I'm in Burlington, VT for NESUG 09. I've never been here, so I got up early this morning to go for a short run to clear my head for a day on the demo floor and to get a look around. I found my way to Battery Park and thought the views were nice. Then I turned around to head to the lake front. The beauty of the morning made me stop and walk to take it all in. The pink and orange of the sunrise was glowing on the mountains across Lake Champlain. Wow. I resisted the temptation to sit in one of the swings along the lake and just watch the morning unfold. With that kind of inspiration, I'm ready for the day and looking forward to meeting some of you.
If you are at NESUG, I have two suggestions for you.
Go for a walk down by the lake, early in the morning if you can.
Come by the demo room and visit the SAS staff, partners, and poster presenters.
I have two demos while at NESUG. One will focus on ways to network, collaborate and influence SAS and other SAS users from support.sas.com. The other will focus on new features recently launched or coming soon to support.sas.com.
If you aren't a NESUG, you won't be left out. You can get this information at other regional users group meetings or by following this blog over the next few days.
One last note: If you are on Twitter, you can keep up with happenings at the conference by following the #NESUG09 hashtag.
I wanted to take a minute to share these two pieces of media that I discovered this week. In a video interview with Bloomberg's Bernard Lo, Dr. Goodnight, CEO of SAS, talks about the emerging Asian market and about how SAS does business in Asia. (Note: I couldn't find an easy way to share the Bloomberg video. To locate it, click on the link I provided above and look for this title "SAS's Goodnight Sees Asian Market Becoming More Dominant.")
The other piece, an article on investors.com titled Good Days for Software CEO Jim Goodnight, talks about ways that SAS is unique as a company. This article highlights the fact that Goodnight, and therefore SAS, believes in listening to the people who use our software -- that's you! The article mentions the SASware Ballot. If you missed the 2009 ballot results, you can find them in the Community section of support.sas.com.
SAS Publishing wants to get closer to the people who read, write, or dream of writing a SAS Press book. You can find SAS Publishing products and contact information on support.sas.com in the Bookstore. SAS Publishing is reaching out to you in other locations so that we can get to know each other better. Join the conversation.
The last time I visited blogs.sas.com, there were a handful of interesting blogs listed down the right side of the page. Over the last few weeks, I have seen and heard about new blogs coming online but it didn't really sink in. Then today, I visited blogs.sas to find a long and growing list of bloggers. The following highlights some of the new bloggers:
In Other Words (by Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, Jim Davis) Davis' initial posts offer insight into how to retain and motivate employees and how those efforts create an environment for innovation and loyalty. Read Davis' most recent post Loyalty insurance.
The Business Forecasting Deal Michael Gilliland is a product marketing manager at SAS who focuses on business forecasting. Gilliland's blog offers practical solutions for common mistakes and bad practices. He is currently blogging about interesting activity at F2009. Visit Gilliland's forecasting blog.
In the Final Analysis (by executive Vice President, EMEA and Asia Pacific, SAS, Mikeal Hagstroem) Hagstroem is interested in optimizing business performance and uses his blog to discuss issues facing organizations today. Visit the blog for a global view into business.
You can access all blogs by SAS employees at visiting blogs.sas.com. And don't forget the blogs written by SAS users. I'm sure that we don't have a comprehensive list, but Alison Bolen does her best to keep a current list of blogs by SAS users.
I was reading Alison's Friday Fast Links post in the sascom voices blog and was amazed at the growing list of blogs by SAS users. If you are interested in what other SAS users are doing with SAS, be sure to check out the running list of blogs that Alison maintains.
You will also find user blogs in the Bloggers Corner on sasCommunity.org.
Note: If you have a blog that includes SAS tips, ideas, and musings, leave a comment so that you can be added to the list.
Maura Stokes works in the Statistical Applications Department in Advanced Analytics at SAS. Maura is also a member of the review board for support.sas.com. She works hard to provide you the information that you want as well as the statistical features that you need in our products. Let me introduce you to Maura.
What do you do:
I’m the development product manager for SAS/STAT® software, and I also coordinate some division-wide activities such as our documentation process. Since SAS/STAT now includes 75 procedures and requires nearly 8,000 pages of documentation, obviously it takes several people to manage it. I keep current with statistical methodology being developed and adopted, obtain feedback from customers, and help to decide on priorities for future development. My role also includes outreach, and I give talks to both SAS user groups and statistical groups about our statistical software. I also represent the analytical interests in SAS Global Forum planning and coordination, as well as support.sas.com, where I manage the Statistics and Operations Research focus area on support.sas.com. I’m also the lead author of the SAS Press book Categorical Data Analysis Using the SAS System.
What’s the most interesting part of your job?
Learning new statistical methodology is still probably the most fun for me. We occasionally bring in area experts for seminars to jump-start us in new areas, and that’s always invigorating.
Contributed by Lainie Hoverstad on behalf of the sasCommunity.org Advisory Board
When SAS Global Forum 2009 is over, join the user community online at sasCommunity.org—the collaborative online community for SAS users worldwide.
