Re: Teradata baned from IOUG???

Yeah, and I was at OAUG in Honolulu when Oracle pulled all support two weeks before the event. And I've seen Oracle Denmark trying to make sure a certain presentation about RAC didn't "go wrong" (just Oracle Denmark, mind you :) ), and all sorts of other things.

Bullying shouldn't pay, no matter what. And why on Earth not have products presented that might broaden people's minds? If the user group thinks it would be cool to have someone present SQL Server, why not? If the DBA's are interested, the user group has provided value for its members.

A few centuries ago, some Danish mercenaries employed by one of the kings in Europe became very unpopular with the opposing king (I think it was the French). So the French king put out a decree stating that these Danish guys should be hanged whenever they were captured. The mercenaries reacted by wearing a white string around their neck - so as to provide the necessary rope to hang them by. That's the reason for the white piece of rope going from the bearskin hats and around the neck worn by the Danish Royal Guards (where I spent some time many years ago :) ).

If you're afraid of the competition, and are too scared to face it, you have already lost the battle. And if you're a user group and you're scared of the vendor your user group is helping - what value are you then providing to your members in the long run? You might be helping yourself, though, by becoming a well-known name because you're on the board of IOUG or OUG/DK or whatever.

I co-founded the Danish user group back in '87, and I'm on the board again after leaving Oracle. We've seen Oracle react this way or that way, but in the end Oracle cannot live without the user groups - because they don't want to see it evolve into something different, and because users helping each other are good ambassadors for Oracle's products.

The user groups can easily live without Oracle, but Oracle cannot live without the user groups. Think about it.

And the rather funny attempt at replacing IOUG and OAUG and EOUG with the Oracle World official marketing stuff of course doesn't work in the long run. Nice try, though.

Mogens

MacGregor, Ian A. wrote:

>The IOUG cannot live without Oracle's support, but Oracle can survive without the IOUG. IOUG may cause the rare stink, but it always does as Oracle instructs.
>
>Michael Corey, erstwhile IOUG president, was going to force Oracle to change the date of its first OOW in the U.S. as it was scheduled at the same time as the IOUW. The latter had been scheduled for well over a year. The groundwork had not even started for OOW, but guess which one was moved.
>
>Teradata would not be the first product banned. Way back in olden-times the maker of SQR were banned, but I cannot remember why.
>
>The idea of the exhibit hall is for vendors to provide information on their products in respect to Oracle. Now a company wants to use the forum to convince people to stop using Oracle, or so Oracle apparently dreads. But, who goes to the conferences? Mainly DBA's and developers who have such a stake in Oracle that even if Teradata did everything that Oracle did, made breakfast, and washed the dishes, they would not recommend it. Oracle is risking bad public relations over nothing.
>
>
>Ian MacGregor
>Stanford Linear Accelerator Center
>ian_at_SLAC.Stanford.edu
>
>-----Original Message-----
>Sent: Wednesday, February 12, 2003 4:34 PM
>To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L
>
>
>I'm sorry but I thought that IOUG was independant from Oracle? If Larry is afraid of a little competition then perhaps he should get out of the market. If not then he should battle it out in every venue possible and show why Oracle is better.
>
>If Rich and the guys do this they will be setting a dangerous precedant.
>
>-----Original Message-----
>Sent: Wednesday, February 12, 2003 2:59 PM
>To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L
>
>
>DBA's
>
>Check the article's comment on Oracle trying to ban Teradata from IOUG
>
>Teradata Steals Oracle's Data Mart Users ...
>
>Teradata pushes consolidation and woos away Oracle customers. But Oracle strikes back. Sort of. Will bean counters surf the Web with Excel? Will Steve Ballmer and Larry Ellison become immortal?
>
>http://computerworld.com/newsletter/0%2C4902%2C78375%2C0.html?nlid=DM
>
>
>
>
>

-- 
Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.net
-- 
Author: =?ISO-8859-1?Q?Mogens_N=F8rgaard?=
  INET: mln_at_MiracleAS.dk

Fat City Network Services    -- 858-538-5051 http://www.fatcity.com
San Diego, California        -- Mailing list and web hosting services
---------------------------------------------------------------------
To REMOVE yourself from this mailing list, send an E-Mail message
to: ListGuru_at_fatcity.com (note EXACT spelling of 'ListGuru') and in
the message BODY, include a line containing: UNSUB ORACLE-L
(or the name of mailing list you want to be removed from).  You may
also send the HELP command for other information (like subscribing).