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Phil (aka MP3Monster)'s Blog

~ from Technology to Music

Phil (aka MP3Monster)'s Blog

Tag Archives: ACED

Techfest 19 & ACED

06 Friday Dec 2019

Posted by mp3monster in General, Technology, UKOUG

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Ace, ACED, Brighton, conference, Director, Oracle, promotion, TechFest19, UKOUG

 

TF_speaking_twitter-01This year’s UKOUG TechFest 19 conference is over.  The first time in a number of years where the user group conference hasn’t been a combined Tech, Apps and JD Edwards event.  I have to admit that I was a little concerned with the separation of Tech and Apps as some of the tech stack overlaps for the two groups – for example, Integration Cloud.

That said, the situation being what it was, I got involved with the committee for planning the event including inheriting the stream lead responsibilities for Dev (in the sense of modern development e.g. microservices etc) and what had been historically referred to as middleware (Integration Cloud, Digital Assistant, Helidon, WebLogic) with a lot of support and input from Mark Simpson, Grant Ronald and Susan Duncan.

From my perspective, I  don’t think there was a concern (and this isn’t an attempt at being self-congratulatory) as the hard graft is done by the UKOUG office staff.

As the number of people was smaller, we had a smaller venue rather than the ICC in Birmingham or the ACC Convention Centre in Liverpool – which actually worked out well. The problem of the ICC and particularly the ACC is that main community spaces had been very large as a result atmosphere suffered. This time the Grand Hotel in Brighton was really busy and vibrant as a result.

Reception Desk

 

We had a good blend of sessions covering traditional integration, low code, cloud, microservices, API, UI with people from customers, partners and Oracle travelling in from all over Europe and the US to participate and present.

In terms of my presentations and the ones, I managed to see, I’d particularly recommend checking out in the UKOUG library …

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Why do I have an Ace logo on my website?

19 Monday Aug 2019

Posted by mp3monster in General, Oracle

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Ace, ACED, Ground Breaker, MVP, Oracle

For the observant, you’ll have noticed that I have a logo on the left side of my site saying Oracle Ace. Periodically I get asked what is it, what does it mean, and for those who are less involved in the Oracle community probably don’t know what it means.

What

Most developers will probably have encountered the idea of Java Champions or perhaps Microsoft MVPs (Most Valued Professional). All of these badges and other large vendors such as SAP have comparable ones are a recognition of individuals outside of the organisation (in this case Oracle) who do a lot to support the community and wider technology ecosystem.

These contributions vary but typically take the form activities such as writing blogs/articles/books, answering questions on StackOverflow and other community sites where questions are raised and answered by experts. Organising and/or presenting at conferences.

This is the content helps bridge the gap between the standard guidance, documentation, white papers that the vendors will produce and real-world practical experience.

Whilst you, in theory, you don’t have to be an expert to be part of these advocacy programmes, the reality is to communicate the meaningful value you need to have a level of experience and understanding that is more than the majority. I know a number of people in the Ace community who would deny being experts, and the only thing that differentiates them from everyone else is being willing to stand up and share what they have learnt. I would say that inevitably they are experts, as the processes and resource (at least for Aces inevitably enable that development of expertise as I will try to illustrate shortly).

But before we progress, let me quickly summarise the advocacy communities that Oracle support …

  • 9928f94d6fb7bc0024781fa68e0bc571_400x400Java Champions – these are people working in the pure Java ecosystem
  • Oracle Ace’s – within this community we have three tiers of Ace and which tier reflects the amount of time actively involved in the Ace programme and how much you contribute. So you start out as …
    • Ace Associate progressing to
    • ace-logoAce then a at the top are a smaller community of
    • Ace Directors

Ace’s generally focus on Oracle’s mainstream products from the database to Middleware like WebLogic and Apps

  • obga_badgeThe final group are Groundbreaker Ambassadors – this group are comparable to Ace Directors and actually progress through the Associate and Ace accreditation. But rather than focus on more traditional Oracle offerings this group tend to work with what could be described as modern app dev tech from Microservices and APIs to Blockchain.

Why?

Why get involved in such a community? Whilst I can only speak for myself, I suspect some of my motivators hold true for others, for me, it’s about…

  • The is a strong sense of community amongst the Aces and obviously an inbuilt common interest. Given we often encounter each other at conferences etc, it makes it a lot easier socially when attending conferences. Stuck for a coffee conversation? Go say hello to someone you already know.
  • The value in knowledge and experience is in the sharing of that information, and you can’t beat the sense of validation when someone says – thank you, that really helped me.
  • Talking to other Aces means you may pick up useful insights. Certainly, the Ace community are encouraged to develop relationships with Oracle product management (to be nominated for Ace Director / Groundbreaker Ambassador you need the sponsorship of a product manager).
  • These insights will further your knowledge which makes the day job easier. It becomes easier to influence Oracle when it comes to having features or priorities set that are of interest.
  • Some employers and customers put a value on the Ace recognition as
    • there is the implicit expertise
    • gives indirect channels to product management
    • track record of sharing and enabling others
  • …so it creates some extra career opportunities or a foot up. If you look at eProseed’s website you’ll see that they are very proud to employ a lot of Ace Directors.

Expertise

Coming back to the point of expertise, as you develop within the community, the chances of learning from others increases, but developing relationships with product management means getting to hear about what’s next etc as well as getting to hear the product managers and their thinking. In fact, Ace Directors and Groundbreakers have dedicated briefing sessions and additional access that provides further insight into the product, strategy and direction. These relationships can start to create a virtuous circle of knowledge accumulation.

Biased?

Carrying the badge of a vendor, and obviously contributing to a vendor’s community carries the risk of being perceived as not being independent/impartial or perhaps understanding the wider landscape. But having been part of the community, this is deeply inaccurate. The community members I know take pride in being professional which usually means being clearly impartial and appreciating the wider IT landscape in which they specialize. Being an Ace doesn’t mean you only know Oracle products, many Ace’s in the integration and development space are often also certified on the Azure or AWS platforms for example. What you won’t find is an Ace publicly calling Oracle out, but then with the access afforded/acquired into the organisation means where there are concerns/challenges/issues they are communicated through the relationships developed and this input appears to be taken very seriously.

Benefits

When it comes to benefits, there are some, but I wouldn’t want people to think that it will ‘pay’ for the level of effort put in. The benefits are very much in the realm of acknowledgement for the contributions made. So yes, we get a few goodies – nice polo shirt with the community logo and the alike. Engraved glassware acknowledging your progress to Ace. The real reward for me is the community and having opportunities to share insights and a bit of acknowledgement of the effort invested, everything else is a bonus.

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