My OOW14 - My San Francisco Triathlon

 

Well almost!!


I am not a fit person and actually have been having treatment for a sore hip for a few months, but I do like to have fun and this trip saw me take part in several events:

Traditionally the Saturday before OOW kicks off is the one day I have free! and to year my daughter was with me. She has never cycled the bridge and although I have twice before I was really pleased she wanted to do this with me, but worried that as an athlete she would find me rubbish.

We hired the bikes at fisherman's wharf and cycled off to the Golden Gate Park where we had a little rest to take photographs.

I did struggle with the hills but kept going longer than I probably should have trying to show I wasn't as unfit as I actually am, she was impressed but for the rest of the week my muscles and my hip let me know they were not so.
It was a beautiful day and no a hint of mist and looking down from the bridge we even saw dolphins in the bay, it was wonderful.

The hill down from the bridge is my nemesis, I hate not being in control and speed even more. My daughter free-wheeled to the bottom and then back up to meet me twice!!

 

At Sausalito we had the obligatory lunch (and shopping) before getting the ferry back to the city and returning the bikes.

On the Sunday morning there was the SQL Dev / OTN bridge run organised by (That) Jeff Smith. I can't run, so along with a few others including MOH Tim Hall and MOD Heli from Finland I went out to the bridge early to walk both ways. We timed it wrong (or rather the runners started late) and we finished before them, but it was a great morning and lots of fun. My daughter did the run with Alex Gorbachev who she has known for years. The biggest hurdle of the day was getting transport back to the city and I must thank John King and the Uber App.




photo from facebook page

Monday morning was the 3rd annual OTN / Oraclenerd Swim in the bay again jointly sponsored by Bjoern Rost from Portix. I still insist most people only splash in the bay but I swam and so did my daughter. Tim Hall swam despite being convinced he would die of cold and of course Connor McDonald and his girlfriend Genevieve who in the summer did an English Channel Relay Swim and just 2 days before the Alcatraz swim showed us all up.





photo from facebook

 

The swim is my best of the three disciplines (haha how serious does that sound) - I love it. This year my great friend Alex Nuijten who last year came along to watch also took part, the numbers grow every year. Tradition also says we go back on the cable car but on the day it was out of action, but there was a free shuttle bus back to Union Square, it was fun.

SO I may not be an athlete like Bjoern or Sten Vesterli (who stayed on to do a half marathon) or like my daughter; but I did Cycle, Run (well 10 yards of my epic walk) and swim over a 3 day period and for me that counts as a triathlon. I am proud of myself.

Return to my OOW overview





 

My OOW14 - Final Random Thoughts

To finish off with a few random thoughts from Oracle Open World 2014:

The web apps for OOW14 were pretty good. The main exception being that you couldn't schedule overlapping sessions. I know it is important to reserve seats for just 1 session at the time but it would be great if you could add reserves to your schedule or have private meetings overlap.

Umm the mobile app was really disappointing. It didn't show private events and if you didn't update it failed to work. very poor.

Many sessions were pure marketing and disappointing. I attended one on extending Fusion Applications and they never even got a mention! But there were many,many more excellent sessions and many I wanted to attend and simply didn't have the opportunity.

 

The Wi-Fi wasn't too bad this year - but then I was mainly in small venues were bandwidth was probably better than Moscone itself.

 

• Thanks to OTN and Bob Rhubart I had the chance to make a two minute tech tip video, and since I don't do technical, I took the opportunity to talk about the importance of IT & Business speaking, something that came up in my AppAdvantage session. (You need to watch it to understand why I am wearing socks on my hands).
  
  I also have a small part in the OTN video about the ACE program where Thomas Kurian talks about its importance to Oracle. 

I loved all the off piste entertainment - the official ones and then the Bloggers party - thanks Pythian, and especially the ACE Dinner, very different and thanks again for including my daughter.

So I'm home, caught up with the Laundry, made progress with the list of things to follow up and already thinking about next year. October 25th - 29th.

Return to my OOW overview


 

ODTUG Elections

Oh how jealous I am of ODTUG

.

As a user group leader I know that the success of any volunteer organisation is the volunteers themselves, and I would give anything to have 22 great, passionate people step up and be nominated to our board at UKOUG. What an election this will be.

