just about 3 weeks away now.

As I mentioned a while back, I have been confirmed as a speaker for this conference for a talk titled: Rule Classification First

The talk cover some of the topics I have discussed in this blog, but in a slightly more detailed manner.

If you read this blog and are coming to ORF 2009, feel free to come talk to me!

Just a quick note to let readers know that over the week-end, I upgraded the blog to the latest blogpress release (2.8.4) and I am hoping that everything is working as it should since it was an important upgrade.

The only thing that fell victim to the upgrade seems to be the list of registered users which hopefully will not be such a big deal since comments can now be left without being a registered user.

At the same time, the blog and parent website were moved to a new web provider which seems to handle php much faster than my previous provider, so it should make browsing the blog more enjoyable.

If anyone encounters weird behaviour, broken links, etc. please let me know so that I can take steps to remedy the issue.

• IBM Impact 2009:
  • Dates: May 3, 2009 until May 8, 2009
  • Location: Las Vegas, Nevada
  • Web Site: http://www-01.ibm.com/software/websphere/events/impact2009/
  • Although it is focused on SOA, there are tracks that discuss:
    • Sub-Track: Dynamic Business Processes, Rules & Events
    • Sub-track: Business Process Management Enabled by Smart SOA (Process Entry Point)
• The October Rules Fest 2009:
  • Dates: October 26, 2009 (tutorials) and October 27, 2009 until October 30, 2009
  • Location: Dallas Texas
  • Web site: http://www.octoberrulesfest.org/
  • Organised as a gathering of inventors and scientists behind the rule technologies, this conference is more technical than the Business Rules Forum
• Business Rules Forum:
  • Dates: November 1, 2009 until November 5 2009 (probably 2 days of tutorials and 3 days of conference)
  • Location: Las Vegas, Nevada
  • Web Site: http://www.businessrulesforum.com
  • Co-located with the Enterprise Decision Management Summit, this conference is less technical than the October Rule Fest but still very interesting

A quick bit of news.

It seems that Fair Isaac has now changed names and is becoming FICO.

The press release can be found at: http://www.fico.com/en/Company/News/Pages/03-10-2009.aspx

Well, it took me a while. I’ve been considering creating a blog for a while but never took the time and I wasn’t sure there would be any interest in what I have to say.

So this is it. After attending the Business Rules Forum in October 2008, I decided that it was time for me to actually do it. Why? Meeting with all those people, discussing business rules and seeing that some of my thoughts on the topic were not so far fetched or out of the blue after all.

I also wanted this to become a way for me to communicate with people who have similar interests. I hope that this will not be a one way street, but a place where people will also respond with their comments so that discussions can take place.

My position is that if someone does not agree with me there must be a reason for it, and maybe I can learn from that and adjust my views. In French, there is a saying that goes like this: “Seuls les fous ne changent pas d’idée” which loosely translates into “Only crazy people don’t change their mind“. So there you have it.