Last week i visited San Antonio, Texas for JMP Discovery Summit - conference for statisticians interested in exchanging best practices, learning proven statistical
techniques and spreading the power of analytic excellence across their
organizations.
Decision to visit came from BigData buzz going on for awhile in IT industry. While BigData is mostly approached today from perspective of computational parallelism for terabytes of mostly unstructured content the alternative is to approach it with complex statistical techniques. And desktop software JMP is best market response for in-depth statistical analysis of data.
But this post is about pivot that happened last week. Few weeks ago I signed up for trial version of distributed database as a service - CloudAnt. After few email exchanges with account manager I was offered to visit CloudAnt office at San Antonio, conveniently co-located at Rackspace - one of the biggest hosting and cloud provided in USA (and most probably in the world). With JMP Summit ending around noon on Thursday i had few spare hours and agreed. It turns out to be most exciting event of the whole trip.
Rackspace office is former shopping mall, that was purchased and transformed into technology mecca. Read more from NY Times article.
While million plus square feet office is amazing by itself the true wow moment came when Rackspace employee told me that he got confused that my record as prospect in SalesForce is like years old.
It reminded of small engagement i had with football club Arsenal Kiev back in 2002. Team was purchased by then Kyiv mayor Oleksandr Omelchenko as city municipal club and he invited as head coach Vyacheslav Hroznyi from famous Moscow club Spartak. With new head coach club set very aggressive goals and to support the excitement management create PR plan to grow number of raving fans. Part of the plan was also redesign of club's website that was struggling with less than 100 visitors per day. I already had agreement to support FC Arsenal Kyiv IT infrastructure - compliment to old friend from Uzhgorod. So naturally offered my service to run website redesign project.
First major decision was whether to go with established design studio or individual web designer. As our goal was to create public buzz about FC Arsenal I offered to run public competition. Idea was accepted and Vyacheslav Hroznyi became head of jury (plus 2 representatives from club administration). While over dozens of web developers competed in building new web design for FC Arsenal i went on search for quality hosting. After internship at ISP TexasNet i had very fond feelings for San Antonio, Texas so young hosting company from same city - Rackspace - became immediate favorite. That is when i contacted them and asked for quote for dedicated hosting.
At the end of competition i got better offer from ISP in Ukraine and didn't purchase hosting from Rackspace.
11 years later they still had record of that old inquiry, the record successfully migrated from old marketing system to new cloud based one - SalesForce, and was updated last week with new business opportunity in BigData.
Huh, the fact that company keeps prospects for so many years was "jaw dropping" experience - Texas style marketing.
To Be Continued...
September 14th, 2013
Saturday, September 14, 2013
Saturday, March 30, 2013
Networking lesson from Rotary Club of Budapest
Last week, Wednesday, March 27th, at Tech20/20 networking lunch I met John B. - local entrepreneur from Knoxville, TN. Quick chat about my country of origin - Ukraine - led us to discovery of John's participation, as member of Rotary Club of Knoxville, in helping orphanage in Eastern Europe, city Matezalka, Hungary.
Listening to his story of delivering bicycles "by pedaling" from Budapest to Matezalka reminded me my own story related to Rotary Club of Budapest.
I started playing chess with my dad when i was 7 years old, as 1st grader in School #5, Uzhgorod, Ukraine, in year 1978. By age 10 i was playing at competitions with grown-ups at chess club, then located at downtown of Uzhgorod, Korzo Street. Back in Soviet Union for some idiotic decision chess were classified as sport. So when i started to receive recognition as chess player it was presented to my school as sport achievement. It didn't go well with classmates who were big into real sports, like football. Nonviolent bullying led me to drop playing chess and switch to real sport - hockey. But that's another, rather unpleasant, story...
But back in early 90x as student of Uzhgorod National University i decided to resume playing chess. So i went to known address at Korzo, but there was no chess club anymore. Instead the old location hosted Uzhgorod Club of Intellectual Games. I walked into the club and met its chairman - Galitzin Petr Alekseyevich (Голицын Петр Алексеевич), descendant of known Russian Nobility. You can read more about his life and tragedy of his ancestors in Russian language at following article.
