A system being monitored generates alerts directed at participants as events to be resolved occur. As a participant resolves an alerted event, the system logs the steps taken by the participant to resolve the event and stores the event resolution log associated with the event. From that event resolution log, a template for a workflow process can be automatically generated. When similar events occur again, the participant for those future events can be provided with the prior stored event resolution log and/or automatically generated templates for a workflow processes corresponding to the stored event resolution log. Iterative generation and editing of templates can be provided for, wherein subsequent event resolutions for similar events are used to modify the workflow process templates developed from previous event resolutions. Events can include conditions being met in data stored by the system or events representing the lack of occurrence of expected events. Participants can be human users, automated participants or proxies interfacing human users to the system. In one embodiment, the system is a network connecting business collaborators.
Increasingly, organizations that use large amounts of data to support their operations need tools to work with that data to support efficient operations. An example of this is data warehousing, wherein an organization compiles all of its business data such as transaction information into a centralized data warehouse that can be queried for analysis and reporting using systems such as online analysis processing (OLAP) systems, data mining, forecasting and simulation. In a typical process, an organization will assign analysts to "slice and dice" the business data in order to discover trends and potential for improvement of business processes and such analysis is followed by planning wherein business processes are devised and then put into execution.
With such systems available to the organization, many organizations find that they can use the available information in execution rather than just for improving business processes. As an example, an analyst might determine, based on the business data, that profit margins are lower for selling product to a particular geographical region and the organization might respond by implementing a business process wherein prices are increased for selected geographical regions or sales efforts in less profitable geographical regions are reduced. That is an example of business processes being developed based on analysis of the business data.
Use of the information in execution need not involve changes to the business process. For example, a shipping manager might use business data in determining where orders are being delayed and respond by finding bottlenecks in shipping and getting product out faster. In this latter use of business data, a system might monitor the business data (and possibly also the state of various other systems within the organization) and when certain events occur, issue alerts to particular participants.
Computerized workflow systems allow for collaboration that can be organized, structured and repeated, all of which supports accountability and efficiency. Of course, even with a single actor, workflow systems have benefits in the organization and structure of work. In some workflow systems, workflow is structured into instances and in a large structured workflow system, thousands of workflow instances might be processed daily.
A workflow item is a unit of a workflow system. A workflow item might represent a task that involves interaction among participants. Examples of tasks might be a team leader assigning an operation to a team member, doing the operation (performed by the team member assigned to the operation), reviewing the results of the operation (performed by a reviewer who might be the team leader, the team member or another person), signing off on the completion of the operation, tracking the task, etc.
A workflow process is a collection of tasks and links between them, where a link might provide order dependencies among tasks, rules and/or data to link tasks. For example, the tasks listed above might be part of a process wherein the team leader assigns tasks, which triggers the start of the doing of the operation, the completion of which triggers the need for review, which must occur before the signing off, while tracking can be done between the assignment and the signing off (or some other rule might apply). One workflow process might be reused many times for unrelated operations. Operations themselves might be performed using workflow processes, typically depending on complexity.
A workflow system provides each participant with an interface where actions to be done might be presented, prioritized and tracked. A workflow system might be organized in a client-server structure, with the server maintaining process templates, instances of ongoing processes, workflow items for each user and logic to present a user with his or her workflow items, via a client system. SAP's NetWeaver™ system provides an example of a workflow system.
Structured workflow has advantages of being trackable and testable. Structured workflow is trackable in that an analyst can later determine how a process proceeded and can identify other performance data and data underlying the work being done. In a typical arrangement, users have access to structured systems, such as a workflow management system and communication systems such as e-mail systems, instant messaging systems, and the like.
An event resolution system might regularly issue alerts to participants based on configurable business events. The alert recipient in many cases improvises when reacting to an alert, i.e., performs actions he or she feels are appropriate. As a consequence, the quality of the event resolution depends on the intuition and experience of the alert recipient. For similar events, potentially different strategies for resolution might be taken.
As specified by the event resolution system, a participant to which an alert is to be directed can be specified as a particular individual, a particular role (e.g., the sales department manager for the Southwest Region, whoever that happens to be), a computer process that stands in as an alert recipient, or a group of one or more of the above. An alert rule base can be used to specify which events merit alerts so that participants are not swamped with alerts to the point of ignoring them, but instead receive relevant alerts such that the recipient participants can resolve or participate in the resolution of the events that generated the alerts.
An example of an alert rule is that a sales rep's supervisor is to be alerted when the delivery date for an order for that sales rep that exceeds some threshold size is delayed from its scheduled ship date by more than a threshold amount of time. It should be apparent that an event resolution system that has access to an online transaction processing (OLTP) system, an order processing system and data relating to the organization's org chart can determine delivery dates for orders, determine the sales rep for orders, determine the supervisor of the sales rep, the size of orders, the current date and an indication of how to get a message to the supervisor. Thus, an event resolution system that includes an event monitor to flag for selected events maintains a set of alert filters that specify when a participant is to be alerted about the occurrence of an event (or the lack of occurrence of an event that should have occurred).
Since alerts are filtered from events, in a well-organized system, most are nearly all of the alerts represent events that require resolution by the recipients of the alerts. In a typical response, the participant may resolve the event using the participant's knowledge and business experience and do so in an unstructured manner. For example, in the above example of an alert, the supervisor might place a call to a shipping department to check on status of the orders, place a call to the sales rep to check whether the customer has inquired about the delay, look up customer records, diagnose other possible reasons for the delay and then take some action to either resolve the delay or work with the customer to accommodate a delayed shipment. Unfortunately, when events are resolved in an unstructured manner, other participants within the organization might not be able to benefit from the first participant's knowledge and experience and the outcome of that first participant's resolution of the event.
Thus, what is needed is an approach to event resolution that takes advantage of structured workflow. Workflow processes might be generated in a business cycle that involves analysis of process data, review and planning of new business processes and then rolling out new business processes. However such an approach is often not useful given the wide range of events that business participants might have to deal with, the cost of implementing processes and the time lag between events occurring and rolling out new processes.
In embodiments of business activity monitoring systems according to the present invention, a system being monitored generates alerts directed at participants as events to be resolved occur. As a participant resolves an alerted event, the system logs the steps taken by the participant to resolve the event and stores the event resolution log associated with the event. From that event resolution log, a template for a workflow process can be automatically generated. When similar events occur again, the participant for those future events can be provided with the prior stored event resolution log and/or automatically generated templates for a workflow processes corresponding to the stored event resolution log. In some embodiments, iterative generation and editing of templates is provided for, wherein subsequent event resolutions for similar events are used to modify the workflow process templates developed from previous event resolutions.
Events can include conditions being met in data stored by the system or events representing the lack of occurrence of expected events. Participants can be human users, automated participants or proxies interfacing human users to the system. One such system is SAP's NetWeaver™ comprehensive integration and application platform, usable to flexibly and rapidly design, build, implement, and execute new business strategies and processes. Other business suites might be used.
The included figures describe aspects of the present invention.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram of portions of a business management system providing tools for users to retrieve data and interact with the business management system for handling business operations and other tasks.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an alternate configuration, wherein users interact with the various business management components via a portal server.
FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating various components of an example user computer system and interconnections therein as might be used by users interacting with the business management system of FIG. 1.
FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram illustrating event rule creation and alert generation based on event occurrences in a business data warehouse.
FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating interaction between a structured event handler and portions of a workflow system.
FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating alert aggregation.
FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram illustrating multiple sources of event triggers from different components of a business system.
FIG. 8 is a screenshot of a user interface of an event resolution system.
FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating an example of a workflow process template derived from logging steps of an event resolution.
FIG. 10 is a screenshot of a user interface for managing interaction templates.
The workflow engine handles imposing and executing control flow dependencies between tasks according to process workflows. Process workflows can be set up by an administrator, set up by an end user, or set up by an administrator with end user permissions to modify the process. Tasks are used in a broad variety of end user scenarios. The life cycle of a task might be jointly defined by the task creator and process participants (if task assignees are allowed to deviate from the task behavior defined by the creator). Tasks can be atomic (single step), multi-step and/or nested (i.e., represent processes themselves comprising atomic tasks or nested tasks).
