Programmer's Edge

I don’t normally plug too many other blog posts here as I figure you can find them on your own if they are good….BUT Brent Ozar has an excellent blog post on

Why I’m Disappointed in the PASS Election Process

If you have the time, I would read it….it seriously had me rolling….

Cheers,
AJ

That’s right people. I am heading out on the road once again for a SQL Saturday. This time it will be SQL Saturday 50 in Iowa City, IA on Sept 18th, 2010. I hear tell that there will be an awesome lineup of speakers available to get you all ‘learned up’ on the latest and greatest techniques for SQL Server.

I myself will be presenting two sessions at least on the following:

Monitoring Data Changes the Microsoft Way with CDC

Most modern enterprise database environments require some measure of auditing their data. Previously, the DBA would need to put together a complicated web of triggers and history tables in order to properly track data changes. Now in SQL Server 2008, Change Data Capture allows the DBA to readily enact a very straight-forward method for tracking the changes and understanding easily how they took place. In this session, we will examine how to set-up, configure, use, and administer the Change Data Capture process in your environment.

Take Control With Resource Governor and PBM

A large majority of a modern DBA’s workload consists of managing their policies and resources on their system in order to ensure that they are being followed and resources are accessible when needed. SQL Server 2008 provides both Policy Based Management(PBM) and Resource Governor, which allows the DBA to discretely manage system policies and resources in a very structured way. In this session, we will show you how to configure, monitor, and administer these features to help lower your anxiety levels while increasing your system’s availability.

Plus, this SQL Saturday looks like it will be featuring a contingent of female speakers such as Kendra Little , Kathi Kellenberger, and Wendy Pastrick ! Even Danika Patrick can’t hold a SELECT statement to this group of DB savvy professionals! Do I exaggerate? I think not! Come see what all the hype if about by signing up

http://www.sqlsaturday.com/50/eventhome.aspx

Cheers!
AJ

*** Disclaimer: Regardless of the rumors, I am not.. nor have I ever been related to Steve Jones. Just because we share the same last name doesn’t count. Jeesh people! ****

There has been an awful lot of traffic bounding about because of Steve Jones not being put on the slate of candidates for this years BoD elections. What is really interesting about the dynamic of this is that it is not really Steve stoking the fire. He merely put a post out there that said “I didn’t make the cut” …you can read it here:  More Free Time – PASS Board of Directors . The community is the entity that is up in arms about it. They are the ones that are rallying around Steve with a call for changing the way things are done at PASS. That’s got me really stoked! That the community is engaged.

What has got me much less than stoked is the fact that it seems that PASS wants to make this about Steve and not about the fact that they have made a really dumb business decision. Don’t blame the NomCom ….they were just doing what they were told to do. It was up to big daddy PASS in order to say..Hmmm, this looks kinda CRAZY! …let’s make a change !…Steve is a person with a proven track record of community success …SQLServerCentral,  SQLSaturday, etc…. people gravitate to people like that. If Steve were a PASS Board Member , don’t you think that people who gravitate towards him would in turn gravitate towards PASS? Doesn’t anyone else look at this and think that this was a no brainer from a business perspective?

I talk about this all the time when talking to businesses about doing things with an eye to public perception and seizing on pivotal moments. What PASS suffers from now is that it is perceived to be a “good ole’ boys club”. Doesn’t really matter if PASS is or is not that….it’s what it is perceived as being. Now it’s going to be harder than ever to shake that. In this situation, they have already failed to seize the moment….they don’t put Steve’s name on the ballot and they look like morons….they do put Steve’s name on the ballot and they look like weak cheese that caved to public sentiment. Maybe the only thing that PASS has to do is what Andy Leonard suggested via Twitter:

So what do we do as a community now? Can we really ‘change the system from within’ ? I am not sure…it’s going to take some doing from the current board members….you see, the process isn’t like an open election….so it’s not like we can go and say “We’re putting up candidate X because he is for change..”. Sorry, but they would have to get through the NomCom first and the sitting board gets to decide what rules the NomCom has to follow. So if the board says ‘”Grade candidates based on there local chapter involvement with ordering pizza for the monthly meetings …only counting meetings that start with the first letter of their last name” then the NomCom has to follow that… and candidate X is not going onto the ballot. So something must fundamentally change at the top in order for us poor bottom feeders to have more input. The status quo of “In order for you to run for PASS President(or insert title here) you must have been a local PASS treasurer, local PASS VP,local PASS President, regional PASS president, PASS secretary, PASS Marketing Director,………” just doesn’t quite cut it.