Short discussion about Uzhgorod Club of Intellectual Games and i learned that behind big name is actually Bridge Club. Back in Soviet Union playing cards were considered politically incorrect, so Petr Galitzin found the way to mascaraed Bridge Club under politically correct title of Intellectual Games. I tried to play bridge and liked it so much that introduced game to classmates at University, one of which - Michael Janochko, is currently one of Contract Bridge champions in Eastern Europe. We started to play Bridge at tournaments in Eastern Europe - mostly Hungary and Romania.
One day, few years later, Petr Galitzin announced at our Bridge Club that Rotary Club of Budapest will be visiting Uzhgorod, Ukraine and as part of their program there will be Bridge Tournament. Members of Uzhgorod Bridge Club were paired with members of Rotary Club of Budapest. I got as partner the President of Budapest branch of Credit Lyonnais Bank. I was in the middle of transitioning from French language, studied at high school, to English, that i started to study in University. So my communication was weird mix of English and French words, that was very confusing to French banker. Nevertheless we scored 2nd place, which made him pretty happy especially considering that it allowed him to tease his buddy which ended on fifth or sixth place. At the end of tournament he gave me his business card with statement to stop by if i to be in Budapest. Courtesy invitation, as i know now, didn't really mean that he invited me to Budapest. But back then i took it literally...
About year later my classmate - Istvan Biro, told me about VAT reimbursement - process to file at customs for reimbursement of AFA (Hungarian VAT) paid during original purchase of goods in Hungary. The process allowed to get back 20%. Then that's was know-how worth of descent patent nowadays.
Back then i worked as Computer Helpdesk Technician at West Contrade - one of first post-USSR private commercial companies, owned by now famous Ukrainian politician - Nestor Shufrych. One of lines of his business back then was importing hi-tech goods, including computers, from Hungary.
So connecting all dots together i made sales pitch to Istvan to go to Budapest and buy computers for re-sale. I leveraged French banker as my connection to Hungarian business world and Nestor's success in importing computers as market knowledge. Istvan agreed.
We traveled to Budapest, bought couple of computers and decided to stop by at Credit Lyonnais at Budapest downtown. We walked into nice building at Vaci Utca and i handed to receptionist the same business card i got at Bridge tournament, and told her that i'm interested in loan to purchase computers. Few minutes of conversation in Hungarian and receptionist told us that Branch President is in Paris, and therefore cannot meet us in person. She was very nice and apologetic, offered us some materials about bank and how to apply for credit. After we walked away Istvan looked at me and said that he thought i was bluffing that i know President of Budapest branch of Credit Lyonnais Bank.
We never applied for credit as we were not citizens of Hungary, but we did managed with Istvan to sell a dozen of computers imported from Hungary back in year 1993...
Nowadays when asked what would be formula of future business model, my answers is:
continuous education + handshake networking + social workload (or community volunteering).
Above story is good example of networking and community components of above formula.
March 20, 2013
Roman Havrylyak
Listening to his story of delivering bicycles "by pedaling" from Budapest to Matezalka reminded me my own story related to Rotary Club of Budapest.
I started playing chess with my dad when i was 7 years old, as 1st grader in School #5, Uzhgorod, Ukraine, in year 1978. By age 10 i was playing at competitions with grown-ups at chess club, then located at downtown of Uzhgorod, Korzo Street. Back in Soviet Union for some idiotic decision chess were classified as sport. So when i started to receive recognition as chess player it was presented to my school as sport achievement. It didn't go well with classmates who were big into real sports, like football. Nonviolent bullying led me to drop playing chess and switch to real sport - hockey. But that's another, rather unpleasant, story...
But back in early 90x as student of Uzhgorod National University i decided to resume playing chess. So i went to known address at Korzo, but there was no chess club anymore. Instead the old location hosted Uzhgorod Club of Intellectual Games. I walked into the club and met its chairman - Galitzin Petr Alekseyevich (Голицын Петр Алексеевич), descendant of known Russian Nobility. You can read more about his life and tragedy of his ancestors in Russian language at following article.
Short discussion about Uzhgorod Club of Intellectual Games and i learned that behind big name is actually Bridge Club. Back in Soviet Union playing cards were considered politically incorrect, so Petr Galitzin found the way to mascaraed Bridge Club under politically correct title of Intellectual Games. I tried to play bridge and liked it so much that introduced game to classmates at University, one of which - Michael Janochko, is currently one of Contract Bridge champions in Eastern Europe. We started to play Bridge at tournaments in Eastern Europe - mostly Hungary and Romania.