Users might interact with one or more workflow clients, such as the Universal Worklist ("UWL"), described in more detail in U.S. patent No. ______ [U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/841,241, filed May 7, 2004 and entitled "Universal Worklist Service and User Interface"], which is incorporated by reference herein for all purposes. The workflow clients might interact with a workflow service API layer of a workflow server, which interacts with a core layer that in turn interacts with workflow objects, data and other structures.
The workflow engine might include a template generator for creating new versions of a process definition when an end user modifies the process definition to accommodate local conditions. After the creation of a new template version, the run-time information of the process instance is merged into the new process definition. Thus, the next activity in the process instance already adheres to the new version of the process definition.
Workflow might include simple rules, such as rules for delegation, substitution, escalation, scheduling per step, etc. and more complex operations such as parallelization, use of alternatives, conditional operations, etc. System administrators might provide templates that can be used to make process instances, including, for example, steps to take, notifications to make, and other work items. With tasks tracked as workflow rather than as e-mails, auditing and tracking tasks is simplified.
Work items can represent manual steps (similar to knowledge management tasks) or computerized steps where the work item owners are supposed to enter data in application screens and to hit application buttons. A workflow work item represents a piece of work assigned to one user or a set of users by a workflow system. Work items unambiguously belong to workflow instances (instantiated workflow definitions) and keep references to the definition of the work. Work items are often accessible to end users through devices such as a UWL that allows for searching, filtering and manipulation operations such as forward, reject, execute, resubmit, etc.
In addition to executing manually work items, users can set up rules that automate the processing of work items that are transformed from messages, as with other workflow items. These rules can refer to a variety of data sources, such as work item attributes (e.g., creation date, work item type, creator of the work item, etc.), an associated business object and its attributes (e.g., document, length of a document, purchase order, amount of a purchase order, etc.), and context of the belonging workflow instance (preceding step in the process, due date of the process, etc.). This additional information about workflow items can be auto-generated, manually entered or combination thereof.
Because work items are trackable within the workflow system, auditing, tracking, prioritizing and the like are possible and make work easier to manage. When processes are predefined based on business analysis and planning, workflow processes can be developed in advance and rolled out to users. However, there are often situations that are not anticipated in advance and need to be dealt with outside of existing workflow processes. In prior systems, users might instead respond to such situations by handling the necessary resolutions outside of the workflow system and that may deny the organization the benefits of having a workflow system. Therefore, it would be desirable to be able to capture the process of resolution while events are being resolved so that the workflow system can support that resolution and future resolutions of a similar nature.
An alert is some signal to a user (participant) that a business event occurred. Examples of business events include that transaction began or concluded, that some message was sent, that some data met some criterion, or possibly a combination of different events. For example, a useful business alert would be one that signals a department manager when quarterly sales are down more than some percentage. The alert might be described formulaically, such as "if sales(this quarter, this year)/sales(this quarter, last year)<=0.75 AND date(end of this quarter), then send alert to manager M", or it might be less formulaic but nonetheless form a configurable business event.
As an example of a business system that issues alerts, SAP's Business Information Warehouse system regularly issues alerts to end users based on configurable business events. Depending on the alert and the event details for the event that generated the alert, the alert recipient may improvise by performing actions he or she feels are appropriate for resolution, such as querying data sources to obtain more information relevant to the event, communicating instructions to others, adding/deleting/modifying data, invoking transactional systems, or other tasks that can be noticed by a business activity monitoring system.
After having received an alert and before starting to resolve an alert, the alert recipient switches on the recording of his or her system interaction so that an event resolution log can be generated. This way, the event resolution log tracks actions of the alert recipient and of other people involved. At the end of the event resolution, this event resolution log is stored in persistent memory. The next time a similar alert occurs, the event resolution system suggests to the later alert recipient to analyze the log and to load the log as an "interaction template" into an end user oriented workflow engine that will guide the user through the event resolution based on the steps defined in the interaction template, which is in turn derived from the actions taken in a past resolution.
The alerts that are received can have an associated category and interaction templates might also be grouped by category. When logging the user interaction for a given alert, the system stores that interaction as being associated with that alert's category. That way, when an alert is received, the interaction templates in the same category as the alert might be shown to the resolver of the alert for selection of an appropriate template. When a later alert is received, when the system can suggest templates by retrieving templates associated with a category that matches the category of the received alert.
When a user defines a step during alert resolution, the user specifies an assignment of the step as part of the template. The possible assignments might include "self", "other person" or "role". For steps that are assigned to "self", the assignee for future alerts is the person that is resolving the alert (which may be different than the "self" that was the person resolving the earlier alert from which the template was generated). Thus, if the step is assigned to "self", the next time the template is run, this step is assigned to the person who resolves the alert.
Other assignments include "other person" wherein the step is assigned to a specific user, such as "step assigned to user=John", and "role". For a "role" assignment, the actual assignee is linked with a placeholder. For example, instead of it being assigned to John, it might be assigned to "sales_manager". Thus, if the alert occurs and includes metadata such as "alert_creation_date=2004/10/01", "threshold=20%", "sales_mgr=Mary", then the alert would be "assigned to user-Mary" in that instance.
For the subsequent resolution, the future alert recipient and other people involved can deviate from the interaction template by skipping steps, adding steps, modifying steps, or deleting steps. Again, deviations from the template are stored in a log and can be loaded as an interaction template into a workflow engine. After a sufficient number of cycles of alert resolutions, the interaction templates for an alert category will converge.
Whenever a user deviates from a template, a new template can be created (or the prior one modified, under certain conditions). Initially, it is highly likely that a template that fully met the user's requirements would not yet exist, so deviating templates will be created. After a number of such templates are created, the probability that one of them will be suitable increases, reducing the probability that new templates will be created.
Mechanisms can be used to weight the templates based on use and even deleting templates automatically if enough templates are available and some get very little use. By making interaction templates accessible system-wide, they form a best practice resolution. Thus, for an alert of a particular category, users would be able to identify best approaches for handling the alert according to templates in the particular category.
The more often an interaction template is used, the more likely it becomes that this template is offered to an alert recipient as the best known event resolution strategy. As a result the overall quality of the event resolution increases and individual experience and intuition of alert recipients only contribute to quality improvements and do not put the event resolution at risk.
Referring now to the figures, examples of apparatus and methods using aspects of the present invention are shown.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram of portions of a business management system 100 providing tools for users to retrieve data and interact with the business management system for handling business operations and other tasks. Various tools might be in place, but in this one example, user computer systems 102 have access to a business information warehouse (BW) server 110 that provides business data as might be stored in a data warehouse 112, an online transaction processor (OLTP) 114, a messaging server 116, and a workflow system 120 that operates with a workflow database 122 (among possibly other data sources and inputs).
Messaging server 116 might handle e-mail messaging, instant messaging, paging, text messaging, portal messaging and/or other forms of messaging and might handle only one type of messaging or multiple types of messaging. Alternatively, multiple messaging servers might be provided for multiple types of messaging.
Each of the various systems might be configured to emit event notices for business events of interest, with the particular events possibly determined from within each system and/or from a set of event rules external to the systems. These event notices are provided to an alert generator 130 which generates alerts for some (or all) of the events depending on alert filters. The alerts are provided to user computer systems 102 according to which users need to be alerted and which users are using which user computer system 102. In some configurations, alert generator 130 uses one or more messaging server to send the alerts.
Alert generator 130 might also signal a structured event handler 132 with a trigger for some or all of the alerts, which might begin logs for event resolution corresponding to the event notices that triggered the alerts. Alternatively, structured event handler 132 might be triggered by one of the user computer systems 102 when a user indicates the start of an event resolution.
With the number of connections between user computer systems (one for each participant using the system from a distinct user computer system), and the various systems with which they connect, it can be difficult to ensure that each system has the necessary information and each user computer system is configured properly. One simplifying approach is to use a portal server to bring all of the interaction of the user with various systems into one place.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an alternate configuration, wherein users interact with the various business management components via a portal server 202. As shown there, a user computer system 102 interfaces with portal server 202. It should be understood that a typical system would have many user computer systems (not shown) and possibly also other user computing devices and interfaces all connected directly or through a network 204 to portal server 202.
