Events to note

May 9, 2012 by Leave a comment

Here are a couple of local Portland events to note that are coming up in the next week;

Beer Dashboard screen shot

The Software Association of Oregon is hosting a presentation/beer tasting event on May 15th at 5:30. Our very own engineer, Eric Sterling, will be showcasing his “Beer Dashboard” that he made for local Portland Brew Pub, Bailey’s Taproom. The Dashboard displays details on the beers that are on tap, the amount left in each keg, which customer’s have checked in through Foursquare, and who has tweeted about Bailey’s beer. More info here.

On Thursday, May 17th at 5pm PDX.UX will be hosting their May meeting at our offices. PDX.UX is a Portland user group where members share experiences and knowledge around designing and developing next generation user interfaces and user experience. PDX-UX meets on the third Thursday of the month at the Thetus offices. This month’s meeting will have three to four presenters showcasing their latest project, whether it’s a design for an upcoming project or a post-mortem on something just launched. Presenters are looking for feedback and discussion from the audience about their work. RSVP here, or join their google group to receive a note about their next meeting.

Filed under Industry, Techie, Thetus Blog

Thetus Takes on Pacific City for the 2012 Offsite

May 4, 2012 by Leave a comment

The whole crew of Thetans

Every year our company goes on a retreat together, somewhere different each time but always within a couple of hours from our office in downtown Portland. In the past we’ve gone up to Mt. Hood, out to the vineyards, and this year we went to the coastal town of Pacific City and stayed in the Shorepine homes (we highly recommend these places). Spending a day and a half outside of the office allows us to step back, out of any tunnel vision and refocus on the big picture.

A Thetus offsite is all about group activities; we make a mishmash of teams by putting together people with differing responsibilities at the company (like a semantic modeler and a marketing person). These group meetings allow us to break away from our normal teams and collaborate with coworkers that we don’t interact with on a daily basis. We’ve found this helps employees see the whole process of product creation and look at our company and product from a different perspective. The offsite is a time for employees to share their ideas, from a new meeting system to the need for a hammock room in the office. It’s also a time to learn more about your coworkers. We focus on being a team and we want everyone to be an active player, nobody gets benched at Thetus. We find our offsites are the perfect forum to nurture collaborations, brew ideas and create infectious enthusiasm and that’s exactly what they do.

Team brainstormin’

But most of all, the offsites are fun. Thetus prides itself on having a team with a less than normal background and once outside the office walls, some people tend to let loose a little more. When you mix these factors with a couple of local IPAs from the Pelican Brewery some interesting things can come out. Take a look at our Offsite 2012 photo album on our Facebook page to see our take on a 2025 User Interface – made strictly out of popsicle sticks of course …

Filed under Catching Up With Thetus, Thetus Blog

Amazon Web Services Marketplace

April 24, 2012 by Leave a comment

If you’re looking to buy or sell software, you may want to take a look at this – Amazon Web Services Marketplace, an online store for commercial software that runs in the AWS cloud. The goal here is to simplify finding, buying and selling software. AWS Marketplace offers a 1-Click launch to run an application on your own EC2 server and offers a pay by the hour option. The interface is similar to the regular Amazon shopping sites; allowing you to read reviews of products, and giving you an area to view, manage and monitor your purchases. If you’d like to sell software, this seems like a great method to get your product in front of a large number of potential customers, and amazon does all the billing for you then sends along the money you’ve made. Check it out and let us know what you think.

Filed under Industry, Techie, Thetus Blog

User Experience Top Priority?

April 19, 2012 by Leave a comment

This article from Fast Company caught my eye; it discusses extending User Experience from the Web across to channels of offline brands. As the writer puts it, “consumers who experience good UX online don’t switch off their expectations when they switch off the computer.”

With the Web, the focus is on the human-computer interaction, but what about the way customers interact with non-digital products? Isn’t usability a top priority for every product? As this article states and displays through the highlighted case studies, “the principles and theories of UX have created a new normal in terms of brand delivery and interaction.”

One of the greatest Gary Larson Far side comics.

http://www.fastcodesign.com/1669503/user-experience-is-the-heart-of-any-company-how-do-you-make-it-top-priority?partner=homepage_newsletter

For more on this topic read our post in November about Intuitive Design.

