The fans can’t be wrong, and the numbers don’t lie.
The list of the Top Ten 2 Minute Tech Tips for 2018 includes insight and expertise covering containers, bots, REST APIs, database performance, and more, as contributed by experts from across the community.
What’s a 2 Minute Tech Tip? As the title implies, a 2 Minute Tech Tip is a short video that presents useful technical information for developers, architects, DBAs, and other roles. 2MTTs cover a wide range of topics, and the presentation can be anything from a simple talking head to a full-on presentation with slides and demos. The manner of presentation and topics are chosen entirely by the people delivering the tips. The only rule is that the tip can’t take more than two minutes.
I record some 2MTTs at events, as I did with Sergio Leunissen’s #1 video, which was recorded at Oracle Open World. But most are recorded by the tipsters themselves at home, on webcams or mobile devices, as is the case with the #2 tip from Kevlin Henney, which was recorded on the streets of London using selfie stick.
The list below represents the most-watched 2 Minute Tech Tips for 2018. Congratulations to the year’s top tipsters!
| 1 |  |
Zero to Docker Sandbox in 2 Minutes by Sergio Leunissen Vice President, Open Source and Virtualization Group, Oracle |
| 2 |  |
Concurrency Versus Locking By Kevlin Henney Independent Consultant, Trainer, Writer |
| 3 |  |
Apache Kafka? Why Should I Care? By Guido Schmutz Oracle Groundbreaker Ambassador Oracle ACE Director Principal Consultant / Technology Mangager, Trivadis |
| 4 |  |
What’s Wrong with your APEX Application? By Peter Raganitsch Oracle ACE Director CEO, FOEX GmbH |
| 5 |  |
Setting Up Basic Intents with Oracle Intelligent Bots By Matt Hornung Software Consultant, Fishbowl Solutions |
| 6 |  |
Database Performance Tip By Mohamed Taman Java Champion, Oracle Groundbreaker Ambassador Sr. Enterprise Architect, Comtrade Digital Services Owner / CEO, SiriusXI d.o.o. |
| 7 |  |
Java EE 8 Quick Start By Adam Bien Java Champion Independent Java Architect and Developer Freelance Author |
| 8 |  |
Securing an Oracle Data Services REST API By Blaine Carter Developer Advocate for Open Source, Oracle |
| 9 |  |
Oracle Database: Working with External Tables By Chris Saxon Developer Advocate for SQL, Oracle |
|
10 |
 |
When Should You Use SQL Bind Variables? By Mark Williams Principal Consultant, Method R Advocate, Cintra Software and Services |
Where is your 2 Minute Tech Tip?
Think you’ve got an idea for a great tip? Go for it! Anyone is eligible to submit a 2 Minute Tech Tip. All you need is an idea and a a camera. These guidelines will help:
- 1280×720 minimum resolution (Most cell phone cameras record video in this resolution)
- MP4 or MOV format.
- You need to record two segments:
- Intro: (“Hi, My name is Jane Smith, and I’m a developer with XYZ Corp.”) The intro does not count against your 2 minutes.
- Tip (Must not exceed 120 seconds)
- Intro and tip segments can be in separate video files, or can be combined in a single file.
- You don’t have to fill the entire 2 minutes, but you can’t go over.
- I have Google Drive and Dropbox accounts to facilitate file transfer.
- If you absolutely can’t be bothered to record yourself, I can record you remotely via Skype.
Watch the videos above to get a sense of what works. Maybe your tip will make the 2019 Top Ten list
If you have any questions about the process, post a comment, and include your email address.