Portal server 202 provides an interface to the various business and other systems and each of those systems (and portal server 202) can interface to a process monitor 210. As a system deems necessary to issue an event notice, it provides it to process monitor 210. As explained below with reference to FIG. 4, process monitor 210 can also query various systems to obtain notice of events of interest to process monitor 210. In either case, process monitor 210 provides event data to structured event handler 132, which provides event notices to alert generator 130. In some embodiments, process monitor 210, structured event handler 132 and alert generator 130 are separate processes or systems and in other embodiments, two or all of them might be combined into one process, system, or unit of operation.
By using a portal server, the alerts can be easily tracked and event resolution easily logged, as the users interface to the various systems used for resolution via the portal server and the portal server is aware of event resolution processes and is configured as needed to support the generation of workflow processes and templates from steps taken to resolve events.
Although many suitable devices and programs can be used to implement one or more user computer systems, FIG. 3 shows one example. As shown there, user computer system 102 is implemented using a processor 302 coupled to components over a bus 304 and the components include RAM 310, program memory 312, user input/output 314 and network input/output 316. User input/output 314 can be used for interfacing to computer peripherals such as a keyboard, and mouse, a display, speakers, a microphone, etc. Network input/output 316 can be used for interfacing user computer system 102 to a portal server and/or other resources available over a network.
Program memory 312 can be implemented in various forms, such as ROM, hard disk, flash memory, virtual memory loaded over a network, or other persistent or semi-persistent forms of memory. Included in program memory 312 is program code implementing client services, program code implementing a browser, program code implementing alert presentation, program code for logging operations, operating system code, and possibly other program code. In some cases, additional code is provided and in some cases distinct code is not provided for some of the functions mentioned above. For example, separate code for implementing alert presentation and logging operations might not be provided if such functionality is provided by a portal server and the browser.
However it is done, program memory 312 contains program code or instructions, in object code form or source code form for handling various functions ascribed herein for user computer systems or clients. In some embodiments, some of the functionality is server-side, so all user computer system 102 needs for that approach is an interface to the server. For example, a portal server might be used, in which case user computer system 102 could operate with nothing more than an operating system and a browser (or other HTTP client) program.
FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram illustrating event rule creation and alert generation based on event occurrences in a business data warehouse. As shown there, an event rules database 402 maintains definitions of events, as might be supplied by an analysis and administrative system 404, using business inputs. The definitions of events drive the alerts that are provided to participants and, for one example process, the steps are outlined with circled numbers. In a first step, event rule definitions are provided to process monitor 210, which then uses the rules to determine which queries to provide to various databases of business warehouse 112 (step 2). As each database returns an appropriate response (step 3) to the queries, process monitor 210 matches the responses against event rules (step 4) to determine when an event occurs. In general, each event record in event database 402 includes some rule or prespecified criteria that must be met for an event to occur.
For example, if division costs exceeding some number is considered an event (as defined by an event definition), process monitor 210 would query a division statistics database to identify actual division costs, receive the response and compare that to the number that is part of the event definition. If there is no match, process monitor 210 does nothing further with that query (step 5A), otherwise it provides a matching event message 410 to alert generator 130 (step 5B). Note that some events might occur because something did not occur as expected.
Alert generator 130 might then filter messages such that participants are not overwhelmed with alerts, thereby causing them to ignore alerts. Alert generator 130 can simply stop further processing on filtered out events (step 6A). For events that pass the alerts filters, alert generator 130 generates a passing event record 412. Alert generator 130 might gather additional information for filter passing events for inclusion in passing event records.
As shown, a passing event record 412 might include event details, an indication of the reason the alert was triggered, as well as pertinent data, documents, links, etc. 414. It should be understood that other methods of alert generation might be used.
FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating interaction between a structured event handler and portions of a workflow system. As shown there, various systems provide alerts to a structured event handler 502. Structured event handler 502 can then store alerts by alert category, wherein each workflow template for alerts is associated with an alert category.
Data structures are indicated with "1" indicating a one-to-one relationship and "*" indicating a number (from zero to many)-to-one relationship.
Alerts can be mapped to a universal worklist object, which can be associated with a task in a workflow system. For example, when an alert is generated, it can be sent directly to structured event handler 502 as is or can be first enriched with some context information. The alert is then presented to relevant participants (e.g., end users of the system that might be called upon to act on the alert and resolve the underlying event). Once an alert is presented to a participant, that participant can turn on a system interaction recording process, resolve the underlying event, turn off the recording process and cause the recorded system interaction to persist as a stored template for a workflow process. When the interaction template is used, it is loaded and executed, which might involve creating workflow instances including work items and inviting other users in as resolution participants.
Alert categories can be organized hierarchically. For example, one alert category might be "month-to-month sales dropped" and subcategories of that alert category might be "month-to-month sales dropped between 10% and 20%", "month-to-month sales dropped more than 20%", etc. In general, an alert category might be represented by a key, a descriptive name and an expression such that an instance of an alert of that category is generated when the expression evaluates to true. For a subcategory, the expression might be a subset of the expression for the parent category, but that need not be the case.
FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating alert aggregation, wherein an alert aggregator 602 receives alerts from a plurality of sources 604 and may enrich the alerts with context information, providing the aggregated alerts to the structured event handler.
FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram illustrating multiple sources of event triggers from different components of a business system. For example, a customer relationship management (CRM) system 702 might comprise various modules, such as lead processing, opportunity processing, order placement, procurement, production, a goods delivery module, and a billing module. Each of these modules might generate event triggers. For example, the opportunity processing module might detect an unusual rise in risk of sales loss and create an event representing that rise. The structured event handler might in turn issue an alert to a department sales manager for resolution. Once alerted, the department sales manager could get more involved in an ongoing sale to reduce the risk of sales loss and/or help close the sale at risk.
FIG. 8 is a screenshot of a user interface of an event resolution system. In this example, an event resolution system provided an alert of an event and the user interface provides information about the event. Through the portal interface, the user can select an event resolution menu item from an event resolution system tab and see details of the event. As shown in this example, details about the rule and description of why the alert was triggered are presented, along with contextual information and suggested resolution steps. As described above, the selected resolution steps might be derived from templates of prior resolutions.
Today, knowledge workers increasingly have to deal with changes that affect their daily work significantly. Not only do companies change their product strategies, pricing, contracts, services, internal structure, etc. more frequently, the number of external influences is increasing. All of these changes lead to new situations where the individual user has to react flexibly within a short timeframe. In many cases, the user is made aware of the new situation by using business intelligence (BI) information. However, the action that has to follow is typically not covered in traditional business processes, because the situation is too new or the automation with a standard business application is too costly and time-consuming. Also, especially smaller companies do not have the bandwidth and resources to train or retrain a larger number of employees in response to a new situation. To assist with these situations, event resolution systems allow for systematic handling of recording, using and sharing action templates as a support for daily work. Generally speaking, an action template refers to a common or standardized set of tasks that an individual can apply to cope with a particular business problem or situation that was detected with the help of BI.
Event resolution facilitates the control of activities that previously might have been loosely linked, resulting in greater flexibility and optimization. It provides an alternative to unstructured collaboration, thus enabling the multiplication of expertise.
FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating an example of a workflow process template derived from logging steps of an event resolution showing the steps in more detail. In this example, a sales analyst is signaled with an alert indicating that open invoices for a particular customer are too high. In response to the alert, the sales analyst analyzes payment history for that customer, does a search through an enterprise system for contracts with that customer, then might access a CRM system to check for open orders and involve the relevant sales rep. The sales rep can then participate in a process of decision-making on the contract and get another party, from the legal department, involved to check for compliance and possible changes to the contract. The legal department might then get the sales rep involved again to provide information from the customer or to the customer. As part of the workflow process, the process might conclude with the sales analyst checking for completion of the event resolution process.
Roles: In this contract management scenario example, suppose "Jamie" is a sales analyst in a medium-sized enterprise. Her job is to provide up-to-date sales results to management. In addition, she is responsible for contract management, including the compliance with customer service level agreements (SLA's) and conditions of payment. In her company, the contract management process includes a number of steps, from initiating customer contact, creating an agreement, to releasing products, monitoring of incoming payments, triggering follow-up actions through to analyzing the results. Other individuals would have other roles or the same or similar roles. For example, an individual in the legal department might have the role of contract reviewer.
Alert: In the morning, Jamie typically checks a report that shows open invoices per customer, grouped in class A, B and C. Today, she is on half-day training so that she has not done this check so far. In a break, she checks her pager and discovers that she has received an alert from her BI system with the title "Open invoices for PayLate Corp above tolerance". The alert went to her pager because the alert routing rule was to look if she was online at her desk and if not, send the alert to her pager.
