OTN TechBlog

Imagine my surprise this AM upon receiving a message from our Legal department, informing me that a box of 100 "possibly counterfeit" OTN T-shirts have been intercepted by Customs in Lithuania. They even sent me a nice pic:

My first thought: "Wow, the ultimate compliment!"

My second (correct) thought: "OMG, Lithuanian Customs has intercepted the T-shirts intended for our Oracle-on-Linux Installfests in the Baltics next week!" Talk about an international incident...

Thanks guys, but the T-shirts are genuine. In fact, if you are reading this blog in Vilnius, Riga, or Parnu, on Sept 11-14 you have the opportunity to
learn how to migrate to Oracle Database 11g on Linux with Oracle's top migration guru, Barry McGillin, via OTN and the local Oracle teams. You'll also learn how:

� To install and configure Oracle Database 11g on Enterprise Linux

� Oracle Apex helps you consolidate rogue desktop environments

� Oracle SQL Developer makes it easy to migrate non-Oracle databases

All attendees will receive free Oracle Developer and Enterprise Linux
software - everything you need to build a complete Oracle on Linux
stack. And you'll also get a T-shirt, if they arrive!

Check the Developer Events Calendar for venues etc.

The wheels of progress often grind slowly, but they do indeed grind: I'm thrilled to announce that for the first time ever, Oracle will be hosting a Lunch 2.0 at its Conference Center on Oct. 22 (RSVP).

In the past, Oracle has been taken to the woodshed by Jeremiah Owyang and others for its "closed" mentality. The criticism has been a bit off-target IMO, the main reason being that many of its most obvious efforts are ignored because of the content involved. (The community "content" associated with Oracle tends to be practical and technical, not of a general Web 2.0-esque nature. Most Oracle bloggers are not interested in writing about the virtues of Facebook, but that doesn't mean they're not communicating openly.) I do agree however that the Oracle "corporate entity" could be much more participatory in the wider community, and along with this event, you should see more evidence of progress along that front as time goes on.

So join us for lunch - relax, imbibe, take a post-meal walk around the lake. I look forward to meeting everyone!

Rich Manalang has alerted me about the new "people-powered" Satisfaction service, which I would best characterize as a warm and fuzzy discussion forum (with some other bells and whistles).

In general, discussion forums can be intimidating places for newbies; "RTFA" and "RTFD" are the dominant codes of behavior. Discussion forums are also not the best place to ask questions of an innocently naive nature.

We've discussed this idea a bit at Oracle and even threw some Askville-like concepts around. Satisfaction, I think, could be an interesting POC for this idea.

Have innocently naive questions about Oracle? Ask some members of the community at getsatisfaction/oracle. (Disclaimer: this site is not endorsed by Oracle, and any employees participating are expressing their own personal views. In summary, it's not for "support"!)

OK, so let's be honest: this is the last thing you'd expect from Oracle. Nevertheless, it's true; an unconference will be running in parallel to the official show agenda. (See the official OTN page for Oracle OpenWorld; and RSVP at upcoming!)

If this term is unfamiliar to you, an unconference is simply a crowd-driven event, in which the attendees create their own session agenda. This concept turns the old editorial model, in which a panel of "experts" determines what the audience's interests will be, on its head (where it is now spending most of its time).

What a perfect complement to Oracle OpenWorld! In addition to drinking the official conference Kool-Aid (which is why you pay a registration fee, isn't it?), you can also create and imbibe your own OpenWorld content cocktail. Quite a tasty combination!

The unconference will run on Monday Nov 12 through Wednesday Nov 14 from 2-6 pm, and on Thursday Nov 15 from 2-5 pm. If you wish to present on a topic that interests you, sign up at the Moscone West 3rd Floor Overlooks - but do it early (Sunday or Monday), because slots are limited. (Note that each day is devoted to a general category--Database, Middleware/Tools, Apps, Anything Goes--in order to ensure a nice diversity of topics.)

Then, just show up with your laptop at the appointed time and place (whiteboards, projectors, and screens will be provided) and start talking! Audience participation/interaction is encouraged. Needless to say, we'll be documenting the action via blog, audio, and video.

This is simply excellent news from the OTN perspective. In addition to throwing the traditional OTN Night party and offering the OTN Lounge as an official community meet-up place (T-shirts, software/content CDs, games, doughnuts, and energy drinks provided), we are simply thrilled that we can help bring you literally into the conference agenda as active participants.

Long time in the making, but we finally externed a video
capture from the "Oracle on Linux Experience" tech session at
LinuxWorld this summer. I don't think I'll get into film school with
this, but you'll get the idea.



Talk about
getting correct info straight from the source - in this video Oracle's
Van Okamura and Sergio Leunissen, both from the Linux Engineering team,
explain what the Oracle Unbreakable Linux support program is (and
isn't), what Oracle Enterprise Linux is (and isn't), and use cases for
the Oracle Unbreakable Linux Network, all in an informal,
installfest-ian setting (and respond to attendee questions of course).
OTN's very own Todd Trichler, the ringleader of this event (as usual),
makes a cameo appearance.

