Jun 10: blogs.oracle.com ... part 2
OK, I finally have a few technical things worth blogging about, so let me get this non-technical one wrapped up first. Here's part 1.
The other part of Kevin's blog that was very relevant to my recent musings was the section titled 'Aristocracy or Meritocracy'. He talks about the close contact he enjoys with some of the techies at Oracle Corp.
I'd already been thinking about this in the light of Brian Duff's blog, which encouraged similar activity.
Brian's blog had come after my original rant and I'd already been questioning this type of statement I made there. (There were a few similar examples.)
I think Brian's argument is much better than mine, but I just have a degree of paranoia about the dangers of 'getting into bed' with any large company. Then I thought it over some more, discussed it with Mark Rittman quite a bit in the pub, and it occurred to me that there are several leading lights in the community who I have loads of respect for who receive invitations from Oracle including travelling expenses. Am I suggesting that they say whatever Oracle or some other company wants them to say?
No, of course not. What matters most here is the attitude of the recipient. Do I think Kevin's going to wax lyrical about the current implementation of ASM because he knows the lead engineer? Is Jonathan Lewis going to say the Cost Based Optimiser is flawless because Oracle pay him to record a few seminars; or claim that Method R is the only performance tuning methodology because he presents at Hotsos? Of course not, because I trust them as individuals. In fact, I've never found the technical people who work for Oracle to be dishonest corporate mouth-pieces!
I have a lot to learn about how to cope with such invitations, they're still new and only occasional, but at least there are examples out there to learn from and I'm genuinely grateful for that.
In the end, I think if the software engineers in Oracle, Microsoft, Sun or wherever want to engage people in the community then, fine, as long as everyone maintains their integrity. Some of my favourite moments attending conferences have been the ability to discuss Statspack or AWR with the people who work on them and my cynicism shouldn't stand in the way of that. In the end, I am pretty keen on Oracle's software. It's one of the reasons I'm such a big fan of strong user groups. As long as Oracle have some techies visiting us (which they do) and not just marketing people (which I can understand) then their contribution is more than welcome.
I also shouldn't be so distrusting of people. I blame it on the parents!
You know what this is really about though, right? I need a paid holiday to San Francisco one day
Switching track a little, what of this statement from Kevin?
"When I think about it, it seems my blog more than deserves at least a link from blogs.oracle.com, the bigger question is what criteria goes into that blogroll? Is it aristocracy, or meritocracy?"
Regular readers will know that I've often raised the same question. But, if we're going to question the integrity of the blogs.oracle.com 'selection process' then, while we're at it, we'll have to question the Oracle ACE process as well as the Oak Table Network (the OTN in the title of part 1 of this blog, not Technet!). All of these have their own process and as far as I can tell, none of them have easily measurable criteria. There's always a human element so they can all be open to misinterpretation, abuse, simple cock-ups and so on.
Maybe the safest thing is not to give *any* of these things too much credence? I'm not turning my nose up at any of them and they've been positive and welcome invitations but, really, don't you think there are tons of people out there who are just as qualified but people just don't know who they are yet?
Still, my mum doesn't know them either, she still thinks the Oracle ACE award is pretty and I'm not going to shatter her illusions
Good, I feel better now. It might not be obvious but I'm feeling less cynical than normal. Sadly, some main fuses have just blown, so it looks like it'll be Sunday house maintenance after all, rather than mucking around with Oracle. Oh, well, that technical stuff will be along shortly ...
The other part of Kevin's blog that was very relevant to my recent musings was the section titled 'Aristocracy or Meritocracy'. He talks about the close contact he enjoys with some of the techies at Oracle Corp.
"These days when I find myself sitting with Vice Presidents or members of the technical staff in Oracle Server Technologies Division (ST) or doing something like writing a jointly produced whitepaper with ST (as I am right now on a cool Oracle11g feature) ..."
I'd already been thinking about this in the light of Brian Duff's blog, which encouraged similar activity.
"We need to connect the bloggers outside Oracle (the number of whom has grown enormously over the last few years) who care about our products with the engineers inside Oracle who care about and build those products."
Brian's blog had come after my original rant and I'd already been questioning this type of statement I made there. (There were a few similar examples.)
"Maybe I'm being harsh, but the world is full of largely uncritical writers enjoying their travel expenses and free drinks whilst raving about how release blah-point-blah will change the business landscape or perfume X will change your life."
I think Brian's argument is much better than mine, but I just have a degree of paranoia about the dangers of 'getting into bed' with any large company. Then I thought it over some more, discussed it with Mark Rittman quite a bit in the pub, and it occurred to me that there are several leading lights in the community who I have loads of respect for who receive invitations from Oracle including travelling expenses. Am I suggesting that they say whatever Oracle or some other company wants them to say?
