OTN TechBlog

The blogosphere is buzzing in the wake of this post from Burton analyst Anne Manes, which begins with this flame-bait proclamation: "SOA met its demise on January 1, 2009, when it was wiped out by the catastrophic impact of the economic recession."

The response is best characterized by this tweet from @madgreek65, aka Mike Kavis:

Dave notes in his post that in a different venue, Anne had clarified her original post by stating that her main objection is to the use of the term "SOA" as a value statement in itself. To use a metaphor, instead of Toyota selling me on hybrid drivetrain technology, it should be selling me on the quality of life that 45-miles-per-gallon will provide. So, if I understand Anne's true premise correctly, then SOA isn't dead - but the way vendors and IT have been selling the business on it certainly may be. (If she had made this point more clear, her post would likely have made not a ripple.)

Oh, where should I start with the historical parallels? With AI, which in truth being neither "artificial" nor "intelligent", was mis-marketed to management by vendors as well as IT? With CRM or BI, which never were about technology, but rather about business practice cultural change? Or with the most recent example yet - "Web 2.0" - which actually has very little to do with the Web? Funny, sounds like politics, which has become an argument more about linguistics and "framing" of issues than the issues themselves.

My point is that we've been on this ride before, just in reference to different problems. The problems remain with us, whatever we choose to call the solution - so to call the solution "dead" simply as the result of ineffective communication would suggest a misunderstanding of the word "dead". Oh, the irony.

How cool is that? Oracle Database 11g now has its own "For Dummies" edition:

"Dummies" books are available for Oracle9i Database and PL/SQL as well, but Oracle Database 10g was ignored for some reason unknown to me.

There really is a lot of Oracle content out there for newbies, contrary to popular belief - even an "Oracle for Newbies" seminar from Belgian consulting outfit iAdvise. We're going to try to leverage that content in some way this year, iAdvise willing.

And speaking of newbies, it's high time that OTN invaded a college campus near you. I have a fantasy about Oracle ACEs taking their place among the ranks of undergrad CS students worldwide. At the very least we should be carpet-bombing Stanford and UC Berkeley with dev software DVDs, no?

No, it's not a recently discovered Agatha Christie story. Rather, a team of rogue Oracle ACEs have taken on the mission of subjecting a red Oracle ACE vest, fondly known as "Stanley", to serial abuse.

(This is a little difficult to view, but note the red object on the ground.)

Similar crimes against textiles are documented at www.wtfistheacevest.com.

Yeah, we can take a hint already. No more red vests!

There is a fascinating meta-thread taking shape at forums.oracle.com, especially for those interested in the care and feeding of an interactive community.

It began with me issuing a strong personal warning about "personal attacks" to several Database forum regulars, who do not, to put it mildly, "get along". This warning was reproduced verbatim in a public announcement.

This warning became necessary, IMO, because certain people were using forums.oracle.com as vehicle for personal insults - meaning, speech that is designed to diminish a particular person on a personal level -- despite repeated public warnings. So, although this type of speech may not literally violate this clause in the Terms of Use:

You agree not to upload, email, post, publish, distribute or otherwise transmit through a Forum any Content that: (a) is false or misleading; (b) is defamatory; (c) is harassing or invades another's privacy, or promotes bigotry, racism, hatred or harm against any group or individual; (d) is obscene; (e) infringes another's rights, including but not limited to intellectual property rights; (f) constitutes unsolicited bulk e-mail, "junk mail," "spam" or chain letters; or (g) violates any applicable laws or regulations.

...it does fall within the gray area in which all forum moderators are sentenced to wander, for all eternity: the area bounded by the limits of common-sense civil behavior. It is the mod's job, among other things, to set the limits of what is and what is not "OK". This responsibility is backed by an enforcement power:

Oracle reserves the right to review Forum Content and remove any Content at its sole discretion.

Interestingly, some members are not comfortable with this policy or the principle of this enforcement power. They dispute the power of a particular individual to determine what is/is not "civil" behavior. Rather, in their opinion, the boundaries in question should be set by the members themselves, and enforced by them as well. (E.g., let people use the Report Abuse button to their heart's content and leave it at that.)

So, the question is out there: in an organic, self-sustaining community, what is the role, if any, of the "omniscient" moderator? A feast for thought.

Sys-Con's AjaxWorld conference, which convened last Fall in Santa Clara, is now memorable for a couple reasons.

First of all, it served as the coming-our party for Oracle's Rich Enterprise Applications (REA) initiative, which I have previously described as a recipe for building rich internet apps (RIAs) that have enterprise-class requirements baked-in. A great overview is available in the form of Pieter Humphrey's keynote, which is available from Sys-Con on demand. (Sorry, you need to register for this - if anyone has a different URL, let me know.) You can also see REA technology in action via the rea.oracle.com demo site.

Second - and I've learned this only as of yesterday - Oracle JDeveloper 11g was voted by attendees as the "Best Ajax-Based Solution" after the show.

Now, if you're like me, you're probably confused by Sys-Con's nomenclature, which is a little vague. I take it to mean "Best IDE for Ajax-based App Development." (Shay Shmeltzer of the JDev team offers some clarification about the reason for this award in a comment he posted to his own blog announcement on the topic.)

This is a nice bit of recognition from a group of people who are very familiar with the alternatives out there for RIA/REA development. I think it says a lot about where Oracle JDeveloper and ADF are headed.