Created and managed by the sasCommunity Advisory Board, sasCommunity.org was created by SAS users for SAS users. The site is in a wiki format (just like Wikipedia) to make it quick and easy to collaborate, contribute—and connect.
Here are just a few of the many ways to get started on sasCommunity.org:
Are you sitting at your desk trying to shake off the glow of holiday celebrations? Do you need a little help clearing the cobwebs and getting back to work? I have compiled a short reading list of quick reads that can help you get excited about being back at work. OK, maybe not excited, but it may help you refocus on work and run through the last few work days of the year. My list follows. Did I forget anything?
Treasures and memories and trash is what I found in my closet during a much needed cleaning. This was one of those deep cleans that only happens once every few years. I looked in every box, bag, and dark corner. You wouldn't believe the things I found -- treasures, memories, and trash. During one archeological dig into a plastic storage bag, I found a purse that had been long forgotten. As I am preparing it for the charity pile, I noticed a brilliant blue corner of cloth peeking out from inside the purse. I found this:
Do you recognize it? It is a SAS T-shirt from the early 90s. I got this shirt shortly after coming to work for SAS. (I'm guessing that it was about the time we released SAS 6.08.) Running SAS on Windows was new and exiting in the early 90s and this was a hot shirt. Finding this pristine, never-worn T-shirt started me to thinking. I can't be the only person with old SAS memorabilia stashed in a closet or drawer.
This post from Tom Hide on SAS-L assures me that I am not the only person keeping stuff. Tom has a copy of Guide to Using SAS 76. I've only seen pictures of manuals this old. See the pictures at the end of this post for a glimpse of old manuals as well as some other items from the past.
Do you have the oldest item or the most unique?
Let's have a little fun with our old stuff. What do you have? Is it old, funny, or cherished? Is it from a user group conference or from SAS? Tell us about it by writing a comment on this post. Show it to us by posting a link to a picture in your comment or by uploading pictures of your items to the sasmemories group on Flickr. If you just want to see the pictures from others, join the Flickr group at www.flickr.com/groups/sasmemories.
For those of you not living in the southeast, it's cold here this week. So cold that I scrambled over to the Web site of a local TV station to find out if we were in for a hard frost. In addition to the weather forecast, I was pleasantly surprised to see the site was highlighting a couple of interviews with SAS CEO and founder Jim Goodnight. I made a note to return later to capture the URLs so that I could share them with you.
In three interviews in The Skinny, a blog on WRAL's LocalTechWire.com, Dr. Goodnight shares his thoughts on where SAS is headed, retirement, and the stock market.
You can also watch the video of the interview that produced most of these articles.
Updated Nov. 19, 2008: If you are looking for more insight from Dr. Goodnight, read this arcticle in Business Week where he comments on the economy, education, and the bailout.
Do you still have the newspaper delivered to your house? I do. It is part of our morning routine. It dominates our weekend mornings. We sit together at the kitchen table with our coffee and our favorite section of the paper. I get the home and garden section first. He gets the sports section. After that, it is first come, first read. Except. Soon the quiet breaks and we start spoiling each other's discovery process. The conversation goes like this:
Me: Hey. Did you see this about the horse farm? Him: No. I haven't read that section yet. Me: It's amazing. You should read it. Him: OK. I will when I get to that section. Me: It says....
I know; it's annoying to spoil someone's newspaper adventure. But the reason we read is to share the interesting, the absurd, and the necessary. Right? I often find tidbits of information that are worth sharing with you. I've created a new category called Just Sharing. The posts in this category will be less about SAS Online Support and more about SAS — the company and the people. I hope you enjoy it.
Here's a tidbit that I've been carrying around for a month. [excerpted from the News & Observer]
Bradley Jones and Maura Stokes, research and development directors at SAS in Cary, have become fellows of the American Statistical Association. Recipients are honored for their professional contributions and leadership in the field of statistical science.
Visit the Statistics and Operations Research focus area on support.sas.com to see what Maura and her coworkers are contributing to data analysis, econometrics, and operations research at SAS.
Welcome to the blog about SAS online support. Renee Harper (that's me) will keep you up-to-date about new and updated content on support.sas.com, as well as support services and software releases. I'll try to include relevant examples you can use -- sample programs and information about how others use SAS. I’ll be able to do this better if you join me – this is a place to share your ideas, successes, and frustrations.
Maura Stokes works in the Statistical Applications Department in Advanced Analytics at SAS. Maura is also a member of the review board for support.sas.com. She works hard to provide you the information that you want as well as the statistical features that you need in our products. Let me introduce you to Maura. 
Welcome to the blog about SAS online support. Renee Harper (that's me) will keep you up-to-date about new and updated content on support.sas.com, as well as support services and software releases. I'll try to include relevant examples you can use -- sample programs and information about how others use SAS. I’ll be able to do this better if you join me – this is a place to share your ideas, successes, and frustrations.