No, of course not. What matters most here is the attitude of the recipient. Do I think Kevin's going to wax lyrical about the current implementation of ASM because he knows the lead engineer? Is Jonathan Lewis going to say the Cost Based Optimiser is flawless because Oracle pay him to record a few seminars; or claim that Method R is the only performance tuning methodology because he presents at Hotsos? Of course not, because I trust them as individuals. In fact, I've never found the technical people who work for Oracle to be dishonest corporate mouth-pieces!
I have a lot to learn about how to cope with such invitations, they're still new and only occasional, but at least there are examples out there to learn from and I'm genuinely grateful for that.
In the end, I think if the software engineers in Oracle, Microsoft, Sun or wherever want to engage people in the community then, fine, as long as everyone maintains their integrity. Some of my favourite moments attending conferences have been the ability to discuss Statspack or AWR with the people who work on them and my cynicism shouldn't stand in the way of that. In the end, I am pretty keen on Oracle's software. It's one of the reasons I'm such a big fan of strong user groups. As long as Oracle have some techies visiting us (which they do) and not just marketing people (which I can understand) then their contribution is more than welcome.
I also shouldn't be so distrusting of people. I blame it on the parents!
You know what this is really about though, right? I need a paid holiday to San Francisco one day
Switching track a little, what of this statement from Kevin?
"When I think about it, it seems my blog more than deserves at least a link from blogs.oracle.com, the bigger question is what criteria goes into that blogroll? Is it aristocracy, or meritocracy?"
Regular readers will know that I've often raised the same question. But, if we're going to question the integrity of the blogs.oracle.com 'selection process' then, while we're at it, we'll have to question the Oracle ACE process as well as the Oak Table Network (the OTN in the title of part 1 of this blog, not Technet!). All of these have their own process and as far as I can tell, none of them have easily measurable criteria. There's always a human element so they can all be open to misinterpretation, abuse, simple cock-ups and so on.
Maybe the safest thing is not to give *any* of these things too much credence? I'm not turning my nose up at any of them and they've been positive and welcome invitations but, really, don't you think there are tons of people out there who are just as qualified but people just don't know who they are yet?
Still, my mum doesn't know them either, she still thinks the Oracle ACE award is pretty and I'm not going to shatter her illusions
Good, I feel better now. It might not be obvious but I'm feeling less cynical than normal. Sadly, some main fuses have just blown, so it looks like it'll be Sunday house maintenance after all, rather than mucking around with Oracle. Oh, well, that technical stuff will be along shortly ...
Jun 8: blogs.oracle.com, Oracle Ace, OTN, does any of it matter?
I actually woke up early today to write this blog as I wanted to sleep on it first and blogging on-site is a real no-no. Anyway ...
Many of you will remember the ongoing shenanigans around Justin Kestelyn's complaints about how Oracle is perceived by the Web 2.0 community. I had my little rant and, having thought it through for longer and talked to a few friends, had already been planning on revisiting the subject soon with some new thoughts. (This could take a while, so I might spread it over two parts.)
Then I noticed a comment on a posting about an Oracle Ace award from Kevin Closson a couple of days ago.
"Hell, I'm still trying to figure out why they yanked my blog ref from blogs.oracle.com"
I suggested Kevin get in touch with OTN but he was right to point out that it's not entirely obvious who you would contact if you want to raise something like this. In the end, Kevin blogged about it and he's on there now. Whatever the criteria for inclusion might be, it's blindingly obvious that Kevin meets them.
He was labelled a 'DBA' at first, but I see that's been changed to 'Architect' now. Personally, as a DBA, I thought the DBA moniker was an unexpected promotion for him and Mogens Norgaard! Anyway, enough of the fun, there are some important issues here in Kevin's genuinely interesting blog. I'm going to deal with his blog bottom-to-top, because I feel like it!
So, the popularity contest ...
What does that Technorati sample in Kevin's blog say to me? In the end, the natural democracy (anarchy?) of the net will win through. Because both Jonathan Lewis and Kevin are writing interesting things that people want to read and then tell their friends and colleagues about, they'll become popular quite naturally and, as Kevin points out, very quickly. Being on blogs.oracle.com or otnsemanticweb might bring in a few readers here and there, but I suspect word of mouth is more important. The public get what the public want (even if it happens to be to their detriment sometimes) and the Oracle community can recognise when someone knows what they're talking about. Who's a better judge of Kevin's community contribution - OTN or the community at large?
Who really cares if your blog is included on blogs.oracle.com or not? People are never going to believe this, but I can only tell you the truth. I'm spectacularly uninterested in my Technorati 'ranking'. The only time I'm really aware of it is when Andy C mentions this stuff occasionally - that man is obsessive! Is it really so weird to just write what you want to write, have a good time doing it and occasionally help someone a little bit (although I tend to leave that to others who do the job better)? It's what millions of 'Indie' bands do, as well as the more natural bed-fellows of bloggers - fanzine writers. They write for their own little publications because they like it that way and don't *want* a job with 'Rolling Stone' or the 'NME'.
