In the MySQL Community team, our charter is to serve the MySQL community — new and old MySQL users alike. One of the ways we do this is by facilitating information exchange between community members, where the new can learn from the old.

And there’s been lots of that information exchange going on, such as over mailing lists (in the early days the dominant vehicle), forums, and Planet MySQL.

One problem with this information exchange has been its ephemeral nature. The same questions pop up for many new users, and should they for some reason not be amongst the issues solved in the MySQL documentation, chances are you’ll have to know quite precisely what you’re looking for when coming up with your Google search phrases. Of course, browsing Planet MySQL is a great way of keeping up to date about how others are using MySQL — but what happened on the Planet six months ago, or a year ago? With currently 16940 (sixteen thousand ninehundred and forty) entries, you won’t by chance pop into the most interesting ones.

Enter the MySQL Librarian. The MySQL Librarian knows what the library contains. Ask the MySQL Librarian for what’s popular, and you’ll be answered.

How does the librarian know? Well, the librarian asks the library visitors (that’s people like you!) for what’s interesting, and whether it’s good.

For more on MySQL Librarian,

• just take a look at it on http://dev.mysql.com/librarian/
• read Giuseppe Maxia’s intro from two weeks ago http://blogs.sun.com/datacharmer/entry/the_mysql_librarian_is_here ,
• read the Dev Zone introductory article http://dev.mysql.com/tech-resources/articles/introducing-librarian.html

or

• read the MySQL Librarian FAQ at http://dev.mysql.com/librarian/faq.html
• read Roberto Galoppini’s review at http://robertogaloppini.net/2009/07/19/the-mysql-librarian-initiative/

Currently, there are 217 entries in it. It contains what our user community think it is the-best-of-the-best from what the community has produced, and it’s tagged and voted for.

Thanks to Dups for coding this, to Giuseppe for leading the efforts and publishing it, and to everyone in the community who has already entered items into the library (at the same time not forgetting those who wrote the items in the first place).

Hence: Go take a look at the MySQL Librarian! Add new items to it (presentations, pictures, videos, articles, and books)! Tag items for easy searching! Vote, so others know what you liked!

A new start always provides an opportunity to reassess your way of doing things:

• “Am I doing the right things with my life?”
• “Which habits could I change — in order to be a better neighbour?” 

Since Karen Tegan Padir took over the MySQL product from Mårten Mickos, we at Sun have taken a thorough look in the mirror.  The result of this introspection allows us to publish our conclusions and new community commitments this week in conjunction with the MySQL Conference & Expo in Santa Clara. 

For those who don’t yet know Karen, let me state a few facts: 

• Karen is VP of Sun’s newly-founded MySQL & Software Infrastructure group
• She describes herself as a geek and a straight-shooter, and I can attest to both 
• She was deeply involved in Sun’s decision to acquire MySQL, as well as the subsequent integration work throughout 2008 

In my previous blog, ”MySQL Culture and Business Philosophy Goes Mainstream at Sun“, I stressed that the key point to remember is that Sun is completely committed to building a big open source-based business, and very much supportive of the various communities that Sun is engaged in. That may sound a bit abstract, so I have worked with my new boss, Karen, to spell out for the MySQL community what it actually means in practice: 

First: We shall now start releasing MySQL Community Server binaries as frequently as we release the MySQL Enterprise Server. We want everyone – community and customers — to get the best bits first from us. This is why future Monthly Rapid Updates of MySQL 5.1 will remain available for the community. Moreover, future MRUs of MySQL 5.0 will also become available for the community. 

Second: We shall focus even more on our traditional core product values of stability, Performance and Ease of Use. Like you, we hate bugs, we hate slow, we hate waiting for fixes, and we hate awkward usability — even more than we love new functionality. The MySQL 5.4 performance release, which is considerably faster than MySQL 5.0 or 5.1 in most use cases, is a case in point.

Third: We shall allocate additional resources to the health and well-being of the MySQL Community. We focus both on users and developers. We shall now devote a greater portion of our internal MySQL Engineering Team resources to reviewing and eventually merging architecturally-compatible features written by external contributors, even if those features weren’t on our own roadmap.

Finally, fourth: We shall do more to improve our internal software engineering practices. We will brush our teeth every morning and evening, exercise several times a week, and eat (mostly) healthy food. Some of us may at times still take a vodka shot, but if so, then only to be social and to provide an excuse for singing badly, but not while writing code. 

In the spirit of open-ness, please give us ideas on how we can implement these changes. Let the MySQL community team know what you think. For those at the show this week, stop Karen in the halls and introduce yourself. Above all, enjoy!

Given the changes announced this week, I have updated my original plans for my presentation on Sunday. I was going to talk about Social networking, but am now changing it to a very interactive Q&A session.

I expect people are asking themselves

• What has changed?
• What will happen now?
• What are the consequences for the MySQL roadmap?
• Are there other consequences for the MySQL community?

and I will attempt at answering these questions interactively during FOSDEM.

Towards the end of next week, after internal coordination, I plan to share some further thinking on the “what will happen now” front with my blog readers.

What also I plan to do during tomorrow’s FOSDEM session is to get plenty of feedback on internal thoughts about what the community expects from us. My aim is to ask the right questions. My aim is to listen. My aim is to be able to use the FOSDEM feedback in our own planning at Sun. My aim is not yet to give answers to what Sun will do to accommodate your feedback, not even in the blog towards end of next week. At least partial answers can be expected at the MySQL Conference & Expo 20-23 April 2009 in California, though.

