Oracle BIWA User Community

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This year we got to listen to two keynotes from Larry Ellision, first one on Sunday and then on Wed. I had recently gotten a chance to learn about the history of Oracle in a talk titled "How Oracle Came to Rule the World" by Richard Neimeic at BIWA Summit, but it was great to listen from Larry himself as he describes how he put his house on stake to get Oracle going some 30 years ago. In today's keynote, Larry did a quick recap of the Linux support and then talked about Oracle VM. The part I liked most was the story of Sales Prospector and how data mining is the core of that product. Interestingly, Larry used the Amazon example to describe use of data mining in everyday life. I had used the same example on my Data Mining talk titled "Machine Learning about Human Learning" on Sunday at the BIWA SIG session. As Charlie Berger the Product Manager of Oracle Data Mining would say it, "it is moving up the maturity curve of BI." It is great that the first o...

This time for a change there was a sneak peak into the exhibit hall on Sunday at 4:00PM on uppper level of Moscone north. To my surprise there was no Oracle DB related product in this section!!! Intel was talking about the PC for the third world school students and had a 11 year old on the exhbition floor demoing the PC! There were motor bikes, Geek Squad car, washer and dryer all all kinds of "green" low energy consuming stuff on the floor. I guess it was this green theme that was in the sneak peak! Now I am getting ready for the first keynote and the tent party on Howard St after that....

Session 3 was split into two parts: Joe Thomas talking about BI, DW and Advanced Analytics sessions Mon-Thursday at Oracle Openworld 2007. Joe is a veteral of 18 Opneworlds and used his experience to point out the sessions that the BIWA attendees can use to make the most of this openworld. He listed the topics in the oder of DW sessions, BIEE related sessions and EPM sessions. I will upload his PPT at http://OracleBIWA.org along with the other PPT's from today. The second half was my talk on A Case Study for BI, DW and Advanced Analytics - "Machine Learning About Human Learning." A got quite a few questions in the Q&A session, which is always a good sign. At this time Jim Raper is talking on "Knowing What you Don't know" - a fairly intriguing topic. Jim has hands on experience with SQL Server and well as Oracle since its early releases. His presentations point out any nuances that Oracle tool face with SQL Server.

Andy Flower talked about Enterprise Information Integration. Some of his comments included "DW is really a proxy for the enterprise." If we have infinite MIPS, perhaps DW would be replaced by data from the operational source and all analytics apps will crunch numbers from data directly from the source. However, is a "real" world, we use DW as the next best option to aggregate all these data in one place. Andy highlighted how Master Data Management (MDM) and Customer Data Hub fits into this landscape.

It all begin's in a few minutes, today will be dedicated to the User Groups and SIG's, except in the evening there will be sneak preview to Exhibition Hall and the inaugural Keynote / Welcome session in the evening. I am now in the 8:30 AM session at Moscone West, 2001 -L2, where all the BIWA track presentations will take place. Connected to the Wiki network, but it seems kinda slow. Ian Abramson is the first speaker, his topic: "My Oracle Features for your Data Warehouse Needs" seems a good database centric topic to kickstart the day! This year the room is much larger (285 capacity )than last year which only accommodated 80. The registration desk at OOW has been spread out this time, you pick up badges at one place (Moscone West) and pick up the goodies at Moscone South, kinda keeps the crowd distributed. Ian is an entertaining speaker, he started of with the comment on the Canadian dollar v/s US Dollar! -------------------------------------- Ian introduced the BI...

Oracle Openworld 2007 starts on Nov 11, it you will be there on Sunday, please stop by at these BIWA track presentations. (those not attending the event, you can watch the keynotes in realtime over the web or see the recordings later): 8:30 AM - 10:00 AM Moscone West 2001 - L2 S292916 IOUG BIWA SIG: The Oracle Database Features that Every DW Has to Have Ian Abramson, Keyrus 10:00 AM - 11:30 AM Moscone West 2001 - L2 S292926 IOUG BIWA SIG Meeting: Information Integration for Enterprise Business Intelligence Andy Flower, Right Triangle Consulting 1:00 PM - 2:30 PM Moscone West 2001 - L2 S292935 IOUG BIWA SIG Meeting: Machine Learning About Human Learning Shyam Varan Nath, BIWA SIG/Citco Group (also presentation by Joe Thomas about BI at OOW) 2:30 PM - 4:00 PM Moscone West 2001 - L2 S292944 IOUG BIWA SIG Meeting: BI - Real Power is seeing what you DON?T know Jim Raper, City of Charlotte

