Voice of the DBA

Tag: syndicated

  • SQL Source Control Webinar

    SQL_68x68_SrcCon One of the new products that Red Gate Software has released recently is SQL Source Control. I saw a demo of this product back in March as it was nearing completion, and I thought it was pretty cool. I have struggled with source control for years, and build a process that was mainly manual, and one that I’ve seen others use over the years.  It worked well, but it was prone to errors unless I was allowed to chastise developers on a regular basis for not adhering to the process.

    friends_of_rg_logo Today I acted as emcee and moderator for a semi-private webinar that demo’d the product to the Friends of Red Gate, a group that is by invitation only, but lets some customers interact with Red Gate similar to how the MVP program grants some people access to Microsoft.

    This was the first time I actually acted as a moderator, having been an attendee or presenter in the past. It went well, I think, though I definitely had a little dead air and struggled to keep up with questions and find a smooth way to interrupt the presenter. I would rather be the one presenting and let someone else handle the other work for sure.

    I think we’ll be scheduling more of these on a regular basis for some Red Gate products to get the word out more and show how they can be used to solve problems. This is one of the few that I’d purchase myself if I was doing DBA work, so we’ll start here and see what happens.

    I’m also hoping to do some other more regular webinars from SQLServerCentral, on more technical topics, across the next year.

  • Influence

    Do you influence people? How influential are you?

    I saw a link to The Influence Project, put on by Fast Company, looking for how much influence people have in 2010. The link actually takes you to my profile, which means I’ve influenced you to click the link. I got pulled in when Andy Leonard posted a link and I added to his influence.

    It’s an interesting idea, though I’m not sure what accuracy rating I’d assign to it. Only people that find it interesting will go through the links, so it’s a self-selecting group, not measuring anything absolute about how influential someone is in the world at large.

    However it did get me thinking about implementing something in the SQL Server community. I wonder if people would be interested to see who is contributing a lot to the SQL Server community, maybe by measuring some level of activity (blogging, forum posts, speaking, etc.). It would almost be like some sort of Que Score for SQL Server.

    I wonder how it would correlate to the MVP award. Would there people that had a high score that weren’t MVPs or vice versa? It might be a fun project to get going.

  • Syndication on SQLServerCentral

    I have a few people ask about this recently, so I thought I’d blog about it, and maybe get an explanation out there.

    When we started accepting bloggers on SQLServerCentral, it was a challenge to get people to move their blogs. We had some people that just started blogging with us, but others that were already blogging elsewhere. At first I wasn’t sure what to do, but when SQLServerPedia started syndicating bloggers, using feeds, I requested similar functionality for SQLServerCentral.

    We built it, and while it’s a little crude, and we’ve modified things a few times, here’s how it works:

    • You send us a note with
      • Your SQLServerCentral registered email
      • A feed URL
    • You blog in English (sorry, English only)
    • We read the feed and publish your blog on SQLServerCentral.

    The Scary DBA has syndicated his blog, so you can see how the different things look on our site v the source. Some things don’t come across cleanly, and I’m working on getting some of those things fixed.

    Frequency

    We used to read feeds once a day, now we do it once an hour. So if you blog about something, it ought to be on the SQLServerCentral site in under 2 hours. If you think there is an issue, please contact the webmaster.

    Hints

    I use Live Writer to actually publish this blog on Blogspot. It lets me test things, but also gives me a backup of my blog and control over what I write. I think it’s a good idea to own your content, as well as keep a backup of it on your own blog.

    Live Writer is a great piece of software for drafting blogs, scheduling them, working offline, etc. I actually sync my Live Writer folders  across my desktop and laptops. That gives me some additional capabilities to draft stuff on one machine and finish it on another.

    I highly recommend people tag stuff they want to syndicate with a specific tag and then send us the feed of that tag. That allows you to still blog about something that you want to publish, but not syndicate it if you don’t want to. I know some people do this to publish other stuff in other languages, or they mix their personal/career blog and don’t necessarily want to send everything to SSC.

    Setup

    If you want to get setup, send a note to the webmaster at SQLServerCentral.com and we’ll get you syndicated.

  • SQL Saturday Advice – Work with Sponsors

    The hardest thing, I think, for most new organizers of a SQL Saturday is the fundraising. A few years ago I heard Jerry Jones, owner of the Dallas Cowboys, give his 5 rules for being a good salesman.

    Number one is ask for the money. He couldn’t remember the other four 🙂

    I think that’s a fine set of rules, but for many people, it’s really hard to ask for money. Surprisingly they are scared to do it. Maybe not surprisingly since I find it hard as well. It’s not though, as I’ve learned over the year, but I still feel trepidation that I’m asking for more than I’m giving at times.

    I caught a great blog from one half of the Midnight DBA, Jen McCown (Blog|Twitter) on SQL Saturday sponsorships. It’s a great read, and there’s another good one from Ryan Adams. Sponsorship is important to a degree because there are some costs with a SQL Saturday. You might get free space, but often have to pay insurance. There’s lunch, though you can charge people. There’s signage, badges, other incidentals, but they still cost money and your significant other might not be thrilled with you paying out of pocket.

    I don’t think it’s hard to get some sponsors, and I know that my company, Red Gate, is usually happy to help out some, PASS gives a little, a few other vendors will likely chip in. There are two keys that I’ve seen from talking with people.

    1. Communicate often and clearly
    2. Negotiate and be willing to take less (and give less).

    You might think if you don’t get a response that your email was clear and that someone just doesn’t want to sponsor you. I will tell you that if you send 10, I bet that 7 of them aren’t clear to the receiver, or they aren’t read. 2 or 3 people might need to think about it and then will forget it. That means maybe one positive response from your email.

    What do you do?

    Send more emails. Send them repeatedly. Not botheringly-often like every day, but every week to ten days repeat them. Try new sponsors, try making a call or setting up a 10 minute meeting to talk about it. Use clear materials like Jen lists, and then be willing to work with them. Someone might not want to sponsor you for $1000, but they might be willing to do $200. If that’s the case, offer less. Be willing to shift slightly on your rate card, and negotiate with them. Ryan has good advice for being sure you deliver on your promises, keep them happy, and have them sponsor you again.

    And have fun with it. It’s not the end of the world if someone walks away, and there are usually lots of sponsors to choose from. You don’t need a huge budget, and I’d plan for a small one. You can add things in easier than taking them away.