The alert is based on a threshold that Jamie has defined a week ago in the BI system that is based on an ABC classification of customers. Recently, the company has had some negative experiences with customers who deferred the payment of outstanding invoices as a result, so they implemented a new rule that generates an alert under such conditions for prompt handling. Assume this is the first time that the rule fired an alert, in which case a template might not yet exist for handling this situation.
Jamie decides to follow-up on this issue after the training has finished in order to deal with the situation before more products are shipped to the customer. Once she is back in her office, she logs on to an enterprise portal and finds the alert in her Universal Work List. As there is no template yet for this alert, there would be no "interaction template" icon attached to the alert. As she expects to run into similar situations in the near future, she turns on scripting (or might have an "always active" scripting option turned on).
Analysis: From the Universal Work List, Jamie navigates to her business intelligence dashboard and it provides not only the query "invoices per customer", but also a graph on "sales per month" and a report on customer master data. She opens the query "invoices per customer" and filters per "PayLate Corp" and "open invoices" to see all open invoices for that customer. In addition, she does some slice and dice to get an Overview on the payment history for PayLate Corp.
Contract check: To double-check whether the outstanding payment is really out of tolerance, Jamie checks the existing customer contract. She navigates to an Enterprise Search portal snippet (such as an SAP Portals' iView program element) in her portal and types in the customer name. The customer contract is among the results that she gets, so she can read the contract to find that the customer is really out of tolerance.
Check for open orders: As a next step, Jamie accesses a CRM system via a portal snippet to check for open orders. She quickly discovers that there is one open order where the shipment has been scheduled for the next day. As a result of the analysis that Jamie has done, there are two options: upgrade the customer to a class A customer with the corresponding payment conditions in the contract or hold back the scheduled shipment until the customer has paid at least parts of the outstanding invoices.
Collaboration: As Jamie knows, the sales team always wants to be involved in any significant changes to contracts that affect "their customers". Therefore, she cannot decide on her own between the two options. From her BI dashboard, she initiates collaboration on the fly. To do so, he selects a menu item "collaborate . . . " and as an option the ability to create a collaboration room. The system runs her through a wizard to create a room. Jamie invites two sales reps to the room who work with the customer on a regular basis. The presence information displays that both of them are not available at the moment. Jamie shares both the report and the contract document in the collaboration room and schedules a virtual meeting with the two colleagues. Two hours later, the online collaboration takes place and the problem is discussed. Both colleagues agree that the customer should be upgraded to "class A" because the account has strategic importance for the company. Jamie agrees, but insists on involving the legal department to make sure that corporate guidelines for the contract are considered.
Solution: An ad-hoc workflow with the sales team and the legal department is done. Jamie triggers an ad-hoc workflow to resolve the situation. She attaches the existing contract and the report to the workflow and addresses the legal department with the request to double check the customer upgrade. She assigns a deadline to the workflow. Jamie is a functional user so that the creation of the workflow is not done with the help of graphical design, but is wizard-based. The next receiver of the workflow is the sales representative who is supposed to inform the customer about the upgrade. He is also the one who updates the CRM system to reflect the new situation. Jamie tracks the status of the workflow in the course of the next days to make sure that all necessary steps are completed.
Recording: The steps performed are stored as an interaction template. For example, using SAP NetWeaver, the system might have scripted the steps that Jamie took to respond to the new situation in a protocol. This protocol works like a "work task player" and includes the objects that were involved (both business and technical names of the document, query, navigational steps within the query (filters, drill-downs, slicing and dicing, etc.), involved people, transactions, etc., all in order. Jamie decides that she wants to keep a store of her problem resolution as an interaction template so that she and her colleagues can draw on it once the situation comes up again. To do so, Jamie selects the option "Save as Interaction Template" to store the template in a standard form without any further settings. Once the interaction template is created, it is instantiated by the system when the same alert occurs, so that Jamie or others can replay the steps.
Jamie has the option to "Edit Interaction Template" with the help of a short wizard that takes Jamie through the editing. In the wizard, additional comments can be added, scripted steps can be taken out or skipped, comments can be included, etc. Thus, the list of tasks can be streamlined, updated and saved as another version of the template. Comments provide additional context for other colleagues who want to use the template. Steps to be performed by co-workers are highlighted. With the wizard, Jamie also can change the trigger for this template as well as potential rules that are applied before the action template is proposed by the system. With these templates, planned cooperation between multiple persons can be modelled in a very flexible way. In the example, Jamie shares the template with a new colleague in her team who is supposed to support Jamie in the near future.
More generally, the logging of the steps might be done by scripting the interaction that formed the alert resolution, such as tracking all used documents, queries, chat room sessions, online meetings, and the like, including which users were involved (either by specific user identifier or by placeholders such as a "role" that is resolved at run-time to a specific user identifier) as well as user-specified steps not recognized or logged by the system during resolution.
Once the template has been created based on descriptive interaction steps, it can be replayed for future events and allow for ad hoc modifications, which result in the creation of derivative templates. The collection of templates associated with a particular alert category does increase as templates are created and derivative templates are created, and might decrease as users and/or administrators explicitly delete incorrect or infrequently used templates or some mechanism filters or sorts templates to eliminate some templates, such as rarely used templates in categories having many templates. Other considerations, such as particular users, particular presence of metadata, or the like might influence how templates are ranked, deleted, etc. Templates might be selected or invoked based on rules that are created, managed and/or executed by a workflow engine or a business application framework.
Templates should be managed such that all related aspects (permissions, search, versioning, editing, etc.) are handled consistently. A template repository might be used that also provides trigger management in deals with relationships or correlations between templates and alerts.
An example of a user interface for managing templates is provided in FIG. 10. Using this interface, the user can define an interaction template including interaction steps by browsing an action repository containing typical interaction fragments such as "approvals", "action items", "creation of a meeting requests", etc. or transactional processing steps such as creation of the planning sheet, approval of a purchase order, or update of an inventory sheet, and the like.
Templates allow individuals to act on significant business events and take the correct actions in the right business process context and provide that learning for later resolutions of similar events. In a typical business activity monitoring system, events are filtered according to alert rules and events matching alert rules trigger the generation of an alert. One alert would typically have an associated alert category and templates suggested for use in resolving the alert can be categorized using the same categories, thus allowing matching between templates and alerts.
Thus, an "event" is a meaningful change in the state of the enterprise, and an alert is a trigger for some resolution of the event that occurred. Event resolution enables individuals to act on significant events or groups of events and take the correct action in the right business process context. The resolution can be done within a portal-based dashboard that delivers alerting, additional contextual information (e.g., reports and documents) and links to resolution methods (e.g., collaboration rooms, ad-hoc workflow, etc.). With actionable reporting, individuals record, use, and share action templates as support for their daily work. An action template represents, in a very general sense, a common or standardized set of tasks that the individual can apply to cope with a particular business problem or situation that triggered the alert, facilitating the control of activities that previously have been loosely linked, resulting in greater flexibility and optimization potential. It provides an alternative to unstructured email-based or other collaboration, thus enabling the multiplication of expertise.
The first step to solve a problem is to know that there is a problem. That is why event resolution starts with alerting. To avoid "alerting overload", alerts can be suitably filtered so that only critical situations trigger alerts. The user might have the option to select from different delivery channels: a worklist such as SAP's Universal Worklist, as part of an SAP Portal, e-mail, SMS, pager, etc. One approach is to route the alert based on where the user is currently interacting with the system, such as whether the user is on-line. The complete rule explanation for what triggered the alert does not have to be included if the medium of interaction is limited.
Documents can explain the rule that triggered the alert. Especially in the case of corporate service level agreements or legal requirements, documents can provide additional background information on the trigger rule. Second, documents are generally relevant for many business situations. Price lists, quotas, product descriptions, customer master data sheets, internal guidelines, etc. can help the individual to cope with exceptions and find the right reaction to it. Relevant documents are not always delivered for a particular event resolution scenario. Therefore, an enterprise-wide keyword and content search for related documents and files can be added.
Direct access to transactions can also provide background information. In addition, OLTP reporting is still a widely-used form of information access to transactional systems.
New forms of context might be provided to support all types of end users with their event resolution. For example, rule explanations might be provided where rule statements are shown in business language with a description or more complex rules. A process visualization might also be provided, wherein a graphical display of the business processor parts of process is provided. Yet another form of context is predictive services that predict completion of one or more process instances, based on current data and history. Examples include time-series-analysis, trend lines, etc.
Added to these new forms of context for event resolution are interaction templates that provide a protocol or record of taken steps, involved people, documents, etc., that reflect event resolution history.
Preferably, it is transparent to the user why an alert has been triggered. This improves the willingness of the user to resolve the alert. The rule that triggered the alert should be displayed on demand in natural language, using business terminology (and not technical terms) wherever possible. For more complex rules, a short description as text and/or a document that is attached to the rule should be provided. The name of the rule author might also be mentioned as well.
