I am one of the finalists for the Oracle Database Developer Choice Awards on Database Design Category and I am really proud to be nominated as one. And I am excited that Oracle is recognizing the work we database designers do. There has been too many years that this work has been undervalued. And most of all I am extremely happy and honored for all the votes and wonderful messages you have sent me. But… Being on this contest has made me think about the meaning of the community and how it works.

This morning I read a blog post by Jari Laine (http://jaris.blogsite.org/apex/f?p=BLOG%3AREAD%3A0%3A%3A%3A%3AARTICLE%3A201510100617461772) followed by a blog post by Denes Kubicek (http://deneskubicek.blogspot.fi/2015/10/oracle-database-developer-choice-awards.html).

Reading these posts made me really sad. Is the community really only about taking, not giving? Does these “taking members” of the community think the “job” of a “giving member” is just to serve them when they need help? We (“giving members”) are all doing this on volunteer basis, on our own time. We LOVE Oracle technology, we LOVE to learn new things and we LOVE to share our knowledge. We do have our daily jobs but we still want to invest our time for the community. To my opinion the least a person helped by any of us candidates (or other wonderful “giving members” of the community) should do is to vote to show that the help has been valuable. And the worst a person can do is to down vote somebody because wants his/her fav candidate to win. Do you know how bad it feels to see those down votes? To me it implicitly means that to this person my contribution to the community has been NEGATIVE. Have I used my valuable time, instead of spending time with the family or making more profit to my company, for the community to create negative impact? Should I stop doing it? I know the negative does not mean that, it only means you want your candidate to success better but if he/she does not succeed with positive votes maybe he/she has not done enough for the community yet? Or has done less than the other candidates.

“This is your chance to have your say in the community, and help reward great contributors who build up the Oracle Database developer community.” See the word REWARD. If you give negative votes to get your fav candidate in a better position you are not REWARDING anybody, instead you are discouraging great people to continue their valuable work to the community.

The Oracle Community IS A POSITIVE thing and it should continue being such.

Your job now is to VOTE and show how much YOU appreciate the work all these “giving members” of the community do to you as a member of this wonderful community. The voting starts here: https://community.oracle.com/community/database/awards

This is your chance to say THANK YOU.

Cheers

Heli