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http://www.oracle.com/technology/oramag/oracle/07-jul/o47field.html
COMMENT: In The Field
An Oracle User Looks at 30
By
A tradition of technology and user groups marks
Oracle's 30th year.
Celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, Oracle has
been a consistent leader in databases and associated technologies. And while
the company has been building and sharing leading technology, Oracle's users
have built relationships and become leaders.
Where It All Began
My own association with Oracle began in 1992, when I
graduated from the California Institute of Technology. So many Caltech alums
went to work for Oracle in those days that it was nicknamed "Caltech grad
school." I was one of about 60 new consultants who joined the company that
year. Oracle was still small enough at that time that Larry Ellison personally
reviewed and signed off on all our résumés and came to meet every
one of us.
I was fortunate enough to join one of Oracle's top-gun
consulting teams. All the most difficult projects came to us. Everything was
behind schedule. Everything was high-pressure. It was great. In the two years
that I worked for Oracle, I learned a great deal about technology and problem
solving.
I learned enough, in fact, to go into business as an
independent Oracle consultant. I'm very proud of the Oracle-based applications
I helped architect in the years from 1994 to 2000, such as the Web site for
Hallmark, which was one of the top 10 e-commerce sites at the time.
It was through my independent consulting that I first
became involved with Oracle user groups. I wanted to participate in user groups
for several reasons. As a consultant, it was a good way for me to make
professional contacts that could help my own business. I also got to learn from
the experiences of other members and guest speakers sharing their successes and
failures. I volunteered to speak at user group meetings. My outreach efforts
included writing white papers and books and answering questions on my Web site.
The spirit of user group members sharing tricks and techniques—learning
from each other's experience—impressed me.
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Oracle user groups have always been independent,
relying on members for information and action—a true "by users for
users" phenomenon. This way of doing things has been helpful as Oracle's
growth over the past 30 years expanded to middleware and applications, thus
expanding the role of Oracle professionals such as DBAs.
These IT professionals must now know how to solve
larger-enterprise infrastructure issues such as enterprise security,
replication, high availability, disaster recovery, application
interoperability, enterprise backup, and much more. In user groups, each person
can learn from the other—and just one good solution or new way of
managing Oracle can make all the long meetings worthwhile.
Increased Participation
In the past few years, Oracle has clearly increased its
participation in user group events. Oracle values user groups now more than
ever, from the top leadership down. President Charles Phillips, for example,
regularly speaks at user group conferences such as Collaborate, which includes
the Independent Oracle Users Group (IOUG), Oracle Applications Users Group, and
Quest International Users Group.
The IOUG is now one of the major Oracle user groups,
maintaining lines of communication between Oracle and its users. The IOUG also
plays a central role in helping user groups communicate with each other. I
joined the IOUG and increased my involvement with the group, becoming a member
of the board in 2003. One of my projects was to help refocus the user group Web
site: improving the content, developing the strategy, and building a virtual
community. Eventually, I became executive vice president and have served as
president for two years now.
What's Next?
So what might be in store for the next 30 years of
Oracle and Oracle users? An easy prediction is that the company will continue
its lead in technology, and Oracle users will continue to share information and
build relationships—and, by doing so, they'll lead each other in the use
of Oracle products and technologies.