One advantage of structured support for event resolution is the ability to learn from previous situations. Even if the situations are slightly different, it can be helpful to see what kind of action other colleagues took to deal with the event. The history or protocol of previous resolutions is also helpful to identify experts for certain situations. It is also helpful for new employee training.
With interaction templates, users can record, use, and share action templates on top of business intelligence as a support for daily work. Patterns in user behavior can be detected over time and relationships between e-mails, alerts, persons and subjects can be identified. Based on these patterns, the system can propose interaction templates for upcoming topics and alerts. If a template is used on a regular basis and the steps within the template prove to be relatively stable, it can be transformed into a guided procedure and made available throughout the organization.
Once the alert has been received and all available forms of context have been used, an action by the user should follow. The skills, biases, risk aversions and attentiveness of the individual play a part in whether and how to react. As this reaction is individual, there will be many cases where the actual resolution is not reflected or recorded in any system. In fact, many users will pick up the phone and call a colleague to deal with the event. Thus, sometimes it is not useful to structure every resolution and end users might oppose that. Nevertheless, it is good for the end user to have some system or facility available for structured resolution.
Event resolution can come in many forms, such as delegation, notification, transaction access, collaboration and/or guiding procedures. Delegation involves routing the alert to a more appropriate person to resolve the event. In many cases, a group of individuals has to work together to resolve an event. Thus, resolution teams can work together, share background information and experiences from similar situations, and engage in other forms of collaboration. Where ad hoc workflow is the appropriate resolution, a chain of actions, reflected in a workflow, might be triggered by the receiver of an alert.
In addition, it should also be possible to freeze the status of resolution for a particular event (snapshot) so that the user can resume action at a later point in time or forward the status to a colleague for further processing (e.g., for escalation management).
The user interaction with alerting and the underlying rules should be intuitive, to get buy-in as needed. Rules should be presented in natural language so that the target groups can understand the logic behind them. Operational users need not be familiar with underlying data structures, e.g., relevant attributes of events and processes.
A rule can be expressed as a directive, intended to influence or guide business behavior, in support of business policy that has been formulated in response to an opportunity, threat, strength or weakness. Technically, a rule can be defined as a statement that defines or constrains some aspects of the business. It is intended to assert business structure, or to influence the behavior of the business.
4. Rule attributes: Each rule has attributes, including the reference to the used (business) objects that are relevant for the rule.
Rules can also be combined into rules systems, so that a set of rules is structured according to a defined hierarchy. Thus, there can be simple rules, advanced rules and complex rules.
Advanced rules can have multiple, manageable building blocks. Advanced rules combine several building blocks, thus modeling a more complex business scenario with a higher number of expressions. There is probably also more time-dependency in advanced rules. Advanced rules might also make use of comparisons to historical or plan data that resides in a data warehouse. Advanced rules can be applied to multiple business events and across several business processes, leveraging the new level of transparency that event resolution can deliver.
Complex rules not only combine multiple building blocks, but can also include a set of rules that have some kind of relationship. This is built on the fact that a logical expression can also have a reference to another rule. Thus, rules systems are created. Rules systems can also be used to form decision trees: on each level of the decision tree, a rule decides which rule is evaluated next so that a complete hierarchy is reflected. While decision trees and the complex underlying rules systems are useful in automating workflows, for the automation of business processes, the reaction to each result expression might be modeled. One aspect of event resolution is on exceptions and the support of human resolution, so there is often no clear reaction to an event defined in advance. Complex rules can be relevant for event resolution if they reflect corporate rules, industry-specific metrics, SLA's or requirements for legal compliance.
In general, aspects of event resolution rely largely on simple and advanced rules. The rules are defined and applied by those who have the knowledge about the business processes and events: the operational employee and manager. In many, but not all cases, a parameterization (e.g., constants that are part of the rule have different values) of existing rules by the operational end users might be sufficient. Complex rules are relevant whenever important and complex policies are implemented in the organization.
A business event is a meaningful change in the state of the enterprise. These events can materialize as messages, protocols or alerts. Events can be generated by all kinds of systems, including OLTP systems, message brokers, data warehouses or business intelligence applications.
Once an event triggers an alert, the event is accepted, receives an ID and is correlated to a process instance. Mapping and storage of the process instance information is provided. The system might also "expect" events and generate alerts if the expected event does not occur (overdue management). This includes the ability to generate an alert as a result of a non-expected event (wrong type of event, wrong timing, etc).
1. Role: VP of operations services for a make-to-order business. A short manufacturing cycle necessitates that he keeps close tabs on every component for each product order. His company has three assembly plants where final products are assembled. Four other plants providing materials for assembly and two distribution centers support them. The plants are all located in different states.
2. Alert: The operations manager receives an alert that an important customer is in escalation mode. The event has been entered manually by the customer service team. The customer had called to inquire about the shipping status of a multimillion-dollar order. The customer service rep could not locate the order and asked for more time to get back with the answer.
3. Context and root-cause analysis: The operations manager opens the work in process (WIP) and a report on warehouse inventory to determine where the order was previously. He discovers that it is pending completion at one of the final assembly plants as it is waiting for a shipment of materials from one of the support plants. Upon further analysis, he determines that this shipment of materials was lost in transition between the plants. He estimates that it would be at least another 24 hours before he can get a replacement shipment to the assembly plant.
4. Immediate-Term resolution: He decides to cannibalize one shipment of materials from another order on the plant floor. The operations manager also places an expedited shipment order to replace that shipment. He instructs the production manager to finish the customer's order and get it ready before the end of the day. He asks the customer service team to inform the customer immediately that the order will be shipped the next day. He puts key staff members on high alert to ensure the customer receives the order.
5. Long-Term resolution might result in the operations manager determining that he is losing one tub of materials per day in transition, and this is causing significant variation in time to delivery. Knowing where all the components and subassemblies are is very critical to the business. Right from the raw-materials stage, he is concerned about where that material is that is going to end up in a finished product. He already has a warehouse system as well as a shop-floor tracking system. For better tracking of interplant activity and online, real-time updating of the ERP system, he decides to implement RF technology in his warehouses and on the shop floor. With current, real-time information, the customer service people can know instantly if a product has been loaded and shipped.
With the above, various embodiments of the present invention have been described. While the present invention has been described using a particular combination of elements, it should be recognized that other combinations of elements are also within the scope of the present disclosure. The above description is illustrative but not restrictive. Many variations of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon review of the disclosure. The scope of the invention should, therefore, be determined not with reference to the above description, but instead should be determined with reference to the pending claims along with their full scope or equivalents.
storing the event resolution log for use in informing a future determined participant, via the workflow system, as to a possible event resolution process when the future determined participant encounters a second alert of a second event wherein the second alert is similar to the first alert, the second event is similar to the first event or both, the possible event resolution process depending, at least in part, on the event resolution log for the first event.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein the determined participant and the future determined participant are the same person and the event resolution log provides a reminder during handling of the second event as to how the first event was resolved.
storing the workflow process template in the workflow system in association with a category identifier associated with the first event.
accepting input from the future determined participant as to modifications to the stored workflow process template in response to actions performed by the future determined participant in resolving the second event, thereby generating one other dated stored workflow process template iteratively refined by a plurality of event resolutions.
5. The method of claim 1, wherein similarity of the second alert and the first alert is determined by a comparison of an alert category with which the second alert is associated and an alert category with which the first alert is associated.
6. The method of claim 1, wherein events comprise one or more of data or state matching prespecified event criteria and wherein alerts are generated for an events that match alert filters.
7. The method of claim 6, wherein the matching prespecified event criteria and alert filters are configured to support critical business operations or business activity that requires monitoring for successful outcomes of the business operations or business activity.
8. The method of claim 6, wherein events include events representing criteria met, transactions being created, conditions of business data being satisfied and events representing the lack of occurrence of an expected event.
9. The method of claim 8, wherein alerts include alerts according to alert rules that specify that particular participants are to be alerted when expected events do not occur when expected or as expected.
10. The method of claim 8, wherein alerts include alerts according to alert rules that specify that particular participants are to be alerted when data in a business activity monitoring system falls outside of a preferred pattern and the alerts contain indications of how the data falls outside the preferred pattern to provide the particular participants with information about why the alert was generated and the event that needs resolution.
storing the workflow process template in the workflow system in association with an identifier associated with the first event including any indication of the plurality of participants involved with event resolution for the first event.