Summary: Travel to Brussels, come to FOSDEM, follow the signs for the “AW Building”, and go to the MySQL room AW1.126 in time before the start 13:15 tomorrow Sunday 8.2.2009. And tell us what you want Sun to do with MySQL!

Now being back from last week’s trip to Ukraine and this week’s trip to Russia, it’s time for an overview.

MySQL was prominently present at both Sun events, the one in Kiev on 26.11.2008 and the one in Moscow last Tuesday 2.12.2008. It was good to discuss with local Sun guys, and to meet MySQL community people and colleagues in both places.

The two first pictures in this post are from the community event at a university of economy in Moscow.

Like elsewhere, I started in the local language (which, perhaps surprisingly, frequently seems to be Russian also in Ukraine), followed by a “MySQL in the Web Economy” presentation in English.

Russia and Ukraine are interesting places, so I blogged quite a bit about the event. But I don’t want to spam Planet MySQL with travel tips and reports of Russian saunas, Russian taxis and Russian food. So here’s a short overview of the other blogs I wrote.

In Swedish:

• A report about the comfortable overnight (18:23-08:25) train journey from Helsinki to Moscow, on the Lev Tolstoy.
• A How-to study on using local metro (subway) to get from Leningradskiy station to Holiday Inn at Lesnaya.
• An account of a Russian banya (sauna), involving steam, birch and oak twigs, kvass, tea, and a special treatment called parit. Including a note about the Italian-Japanese anime Calimero.
• Some tips on taking a black taxi to get from A to B in Moscow.

In German:

• A few ideas on how to learn Russian by simultaneously reading Fandorin in German and in Russian
• The same banya (sauna) story, but from a German, rather than Scandinavian, perspective

In English:

• Out of Ukraine: On sequential interpretation, non-smoking and the concept of “Europe” as interpreted in Ukraine and Finland
• A comparative study in dress code at airports, with Istanbul, Ankara and Kiev as examples
• A nostalgic note to fellow Moscow traveller Zack Urlocker called Moo-moo: Russian fast food
• A self-centered description of food I like, introducing the concept of “kajsher” in Russia serves kajsher food at Elki Palki

In Russian:

• An attempt to describe my Helsinki-Moscow train ride in Russian

Let me conclude by sharing some of the pictures found in the detail blog postings, in miniature format:

My prayers have been answered.

We have found a worthy replacement for Jay Pipes: Dups.

• Dups joined MySQL in July 2007.
• Dups until recently was in the MySQL Web Team, and has joined us now.
• Dups comes from Canada (Newfoundland).
• Dups even lives in Canada (Montreal).
• Dups will roam the North American continent to serve the MySQL community, to learn from it, to explain Sun to the community, and to explain the community to Sun.
• Dups is sometimes mistaken for Colin Charles, because of similarities in physical appearance.
• Dups has a somewhat challenging name, Duleepa Wijayawardhana.

I’m very happy we got Dups as our Jay clone, because

• Dups is a MySQL user since last century.
• Dups knows MySQL very well.
• Dups is an excellent communicator: he structures his thoughts clearly and writes an enjoyable language.
• Dups is a superb web developer, very competent to take over MySQL Forge.
• Dups’s heart beat strongly for the community already when I interviewed him for his Web position (our recruiting processes required an out-of-department interviewer, and I’m happy I volunteered).
• Dups enjoys photography, quite like I do.
• I have already managed to learn to write and pronounce Dups’s real name by rote (see: Duleepa Wijayawardhana! I didn’t even look it up.).
• Dups is a geek even by name, as his (sequentially) first name is Geekiyanage.

I’m looking forward to working with Dups, on all things community. And I’m hoping to learn some mountaineering from him, too — he’s climbed over 28% of the world’s Seven Summits (Kilimanjaro for the highest peak in Africa, Elbrus for the highest peak in Europe).

Welcome, Dups!

Links:

• Dups’s blog on joining: http://blogs.sun.com/dups/entry/don_t_panic
• Giuseppe’s blog on Dups joining: http://blogs.sun.com/datacharmer/entry/good_luck_jay_welcome_dups

Simon Phipps yesterday blogged about the emerging Sun Model for Open Source business:

As time has gone by, a clear “Sun Model” for open source business has been emerging, at least to my eyes. The summary of it is:

1. remove barriers to software adoption between download and deploy;
2. encourage a large and cohesive community of software deployers;
3. deliver, for a fee, the means to create value between deploy and scale, for those who need it.

Each software team at Sun interprets this model in a slightly different way, but the model holds pretty much everywhere and works regardless of the license for the code. As a business model, it doesn’t have much to say about the nature of the development community, but I believe dysfunction in that area is a barrier to adoption so it’s always an issue if dysfunction exists.

This model is the natural progression of the concept of monetising at the point of value, and I hope to explore it more over the coming weeks. Feel free to ask questions below about the things needing clarification.

Expressing the Sun Model this concisely is not easy. Just three points, two of which are one-liners at least on my screen. And at least MySQL follows it, not just to the spirit, but I’d venture to say we follow it even to the letter.

Impressive job, Simon!