Oracle OpenWorld 2008 - The Far Side Of The World

Ramadan is over
The new moon’s shown her face
I’m halfway round the planet
In a most unlikely place
Following my song line
Past bamboo shacks and shops
Behind a jitney packed like sardines
With bananas piled on top

Back at home, it’s afternoon
Six thousand miles away
I will still be there when I get through
Attending this soiree
There are jobs and chores and questions
And plates I need to twirl
But tonight I’ll take my chances
On the Far Side of the World
That’s the way it happens
On the Far Side of the World
- From Jimmy Buffett's "Far Side Of The World"


Well, Ramadan isn't quite over (at least as far as I can tell...as a non-Muslim, I'm no expert), but Oracle OpenWorld still arrives this year at an interesting time. Interesting for the U.S. and world economy, for the software marketplace, and for me personally. I'm actually glad for the timing, for a chance to break away from the routine for a few days at a time and experience the latest news from the Oracle universe.

I see an economy with some fundamental that may be changing. I see ERP software marketplace that's gone from an emphasis on growth to more of a "cash cow" model...maybe even in the early years of a developing "Long Tail" scenario. And I'm wondering about my own place in the market as it continues to change. Maybe OOW will help sort some of this out.

Now, please don't think I'm waxing maudlin on ya'all. Far from it! I plan to have an absolute blast at OOW. There is lots of hubub at OOW this year, even more than usual. Focused lounges, live video blogging, and so on...the sensory experience promises to be such that one person just can't take it all in. I plan to blog daily from OOW, but I also hope to rise above the hubub and blog about the meatier parts of the conference.

So I'm more interested in taking away and sharing ideas about the value-add from the conference than I am in writing about the glitz, considerable and entertaining though that glitz will certainly be. More to the point, I'll be even more stringent in applying my usual acid test: how all this admittedly very cool stuff will help drive value in my enterprise? It ain't just the technology, but what the technology does for us that counts...it's very easy to lose that perspective at an event like OOW. I suspect that I may be in the minority on this point, so much so my time at OOW may be like a trip to a culture on "The Far Side Of The World" (even though San Francisco is a mere puddle-jump for me in terms of physical travel). So my series of updates from OOW this year will be entitled "Notes From The Far Side Of The World"...hope ya'all get what I'm trying to say.

On to the big bash!