VOTE in the ODTUG Board Election ~ Your Vote Matters

Posted on September 22, 2022 by TH Tech

The ODTUG Board elections open shortly – I encourage everyone to VOTE – because how you vote, or not, determines the future of ODTUG.

To vote, you must be a paid ODTUG member by September 30th. Simple. Not a paid member yet? Simply sign up here as an individual or corporate member: https://www.odtug.com/join-odtug

Join ODTUG to Vote — Join as an Individual or Corporate Member to Vote

Two Elected, One Appointed, 3-Year Terms. This is the first year our elections are completely on the new mode of elections: Top two candidates are elected to the Board, one person is appointed by the sitting Board, all to three-year terms. Board members are elected as Directors, not to any specific office. In the January meeting of the Board, the sitting Board elects officers for the year, based on experience and nominations from the Board itself.

Why did we make the change from two-year terms to three-year terms? We were losing too much knowledge in one year – half the Board was new in any given year. That made it impossible to work on longer-term strategic objectives, or anything that went beyond one year. Accounting, volunteer strategy, conference initiatives, and even webinars and meetups – the history was lost every year. By moving to staggered 3-year terms, there is less annual rollover, less knowledge lost, more knowledge carried on to the incoming Board members. This was not done lightly. The term max is still six years – two three-year terms instead of 3 two-year terms.

Why did we go to one appointed Board member? To ensure adequate coverage of all communities and all skill sets. Fact: Our voting membership is a small percentage of our membership. Fact: There is nothing that guarantees we have a Board member from each community, nor a Board member capable of being Treasurer, or Secretary, or one who is savvy with contracts

Allowing one Board member chosen by the sitting Board means we can back-fill to cover communities and skill sets. Two are elected, one is appointed – the control is still in the hands of voting members. Again, this was not done lightly.

Voting Members – Are You a Voting Member? – As I mentioned, this is a traditionally small percentage of our paid members. Why? Exercise your right to vote. When too few people vote, it is easy to skew an election toward a candidate whose company has a corporate membership, for example. Or skew to a candidate who is popular on social media, but perhaps not the best qualified otherwise. To prevent this – simple: VOTE. When you get that email, take a few minutes, read the candidates campaign statements, and VOTE. Take part in shaping ODTUG’s future.

Who YOU elect determines the future of ODTUG. Oracle User Groups – let’s face it ALL user groups – took a hit during COVID: budget, volunteers, connections and energy. The task at hand is to re-energize the Oracle technology community, to re-energize volunteers – ODTUG is a volunteer organization – and to continue provide quality educational events in whatever form they need to be. All this takes volunteers and planning and strategy. Your elected Board members drive this effort.

Bacon is Back for Kscope23! ODTUG KScope22 was a building conference – the first major Oracle developer conference post-COVID. We proved that the Kscope vibe is still alive – and that conference attendees want their hot breakfast and lunches. Rest assured we heard you, and agree, and barring any need for social distancing and grab-and-go meals – the reason for grab-and-go meals at Kscope 22- Bacon is Back for Kscope23! Watch for more information on ODTUG Kscope23, including abstract submissions opening on October 4th.

As an active ODTUG volunteer since 2004 I have seen a lot of ODTUG through the years, yet the core purpose remains the same – provide networking and quality, relevant knowledge to the Oracle community.

How people learn has changed. How people interact has changed. How people value education has changed, and what forms of education the prefer. Oracle technology has changed. Our careers have changed. ODTUG has adapted to meet new technologies and learning modes and must continue to do so. Who are the best candidates to carry us forward? You decide – VOTE for the ODTUG Board.

ODTUG and the ODTUG Board – Why I Care, Why Vote

Posted on September 18, 2020 by TH Tech

It’s that time of year, Nominations for the ODTUG Board are open (til Sept 23rd, get your nominations in here). I am up for reelection, and this time I really really care. More than in any other years, so much has changed, and so much is at stake.

VOTE.

ODTUG needs leaders who know what is going behind the scenes and can lead this organization through the minefield of challenges posed by COVID-19 restrictions. I am one of those leaders. I ask for your vote for reelection to the ODTUG Board of Directors for the 2021 term.

Read through to learn why you should vote, and why I ask for your vote.

Why I Care

This year COVID-19 brought drastic changes to the world. While we in IT are *relatively* unaffected by COVID-19 closings and restrictions – we can work, learn and network from home – there is no doubt that how we work, learn and network has changed drastically. ODTUG is actively – and needs to continue – adapting to our new mostly-virtual-hybrid world.

More than ever we need user groups to keep us connected, learning, and progressing. And those user groups – ODTUG in particular – must rise to the challenge of delivering not just content (the learning part) but the connections and camaraderie (networking) that is essential to build skills, confidence and leadership in our members. We need to keep our members engaged.

2020 Challenges

Most businesses – large corporations to sole proprietors, across all business sectors – have incurred significant setbacks, and have to adjust to conduct business virtually instead on on-site (or “on-prem”, if you will), all due to COVID-19. Cancellation of in-person events has touched us all. ODTUG was hit hard too, canceling Kscope20 in Boston.

ODTUG is a global not-for-profit organization (business) whose sole purpose is to keep you on up-to-speed on Oracle technology.. We have goals and budgets, and planning and tasks to meet those goals throughout the year. The ODTUG Board works behind the scenes to keep ODTUG operating. This year, like every other business in the world, our master plan was turned upside down by COVID-19.

