AUTUMN 2008

Get a fresh perspective as FME experts

share their tips, tricks and insights.

Founders’ Perspective

FME Users Tell All!In this issue of the Safe Insider, we take a seat and let FME® users from around the globe share their tips and tricks for FME. Yes, it’s time for FME users to tell all! We hope the FME user insights on pages 2-3 give you a fresh perspective on ways you can get the most out of FME. We’ve also improved how you can access our extensive set of resources – check out FME User Central, profi led on page 7.

During our worldwide travels over the past three months, we’ve really enjoyed showcasing FME Server. But what’s been even

IN THIS ISSUEFME 2008 User Tips & Tricks User Spotlight: Greg Patterson FME Server ArchitectureUpload Data for ValidationShare Reprojection CapabilitiesSave the Date: FME UCSDK: Supporting CityGRID Introducing FME User CentralWin a Nintendo Wii Spotlight on Kevin Wiebe

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more enjoyable is hearing your ideas about the different ways you hope to apply this new solution to your enterprise spatial ETL challenges – including data validation and coordinate system conversion. To uncover and understand some of

the ways FME Server can play a role in your upcoming projects, check out pages 4-5.

We have a busy fall ahead as we put the fi nal touches on FME 2009 (Desktop and Server), set to release early next year. We’ll also be very active in the GIS community, participating in over 15 conferences and FME Regional User Groups. In 2009, we look forward to sharing in-depth information on the latest release of FME and hope to see you at our next FME Worldwide User Conference set for beautiful Whistler, BC next June. Until then, happy FME’ing!

Preview FME Desktop 2009Set to release early next year, FME 2009 is all about speed. We’re improving the user interface to make navigating and using FME Workbench faster than ever before. For example, all dialogue boxes are being completely revamped, with dynamically generated drop-down lists, clearly marked compulsory fi elds and handy tooltips. Plus, with raster performance enhancements, intelligent memory usage and more, FME 2009 is set to surpass speed records by processing your spatial ETL jobs in record time. Get a glimpse of

what’s coming in FME 2009 – download the beta at: www.safe.com/Beta.

Safe Software

Co-founders:

Don Murray

and Dale Lutz

about the different ways you hope to apply this new solution to your enterprise spatial ETL challenges – including data validation

spatial ETL jobs in record time. Get a glimpse of what’s coming in FME 2009

– download the beta at: www.safe.com/Beta.

Safe Software

Co-founders:

Don Murray

and Dale Lutz

SAFE INSIDER

Tips, Tricks and Insights from FME UsersThis year’s FME Worldwide User Conference proved that FME offers an extensive set of features. Even for long-term experts, there’s always a new technique waiting to be discovered in the depths of FME’s capabilities. And there’s no one better to share ideas on how to get the most out of FME than our very own user base. On these two pages, three users from around the globe reveal their FME tips and tricks. We hope these insights will help you get even more out of your experience with FME.

As a Geospatial Application Support Analyst for the City of Toronto, Canada, Shelton Udayakumara wanted to provide ArcPad®

mobile GIS application users with quick access to the City’s large spatial datasets by splitting them into a series of 1 km2

tiles. In this tip, he shares how this can be achieved using FME’s powerful feature type fanout capability alongside the Clipper and Concatenator transformers.

The feature type fanout capability allows FME Workbench users to simply and effi ciently divide data based on a feature’s attribute value.

In Shelton’s workspace, the original dataset is fi rst clipped into 1 km2 tiles using the Clipper transformer along with another dataset which contains a polygon grid. Each clipped feature is assigned a new attribute value based on polygon grid IDs to indicate

FME User Tip: Save Time with “Group By”

To quickly create building polygons, Ted exposed the

format attribute for color and used FME’s Dissolver

transformer and Group By option to merge all blue

polygons. He also used FME to reproject the data to

Albers Equal Area NAD 83.

Top left Square-1 ortho image layer; Top right Square-2

vegetation layer; Bottom left Square-3 utilities layer;

Bottom right Square-4 roads layer on top of the ortho

image layer.Shelton’s simple data fanout workspace quickly creates a

series of 1 km2 tiles.

which grid square it belongs to, forming the basis for the feature type fanout. He then uses the Concatenator transformer to create the new attribute for the features. The result is a dataset with a custom attribute fi eld that, when used in a feature type fanout, produces a 1 km2 extent custom dataset for each data layer as illustrated in an ArcPad Map below.