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The BEBE Winans Story
Published July 11, 2016 | By FAME Staff
Join FAME-Foundation for the Advancement of Music & Education and its FAME Jazz Band at Arena Stage on Friday, August 19th, 8 PM for Born for This – The BEBE Winans Story,
Detroit natives BeBe and CeCe Winans, youngest siblings of the Winans family dynasty, experience the ultimate in culture shocks when invited to join Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker's Praise the Lord network television show. The Winans teenagers have the opportunity to become more than just television celebrities, but to integrate TV evangelism. As BeBe and CeCe encounter fame, fortune and even a young Whitney Houston, BeBe must learn to balance his desire for success with his true calling. Combining classic Winans hits with brand new songs, this inspirational musical features Juan and Deborah Joy Winans in their Arena Stage debuts as BeBe and CeCe Winans. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94Np0z8AgnM&feature=youtu.be.
Partners: Arena Stage, United Parcel Service & The Washington Informer.
Click here for tickets!
Book by Charles Randolph-Wright and BeBe Winans
Music and Lyrics by BeBe Winans
Directed by Charles Randolph-Wright
A Co-production with The Alliance Theatre
in Association with Dan Chilewich and Todd Gershwin
Kreeger Theater

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


I started Red Hot Chilli Pepper, a small business in culinary herbs, spices and all things chilli in Feb 2011. I now teach Spice blending classes and cooking classes to people who want to learn more about herbs and spices and the health benefits of using them. I have an online business on the side that compliments the retail shop. I am looking to expand next year and am currently looking to purchase commercial property for the business to operate out of. I have an exceptional passion for spices!


ECSO 2017 ?Stochastic Optimization in Service Science?
ECSO 2017 will be held on September 20-22, 2017, in Rome, Italy.
It is the 2nd edition of a stream of triennial conferences organized by the EURO Working Group on Stochastic Optimization EWGSO). The previous edition was held in Paris in 2014.
The scope of this EWGSO Conference ECSO 2017 ?Stochastic Optimization in Service Science? is to discuss the latest trends and challenges in Stochastic Optimization and its applications.
The conference aims to bring together the leading researchers in Stochastic Optimization and practitioners in the field. Participants are welcome from academia and industry, media and institutions concerned with data uncertainty as well as decision making involving stochastic applications in services.
Young researchers and PhD students starting or developing their research related to Stochastic Optimization are encouraged to present their work for discussion and take part in the sessions and plenary lectures on the challenging topics of Stochastic Optimization theory and practice, held during the conference.
The conference will be held at the Engineering School of Roma Tre University in Rome, Italy.
ECSO 2017 will accept contributions related to Stochastic Optimization theory and applications, with particular emphasis on Service Science. The program of the conference consists of plenary lectures and parallel organized sessions.
The complete list of Plenary Speakers will be given in the conference website, and in successive announcements.
Contributions will be selected by the International Program Committee to be presented in the conference and included in the book of abstracts which will be delivered during the conference. An edited volume with the conference proceedings (selected full papers) will be published at the end of the event. Contribution proposals should be submitted as a single PDF file as described in the Conference Website. Information about post-conference special issues on recognized international journals will be given in the Conference Website, and in successive announcements.
Topics of interest include all areas of Stochastic Optimization. ECSO 2017 specifically welcomes sessions (composed of 4 contributions) tackling novel, cutting-edge topics, sessions covering lesser-addressed sub-areas, cross-discipline sessions and sessions dealing with possible and expected future evolutions of the Stochastic Optimization in Service Science. The organizers of approved sessions are responsible for advertising their sessions and will be involved in the review process. Organizers are expected to attend and chair their sessions. Session proposals should be submitted (by email to ecso2017@ing.uniroma3.it) as a single PDF file (max 3 pages) containing the following information: title, organizer(s), topic description, and a preliminary/tentative list of contributions.


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Posted inArts and Culture
Excerpt: 'Just Another Moderately Liberal Young Guy Living in New York City'
In an excerpt from "Rural Rebellion: How Nebraska Became a Republican Stronghold," Ross Benes describes the changes that occurred when he moved to a major coastal city from his home in Nebraska.
by Ross Benes February 4, 2021 February 4, 2021
Author Ross Benes with his dog, Cooper. (Photo submitted)
With the rural-urban divide overtaking the national conversation, Ross Benes knew what he had to do: go home. In Rural Rebellion, Benes explores the shifting political landscape in his home state of Nebraska to better understand what's plaguing America. He clarifies how Nebraska defies red-state stereotypes while offering readers insights into how a frontier state with a tradition of nonpartisanship succumbed to the hardened right. His story is also a personal one about the dissonance of moving from the most rural and conservative region of the country to its most liberal and urban centers as they grow further apart at a critical moment in history.
Because no one in my immediate family had lived outside Nebraska, I initially felt uneasy about moving so far away. I enjoyed Nebraska's quietness, the friendliness of its people, the joy of riding my bike down a crushed-rock trail through unincorporated villages dotted along the prairie, the regularity of Huskers football on Saturdays and church get-togethers on Sundays, and the ease of finding my way around familiar places. "Such accessories, and the dust and the winds and the ever-calling train whistles, add up to a 'home town' that is probably remembered with nostalgia by those who have left it, and that for those who have remained, provides a sense of roots and contentment," wrote Truman Capote in his blockbuster book In Cold Blood, which tells the story of how a rural Kansas family fell victim to murderers.
As hard as moving was, technology made it easier. I never had an internet-enabled phone when I lived in Nebraska, but that changed when I moved to New York because of the constant demands of my digital media job. My smartphone made it more difficult to tune out work, but constant access to social media and messaging apps helped me stay in touch with friends and family. To keep tabs on what was going on back home, I read the Omaha World-Herald or Lincoln Journal Star on my phone whenever I got stuck on the subway. Apps made it easier to book cabs or flights when I felt the need to return home. They also made it easier for me to find new apartments whenever my relationships with the rotating cast of strangers that I lived with frayed. During my first five years in New York, I lived in six different apartments with a combined eighteen roommates, not including the Airbnb guests who stayed illegally or the hidden roommate in one apartment that I found out about a week after I had moved in. I also didn't have an address for months at a time because, after getting fed up with the overcrowded places in my budget, I'd travel and stay with people I knew while storing my few possessions in friends' closets. It was the millennial equivalent of living in a suitcase.
Book Review: 'Rural Rebellion – How Nebraska Became a Republican Stronghold'
Technology reduces resistance for mobility and makes it easier for a kid from the heartland to relocate to a coastal city. It also contributes to self- reinforcing social divisions. Instead of being a left-of-center kid in Nebraska, where I'd respectfully disagree with my conservative friends over a few Bud Lights as we called into question each other's assumptions, I became just another moderately liberal young guy living in New York City who hung out with people who shared many of the same beliefs. When I was a high schooler in Nebraska I was so strongly against illegal immigration, partially because I didn't really know any immigrants or witness their experiences, and since everyone around me was so intent on shipping undocumented people away, my beliefs on the matter were never scrutinized. My thoughts about immigration changed after I formed relationships with immigrants. Likewise, I'm probably developing biases right now that I'm not conscious of. My biases are further fueled by the disproportionate number of New York media people I follow who are very active on social media and who tend to perpetuate the same opinions among themselves (and antagonize anyone who dares disagree) with such an intensity that I ponder if they belong to a community-wide hive mind like Star Trek's Borg. I'd be challenged more thoroughly if I hung out with conservatives more often in New York, but I haven't met all that many conservatives in New York. I didn't have politics in mind when I moved. But with thousands of people in similar positions making similar moves, the cumulative effects of these migrations are consequential.
"As people seek out the social settings they prefer—as they choose the group that makes them feel the most comfortable—the nation grows more politically segregated—and the benefit that ought to come with having a variety of opinions is lost to the righteousness that is the special entitlement of homogeneous groups," wrote Bill Bishop and Robert Cushing in their influential book The Big Sort: Why the Clustering of Like-Minded America Is Tearing Us Apart, which concludes that the United States became more polarized because people increasingly decided to move to neighborhoods that align with their beliefs and lifestyles. They added: "Like-minded, homogeneous groups squelch dissent, grow more extreme in their thinking, and ignore evidence that their positions are wrong. As a result, we now live in a giant feedback loop, hearing our own thoughts about what's right and wrong bounced back to us by the television shows we watch, the newspapers and books we read, the blogs we visit online, the sermons we hear, and the neighborhoods we live in."
In Nebraska, the continual loss of young college-educated people, like myself, who tend to lean further left than the rest of the state, reduced resistance for the GOP as it marched ever rightward. This has been the case throughout the Midwest, which has suffered worse population losses than any other U.S. region since the turn of the century. With the Democratic share of voters declining, the feedback loop keeps telling the majority who vote for Republicans that they're on the right side.
Ross Benes is the author of Rural Rebellion: How Nebraska Became a Republican Stronghold. You can follow him on Twitter @RossBenes and reach him at rossbenes.com.
Abortion Ban Fails in Small Nebraska Town; Others Pass, Some Narrowly
Higher Ed in the High Country: Hillbilly Hoedowns and Degree Divides
by Ross Benes, The Daily Yonder

