Irish Oracle SIG
Tom Kyte Seminar–Dublin 19th September 2012
Calling all Oracle users in Ireland.
Tom Kyte will be back in Dublin on Wednesday 19th September for a half day seminar.
The event is is being organised by the Ireland OUG and Oracle.
It will be in the Gibson Hotel beside the Point village.
This is a FREE event for everyone, so share the news and get to see Tom Kyte present for a 4 hours.
As they say spaces are limited, so book your place today. I have.
To register for the event – click here.
Oracle Scene Call for Articles-Due 18th April
The Call for Articles is now open for the summer edition of Oracle Scene.
If you are interested in writing an article, now is the time to start working on writing it, as the deadline for submitting is 18th April.
Articles can be short (2 pages) or long 4 to 6 pages in MS Word.
All Oracle technical articles will be considered and can on one or more of the following areas:
- CRM market and megatrends eg. Cloud, mobile, CX (Customer Experience Management), self service, social
- Fusion CRM
- Siebel
- CRM on Demand
- Other Oracle CRM products
- e-commerce in Siebel
- Mobile CRM solutions
- RightNow
- Upgrading
- Project implementation
- Applications & Fusion Applications
- Fusion Middleware
- BI
- DBA
- APEX
- Server Technology
- Java
In particular I would like to see more short (1/4 or 1/2 page) articles on what happened at the various SIG events so far in 2012 and your plans for the rest of the year.
Have you written and published a book recently or at some stage over the summer. If so would you like to publicise it by writing a short article about it and my to give a sign copy away in a draw?
If you have any questions about writing an article for Oracle Scene drop me an email and we can discuss.
Check out the following web link for submission guidelines and how to submit your article.
http://www.ukoug.org/what-we-offer/oracle-scene/article-submissions/
My OUG Ireland Conference Presentations
Wednesday 21st March an important for the OUG Ireland as it is the annual conference. This year we are in a new venue, the Dublin Convention Centre, on the river Liffey.
After many, many years of being an attendee of my local conference, this year I will be presenting 2 presentations. Actually, I’ll be presenting one and co-presenting another.
My first presentation, will be an introduction to Oracle Data Miner, which is now part of SQL Developer. I will be talking about the new features and some features that be part of a future presentation. Most of the presentation time will be taken up with a Demonstration of using Oracle Data Miner (ODMr). I will step through a the main steps of data mining using the ODMr tool. The data set that I will be using is based on a University in the UK who wanted to look at how data mining could be used to help them manage student retention/churn.
The second presentation will be lead by Antony Heljula, of Peak Indications, with me co-presenting or butting in on some topics. This presentation will be at a much higher level. This presentation will be aimed at analysts and managers who are looking at data mining and what it can do for them.We will look at what it can be used for, who are the main people, some sample case studies/application areas, data quality issues, etc. There will be a demonstration on how you can incorporate the data mining model, developed in the first presentation, into OBIEE Dashboards. We will be using the same UK University scenario here and we will show how data mining has helped to identify specific types students that could not be identified using other means.
Check out the full conference agenda – here
There are plenty of excellent presentations, with lots of Oracle ACE’s and Oracle ACE Directors.
Some of my other activities on the day will be:
- Talking to people about writing articles for the Oracle Scene, the user group manage. I’m the deputy editor of Oracle Scene.
- I’m also deputy chair of the Irish BI & EPM SIG, so I’ll be trying to persuade people take part in and present at future meetings.
- Finally and perhaps most importantly, I will be meeting other people in the Oracle world here in Ireland. Some of these people I know for 20+ years. Because of busy schedules sometimes the only time we get to catch-up is at the annual conference.
If you would like to talk to me about the topics covered in the presentations or about any of the about activities, look out for me during the day. I will be at the (free) drinks reception at the end of the day, so you can talk to me then. If that does not suit, then drop me an email and we can arrange to meet up.
OUG Ireland 2012 Conference & Re-launching the SIGs in Ireland
The schedule of presentations for the 2012 Oracle User Group Ireland conference has just been released.
This year the conference will be in the Dublin Convention Centre.
There are 5 parallel streams with sessions running all day. Key notes presentations will be given by Eileen O’Mara from Oracle Ireland (given in the morning) and the key note at the end of the day will be given by Mogen Norgaard from Miracle AS in Denmark and founder of the OakTable Network.