Actually, I have a theory about this. Maybe part of the reason I'm within a million miles of the 'Top 10' of Oracle blogs is precisely because I *don't* care too much? There's a weird, contrary logic in there somewhere. The only action I can ever remember taking to promote this blog was to get syndicated on orablogs.com and if there's anyone who really got this community going, it was Brian Duff. Otherwise people might never have known about some of the blogs that were out there.
There's only one thing I worry about with my blog - the lack of technical content - and I have plans to rectify that.
Even that's interesting, though, because maybe the reason people read this blog is precisely because it doesn't have the 'authority' or 'technical content' of other blogs, but because everyone just wants a bit of fluff! (Or should that be 'fur'?) As Kevin finishes ....
" Now, just to put things into perspective, consider a true Web 2.0 phenomenon: I CAN HAS CHEEZBURGER. This site—which has a Technorati authority of 5,025 and rank of 98—is proof positive that the Internet and social networking are as mainstream as Pet Trusts(for real), designer pet supplies, fluffy with a sniffle, pets with stress and of course Barbi with a scooper."
Precisely. Main-stream *and* uncontrolled!
Yeah, I'm going to need another blog posting for this subject ...
P.S. I should have mentioned this before. I'm working at a big finance company with no time during the day to blog, deal with personal email or respond to blog comments. So, if it takes a while for me to catch up with those things, please don't be offended, I have normal life to deal with too
Many of you will remember the ongoing shenanigans around Justin Kestelyn's complaints about how Oracle is perceived by the Web 2.0 community. I had my little rant and, having thought it through for longer and talked to a few friends, had already been planning on revisiting the subject soon with some new thoughts. (This could take a while, so I might spread it over two parts.)
Then I noticed a comment on a posting about an Oracle Ace award from Kevin Closson a couple of days ago.
"Hell, I'm still trying to figure out why they yanked my blog ref from blogs.oracle.com"
I suggested Kevin get in touch with OTN but he was right to point out that it's not entirely obvious who you would contact if you want to raise something like this. In the end, Kevin blogged about it and he's on there now. Whatever the criteria for inclusion might be, it's blindingly obvious that Kevin meets them.
He was labelled a 'DBA' at first, but I see that's been changed to 'Architect' now. Personally, as a DBA, I thought the DBA moniker was an unexpected promotion for him and Mogens Norgaard!
Anyway, enough of the fun, there are some important issues here in Kevin's genuinely interesting blog. I'm going to deal with his blog bottom-to-top, because I feel like it!So, the popularity contest ...
What does that Technorati sample in Kevin's blog say to me? In the end, the natural democracy (anarchy?) of the net will win through. Because both Jonathan Lewis and Kevin are writing interesting things that people want to read and then tell their friends and colleagues about, they'll become popular quite naturally and, as Kevin points out, very quickly. Being on blogs.oracle.com or otnsemanticweb might bring in a few readers here and there, but I suspect word of mouth is more important. The public get what the public want (even if it happens to be to their detriment sometimes) and the Oracle community can recognise when someone knows what they're talking about. Who's a better judge of Kevin's community contribution - OTN or the community at large?
Who really cares if your blog is included on blogs.oracle.com or not? People are never going to believe this, but I can only tell you the truth. I'm spectacularly uninterested in my Technorati 'ranking'. The only time I'm really aware of it is when Andy C mentions this stuff occasionally - that man is obsessive! Is it really so weird to just write what you want to write, have a good time doing it and occasionally help someone a little bit (although I tend to leave that to others who do the job better)? It's what millions of 'Indie' bands do, as well as the more natural bed-fellows of bloggers - fanzine writers. They write for their own little publications because they like it that way and don't *want* a job with 'Rolling Stone' or the 'NME'.
Actually, I have a theory about this. Maybe part of the reason I'm within a million miles of the 'Top 10' of Oracle blogs is precisely because I *don't* care too much? There's a weird, contrary logic in there somewhere. The only action I can ever remember taking to promote this blog was to get syndicated on orablogs.com and if there's anyone who really got this community going, it was Brian Duff. Otherwise people might never have known about some of the blogs that were out there.
There's only one thing I worry about with my blog - the lack of technical content - and I have plans to rectify that.
Even that's interesting, though, because maybe the reason people read this blog is precisely because it doesn't have the 'authority' or 'technical content' of other blogs, but because everyone just wants a bit of fluff! (Or should that be 'fur'?) As Kevin finishes ....
" Now, just to put things into perspective, consider a true Web 2.0 phenomenon: I CAN HAS CHEEZBURGER. This site—which has a Technorati authority of 5,025 and rank of 98—is proof positive that the Internet and social networking are as mainstream as Pet Trusts(for real), designer pet supplies, fluffy with a sniffle, pets with stress and of course Barbi with a scooper."
Precisely. Main-stream *and* uncontrolled!
Yeah, I'm going to need another blog posting for this subject ...
P.S. I should have mentioned this before. I'm working at a big finance company with no time during the day to blog, deal with personal email or respond to blog comments. So, if it takes a while for me to catch up with those things, please don't be offended, I have normal life to deal with too
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