Short Fuse Stuff

This has nothing to do with the Roadmap series of articles. It really has to do with my experience watch Warner Brothers' Road Runner cartoons. Loved 'em as a kid and still love 'em now. In each of those cartoons, there is at least one instance of the Coyote attempting to knock off the Road Runner with some sort of bomb...and, in each case, the bomb's fuse is too short. The bomb explodes before the Coyote can throw or lauch the bomb. The Coyote gets nailed by the bomb...and I laugh until I hurt. The Coyote's problem here is that he never moves quickly enough to compensate for the short fuse. As for me, I've learned that when I encounter short fuse stuff in life, it's time to move quickly.

Much as I'd like to finish with the Roadmap before posting other articles, I have some short fuse stuff for share. There are some breaking events that I really should share with you right now - waiting until later will detract from the value of the information. So, without further delay, let's deal with the "short fuse" stuff before it blows up on me:

• OAUG is sponsoring a Fusion Middleware Boot Camp, with the intent of training developers and other technical types on basic Fusion Middleware skills (web services, XML, BPEL, BI Publisher). The bootcamp will take place October 22 through November 2 at the Oracle Education Center in Chicago, Illinois. You can learn more here. If you plan to attend, get registered - the seats are limited and filling up fast!
  

• Both OAUG and IOUG have put out their call for presentations for the Collaborate 08 conference. The conference will take place April 13 through 17, 2008 in Denver, Colorado. Note that both calls are asking for papers focusing on specific subject areas, and that the focus areas are different for each organization. The deadline in OAUG's call is October 28th. Although I don't see a date in the IOUG call, I would guess that their deadline is similar. You can learn more about the OAUG call here and about the IOUG call here.
  

• Oracle has rolled out the Oracle Innovation Award to honor companies "...already using Oracle Fusion Middleware to extend the business value of Oracle applications in innovative, exciting ways." The top 25 winners will each receive one conference pass to Oracle OpenWorld 2007 as well as a one-on-one conversation with an Oracle executive at an awards reception during the conference. Top 5 winners each receive one Oracle OpenWorld conference pass with a Club Oracle Gold Ugrade, inclusion in a feature article for Profit magazine, and an exclusive appearance on an Oracle Appcast with Cliff Godwin (I recently participated in one of these podcasts myself - a great experience. I hope I get to do it again). Nominations are now open with a deadline of October 5th, 2007. You can learn more about the Oracle Innovation Award here. So, if you've done something innovative with a component of Fusion Middleware and the Oracle applications, there may some benefits to sharing your story.
  

That clears the decks on all the short fuse stuff for now. Back to the Roadmap...