ODTUG Has Adapted.

Forced to cancel KScope20, we launched our virtual Learn From Home series. Our webinars continue. In-person Meetups are on hold, virtual meetups proceed. Community activities, now all virtual. Kscope21 planning is underway (I am truly hoping to see all of you in Nashville) yet planning is by necessity flexible and cautious, as we need to adapt to what is allowed and required to host events by June of 2021.

On the surface, it seems not much has changed. Live events to virtual. Behind the scenes, your Board is doing everything possible to keep ODTUG operating at the same level of excellence as always. We will restore live events, starting with Kscope21 in Nashville, as safe as possible and as allowed, following all required guidelines.

Keep The Spark

Most important, we need to keep the ODTUG spark alive. ODTUG has a different feel from other user groups – more roll-up-your-sleeves technical, a great sense of community, networking and sharing (as opposed to consume-and-go). We are actively working to maintain this spark across all ODTUG events, live or virtual or hybrid, whatever we need to evolve to. With so many virtual events, ODTUG needs to bring the camaraderie and connections that ODTUG fosters to our virtual events as well as our live events, across all communities.

ODTUG Open Mic for Charity September 28 -30 Join us!

Our ODTUG Open Mic for Charity is one such event, Sept 28 to Sept 30 – join us to see the latest new stuff in your community, and to raise money for Cradles to Crayons our Kscope20 Boston Kathleen MacCasland Community Service Day charity.

Activities

Over the past terms as an ODTUG Director, I have served in many capacities, and essentially done anything I can behind the scenes to assist where needed in ODTUG operations:

Vice President, 2020
Secretary, 2019
Leadership Program Board Liaison
APEX Community Board Liaison
Marketing Director/Liaison
Governance Subcommittee
Conference Structure Subcommittee
Strategic Planning Subcommittee
Volunteer Engagement Subcommittee
Conference Committee Board Liaison
Board meetings and unscheduled discussions to handle assorted planned and unexpected ODTUG business, confidential and non-confidential.

As you can see I have experience across just about all that ODTUG is involved in. Plus the maturity and perspective of a senior ODTUG member and long-time developer/consultant, having observed and participated in ODTUG and other Oracle user group growth and changes since I first started volunteering in 2005.

Goals for 2021 Term

My goals for ODTUG for the coming term:

Kscope21 Ensure a safe, practical, Kscope21 event, in whatever forms it needs to be to serve our members, as allowed by the latest regulations and as required to meet our member needs in all communities
Volunteers Engage more ODTUG members in active volunteer roles. Virtual events, webinars, online meetups, even Open Mic for Charity afford more opportunities for persons to jump in and help for a few hours or a few days. These smaller chunks of commitment mean more persons can join in more easily. More volunteers means lower costs, saving on resources that can be better spent elsewhere. For this task I will actively be asking for persons to help out – Watch for my contact … and join us!
Budget vs Tasks vs Programs Ensure a slim practical, flexible ODTUG budget for the coming years, that allows us to survive in virtual mode and readily expand to introduce more programs and live events as allowed.
Keep the Spark Ensure ODTUG maintains its differentiating positive fun learning vibe in coming months and years, whether in-person, hybrid or virtual events.

Why you Should Vote

Your vote matters. ODTUG matters. Oracle User Groups matter. If you have read this far, you understand that I just about eat-drink-sleep ODTUG (much to my husband’s puzzlement!)

I am passionate about seeing ODTUG not just survive but adapt to thrive and serve our members in new, engaging, exciting ways in the coming term. All ODTUG communities have their unique needs. While partial to the APEX community (of course, I’m an APEX gal) each of our communities contributes to ODTUG as a whole.

All ODTUG members should vote, that includes you! Sometimes our elections come down to a few votes one way or the other, so please vote! If anyone wishes to talk about ODTUG in general, ODTUG topics, or why I am running, or you have specific needs from ODTUG that you want considered, please contact me at kcannell@thtechnology.com or DM on Twitter @thtechnology

Happy Coding, Happy Voting, and please consider a vote for Karen Cannell.

Thank you ~ Karen

ODTUG Innovation Award 2019

Posted on April 28, 2019 by TH Tech

Nominations are open for the ODTUG Innovation Award 2019 – again, I ask you, our ODTUG members – to show us, let us know about the WOW! things you discovered – or built yourself – in the past year. To nominate for this year, read more here:
https://www.odtug.com/p/bl/et/blogaid=882&source=1

To get you revved up, consider last year’s winner, Stewart Bryson of Red Pill Analytics for his product Checkmate. An awesome tool – full product, a full IDE really – to control and automate your Oracle Analytics development and lifecycle. Read more about Check Mate here –
http://redpillanalytics.com/checkmate/

and
https://blog.redpillanalytics.com/checkmate-for-obi-free-ec48e30e0787

Explore Checkmate to facilitate your Oracle Analytics development – and remember to give Stewart Bryson a hand when you next see him.

Now back to this year’s Innovation Award:

To make a nomination for the award, you must be an ODTUG member (Associate or Full). If you are not a member, join now.

Nomination Criteria

Nominees may be individuals or teams.
Nominees do not need to be ODTUG members, but they must work with a tool that supports at least one of our communities (Analytics, APEX, Database, and EPM).
Open-source and/or collaborative efforts are eligible.