FME User Tip: Fanout Your Features for Speedy Data Views

In this article, Ted Norcott, a long-time FME user and GIS Specialist at Terasen Gas Utility in Vancouver, BC, CANADA shares with us a tip that he’s recently found handy when creating building footprints from CAD data.

Often when paper plans are digitized, all information is placed on a single data layer in CAD where only colors are used to identify the different features. For GIS Professionals, the task of extracting specifi c data from a single layer can be very time-consuming.

By taking advantage of a handy transformer setting in FME, Ted has discovered a faster solution. When using the Dissolver

transformer, which dissolves area features by removing common boundaries to create larger areas, Ted applies the Group By option to specify that only adjacent polygons where the linework uses the same color should be merged together. This handy option offers FME users a powerful time-saving solution which is especially useful when moving data between CAD and GIS systems.

The Group By option is available in several FME transformers. Try it out in the AreaBuilder, Intersector, NeighborFinder and more. For a list of all the transformers available in FME, download our handy quick reference booklet from www.safe.com/Transformers.

Input source data:

AutoCAD® format

Projection:

UTM NAD 83

Output polygons:

MicroStation® format

Projection:

BCALBERS NAD 83

City workers can then use the custom tool Shelton built using the ArcPad object model to quickly attach the tile datasets into an ArcPad map as background reference datasets for use during fi eld inspections.

As the City’s dataset is updated, Shelton can continue to provide these tile datasets for the City workers’ effi ciency by simply re-running his workspace to update the tile datasets.

Top left Square-1 ortho image layer; Top right Square-2

Shelton’s simple data fanout workspace quickly creates a

Input source data:

AutoCAD

Projection:

To quickly create building polygons, Ted exposed the

MicroStation

Projection:

BCALBERS NAD 83

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www.safe.com

FME User Spotlight: Greg Patterson, Alice Springs, AustraliaBased in Alice Springs, Central Australia, Greg Patterson is a 30 year veteran in

Mapping and Imagery and an expert FME user. In August, we caught up with Greg to learn a little bit more about him and his passion for FME.

What is your role at the Northern Territory Dept. of Planning and Infrastructure?

I’m a Senior Spatial Information Offi cer responsible for producing customized maps, plans and other spatial products for clients. I also provide advice and support in the acquisition, maintenance and presentation of spatial data and digital imagery.

Why do you love FME?FME is very versatile. Although its interface is easy to use, it’s still powerful enough to

handle my large or complex datasets effortlessly. I also like the fl exibility FME gives me in being able to manipulate data in an automated way.

What are your favorite FME features or capabilities?I have many favorite features. For example, I like how the Universal Viewer lets me monitor the progress of a data manipulation so I can ensure the end result is what I expected. FME’s ability to perform QA checks and highlight errors during conversion is also very handy.

What kinds of tasks do you use FME for? FME is an all-star product that I use for a wide range of tasks. I recently completed an Alice Springs street map that required me to automate several data fl ows through FME. I’ve also used FME to convert and merge data between different formats and databases, while performing change detection. Of course, we’ve used FME extensively for data model restructuring tasks like clipping, buffering, and calculations.

What are your hobbies?I’m a volunteer at the Frontier Camel Farm where I feed camels and take visitors on leisure rides. I get my camel passion from my father who is a founding member of the famous 30 year old Camel Cup race in Alice Springs.

FME User Tip: CSV to KML for Visual Verifi cationAs a mapping expert, Greg receives many requests for various maps. In this article, Greg shares with us a trick on how FME can be used as a time-saver in the mapping process. Although Greg’s use of FME in terms of the techniques applied is fairly common, his application of FME is quite unique.

When requesting a map, users send Greg the required coordinates in an Excel® spreadsheet. Before spending valuable time creating the map, Greg’s trick is that he fi rst uses FME to quickly transform the data into KML so the requestor can confi rm that the area of interest highlighted by a transparent bounding box is accurate. Once the user approves that the coordinates are correct, Greg then uses the same workspace to create the fi nal map output and write the data to a shapefile.

To create the KML dataset, Greg imports the coordinates into FME, turns them into a bounding box, and then outputs the data to KML. During the conversion process, six transformers are applied: the 2DPointAdder to turn records into a series of points; the PointConnector to join these points together into a line; the LineCloser and PolygonBuilder to fi nish the line off and turn it into an area feature; the KMLStyler to set the polygon color to transparent; and fi nally, the AttributeCreator to add the name of the area of interest to the polygon.

