Oracle Scene - And finally..

I've become the technical deputy editor of Oracle Scene and we will be holding the first editorial meeting 5th Feb 2007. If you want to contribute any acticles/ comments please let me know.

In the meantime I am going to include my first 'And Finally...' acticale here for your 'friendly' comments.

For my first ‘And finally….’ I would like to talk about the UKOUG Special Interest Groups, but first the introduction. Many of you have already met me as I have been involved in the user group for over 6 years now, but for those who haven’t my name is Neil Jarvis and I’ve been working with the Oracle RDBMS for over 18 years, first as a programmer and then in 1998 as a Database Administrator. In 1999 I attended my first user group conference in Birmingham and in 2000 became a deputy chair of the UNIX SIG under the auspice leadership of David Kurtz. Since 2000 I have presented a few technical papers at the UNIX and DBMS SIGs, help arrange the agenda and chaired some of the UNIX SIGs. I am also on the committee for the forthcoming Northern SIG which will be held in April, somewhere north of Watford (watch this space for updates).

In the last 10 years or so I have been involved/ employed by many different organisations ranging from financial to local authority and retail, all of which held UKOUG membership. In over half of these cases I was surprised to see they were not taking full advantage of their membership. Membership of UKOUG entitles you to access of over 120 UKOUG events all of which are free to the first person and a nominal charge to subsequent attendees. You also have the same access to the annual conference, currently being held in Birmingham. This is a four day event with at least 5 streams running all day. Membership also gives you access to the online resource library which holds, amongst other things, most of the presentations not just at the SIGs but also the conference. The office also sends out an e-bulletin fortnightly with the latest news and reminders for forthcoming events. If this is not enough you also receive 30% off Oracle books and this magazine containing articles on not only business but technical and non-technical areas.

With all these benefits I would like to focus on the Special Interest Groups. The agendas for the meetings have to cater for the views of a large audience and as such you may feel going couldn’t justify taking the time out of the office, as some of the material may not be relevant. In my experience the opposite is true. Whilst you may not feel a presentation of ASM may be relevant for your company right now, the technology will eventually catch you up, and then at that stage your company will have to pay for a course, and ironically, you’ll have to take the time out of the office. But if you attended your free SIGs, that knowledge will be there, in the back of your mind, ready to be accessed. So the next time a SIG comes around don’t think, will this SIG be relevant for my company now? think, are the topics relevant for my company in the future? You must remember your committee will be thinking the same questions as to the appropriateness of the subjects.

And finally, I would like to personally thank David Krutz for all his time and effort he has put into the UNIX SIG over the past 6 years. Without him the UNIX SIG wouldn’t be as successful as it as been. I do hope him all the best in his directorship in UKOUG and that the present committee of UNIX SIG continues in the good work David performed.