There will be 7 Oracle ACE Directors and 3 Oracle ACEs presenting at the conference in addition to other speakers from Ireland, UK and Netherlands. Here is the full list of Oracle ACEs that are presenting
Debra Lilley, ACE Director
Mark Rittman, ACE Director
Roel Hartman, ACE Director
Simon Haslam, ACE Director
Frits Hoogland, ACE Director
Mogens Norgaard, ACE Director
Lonneke Dikmans, ACE Director
Brendan Tierney, ACE
Marcin Przepiorowski, ACE
Grant Ronald, ACE
It is also FREE to attend. So go ahead an book yourself a place for a full day Oracle training.
To register your place – Click here
The agenda for the conference can be found here – Click here
There are a few important web and social media links that might be of interest for all Oracle people in Ireland.
Web : www.oug.og/ireland
Twitter : @oug_ire
@oug_ire2012 For the 2012 conference related tweets
LinkedIn : http://www.linkedin.com/groups?home=&gid=3441701
Re-launching the SIGS in Ireland
Over the past few years the User Group SIGs have been a bit quiet here in Ireland. Except for the BI (&EPM) SIG, which has been getting a good attendance since it launched back in 2009.
In particular the Oracle Technology SIG basically ceased to exist over the past 5 or 6 years, since the days when John Knox and Tagdh Cashman were running it.
At the conference it is hoped that to get some people to volunteer to get this SIG back up and running again. Maybe we could get 3 SIG events each year. What do you think ?
Drop me an email if you have any questions regarding the SIGs in Ireland (I’m deputy chair of the BI & EPM SIG).Hopefully
I’ll see you there on the 21st March.
My first set of Oracle Products
I started working with Oracle back in 1993 and my first project involved working with Oracle 5, Forms 2.3 and for reports RPT.
The Oracle Database and tools were very simple back then, but there was lots of “features” to work around.
Check out this video, for a short demo of Oracle 5 and Forms 2
Article for Oracle Scene–Due 13th Jan
As we approach Christmas, many of us will be looking forward to a few days holidays/vacation. During this period we may start thinking about some techniques or methods that we discovered over the past 12 months or about things we need to find out more on, over the coming months.
One thing to consider is to write an article on these techniques or methods, for Oracle Scene. The next due date for submitting articles is 13th January.
http://www.ukoug.org/what-we-offer/oracle-scene/editorial-calendar/
For more details and ideas check out my webpage Oracle Scene
Make sure you check out the Article Guidelines and Submission Details
http://www.ukoug.org/what-we-offer/oracle-scene/article-submissions/
I hope to write an article based on the presentation I gave at the UKOUG Conference in Birmingham.
The most common question that I get asked is ‘how long should it be?’. The length of an article can be anything from half a page, up to 4 or 5 pages long.
Oracle Ireland: Data Centre Transformation Event 7th December
Oracle in Ireland is hosting a session called Data Centre Transformation on 7th December (9:30-13:00), in the Guinness Storehouse, St James Gate, Dublin 8.
The agenda for this session is
| 9:00 | Registration & Coffee |
| 10:00 | The 21st Century Data Centre, Delivered by Oracle Solaris – Mike Ramchand |
| 10:30 | Oracle Enterprise Manager 12c – John Caulfield, Solutions Director |
| 11:00 | Oracle Virtualised Systems (VM 3.0) – Dave Patterson, Oracle Hardware |
| 11:30 | Coffee Break |
| 12:00 | Transformative Oracle Storage Solutions – Neil Caughey, Oracle Storage Business Unit |
| 12:30 | Extreme Performance with Oracle Exadata and Exalogic – Brian Grant, Oracle Exalogic Business Development Manager |
To book your place on this event email oracle.events@ketchumpleon.com
Or register by following this web link.
I wont be at this event as I’ll be presenting in the afternoon at the UKOUG conference in Birmingham.
Applying an ODM Model to new data in Oracle – Part 1
This is the first of a two part blog posting on using an Oracle Data Mining model to apply it to or score new data. This first part looks at the how you can score data using the DBMS_DATA_MINING.APPLY procedure in a batch type process.