This unique application of FME ensures that no time is wasted in creating maps based on incorrect coordinates. Map requestors also appreciate receiving the right fi le the fi rst time around.

To learn more, download an example workspace based on Greg’s trick at www.safe.com/Map_Extract_Verifi er.

Save time by fi rst quickly converting requested data into

KML so users can visually confi rm that the area of interest

is accurate.

FME User Spotlight: Greg Patterson, Alice Springs, AustraliaBased in Alice Springs, Central Australia, Greg Patterson is a 30 year veteran in

Mapping and Imagery and an expert FME user. In August, we caught up with

I’m a Senior Spatial Information Offi cer responsible for producing customized maps, plans and other spatial products for clients. I also provide advice and support in the acquisition, maintenance and presentation of spatial data and digital imagery.

Why do you love FME?FME is very versatile. Although its interface is easy to use, it’s still powerful enough to

handle my large or complex datasets effortlessly. I also like the fl exibility FME gives me in being able to manipulate data in an automated way.

Save time by fi rst quickly converting requested data into

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SAFE INSIDER

FME Server: Sharing FME’s Data Validation CapabilitiesValid data is the key to every successful GIS initiative, whether you’re updating a centralized database or preparing your data for contribution to a spatial data infrastructure (SDI) project. Did you know that FME can help you perform quality assurance testing on your data – and even help you share this capability with others?

Earlier this year, Mark Stoakes, Director of Safe’s Professional Services Group, recently posted a tech brief on the Safe blog in which he documented his experiences with two customers’ data validation projects. Since the release of FME Server, FME’s data validation capabilities are even more compelling as now users can share these capabilities with others – even people outside the GIS department. Data creators both inside and outside your organization can now simply connect to an online service that validates their data and then loads it into a production dataset if it passes the test.

So how does it work? This capability is achieved by creating two workspaces in FME Workbench and publishing them to FME Server for use by client applications. The fi rst workspace performs the testing that is

required and then generates an html web page output. When the tested data passes, the web page offers a Load Data button which then invokes the second workspace which loads the data into the destination dataset. When data fails the test, the web page displays the areas of failure and does not display the Load Data button.

To end users, this data validation process is seamless. They simply connect to FME Server, choose the Data Streaming service and select the data validation workspace that applies to their data. Once users upload their data, FME Server tests it and displays the results online. Only when their data passes validation are users able to move ahead with uploading their data to the destination dataset. In cases when the data does not pass, users are provided with a useful results page that displays information detailing the specifi c areas of error so they can correct the problems and resubmit the data at a later time.

Because FME Server is workspace driven, any data validation workspace you create using FME Workbench can be uploaded to FME Server and shared with others. This means that today you can enable others to upload

Deep Dive: FME Server’s ArchitectureHow can FME Server offer so many services to meet the diverse data

distribution challenges you’ve read about? Find out in the new FME Server Architecture whitepaper. Get a high-level overview of

each architectural component, plus an explanation of how these components work together to provide the data

distribution service you’re looking for. The whitepaper also offers some general sample scenarios, including data

download and data streaming, to give you ideas on how you can integrate FME Server into your own environment. The only limit

is your imagination.

Download the FME Server Architecture whitepaper by visiting: www.safe.com/ServerArchitecture.

Get ready to watch the FME lizard rocket around a modern cityscape. Grab the latest Safe screensaver now at www.safe.com/Screensaver.

their data directly to your centralized dataset without worrying about quality or performing ongoing data validation yourself.

To fi nd out more:Read Mark Stoakes’ Data Validation Tech

Brief at www.safe.com/DVtechbriefWatch the FME Server Data Validation

Demo at www.safe.com/DVdemoCheck out the related demo workspaces

at www.safe.com/DVworkspace

New! FME 2008 ScreensaverNew! FME 2008

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www.safe.com

FME Server: Empowering Data Authors to Perform Coordinate System Conversions

On the RoadStop by our booth at one of the upcoming tradeshows to witness FME Server in action. Our experts will also be on hand to answer your questions, so bring your dataset with you!