Nomination Deadline

Nominations open: Tuesday, April 23, 2019.
Nominations close: Monday, May 13, 2019 11:59 p.m. EDT.

K Cannell for ODTUG Board ~ Keep the Spark Alive

Posted on September 19, 2018 by TH Tech

Vote for Karen Cannell for the ODTUG Board of Directors

I seek your vote for reelection to the ODTUG Board of Directors, so I may continue to actively establish and maintain ODTUG as the center of excellence for Oracle developers.

ODTUG has a spark, an indescribable vibe that you just don’t find at other user groups or conferences. We are technical, committed, passionate and fun. Something happens when top technical experts and Oracle product teams combine, elbow to elbow to share and talk tech. As an ODTUG Director, my job is to make sure that spark continues.

There are many challenges in doing so – engaging members, conference attendance, leading (not bleeding) edge content, member recruitment, quality practical technical resources, marketing what-where-when-how – all these balanced correctly combine to keep that ODTUG difference alive. That quality, that vibe, is our distinction – ODTUG is the best resource for Oracle developers. It takes work to keep it that way. And I love doing that unsung behind-the-scenes work. I gained from ODTUG, I have the experience to give back. I look forward to serving ODTUG for the coming years..

How developers work and learn continues to evolve – ODTUG must keep pace by delivering practical, actionable advice and training on legacy and emerging technologies. For all experience levels – novice through expert.

I am a senior ODTUG member, developer and consultant. I bring a quiet, steady, long-term perspective to the Board that is needed to balance the enticements of the “next new thing” with the need to deliver practical, get-the-work-done knowledge to our members. Please support my reelection to the ODTUG Board of Directors.

Experience / Attributes

Experience and attributes I bring to the ODTUG Board include:

Insight on developer needs and challenges gained via 30+ years of development experience, across large and small companies, government and private, large to single-person development teams.
Insight on user group operations gained through 13 yrs volunteering at local, regional and national user groups as reviewer, monitor, conference committee member, presenter, attendee and editor. As a board member I will have greater ability to solicit more content in more diverse formats.
Eye for timely, quality material on the latest Oracle tools, gained through 8 yrs as Editor and writer, for ODTUG, IOUG and APress
Quiet steadfast persistence to get tasks done, even the less glorious ones.
First-hand experience with major Board committees and activities:
- Leadership Program
- Emerging Technology Committee
- Marketing Liason
- ODTUG Innovation Award
- APEX Community Liason
- Various other committees on future not-yet-to-be-disclosed projects. All good stuff that may or may not be going forward, depending on research.

Read more details about my involvement in these Board activities, below in this post (just scroll to the bottom)

Reflections

As the ODTUG Board of Director election for the 2019-2020 approached, I reflected on my term as an ODTUG Director, on ODTUG in general and why an running again. This started small, then grew. There was lots of time and experience to cover!

Crazy

You want to what? my husband asks. Then he laughs – that kooky, you-are-certainly-crazy-girl laugh. The one that says, “I have no clue why you do this, but clearly you love it, so have at it”.

Why do I love ODTUG?

Why do I do this stuff?

ODTUG is where I learned to be a mature technical professional. Sure, I had technical Oracle skills before I got to ODTUG. I worked at General Electric writing automation engineering drafting applications – code that produced production drawings. At Computervision, I wrote CAD-CAM Architecture, Engineering and Drafting packages. I used bit of Oracle at CV, about when that Internet thing came to be. Then I worked in state and federal government (fisheries) agencies, on Oracle databases. Forms, Reports, Discoverer, Designer. Then came Portal, then HTML-DB.

I was privileged to attend an IOUG Live conference – what a great way to learn! I volunteered – reviewing conference submissions. Presented! On Oracle Forms. Helped out with the IOUG SELECT Journal.

Then someone suggested I try ODTUG. They thought it might be a better fit, since I was a developer. Thank you, Bob Reidman, for that not-so-subtle nudge.

About that ODTUG Spark

ODTUG has a spark, an indescribable vibe that you just don’t find at other user conferences. We are technical, committed, passionate and fun. Something happens when top technical experts and Oracle product teams combine, elbow to elbow to share and talk tech. That spark was evident in the first ODTUG I attended. And I don’t even remember which one it was. I got accepted to speak,on Oracle Forms and again, and JDeveloper for PL/SQL Developers (literally days before they split off SQL Developer as a separate product). I attended – still attend – both ODTUG and IOUG COLLABORATE conferences. By speaking and volunteering, I gained – gain – confidence in my skills, in myself as a professional. Good stuff.

But something is different about ODTUG Kscope. The level of technology, a bit higher. The intensity of learning, a bit higher. The technical focus and quality of presentations – higher. Willingness of presenters and attendees to sit down and talk shop – much higher. No one scatters at the end of the day – they hang out and gab, About Oracle and related technology. Geeky stuff. Non-stop learning. The connections made I use throughout the year – if I get stuck, I know who to go to. That was before things like the ODTUG listservs (now retired). And before the Oracle forums. And before apex.world. Now when I go to the Oracle forum or apex.world, I know who is answering – and someone always answers. Cool! Can’t buy that anywhere.

Getting Involved, My Story

ODTUG Technical Journal – submit papers now!