The second part will be posted in a couple of days and will look how you can apply or score the new data, using our ODM model, in a real-time mode, scoring a single record at a time.
DBMS_DATA_MINING.APPLY
Instead of applying the model to data as it is captured, you may need to apply a model to a large number of records at the same time. To perform this bulk processing we can use the APPLY procedure that is part of the DBMS_DATA_MINING package. The format of the procedure is
DBMS_DATA_MINING.APPLY (
model_name IN VARCHAR2,
data_table_name IN VARCHAR2,
case_id_column_name IN VARCHAR2,
result_table_name IN VARCHAR2,
data_schema_name IN VARCHAR2 DEFAULT NULL);
| Parameter Name | Description |
| Model_Name | The name of your data mining model |
| Data_Table_Name | The source data for the model. This can be a tree or view. |
| Case_Id_Column_Name | The attribute that give uniqueness for each record. This could be the Primary Key or if the PK contains more than one column then a new attribute is needed |
| Result_Table_Name | The name of the table where the results will be stored |
| Data_Schema_Name | The schema name for the source data |
The main condition for applying the model is that the source table (DATA_TABLE_NAME) needs to have the same structure as the table that was used when creating the model.
Also the data needs to be prepossessed in the same way as the training data to ensure that the data in each attribute/feature has the same formatting.
When you use the APPLY procedure it does not update the original data/table, but creates a new table (RESULT_TABLE_NAME) with a structure that is dependent on what the underlying DM algorithm is. The following gives the Result Table description for the main DM algorithms:
For a Classification algorithms
case_id VARCHAR2/NUMBER
prediction NUMBER / VARCHAR2 — depending a target data type
probability NUMBER
For Regression
case_id VARCHAR2/NUMBER
prediction NUMBER
For Clustering
case_id VARCHAR2/NUMBER
cluster_id NUMBER
probability NUMBER
Example / Case Study
My last few blog posts on ODM have covered most of the APIs for building and transferring models. We will be using the same data set in these posts. The following code uses the same data and models to illustrate how we can use the DBMS_DATA_MINING.APPLY procedure to perform a bulk scoring of data.
In my previous post we used the EXPORT and IMPORT procedures to move a model from one database (Test) to another database (Production). The following examples uses the model in Production to score new data. I have setup a sample of data (NEW_DATA_TO_SCORE) from the SH schema using the same set of attributes as was used to create the model (MINING_DATA_BUILD_V). This data set contains 1500 records.
SQL> desc NEW_DATA_TO_SCORE
Name Null? Type
———————————— ——– ————
CUST_ID NOT NULL NUMBER
CUST_GENDER NOT NULL CHAR(1)
AGE NUMBER
CUST_MARITAL_STATUS VARCHAR2(20)
COUNTRY_NAME NOT NULL VARCHAR2(40)
CUST_INCOME_LEVEL VARCHAR2(30)
EDUCATION VARCHAR2(21)
OCCUPATION VARCHAR2(21)
HOUSEHOLD_SIZE VARCHAR2(21)
YRS_RESIDENCE NUMBER
AFFINITY_CARD NUMBER(10)
BULK_PACK_DISKETTES NUMBER(10)
FLAT_PANEL_MONITOR NUMBER(10)
HOME_THEATER_PACKAGE NUMBER(10)
BOOKKEEPING_APPLICATION NUMBER(10)
PRINTER_SUPPLIES NUMBER(10)
Y_BOX_GAMES NUMBER(10)
OS_DOC_SET_KANJI NUMBER(10)
SQL> select count(*) from new_data_to_score;
COUNT(*)
———-
1500
The next step is to run the the DBMS_DATA_MINING.APPLY procedure. The parameters that we need to feed into this procedure are
| Parameter Name | Description |
| Model_Name | CLAS_DECISION_TREE — we imported this model from our test database |
| Data_Table_Name | NEW_DATA_TO_SCORE |
| Case_Id_Column_Name | CUST_ID — this is the PK |
| Result_Table_Name | NEW_DATA_SCORED — new table that will be created that contains the Prediction and Probability. |
The NEW_DATA_SCORED table will contain 2 records for each record in the source data (NEW_DATA_TO_SCORE). For each record in NEW_DATA_TO_SCORE we will have one record for the each of the Target Values (O or 1) and the probability for each target value. So for our NEW_DATA_TO_SCORE, which contains 1,500 records, we will get 3,000 records in the NEW_DATA_SCORED table.
