PostgreSQL speakers needed for OSCON 2004

Greg,

The call for participation has been issued for the 2004 O'Reilly
Open Source convention, and once again, PostgreSQL has a track:

Hmmmm ... I think we're double-tracking here -- O'Reilly e-mailed me
seperately today. Just one of us should be the contact point.

Also, Jillian, are you up for helping to organize this?

I really do think that we, as a community, should try to organize who's going
to propose what in order to have a "complete track" for PostgreSQL this time,
rather than just encouraging people to apply willy-nilly.

--
-Josh Berkus
Aglio Database Solutions
San Francisco

Greg,

Hmmmm ... I think we're double-tracking here -- O'Reilly e-mailed me
seperately today. Just one of us should be the contact point.

Hmmm ... not sure that came out right. I meant "you wanna be the contact
point? If so, I should tell O'Reilly"

--
-Josh Berkus
Aglio Database Solutions
San Francisco

I really do think that we, as a community, should try to organize who's going
to propose what in order to have a "complete track" for PostgreSQL this time,
rather than just encouraging people to apply willy-nilly.

What about nilly-willy?

-- 
Command Prompt, Inc., home of Mammoth PostgreSQL - S/ODBC and S/JDBC
Postgresql support, programming shared hosting and dedicated hosting.
+1-503-222-2783 - jd@commandprompt.com - http://www.commandprompt.com
Editor-N-Chief - PostgreSQl.Org - http://www.postgresql.org 

It would be nice to have some sort of knowledge
of which postgres people are speaking. I am
planning on submitting a talk as I did last year.

It would help us coordinate the BOF better.
We did not do a good job last year. It would
also help us talk about some of the things that
could be better this year than last. I have some
(ahem) opinions about this.

It would also help those of us from different coasts
spend some time talking at reasonable hours and places

I would be happy to help coordinate people in whatever
way I can for the actual fling.

This does not have anything to do with who is talking
to O'Reilly by the way. Remember, they had a single
point of contact failure last year and caused some
hard feelings. It is *good* that they've sent out
notices to several of us. Now we just have to act
like we are sort of coordinated...

--elein

elein wrote:

It would be nice to have some sort of knowledge
of which postgres people are speaking. I am
planning on submitting a talk as I did last year.

I'm thinking of doing a tutorial -- something like "Extending PostgreSQL
with C" -- show/explain (comments/additions welcome):
- contrib build system basics
- building a simple scalar function
- I/O functions and a building custom datatype
- simple polymorphic scalar functions
- SRF using the one-row-at-a-time api
- SRF using a tuplestore

I think it would be nice if we had a tutorial or session on advanced use
of each PL -- at least for the most commonly used ones.

It would help us coordinate the BOF better.
We did not do a good job last year. It would
also help us talk about some of the things that
could be better this year than last. I have some
(ahem) opinions about this.

Great -- let's hear 'em ;-)

Joe

On Thu, Dec 18, 2003 at 09:00:37PM -0800, Joe Conway wrote:

elein wrote:

It would be nice to have some sort of knowledge
of which postgres people are speaking. I am
planning on submitting a talk as I did last year.

I'm thinking of doing a tutorial -- something like "Extending PostgreSQL
with C" -- show/explain (comments/additions welcome):
- contrib build system basics
- building a simple scalar function
- I/O functions and a building custom datatype
- simple polymorphic scalar functions
- SRF using the one-row-at-a-time api
- SRF using a tuplestore

This was the tutorial I submitted last year that was rejected.
Perhaps we will all have better luck this year.
Add the explanation of the many macros. They and
the internal represenations of data types (varlenas :-)
are not familiar or obvious to others. (I'll go
through my notes for other ideas.)

I think it would be nice if we had a tutorial or session on advanced use
of each PL -- at least for the most commonly used ones.

It would help us coordinate the BOF better.
We did not do a good job last year. It would
also help us talk about some of the things that
could be better this year than last. I have some
(ahem) opinions about this.

Great -- let's hear 'em ;-)

In the next message...

On Thu, Dec 18, 2003 at 09:00:37PM -0800, Joe Conway wrote:

elein wrote:

It would be nice to have some sort of knowledge
of which postgres people are speaking. I am
planning on submitting a talk as I did last year.