Of course I soon volunteered for ODTUG. Reviewing conference submissions, writing book reviews, then as Assistant Technical Editor. Then as Technical Editor when Donna Richey-Winkelman retired. (Thank you for all I learned from you, Donna!) At one point I was also Associate Editor for the IOUG SELECT Journal.

The beauty of being an editor is that one gets to read content from all over, and meet the experts and make connections from all areas.

All communities, all topics, I got to learn more, every month, I got to meet more people in other user groups, more people at Oracle. I guarantee many persons got tired of seeing me, they knew I was asking for another column, or another article. I wrote articles. Edited articles. Wrote book reviews on early versions of the JDeveloper Handbook, by Peter Koletzke and Paul Dorsey. What a privilege to learn editing from Peter Koletzke! (Many Thank You’s, Peter!)

Observations

As an editor I got to see a lot. Observe a lot. Experience a lot of ODTUG and Oracle technology in general. Traditional “Developer” roles changed – are changing. Traditional “DBA” roles changed, and are changing. With Dev-Ops, the roles are even continue to blur. How do we change with the technology? We turn to ODTUG for the latest sound technical resources. As an Oracle developer, I must evolve with the technology – I cannot do that alone – I can do that with resources and connections like I find at ODTUG.

Back to ODTUG.

The connections I made through ODTUG convinced me to go into consulting. (Thank you Scott Spendolini and Doug Gault!).

I would never have had the courage to make the jump to consulting without the support of ODTUG and the connections I made therein.

With the friends I had made in ODTUG, I knew I had the knowledge, I knew I had the technical support I needed, and I had the consulting support I needed. Fortunately, TH Technology continues to work for me and my clients.

I keep up with the latest versions of the Oracle database, or APEX, of ORDS, SQL Developer, and all sorts of earlier tools – JDeveloper, Application Server, HTTP Server, Discoverer, (I am dating myself …). By presenting at, and attending ODTUG Kcope, and attending webinars, and meetups when they are local, I have a bounty of training that I cannot match anywhere. I do not have the time nor the budget for formal weeks of training on one or two topics. As a consultant, it is my job to stay ahead of the curve – to advise my clients on the next steps for their installations. Fortunately I do best when I am learning – good thing in this field, as it never ends.

Important Board Activities

This term as a Board member, I am engaged in the following activities. If/when elected to a new term, I wish to follow on with these activities, passing some on to newer Board members, and in turn rolling on to new committees as they may fit ODTUG’s strategic direction.

Leadership Program, Board Advisor – The ODTUG Leadership Program prepares selected ODTUG members for leadership positions within their current organizations, or for that next step. LP persons read a leadership textbook, attended a series of online presentations/discussions and execute a group project, the topic of which changes year to year. The LP is NOT “how to be an ODTUG leader”. However, when we do our job right in the LP, the graduates want to stay on and give back to ODTUG. It is hugely rewarding to watch younger (time-wise, not age-wise) workers grow as the program progresses. It is fascinating how persons grow within this simple program. Due to certain opportunities, I initiated a post-LP mentoring program, underway now, and possibly ongoing. I know I am getting a lot out of this – I hope the participants are gaining as well.
Emerging Technology Committee – Investigate emerging technologies such as Blockchain, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), Internet-of-Things (IOT) and others to discern what our members need to know about, how much and when. There are lots of new cool IT things out there – which do you as an Oracle developer, EPM product manager related technologist need to learn? Know about is one thing – need to learn to stay relevant and productive at your job is another. ODTUG strives to deliver some of the former, more of the latter, the Need-To-Learn material.
Alternative Revenue Committee – Investigate alternative forms of revenue for ODTUG. As a non-profit organization, we watch expenses. We aim to give our members the best technical resources and the best conference for the best price possible.
Marketing Liaison – Review and recommend on ODTUG and ODTUG Kscope marketing materials – social media, email blasts, conference advertising.
APEX Community Liaison – The APEX community essentially runs itself, yet there are still needs for planning for ODTUG Kscope community activities, exchanging requests from the community, planning webinars, and assistance in planning meetups.

I am also involved in committees on future, yet-to-be-disclosed projects. All good stuff that may or may not be going forward, depending on initial research.

Volunteer Activities

Editor’s Choice – While serving as Editor of the Technical Journal, each year there was a corresponding Editor’s Choice Award for the best white paper – remember them – out of the ODTUG Kscope conference materials. Presenters used to submit both a white paper and a presentation for each conference they attended. The white papers served as materials for the ODTUG members, part of the overall ODTUG library. The Editor’s Choice reviews – an annual read-fest where a small group literally read and graded/ranked every paper submitted to the conference. At one point there were 125 papers. The beauty of the Editor’s Choice reviews was that one got to read the conference material before the conference. Like attending the conference before the fact. I learned more about Hyperion and Essbase through those papers than I ever knew existed. By far, our Hyperion/EPM community is the most prolific!