ODTUG not many years back was struggling. When other user groups were coming together to take on the benefits of Collaboration, ODTUG saw their offering as different, more intimate, more personal and stayed out on their own. It wasn't easy but with the range of development tools expanding and the adoption of them by Oracle users they felt they were right. OTN supported them for a while and when Hyperion came on board, being welcomed by ODTUG as their new home and the APEX community took off, ODTUG not only survived but also flourished.

I have made my name 'not being technical' but by being 'technically literate', understanding what the technology under the applications are and how they work. Kscope is my training ground and only once in the last 9 years have I missed it. I have presented and volunteered and when joining Certus last month one requirement was that Kscope was included in my training plan.

When I heard 22 people had stepped up this year, I was amazed but not surprised. Several candidates have asked for my support and I personally know many of them. So then I looked deep into their manifestos to decide how I would vote. But I have two problems:

1. How do you select just 4 from the list?
2. I am not an ODTUG member.

The second point is easily fixed, working for a big corporate and living outside the US being a member was not a necessity. But having worked for myself for a while I have considered what is important and understanding the technology is, so the $99 for personal membership would be money well spent.

At this point I want to underline that UKOUG do provide great development content but as I have said in other posts being part of the organising committee means I never have time to attend the sessions.

Choosing just four is a much bigger problem and I'm going out on a limb here because so many are friends, but as a usergroup leader I think I know from some authority what balance ODTUG need to continue to grow and to reach more.

Today I tweeted my intention to become a member so I could vote only to discover that you needed to join before the end of September so I am too late. Disappointing but understandable, all boards especially Not for Profits must be scrupulously free of any opportunity for fraud.

So I have decided to share who I would have voted for and why. This isn't a new step for me I have written similar blogs for UKOUG. I have read everyone's manifesto and can make a case for each and everyone. My final choice is based on balance:

ODTUG works because it is addressing reach, by age, by region, by gender and by product and it succeeds because it is a true community, these are the areas I have considered.

Roel Hartman, representing APEX and wants to grow reach into Europe and beyond through collaboration with regional user groups. Collaboration is key, you must not simply compete with or threaten the success of local groups.

Bambi Price, who during her previous tenure on the board, brought ODTUG to Asia Pac. Bambi won't mind me saying this but she also works tirelessly for IT in the older generation, somewhere some of us will get to sooner than others. Bambi represents all development solutions both traditional and emerging.

Sarah Zumbrum who is a graduate of the ODTUG Leadership Programme and you need to show support to the program which is held up as best practice within the International Usergroup Community (IOUC). Sarah is part of the Hyperion Community.

Finally I select Mike Riley, your past president. This was the hardest choice, I think the board needs experience as well as new blood, and Mike's tenure during the growing years speaks volumes. Part of me thinks Mike should have another year off before standing again to recover fully from his health problems, but at the same time ODTUG is about community and the way everybody rallied to help Mike and his family shows just how much that is true. People who volunteer stay busy and grow and Mike needs that now as he returns to normal health. As well as giving him the motivation to return to full health it will also be a way to for him to say thank you; and I KNOW, you, the ODTUG community will benefit from his experience and passion.

To voters I say: Don't worry if you don't agree with me, just make sure you vote. Study the list carefully and select your choice.

To the Candidates I say: Don't hate me, I would happily have voted for any of you and know you would all do a good job. Many of you are great friends and I value that so much. What I do know is that if you are unsuccessful you will continue to be a big part of ODTUG, none of you are doing this for altruistic reasons.

I wrote this post to highlight the importance of this obligation and to make people think. I was unable to vote and even if I did the outcome is uncertain. If you are successful, well done and if not don't give up keep trying. My first year for UKOUG board I failed to be elected and look at me now!

User Groups fail without great volunteers, to all 22 I say well done and keep up the good work.

P.S. I still joined ODTUG today and will be voting next year and this is my personal opinion not that of UKOUG or any other group.


 

My Oracle Open World Objectives

Every year I plan a modest OOW experience, promising myself I will keep time in my agenda, but then reality hits and here I am as ever turning down invites to really cool off-piste sessions and meetings because my dance card is full.