To apply the model to the new data we run:
BEGIN
dbms_data_mining.apply(
model_name => ‘CLAS_DECISION_TREE’,
data_table_name => ‘NEW_DATA_TO_SCORE’,
case_id_column_name => ‘CUST_ID’,
result_table_name => ‘NEW_DATA_SCORED’);
END;
/
This takes 1 second to run on my laptop, so this apply/scoring of new data is really quick.
The new table NEW_DATA_SCORED has the following description
SQL> desc NEW_DATA_SCORED
Name Null? Type
——————————- ——– ——-
CUST_ID NOT NULL NUMBER
PREDICTION NUMBER
PROBABILITY NUMBER
SQL> select count(*) from NEW_DATA_SCORED;
COUNT(*)
———-
3000
We can now look at the prediction and the probabilities
SQL> select * from NEW_DATA_SCORED where rownum <=12;
CUST_ID PREDICTION PROBABILITY
———- ———- ———–
103001 0 1
103001 1 0
103002 0 .956521739
103002 1 .043478261
103003 0 .673387097
103003 1 .326612903
103004 0 .673387097
103004 1 .326612903
103005 1 .767241379
103005 0 .232758621
103006 0 1
103006 1 0
12 rows selected.
Call for Presentations : OUG Ireland Conference 2012
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The call for presentations for the annual Oracle User Group Ireland conference has been posted in last few days.
The conference is planned for March 2012 and the venue will be picked over the next few weeks.
I’m on organising committee this year. It is hoped to have a number of parallel streams covering core Database Technology, BI (&EPM), Development (including Fusion).
If you are interested in presenting a short presentation of approx. 45 minutes (including time for questions), then you will need to submit your Topic and Abstract using the following link : www.oug.org/Irelandpapers
The conference is not limited to presenters from Ireland and it is hoped to get a number of well known Oracle experts and Oracle ACEs to come to Dublin for the day.
What kind of topics are of interest. Well pretty much anything Oracle. We have all come across something interesting in our jobs that we could share, be it using a particular technique, new features, sharing experiences, best practices, product demos, etc
I’ve already submitted a presentation on Oracle Data Miner.
There is a Twitter hash tag for the Oracle Conference #oug_ire2012. So add this to your Twitter tool to follow developments and announcements about the conference.
If you have any question about the conference drop me a email.
My UKOUG Conference 2011 Schedule
The UKOUG conference will be in a couple of weeks. I have my flights and hotel booked, and I’ve just finished selecting my agenda of presentations. I really enjoy this conference as it serves many purposes including, finding new directions Oracle is taking, new product features, some upskilling/training, confirming that the approaches that I have been using on projects are valid, getting lots of hints and tips, etc.
One thing that I always try to do and I strongly everyone (in particular first timers) to do is to go to 1 session everyday that is on a topic or product that you know (nearly) nothing about. You might discover that you know more than you think or you may learn something new that can be feed into some project on your return or over the next 12 months.
My agenda for the conference currently looks Very busy and in between these session, there is the exhibition hall, meetings with old and new friends, meetings with product/business unit managers, asking people to write articles for Oracle Scene, checking out possible presenters to come to Ireland for our conference in March 2012, etc. Then there is my presentation on the Wednesday afternoon.
