What, me? An OakTable member?

The title rather gives it away, but I have been invited to become a member of the OakTable network. For anyone not aware of the OakTable, it is a group of some of the very best Oracle practitioners around and you would recognise many of the names in the group. Most of them also present at conferences around the globe and set up the Oak Table challenge at various of these venues, where they try and address any oracle-based question you might have.

All of them are very bright, all are very knowledgeable.

Which is where I come a little unstuck. Without wanting to sound like some vapid actor at a Hollywood award ceremony decrying “I am so unworthy of this nomination”, whilst secretly thinking “I so deserve this”… Well, my initial thought when receiving the invite was “I am so unworthy…”. I’ve had the weekend to think about it though. And I still think “I am so unworthy…”

I’m actually on record as suggesting that we might also need a “Formica Table”, though the only online reference to it I can now find {I MUST put my old presentations on my web site} is from the archives of Andrew Clark’s Radiofreetooting blog about a presentation I did at the UKOUG in 2007. {Follow the link and search for Widlake or Formica, it is way down the bottom}. If you can’t be bothered looking at the original, Andrew said this:

I was particularly taken with the Formica Table. This would be a forum where “not bad” DBAs answered questions which fitted 95% of all scenarios; sort of an Oak Table For The Rest Of Us.

I think his quote of me was actually better than the original. The idea was that the real experts on the Oak Table {is it actually one word guys? “OakTable”!?} deal with the hard, tricky, complex issues and this secondary formica table could deal with the rest of the world. Because I could just about cope with formica level. The intention being, of course, that I would sit on said plastic-laminate-coated-chipboard table.

Am I being falsely modest here? I do not think I am. I know I am good at what I do and I know I have achieved some impressive things. I also know most people who employ me ask me to stay longer (and I usually do). But I am realistic. I’m very good but I am not fantastic (at Oracle anyway 🙂 ). And no way as capable as many OakTable members. But the people on the OakTable have some other things in common. From the home page of the website:

The OakTable network is a network for the Oracle scientist, who believes in better ways of administering and developing Oracle based systems.

The impression I get from spending some time with the handful of members of the OakTable that I already know is that they generally all feel that you need to not only be knowledgeable about Oracle (or whatever area of knowledge you are interested in) but you need to be able to demonstrate and show that the knowledge is real. You create test cases and try things out. Just saying “you should use a large block size for data warehouses” is just not really enough, it is so much more powerful if you can say why you think this is so and then produce test cases to show that. And if someone produces a test case to show the opposite, well you need to reconsider. It is what is at the core of the scientific method. You test things and have to adapt or change if the tests refute your theory. If someone will not provide test cases or real-world examples to support their facts, they are in fact, opinions. Which is fine, just don’t sell them as facts.

The other common thread is a willingness (and perhaps a worrying compulsion) to teach. I’ve seen many of the OakTable present and I know a lot of them do courses all over the globe. Sometimes it is paid work, often it is not, it is done as a benefit to the community. That is nearly always the case with user group presentations.

I’m figuring that is why I’ve been invited to join. Technically, most if not all the OakTable are a step or three better than me and I reserve my right to respect that. But I really believe in demonstrating what you think is going on with Oracle is what is really going on and I have an almost worryingly compulsive willingness to teach.

So, have I turned down the invite? Are you kidding!?! It’s great to be invited and I really look forward to having more to do with this bunch of talented and helpful people. And I am also looking forward to contributing my little bit to the group and, through it, to the wider Oracle community.

It is slightly ironic that I have been asked to join a group of people right now who are characterised by their willingness and drive to scientifically investigate and then disseminate information on Oracle-based technology when I have spent the last month doing nothing of the sort. I have been digging ditches, cleaning out ponds, chopping down trees and doing major DIY, all of which I am utterly unsuited to but I enjoy. So I now feel obliged to stop that, pick up a keyboard and continue to investigate the edges of my ignorance. I’ll try and keep you informed of progress.

Oh, and I have another problem now. How do I get the OakTable Icon onto this blog? Somewhere on the right I think…