I will give some shout outs to Stuart Ainsworth http://codegumbo.com/ for coming out and explaining some of what happened in terms of the NomCom. It almost reminds me Bruce Willis’s character in Hart’s War …when he comes back to the camp only to get shot….***s of Steel that there Canjun haz!

So what is the answer? Hell, if I know …but you sure have to admit that controversy is WAY more funner than the status quo.

And now a quick Lol Cat to brighten everyone’s day:)

Cheers!
AJ

SQLSaturday #51 Nashville is coming up this weekend and it looks like it is going to be great. Where else are you going to get totally FREE training in the Nashville area? Slide decks are ready to go and I am just now trying to create some more awesome demos for my presentation on Change Data Capture. I will be sure to chock it full of tons of sneaky ninja DBA tricks that you can use in your environment to make yourself look like a pro!

You could be cool like all the people who are already going!

Registration is still open here so sign up and quit procrastinating .

Cheers!
AJ

SQLAndy blogged about the possible selection process which you can read about from the link below:

SQLAndy’s Blog Post

I like what PASS is trying to do with adding events and trying to make PASS more relevant to the DBAs that are out in the field. However, there are a couple of suggestions that seem to be off a little…..

Pre-Con/Post-Con Sessions

Paying the speakers is nice but limiting it to someone who has presented at PASS Summit before but has not done a Pre-Con/Post-Con at PASS and submitting only one seems too restrictive. I like that they want something of a more thorough abstract/lesson plan guide because I think it makes the speakers ‘think’ a little more about what they are going to do.

Main Sessions

1. Require speakers to have spoken at the PASS Summit or a SQLSaturday in the past 24 months to be eligible.

Really? Only at PASS events…..Hmmm, like the CodeCamp that they have every year in South Florida doesn’t count or the Rocky Mountain Tri-Fecta in Colorado…

2. Must have presented the topic at least one time prior to submitting it

What about new releases? Guess when this comes around next year not to expect any 2011 talks

3. Must upload the deck (doesn’t have to be final) at time of submission.

I don’t like promoting uploading of decks. I myself don’t like decks. That’s why I think I am a good speaker in that I show people technology and teach them the ins and outs without inundating them with slides. People normally come to my sessions because they want to ‘see’ how they can incorporate a technology or a technique into their environment…..Maybe I get that from teaching too much Physics with lots of breaking stuff in demonstrations:)

4. Can submit a max of ?? (2? 4?) presentations

I guess this would be fine but it would need to be 4 instead of 2….Otherwise, the selection committee gets to see the other end of the spectrum….400 Reporting Services submissions…and 12 on other topics:)

Don’t get me wrong….I think what they are doing is a good thing…and good for Andy that he is pushing it! However, it is almost like they are playing things really safe and in order to create something vibrant and unique you have to take risks.

I remember the first time that I went to DevConnections, yes Virginia there are other events other than PASS events, there was a really lousy session on programming mobile applications….I mean GOD AWFUL! Yet, I don’t tell my friends about that session ….instead I tell them about Scott Guthrie’s awesomesauce session and how I got to talk directly with him and Matt Nunn afterwards….

So I really think that they need to start going out on a limb a little with these things because in the end, if a handful of sessions were bad then hopefully the truely outstanding ones will make up for it.

Does this mean that the SQLRally needs to become another version of a SQLSaturday free-for-all? Nope! You can do things to limit your downside. Maybe like….

1. Submit Extended Abstracts for all presentations
1. Abstract (good paragraph not the ‘I will demo SSRS’)
2. Lesson Plan Outline – What will you cover and how
2. Submit and Extended Speaker Form
1. Regular speaker credentials – Name, Bio, Contact Stuff
2. Session Presented with Events(how many attended)  and also maybe contact info
3. Links to other credible things (blogs, books, etc.)

Yeah, you may still get 1000 submissions but surely you could get a couple of people to go through the speakers to do a first pass and weed out the ‘weak cheese’.  I know it laborous and probably a little boring once you hit the 100th SSRS intro ….But I remember specifically in one of my Physics classes that one student asked me why she got marked off for her experiment write-up, I told her, and her response was ‘You mean you actually read all this stuff’…..YES DAMNIT I DO.

Maybe we could use this as an excuse to come up with some sort of cool Silverlight application that the Selection Committee could use. Hmmmm…something like

1. Browse by Speaker

2. Browse by Topic

3. Browse by Track

4 Drag & Drop into Favs Folder

Sounds very intriguing to me

Anywho, Good Luck to Andy and the PASS group in getting this thing off the ground!

Cheers!
AJ