I always explain this is because I am wearing so many hats.

• Oracle ACE Director*
• Oracle Applications UX Advocate
• Usergroup Leader
• Speaker
• Partner - My new job
• With Analysts
• Just for fun
• As a mum

It also means arriving earlier and earlier and I am already in Redwood at Oracle HQ. I never get bored of visiting here, sunshine and beautiful walks.

Oracle ACE Director Briefings:

Two days of the best information briefings from Oracle Executives, not PowerPoint normally mainly Q&A, including a kick off from Thomas Kurian for an hour. Just how cool is that? Many of the ACEs come for these briefings and don't stay for all of OOW, this is more valuable use of their time.

Why these work is because we are a group of people who have proved our expertise in our areas through the nominations process and so the sessions are deep, under NDA and certainly not marketing. If I attend a session I don't understand (not being technical) I have a network of ACEs I can go to for the information. To me it isn't really about learning more about my area, I am all ready plugged into development there, it is more about filling in the gaps of my wider Oracle understanding.


Oracle Applications UX Advocate:

Traditionally this happens the day before the ACE briefings and I have found this the best way to understand where Apps development is, is going and how customer feedback influences what they are doing. I talk about UX all the time this is my sweet spot with Oracle.

This year is their biggest audience to date as people in the field are realising UX is the differentiator of Oracle Cloud Applications (Fusion).

The are also UX Exchange events during OOW I will attend.

Usergroup Leader:

Oracle traditionally held their usergroup leader meetings in January but this year have moved to this week before OOW. That clashes with ACE briefings so I am not attending but that isn't a bad thing, UKOUG has 2 representatives attending (James Haslam and Fiona Martin). However throughout OOW I will be thinking about what every announcement means to our members and what we need to be addressing and communicating.

On Sunday which is Usergroup Day EMEA user groups have some cool sessions that end with a double session on 12c database. 12 short talks by 12 of the best of EMEA presenters. What other session is going to have so many experts in one place?

      1. Upgrading to 12c: What Will It Break? Jonathan Lewis, Oracle ACE Director, OakTable
      2. The Optimizer in 12c. Christian Antognini, SOUG, Oracle ACE Director, OakTable
      3. Data Pump Enhancements in 12c. Osama Mustafa, MEOUG, Oracle ACE
      4. Pattern Matching in 12c. Gurcan Orhan, TROUG, Oracle ACE Director
      5. PL/SQL Security Enhancements in 12c. Alex Nuijten, OGH, Oracle ACE Director
      6. Data Redaction in 12c. Oded Raz, ilOUG, Oracle ACE Director
      7. A Case for the Multitenant Architecture, Even with a Single PDB. Tim Hall, UKOUG,        Oracle ACE Director, OakTable
      8. How Does Oracle SQL Developer Manage Multitenancy? Ami Aharonovich, ilOUG, Oracle ACE
     9. Multitenancy: Impact on SaaS.   Kashif Manzoor, MEOUG, Oracle ACE
    10. Oracle Multitenant in Standard Edition: (How) Does This Work?    Julian Dontcheff, OUGF, Oracle ACE Director
    11. What Features Will 12c Offer Traditional Oracle Apps?  Bjoern Rost, DOAG, Oracle ACE Director
    12. In-Memory—Enables Us To?  Dimitry Volkov, RUOUG, Oracle ACE

These are sessions UGF8949 & UGF9221

Oracle Open World Speaker:

I am taking part in two other sessions:

I am a regular blogger for the AppAdvantage team and will be joining them on a panel session, talking about using FMW with Apps Deliver Business Innovation while Reducing Upgrades’ Risk [CON8534]


I have been a UX Advocate for a long time and will be a demo babe showing the Simplified UI in their session - Oracle Applications Cloud: First-Time User Experience [CON7972]
Partner:

Now I am with Certus I am responsible for enabling their growth into ERP Cloud and PaaS extension apps for ERP and HCM, so these areas are important to me. I am meeting with lots of development and partner enablement people. Hope to learn lots to for this at ACE and UX events.

There are many receptions and events to attend as well, one of the great things about OOW is everybody is there.