One day, few years later, Petr Galitzin announced at our Bridge Club that Rotary Club of Budapest will be visiting Uzhgorod, Ukraine and as part of their program there will be Bridge Tournament. Members of Uzhgorod Bridge Club were paired with members of Rotary Club of Budapest. I got as partner the President of Budapest branch of Credit Lyonnais Bank. I was in the middle of transitioning from French language, studied at high school, to English, that i started to study in University. So my communication was weird mix of English and French words, that was very confusing to French banker. Nevertheless we scored 2nd place, which made him pretty happy especially considering that it allowed him to tease his buddy which ended on fifth or sixth place. At the end of tournament he gave me his business card with statement to stop by if i to be in Budapest. Courtesy invitation, as i know now, didn't really mean that he invited me to Budapest. But back then i took it literally...
About year later my classmate - Istvan Biro, told me about VAT reimbursement - process to file at customs for reimbursement of AFA (Hungarian VAT) paid during original purchase of goods in Hungary. The process allowed to get back 20%. Then that's was know-how worth of descent patent nowadays.
Back then i worked as Computer Helpdesk Technician at West Contrade - one of first post-USSR private commercial companies, owned by now famous Ukrainian politician - Nestor Shufrych. One of lines of his business back then was importing hi-tech goods, including computers, from Hungary.
So connecting all dots together i made sales pitch to Istvan to go to Budapest and buy computers for re-sale. I leveraged French banker as my connection to Hungarian business world and Nestor's success in importing computers as market knowledge. Istvan agreed.
We traveled to Budapest, bought couple of computers and decided to stop by at Credit Lyonnais at Budapest downtown. We walked into nice building at Vaci Utca and i handed to receptionist the same business card i got at Bridge tournament, and told her that i'm interested in loan to purchase computers. Few minutes of conversation in Hungarian and receptionist told us that Branch President is in Paris, and therefore cannot meet us in person. She was very nice and apologetic, offered us some materials about bank and how to apply for credit. After we walked away Istvan looked at me and said that he thought i was bluffing that i know President of Budapest branch of Credit Lyonnais Bank.
We never applied for credit as we were not citizens of Hungary, but we did managed with Istvan to sell a dozen of computers imported from Hungary back in year 1993...
Nowadays when asked what would be formula of future business model, my answers is:
continuous education + handshake networking + social workload (or community volunteering).
Above story is good example of networking and community components of above formula.
March 20, 2013
Roman Havrylyak
Monday, March 25, 2013
eQ - Electronic Currency
Everything New is Well-Forgotten Old - famous Russian saying, and as it's getting usual on this blog, today's post is about old memory triggered by recent event.
Few days ago on Facebook my old friend (and former manager) Alexey Ivasyuk started discussion about Bitcoin - peer-to-peer virtual currency. While personally being skeptical about currency based on algorithm of "intense process of bruteforcing" it actually brought to memory brainstorming sessions with my mentor Mitar - Israeli curator of UkrNet.
Back in 1998 after internship at ISP TexasNet (San Antionio, Texas) i was very determined to find job at Internet Service Provider. In Summer 1999 the search brought me to ISP UkrNet and i was assigned to work on Billing and Accounting System for dial-up users. Business Architect who put all requirements together was Mitar. But besides just driving requirements he was mentoring me on how to develop multitier systems. It was first time, in 1999, that i heard 3 layered design: data layer, business logic layer, and presentation layer.
Our billing&accounting system had PostgreSQL as database tier; it had vast majority of business logic written on PL/pgSQL; and multiple presentation layers. Not at all obvious one was from Cisco NAS via Tacacs+ AAA server - it was my crown jewel as developer to customize Tacacs to make PostgreSQL inquiries via ANSI C calls to PL/pgSQL functions. Rest of presentation layers were few websites written on PHP under Apache web server for consumer self-service, internal sales and customer care personnel, and IT superuser console.
While all above design was envisioned by Mitar, he actually was not software developer, or at least he didn't write even single line of code for above design. This fact was actually made me smile when i recently read autobiography on Steve Jobs, written by Walter Isaacson. There was well described arguments between Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, where Steve was criticizing Bill for lack of vision and style, and Bill was criticizing Steve for lack of coding experience. Irony was that i used to be skeptical on Mitar's ideas due to same reason - i didn't see him coding, while he kept telling me that i lack big picture vision.
