A True Open World: Every Vote Counts

The largest software conference in the world just keeps getting bigger and better with an 'open source' approach to selecting proposals for presentations. The call for papers was open to customers, partners and employees till April 26, 2009. For the next seven weeks, the paper selection panel worked long hours to select 1800 of the very best to be featured in the conference agenda. There were about 200 more presentations that did not get picked in the first round draft but now have a chance on Oracle Mix to be voted. The top thirty or so presentations will be added to the conference agenda.


Please click here to take part in this universal franchise. Please note that one has to sign up as a member on Oracle Mix before voting. Presentation proposals can be sorted by the number of votes, alphabetically or randomly. One needs to vote for at least three proposals for the votes to be counted. Every vote counts. It is indeed a true open world at Open World 2009!



The blog author has been invited to present in two sessions at Open World 2009. The session titles are as follows:

1. Using Web 2.0 to become a recognized Oracle expert


2. 10 Steps to Empowerment: Converting Custom Reports to Oracle BI Publisher

You are cordially invited to attend the above sessions. Please register for the conference and book your hotels early. This year's conference is shaping up to be one of the best in recent times. The sessions catalog will be available from next month and provide a great appetizer to the luxurious cornucopia of information being prepared by the generous hosts at Oracle Corporation.



Similar to last year, presentation propsoals on Oracle Application Express (ApEx)are a very popular choice. These are the 10 presentations that I have voted on. You may like to consider them for your valuable vote:

1. Creating 'Green' DBAs Using Enterprise Manager and Grid Control


2. R12 and Subledger Reconciliations


3. Oracle Projects Costing 11i10 for seamless Capital Costs Accounting


4. Using Row Level Security with Oracle Application Express


5. Increase Productivity, Streamline Work-Flow & Reduce Costs: Oracle HRMS v.R12


6. Oracle DBA Meets ITIL and COBIT


7. It's great to integrate: Combining Oracle Forms and Oracle Application Express


8. Giving Your ApEx Apps a Web 2.0 Face-Lift


9. Building a Mashup with Application Express (ApEx)


10. PDF printing with APEX - a cost-free alternative

OCP Blog Prize Winner: Oracle ACE Fadi Hasweh

Last year, this blog had launched the OCP Blog R12 Beta Challenge. The challenge was to get certified on any EBS R12 track during the beta testing period. We are pleased to announce the prize winner: Fadi Hasweh of Amman, Jordan.

On behalf of the Oracle Certification Community, may I extended my heartiest congratulations to Fadi on this unique achievement!

Fadi Hasweh is an Oracle ACE and Oracle OCP for DBA tracks. He took the 1Z1-238: EBS R12 Install, Patch and Maintain Applications exam during the beta testing period and passed with flying colors. Currently, Fadi is working as an independent Oracle Application DBA. Fadi's expertise spans across multiple platforms - Sun Solaris, HP-UX, Linux and Windows. Before becoming an Oracle Application Server and Collaboration Suite expert, Fadi worked as a .NET developer. Fadi holds a master's degree in business innovation and technology from Greece. Fadi is also a popular blogger and believes "Oracle is not magic, it just takes years of experience".

OCP Advisor recently interviewed Fadi for this blog post. Please read what Fadi has to say:

OCP Advisor (OCPA): How did you prepare for the EBS R12 Beta certification exam?

Fadi Hasweh (FH): To prepare for 1Z1-238: EBS R12 Install, Patch and Maintain Applications exam, I first installed Oracle EBS R12 and applied all the required post-install patches. I tried to see the differences between both R12 and 11i. Then I did a cloning exercise. Basically, I tried to do all the administration tasks that any regular application DBA would do on a production instance. I spent a lot of time preparing for this exam.I also read all the documentation available online including System Administration Guides, Maintenance Procedures and Maintenance Utilities. All along I was practicing on the system while reading. I also tried to update myself by reviewing Oracle R12 community forums and Oracle EBS R12 related blog.

Even though I prepared extensively for the exam, I felt that the exam was not easy. There was around 272 questions and some of them were really difficult but in general the difficulty level of questions was in the Medium/Hard category. Honestly speaking, to answer so many questions it requires much more than the 3 hours allocated to write the exam.

OCPA: What advice/tips/suggestions do you have for Oracle certification candidates?

FH: Prepare well and practice while studying for the exam. Take the exam not just to pass but to enrich yourself with the experience gained during preparing for the exam. Learn something new and useful during the exam preparation. Hopefully, you will not do this effort twice so try to make the best of it.

To help with your certification planning , first register for the exam about a month or two before your planned exam date. Stick to your preparation schedule for four to eight weeks. As the exam date nears, if your preparation is not satisfactory according to yourself, reschedule your exam. At least the exam date will motivate you to prepare with extra effort!

Oracle Certified Professionals Linkedin Group Welcomes 5000th Member

Oracle Certification Blog recently noted the efforts on the Oracle Certified Professionals Linkedin Group to create yet another community to network and exchange certification experiences.

I am delighted the report that we welcomed our 5000th member this week! If you are yet to join the group, please click here to join. There is a discussion forum, job board and news updates and many more. Connect with fellow group members and get tips for your next certification exam. If you are already certified, a great opportunity might be waiting for you on the job board!

Learn about the benefits of Oracle Certification

Most of our regular blog readers know the benefit of Oracle Certification.
However, seldom does one get a chance to hear from a guru (and that's not the OCP Advisor!) speak on Oracle Certification benefits. Joel Goodman an Oracle Certified Master (OCM) and author of the popular blog "The Blog from a DBA Classroom" will present a lunch time webinar on June 19, 2009.

This is an unique opportunity to attend an overview of the different Oracle Certification levels including the evolution of certification tracks and the current and planned certification offerings of interest to DBAs.

Whether you are an employer planning to hire certified professionals or employees looking at certification, this session will unravel the secrets regarding the design philosophy underlying both the theory style certification exams used for OCA, OCP and OCE as well as performance style exams used for OCM.

Click here to register for this exclusive webinar. Registration for the session is filling up fast and it it open to only the first 200 registrations. By the time I write this blog post, there maybe just a handful of seats left!