Colin Charles Agenda

I caught Made in China on Sundance over the weekend. It was all about the pursuit of an inventor and the trials & tribulations he faced thrown into a new land. It even won several awards. Good film, recommended watch.

It reminded me of my childhood. My job description for the future? I always said I would be a scientist. I always liked building things, from the time I was a kid. When people got toys when they were three years old, I got extension wires. I got my first computer when I was five years old (a family unit no less). This was in 1989. I built computers, soldered circuit boards, basically made things – invention was fun, as were trips to the then Radio Shack in Bangsar, and Pasar Road when I grew a little older.

Building things seems to be coming back with the Maker movement. Many people are inventing the web as we can see. Many people are also copying such inventions. This happens in software as much as it does in the physical world.

Somewhere along the way, I think I’ve lost my way towards invention. Deals. Financing. Chasing the next big thing. News rot. Running the rat race. I think many people are in the same predicament.

For me, it is a great time to reflect. I’ve had a bumper year, I’m spending some time off, and I want to get back into creation. Invention. Some call this maker time/shifting to maker mode.

Sometimes it pays to step back, look at things from a macro perspective, plot, then execute.

I didn’t participate in 2012, but in 2013, I’m back on the conference committee for Percona Live Santa Clara. We have an awesome Program Chair in Shlomi Noach, and after much deliberation & commentary, we have a tutorials schedule out now. Expect that the rest of the conference content to be awesome too. Remember, April 22-25 2013 are the magical dates, so register now!

I had an interesting conversation with Sheeri (who I’ve known for many years, so consider this friendly banter) on Twitter about my recent blog post titled: once again, a split in events.

Disclaimer/Bias Warning: For those that don’t know me, I write this as a perspective of a community member. I was the first ever Community Engineer at MySQL, followed by being a Community Relations Manager right up till I left Sun Microsystems. I now work on MariaDB which is a branch of MySQL, so naturally we are in competition for user base. But I’m writing this as a community member at large who cares about MySQL & the ecosystem.

First of, this is a focus on the user ecosystem. I think the MySQL developer ecosystem has never been healthier than it is today – so many branches, forks, features, development trees, etc. Developer ecosystems are for another post, this is all about user ecosystems.

On events during similar timeframes

Sheeri started with calling BS on my post. Great way to start a conversation. I for one didn’t say that Oracle split the community or that Percona did so. I’m not in the job of pointing fingers. I’m just looking at past evidence: London 2012 (Percona, UKOUG), September/October 2012 (MySQL Connect San Francisco, Percona NYC), April 2011 (MySQL Conference Santa Clara, IOUG Collaborate Florida). There may be more events but I can only think of these.

I’ve heard that the April timeframe is bad for Oracle to send engineers to conferences because they have a busy release month. Yet Collaborate in Florida was ok?

Yes, MySQL may be the most popular opensource database today. This is great for the ecosystem that I am in. We can & should have many events, so I totally agree with Sheeri. But do they have to be at the same time? Do they have to ensure that attendees have to choose one or the other?

On spreading MySQL

I am happy that free events now happen in places that previously had no events, like Nairobi & Kenya. MySQL presence was almost unheard of in South America (many users, but we never made it out there to meet with the grassroots), but I’ve seen great amounts of activity there. I’ve even written about this before: a tale of two conferences. London in 2011 was awesome for MySQL all spread by a week – Oracle and Percona had 2 events and there were 2 different audiences from what I could tell.

I was at MySQL Connect this year as well as Percona Live NYC. The amount of intersection in attendees was sparse. In fact, Oracle managed to gather an interesting new crowd for Connect, so all kudos to them!

My wish as a community member (on events)

I wish to see Oracle MySQL employees show up at all events. This includes Percona Live events. I mean a talk from someone developing InnoDB, for example, would be great. It seems that the official line though is: “Oracle is not willing to help other companies’ marketing“. Fair enough. Percona Live is a great marketing event for Percona.

In the same vein I wish to see non-Oracle employees, even those from competitors, show up at Oracle MySQL events. MySQL Connect had 2 talks from Percona. That’s a good start.

