In No Supply without Demand: Reply to Neil Burnett, an
articlein my Against
the Grain series I wrote as follows:
"Over a period of 15 years or so I
have persisted in my efforts to convince trade magazines, book publishers,
conference organizers, user groups, even academic departments, to dedicate some
space and time to data fundamentals: concepts, principles, methods, etc. But
I've become a lonely voice, because practitioners have bought lock stock and
barrel into the "how-to" that Burnett is referring to, and have no
interest in "all that theoretical stuff." As a concrete example, I
recently proposed a new book that would compare relational, SQL, object and XML
DBMSs on their underlying data models (if any) and it was rejected by three
major publishers. Without demand from practitioners, my arguments can be easily
marginalized as "purist", "religious",
"theoretical", and even my editor here joins the bandwagon by
referring to me as "irascible". ! [Ed.
Note: 'Taliban of databases' is the one I like best. Tim DiChiara
says 'of course I meant irascible in only the most positive sense'; maybe, but
that's not how it'll be interpreted"].
I've already provided evidence for this problem (e.g. my exchange with
an organizer of the Business Rules Forum). The following exchange with the
organizers of the PASS Community Summit (PASS stands for the Professional
Association of SQL Server users) is another case in point. I will leave it to
the reader to judge to what extent their selection outcome is consistent with
their own declared criteria. PASS is no different than any other
user/vendor organization (often sponsorships make it very difficult to know
which is which; see PS below).
From: Fabian Pascal
To: Kevin Cline, PASS
If you recall, I reminded you in February of our conversation
at the last conference, when I drew your attention to the fact that it is
difficult for non-vendors to justify traveling at their expense to give short
free presentations. This tends to result in a majority of presentations having
mostly commercial/vendor underpinnings, whether explicit or implicit, to the
exclusion of fundamentals, which produces poorly educated and uninformed
practitioners.
At the time I suggested that if I were allocated a
compensated seminar/workshop and/or expense reimbursement, I would be glad to
throw in one or two free presentations. I also drew your attention to the fact
that people tend to buy books after they attend an author's presentation, and
suggested to schedule authors to speak early in the conference, rather than in
the last day. You promised to follow up on these two issues.
Since my presentations were very well attended and many
expressed interest in seminars by me, and quite a few copies of my book
were sold following them even though it was the last presentations on the last
day, I am touching base with you to check on the status of these two issues.
From: Kevin Cline
To: Fabian Pascal
Cc: Kurt Windisch, PASS
Nice to hear from you. Yes, of course I remember that
discussion. In fact, I'd forwarded the issues of author scheduling and your
interest in compensated seminars with our conference & program teams. (Kurt
Windisch leads this part of the organization.) It's early to decide our topics
now, but I'd be happy to discuss this. To address your second concern first, we
are making a more concerted effort to schedule authors early and to provide
additional highlights for their sessions as well.
On your first concern, I'm not directly involved with this
aspect of the PASS organization, so I'm speaking out of turn here on Kurt's
behalf. However, my understanding of the pre-conference seminar
selection process is that it is centered directly on the hot technology
topics of greatest interest to our constituency. Committees select the
seminars using a variety of criteria, but the main driver is to achieve the
biggest possible draw for these added-cost sessions. (Standard sessions are
measured against different criteria.) Biggest draw is usually achieved by targeting
key SQL Server technologies such as DTS, Replication, and Tuning. Evergreen
topics, such as writing good SQL (my personal bailiwick) or database design are
of keen interest to our community, but usually pull in significantly less
added-cost attendees for reasons that aren't clear to me. This background
information may help you decide what material you'd like to offer to PASS as an
added-cost seminar.
Now having said all that, we'll be starting the selection
process in a couple months. We'd love to hear about your seminar idea! The web
site has posted the call for presentations and you additionally have Kurt’s
address and mine. So feel free to submit your seminar idea and we will then get
the proposal into the process!
From: Fabian Pascal
1st, let me remind you that a central point I tried to alert
you to in our discussion was that it is precisely because these events are so
product-focused, that my material is critical for the audience. There is ample
evidence that I have published explaining why that is so. The "hot
stuff" is exactly what must be assessed with a good understanding of
fundamentals, which is sorely lacking precisely because all the focus is on
product mechanics. That is why the industry is in regression, rather than
progress. That is also why with 99% training you should dedicate at
least 1% to education.
2nd, the only reason I have contacted you is because my
presentations in Denver were a big draw and people expressed much
interest in hearing more, including seminars. Despite the declared
attention to various criteria, the results are such that it is difficult to
believe some hidden considerations are not at work, even if not conscious ones.
As I suggested last time, there is a full 10-topic seminar
description at DATABASE DEBUNKINGS.
Either you or Kurt take a look at that and see which topics you deem of most
interest. We can then figure out how to put them together in a seminar and
whether they need any customization.