Pants On the Ground – In 2011, as part of our Long Beach conference, I participated in the general session reality-TV vote-off. I got to learn the American Idol Pants on the Ground song, and gave my husband (and no doubt many others) another good laugh. For kicks and grins, check out those 2011 general session videos. Always practice your dancing before an ODTUG Kscope.
ODTUG Volunteer Award – In 2012, I was awarded the ODTUG Volunteer award – a surprise for sure. And a huge honor. And yes, they caught me off guard on that one.
ODTUG Innovation Award – When the Editor’s Choice was retired – mainly due to lack of papers (who writes White Papers? The world writes Blogs now) – I initiated the ODTUG Innovation Award in 2016. The ODTUG Innovation Award honors technical excellence and innovation in the use of Oracle technology over the past year. Innovative, Wow! stuff. We have had great entries every year – and awesome winners: Mia Urman, Vincent Morneau, and Stewart Bryson. Any many more to come!

The ODTUG Innovation Award opens in April, closes before ODTUG Kcope in sufficient time for a panel of judges to evaluate the submission and award a winner, announced at ODTUG Kscope. Best luck to all future submissions!

APEX Conference Submission Reviews – I am honored to review conference submissions for ODTUG Kscope and other major conferences. This is a natural followup to reviewing Editor’s Choice papers. I have learned through the years what works and what is new and what is not yet – and I have fun doing it.

Giving Back

In short, I originally joined ODTUG to learn. I originally volunteered to give back. As a senior ODTUG member, developer and consultant, I bring a quiet, steady, long-term perspective to the ODTUG Board that is needed to balance the enticements of the “next new thing” with the need to deliver practical, get-the-work-done knowledge to our members.

ODTUG Mission

ODTUG, as an organization, has a mission:

To establish members as leaders in their organizations through education, timely access to the latest information, communication, and networking within the community, and provide a united voice to influence the strategic direction of Oracle and other vendors.

As long as ODTUG follows that mission, I can keep working, keep learning, keep current technically, keep a great bunch of friends and connections. And be a solid technical professional. Help me forward ODTUG’s mission, for all our members.

I ask for your vote for reelection to the ODTUG Board of Directors to ensure that the ODTUG spark, and the ODTUG flow of knowledge continues.

Happy Coding!

Karen

Submit to ODTUG Kscope18 – Last Days!

Posted on January 3, 2018 by TH Tech

Hurry up! Abstract submissions for ODTUG Kscope18 are due January 5th.

No more procrastinating, no more wavering, Just Do It! Submit your abstract here.

Presenting at ODTUG KScope is an awesome experience – share your knowledge, share your technical success stories, share you case study of geez-it-was-hard-but-we-figured-it-out. We are looking for presenters in these areas:

Application Express
Database
Big Data & Data Warehousing
EPM Infrastructure
EPM Data Integration
EPM Reporting, BI Analytics, and Visualization
Essbase
Financial Close
Multi-Product EPM Solutions
Planning
Real World EPM

Not sure how to write an abstract, or what to share? Check out these blogs for more information and ideas:

http://spendolini.blogspot.com/2013/11/presentation-advice.html
http://www.odtug.com/p/bl/et/blogid=1&blogaid=497
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140630141618-4832037-how-to-get-your-conference-abstract-accepted
http://www.pythian.com/blog/concrete-advice-for-abstract-writers/
https://chadthompson.me/2012/12/how-to-submit-winning-presentations/

We need topics at all levels of expertise, beginner to advanced. No excuses – write that abstract now Join us in Orlando, June 1-14, 2018!

ODTUG Innovation Award ~ Make Your Nomination Now!

Posted on May 25, 2017 by TH Tech

Nominations for the 2017 ODTUG Innovation Award are open now through June 2nd. Make your nomination now, before your Memorial Day weekend.

We are looking for innovative, exceptional, ahead-of-the-curve applications of Oracle development tools that stand out as examples of “the next big thing”, or maybe the really neat next small thing, in Oracle technology. Can’t think of anything? Nah, I don’t believe that. Consider:

Do you have, or does your co-worker have an unusually creative application or combination of new and emerging Oracle tools?
Did you find a new open source project that makes your life easier? Open source projects are eligible, as long as they integrate some Oracle technology.
Does your latest project enable faster, smoother, cleaner adoption of an Oracle tool?
Are you envying someone else’s work, saying “Wish I thought of that …”?
Have you seen a real neat learning tool that aids others in understanding a new Oracle tool? All projects, large and small, are eligible.
Does your organization have an exception program for attracting or training persons new to Oracle technology?
Have you created, seen or adopted a new plugin or feature, large or small, that others may not have seen yet?

We are looking for the stuff that makes you say “Wow, great idea …” or “Neat stuff …” or “wicked cool …” (you can tell where I am from). We need your help to get as many innovation examples in before the June 2nd deadline.

Now is the time to make your nomination.

The ODTUG Innovation Award honors excellence in creative, effective, and innovative use of Oracle development tools within ODTUG’s supported communities (ADF, APEX, BI, Database, EPM and Career). The goal is to honor developers – individuals or teams – whose passion and creativity shine through in their application of Oracle technology to address real-world problems. Note that this year we are not excluding anything or anyone, so projects and individuals from all organizations (Oracle, too!) are welcome.

Note that ODTUG members get to vote this year. Make your nomination, then vote for it too! Member voting will be combined with judges scoring to determine an overall Innovation Award winner.

Check out the full information on the ODTUG web site here:

ODTUG Innovation Award Nominations

Nominations close June 2nd, so act soon!

ODTUG Innovation Award 2017 ~ Nominations are Open!

