Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Springtime In The Rockies - Wednesday

Well, the calendar may say it's springtime but it sure doesn't feel like it. The weather turned on us today - cold and snowing.

Despite the change in the weather, it was a pretty spectacular day at Collaborate 08.

John Stouffer's "Technical Roadmap" session was outstanding. It's always interesting to get John's perspective on Oracle's future directions...he just lays it out like he sees it. An example of one of John's pearls of wisdom: as Oracle's Fusion architecture continues to evolve, developers may want to stop focusing on interfaces and start sharpening their XML, Java, and BPEL skills in order to stay relevant.

Steve Miranda gave very strong presentations both in his "Introduction to Fusion Applications" and as a member of the OAUG Fusion Council Panel. I was also a panel member in the latter session, but was really more like a Pip backing up Gladys Knight. It was also during this latter session that we learned that we should be looking for the first release of a Fusion GRC application module later this year.

Directly following Steve's session was Cliff Godwin's "Planning for The Future" presentation. I really enjoy Cliff's presentations. He always provides a great deal of great content and is very open in sharing information. I put Cliff in the same category as Steven Chan in this regard - they're my two favorite Oracle presenters.

In a pleasant suprise during OAUG's Meeting of the Members, I was presented with the first OAUG President's Award in appreciation for contributions to OAUG. There are some folks making significant and important contributions to the OAUG, and the Oracle community at large. I'm very honored to be counted among them. I'm grateful to the OAUG leadership, especially President Jan Wagner, for this award.

I also had a second opportunity to spend time with the Fusion User Experience team, providing more feedback on the user interface for the Fusion Applications Projects module. I'll say it again: great UI and great people building the UI. I really can't wait for users to see the new UI...it's a significant improvement in the way users will get their work done.

Spent a great evening with good friends in the biz. That's probably the best aspect of Collaborate...a chance to see good friends and pick their brains about recent developments in the Oracle space. At any rate, it was a great evening...I could share some great stories about the night, but some things are better left off the record. You'll have to come join us at Collaborate 09 if you want to know more.

More pictures here.

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