OTN TechBlog

So today we published the traditional Oracle Java Developer's Guide to JavaOne 2007, where you can get an overview of Oracle-led technical sessions and BOFs, the content of this year's free software DVDs (there are two of them), info about how to get a free pass to a special showing of Spider-Man 3 at The Metreon (awesome, state-of-the-art cinema right next to Moscone), etc.

I'd like to say that you should keep your eyeballs on some specific conference themes, but I think we all realize that at a conference this big, deriving "meaning" is an artificial exercise.

That being said, you will be exposed to some very interesting developments re: Oracle's involvement in Spring and Eclipse (Oracle Fusion Middleware is becoming better integrated with OSS all the time), and Oracle's acquisition of Tangosol is sure to put the issue of Java application performance/scalability on the front burner this year. Technologies such as the latter's Coherence distributed cache have become very popular because of this well-known pain-point.

What are you looking for at JavaOne this year? Sound off....

Thanks to the power of server-side scripting, we are now powering the OTN Java Developer Center and SOA Technology Center (and others soon to follow) with del.icio.us. Any content we tag "java" and "soa" is now automagically syndicating to those respective OTN pages, where you can also choose to consume the same RSS. And unlike an Ajax implementation, this published content is readable by search engines.

This opens up new vistas for content management on OTN; when fully deployed we will tag the same content for link publication at multiple Developer/Tech Centers simultaneously  instead of manually creating the same html over and over on multiple pages.

For those in the know, this approach is a simulation of the Stellent architecture, in which all objects are placed in a single repository and then dynamically published out to various Websites/pages based on the metadata attached to them. Pretty cool.

Now I've seen everything: order your terabyte-sized PC hard drive now.

Have recently returned from IOUG Collaborate in Las Vegas, which was one of the more energized instances of that conference I've experienced recently. Just a few comments/observations:

- Oracle's "Flashback" technology, into which Oracle has made major additional investments for version 11.x, is a significant and under-appreciated differentiator.

- In Olivier Ricordel's session about Oracle WebCenter, I saw a lot of nodding heads. This is extremely interesting technology that brings publishing and Web 2.0-related functionality directly into enterprise Web applications. (For more, hear my recent podcast with Development VP Vince Casarez.)

- Forms developers, don't be so scared of Java. There is more than enough abstraction in the stack now to likely make your transition relatively painless.

- In the single most refreshing session I attended, Brian Zeranski of the Paralyzed Veterans of America explained how his organization is enthusiastically using Oracle Application Server 10g SE for 300 end-users and with fewer than 5 IT staffers on hand. Brian's low-key, just-the-facts-ma'am style was really a nice counterpoint to all the glitz.

- Vegas is just too high-end now.

Also, I want to make sure you have a chance to review a brief Collaborate blogroll:

- ORCLville (Floyd Teter of JPL)
- Eric Marcoux (OFM Regional Director, of Fujitsu Consulting)
- Dimitri Gielis (Oracle APEX developer)

I've seen several posts lately about Discussion Forums etiquette, and for those of you similarly interested in such matters - or if you simply want to have a good laugh - I suggest that you read this thread.

A great example of the OTN community at work, in all its richness (and humor). Now you know how NOT to ask a question!

A fairly good sized-crew of my colleagues attended the Web 2.0 Conference in SF last week and returned to the office with a treasure trove of information. (Unfortunately, I was locked in the Mandalay Bay Conf Center in Vegas for IOUG Collaborate at the time.) We have some very interesting new ideas to look into this summer.

What I find personally discouraging, however, is the complete lack of Oracle mindshare in this area. Even SAP was mentioned several times at the Web 2.0 conference for its endorsement of social media - which surprises me greatly, because I find SDN to be a rather pale imitation of OTN (but hey, I'm biased). (Some inside baseball on this point: I happen to know through personal experience that some of the top leadership at SDN didn't even know what RSS is as recently as a year ago.)

In particular, Oracle gets zero credit in this community for its rather aggressive support of blogging (by employees and nonemployees), despite the fact that a rather large blogging community exists and has for some time. There appears to be the perception out there that either this community does not exist, or that if it does exist, it must be "centrally controlled" by some evil PR mastermind - and neither assertion is even remotely accurate. (Caveat: Yes, executive blogs do get scrutiny from PR, as executives have special fiduciary responsibilities.)

OTN has also been on the sharpest of cutting edges in terms of podcasting, integration with del.icio.us, and Semantic Web. Again, this fact goes completely unrecognized by the Web 2.0/social media cognescenti.

Please forgive the rant, but you can probably imagine my frustration. Obviously, we're doing a poor job of marketing in this area - or perhaps the Oracle brand is simply not "wired" this way. Or maybe I shouldn't even care!

Look, ma, no hands! I think I attracted some attention:

Scoble: Oracle can�t get blogging respect

Agreed, the lack of a formal blogger relations program is not helpful. But we're working on it. Hopefully Robert will get that invitation soon.

Java luminary Dave Chappell has joined Oracle, as development VP for SOA/ESB. I'm hoping that we can get Dave blogging right away!

Learned last week that there will be an OTN demo pod at the JavaOne next week (Booth #926); I'll be there for a portion of pretty much every day of the conference. Stop by and say hello if you get a chance!

Remember that if you're among the first 500 people to complete a simple survey, you'll get a free pass for a showing of Spider-Man 3 at The Metreon on Wednesday night. I'll be manning the popcorn machine there too.