I hope to make a partner video about PaaS.

With Analysts:

I work with several analysts throughout the year and will catch up with many and share with each other how we think Oracle are preforming. Ray Wang and Dennis Howlett

Just For Fun:

All these communities have given me many great friends and OOW is a chance to catch up with some of them. Organised fun outside of the official parties are the Bridge Run (which I will walk) on Sunday and swim in the Bay Monday. Depending on my final schedule I will also do Chi Gung each morning.

And as a mum:

My daughter is in the Military and just come home from a long deployment, so she is also going to San Francisco, and celebrates her birthday Tuesday. Not sure how much time we will get together but Saturday we will cycle the bridge, something I have done but she hasn't.

* Oracle ACE Program funds my trip to HQ & OOW







 

Sad but Not Unhappy

Ralph C Wood wrote Sorrowful Vision of Joy a commentary on JRR Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, and I think it sums up how I feel today.

The Oracle ACE Program is part of OTN and one of the things they do is enable ACE Directors to travel to conferences and speak to audiences who normally struggle to get good speakers across the whole range of Oracle.

Obviously OTN has a budget and one way to make that budget go further is the concept of OTN Tours. This is where a number of user groups agree an itinerary for their events in such a way ACE Directors can present at several over a shorter period.

Francisco Munoz Alvarez is one of the great organisers of OTN Tours, he is president of the Chile User Group and also very active in his adopted home of New Zealand and has arranged many successful tours in Latin America and Asia Pacific. I personally have had the opportunity to take part in several, most recently Latin America 2014.

There have also been tours in India and the Nordics and this year the first Middle East and North Africa MENA tour took place.

Where the user group is not English speaking, it can be over whelming if all content is in English and not all usergroups can afford translators, so they try to get a good balance. I firmly believe that one responsibility of ACE Directors on tour is to encourage local speakers to step up and to identify those who should be in the ACE program, and it is great as these usergroups are able then to have more balanced content. I have nominated or championed several people I have come across this way. It is not just to encourage them to speak, but to blog and write papers in their language to add to the content available for sharing knowledge.

This however means that along with a greater number of ACE Directors applying for a tour, less English speaking slots means there is much more competition. To get funding on a tour you need to have 2 presentations at each of at least two legs. This is always a challenge for me as many usergroups are technically focused and already have very little applications content.

So today I heard I have not been successful for the next Asia Pacific tour in November and I am sad, but also pleased that they now have enough good local speakers to reduce their reliance on us 'foreigners'. It is always sad to be turned down for a conference but like I say to people not successful for UKOUG, it is not about being rejected it is about capacity. I will particularly miss Tokyo as I have spent a lot of time there both with usergroups and in my role with Fujitsu.

To my friends who are going, have a great time. I am busy enough, I am taking part in the Nordic tour in October and will be submitting my papers for Collab and RMOUG over the weekend and hope I judge what people are looking for correctly.

And I have an exciting new job so still a happy wee lady.

Please Vote for Certus in UKOUG PYA

As I’m not an end user I can’t vote in the UKOUG Partner of the Year Awards for my favourite Fusion partner but…..

 

 Do you remember that advert “ I Loved the product so much I bought the company “ ? Well not quite bought the company, but certainly bought into their offering, I have joined Certus Solutions.

 I have been looking hard at all those offering Fusion or Cloud services and in April I talked about how it was the new niche companies who had stepped up and taken the challenge who were winning in this area and not the traditional big partners.

 I was asked by Oracle to deliver some training to partners and I did this through Certus which led to some great discussions and the more I learn about Certus' plans and their strategy the more I wanted to be apart of it.

I have built my reputation around Fusion , so please if you are an end user (you do not need to be a UKOUG member) please vote for Certus in the Fusion Applications and Training Partner categories of the UKOUG Partner of the Year Awards.

 

New Challenge

Today I joined Certus Solutions.

Certus Solutions press release

Setting up DCL was great fun and really helped me to narrow down the areas I want to concentrate on. Having looked at what all the partners in this space were doing Certus ticked all the boxes for me. I  was really excited by their plans and jumped at the opportunity to be part of their success.