I'm thinking of doing a tutorial -- something like "Extending PostgreSQL
with C" -- show/explain (comments/additions welcome):
- contrib build system basics
- building a simple scalar function
- I/O functions and a building custom datatype
- simple polymorphic scalar functions
- SRF using the one-row-at-a-time api
- SRF using a tuplestore

I think it would be nice if we had a tutorial or session on advanced use
of each PL -- at least for the most commonly used ones.

It would help us coordinate the BOF better.
We did not do a good job last year. It would
also help us talk about some of the things that
could be better this year than last. I have some
(ahem) opinions about this.

Great -- let's hear 'em ;-)

Joe

From General Bits Issue #34: ( http://www.varlena.com/GeneralBits/34 )
PostgreSQL people were not particularly visible in the general milieu
of the conference. We were there, but not seen too much.
Several of the talks in the conference and discussions in our
birds of a feather session pointed out that open source projects
need to establish relationships with other open source organizations.
I know that some of us are members of more than one open source group,
but for the most part, we remain fairly isolated.

Talk to each other. Reason things out. This is open source so steal
ideas that work! For example, we need to have more visible, vocal
and active user groups across the world, including the United States.
And perl-mongers is quite successful. What advice can we get from them?

The establishment of relationships between people and groups was
raised in many different contexts at the conference. PostgreSQL,
the database, particularly plays well with others. Is there
something in this that we can use to promote our favorite database?

One mistake that was made at least once was to bad mouth the
perceived competition. Venting one's frustration is one thing,
but, particularly with our minimal visibility, we must make a good
impression.

Also to be noted (not from general bits):

I was the only one who hung out in the speaker room. This is
a key place where contacts with leaders of other groups can
be made. This is a good place to make a good impression.

We'll need to come into OSCON as a cohesive yet diverse
group and then show a united face and integrate with
other people and groups.

Doing the people thing is hard for a lot of us. But individually
my experience is that everyone I've met with postgresql is very
knowledgeable, friendly and personable.

Specific Ideas:

* Pre-plan the BOF. Make sure it is in the printed schedule.
* "Sponsor" a social outing. A postgres dinner, bar hours
or a walk along the river.
* Make sure all postgres speakers and tutorial instructors
are well "marked" as such. T-shirts or SIG stickers,
I suppose. Or just clear and readable badges.
* Attend sessions besides postgres and:
- interject how the project relates or could relate
to postgres, tactfully
- see how people hold good (and bad) sessions
- listen to see what people are talking about and
how that will integrate in your work and with postgres
possibilities.
* Have a booth (Josh, can we have a little booth?) or a corner
staffed by someone who can provide information and help
people find answers to questions about postgres.

Obviously there is always more to be done. But at very least
we should focus on visibility and friendliness.

elein

On Friday 19 December 2003 08:22, Josh Berkus wrote:

Greg,

The call for participation has been issued for the 2004 O'Reilly
Open Source convention, and once again, PostgreSQL has a track:

Hmmmm ... I think we're double-tracking here -- O'Reilly e-mailed me
seperately today. Just one of us should be the contact point.

Also, Jillian, are you up for helping to organize this?

I really do think that we, as a community, should try to organize who's
going to propose what in order to have a "complete track" for PostgreSQL
this time, rather than just encouraging people to apply willy-nilly.

We need a central task tracking system rather than mailing list. We have
discussed this before as well (I think)

Mailing list is not the way to go at it.. Something like OGO(open groupware)
would be good enough I guess..

Shridhar

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Just to clarify, I am not the "contact person" for O'Reilly, I
just noticed that the call for participation was out and wanted
to share that with the community.

- --
Greg Sabino Mullane greg@turnstep.com
PGP Key: 0x14964AC8 200312190706

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Anybody here got a running correspondance with chromatic? Who ever does
should be the one

Robert

Greg Sabino Mullane wrote:

Folks,

This does not have anything to do with who is talking
to O'Reilly by the way. Remember, they had a single
point of contact failure last year and caused some
hard feelings. It is *good* that they've sent out
notices to several of us. Now we just have to act
like we are sort of coordinated...

