The Oracle Developer Advocates Team
Formed in 2014, Oracle Developer Advocates is a team of expert and entertaining Oracle technologists with the following mission: help our users fully leverage the application development features of Oracle Database to build secure, fast and maintainable applications. Too many people think of databases as simple "bit buckets", good for little more than reading and writing rows of data, with all the interesting and important work done in the application layer. That might be true for some databases, but the Oracle Database is packed full of features that can greatly simplify application development, while at the same time providing better performance. These features include SQL, PL/SQL, edition-based redefinition, Oracle Text, Oracle Spatial, Oracle REST Data Services, and so much more.
Of course, Oracle Developer Advocates are not the only people inside and outside of Oracle to take on this mission. We plan to complement existing efforts by focusing on the creation of high quality multimedia resources, including videos, podcasts, MOOCs and more, that will more effectively transfer knowledge and reach the next generation of developers, who grew up on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
If you need help on any aspect of Oracle Database - even something the team is not expert in - don't hesitate to get in touch with any of us (Steven's email is right there...click on it!), and we will make sure the right person gets your question.
Steven Feuerstein - Team Lead
Steven Feuerstein is an expert on the Oracle PL/SQL language, having written ten books on PL/SQL, including Oracle PL/SQL Programming and Oracle PL/SQL Best Practices (all published by O'Reilly Media). Steven has been developing software since 1980, spent five years with Oracle back in the "old days" (1987-1992), and was PL/SQL Evangelist for Quest Software (and then Dell) from January 2001 to February 2014 - at which point he returned joyfully to Oracle Corporation. He was one of the original Oracle ACE Directors and writes regularly for Oracle Magazine, which named him the PL/SQL Developer of the Year in both 2002 and 2006. He is also the first recipient of ODTUG's Lifetime Achievement Award (2009).
YouTube: Practically Perfect PL/SQL
Twitter: @sfonplsql (with an added bonus of his personal Twitter account @stevefeuerstein)
Blog: stevenfeuersteinonplsql.blogspot.com
Email: steven.feuerstein@oracle.com
Connor McDonald
Connor McDonald has, over the past 18 years, worked with Oracle Database systems in Australia, the UK, Southeast Asia, Europe, and the United States. He's co-authored 3 books, and is a popular speaker at Oracle conferences around the world, specializing in topics on the database engine, in particular SQL and PL/SQL. He has twice won the Inspirational Speaker award by the UK Oracle User Group. Whether speaking in a full day seminar to a room of developers, or just a "Hey, check out this cool feature" to the person sitting next to him, Connor has always loved sharing information about technology with others. He and Chris Saxon now form the Ask Tom Answer Team.
Twitter: @connor_mc_d
YouTube: Simply Smarter SQL
Blog: connormcdonald.wordpress.com
Chris Saxon
Over the past ten years Chris has worked as an Oracle developer, DBA and architect. During this time he's built up a passion for interacting with data using SQL and helping others do the same. Combining this with a love of games and quizzes, Chris started the Database Design quiz on the PL/SQL Challenge in 2013. He's looking forward to helping spread the word about SQL so that people get the most out of their data. He and Connor McDonald now form the backbone of the Ask Tom Answer Team, with Oracle Database product managers and developers also pitching in around their areas of expertise.
YouTube: The Magic of SQL YouTube Channel
Twitter: @sqldaily , @chrisrsaxon
Blogs: blogs.oracle.com/sql
Dan McGhan
Dan suffers from Compulsive Programming Disorder, which is believed to be linked to his balding. Having started his development career in the land of MySQL and PHP, he was only too happy to have stumbled upon Oracle Application Express (APEX). Since then, he’s dedicated his programming efforts to learning more about Oracle and web based technologies in general. These days he enjoys sharing the passion he's developed for JavaScript and HTML5 with others.
Twitter: @dmcghan
Blog: JavaScript and Oracle
YouTube: JavaScript and Oracle
Blaine Carter
Blaine started programming in 1995. For most of his career, he used Oracle software to build applications, including Oracle Forms and Oracle Reports, Java, and a whole lot of SQL and PL/SQL. He then explored a wide variety of open source technologies: Perl, Solr and Elastic Search as a database for small projects, Ruby for a small Autism center, lots of JavaScript. Now he applies his exploratory eye and tinkering inclinations to the intersection of open source software and Oracle Database.
Twitter: @OraBlaineOS
Blog: learncodeshare.net
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/BlaineCarter