Author Archives: Kaj Arnö
Done! Our first MariaDB Server MiniFest is over. A smaller version of our MariaDB Server Fest format, the first MiniFest was about the MariaDB Server Release Policy.
Where to find the recordings
Should you have missed the party, we have recorded the 3:18:45 hours of Best Bits for you, available directly on https://mariadb.org/minifest2020/. The sessions are also available individually, as linked below.
Presentations by MariaDB
We started off by three presentations by MariaDB:
- On Building MariaDB, by Daniel Bartholomew (MariaDB Corporation), with a follow-up interview by Vicentiu Ciorbaru and Vlad Bogolin (both MariaDB Foundation)
- On Merging MariaDB (exact title: Ensuring Build Quality in MariaDB) by Oleksandr “Sanja” Byelkin (MariaDB Corporation), with a follow-up interview by Vicentiu Ciorbaru
- On Security by Sergei Golubchik (MariaDB Corporation and Foundation), with a follow-up interview by Ian Gilfillan (MariaDB Foundation)
The User View
We continued with three presentations by users:
- From a Linux Distribution perspective, by Otto Kekäläinen of Debian, with a follow-up interview by Daniel Black (MariaDB Foundation)
- From a Microsoft perspective, by Sunil Kamath of MSFT, as interviewed by Kaj Arnö (MariaDB Foundation)
- From a Fintech perspective, by Kamalakannan Annathurai of DBS Bank (one of Asia’s biggest banks, in Singapore), as interviewed by Kaj Arnö (MariaDB Foundation)
The concluding Panel
For the concluding Panel on the MariaDB Release Policy, we had asked all speakers and interviewers to be present, which proved challenging – given timezones spanning from Canberra over Singapore across EMEA to the Americas.
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Great news! MariaDB got its own DevRoom at FOSDEM 6-7 Feb 2021. Usually FOSDEM happens in Brussels, but nobody is surprised that it is virtual this year.
What FOSDEM is
FOSDEM is the biggest Free and Open Source Developers Meeting worldwide. I am sure it remains so in these pandemic times. While I will miss all the many social f2f encounters at FOSDEM, I am looking forward to meeting people virtually.
Separating MariaDB from MySQL
For MariaDB Foundation, this is no small challenge. We will have to establish a Program Committee of our own, when we have so far cohabitated with MySQL.
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New MariaDB releases come with regular intervals. Releasing a new version is a balance between new functionality and bugfixes on one side, and stability on the other. How do we get optimum quality for the releases? And what exactly is quality, from the point of view of DBAs and developers that use MariaDB Server?
That’s the setting of our MariaDB Server MiniFest in two weeks.
New MariaDB Releases: The DBA & Developer Experience
This MiniFest is called “mini” for three key reasons:
- It has just one topic
- It is much shorter, less than half a day
- It happens just in one time zone
But it still builds on the pillars of success from our MariaDB Server Fest in Sep 2020:
- It features expert speakers on MariaDB Server
- It has pre-recording, subtitles, and follow-up discussions
- It is interactive, with the speakers “cloned” on Zulip chat
The special sauce
The special sauce for this MiniFest is
- Internal presenters explain the logic of release policies
- External presenters give the candid user perspective
- The desired outcome: improved processes and quality
The conference format
The internal (provider) presentations have a 10+10 minute format.
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We hear you, Kristian Köhntopp! Thank you for taking the time to articulate what many others are probably thinking.
For those of you to whom this sounds cryptic, let me share how I interpreted Kristian Köhntopp’s blog MySQL: Ecosystem fragmentation (https://blog.koehntopp.info/2020/10/28/
mysql-ecosystem-fragmentation.html), published last week:
Kristian noted that the question “Which version of MySQL do you run on?” for a long time hasn’t been merely answered by a simple version number, since there are reasons to perceive MariaDB and Aurora to be “variations to the same theme”.
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So you heard about the interesting presentations at the MariaDB Server Fest, but didn’t have time to watch them when we were live? Or you have so far seen only a couple of the presentations, but would like some hints at which other presentations are worthy of taking a look at?
That’s the purpose of this blog entry: to help you pick and choose, suggesting what could be interesting for you. All the Server Fest presentations are available on YouTube, with subtitles and Q&A sessions!
Four tips
A first tip: Most presentations have a short five-minute Q&A session.
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The MariaDB Server Fest 2020 is now over! Time for some spontaneous, initial reflections.
The MariaDB Server Fest
To recap, MariaDB Server Fest
- was a virtual conference
- spread out over three days in September 2020
- taking place first in Paris, then in New York, and last in Singapore / Beijing (three days in each location)
The Fest was a first for MariaDB Foundation
The Server Fest was a first in many ways, for MariaDB Foundation:
- The first time we addressed the users of MariaDB Server – not the developers of MariaDB Server
- The first time we went virtual – so far, we have always met face to face
- The first time we did a conference with Call for Papers and an approval process – earlier, we had what we called unconferences, with a very spontaneous agenda
A roaring success
The numbers speak for themselves:
- over 10.000 unique video views on YouTube alone
- over 2.000 simultaneous viewers on Bilibili.com
- 35 talks by 30 presenters
- twelve live streams, each with six hours of talks
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MariaDB Server Fest is coming to Asia Pacific! Beijing and Singapore are the two symbols for the timezones, much like Paris for the Server Fest in Europe, Middle East and Africa, and New York for the Server Fest in the Americas.
The reason we have two different symbols for the same time zone is that we want to adapt to the different Internet landscape in China.
Singapore is like Paris and New York
For Singapore, things look like they do in Paris and New York.
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Continue reading “Beijing and Singapore MariaDB Server Fests”
The MariaDB Server Fest next month has approved quite a number of exciting presentations. The presenters are now busy filming their presentations, which will be aired three times – Monday to Wednesday 14-16 September 2020 in the Paris timezone (for EMEA), Tuesday to Thursday 15-17 September 2020 in the New York timezone (for the Americas), and Friday to Sunday 18-20 September 2020 in the Beijing timezone (for APAC).
Interactivity through cloning
Through logic (not magic), we have cloned the presenters. As the presentation is aired in the form of video, slides and voice, the presenter is fully concentrating on following what you, the attendee, ask in the chat room.
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