Yeah, it's just that they asked me yesterday if I was the "official" contact.
I do think that one person (picked by us) should talk to O'Reilly. Otherwise
they're liable to receive multiple messages and get confused.

Who's funding whom to do what at the conference?

Um ... funding? I'm paying my own way; I presume that Bruce will get paid
for by his employer; otherwise we're pay-as-you-go. We probably have a
little money for printing stuff (like a few $100) but that's it.

Alternately, maybe it's time to try to get the fundraising operation into
gear. Greg? What's our status for setup?

Just to clarify, I am not the "contact person" for O'Reilly, I
just noticed that the call for participation was out and wanted
to share that with the community.

Sorry, Greg. I thought you worked with them and might want to be the contact.

We need a central task tracking system rather than mailing list. We have
discussed this before as well (I think)

Mailing list is not the way to go at it.. Something like OGO(open
groupware) would be good enough I guess..

I don't remember this discussion, Shridhar. You have a server we can get
accounts on? I do think that some sort of collaboration system is a good
idea, but not if we spend effort on the collaboration system that could be
spent on prep.

--
Josh Berkus
Aglio Database Solutions
San Francisco

Hello,

As OSCON is in Portland (I think?). I might also be willing to host an
informal get together
here at Command Prompt for everyone.

Sincerely,

Joshua D. Drake

elein wrote:

On Thu, Dec 18, 2003 at 09:00:37PM -0800, Joe Conway wrote:

elein wrote:

It would be nice to have some sort of knowledge
of which postgres people are speaking. I am
planning on submitting a talk as I did last year.

I'm thinking of doing a tutorial -- something like "Extending PostgreSQL
with C" -- show/explain (comments/additions welcome):
- contrib build system basics
- building a simple scalar function
- I/O functions and a building custom datatype
- simple polymorphic scalar functions
- SRF using the one-row-at-a-time api
- SRF using a tuplestore

This was the tutorial I submitted last year that was rejected.
Perhaps we will all have better luck this year.
Add the explanation of the many macros. They and
the internal represenations of data types (varlenas :-)
are not familiar or obvious to others. (I'll go
through my notes for other ideas.)

I think it would be nice if we had a tutorial or session on advanced use
of each PL -- at least for the most commonly used ones.

It would help us coordinate the BOF better.
We did not do a good job last year. It would
also help us talk about some of the things that
could be better this year than last. I have some
(ahem) opinions about this.

Great -- let's hear 'em ;-)

In the next message...

Joe

-- 
Command Prompt, Inc., home of Mammoth PostgreSQL - S/ODBC and S/JDBC
Postgresql support, programming shared hosting and dedicated hosting.
+1-503-667-4564 - jd@commandprompt.com - http://www.commandprompt.com
Mammoth PostgreSQL Replicator. Integrated Replication for PostgreSQL

Robert Bernier wrote:

Anybody here got a running correspondance with chromatic? Who ever
does should be the one

I talk with chromatic occassionaly. In fact I just sent a list of
authors over.

J

Robert

Greg Sabino Mullane wrote:

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

Just to clarify, I am not the "contact person" for O'Reilly, I
just noticed that the call for participation was out and wanted
to share that with the community.

- --
Greg Sabino Mullane greg@turnstep.com
PGP Key: 0x14964AC8 200312190706

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----

iD8DBQE/4unYvJuQZxSWSsgRAgOUAKCGz9GmirorxvFA9q8qGyHenI0QBACaA/gg
v1qHgFl1fwI/eS3Ni6rAK5w=
=UWV5
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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-- 
Command Prompt, Inc., home of Mammoth PostgreSQL - S/ODBC and S/JDBC
Postgresql support, programming shared hosting and dedicated hosting.
+1-503-667-4564 - jd@commandprompt.com - http://www.commandprompt.com
Mammoth PostgreSQL Replicator. Integrated Replication for PostgreSQL

On Thu, 2003-12-18 at 21:52, Josh Berkus wrote:

Greg,

The call for participation has been issued for the 2004 O'Reilly
Open Source convention, and once again, PostgreSQL has a track:

Hmmmm ... I think we're double-tracking here -- O'Reilly e-mailed me
seperately today. Just one of us should be the contact point.

