A Map for the Post BEA Era

I stopped by Ted Farrell's keynote at Oracle Develop 2008 and heard him give an overview of Oracle's "go forward" dev tools strategy in the wake of the influx of great technology from BEA. Below is a key section of the talk:

Speak, Write, Win

If you look at the people that make it to Oracle ACE status, they aren’t just good at technology they are also comfortable speaking and writing about what they do. (I know because I’ve interviewed many of them.) My advice? Get serious about your writing skills (as in take a class) and get over your fear of speaking publicly (as in join a speakers group). Here are a couple of examples to show you (and me), how it’s done.

Here’s Tim O’Reilly helping his employees face the economic meltdown. It's a well thought out, well written blog post. His simple message: when things get tough be creative and do stuff that matters. Thanks to Scoble for leading me to this.

Seth Godin at Google pushing the ideas in his latest book. He speaks so well that you keep watching that little Web video to hear what he’s got to say.

Exadata: It really works!

For the past three months, I and a small group of people in the creative department at Oracle have been working in secret on the HP Oracle Database Machine that Larry just announced in his OpenWorld keynote. Our group has been writing scripts for demos and videos, designing branding elements, shooting photos, and art-directing Web and print pieces. But we had no access to any REAL information about how the product was doing in real-world tests.  

Then at an Oracle Magazine lunch on Tuesday I sat next to a beta participant for the Oracle Exadata Database Machine.  Once we had established that I was on the inside of the project, he shared a story that made me look forward to the announcement even more.

Without ever mentioning the product by name, the beta participant told me that the first time he used Exadata, he and his team thought they had made a mistake.  The query came back too fast. They spent two hours on the line with Oracle trying to fix the problem. But there was no problem; Exadata was simply faster than anything they had experienced before.

I look forward to watching the the development of this technology in the real-world.  And I’m glad the months of silence and code speak are behind us.

Mix Profile - Ode to Gus

A friend of mine is a magazine illustrator and when the editors want to publish his profile he often just jots down what he's eaten that day and maybe something about where he's been and sends it to them. It's often the most entertaining and informative profile in the magazine and I'll tell you why: you learn about people from the details of their lives and the small choices they make.

In every beginning fiction class students are asked to create a character by showing the reader small details about the characters life, "what's in his fridge?" the teacher will ask, "what kind of shoes does she wear?"

So in honor of Gus and my creative writing teachers, I wrote a new profile for Oracle Mix. (It's not as cool as the ones Gus writes because I do have specific information I am trying to impart to colleagues. )

Jeff Erickson eats oats and fruit every morning in the Oracle Plaza building and then sits down to write a story for the Database Insider or the Fusion Middleware newsletter. Or he might work on a news story for Oracle Magazine or on his Oracle community column, Up Close. Throughout the morning he will fret about updating his blog. Then it’s off to the gym at lunch where he straps on his shoes for a run along the bay with friends. Except on Wednesdays when he meets the Oracle Speakers group in Building 300. After downing a sandwich at his desk, he’ll spend the afternoon lining up interviews or writing scripts for Oracle Demos or for his new show, One Minute Oracle. Throughout the day Lawrence Leung peppers him with requests to review updates or write short tech features for Oracle.com. Then he hops on his bike for the trip home and frets a little more about updating his blog.

Update: The character count in the Oracle Mix profiles is quickly eaten up by html links, so you can't publish link heavy profiles like this one. I've asked them to fix this.

It's HARD to Break the Marketing Mold

Yesterday a friend who is starting an Oracle blog emailed me her first post. I won’t share it here, but it a was well-written piece of marketing copy about an industry analyst report. Here’s my reply to her:

It's good, of course, but I think it's off the mark.

I think your posts need to add value right off the bat and need to ENGAGE something that’s out there on the Web or at an event, or something that’s happening here at campus.

For example, what is [our competitor] saying about the analyst numbers and how can you set the record straight?

Or how are these numbers reflected in the moves that Oracle is making? Do they mean that we can scale up developers and do stuff that others can’t? Are there some examples, such as a hiring binge in India or China or here? Are we using our market share advantage to pump out database options that no one else has the resources to build and is there someone from one of those teams that has a blog you can reference?

Other ideas for posts: Is there a new database learning event out there and is there a blog post about it you can link to? Did someone from Oracle just go to the TDWI conference and give a talk or learn something new and blog about it? Or can you link to their abstract and tell people where to learn more?

Is someone you know planning something interesting (that we can talk about) at OpenWorld: an interesting session topic, or an off-site event; something “inside” that you can show people? This is the kind of stuff you should lead with. This is the kind of stuff that will engage people in the blog.

What do you think?

It's hard to break away from the official marketing voice that we've learned over the years and speak directly to people. I applaud my friend for making the first step.
- Jeff

Where I'm Going with Web Video

Socialrank.com has a good example on their home page of where I'm going Web video at Oracle. Click on the move below "Introducing Discovery Engine..." and you will see a way to bring some enjoyment to you and your visitor while solidly making your point. This is the quality I'm driving towards with shows like One Minute Oracle.

Of course Web video is also good for spur-of-the-moment broadcasting and we'll see a lot of that at OpenWorld, including some from me.

How Quickly Can You Construct a Video?

In the Brand and Creative group we’re experimenting with iMovie as a storytelling tool that allows you to bring real human beings into your technology reporting. So while on staycation last week, I experimented with how quickly one could use iMovie to create videos. The following one, shot on a short Mt. bike ride from the coast into Big Basin park, took me about a half hour to construct after I had pulled in the video from our Flip video. IMovie 08 makes is easy to choose scenes, add transitions and titles. I “shared” the movie at the highest quality and then uploaded the 17MB file to YouTube. BTW, this is a great little ride; Waddell Beach to Berry Creek Falls.