That argument was especially true when we were discussing internal currency unit used in billing&accounting - eQ. Sounded like "eCu" from e-Currency. Mitar's vision was to spin it as virtual currency that will go way beyond purchases of prepaid dial-up hours or premium web content. He dreamed about e-commerce web sites accepting eQ as method of payments. Now it seems very trivial now, but please note that we are talking about years 1999-2000.
I didn't see it happening in Mitar's way and kept telling that eQ should be limited to only "seconds and bytes", as how it was already used in billing&accounting system. I did offer scale-ability by envisioning that each domain name would be like separate bank that keep accruing eQ from domain users. Later domain names would trades accrued eQ via supply/demand driven exchange rates. And AAA Tacacs+eQ would be engine behind it:
- A for Authentication of eQ owner;
- A for Authorization of transaction to change ownership of eQ;
- and final A for Accounting of all transactions in the log/database.
Possibility of using eQ as payment method used by website visitors to access web site content was not new either. At that time Banner Exchange Systems were used for exact same purpose - web site owner would present banners on his site and later sell (or exchange) them. My idea was to drop advertisements from web sites for person willing to pay few cents to access site without annoying ads.
At the end of the day neither of us was right. Overall system grew up to have only 3 Internet Service Providers in Ukraine that were using variation of that billing&accounting system, and that's about all potential it had...
In 2005 under signed H1B contract to work in USA i had to drop all software support for clients in Ukraine. But that is another story...
Nowadays my code is below average, but hopefully my design vision is improved.
Roman Havrylyak
Few days ago on Facebook my old friend (and former manager) Alexey Ivasyuk started discussion about Bitcoin - peer-to-peer virtual currency. While personally being skeptical about currency based on algorithm of "intense process of bruteforcing" it actually brought to memory brainstorming sessions with my mentor Mitar - Israeli curator of UkrNet.
Back in 1998 after internship at ISP TexasNet (San Antionio, Texas) i was very determined to find job at Internet Service Provider. In Summer 1999 the search brought me to ISP UkrNet and i was assigned to work on Billing and Accounting System for dial-up users. Business Architect who put all requirements together was Mitar. But besides just driving requirements he was mentoring me on how to develop multitier systems. It was first time, in 1999, that i heard 3 layered design: data layer, business logic layer, and presentation layer.
Our billing&accounting system had PostgreSQL as database tier; it had vast majority of business logic written on PL/pgSQL; and multiple presentation layers. Not at all obvious one was from Cisco NAS via Tacacs+ AAA server - it was my crown jewel as developer to customize Tacacs to make PostgreSQL inquiries via ANSI C calls to PL/pgSQL functions. Rest of presentation layers were few websites written on PHP under Apache web server for consumer self-service, internal sales and customer care personnel, and IT superuser console.
While all above design was envisioned by Mitar, he actually was not software developer, or at least he didn't write even single line of code for above design. This fact was actually made me smile when i recently read autobiography on Steve Jobs, written by Walter Isaacson. There was well described arguments between Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, where Steve was criticizing Bill for lack of vision and style, and Bill was criticizing Steve for lack of coding experience. Irony was that i used to be skeptical on Mitar's ideas due to same reason - i didn't see him coding, while he kept telling me that i lack big picture vision.
That argument was especially true when we were discussing internal currency unit used in billing&accounting - eQ. Sounded like "eCu" from e-Currency. Mitar's vision was to spin it as virtual currency that will go way beyond purchases of prepaid dial-up hours or premium web content. He dreamed about e-commerce web sites accepting eQ as method of payments. Now it seems very trivial now, but please note that we are talking about years 1999-2000.
I didn't see it happening in Mitar's way and kept telling that eQ should be limited to only "seconds and bytes", as how it was already used in billing&accounting system. I did offer scale-ability by envisioning that each domain name would be like separate bank that keep accruing eQ from domain users. Later domain names would trades accrued eQ via supply/demand driven exchange rates. And AAA Tacacs+eQ would be engine behind it:
- A for Authentication of eQ owner;
- A for Authorization of transaction to change ownership of eQ;
- and final A for Accounting of all transactions in the log/database.
