So this is my post aboout my favorite feature of my favorite product. I can hear a lot of you say “The community is not a feature of the database or any other product”?

That is your opinion, I think it is the greatest one. I’d say that the mostly friendly Oracle community is by far the most important driver for quality solutions. I know I have and still do learn more from the community than from any manual.

I began using Oracle AskTom back when I started with Oracle. Tom was nice enough to start it up just months before I joined the fun in the Oracle world. From there I started finding all the amazing blogs that let me dig deeper and deeper into the database. Part of finding that community was finding great presenters at Training Days that RMOUG holds every year. Those two days used to be the professional highlight of the year while I was based in Denver, CO.

My manager at the time used to comment that where she and others just saw a technology I referred to the community over and over. That is how I see it, when people talk about Oracle I think about the company and the community first and about the specific technology after that.

That is still the case to the point where I today try to create a community where one is missing. That one is just a very small piece in the bigger world wide community of Oracle professionals. The user group scene is one of the greatest opportunities available to learn more and to get a chance to share the knowledge one happens to pick up.

Not only is taking part in the community one of the greatest opportunities available to learn critical skills in the technology you focus on, presenting in it on thing you think you know forces you to learn even more about it. It is also a great way to start building a network to others who enjoy sharing and debating technical aspects of Oracle technologies.

Another part of the community is OTN who sponsors a large part of the things that makes the community “one” community. Things like the ACE-program that awards some of the best in the community the ACE-title for their ability to share and educate. The ability for user groups to have ACE Directors to visit and hold a couple of presentations is a fantastic thing for every member of a user group.

Going to conferences and when I get a chance to present at them is one of the things I enjoy the most. That is when you really feel the power of the community. I feel we have too little of it in Sweden, so to see and feel how great it is in other places provides a lot of motivation to bring people together in one in Sweden.

If you are not feeling part of the user group community, sign up with your local user group. Start reading blogs, get on twitter and start following some of the greats. From there you’ll find more and more interesting sites, people and blogs to follow.

I’ll refrain from name dropping the guys and gals I follow. If you know me, you’ll know who anyway. If not, search for your favorite topics within Oracle on Twitter or google it followed by twitter or some other social network name and you’ll find lots twitterites or bloggers writing about the stuff that inspires you.

If you still want a list of where to start, hit me up and I’ll get you a good starting point from where to expand your horizons.