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Thanks, ODC (Oracle Developer Community)!

I owe a lot of thanks to the ODC - which stands for Oracle Developer Community.  What is ODC?  You may remember it as OTN, or the Oracle Technology Network.  Same people, different name.  Why they changed it I can't say.  People just liked it better that way... (love that song)

In any case, what am I thankful for?  A lot.  To start, the tools that I use day in and day out: SQL Developer, ORDS, Oracle Data Modeler, SQLcl and - of course - APEX.  Without these tools, I'm likely on a completely different career path, perhaps even one that aligns more closely with my degree in television management.

While the tools are great, it's really the people that make up the community that make ODC stand out. From the folks who run ODC and the Oracle ACE program to the developers and product managers who are behind the awesome tools, the ODC community is one of, if not the greatest asset of being involved with Oracle's products.

If you have yet to get more involved with this community, and are wondering how you can, well, there's no better time that on ODC appreciation day!  Here's some basic and simple things that you can do to become more involved:

  • Read and reply to posts on the ODC forums.  You'd be surprised how far a simple reply can go to help others.
  • Attend local user group conferences.  Consider not only presenting at them as well, but volunteering your time to help with the organization.
  • Attend and/or create a local MeetUp that focuses on the tools that you use.  It can be as general or as specific as you'd like it to be.
  • Get a Twitter account and follow the ODC community members.  Not sure where to start?  Try this list of "Oracle Peeps" from Jeff Smith: https://twitter.com/thatjeffsmith/lists/oraclepeeps
  • Encourage your co-workers to do the same!
There's no better way of showing your support for the ODC community than becoming more involved with it!

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