Possibility of using eQ as payment method used by website visitors to access web site content was not new either. At that time Banner Exchange Systems were used for exact same purpose - web site owner would present banners on his site and later sell (or exchange) them. My idea was to drop advertisements from web sites for person willing to pay few cents to access site without annoying ads.
At the end of the day neither of us was right. Overall system grew up to have only 3 Internet Service Providers in Ukraine that were using variation of that billing&accounting system, and that's about all potential it had...
In 2005 under signed H1B contract to work in USA i had to drop all software support for clients in Ukraine. But that is another story...
Roman Havrylyak
Sunday, March 17, 2013
How Bill Gates and Ukrainian teenager in wheelchair helped me discover America
Couple of weeks ago Pack 12 of Boy Scouts of America, Great Smoky Mountain Council at Farragut Church of Christ had disability awareness program. Cub Scouts learned letters using sign language, experienced how to walk blindfolded using cane, tried to use hand-powered wheelchair, etc.
Watching Tigers, Wolves and Webelos brought to memory my personal story of discovering America.
It all started with Bill Gates quote about The Art of Computer Programming (author Donald E. Knuth) with statement that if you read whole thing you should send him resume. Just graduate of Uzhgorod National University and not sure what to do i took it literally. Volumes #2 and #3 were easy to find and they are still on my book shelve at my parents house in Uzhgorod, but volume #1 had long wait list in all libraries (i guess i was not the only one inspired by Bill Gates quote). Impatient to wait i managed to offer bribe to librarian to get ahead of wait line. When she realized that i offered her money to rent the book she smiled and said something like "Young man, you are probably the only person in the world that attempted to bribe librarian". She refused money, but promised to let me know when volume #1 will be returned. I never actually read the "whole thing".
But few years later in year 1997 when computer books were easily available in stores, but were cost prohibitive for libraries and individuals, and remembering my personal struggle to get right book i decided to fund non-profit organization Uzhgorod Computer Club with 2 main purposes:
- build library of computer books available for club members to rent for free;
- and to popularize computer science in Transcarpathia region of Ukraine.
Reality check very quickly showed that younger generation has no interest in books, but they did like computer games. So our club very quickly became known as place to hang out and play games. But it all changed when a women asked my colleague Valera for computer lessons for her kid. Teenager was in wheelchair and it didn't feel right to take money, though his mom did offered to pay for lessons. So I asked Valera to give few lessons for free. The first time kid saw computer and laid his hands on keyboard his eyes lit like Christmas tree. I haven't since then seen person being more excited about computer. Those free lessons to wheelchair teenager completely changed our club. His mom was a teacher in kindergarten and recommended our club to parents, effectively starting "word of mouth" marketing. Club didn't (and couldn't) charge for computer lessons, as education business was highly regulated and licensed business with high bureaucratic barrier to enter. So our response to increased number of requests for private computer education was that we provide place with computer to our members for free based on availability and schedule; parents would arrange private lesson with geek (usually university student or young software developer) and pay him directly. It was soon a known place for geeks to make quick buck: pay $1 per month membership fee and schedule private lessons (approximately $2 per one hour lesson). Please note that back then in 1997-1998 the average salary for computer professional was $50 per month, or $0.25-$0.30 per hour.
Our club expanded to offer free dial-up service to its members and even registered newspaper "Uzhgorod Online", which may sounds oxymoron to have word "online" in paper media but back then it was significantly cheaper to spread news via paper then it was by internet.
But most amazing thing is that my experience with Uzhgorod Computer allowed me to win internship program at San Antonio, Texas, sponsored by US AID. In March-April 1998 i spent 2 months as intern in companies like ISP TexasNet, San Antonio Express News, and Pitney Bowes.
And that's how Bill Gates and Wheelchair teenager helped me to discover USA.
Nowadays Bill Gates is heavily investing in education technology but his vision of pure online experience doesn't resonate as strong as his famous quote from last century. It lacks mentor-mentee personal relationship, which is strange considering his reference of Yoda and Luke Skywalker.
The future education should rely more on how Boy Scouts of America approach training: Den Leader prepares materials, gives theoretical background followed immediately by practice in father-son pairs or in scout groups. But that is another topic worthy another lengthy post...
Roman Havrylyak
Watching Tigers, Wolves and Webelos brought to memory my personal story of discovering America.
