Click here to send David Linthicum a question -- he'll respond in this space.

Beth Gold-Bernstein: Today I'm speaking with David Linthicum, who will be delivering the key note address at The Open Group's upcoming Enterprise Architecture Practitioner's conference, which will be held Monday, July 23 through 25 at The Four Seasons in Austin, Texas. Dave is a globally recognized expert on service-oriented architecture and a CEO of the Linthicum Group. Welcome, Dave! Thanks for being with us today.

David Linthicum: Oh, thank you, Beth. Appreciate you having me.

BGB: Now, Dave -- this is the fifteenth Enterprise Architecture Practitioner's conference presented by The Open Group. First of all, can you tell us a bit about what this conference is going to contain?

DL: The key word is "practitioner." I love that word! I call myself a SOA practitioner. I have it on my business cards and I have it on my site. I think that all my training is around practitioning or the ability to become a practitioner of architecture. Enterprise architecture. Service-oriented architecture. Everything else. It's not enough just to talk about concepts. It's figuring out how to implement this stuff in the real world. So this conference really provides valuable insight into the best practice, standards, tools, technologies for enterprise architecture. And really serves as a venue for architects to get together and exchange information about the best way to do architecture. We're also going to provide the ability to meet members of The Open Group. We're addressing other critical areas of the information technology arena and I'm really looking forward to a show in Austin. Austin is one of my most favorite cities in the world. And this is going to focus on the critical criteria --criteria of SOA implementation and development. And also address, you know, key tools, trends, how you do it, practices, people who are leading the charge in the service-oriented architecture arena, including enterprise architecture development concepts, management concepts, architecture, governance, professional certifications, semantic interoperability and how, not just what those concepts are -- but a step-by-step approach in creating that kind of understanding within your enterprise.

And then finally, you know, unlike other industry events in the world of enterprise architecture, you know, relating just to technology and trends, The Open Group's series of events is about attendees who actually do it. Not people who talk about it. Not people who write it. People who go out there and make things happen within their respective enterprise. And, so that, CIO, CTO, senior level IT personnel within the organizations as well as consultants and industry experts. So, in essence, it's the NFL of enterprise architecture. And the key players are going to be there.

BGB: And how many attendees are you expecting?

DL: There's going to be about five hundred attendees at the conference.

BGB: Excellent! Now you're keynoting the event. What are the key topics or themes that will be covered in your address?

DL: How to do it. I mean, that's the basic theme of it. I'm not going to mention aligning things with IT, I'm not going to mention re-use a thousand times, I'm not going to mention strategic advantage. And the notion of governance. We're going to through the step-by-step way to understand what you're doing. Understand your requirements. Semantic understanding, a service-level understanding, a process-level understanding of your domain. How to create key artifacts. To drive towards a service-oriented architecture. How to mash your service-oriented architecture back in to your existing enterprise architecture practices. You know, such as The Open Group's TOGAF framework.

And, basically, a step-by-step approach to success. I think that's what people are yearning for. And I'm really looking forward to providing the presentation, and give them the information that they need.

BGB: Excellent! And what you do hope attendees will take away from your address, and from the conference in general?

DL: Lots of information, number one. In other words, how to do it. What are the steps? Tell me how to get a semantic understanding of my domain. What does that mean? What are the key tools and technologies to make that happen? What do I need to understand to make that happen? So the latest developments and innovations in the field, the ability to network with other people who are doing it, and share successes and share failures. What's working, what's not. That's a key part of the conference. It's not enough just to get information. You can get content off the Internet. It's about having this interaction with other people who are doing it in your field and understanding exactly what pain points they're solving and how they are going about solving it.

So -- service-oriented architecture, for instance, has been embraced by lots of adopters out there. And, you know, continues to be heavily promoted by vendors and IT consultants. But, there's still a tremendous amount of people that need to learn more about adopting this architectural approach and how to do it within the organization. So that's going to be a key focus of the conference. It's going to be the foundation of enterprise architecture. You know, and certainly Open Group leads the way in terms of how people do enterprise architecture today. I see them everywhere and their standards everywhere. But how that links back into new or emerging concepts of SOA. And how to make SOA work for you.

Also, you know, I hope people will walk away with the feeling being energized around the latest innovations and happenings within the area. You know, how to basically guide these people to be professional architects and a greater understanding of how their architecture can be leveraged with the notion of service-oriented architecture and a migration path for getting there. And also, looking those -- you know, those who are looking for practical tips and best practices about enterprise architecture and SOA. You know, this is the event to attend. This is the one where the practitioners get together and figure out how to do their craft better.

BGB: Excellent! Well, thank you very much, Dave. I plan to be there. And I hope many of our listeners will as well. And, if you plan to go, be sure to catch up with us and say "hi" while you're there. This is Beth Gold-Bernstein of ebizQ signing off. Thanks for listening and have a great day.