Also, today Van and
Sergio's boss Wim Coekaerts has documented his 38-minute OEL + Oracle
Database install in his blog.

I've already mentioned this in another context (the Oracle OpenWorld Unconference), but I want to reiterate all the good happenin's at the OTN Lounge and OTN Night at OpenWorld this year (see details below). The Lounge will be bigger than ever (on Moscone West 3rd Floor this time) and we'll be giving away more free stuff than ever too (but that's not why you'll stop by, right?) -- and did I mention, you can get a cold beer there in the afternoon?

As is the custom, Tom Kyte, Steven Feuerstein, Mary Ann Davidson, and Wim Coekaerts will be doing meet-and-greets across the week. (Need updates in real time about any of this stuff? We'll be Twittering.)

Please do stop by to say "Hello," "Nice job," "Get a life", or whatever the case may be.

Relax and Prosper at the OTN Lounge
(Moscone West, 3rd Floor)

• Get your OTN T-shirt v2.0 and
  Database 11g poster, while supplies last
  
  
• Gorge on donuts and pastries in
  the AM, energy drinks in the PM
  
  
• Check in for daily "Meet the
  Experts" sessions (schedule)
  
  
• Take part in Oracle Developer
  Tools usability testing
  
  
• Pick up your "OTN's Greatest
  Hits, 2007 Edition" CD
  
  
• Daily drawings to win an Apple
  iPod Touch!
  
  

Meet You at OTN Night!
(Monday@7:30pm, Westin St. Francis)

• Eat, drink, and be merry at this
  luxurious Union Square hotel
  
  
• Get free software, swap
  install/config tips at OTN Night's own Installfest
  
  
• Do you have what it takes for a
  live game of "Oracle Jeopardy"? Win a Wii!
  
  
• Pose for your take-home OTN Night
  party pic
  
  
• Enjoy classic arcade games, air
  hockey and pool tables
  
  

Connect with Peers and Oracle ACEs

• More than 70 Oracle ACEs in
  attendance; look for them at the OTN Lounge!
  
  
• Build your own show social network
  via Oracle OpenWorld Connect
  
  
• Read attendee blogs as they're
  posted
  
  
• Sign our "global guest book"
  at the OTN Lounge
  
  
• Share experiences with other
  OTNers at the Unconference (see below)
  
  
  
  
  

Strut Your Stuff at the Oracle
OpenWorld Unconference
(2-6pm, Mon.-Weds. & 2-5pm,
Thurs., at Moscone West, 3rd Floor)

• Present your own session/workshop
  on a topic you're passionate about!
  
  
• Bring laptop, PPT, and demos;
  projector/screen/whiteboard will be provided
  
  
• Sign up at Moscone West 3rd Floor
  Overlooks - first come, first served
  
  
• Slots available for Database,
  Fusion Middleware, Apps, and Anything Goes
  
  

AJAXWorld is just about in the books (Oracle was a Platinum Sponsor this year), and based on Oracle Development Tools VP and Chief Architect Ted Farrell's keynote, the AJAX "honeymoon" may soon be ending, as it gets a serious look from enterprise-class IT departments.

Tony Baer offers an excellent analysis of Ted's keynote, with the main point being: don't dive into an enterprise AJAX-style programming approach without an enterprise strategy, regardless of its eye-candy appeal for building rich clients. For enterprises, which typically lack agility, are highly regulated, and are strewn with legacy applications in any case, it makes much more sense to commit to a framework (JavaServer Faces being the ideal example for Farrell) that allows you to abstract trendy scripting languages (like AJAX) and back-end APIs out of the development equation. This is an interesting perspective that hasn't received the attention it deserves from AJAX/Web 2.0 fanboys, but with Oracle increasingly involved, perhaps it will.

In general, enterprise-class concerns touched by Web 2.0 (and they all do) - security and privacy foremost among them - are really being glossed over. These are issues you may hear increasingly about from Oracle.

Let's not forget the pix:

Fascinating blogger-sation occurring between Billy Cripe and Jake Kuramoto regarding the business/long-term value of social applications as well as the mechanism of adoption. Top down? Bottom up? Data driven? People powered? Pick up the thread here:

...with Oracle ACE Bex Huff chiming in here, and Paul Gallagher chiming in here. Truly one of the most fruitful conversations I've seen in the Oracle blogosphere, and the reflection of an industry-wide dichotomy.

No truer thing was said than Jake's statement "The network is not enough." This is the key point that is lost on the social app fanboys/Facebook valuators; if your goal is to be a human "friending machine" (business value content: 0), then you are a happy camper today. (I was amused recently to read someone describe Facebook as the "single most productive application I have ever used" or something to that effect--clearly somebody who still uses a typewriter and calculator.) But good luck finding more than two or three FB apps that are worth two bits. Thus: Facebook is in danger of becoming an "empty" (from a content perspective) network, IMO.

In this sense, social networking is a potentially of greater value in the enterprise than in consumer-land because the valued content (enterprise apps etc.) is already there; the social network becomes a Web 2.0-style integration bus, if you will. Whether adoption is best driven top down or bottom up though depends on the size and sophistication of the org, but for most, it's probably by both.