It all started with Bill Gates quote about The Art of Computer Programming (author Donald E. Knuth) with statement that if you read whole thing you should send him resume. Just graduate of Uzhgorod National University and not sure what to do i took it literally. Volumes #2 and #3 were easy to find and they are still on my book shelve at my parents house in Uzhgorod, but volume #1 had long wait list in all libraries (i guess i was not the only one inspired by Bill Gates quote). Impatient to wait i managed to offer bribe to librarian to get ahead of wait line. When she realized that i offered her money to rent the book she smiled and said something like "Young man, you are probably the only person in the world that attempted to bribe librarian". She refused money, but promised to let me know when volume #1 will be returned. I never actually read the "whole thing".
 |
| Book shelve at my parents house in Uzhgorod |
- build library of computer books available for club members to rent for free;
- and to popularize computer science in Transcarpathia region of Ukraine.
 |
| Business card from year 1997 - the only survived proof of Uzhgorod Computer Club existence. |
Reality check very quickly showed that younger generation has no interest in books, but they did like computer games. So our club very quickly became known as place to hang out and play games. But it all changed when a women asked my colleague Valera for computer lessons for her kid. Teenager was in wheelchair and it didn't feel right to take money, though his mom did offered to pay for lessons. So I asked Valera to give few lessons for free. The first time kid saw computer and laid his hands on keyboard his eyes lit like Christmas tree. I haven't since then seen person being more excited about computer. Those free lessons to wheelchair teenager completely changed our club. His mom was a teacher in kindergarten and recommended our club to parents, effectively starting "word of mouth" marketing. Club didn't (and couldn't) charge for computer lessons, as education business was highly regulated and licensed business with high bureaucratic barrier to enter. So our response to increased number of requests for private computer education was that we provide place with computer to our members for free based on availability and schedule; parents would arrange private lesson with geek (usually university student or young software developer) and pay him directly. It was soon a known place for geeks to make quick buck: pay $1 per month membership fee and schedule private lessons (approximately $2 per one hour lesson). Please note that back then in 1997-1998 the average salary for computer professional was $50 per month, or $0.25-$0.30 per hour.
Our club expanded to offer free dial-up service to its members and even registered newspaper "Uzhgorod Online", which may sounds oxymoron to have word "online" in paper media but back then it was significantly cheaper to spread news via paper then it was by internet.
But most amazing thing is that my experience with Uzhgorod Computer allowed me to win internship program at San Antonio, Texas, sponsored by US AID. In March-April 1998 i spent 2 months as intern in companies like ISP TexasNet, San Antonio Express News, and Pitney Bowes.
 |
| ISP TexasNet, San Antonio, Texas, 1998 |
Nowadays Bill Gates is heavily investing in education technology but his vision of pure online experience doesn't resonate as strong as his famous quote from last century. It lacks mentor-mentee personal relationship, which is strange considering his reference of Yoda and Luke Skywalker.
The future education should rely more on how Boy Scouts of America approach training: Den Leader prepares materials, gives theoretical background followed immediately by practice in father-son pairs or in scout groups. But that is another topic worthy another lengthy post...
Roman Havrylyak
Monday, November 5, 2012
HBAG - Huge Bold Audacious Goal
Recently I learned from colleague at RSC a new term BHAG - Big Hairy Audacious Goal that was proposed by James Collins and Jerry Porras in their 1994 book entitled Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies. Idea that company should have long-term goal, and long means dozens of years, is very appealing. In fact so appealing that i thought of what would be name corporate goal that may go beyond dozens of years, goal that only next generation may benefit from.
And new term HBAG - Huge Bold Audacious Goal - was born.
But idea should be realistically achievable. One of example of non-HBAG might be idea of building Communism in Soviet Union, as possibility to build completely "just" society is utopia by definition.
Probably best current example of HBAG would be Ukrainian dream to become member of European Union. While originally introduced by Leonid Kuchma back in 2002 with goal for associate membership in 2011, the idea than would qualify as BHAG - 9 years program is big, but not huge. But implementation of "European Choice" over last 10 years was such a catastrophic that as of now it may be easier to convince Ukrainians in building Communism then to reach membership status in European Union.
So to research the matter and brainstorm in details the LinkedIn group "UAIX - Ukraine America Ideas eXchange" was created.
Welcome to discussion!