Excerpt: 'Just Another Moderately Liberal Young Guy Living in New York City'

by Ross Benes, The Daily Yonder
February 4, 2021

With the rural-urban divide overtaking the national conversation, Ross Benes knew what he had to do: go home. In Rural Rebellion, Benes explores the shifting political landscape in his home state of Nebraska to better understand what's plaguing America. He clarifies how Nebraska defies red-state stereotypes while offering readers insights into how a frontier state with a tradition of nonpartisanship succumbed to the hardened right. His story is also a personal one about the dissonance of moving from the most rural and conservative region of the country to its most liberal and urban centers as they grow further apart at a critical moment in history.

+++

Because no one in my immediate family had lived outside Nebraska, I initially felt uneasy about moving so far away. I enjoyed Nebraska's quietness, the friendliness of its people, the joy of riding my bike down a crushed-rock trail through unincorporated villages dotted along the prairie, the regularity of Huskers football on Saturdays and church get-togethers on Sundays, and the ease of finding my way around familiar places. "Such accessories, and the dust and the winds and the ever-calling train whistles, add up to a 'home town' that is probably remembered with nostalgia by those who have left it, and that for those who have remained, provides a sense of roots and contentment," wrote Truman Capote in his blockbuster book In Cold Blood, which tells the story of how a rural Kansas family fell victim to murderers.

As hard as moving was, technology made it easier. I never had an internet-enabled phone when I lived in Nebraska, but that changed when I moved to New York because of the constant demands of my digital media job. My smartphone made it more difficult to tune out work, but constant access to social media and messaging apps helped me stay in touch with friends and family. To keep tabs on what was going on back home, I read the Omaha World-Herald or Lincoln Journal Star on my phone whenever I got stuck on the subway. Apps made it easier to book cabs or flights when I felt the need to return home. They also made it easier for me to find new apartments whenever my relationships with the rotating cast of strangers that I lived with frayed. During my first five years in New York, I lived in six different apartments with a combined eighteen roommates, not including the Airbnb guests who stayed illegally or the hidden roommate in one apartment that I found out about a week after I had moved in. I also didn't have an address for months at a time because, after getting fed up with the overcrowded places in my budget, I'd travel and stay with people I knew while storing my few possessions in friends' closets. It was the millennial equivalent of living in a suitcase.

Book Review: 'Rural Rebellion – How Nebraska Became a Republican Stronghold'

Technology reduces resistance for mobility and makes it easier for a kid from the heartland to relocate to a coastal city. It also contributes to self- reinforcing social divisions. Instead of being a left-of-center kid in Nebraska, where I'd respectfully disagree with my conservative friends over a few Bud Lights as we called into question each other's assumptions, I became just another moderately liberal young guy living in New York City who hung out with people who shared many of the same beliefs. When I was a high schooler in Nebraska I was so strongly against illegal immigration, partially because I didn't really know any immigrants or witness their experiences, and since everyone around me was so intent on shipping undocumented people away, my beliefs on the matter were never scrutinized. My thoughts about immigration changed after I formed relationships with immigrants. Likewise, I'm probably developing biases right now that I'm not conscious of. My biases are further fueled by the disproportionate number of New York media people I follow who are very active on social media and who tend to perpetuate the same opinions among themselves (and antagonize anyone who dares disagree) with such an intensity that I ponder if they belong to a community-wide hive mind like Star Trek's Borg. I'd be challenged more thoroughly if I hung out with conservatives more often in New York, but I haven't met all that many conservatives in New York. I didn't have politics in mind when I moved. But with thousands of people in similar positions making similar moves, the cumulative effects of these migrations are consequential.

"As people seek out the social settings they prefer—as they choose the group that makes them feel the most comfortable—the nation grows more politically segregated—and the benefit that ought to come with having a variety of opinions is lost to the righteousness that is the special entitlement of homogeneous groups," wrote Bill Bishop and Robert Cushing in their influential book The Big Sort: Why the Clustering of Like-Minded America Is Tearing Us Apart, which concludes that the United States became more polarized because people increasingly decided to move to neighborhoods that align with their beliefs and lifestyles. They added: "Like-minded, homogeneous groups squelch dissent, grow more extreme in their thinking, and ignore evidence that their positions are wrong. As a result, we now live in a giant feedback loop, hearing our own thoughts about what's right and wrong bounced back to us by the television shows we watch, the newspapers and books we read, the blogs we visit online, the sermons we hear, and the neighborhoods we live in."

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In Nebraska, the continual loss of young college-educated people, like myself, who tend to lean further left than the rest of the state, reduced resistance for the GOP as it marched ever rightward. This has been the case throughout the Midwest, which has suffered worse population losses than any other U.S. region since the turn of the century. With the Democratic share of voters declining, the feedback loop keeps telling the majority who vote for Republicans that they're on the right side.

Ross Benes is the author of Rural Rebellion: How Nebraska Became a Republican Stronghold. You can follow him on Twitter @RossBenes and reach him at rossbenes.com.

This article first appeared on The Daily Yonder and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.


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This 13-Year-Old Aspiring Astronaut Is Funding Students To See 'Hidden Figures'
At this rate, it's only a matter of time before 13-year-old Taylor Richardson joins the ranks of the many smart, talented and driven black women who paved history.
Photo credit:Photo: Courtesy of Taylor and Latonja Richardson
Blavity Team
| February 23 2017,
If ever there was a time to rally together and build one another up, it's now. Inspiration is contagious, and when 13-year-old aspiring astronaut, Taylor Richardson was invited to an exclusive, A-list screening of the movie Hidden Figures in Washington, D.C, she was truly inspired. "The biggest takeaway for me was when Michelle Obama stated that we have to do the work and that we have to take a seat at the STEM table and bring others with us," Richardson said in an interview with Forbes. After hearing those words from the First Lady, the 7th grader asked herself, "What can I do to help others know they can dream big and with faith and hard work, even be a mathematician or an astronaut?"
Upon returning to her Jacksonville, Florida home, Richardson talked to her mom about launching a GoFundMe campaign to raise funds for other kids to see the movie. The teen, who goes by the name 'Astronaut Starbright', raised a total of $17,000 to send about 1000 students to see the movie. In addition to that, she also gave away goodie bags with movie posters, copies of the book and snacks.
More than just a box-office hit and critically acclaimed film, Hidden Figures tells the story of three African-American women mathematicians who helped send John Glenn into space. "The visionary trio crossed all gender and race lines to inspire generations to dream big," Richardson said. "The women in the movie had every odd against them, but they fought for their dreams and made it."
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All Henri Rousseau Oil Paintings
1910 mk15
new2/Henri Rousseau-392522.jpgPainting ID:: 27191
All John Henry Twachtman Oil Paintings
mk177 c.1890-1900 Oil on canvas 30x30in
new16/John Henry Twachtman-848797.jpgPainting ID:: 44803
All Nicolaes Pietersz. Berchem Oil Paintings
Date ca. 1665(1665) Medium Oil on canvas Dimensions Height: 110 cm (43.3 in). Width: 153 cm (60.2 in). cjr
new24/Nicolaes Pietersz. Berchem-869859.jpgPainting ID:: 82430
All Jacob van Ruisdael Oil Paintings
between 1665(1665) and 1670(1670) Medium oil on canvas cyf
new26/Jacob van Ruisdael-534355.jpgPainting ID:: 95471
Jacob van Ruisdael
Dutch Baroque Era Painter, ca.1628-1682 Ruysdael's favorite subjects are simple woodland scenes, similar to those of Everdingen and Hobbema. He is especially noted as a painter of trees, and his rendering of foliage, particularly of oak leaf age, is characterized by the greatest spirit and precision. His views of distant cities, such as that of Haarlem in the possession of the marquess of Bute, and that of Katwijk in the Glasgow Corporation Galleries, clearly indicate the influence of Rembrandt. He frequently painted coast-scenes and sea-pieces, but it is in his rendering of lonely forest glades that we find him at his best. The subjects of certain of his mountain scenes seem to be taken from Norway, and have led to the supposition that he had traveled in that country. We have, however, no record of such a journey, and the works in question are probably merely adaptations from the landscapes of Van Everdingen, whose manner he copied at one period. Only a single architectural subject from his brush is known--an admirable interior of the New Church, Amsterdam. The prevailing hue of his landscapes is a full rich green, which, however, has darkened with time, while a clear grey tone is characteristic of his seapieces. The art of Ruysdael, while it shows little of the scientific knowledge of later landscapists, is sensitive and poetic in sentiment, and direct and skillful in technique. Figures are sparingly introduced into his compositions, and such as occur are believed to be from the pencils of Adriaen van de Velde, Philip Wouwerman, and Jan Lingelbach. Unlike the other great Dutch landscape painters, Ruysdael did not aim at a pictorial record of particular scenes, but he carefully thought out and arranged his compositions, introducing into them an infinite variety of subtle contrasts in the formation of the clouds, the plants and tree forms, and the play of light. He particularly excelled in the painting of cloudscapes which are spanned dome-like over the landscape, and determine the light and shade of the objects. Goethe lauded him as a poet among painters, and his work shows some of the sensibilities the Romantics would later celebrate.
Related Paintings to Jacob van Ruisdael :.
| Peter Paul Rubens528 | Nicolas Poussin -- Moses changing Aaron rod into a serpent | Sir Edward Codrington by Henry Perronet Briggs | Filippo Mazzola - Portrait of Captain Leonardo Baiardi, 1498 | Giulio Romano (1499-1546) -- Triumph of Titus and Vespasian | | Portrat der Herzogin Katharina von Mecklenburg | Robin Meets Maid Marion | View of Cotopaxi | Fruit and Lobster on a Table | Philip IV in Brown and Silver |