Also, Jillian, are you up for helping to organize this?

I really do think that we, as a community, should try to organize who's going
to propose what in order to have a "complete track" for PostgreSQL this time,
rather than just encouraging people to apply willy-nilly.

Here are ideas for possible presentations that either people have
mentioned to me or I have been kicking around:

Introduction to PostgreSQL - a brief run down on features,
set-up/administration, where to get help and information, where to find
add-on software,

PostgreSQL on Windows - Showcase postgresql native windows (hopefully),
explain how the different tools work, cover ODBC information.

From LRU to ARC - explain the changes involved in the switch and the
reasoning behind it.

Full Text Indexing with tsearch2 - explain how it all works

Optimizing PostgreSQL queries - explain output of explain commands and
what too look for in them. Also go over logging options that can help

PostgreSQL Advanced Tools and Tricks - examples of using complex
functions / data types / operators, using rules to make updateable
views, using triggers to make materialized views.

Replication - give a run down of various replication solutions,
including rserv in contrib, and rserve/slony from gborg. Potentially
highlight commercial offerings.

PostGIS - explain what it is, how you use it, how it's handy.

DataWarehousing with PostgreSQL - Cover improvements in 7.4 for this,
also some items in contrib.

PostgreSQL war stories - A good example is the .org registry, but it's
been done, so showcase another "enterprise level" setup, or perhaps a
migration from Oracle/DB2/m$

Anyone care to add to the list, or claim one of these?

Robert Treat
--
Build A Brighter Lamp :: Linux Apache {middleware} PostgreSQL

Robert Treat wrote:
[snip]

DataWarehousing with PostgreSQL - Cover improvements in 7.4 for this,
also some items in contrib.

[snip]

Anyone care to add to the list, or claim one of these?

I was considering this one for a 45 minute presentation.

Joe

I like Joe's ideas about presentations on the
specific PLs. This crosses over with Robert's
idea about advanced Tools and Tricks.

So...I'm considering both a talk and a tutorial
proposal. I can't decide yet exactly what
I'm going to do, yet, but I need to put it
out so that if someone else wants one of
these topics we can either work together
or figure out who wants to do what.

* What is a ORDBMS? And how does postgresql
implement it? (talk)
* Advanced plpgsql (talk or tutorial)
* Basic plpython (talk or tutorial)
* Intro to postgresql (tutorial)
* Creating new datatypes (this might conflict
with Joe's tutorial). (tutorial)

--elein

Robert,

One talk that I think would be sure to be accepted would be something on
plphp, but I haven't personally found any great uses for it.

Well, until PL/PHP gets SPI, it's pretty much a toy. Joshua, how likely is
PL/PHP to have SPI before OSCON?

--
-Josh Berkus
Aglio Database Solutions
San Francisco

On Fri, 2003-12-19 at 14:32, elein wrote:

I like Joe's ideas about presentations on the
specific PLs. This crosses over with Robert's
idea about advanced Tools and Tricks.

* Advanced plpgsql (talk or tutorial)
* Basic plpython (talk or tutorial)

One talk that I think would be sure to be accepted would be something on
plphp, but I haven't personally found any great uses for it. Joe's talk
last year on plR made a lot of sense, since it covered a lot of items
that you really couldn't do in the other pl's. However, with
plphp/pltcl/plpython/plperl I don't see anything that stands out.
Perhaps I should take a swing through your talk from last year on
plpython...is it on the web anywhere?

Robert Treat
--
Build A Brighter Lamp :: Linux Apache {middleware} PostgreSQL

Well, until PL/PHP gets SPI, it's pretty much a toy. Joshua, how likely is
PL/PHP to have SPI before OSCON?

In july? Extremely likely as well as plPerl.

-- 
Command Prompt, Inc., home of Mammoth PostgreSQL - S/ODBC and S/JDBC
Postgresql support, programming shared hosting and dedicated hosting.
+1-503-667-4564 - jd@commandprompt.com - http://www.commandprompt.com
Mammoth PostgreSQL Replicator. Integrated Replication for PostgreSQL