The Good

As we return from our summer vacations, it appears that DataStage usage is up worldwide. Our forum membership continues to grow at record levels and activity is up month after month. Rates for skilled Ascential professionals are still holding at acceptable levels. Ascential continues to win battles, selling large projects to larger and larger clients. Overall, the state of ‘DataStage’ seems very rosy.

The Bad

So what’s the problem you might ask? In a word, complacency, which leads to mediocrity and results in solutions that won’t last. Mediocrity isn’t acceptable to us with regards to our forum and probably isn’t something you accept because of your commitment to excellence. Our newsletter and our site are committed to improving what’s happening on all levels. I guess it’s the equivalent of Emeril Lagasse, the chef who is famous for taking regular recipes and adding extra spices to ‘kick it up a notch”.

The Ugly

There has also been some recent confusion about membership duties and responsibilities within our forum. So as a result, we are upgrading the site to better organize and provide for those members that are doing their share to make our forum a better place. In short, those that register with misinformation show a lack of respect for the quality and sincerity with which our information is shared. Therefore, we will begin to assign members to the groups that best reflect their commitment to furthering the interests of this community. Check out the Changes page to understand the new criteria.

The Rest of The Story

Up until now, our newsletters promoted special circumstances or marketing arrangements. To make sure we search for every opportunity to expand the envelope, push the limits and explore new horizons we are changing that format. We are privileged to have leaders in our industry - friends that are well known to the community as experts - share their expertise in print. Featured here is Barbara Nichols, a MetaStage and meta data expert. Barbara’s contribution is the first part of a series of articles dedicated to enlightening us regarding the principles of Data Quality, Data Governance, and Metadata.

Another one of our frequent posters, Kim Duke, has volunteered to share this own bit of best practices which he hopes will be useful when you start your next project. Take a moment to review his recommendations and reply to our poll on that area.

While DataStage jobs remain the meat and potatoes of our community’s menu, we can add spice to those opportunities by promoting the best overall practices of data integration and the tools that make that job easier. BAM!