I also wish that I get the best MySQL & ecosystem related content at one event. Many people can only make one event (especially when they happen during the same time at different locations). As a busy DBA, I want “the one event to learn it all”. That’s what the MySQL Conferences in Santa Clara used to do. This was a home for people to meetup once a year. This is no longer the case, it would seem.

Keeping MySQL relevant

Another wish that is unrelated to events: I wish MySQL was still spreading.

I speak to many MySQL users. From humble developers to large enterprises.

Oracle’s enemy isn’t MariaDB or Percona Server or the ecosystem at large. MySQL’s enemy is the growing use of other databases. NoSQL solutions are a popular choice; when people realize they want something relational, they don’t think about MySQL as a migration path. Pretty much every migration story I’ve seen suggests it is a migration to PostgreSQL.

Many years ago, you deployed on MySQL first. Today, is it still the first choice for the developer? Is it the second choice?

What about enterprises migrating from the Oracle database? They are well aware whom the new owners of MySQL are.

I saw this published on Josh Berkus’ blog: MySQL-to-PostgreSQL migration data from the451.com. It is worth a read.

I have had many conversations with experienced MySQL DBAs who I would consider rockstar DBAs in the Valley who are now beefing up their MongoDB knowledge. Some job offers are now asking for more than just MySQL knowledge. The naive way to look at it is if you’re getting 2-3 job offers for MySQL work per week. That is today. What about next year? I would like to put on a long term view here.

One more thing

I am truly independent in this. I want to see MySQL succeed. I need it to succeed as I am an ecosystem participant (via MariaDB).

I have heard many people call Oracle ACE/Directors Oracle apologists. I know pretty much all the Oracle ACEs as friends and respect their opinions, so in no way am I going to refer to them as apologists or shills. 

Celebrate the Oracle ACE/Director like you would the old/defunct MySQL Guilds.

Let’s work together to make the MySQL user ecosystem healthy!

Thanks to Sheeri Cabral, Giuseppe Maxia, Henrik Ingo & Ronald Bradford for pre-reading this.

In may 2012, I went on a little shopping spree on kickstarter. The intention wasn’t to invest in a project but back it. Its clear many people get confused with the concept. Backing a project isn’t like going to a store to buy or pre-order a product either.

Backing a project is rooting for its success. With money, one can only presume that projects execute and whatever was promised gets delivered. It seems however that my kickstarter hit rate is so far a mere 50%.

I backed a project that successfully delivered the goods in September 2012. I was rather thrilled because it clearly made someone’s dreams come true. Another project that I had backed should have delivered on the goals by the end of July.

Sadly, its November and many of the backers haven’t heard back from the project owner. Many comments from concerned backers are posted in the comments section.

Me? I backed what I consider a small amount. In funding, sometimes things fall thru, and in backing projects, sometimes things don’t work out even when the funding goal is reached. Money alone doesn’t make a product!

Is this however a problem? Will someone that has been burnt by a negative backing consider using the Kickstarter platform again? Will it ruin crowdfunding for them?

I don’t have the answers. I will continue perusing the site, backing interesting projects, ensuring people’s dreams can be achieved. Let’s see if my success rate improves over time.

Percona Live London 2012 happens December 3-4 2012. Naturally Oracle has decided to back UKOUG in Birmingham with interesting talks as well, happening December 3-5 2012. This is akin to the recent San Francisco/New York split for MySQL Connect & Percona Live NYC 2012.

Lucky for us, Birmingham’s “MySQL day” seems to be December 5 2012, and by estimates, it takes about 1.5 hours for one to attend both events and see 3 days of MySQL related content.

That aside, I’m hoping this doesn’t happen in 2013. Splitting the community is never a good idea.

I was recently in Japan and picked up in-store a Native Union Authentic Retro POP Phone Handset for Mobile Devices and Tablets. It is a nifty little device that is great when you have to make long calls (think group meetings, conference calls, etc.). It also means I don’t keep my phone to my ear. The audio quality is pretty good as well, and you can hang up on the call from the phone.

It isn’t something I’m carrying when I travel, but it is a welcome addition to the office. Best thing about it? It uses a regular headphone jack, so no worries about it working on my Android, iPhone, or BlackBerry.

Now, would I get away with driving in a car with this? :-)