Roman Havrylyak
And new term HBAG - Huge Bold Audacious Goal - was born.
But idea should be realistically achievable. One of example of non-HBAG might be idea of building Communism in Soviet Union, as possibility to build completely "just" society is utopia by definition.
Probably best current example of HBAG would be Ukrainian dream to become member of European Union. While originally introduced by Leonid Kuchma back in 2002 with goal for associate membership in 2011, the idea than would qualify as BHAG - 9 years program is big, but not huge. But implementation of "European Choice" over last 10 years was such a catastrophic that as of now it may be easier to convince Ukrainians in building Communism then to reach membership status in European Union.
So to research the matter and brainstorm in details the LinkedIn group "UAIX - Ukraine America Ideas eXchange" was created.
Welcome to discussion!
Roman Havrylyak
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
Eastern European Olympic Games
Last month while watching London Olympic Games i remembered one of the most wild ideas i ever had...
Sometime in year 2002 then President of Ukraine Leonid Kuchma declared "European Choice" program that set goal for Ukraine to reach associate membership in European Union by year 2011. My first reaction was not to question whether Ukraine qualifies or has mature enough democratic processes and institutions, but simply why Associate and not Full membership. Why goal is set low?
Impromptu brainstorming session at UkrNet, internet service provider i worked for then, revealed unanimous support for European Choice among colleagues. On the way home daydreaming about new opportunities that membership in European Union will open for Ukraine, and especially for my hometown Uzhgorod, i noticed Olympic rings printed in newspaper. The most craziest idea hit me - for Ukraine to achieve full membership in European Union is to host Olympic Games 2012, and not alone but with cooperation with western neighbors: Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, and Romania.
5 Olympic rings mapped to 5 countries represented by 5 cities:
The fact that only Ukraine has borders with all other countries would grant Uzhgorod a status of official capital of Olympic Games.
As fast as the idea came to mind more than decade ago that fast it was forgotten... Well until last August when London Olympic Games resurfaced old dream.
Interestingly enough at the same time my hometown friend Andrey Shovargo and cousin Ruslan Kopcha were discussing idea to establish non-profit organization to support youth involvement in sports for quite a while, since December 2011.
“It's the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting.” Paulo Coelho
Roman Havrylyak
Sometime in year 2002 then President of Ukraine Leonid Kuchma declared "European Choice" program that set goal for Ukraine to reach associate membership in European Union by year 2011. My first reaction was not to question whether Ukraine qualifies or has mature enough democratic processes and institutions, but simply why Associate and not Full membership. Why goal is set low?
Impromptu brainstorming session at UkrNet, internet service provider i worked for then, revealed unanimous support for European Choice among colleagues. On the way home daydreaming about new opportunities that membership in European Union will open for Ukraine, and especially for my hometown Uzhgorod, i noticed Olympic rings printed in newspaper. The most craziest idea hit me - for Ukraine to achieve full membership in European Union is to host Olympic Games 2012, and not alone but with cooperation with western neighbors: Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, and Romania.
5 Olympic rings mapped to 5 countries represented by 5 cities:
The fact that only Ukraine has borders with all other countries would grant Uzhgorod a status of official capital of Olympic Games.
As fast as the idea came to mind more than decade ago that fast it was forgotten... Well until last August when London Olympic Games resurfaced old dream.
Interestingly enough at the same time my hometown friend Andrey Shovargo and cousin Ruslan Kopcha were discussing idea to establish non-profit organization to support youth involvement in sports for quite a while, since December 2011.
After short discussion and few weeks of legal paperwork on September 14, 2012 non-profit organization "Olympic Generation" was founded in Uzhgorod, Ukraine.
And although "Olympic Generation" goal is nowhere close to Olympic Games, it's definitely a spark in right direction to eventually start Olympic flame in Eastern Europe!
And although "Olympic Generation" goal is nowhere close to Olympic Games, it's definitely a spark in right direction to eventually start Olympic flame in Eastern Europe!