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Q: Executing `find` using `std::process::Command` on cygwin does not work When I try to call the find command from a Rust program, either I get a FIND: Invalid switch or a FIND: Parameter format incorrect error.
find works fine from command line.
echo $PATH

/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/cygdrive/c/Windows/system32:/cygdrive/c/Windows:.....

The file I am searching for (main.rs) exists.
use std::process::{Stdio,Command};
use std::io::{Write};

fn main() {
    let mut cmd_find = Command::new("/cygdrive/c/cygwin64/bin/find.exe")
        .arg("/cygdrive/c/cygwin64/home/*")
        .stdin(Stdio::piped())
        .spawn()
        .unwrap_or_else(|e| { panic!("failed to execute process:  {}", e)});

    if let Some(ref mut stdin) = cmd_find.stdin {
        stdin.write_all(b"main.rs").unwrap();
    }

    let res = cmd_find.wait_with_output().unwrap().stdout;
    println!("{}",String::from_utf8_lossy(&res));
}

./find_cmdd.exe
thread '<main>' panicked at 'failed to execute process:  The system cannot find the file specified. (os error 2)', find_cmdd.rs:12

I have also tried the following option,
let mut cmd_find = Command::new("find").....

for which I get FIND:Invalid switch error.
I do not have the luxury of renaming/copying the find.exe to another location.

A: "FIND:Invalid switch error" indicates this is NOT the cygwin find, but you are invoking the Windows one. To double check:
$ find -k
find: unknown predicate `-k'

$ /cygdrive/c/windows/system32/find -k
FIND: Parameter format not correct

A: Cygwin basically doesn't exist when you are running a program via Command. Executing a process uses the operating system's native functionality; in the case of Windows that's CreateProcessW.
That means that:

*

*The PATH variable set by your cygwin shell may or may not mean anything when starting a process.

*The directory structure with /cygdrive/... doesn't actually exist in Windows; that's an artifact.

All that said, you have to use Windows-native paths:
use std::process::{Stdio, Command};
use std::io::Write;

fn main() {
    let mut cmd_find = Command::new(r#"\msys32\usr\bin\find.exe"#)
        .args(&[r#"\msys32\home"#])
        .stdin(Stdio::piped())
        .spawn()
        .unwrap_or_else(|e| panic!("failed to execute process:  {}", e));

    if let Some(ref mut stdin) = cmd_find.stdin {
        stdin.write_all(b"main.rs").unwrap();
    }

    let res = cmd_find.wait_with_output().unwrap().stdout;
    println!("{}", String::from_utf8_lossy(&res));
}

As a side note, I have no idea what piping standard input to find does; it doesn't seem to have any effect for me on Msys2 or on OS X...

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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Through my work as a diver, ecotourism operator and cameraman I have had the privilege of diving with the 3 species of shark considered most dangerous to man; the bull shark, tiger shark and great white shark. I work closely with these sharks outside the cage and the images I create are used by the media to portray sharks in a positive light. Some critics accuse me of being macho but I believe that shark behaviour can be deciphered and manipulated like that of any other large predator such as a lion or bear.
Of course there is an element of risk and people often ask me, "What happens if I get bitten?" I think it is more interesting to pose the question "what do we learn about the animals if I don't get bitten?" Sharks are naturally curious, surprisingly forgiving and will even seek out physical contact with humans! However they are also being slaughtered at a rate of between 100 – 200 million every year. The majority of people still view sharks as blood thirsty mindless killing machines as portrayed in JAWS. The reality is that they are crucial to maintaining a healthy and balanced marine ecosystem on which our future depends.
When I am not working my favourite dive is in Grand Bahamas with the Caribbean reef sharks. The dive operators here do hand feed the sharks which in some peoples view as controversial. But I believe that the diver's positive experiences out weigh any pos…"
I have spent many years free diving with great white sharks and have had countless requests from divers to take them with me. Although my expertise allows me some freedom to interact with them I am not driven by money and will not take paying clients to …"
Tiger sharks are considered the second most dangerous shark to man and it is true that they are indiscriminate predators. But after diving with them I'm convinced that we are not on their menu! Diving with tigers is a mesmerising experience and some reac…"
This beautiful rocky reef supports a healthy population of bull sharks. The sharks are more often seen in the summer months between November and March when the water temperature ranges from around 19 to 24 degrees C. They are impressive animals with a hu…"


text:
Watch out, YouTube — Amazon Has Big Plans
In an attempt to compete with video giant YouTube, Amazon has been making moves to widen the scope of their live streaming platform, Twitch. Historically, Twitch has been a destination for video game live streaming, and boasts "140MM+ unique monthly viewers," with users spending "an average of 95 minutes daily watching live gaming." By contrast, YouTube has 1.8 billion monthly users, within reach of Facebook's 2 billion. To compete with YouTube, Twitch has been soliciting exclusive deals with popular content creators and companies, many of which are popular on YouTube.
Amazon actually has a chance
This isn't the first time Amazon has focused on social content. Just over a year ago, for example, Amazon launched Spark, an Instagram-like feed of photos for Amazon Prime members. The platform performed poorly, with users citing criticisms surrounding the app's blatant promotional nature, along with its lack of user friendliness. Twitch, however, is a different story — the live streaming website was popular before being purchased by Amazon in 2014, and because of shifts in the industry, has a real chance to compete with big players like YouTube.
Content creators on YouTube have been looking for an alternative for over a year now, triggered in part by the "Adpocalypse," an event in which YouTube reacted to controversy by pulling advertising (and, as a result, revenue streams) from an endless string of creators. Many YouTubers and podcast personalities have already started streaming on Twitch, even if their content has nothing to do with video gaming.
Twitch is part of Amazon's ecosystem, and outside of its own revenue streams and the advantages it brings to AWS, the service draws in a substantial number of customers for the retail marketplace. Twitch Prime, a package that is automatically bundled with Amazon Prime, gives Twitch users a host of perks, including "free games and in-game loot." Because Twitch Prime subscribers automatically gain access to the benefits of Amazon Prime, they're more likely to engage with their benefits — Prime Members across the board have been shown to spend nearly twice as much as non-members. Similar to their strategy with original television content, Amazon is leveraging Twitch as a funnel to gain loyal shoppers from varying demographics. If Twitch can eventually take the video crown from YouTube, Amazon will see further integration into their ecosystem, and as a result, more sales, more data, and more dedicated customers.