Tradeshows

GE Smallworld Americas UCHollywood, FL, USA, Sep 28-Oct 2

URISANew Orleans, USA, Oct 7-10

GeoIntNashville, USA, Oct 27-30

ESRI Europe, Middle East & Africa UCLondon, UK, Oct 28-30

GeoAlberta 2008Edmonton, Canada, Nov 17-19

Autodesk UniversityLas Vegas, USA, Dec 2-5

User Group Meetings

FME France User Group MeetingSaint-estève, France, Nov 27-28

FME Germany User Group MeetingMuenster, Germany, Dec 1-2

FME Server Demos Now Available!Enjoyed these articles? Then you’ll love the FME Server demos we’ve posted online. See how Safer Aaron Koning streams a city’s taxi cab locations into Google Earth and sets them to update every second.

The City of Göteborg in Sweden has a problem faced by many cities worldwide: it must share its spatial data with other government agencies and private organizations that use different coordinate systems. Sweden recently introduced a long-term solution to the challenge by creating the national coordinate system, SWEREF 99. But for Lars Fredén, Manager of the City’s GIS department, the question still remained – how would the City’s GIS team most effi ciently reproject their large volumes of spatial data so it could be shared with these other users?

Having used FME to perform data transla-tions and coordinate system reprojections for years, Lars was excited to see Safe’s new FME Server solution demonstrated at a conference this year. Recognizing that FME Server may be a good fi t for the City’s large scale reprojection needs, Lars approached Sweden-based FME Reseller SWECO.

Ulf Månsson, FME Certifi ed Professional at SWECO, confi rmed that using FME Server, the City’s GIS department could pass FME’s data transformation capabilities on to people in various departments who are responsible to create spatial data. This would enable the data authors to precisely reproject their own data over the web as needed without requir-ing geodetic training or help from the GIS department. Using FME Server, the GIS team

wouldn’t need to spend time transforming archival fi les, but instead they could allow working fi les to be transformed on-the-fl y by their authors, as required.

This September, the City of Göteborg’s GIS team will begin developing FME workspaces to reproject the spatial data created and stored by the City’s various departments. They will create unique workspaces for the data types used by each department including MapInfo®, AutoCAD, GPS logs, and others. Each workspace will include Safe Software’s GtransReprojector transformer which makes use of the Gtrans libraries developed by the National Land Survey of Sweden to perform accurate reprojections of features into SWEREF 99. Once the workspaces are ready, they will be published to FME Server and made available to data authors across all departments.

Because FME Server is workspace-driven, the City’s GIS department will be able to achieve effi cient and accurate coordinate system conversions on its spatial data without complicated, time-consuming development. And because these workspaces can be shared with data authors over the web, the GIS team won’t be required to manually handle each transformation, while still maintaining control of the coordinate system conversion process.

According to Lars, this solution couldn’t be better. FME Server is exactly the tool the City needed to effi ciently adopt the national SWEREF 99 coordinate system, thereby enabling the City to successfully share its spatial data.

To learn more about:FME’s coordinate system conversion

capabilities, visit www.safe.com/CoordinateMovie.The City of Göteborg’s project, read

the press release at www.safe.com/PressRelease118.

Sweden’s beautiful City of Göteborg.

Plus, witness other cool and practical FME Server use cases by visiting www.safe.com/FMEServerDemos.

Sweden’s beautiful City of Göteborg.

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SAFE INSIDER

Save the Date: FME Worldwide User Conference 2009“An awesome conference that has met all my expectations – which were quite high to begin with. Good job!” – Mark Giesbrecht, Devon Canada

Join us for the third annual FME Worldwide User Conference at the Westin Resort & Spa in beautiful Whistler, Canada on June 11-12, 2009. Designed to enhance your FME expertise and give you the opportunity to network with other FME users, the conference will feature more hands-on workshops and the return of the popular FME Doctors. Users will also have a chance to attend an FME training course prior to the conference.

Whistler is the world-class destination that will be home to the upcoming 2010 Winter Olympic Games. To secure this location at an affordable rate, our events coordinator worked her magic and is pleased to report that pricing for 2009 will be very close to prior years.

January will mark the opening of registration and a call for presentations. For more details, visit www.FMEUC.com and be sure to check back for updates.

Presentation Highlight:

Heinz Grottenegg of axmann

geoinformation gmbh hugs

an FME banner at the

FME Regional User Conference

in Austria.

Custom Data Access and TransformationAlthough it is well known for its extensive format support, FME’s deep power is often realized when users start to tap into its customization capabilities. At the Austrian User Group in May, FME experts Christian Sevcik and Wolfgang Henebichler shared how they recently used FME’s Plug-In SDK and Custom Transformer feature to help the City of Vienna meet key data conversion and manipulation requirements for a 3D urban modelling project.