Can you run SQLPLUS from Windows without a TNSNAMES.ora entry? Oracle 11g comes bundled with SQL Developer (just like OWB is part of the Oracle 11g database typical install). actually 11g is much more application centric and even the default folder for install is called apps. Anyways, try out the SQL Developer that is bundled with the 11g RDBS install. It uses JDBC to connect to the database. You can run SQLPLUS as well from SQL Developer by pointing to the SQLPLUS.exe as the external executable and it will use the JDBC information to connect to the external database (even a 10G).

Visit the below url to download the Windows version of 11g: http://www.oracle.com/technology/software/products/database/oracle11g/111060_win32soft.html The Linux version was out for a while but the Windows version is out just ahead of the Openworld 2007 next month in San Francisco. The Windows version usually gives a good means to test out new features of the database on the desktop itself.

At BIWA Summit, there was a panel of BI experts. One of the panelist commented that his "wish" was that SAP buys Business Object . Why? It will be fun to see the dynamics of a German Company buy a French company. Well as of the last hour that news is history: http://www.businessweek.com/ap_working/financialnews/D8S4K2580.htm?chan=top+news_top+news+index_top+story While the industry is still digesting the Hyperion acquistion by Oracle, this is another big one that will impact the future of BI. The panelists at BIWA Summit had predicted that the pure play BI vendors will find it hard to survive unless it is some niche open source players (Pentaho and the likes). With these recent developments, it leaves Congnos as the next "eligible bachelor" waiting to get hitched in the BI space.

Inaugural year, 40+ sessions/workshops, 300+ attendees, 10+ Platinum Sponsors/Exhibitors, sold out conference ... are a few phrases to explain the BIWA Summit . Generally speaking everything went as planned, thanks to all the help and support of various the stakeholders. And please join me in congratulating John Haydu for the "BIWA Key Contributor Award" for the year. John was resposible for most of the registration related activities, and managing the show with around 350 registrants was not a trivial task. All the stakeholders deserve an applause, be it the conference attendees who enthusiatically attended the event over the two days, the Platinum sponsors who helped to keep the attendee cost down, the speakers who mostly flew in from the different parts of the countries or the BIWA BoD that made it all happen. Next year for BIWA Summit 2008 , we will head to Oracle HQ to Redwood Shores, just South of San Francisco on Dec 2-3, 2008. Meanwhile, watch out for the upload ...

So finally it is the day of the BIWA Summit, the day we all worked very hard for. Some of the BIWA BoD members and volunteers have been working over the weekend to get it all going, getting the session rooms, classrooms ready. Attendees started arriving as early as 7:00AM to collect their badges and get the premiun seating in the stadium style Auditorium. Over 300 registrants and the conference got sold out. After the kick-off session at 8:30AM, Matt Rittman delivered the first keynote session. Keep tuned....more to come. Thanks

The BIWA Summit 2007 is next week, Oct 2 and 3rd (Tues/Wed). Some of the folks are arriving in the DC area this weekend. It will be good time to network before the two busy days begin. The weather will be mostly in the high 70's, making it quite pleasant. Please try to get their early on Oct 2, to avoid the early morning badge pickup rush. We plan to be there as early as 7:00AM if you want to be the early bird and assure yourself of the premium seating in the stadium style auditorium for the inaugural session. The breakfast is provided, to help you avoid the coffee shop stopover! Any last minute issues, please do not hesitate to email us ( Conference@OracleBIWA.org ) or call the event hotline (954) 609 2402. Thanks Shyam Varan Nath ShyamVaran@Gmail.com

If you have any logistics questions about the BIWA Summit, please use comments on this thread. We will try to help you with any questions related to hotels, location and logistics related to the summit. Please do check out the conference site Summit tab for a lot of information about the site at http://OracleBIWA.org Thanks Shyam Conference@OracleBIWA.org