Filed under Industry, Thetus Blog Tagged with ,

Join us for a webcast of our newest release of Savanna

April 12, 2012 by Leave a comment

Register for our one hour webcast where we’ll be highlighting the new features and capabilities in the latest release of Savanna, our multi-Int analysis solution.

In this webcast you will see an overall demonstration of Savanna, working through a problem in an area of interest through its entirety. You will also see an in-depth drill down into Savanna3’s new features, a focus on how best we leverage our partnerships and lastly, a brief example of a use case.

Attendees will also learn how Savanna: 

  • Bridges gaps of information
  • Eliminates time-consuming steps
  • Evolves with changing knowledge
  • Unites a variety of skill levels
  • Cuts training time and costs

Sign up here to view the webcast live TODAY at 2pm EST or sign up to receive the recording in your email.

 

Filed under Catching Up With Thetus Tagged with , , ,

QR Codes, yay or nay?

April 11, 2012 by Leave a comment

QR (Quick Response) codes are popping up everywhere, from airport security lines to headstones even. Most popular in magazines, newspapers and product packaging, QR codes are now moving beyond retail store coupons and consumer reviews. These 2-dimensional codes store data that can be decoded by a mobile application on a smart phone, a great way to engage your mobile audience offline and move the traffic online. QR codes have the ability to store an assortment of data and a lot of it, unlike the traditional 1-dimensional UPC barcode we’re used to seeing on products. A variety of companies are realizing the opportunities QR codes enable and have designed campaigns optimizing the flexibility of this marketing tool to reach audiences in a less traditional manner.

Thetus has begun utilizing QR codes for the simplicity they offer users. In May of last year, we did an overhaul of our brand, creating a fresh logo and new marketing collateral; part of this brand update was the implementation of QR codes. We attend a handful of conferences throughout the year and wanted to stand out from other booths. We designed a data card with a QR code on it, once scanned this code takes users to our mobile site. Here they can download a digital version of our data card and our white paper to their mobile phone rather than pick up the physical sheet and add it to their pile of conference collateral. We also placed QR codes on our business cards. On the front of the card you can scan the code and open our mobile site. On the back of the card, you scan the code and receive contact information for that Thetus employee. Once scanned, you can immediately call or email us or save our contact information to your address book in your phone and not have to add yet another business card to your stack.

So why use a QR code? Here are the reasons we decided to use QR codes;   

  1. Save money on printing costs
  2. Become more eco-friendly
  3. Provide less materials for conference attendees to carry
  4. Differentiate from competitors at conferences
  5. Increase traffic to our mobile site

Last week, we attended the Department of Defense Intelligent Information Systems (DoDIIS) Worldwide Conference in Denver, Colorado. We had our data cards with QR codes, our business cards with QR codes and an invite to our upcoming webcast with a QR code leading to the registration page. The webcast for our multi-source analysis solution, Savanna, is tomorrow by the way – register here or scan the green QR code to the right. We saw about 50% more new visitors on our mobile site than we usually do, a higher number of downloads for our white paper that’s on our mobile site, as well as a spike in our webcast registration.

If you’d like to try it, keep in mind these common mistakes made when using QR codes;

  1. Not explaining how to download a scanner on a mobile phone and how to scan the code
  2. Not providing an incentive, like what happens when the code is scanned
  3. Not providing an alternative to scanning if they do not have a mobile phone, like listing a website link

There are plenty of free QR code generator websites and an array of free QR code scanner mobile apps.

This is the generator we usually use – http://keremerkan.net/qr-code-and-2d-code-generator/

Think QR codes are just a silly fad? comScore, Inc. did a study measuring the digital world and found that 14 million Americans scanned a QR code on their mobile phone in just the month of June. In 2010, mobile barcode scanning grew 1,600 percent.

Here is a list of some very cool QR campaigns (my favorites are the subway online shopping campaign by Tesco in South Korea and the World Park campaign trivia game in New York City) – http://www.awwwards.com/10-creative-uses-of-qr-codes.html

Is your company leveraging QR codes to connect with your offline audience and increase your online traffic? Let us know how in the comments section below.