Kurt, I understand that you also handle the regional
seminars. I am interested.
From: Kurt Windisch
Thanks for your interest. We will be starting the process
next week of selecting the speakers we would like to invite to do
pre-conference seminars in November. I will make sure the program committee has
enough information to help with the selection process.
From: Kurt Windisch
I'm following up on this, Fabian. Thanks for your interest.
I've just posted some info to our programming committee on pre and
post-conference seminars for Seattle regarding yourself. Most of the current
invitations are going to speakers that have presented at multiple
conferences, but we're still working through the lists.
From: Fabian Pascal
Well, if you recall from our conversation, that is a big
problem in the industry: there is a certain number of people who have spoken
before and they are very product-specific and have little knowledge or interest
in fundamentals. The end result is that there is no education and both
the speakers and the audience are badly uninformed and uneducated. You only
have to read my writings or attend my presentations to see the consequences of
that. Persisting in inviting only speakers who spoke at PASS before perpetuates
the problem.
Since nobody else can and does what I do, I have 15+ more
years of lectures and seminars, let alone a reputation, and since the
response I got at the last conference was very clear and a keen interest was
expressed in hearing more, I would have to conclude that there are
ulterior motives for not inviting me. That goes for regional seminars too.
Not that it would surprise me, though.
From: Kurt Windisch
Our criteria for inviting pre-conference speakers are based
on the following:
·
Existing relationship with PASS as a presenter and
supporter.
·
Name recognition and topic that SQL Server users would
be interested in
·
Speaking experience with positive references regarding
speaking style, knowledge, and professionalism
·
Ability to draw a minimum of 40 participants to make
the seminar successful
This is informational in how we are conducting the process. I
am in no way suggesting that you don't meet any of the above criteria, and we
have not excluded you from an invitation at this point. On the contrary, I'm
suggesting that you be considered to the program committee. I believe you
have the ability to meet all of the above criteria. Your evals from the Denver
conference were very good which speaks to your ability. If you have
anything else you would like to add while we finalize our first list of
invitations, please let me know. We will weigh your presentation with the
others we are thinking of inviting.
From: Fabian Pascal
You are not telling me anything I don't know. The fact is
that even though these criteria ought to lead to invitations, they mostly
don't. Or if they do, it's for free sessions and at my expense. OTOH, many that
don't exactly impress me--to put it politely--get seminars and reimbursement. I
already mentioned that the first criterion has some serious negative impact.
I appreciate your efforts and do not doubt them, let's just
see what happens. If any more information about me and my work is necessary at
this point to get me invited, then I am very skeptical. But I will be only too
glad to be proven wrong, which does not happen too often.
From: PASS
To: Fabian Pascal
Dear Fabian,
PASS would like to invite you, as an expert in the user
community, to submit an abstract for a Spotlight Speaker Session at the
PASS Community Summit 2002. This event - formerly known as PASS North America -
will be held in Seattle, Washington, November 18-22, 2002.
Spotlight Speaker Sessions are new a new presentation format
created to 'spotlight' top speakers like yourself; speakers who have consistently
scored the highest at previous PASS events. These 90-minute presentations will
be highlighted in the PASS marketing materials and there will be opportunities
for your session audience to schedule one-on-one time with you after your
presentation.
We would also encourage you to submit additional abstracts
for the general 75-minute technical sessions being given throughout the
event.
Should your Spotlight Session abstract be accepted, you will
receive:
·
Complimentary registration to the PASS Community Summit
2002
·
Recognition as an expert speaker in PASS Community
Summit 2002 materials
We appreciate your submitting an abstract for these
presentations on the PASS web site before July 1. If you have any questions or
need assistance, please contact Amanda Powers.
We look forward to your participation and continued support
of PASS at the PASS Community Summit 2002!
Kurt Windisch
PASS Program Director
From: Fabian Pascal
Will seminar invitations come separately, or should I infer
that I predicted correctly?
From: Kurt Windisch
You have been selected as a Spotlight speaker for Seattle due
to your good presentation evaluations from Denver's conference and your role in
the industry. The pre- and post-conference speaker invitations are separate and
will be going out shortly, but I'm afraid you were not selected as a
pre/post conference speaker for Seattle. Let me know if you have any
questions.
From: Fabian Pascal
I rest my case.
Editor Comment: A
few days after I completed this exchange, I received the following from PASS:
"Microsoft had just three words to say when asked if Paul Flessner and his
SQL Server experts would be prepared to answer SQL Server strategy questions
posed by our members during the chat later this week; "Bring 'em on!"
Well, you heard the challenge. Its time to play Stump the Microsoft SVP! Sign
up for the next PASS chat today and let's see if we can keep the chat focused
on SQL Server."
Posted
07/05/02
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