CityGRID, a modular software system that includes a 3D format, enables organizations to effi ciently create, administer and use database-driven 3D urban models that facilitate analysis for city planners, emergency responders, cultural heritage protection experts and many others. For example, noise protection experts can use the City model as a way to increase urban living quality while police and fi re staff can use it for training and scenario simulation.

As FME does not include out-of-the-box support for CityGRID, Christian and Wolfgang decided to use FME’s Plug-in SDK to develop a custom CityGRID Reader/Writer. The Reader/Writer is designed to help the City easily convert building structure lines while preserving the existing hierarchical organization of the CityGRID XML data format. Now City users can import raw data (points, lines and areas) collected through photogrammetry, surveying or laserscanning into CityGRID, as well as export modelled data back to FME with all the contained hierarchical structure and attributes. To support the CityGRID Reader/Writer, two new custom transformers were added: a 3D snapping transformer and a unit fi nder (CGUnitFinder) transformer. The 3D snapping transformer allows users to clean up topological errors with FME, while the unit fi nder transformer enables users to search for closed building boundaries for unit defi nition.

In terms of what’s next for these pioneers of CityGRID data access, Christian and Wolfgang are already working on a new version of the Reader/Writer that provides users with direct access to the CityGRID database. They also have plans to expand the data manipulation capabilities available in their two custom transformers.

For a copy of Christian and Wolfgang’s presentation, please visit www.safe.com/CityGRID. For custom transformer examples, visit www.safe.com/CustomTransformerExamples. Or, to learn more about FME’s Plug-in SDK, go to: www.safe.com/FMEplug-in.

FME on the Road: Regional User GroupsFME Regional User Groups provide an excellent networking forum for FME users and partners around the globe. With support and participation from Safe Software employees, these events also offer an opportunity for users to get the latest development news on FME.

Since the FME Worldwide User Conference in March, users in Canada and Europe have had the chance to interact at their local user group meetings. In May, Canadian reseller Consortech hosted meetings in Montreal, Quebec City and Ottawa where over 80 people attended. Austrian partner, axmann geoinformation gmbh, also hosted an FME User Group meeting in May with over 50 participants in attendance, representing users from a wide variety of industries. In June, FME made its mark in the UK. Thanks to host, Dotted Eyes, more than 40 attendees gathered in London for a successful FME event.

Interested in participating in a local FME user group? Plans are underway for regional events in Lyon, France on November 17th and Munster, Germany on December 1st and 2nd. Next year, Safe Software hopes to host more regional user groups around the globe to facilitate broader best practices sharing among local FME users. Send us your ideas and wish list. Email us at: marketing@safe.com.

FME on the Road: FME Regional User Groups provide an excellent networking forum for FME users and partners around the globe. With support and participation from Safe Software employees, these events also offer an opportunity for users to get the latest development news on FME.

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www.safe.com

Introducing FME User Central: Your One Stop Shop for All FME Resources

FME User Central (www.FMEUserCentral.com): Your central access-point to all FME technical resources

Training UpdateWant to improve your skills with FME? It’s never been easier to do so, with 18 FME training courses occurring in 12 cities worldwide before the end of the year including:

Sep 24 & 25 – Chicago, USA

Oct 21 to 23 – Melbourne, AUS

Oct 22 & 23 – Calgary, CAN

Nov 5 & 6 – Amersfoort, NED

Nov 11 & 12 – Bromsgrove, UK

Nov 19 & 20 – Washington, USA

Dec 9 to 11 – Surrey, CAN

To view full course listings and register, visit www.safe.com/Training.

Professional Services UpdateFME Server Training Course Now AvailableThe curriculum for our FME Server training course is ready and we’ve opened registration for the fi rst course at our headquarters in Surrey, Canada on September 17-18. Join us to learn everything from installation to maintenance and authorization of workspaces. Sign up at www.safe.com/Training.

fmepedia.com Expanded to Include More on FME Server Throughout the summer, our team has been adding information on security, integration, customization, troubleshooting and more to the FME Server category on fmepedia.com. Browse the new content and while you are there, check out one of our exciting live FME Server demos. Visit fmepedia today at www.fmepedia.com.

Transformer Quick Reference Booklet Updated for 2008This handy booklet has been updated for 2008 and now includes even more examples. For the fi rst time, it’s not only available online (www.safe.com/Transformers), but also in print format. Preview a copy by visiting us at an upcoming tradeshow or get your hands on one by attending an FME training course.