Filed under Industry, Thetus Blog Tagged with

It’s official, we’re debuting our newest release of Savanna at DoDIIS

March 21, 2012 by Leave a comment

From April 1–4, 2012 Thetus will be demonstrating the new capabilities of Savanna3 in booth number 517 at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver, Colo. at the  Department of Defense Intelligence Information Systems (DoDIIS) Worldwide Conference.

Savanna3 now offers structured data operations and statistical analysis, the ability to create visual representations of data sets through charts, a case management system to organize and preview knowledge assets, as well as a dual-pane interface to optimize workflow. Stop by our booth to see these new capabilities!

Below is the press release that we sent out today.

PRESS RELEASE                       

Thetus Corporation

34 NW 1st Avenue, Suite 210, Portland, OR 97209

Phone: (503) 294-0900  Fax: (503) 595-5828

Sarah Allen

Marketing Communications Manager

Phone: (785) 766-2245

Email: sallen@thetus.com

Thetus Debuts Newest Release of Multi-Int Analysis Solution, Savanna, at DoDIIS 2012

March 21, 2012 – Portland, Ore. and Denver, Colo. - Thetus Corporation, a leading provider of semantic knowledge modeling and discovery software, today announced they will unveil the newest release of their multi-Int analysis solution, Savanna, at the Department of Defense Intelligence Information Systems (DoDIIS) Worldwide Conference April 1–4, 2012 in Denver, Colo. The Thetus Savanna solution reflects the conference theme of “advancing mission integration,” therefore making DoDIIS the appropriate venue to announce the Savanna3 release. By building on existing COCOM, Army, NGA, and DIA investments, Savanna supports the development of mission-specific capabilities by providing analysts with these capabilities and enabling integration across the Intelligence Community.

In addition to a suite of analysis tools, Savanna3 now offers structured data operations and statistical analysis, the ability to create visual representations of data sets through charts, a case management system to organize and preview knowledge assets, as well as a dual-pane interface to optimize workflow. From April 1–4, 2012 Thetus will be demonstrating these new capabilities of Savanna3 in booth number 517 at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver, Colo.

“Savanna3 provides an unparalleled all-source analysis environment designed to integrate with existing customer data sources and workflows and speed production of quality assessments,” said Philip Pridmore-Brown, Vice President of Products and Services. “With this release, analysts have access to powerful models, analytics, structured and unstructured data, and cloud data sources, all delivered through the browser both as widgets and as a full application.”

Savanna is a multi-Int, model-enabled analysis solution that builds on customer’s existing investments and programs bringing together multi-source analysis techniques to enable faster, more informed decision-making. Savanna is a solution that provides an integrated user experience for search, visualization, discovery, and output of actionable intelligence all while providing robust, analytic capabilities.

Stop by the Thetus booth #517 at the DoDIIS 2012 Worldwide Conference in the Colorado Convention Center for a live demonstration of Savanna3’s advanced analytic capabilities.

About Thetus Corporation

Thetus® makes enterprise software that helps people research, document, visualize, and model the behavior of complex systems. In dynamic analysis environments it is critical to support flexible and changing workflow and models that can adapt as understanding evolves. Thetus provides semantic knowledge modeling and discovery solutions for extracting and managing information to produce actionable intelligence. Thetus delivers a new standard for addressing modeling and analysis challenges, the Savanna solution. Our solutions are at work in enterprise, local government agencies and the national intelligence community.

Website: www.thetus.com

Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/thetus2010

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/thetuscorp

Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/thetuscorp

About DoDIIS

The Department of Defense Intelligence Information Systems Worldwide Conference (DoDIIS) will be held in Denver, CO at the Denver Convention Center from April 1 to April 4, 2012. Through partnerships and collaboration, this valuable forum for the Intelligence Community (IC) and Department of Defense Information Technology (IT) professionals will showcase current and future capabilities, investigate innovative solutions, and allow individuals to share best practices.  The DoDIIS Worldwide Conference features more than 2,000 participants including 400+ exhibits from across the globe, and supports a wide-range of Government, Civilian, Military, and Industry Partners interested in networking, collaborating, and bringing new resourceful solutions to the ever-changing IT world. Expert speakers and interactive training sessions, as well as, daily networking opportunities will be held over the course of the four-day conference.

