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!
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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
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 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:
]]>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.
]]>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!
]]>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.
]]>"(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.
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.
]]>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.
]]>It is my belief that the largest pool of presenters and participants resides in the Developer population - Apps-inebriated Enterprise 2.0 types notwithstanding. This theory holds up when you look at the numbers; typically Unconf sessions involving dev-related topics have been much larger draws.
So, I'd like to take a straw poll about your preferences regarding the following:
Let's hear it!
BTW someone has asked, "Why are you always running out of time? These can be any length" or something to that effect. The answer is: because data tells us that few people will tolerate a 'cast of more than 10 mins or so in length.
]]>One of the first things you need to know about Wim is that he is a genuinely nice guy - one of the nicest I've ever met at Oracle, in fact.
You can watch the first video in its entirety below (forgive me for not exactly being "sharp"; I was a bit under the weather), but suffice to say that here Wim helps battle the endemic FUD about the Oracle Unbreakable Linux program with the oft-repeated yet oft-ignored facts: it's not a fork, it's not a distro, it's about one-throat-to-choke support for Oracle customers.
Across the two shoots however I didn't get a chance to ask Wim a question about an item I saw in his Twitter feed recently:
I'd love to know what he means by this - will ask him next chance I get.
Typically, the hands-on developer workshop (OTN Developer Day included) involves a heavy dosage of downloading, installation, and configuration of a dev environment as a necessary table-setter. This process is tiresome, and not all that scalable, but often necessary. And yeah, you have to show up somewhere in "meatspace" for it, which is harder to justify these days.
At the first-ever "OTN Virtual Developer Day: Rich Enterprise Applications" (register; hashtag #OTNVDD) on May 27, we're smashing that model like an old pumpkin. Thanks to the ingenuity of Pieter Humphrey (@pieterh) from the Dev Platform team and the partnership of Amazon Web Services (AWS), you instead will explore a fully provisioned Cloud Development Environment - no laptop baggage!
The day will begin at 8am PDT with a live keynote/Q&A from Steve Harris, SVP of Product Development, and Ted Farrell, SVP and Chief Architect, on creating Rich Enterprise Applications (REAs). Steve and Ted will then direct you to OTN, where you can engage with a series self-paced video-based training about Eclipse, Java caching, Java app servers, JPA, Java Server Faces, Portal technology, and applying middleware to Oracle Applications at your own leisure.
During a time-limited period, you'll also get free access to your own pre-configured Amazon EC2 Cloud Development Environment for the hands-on labs (with a post-event option to continue paid access to that environment). We've already created an Oracle Mix group so that you can ask the OTN Virtual Developer Day team, and other attendees, questions (or offer feedback and comments), and you can use our wiki to document any personal experiences. (You will find AWS setup instructions there as well.)
We really need to thank Amazon Web Services for their help and enthusiasm on this program; we jointly recognize its importance as a potential game-changer for these types of workshops going forward. E.g., I can foresee many similar opportunities for Database training, as well.
Whaddya think?
10.2.0.4 Database (Single Instance) Release for Apple MAC OS X on Intel x86-64 is now available for download on OTN.
The physical media is to be dropped off to M&D next week.
This is a 64-bit release and provides a 32-bit client bundle as well for 32-bit customer applications. Also, available now are the 32-bit and 64-bit instant client downloads for 10.2.0.4.
The database is supported on the latest MAC OSX release - MAC OS X Leopard 10.5.4.
Thus, we finally have an Oracle Database Server release on Mac OS X/Intel. This is a happy day for a lot of people; I can only bask in their joy.
Update (4/13): Oracle ACE Raimonds Simanovskis (@rsim) has published a useful installation guide in his blog.