Posted on May 7, 2017 by TH Tech

Nominations for the 2nd Annual ODTUG Innovation Award are now open!

We are looking for innovative, exceptional, ahead-of-the-curve applications of Oracle development tools that stand out as examples of “the next big thing” in Oracle technology or as unusually creative applications of new and emerging Oracle tools. The stuff that makes you say “Wow, great idea …” or “Neat stuff …” or whatever rad saying you use.

Now is the time to make your nomination.

What is it this year: A new Cloud implementation? A clever APEX integration? A cross-platform collaboration? The sky (cloud joke) is not the limit!

New this year is Member Voting – all ODTUG members are invited to vote for your favorite Innovation Award nomination. Yes, we want YOU to help decide the 2017 Innovation Award winner. Member voting will be combined with judges scoring to determine an overall Innovation Award winner.

Check out the full information on the ODTUG web site here: ODTUG Innovation Award Nominations

Nominations close June 2nd, so act soon!

ODTUG

The 2017 ODTUG Innovation Award nominations will be reviewed by a team of judges according to these general topics:

Innovation – The “wow” factor: acknowledges the exceptional and innovative
Quality – Not only does it have to be “wow,” but it has to work
Applicability – Evaluates subject matter importance, completeness, effectiveness, and accuracy
Topic merit – Treatment of a cutting-edge topic, technical complexity, or new and unique approach to a common problem

Judges score will be combined with member voting results to determine the overall winner.

For guidance, a perfect example of innovation with Oracle tools is our 2016 Innovation Award Winner: Mia Urman, AuraPlayer

AuraPlayer and Oracle joined forces to mobilize the Oracle Forms based collision reporting system for the New York MTA to a new Oracle Mobile Cloud based application without redevelopment. In the past, MTA’s officers had to manually fill out accident reports in the field and then deliver it to a data entry clerk who would then enter the information into MTA’s legacy system. Using AuraPlayer and Oracle’s Mobile cloud they were able to create a “mobile-ready” version of the application without the need for redevelopment or migration of the underlying Oracle Forms system. To enable this modernization, REST services were automatically generated from the Oracle Forms business processes using AuraPlayer. The REST services communicate with the Oracle Mobile Cloud Service, enabling authentication and push notifications, as well as application monitoring and analytics.

Using this application, MTA employees are now able to gather collision information and in addition, now capture photos of the accidents and documents on their tablets. This data is automatically updated by AuraPlayer into MTA’s Oracle Forms system. The mobile app also works offline, even without cell or Wi-Fi coverage, this is especially important when an officer is working in a tunnel or on the middle of a bridge. With the real-time submission of traffic accident reports, MTA can assess damages much quicker, determine if a crew is needed to repair damage, and clear the scene in much shorter time—in some cases minutes, instead of hours. The need to manually type collision reports after the fact was eliminated, and the efficiency, accuracy, and timeliness of the data were improved.

See more about AuraPlayer here.

Congratulations, Mia and AuraPlayer!

Announcing the ODTUG Innovation Award

Posted on April 15, 2016 by TH Tech

What Oracle development project in the past year made you say WOW!

What project, collaborative or individual, demonstrates exceptionally innovative and creative use of Oracle technology?

What stands out as an above-and-beyond example of Oracle technology applied to real world problems?

To honor such creativity and innovation, ODTUG announces a more modern mode of honoring excellence within ODTUG’s supported communities (ADF, APEX, BI, Database, and EPM), the ODTUG Innovation Award.

The ODTUG Innovation Award honors excellence in creative, effective, innovative use of Oracle development tools. The goal is to honor developers – individuals or teams – whose passion and creativity shines through in their application of Oracle technology to address real world problems in our ODTUG communities.

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We are looking for innovative, exceptional ahead-of-the-curve applications of Oracle development tools that stand out as examples of “the next big thing” in Oracle technology, or as unusually creative applications of new and emerging Oracle tools in our ODTUG communities.

To make a nomination for the award, you must be an ODTUG member (Associate or Full). If you are not a member, join ODTUG now.

Who/What is Eligible:

Nominees may be individuals or teams that are non-Oracle employees.
Nominees need not be ODTUG members, but they must work with a tool that supports at least one of our communities (ADF, APEX, BI, Database, and EPM).
Open Source and / or collaborate efforts are eligible.

Nominations:

Through the ODTUG Innovation Award blog post, here, (Nomination page is visible to the general public)

Nominations Open: Now!
Nominations Close: May 31st

More information:

What we are looking for are the things that make us go Wow! when we first see them. Here are a few historical examples:

Integration of Oracle Forms and Java ADF (years ago)
HTMLDB, when it first came out – and the first practical applications of HTMLDB (years ago)
Oracle-based applications on an iPhone
Oracle applications of Google Glasses
Our first look at Node.js integrated with (extending) an APEX application. (a few years back)
Peter Koletzke and Paul Dorsey’s work deciphering and promoting JDeveloper when it first launched

We know sure there are examples from every Oracle technology community. ~ let us know about them!

Judging:

The 2016 ODTUG Innovation Award winner will be decided by a team of ODTUG experts who will review all of the nominations and discuss and rate them according to these general topics:

Innovation – The Wow factor: Acknowledges the exceptional and innovative
Quality – Not only does it have to be Wow, it has to work.
Applicability – Evaluates subject matter importance, completeness, effectiveness, and accuracy
Topic Merit – Treatment of a cutting-edge topic, technical complexity, or a new and unique approach to a common problem.