Sunday
I’ll miss most of the Oak Table event on the Sunday but I hope to make it in time for
16:40-17:30 : Performance & High Availability Panel Session
Monday
9:20-9:50 : Keynote by Mark Sunday, Oracle (H1)
10:00-10:45 : The Future of BI & Oracle roadmap, Mike Durran, Oracle (H5)
11:05-12:05 : Implementing Interactive Maps with OBIEE 11g, Antony Heljula, Peak Indicators (H10A)
12:15-13:15 : OBI 11g Analysis & Reporting New Features, Mark Rittman (8A)
14:30-15:15 : Master Data Management – What is it & how to make it work – Robert Barnett, Hub Solutions Designs (H10A)
16:20-17:35 : Dummies Guide to Oracle ADF, Grant Ronald, Oracle, (Media Suite)
16:35-18:30 : The DB Time Performance Method, Graham Wood, Oracle (H8A)
17:45-18:30 : Performance & Stability with Oracle 11g SQL Plan Management, Doug Burns (H1)
17:45-18:30 : Experiences in Virtualization, Michael Doherty (H10A)
19:45-20:45 : Exhibition Welcome Drinks
20:45-Late : Focus Pubs
Tuesday
9:00-11:00 : Next Generation BI Architectures Masterclass, Andrew Bond, Oracle (H10B)
10:10-10:55 : Who’s afraid of Analytic Functions, Alex Nuijten, Maxima (H5)
11:15-12:15 : Analysing Your Data with Analytic Functions, Carl Dudley, (H9)
11:25-13:25 : Using a Physical Standby to Minimize Downtime for DB Release or Server Change, Michael Abbey, Pythian (Media Suite)
14:40-15:25 : How note to make the headlines, Mark Clewett, Hitachi (H10A)
14:40-15:25 : APEX Back to Basics, Paul Broughton, APEX Evangelists (H9)
15:35-16:20 : Can People be identified in the database, Pete Finnigan (H1)
16:40-18:35 : OTN Hands-on Workshop, Todd Trichler, Oracle (H8A)
17:50-18:35 : SQL Developer Data Modeler as a replacement for Oracle Designer, Paul Bainbridge, Fujitsu, (H8B)
18:45-19:45 : Keynote : Future of Enterprise Software and Oracle, Ray Wang, Constellation Research (H1)
20:00-Late : Evening Social & Networking
Wednesday
9:00-10:00 : Oracle 11g Database: Automatic Parallelism, Joel Goodman, Oracle (H9)
9:00-10:00 : Big Data: Learn how to predict the future, Keith Laker, Oracle (H8B)
10:10-10:55 : All about indexes – What to index, when and how, Mark Bobak, ProQuest (H5)
11:20-12:30 : Using Application Express to Build Highly Accessible Products, Anthony Rayner, Oracle (H8A)
12:30-13:30 : Practical uses for APEX Dictionary, John Scott, APEX Evangelists (H8A)
15:20-16:05 : How to deploy you Oracle Data Miner 11g R2 Workflows in a Live Environment – Me (H7B)
16:15-17:00 : Next Generation Data Warehousing, Kulvinder Hari, Oracle (H8A)
16:15-17:00 : Beyond RTFM and WTF Message Moments. Introducing a new standard: Oracle Fusion Applications User Assistance, Ultan O’Broin (Executive Room 7)
I know I have some overlapping sessions, but I will decide on the date which of these I will attend.
As you an see I will be following the BI stream mainly, with a few sessions on the Database and Development streams too.
This year there is a smart phone app help us organise our agenda, meetings, etc, The only downside is that the app does not import the agenda that I created on the website. So I have to do it again. Maybe for next year they will have an import agenda feature.

Tom Kyte Seminar Day–Dublin
On Wednesday 2nd December, I attended a full day of presentations given by Tom Kyte of Oracle (asktom.oracle.com). Tom covered a number of topics and these included some of his Oracle Open World presentations.
The topics that were covered included
- 5 things about SQL (OOW11)
- Database Option Packs
- 5 things about PL/SQL (OOW11)
- Q&A Ask Tom Session
All of these presentations can be downloaded from Tom’s website www.asktom.com.
Tom wont be presenting at the annual UKOUG conference in December, but he is hoping to be there next year (2012).
Oracle Events in Ireland (Q4 2011)
Over the coming months (Q4 2011) there are a number of Oracle related events being run in Ireland. The schedule for these is below with the relevant links to the agenda webpages or to where you can book your place.
The OUG BI SIG meetings you can book your place with the UKOUG.
Venue Address – Dublin:
Oracle Block H, East Point Business Park, Dublin 3
Venue Address – Belfast:
The Mount Conference Center, 2 Woodstock Link, Belfast BT6 8DD
For questions about logistics please contact the marketing team on marketing-ie_ie@oracle.com
If you have any question about the content please contact: mina.sagha.zadeh@oracle.com
If you know of any other events that are not listed, let me know and I’ll update the list
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