Support/Training transformers. Be sure to check out the Columbus Link (a visualizer) which changes regularly to show you an uncharted example or tip you may fi nd

useful. And don’t forget to review the Latest News and Bulletins (a log fi le) at the bottom of the page to keep up-to-date on the latest happenings!

This summer, Safe Software introduced www.FMEUserCentral.com to give you a single location where you can fi nd everything you need to know about FME. After all, over the last few years FME technical resources have grown signifi cantly to include:

fmepedia: the online encyclopedia that contains useful examples and tips from Safers and users like you;

FME Talk: the interactive forum that enables users to discuss FME functionality, ask questions, and share FME knowledge;

FME Guru: the YouTube™ channel that features the latest FME movies, tutorials, and the occasional fun video;

FME Evangelist: the new blog that delivers insider news on the latest developments in FME functionality, as well as cutting edge examples. Subscribe via RSS feed or email today!

Inspired by the look of an FME workspace, FME User Central’s visual navigation also includes links to FME Downloads including the FME 2009 beta and FME

FME User Central (www.FMEUserCentral.com): Your central access-point to all FME technical resources

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SAFE INSIDER

FME is a registered trademark of Safe Software Inc. All other product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. Printed in Canada.

Web: www.safe.comE-mail: info@safe.com

Suite 2017, 7445 - 132nd StreetSurrey, BC Canada

Tel: 604.501.9985Fax: 604.501.9965

Suggestion BoxWhat do you want to read about in the next Safe Insider? Whether you’re interested in learning more about next year’s user conference or want to hear more user tips and tricks, we want to hear from you. Share your ideas with us by sending an email to newsletter@safe.com.

Dr. Kevin Wiebe: Chief ScientistJoined Safe Software in September 1996

About Safe SoftwareSafe Software powers the fl ow of spatial data with its software platform, FME. The recognized standard in spatial ETL (extract, transform and load), FME is the only complete solution for data conversion. It delivers the most extensive format support for data translation and integration, and provides unlimited fl exibility in data model transformation and data distribution.

FME is used by thousands of customers worldwide in a variety of industries including government, utilities, and petroleum. Its powerful data access technology also makes FME the choice of leading GIS, CAD, and database vendors for integration into their own solutions. Designed for true data interoperability, FME unleashes spatial data so people can use it where, when, and how they want to. For more information, visitwww.safe.com.

What is your primary role at Safe?I am sometimes seen as “the keeper of ancient wisdom”; as one of our fi rst four staff members I’ve seen our code evolve from almost the very beginning. Much of my time is

now spent directing new developers on how to best extend our current technology. I lead our 3D initiative and am also the core architect for the geometry model, algorithms and data structures of FME.

Safe in the NewsSafe Software is making headlines around the world. Check out the latest coverage including Safe’s recent partnership with WeoGeo to bring spatial ETL to the cloud at www.safe.com/PressRoom.

What did you do before joining Safe?Prior to joining Safe, I taught at the University of Alberta. I’ve also spent time working as a software developer for IBM®, and in Sony’s®

Software Research and Development Lab in Tokyo. Yes, I learned to speak Japanese.

What is your education background?I have a PhD from the University of Alberta in Computing

Science, in the area of Artifi cial Intelligence.

What is something about you that might surprise people?

People are often surprised to hear that I’ve never owned a cell phone. I also ride a homemade electric bicycle to work.

What do you do in your free time?Aside from spending time with my wife and three

kids, I help coach a local children’s football team. Go Longhorns!

Enter to Win a Nintendo Wii Help us get to know you better! Take our ten question survey for a chance to win one of two exciting prizes. Contest closes October 15.

1st Prize – Nintendo Wii™ Console 2nd Prize – Plantronics Bluetooth® Headset

with its software platform, FME. The recognized

load), FME is the only complete solution for data conversion. It delivers the most extensive format

What did you do before joining Safe?Prior to joining Safe, I taught at the University of Alberta. I’ve also spent time working as a software developer for IBMSoftware Research and Development Lab in Tokyo. Yes, I learned to

speak Japanese.

What is your education background?I have a PhD from the University of Alberta in Computing

Science, in the area of Artifi cial Intelligence.

What is something about you that might surprise people?

What do you do in your free time?Aside from spending time with my wife and three

kids, I help coach a local children’s football team. Go Longhorns!

Visit www.safe.com/InsiderSurvey for your chance to win. No purchase necessary; complete details and rules online.

Safe in the NewsSafe in the News

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