Website: http://www.ncsi.com/dodiis12/index.html

Filed under Thetus Blog

Happy Peaceful Birthday to the Peace Corps

March 1, 2012 by Leave a comment

In recognition of Peace Corps week, we would like to thank every volunteer for their service and the continuing efforts this organization makes to enrich the lives of society and establish peace worldwide.

The Peace Corps helps promote world peace and friendship by making trained men and women available to assist the peoples of countries undergoing hardships. The goal of Peace Corps Week is to join returned volunteers to share their experiences, educate future volunteers on the impact they could make, and to commemorate the organization’s anniversary.  This volunteer program run by the U.S. Government began in 1960, when then-Senator John F. Kennedy challenged students at the University of Michigan to serve their country and the cause of peace by living and working in the developing world. With an outpouring of response, Kennedy signed the Peace Corps into action by March 1st of 1961.

 

Today the Peace Corps is currently serving 76 countries with 9,095 volunteers and has expanded its relief efforts to include HIV/AIDS awareness, information technology, and business development.  The Peace Corps is contributing to the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief by training every volunteer in Africa as educators and advocators for prevention and education of HIV/AIDS.  To keep speed with the ever-evolving technology atmosphere, volunteers are providing technical training and support, as well as basic computer literacy skills to help interested groups utilize information and communications technology.

 

To date, the Peace corps has served 139 countries with the help of over 200,000 volunteers. There are numerous celebrations throughout the country honoring the Peace Corps’ 51st anniversary on March 1st. If you’re a past volunteer or interested in volunteering there are many events to partake in this week, from information sessions and career conferences to story time with returned volunteers and celebration ceremonies. To find an event this week or an anniversary celebration in your area, click here for the activities schedule.

 

To view videos from past volunteers sharing their experiences click here.

Filed under Thetus Blog

For the love of UX

February 14, 2012 by Leave a comment

As the host for PDX.UX group meetings, we wanted to share a little UX love on this Valentine’s Day. This month PDX.UX is switching gears; February’s meeting will be the first group workshop.  Attendees will be presented with a small, UX-challenged interface in need of prettiness, some information design and even a little data
visualization skills.  Anyone up for the challenge will form groups upon arrival and nosh on some solutions with their peers. Bring your brains and a laptop if you have one, and we’ll provide the pens, giant pads of paper, food and drinks.  PDX.UX will also be giving away some free books on data visualization, courtesy of O’Reilly Media.  Please RSVP at Plancast!

When: 
Feb 16th
Snacks, beer & networking 5:30-6
Workshop 6-7:30-ish

Where: 
Thetus offices
34 NW 1st Avenue, 3rd floor

RSVP
follow us @PDXUX

This meeting is sponsored by Thetus Corporation and O’Reilly Media

Filed under Catching Up With Thetus

Open Source Invite

January 31, 2012 by Leave a comment

Who doesn’t love free stuff? With software and hardware reaching higher and higher price points, it’s especially rewarding to find open source software these days. And fortunately, there’s a lot of it out there. We utilize open source technologies to build our software infrastructure quite frequently and we figured it was due time to give back to the community that has provided us with so much.

We went through our code to find parts of it that were not directly related to our product and could be helpful to others. We thought about the most commonly used open source technologies in our office and came up with Tomcat, Apache Commons, Flex and finally, Maven. We decided to make our own open source product to simplify plug-ins for Maven, so here goes our first Thetus-bred open source product.

Maven takes a description of our builds requirements, formulates a build plan, and then executes it. Maven handles most things without intervention, but when you need to, you can write plug-ins to provide fine-grained control.

We noticed a lot of the plug-ins we were writing for Maven had some commonalities and instead of recreating or copying and pasting code, we pulled that pesky repetitious code out and created the Thetus Maven Toolbox. This toolbox gives you easier ways to access Maven’s build plan and perform common plug-in tasks. These tools let you build up information about your project as a whole, and get info out of the lovely model that Maven provides.

The Thetus Maven Toolbox drastically simplifies authoring certain types of plug-ins — such as those for launching other java programs — and can make previously convoluted tasks simpler. We hope you find this toolbox as useful as we have, keep a look out for more Thetus-bred open source projects!

To use the Thetus Maven Toolbox https://bitbucket.org/Thetus/maven-toolbox

Filed under Industry

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