OTN Appreciation Day?

 

This morning, from nowhere, I just thought, “We should have an OTN Appreciation Day!”

Oracle Technology Network (OTN) has had a pretty big roll in my life for over a decade. I download most of the software I use from there. For years the OTN forums have been a great source of information, both directly or when Googling. There are loads of articles and whitepapers. It has an entry point for most products/features that bring together the relevant docs, whitepapers and downloads for that product/feature. Outside of the website, there is the promotion of the community through participation at events and of course the Oracle ACE Program. I’m probably missing out a load of stuff, but you get the idea.

So what’s my idea for this? Well, actually it’s not really my idea. At this years Oracle OpenWorld Debra arranged the “EOUC Database ACES Share Their Favorite Database Things” session. I thought it was pretty neat hearing people speak briefly about their favourite Oracle features, regardless of version. So taking that as the basis, and considering OTN is all about community, I figured it would be fun if we got as many people as possible to write a small blog post about their favourite Oracle feature and we all post them on the same day. The “rules” would be…

  • The blog post title should be “OTN Appreciation Day : <insert-feature-name-here>”.
  • It can be a feature related to any Oracle product, not just database.
  • The blog post content should be short, focusing more on why you like the feature, rather than technical content. This makes it more accessible for new people to join in. If you’ve written in detail about that feature before, then link to that post and/or the docs from your blog post.
  • Tweet out the blog post using the hashtag #ThanksOTN.
  • We should try to all do it on the same day. I would suggest in about two weeks, which would be Wednesday 12th Tuesday 11th October *. That gives people enough time to put something together, especially first-timers.
  • It really doesn’t matter if you write about the same feature as someone else. It’s interesting hearing different perspectives.
  • Oracle employees are welcome to join in, but they should look deep into their souls and ask themselves if it is fair to pick their own product/feature as their favourite. 🙂
  • You are not allowed to call me a kiss-ass, then subsequently join in. 🙂

It would be really nice if we could get a bunch of first-timers involved. Signing up to WordPress or Blogger is free and really easy. It doesn’t matter if this is your first and only blog post. Maybe it will be the start of something new. If you’ve not posted much recently (Garth), this will be an easy way to get back on the horse. 🙂

I would be interested to know if people are up for this. Write a comment or tweet me if you think it is worth doing. Maybe it will just be me. 🙂

Cheers

Tim…

Updates:

Date altered to Tuesday 11th October to avoid clash with national holidays.

Clarification of rules for Oracle employees who shamelessly want to plug their own products/features. 🙂

Author: Tim...

DBA, Developer, Author, Trainer.

19 thoughts on “OTN Appreciation Day?”

  1. Great idea, Tim.
    However, October 12th is a significant date in at least three continents. Perhaps one day earlier or later would be better. My personal preference would be October 16th (a power of two and full moon) but 11th or 13th will be just as good.

  2. As if you just publicly named and shamed me Dr Hall! Great idea though…I’ll have a think and do my best to join in 🙂

  3. Tim, abrazos amigo. Me parece una excelente idea. De mi parte, yo haría la difusión en español de tu gran idea. Sería muy bueno que ese mismo día cada uno de nuestros tuits ( tweets ) fuera acompañado del hashtag #ThanksOTN. Si me das tu autorización, yo lo replico en español.

  4. Just as a wild suggestion, what if everyone posted/scheduled their post for their personal local time, say 8am?

    That way the community might get a little sense of where everyone is longitudinally, spanning time across our spinning globe.

    Or is that just getting a little too profound? ;p

  5. Scott: I’ve kind-of left it up to people to post when they please on the day. I realise there will be a spread over a 24 hour (or so) period, but I don’t think that is a problem. I know you can schedule releases, but I don’t really want to force people to. 🙂

    Cheers

    Tim…

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