OTN TechBlog

You can always gauge the traction of a particular developer technology based on the braggadocio of its practitioners. At OTN, one of our jobs is to ride the wave of that braggadocio, which after all is simply the most obvious byproduct of passion.

The newest example is the just-announced Oracle Application Express Developer Competition 2009, in which the Oracle APEX and OTN teams seek to find the best examples of "sick" Oracle Application Express skills in the land. As contest mastermind David Peake explains, although free Full Conference Passes for Oracle OpenWorld 2009, as well as free copies of Pro Oracle Application Express, are at stake, bragging rights will likely be the most effective motivator.

I'm proud to reveal that I am one of the judges, so you'd better be nice.

Everything you could possibly want to know about criteria, guidelines, entry rules, prizes, and so on can be found here. The deadline, Aug. 24, draws near, so get to work!

And now, a brief photo show from ODTUG Kaleidoscope; add comments with links to your own:

Oracle ACE Director Briefing @ Oracle HQ: The waiting is the hardest part

The delightful Oracle ACE Director Lucas Jellema

L to R: ACE Director (and Java Champion) Harshad Oak, OTN's own Todd Trichler (ODTUG's "Oracle Contributor of the Year"), great mates & ACE Directors Richard Foote and Marcel Kratochvil

Oracle ACE Director Ron Batra

The ACE Wranglers: OTN's Vikki Lira and Lillian Buziak

Class photo

No more to be said

I caught up with Oracle ACE Director Chris Bucchere - the "only Plumtree guy" in the ACE pantheon, as he likes to call himself - shortly after his ODTUG afternoon tech session on getting started with Oracle WebLogic Server. Chris' enthusiasm for what he heard in the ACE Director briefing about Oracle Fusion Middleware 11g is infectious, and I wanted to capture it on video:

Chris' outfit, bdg, has also done some exciting development work for Oracle Mix in the context of Oracle OpenWorld, which I cannot divulge at the moment. I'll get back to him on that.

Update (June 26): You may be interested in viewing Chris' "Top 10 WebLogic Tips for Java Developers" as well:

Would you bump into Steven Feuerstein while he's in the middle of a jog?

Would you see people actually *wearing* their Oracle ACE Director red vests (aka "Stanleys"), not just abusing them?

Are people happy to sit through eight straight hours of technical sessions from Tom Kyte, should there be somewhere to stand in the room?

Nowhere else, my friends, except ODTUG Kaleidoscope, where I happen to be this week (in Monterey, Calif.)

The conference began memorably last evening, with a keynote from Oracle Fusion Apps development VP Steve Miranda that included a live demo of Fusion HR and CRM apps. (For my notes, see the #odtug hashtag in my Twitterstream.) Although the keynote could have been better tuned for the audience - Fusion apps are of course the "nirvana" case study for ADF developers - seeing the UI in action was indeed something to behold.

Today, I'm looking forward to sessions from Tom Kyte, David Peake, newly minted Oracle ACE Director Chris Bucchere, and Shay Shmeltzer.

And if you don't believe the Stanley bit, see the video below, courtesy of Eddie Awad:

The Oracle OpenWorld 2009 Vote-a-Session app is out there, and it's pretty damn slick.

Thanks to our Oracle Mix pals, you can now vote on a plethora of session ideas harvested from the general "Call for Papers" pool, which was tied off a month or so ago. (You can view by Track or Stream and sort in various ways.) Obviously, these are ideas that did not make the initial "Call" cut, but that the community now has an opportunity to get into the agenda through the back door, as it were.

There's a FAQ that explains the mundane details, but in a nutshell: new sessions will be added to the agenda based on the popular demand reflected through this app.

If your organization has built Oracle Fusion Middleware-based apps that you think would serve as showcases for making the best of either business intelligence/enterprise performance management or Application Grid architecture, now is your time to prove it: by self-nominating for an Oracle Excellence Award.

It's important for me to note that the Award program is not just an Oracle thing; OAUG, QUEST, ODTUG, IOUG, AUSOUG and UKOUG are co-sponsors.

People who submit applications in either category by 5pm PT on Aug. 14 will be eligible to receive a free Oracle OpenWorld Full Conference Pass, among many other goodies, should they be considered worthy by the Award Committee.

You can read a full list of Award criteria as well as sample use cases at these URLs:

BI/EPM: oracle.com/goto/2009biepmaward
App Grid: oracle.com/goto/appgrid-excellenceaward

Best of luck!

With the announcement of a formal date and place for the Oracle Fusion Middleware 11g launch (July 1 in Washington, D.C.; register here), can the downloadable bits be too far behind? Not likely.

Charles Phillips and Thomas Kurian will be leading the festivities with morning keynotes, followed by afternoon breakout sessions on the 11g releases of Oracle WebCenter, Oracle WebLogic, Oracle Identity Management, and Oracle SOA Suite.

This release is a crucial one for a number of reasons. If you're a current or prospective middleware customer in the D.C. area, you should plan on this.

Needless to say, I will report the availability of developer software on OTN the moment it's out there.

Update (June 12): Launch events have now been planned for Europe, Asia, and Latin America across the month of July; you can get more info and register for all events here.

For those of you who missed the JavaOne opening session this morning, which included a joint appearance by Larry Ellison and Scott McNealy, I bring some choice quotes from Ellison which speak for themselves:

"(Oracle) has invested more than anybody else in Java technology in terms of dollars over the years, and we intend to invest -- and accelerate our investments -- going forward."

"Our whole next generation of business applications, something we call our Fusion Suite of applications, is built entirely on Java. This will be the first-ever set of ERP and CRM applications built on a standard platform...We were able to do that because Java is open and extensible."

"I don't expect a lot of changes, just expanded investment and a lot of enthusiasm coming from Oracle."

"Look at the past to see the future. "

I should also remark that Ellison spoke very highly of JavaFX, mentioning it several times.

Oracle ACE Director Lucas Jellema has posted a succinct summary of this appearance as well.

Update: I have included the relevant video snippet below.

So OTN Virtual Developer Day has winded down, and it's time to put your AMI instances to bed (unless you want to rack up some charges, of course).

This post is simply a thank-you to those who participated, and especially to those who offered their feedback to the Twitterverse, like @WarPsycho:

Rest assured that we will do more of these in the future. Please complete the imminent survey so we can be sure to make improvements.

OTN Virtual Developer Day: Rich Enterprise Applications (~1100 registrations) is nearly upon us (starts at 8am PT on May 27), so I just want to let you know that I will be live-tweeting the keynote Webcast by Ted Farrell and Steve Harris under the Twitter event tag #OTNVDD.

The keynote will of course be available on demand shortly thereafter, and we will make the URL available at that time (and I will embed it in this blog if possible as well).

Also, a small but important note: The Amazon Machine Image (AMI) used for the hands-on labs will continue to be available after the event has expired, so you will have access to it for the foreseeable future with the usual AWS charges applied.

Update (May 27, 10am PT) - Keynote has concluded and will be available on demand from the same place where you can access sessions and hands-on labs: otn.oracle.com/events/virtualdeveloperday.

Update 2 (May 27, 4:51pm PT) - Keynote replay, as well as HOL manuals, now available at the URL above. Downloadable session content, next.