For this first year, the ODTUG Innovation Award will be awarded decided by a select panel of experts from across all ODTUG communities. In future years, nominations will be open all year long, and all ODTUG members will be able to vote for their favorite.

Watch for more information on the ODTUG Innovation Award on all the usual channels: ODTUG emails, Twitter, the ODTUG website,

Our ODTUG Innovation Award honors innovation, excellence and amazing accomplishment in the realm of Oracle Development Tools adoption and integration. The possibilities are endless ~ What makes you, as a developer, say Wow! ~ Nominate your favorite examples now!

ODTUG Board of Directors Election ~ Vote!

Posted on October 7, 2015 by TH Tech

The ODTUG Board of Directors election is underway now. ODTUG memebers, this is your chance to choose 5 new board members for the 2016-2017 term.

Again this year there is a stellar selection of candidates.

Why do I run? I have served ODTUG in many capacities behinds the scenes and as Editor of the Technical Journal, and want to :

Bring more quality learning material in all formats, online and offlne, to all Oracle developers:
- more online material in more formats, and
- more meetups to bring the message local.
Encourage women in technical fields:
- to strive for higher positions in those careers, and
- to have greater confidence in what they bring to the table technically and personally.
Strengthen the ODTUG Communities so that material and answers from ODTUG experts shows up in every search. We cannot keep our knowledge behind (fire)walls!

ODTUG should be the Oracle Developer go-to resource for learning, online and locally. As a board member I will work to increase ODTUG’s online presence and increase ODTUG’s regional and local presence via co-hosted meetups.

There are many qualified candidates – regardless of who you vote for, VOTE!

Read all the campaign statements and biographies of the candidates.

ODTUG is the best source of learning for all Oracle development tools ~ your vote ensures we not only stay that way but grow as fast or faster as the tools we use.

To vote, please visit https://www.associationvoting.com/odtug and enter your email and Voter ID exactly as shown in the email you received from ODTUG (actually from announcement@associationvotiing.com) on or about 10/06/2015.

Not a member? Join! You are missing out on the best Oracle training in the world, at minimal investment of a year’s membership fee. Betteryet, VOLUNTEER and quadruple the learning advantage.

As always, Happy Coding!

BTW ~ Accepting Viedos, Blog Posts, papers, podcasts – send us your excellence for publication in the ODTUG Technical Journal.

Karen

ODTUG Technical Journal – submit papers now!

APEX Presentations ~ Through the Years

Posted on September 15, 2015 by TH Tech

I was recently asked to summarize my APEX Presentations. I realized I had them in several places, but not in one consolidated space. So here it is – a summary of my APEX Presentations through the years:

APEX 5 Interactive Reports

Updated for the APEX 5 release, these links contain the presentations from KScope 15, and white papers as published in RMOUG’s SQL>UPDATE magazine.

For APEX 5, Interactive Reports have been reengineered from the inside out. Any developer who uses IRs, has made customizations for appearance or features or performance outside of the standard API’s, even pagination plugins, needs to be aware of the new CSS and JavaScript engine. APEX 4 and earlier customizations will likely not work in APEX 5 without some refactoring. Be prepared!

Presentations: APEX 5 (Released) Interactive Report Deep Dive, KScope 2015 Presentation
   APEX5 Interactive Reports New Features and Upgrade Cheat Sheet – Presentation RMOUG 2015
Papers:     APEX 5 Interactive Reports Part I: New Features and Enhancements
     APEX 5 Interactive Reports Part II: Structural CSS and JS Widget Code Changes

Migrating Critical Business Application to APEX – Successfully

Presentation: Migrate Business Applications to APEX, Successfully – Presentation

I had a blast at COLLABORATE14 in Las Vegas, NV, April 6-11, 2014. I had a chance to catch up on Oracle 12c skills, learn more about ADF Mobile with APEX for hybrid mobile applications, XQuery and XML DB and of course refresh friendships with all those at IOUG. My Friday presentation was on Migrating Critical Business Applications to APEX, covering tips and tools for migrating any legacy app to APEX.

APEX Data Load Options, or, How Do I Load Data, Let Me Count the Ways …

Presentations: APEX Data Loading Options

There are many many ways to load data into an Oracle application. This presentation discusses data load methods specific to APEX – the data load wizard, external files, custom methods and using the APEX Listener for a true MS Excel file upload. This is practical what works, what doesn’t information to help one decide the best approach for data loading problems.

Meaningful Maps, Gantts and Charts

Presentations: Meaningful Maps, Gantts and Charts

APEX 4.0 introduces improved charts and maps, but how to make sense of them? This presentation covers all the basics for understanding APEX 4.0 Charts, Maps and Gantt Charts. Plenty of information to get one building meaningful charts and maps in APEX applications.

Tight Tabular Forms

Presentations: Tight Tabular Forms

APEX tabular forms are handy, but kind of loose, if you use them out of the box. This presentation covers the improvements in APEX 4.0 for tabular form validations, plus some tips on adding validations using the APEX_APPLICATION arrays, and building manual tabular forms using the APEX_ITEM API.

