Only Three More Days !!

Greetings:

If you want to attend the October Rules Fest AND you would like to avail yourself of the Early Bird Discount of $50, you should do so by midnight (PDT, GMT -8) THIS Friday night, July 31st. That's when it expires.

Also, remember that the first 100 attendees to sign up will get the best seating in the house. All attendees and speakers will have power outlets and WiFi available in the meeting room itself. But the first 100 or so will be two persons at a 6' (just under two meters) table.

I have said this so many times that I'm beginning to sound like a cracked record - if you're old enough to remember records made of vinyl that had a tendency to get caught in a groove and just repeat itself over and over and over... Anyway, ORF 2009 has absolutely the BEST Technical Speakers in the world. AND, these guys will be hanging around during the conference to chat with the attendees - especially during Pub Nights.

Who else can say that they bought a beer for Mark "Drools" Proctor, Charles "Dr. Rete" Forgy, Jason "The Jess Answer Man" Morris, Gary "CLIPS" Riley, John "EA" Zachman, Carole Ann Berlioz-Matignon, Carlos "Advisor" Seranno-Morales, Paul "Tibco" Vincent, Edson "CEP" Terilli, Daniel "TurboGeek" Brookshier, Rick "V&V" Hicks, Daniel "ANN" Levine, Hafedh "I wrote the books on JRules" Mili or Jacob "Open Rules" Feldman?? But, if you are at the conference and hang out on Pub Night at the Walt Garrison Room, YOU might !! :-)

The main theme of this year is just like last year: Have Fun! We are doing the one thing that we enjoy the most (outside of one or two indoor activities) and we should be having lots and lots of fun doing it. Last year was simply great. This year is even better. Better Hotel. Better location. Better presentations. I would say better speakers but some are the same as last year BUT we have many new speakers who will knock your socks off!! And the vendors who are the sponsors will have the very best technical personnel to answer your most perplexing problems.

This year, we will have redundancy on the video / audio recording so that we don't have gaps like last year. We learned our lesson about depending on a single source of technology. Greg Barton has promised the best recording and Chelanie Israel has promised to deliver a truly professional, well-polished product for those who attended the meeting. And, no, we do not have plans to sell the video to anyone. It's our free gift to those who attend the conference - and ONLY to them.

Sign up NOW and avoid the rush AND get an extra 10% along the way. Also, when you sign up, be SURE to sign up at the hotel for the special rates. If you have any trouble whatsoever, send me an email and let me know. [ jco@kbsc.com ]

SDG

jco

New Algorithm From Dr. Forgy

Greetings:

Yes, that's right, folks.  Dr. Forgy is working on a new algorithm that, as Diana (his wife who is also a computer programmer from CMU) puts it, "Blows the old Rete 2 / Rete III algorithm right out of the water."  No, it is not ready yet.  There are still several parts to work out and it may not be completed until the end of the year.  

I talked with Dr. Forgy yesterday afternoon about that (and some other things) and he gave me permission to disclose it.  He said that the new algorithm (as yet unnamed) should be about 10 times faster (hopefully) than the Rete 2 / Rete III Algorithm.  And, the really cool part is that he will be discussing this at the October Rules Fest.   What he will discuss and how much will be revealed is still to be determined since it won't be finished (again, hopefully) until the end of summer, just before the October Rules Fest.

The name?  He doesn't have one yet.  I suggested CLiF Algorithm (his initials are CLF) but he thought that was too much ego and, if you have ever met the man, he has a small ego and is a totally "nice guy" - something unusual in our day and time.  But, having given away the original Rete Algorithm (it was his Ph.D. thesis done under a DoD grant) I think that he would like to retain the license on this one and have some kind of royalty for the use of it.  As you may or may not know, Rete 2 / Rete III is licensed ONLY to Fair Isaac under his agreements when FIC bought Rules Power way back when.

Bottom line:  (1) New Algorithm from Dr. Forgy.  (2) Dr. Forgy will be discussing this at October Rules Fest this year.  (3) The new algorithm "blows Rete 2 out of the water".  :-)  (4)  The new ORF 2009 site will be up and running this week so that you can register early and take advantage of the "Early Bird" discount.

SDG

jco

ORF 2009 - Call for White Papers

Greetings:

We're starting early this year in our call for papers.  For ORF 2009, regardless of the location and timing, because of the demand from the final session on ORF 2008, we think that it would be best to have ALL of the papers (except for "possibly" a tutorial session prior to ORF 2009) be on the APPLICATION OF RULEBASED SYSTEMS IN BUSINESS AND INDUSTRY.  

Here is the difference between ORF 2008 and anything that BR Forum is doing:  This entire conference will focus on the following:

• Real World Business or Industry Application

1. Supply Chain Management
   
2. Forecasting and Quantitative Analysis
   
3. Insurance
4. Banking and Mortages
5. Processing Plant Operations
6. Geology
7. Medicine
8. Science (Chemistry, Physics, Math, etc)
9. Engineering (EE, ME, CE, etc.)

• What was needed
  
• What was the approach
  
• What was the architecture
  
• Was the problem solved completely
  
• Show the architecture of the rules
  
• Examples of rules (yes, screen shots are permissible)
• Neural Network Solutions to problems are encouraged
• Solutions should have contained at least 200 rules but there is no maximum

While the main part or most of the rules "might" be business confidential and not displayed, that's OK so long as the attendees are shown the rules that had the most effect on the outcome.   What we do NOT want are the following:

• NO Product Demonstrations per se
  
• NO Toy example systems
  
• And nothing to do with a Pet Store UNLESS it was a real Pet Store!  :-)

So, any comments?  This was what most of the attendees at ORF 2008 seemed to want.  I'll probably put out an email later pointing everyone to this blog since most are not using the RSS feed to keep themselves updated.  (We don't have an ORF blog right now but maybe next month.)

SDG

jco