OTN TechBlog

We were very happy to receive a report from our OTN colleagues in Asia this morning about the packed crowd in the OTN Lounge at Oracle OpenWorld Shanghai this week.

In particular, it was great to hear that Oracle ACEs and Oracle ACE Directors like Rich Ho, Roger Wan, Eygle Gai, Feng Chunpei, Feng Dahui and Lou Fangxin are having such an impact on the community. There really is no substitute for sharing real-world "war stories" when helping people understand how specific technology is best applied.

Another LinuxWorld nearly in the books. Odd, IBM and Red Hat were not
there (for second year in a row I think, in Red Hat's case at least).
IMO this show, perhaps more dramatically than any other, LW has left
its geeky, grass-roots origins for a much more corporate position (sort
of like Linux itself, actually).

The highlight was
the presence of several of Oracle's Linux kernel hackers/engineers at
the "Oracle on Linux Experience" on Wednesday afternoon (a glorified
installfest really) - Mark Fasheh (OCFS2
maintainer), Joel Becker (ASMLib),
Sergio Leunissen (Unbreakable
Linux Network, and one of Oracle Apex's original developers),
and Van Okamura (Oracle
Validated Configurations). This was a great treat for
attendees, and we got most of it on video. (Don't worry, we'll share
that when available!)

Sergio at the Oracle booth

Installfest: Mr. T

Installfest: Cluster raw ingredients, waiting for the chef

Installfest: OTN's own Todd Trichler takes attendees through the steps.

Installfest: Mark Fasheh's OCFS2 quick tour.

I love this - the new template for official Oracle product documentation includes a comments area:

I want to applaud the Docs team for this change - which certainly does not rise to the level of a wiki in terms of community participation (and really, don't you want official doc to come from a trusted source anyway?) - but that symbolizes nonetheless how great strides have been made in that department. Nice work!

Oracle Database 11g for Linux is out there now under the OTN Developer License (our motto, with props to Niall Litchfield: "Free to download, free to learn, unlimited
evaluation"). As usual, Windows and other releases are to follow. (Some reporters' fixation with the initial Linux-only release is mysterious, because releasing on Linux first - Oracle itself runs on Linux - is SOP.)

Along with it, you can dive into the first three installments (Database Replay, Partitioning, Schema Management) of Oracle ACE Director Arup Nanda's "Top Features for DBAs and Developers" how-to series, with many more to follow. We intend to complement this content with screencasts as well.

I also had the honor last week of speaking with Dr. DBA himself, Ken Jacobs, about the highlights of this releases and its "place" in the pantheon of Oracle RDBMS. Download the mp3 here.

Once again, the AppsLab team proves its stunning ability to be nimble, disruptive, and influential all at once: the kudos about the internal social networking app they developed in 24 hours are flying around the net with abandon. Who knew that all Oracle needed for Web 2.0 cred was to deploy a really cool Rolodex? ;)

This comment says more about the Web 2.0 community's habit of making mountains out of molehills -- "Look, Ma! I own an empty building in Second Life!" -- than about the app itself, which is really, really slick. Have a look:

Man, don't you just hate clearing out the mental cobwebs after vacation, not to mention your email inbox?

I still have plenty of both yet to do, but I want to bring a couple quick items to your attention. First of all, last week we published my podcast interview with Paul Pedrazzi of Oracle AppsLab, who had some interesting things to say about Oracle's new investments in the "community" area and their impact on product development.

Second, nominations are now open for the first Oracle Innovation Award, designed for customers who have use Oracle Fusion Middleware to extend Oracle Apps (all lines) in innovative and interesting ways. If you can cut the mustard here, get that nomination form going.

Update: Registration for Denver (Oct. 11) and Atlanta (Oct. 18) now open; LA (December) coming soon!
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I'm happy to bring you the news that Oracle Technology Network will be offering free developer workshops ("OTN Developer Day") around the world in 2007-2008, with the first set to occur in the U.S. (Redwood Shores, Denver, and Atlanta) in October. (You may remember these workshops in their previous incarnation as "Oracle Developer Day".) Because frankly, all the social networking/interaction/community building in the world is no substitute for hands-on content and experience.

This is a great opportunity -- whether you are a current customer or noncustomer -- to "bone up" your Java and SOA skillset in an informal, interactive setting staffed by technical experts. (It is also likely that you will see workshops focusing on database app development, and possibly Java development with Spring, later in the year.) It also doesn't hurt that you'll get free (for development purposes) software and a chance to win other goodies.

If you're in the Bay Area, be sure to register for the Oct. 1 Redwood Shores workshop (theme: "Hands-on SOA"); I'd love to meet you personally and get your feedback about this format. Reg for the Denver (Oct. 11) and Atlanta (Oct. 18) workshops (theme: "Using Fusion Development Tools") is also available now.

Of course, you can view OTN's full Developer Event Calendar at otn.oracle.com/events at any time. Currently this is based on Google Cal, but eventually will be replaced by a link to the "Developer" facet in the Semantic Web-driven Oracle Events system.

Facebook-ers, Oracle ACE Eddie Awad has built a new RSS app for bringing OTN headlines into your profile:

apps.facebook.com/otnnewsfeed/

That's community at work.

Oracle OpenWorld attendees, you may not know this, but the wonders of the concurrently-running Oracle Develop Conference (Nov 12-13) can be had for just another 100 bucks. (Non-OpenWorld attendees can also participate, at a cost of $550 until Sept 14.) OpenWorld exhibition/keynote access is included as well.

Comprising technical session deep-dives and hands-on labs, Oracle Develop Conference is designed for hardcore developers in the Java/SOA, PHP/scripting languages, .NET, and database apps area; it dispenses with the fluff one can often find in the OpenWorld agenda (if you look hard enough for it :) ) - see the content preview here. This is the second annual incarnation at OpenWorld, and Develops ran in Asia and Europe in the last few months as well.

As you've maybe gathered, OTN is focusing much more intensely on "meatspace" this year. We all love virtual experiences, but I'll take First Life over Second Life any day.