Migrate BI to APEX: What Works, What Doesn’t, and Lessons Learned Along the Way

Presentation: Migrate BI to APEX – What Works, What Doesn’t, and Lessons Learned Along the Way

This presentation covers a real migration from a major-vendor BI tool to APEX Interactive Reports for end-user information needs. Covers feature considerations such as drills, pivots, output; dynamic crosstab options and construction, including use of 11g PIVOT and AMIS PIVOT object type solution. Careful crosstab query construction makes APEX Interactive Reports more powerful than one may think. APEX 4.0 new features address the needs for user-defined grouping, shared reports, scheduled report delivery, multiple views of the same data set and improved charting. Check it out!

Note: I am working on an APEX 5 version of this presentation – improvements in APEX 5 interactive reports, including the PIVOT feature, may tip the scales and make a switch from an expensive, underutilized BI tool to APEX a better use of resources.

Oracle Application Express: Tactics to Tackle APEX Bugs

Paper: Tactics to Tackle_APEX Bugs, Paper

Presentation: Tactics to Tackle_APEX Bugs, Powerpoint

Know your application, know your tools, have a plan, and always remember that you know some stuff. You can debug Application Express apps and stay sane.

APEX development is a breeze, until something goes wrong and there’s no obvious clue of what happened or how to fix it, and there’s no UNDO. Or is there? This session presents tactics to tackle common APEX problems such as MRU internal error, Browser errors, SQL and PL/SQL issues, HTML, and JavaScript problems. We cover triage, debug tool options, and debug tactics, and then demonstrate applying those strategies to tackle common APEX problems.

This paper and presentation were written for APEX 4.0 (or earilier?) ~ APEX debugging techniques are much improved now! However, the strategies and tactics for addressing bugs: knowing your app, knowing your tool, instrumenting, researching first and using the forums still apply.

Oracle Application Express Interactive Reports: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

Presentation: APEX Interactive Reports: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

Paper: APEX Interactive Reports: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

I had fun writing this paper, mainly because the movie (old western, Clint, of course) theme song played in my head, and our house is defnitely a Clint-John Wayne-Sam Elliot-Any Old Western neighborhood.

Oracle APEX Interactive Reports have many Good points, but one-size does not fit all, so we developers still have some cleverness to apply to meet end user requirements in all cases. This paper outlines the Good, the Bad, the limitations, and shows some easy CSS edits to address the Ugly, the default appearance. Have fun!

APEX Interactive Reports offer amazing functionality out-of-the box, but this wealth of features comes with limitations. This session presents the Good, the Bad and the Ugly of APEX IR, then details and demonstrates workarounds to address the Bad (the limitations) and the Ugly (the appearance). Learn how to limit Search and Activity features for different user roles, how to eliminate part or all of the Search and Activity Bars and how to customize the look-and-feel to fit your corporate template.

(As with all my papers, I will keep this post up to date with the latest version of the paper.)

APEX Cheat Sheet

Download the APEX Cheat Sheet paper from here: APEX Cheat Sheet

When starting out with Application Express, it can be a bit confusing in terms of what syntax to use where, how to effect the item alignment needed, how to customize the look-and-feel… in general, how to get productive. Tha APEX Cheat Sheet paper is a collection of tips, how-to’s, syntax conventions and tricks to accelerate a developer’s APEX learning curve. The APEX Cheat Sheet paper has grown to be much longer than a “cheat sheet” but it does provide a solid quick-start to APEX development.

Note: While written for erly APEX versions – APEX 3! – some of the basics still apply, like the f?p syntax. Someday I will do another Cheat Shet- the problem is there are so many new features, I will have to do multipe cheat sheets for each major feature.

APEX Under the Covers

Paper: APEX Under the Covers

In working with Oracle Application Express I have found the best way to learn “how they did that” is to look “under the covers” at the APEX code … The way to do that is to download an application, install it in my builder, and view how the author implemented the features of interest.

The white paper and presentation APEX Under the Covers walks the reader / viewer through the learning process of looking under the covers at some not-so-standard features implemented in APEX. The examples are not rocket science; they are intended only to get the brain thinking along lines where the reader may not yet have ventured, suggesting a few different approaches to achieving an end within APEX.

Note: This presentation was written for APEX 4, but the approach is the same with APEX 5 and beyond – learn from how they wrote APEX. For APEX 5, use and LOOK AT how they wrote the packaged applications. This is free training at its best!

APEX Debug Options

Paper: APEX Debug Options

Debugging Oracle Application Express can be a conundrum. It’s PL/SQL, but I cannot see it, and I cannot step through it. PL/SQL generates the page, but I do not have access to the APEX page generator. There is JavaScript and CSS and HTML … Where to start? The truth is there are many avenues for debugging APEX; some APEX-supplied, some external to APEX. The paper and presentation APEX Debug Options describes both APEX-supplied utilities and tools external to APEX for debugging APEX applications.

~ Keeping it Fresh: Cost-Effective Training

Layoffs, economizing, more for less, and oh-by-the-way keep up with the latest in Web development, languages, data modeling, coding techniques, testing, quality, the latest App Servers and find time to relax a bit and network with your peers. The temptation is to postpone or skip all training. I suggest however that this is the time we need training all the more. I maintain the most cost-effective training can be found at our user group conferences. Attend! Volunteer – get involved! IT is the most efficient, cost-effective way to stay current and learn new technologies, and you might have some fun along the way.