“It's the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting.” Paulo Coelho
Roman Havrylyak
Sunday, June 3, 2012
ORACLE - forbidden fruit
When i found on internet following quote-joke from Larry Ellison - co-founder and CEO of Oracle:
I started to study Mathematics at Uzhgorod National University, Ukraine in year 1988. After couple of years of generic mathematics we finally get to specialty computer courses, one of which was Databases led by Professor Jozsef Holovacz (Головач Йосип Гнатович). At that time the course was based on dBASE III and dBASE IV, later we had chance to learn FoxPro and Clipper. And i remember at one of lecture Prof. Golovach mentioned ORACLE - relational database from USA, and with very intriguing voice made statement that maybe somebody will be lucky to work with ORACLE if embargo is lifted from USSR. That's how i first heard about ORACLE and built association to it as "forbidden fruit".
Fast forward few years and in year 1998 i was asked to substitute Prof. Holovach, while he went to Hungary. I had to teach young students course for Databases and Knowledge Bases at Uzhgorod State Institute of Informatics, Economics and Law. Not much changed since i studied, there were no dBASE anymore, but still FoxPro; and for Knowledge bases we used PROLOG. And at one of lectures it was my turn to intrigue my students with same statement - that if you study hard and get lucky maybe you get chance to work with ORACLE.
Fast forward to year 2001 and being director of IT department at ISP UkrNet and after our in-house custom built solution for Billing and Accounting started to choke due to workload i was sent to Moscow, Russia to Billing and Telecommunications conference with task to find new software for Billing and Accounting. While there were dozens of different solution providers one of them - Absolut from ServoComp - stood out.
It was ORACLE based!
My heart was captured immediately. And in summer 2002 we started implementation of Absolut at ISP UkrNet. At one of the smoke breaks ServoComp consultant started discussion about ORACLE Express products for reporting and analytics, so i very confidently interrupt him and said that ORACLE is just a database.
"With all due respect, colleague, but you are wrong!" said consultant and continued that ORACLE has even its own accounting system - Oracle Financials.
Since then "Colleague" became such a buzz word for me that during AT&T project in Atlanta, Georgia one senior manager asked for me using statement "Where is that consultant that calls everybody Colleague?".
And it was first time i heard about Oracle Financials. Later in 2003 i started new job as junior consultant for Oracle Applications, but that's another story...
"You know, if the U.S.S.R. had Oracle and some decent computing power, they'd never have lost the cold war. A small number of people could run a very large gulag."it brought memories about how i got to work with Oracle, memories going all the way back to USSR.
I started to study Mathematics at Uzhgorod National University, Ukraine in year 1988. After couple of years of generic mathematics we finally get to specialty computer courses, one of which was Databases led by Professor Jozsef Holovacz (Головач Йосип Гнатович). At that time the course was based on dBASE III and dBASE IV, later we had chance to learn FoxPro and Clipper. And i remember at one of lecture Prof. Golovach mentioned ORACLE - relational database from USA, and with very intriguing voice made statement that maybe somebody will be lucky to work with ORACLE if embargo is lifted from USSR. That's how i first heard about ORACLE and built association to it as "forbidden fruit".
Fast forward few years and in year 1998 i was asked to substitute Prof. Holovach, while he went to Hungary. I had to teach young students course for Databases and Knowledge Bases at Uzhgorod State Institute of Informatics, Economics and Law. Not much changed since i studied, there were no dBASE anymore, but still FoxPro; and for Knowledge bases we used PROLOG. And at one of lectures it was my turn to intrigue my students with same statement - that if you study hard and get lucky maybe you get chance to work with ORACLE.
Fast forward to year 2001 and being director of IT department at ISP UkrNet and after our in-house custom built solution for Billing and Accounting started to choke due to workload i was sent to Moscow, Russia to Billing and Telecommunications conference with task to find new software for Billing and Accounting. While there were dozens of different solution providers one of them - Absolut from ServoComp - stood out.
It was ORACLE based!
My heart was captured immediately. And in summer 2002 we started implementation of Absolut at ISP UkrNet. At one of the smoke breaks ServoComp consultant started discussion about ORACLE Express products for reporting and analytics, so i very confidently interrupt him and said that ORACLE is just a database.
"With all due respect, colleague, but you are wrong!" said consultant and continued that ORACLE has even its own accounting system - Oracle Financials.
Since then "Colleague" became such a buzz word for me that during AT&T project in Atlanta, Georgia one senior manager asked for me using statement "Where is that consultant that calls everybody Colleague?".
And it was first time i heard about Oracle Financials. Later in 2003 i started new job as junior consultant for Oracle Applications, but that's another story...
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