Please use this thread to connect with peers who are planning to attend the BIWA Summit 2007 at Reston, VA on Oct 2nd and 3rd. We will shortly post a FAQ on the BIWA site ( http://OracleBIWA.org ). Thanks Shyam Varan Nath http://OracleBIWA.org 954 609 2402

The BIWA Summit preparations are in full swing. The early bird registration ended and drew a lot of enthusiam for participation. With 4 solid key notes and about 40 sessions and workshops, this is deemed to be the largest Oracle BI event, ever. There is still time to register for two action packed days at $200 for the full conference access. Check out the listing of this event in latest Oracle magazine, the one that focuses on Oracle 11g. Thanks

March 14, Learn about Oracle OLAP March 21, Learn about Oracle Data Mining March 28, Learn about Oracle Information Lifecycle Management The Oracle Product Managers bring these webcasts direct to you PC, learn about the product, new features and ask any questions. Visit http://OracleBIWA.org to register and get more details. Thanks Shyam Varan Nath

Visit http://OracleBIWA.org to see the details on the series of talks on advanced Analytics: March 7th, talk by Inforsense March 14th on Oracle OLAP March 21st on Oracle Data Mining Also the call for papers for BIWA Summit 2007 (Oct 2-3 at Reston, VA) is now open. See http://OracleBIWA.org for more details. Thanks Shyam Varan Nath

Next Oracle BIWA webcast: Managing your Analytics Process in Oracle RaveenSharma, Rich Solari, InforSense Date: Wed March 7, 2007. Time: 11:45 AM EST Web presentation at: https://conference.oracle.com/imtapp/app/cmn_jm_hub.uix?mID=70251559&loginRequired=y&mConfKey=2492 Audio link: 888-967-2253 Audio meeting Id: 534705# Passcode: 334451# The use of analytics in addressing business problems has gained strong momentum in many organizations over the last decade. Typical applications range from customer, supply chain and human resource management, to financial performance and cost management. Benefits of a successful analysis strategy include an improved ability to understand and target high value customer segments, improved marketing effectiveness and sales performance, as well as improved financial performance, credit-scoring and fraud detection. A recent Harvard Business Review article surveyed 32 organizations at various stages in implementing their analytics frameworks. It id...

Visit http://OracleBIWA.org for more details on the Oracle Partitioning Webcast on Web Feb 28, 2007 at 11:45 AM EST (GMT -5hrs) Oracle BIWA SIG HostsOracle Partitioning Webcast Speaker: Hermann Baer The Oracle Business Intelligence, Warehouse and Analytics (BIWA) Special Interest Group (SIG) is a forum where customers can exchange the latest information on Oracle BI/DW technologies. The BIWA SIG regularly invites speakers to give talks of potential interest to its members. On Feb 28, 2007 at 11:45 AM EST, the BIWA will host the webcast: "Oracle Partitioning -Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow" Speaker: Hermann Baer, Oracle Principal Product Manager Session Abstract: Partitioning has evolved into the most important technology for addressing the requirements of large data volumes, whether the system is a data mart, a data warehouse, or an online transaction processing system. Not only does partitioning provide benefits in performance, but it also improves manageability and availa...

Visit the Oracle BIWA SIG website for more details: http://OracleBIWA.org The BIWA Summit will be held from Oct 2-3, 2007 in Reston, Virginia (near Washington D.C.). The call for papers is now open and can be accessed from the website posted above. The deadline is June 15, 2007. Topics of interest will be related to Oracle Business Intelligence, Data Warehousing, Data mining and other advanced analytics. Feel free to email the beow for any questions. Thanks Shyam Varan Nath Shyam.Nath@Oracle.com

Hello Everyone! If you are in Law Enforcement related industry, you may want to read about the Crime Analytics at: http://crimeanalytics.blogspot.com/ Data Mining for fighting terrorism and other crimes is increasing becoming popular. Oracle has a solution for Law Enforcement Agencies - called Oracle Protect. It is a BI solution that runs on top of agencies crime record management system and uses BI Dashboards, Spatial technology to plot the crimes geo-spatially and couples it with use of Oracle data mining to look for crime sprees. Thanks Shyam V Nath