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Joshua D. Drake
April 17, 2019
On August 15th, Silicon Valley Postgres held their first Postgresql.org Patch Review workshop. The workshop was hosted by PostgresConf partner Pivotal. Attendees’ feedback indicate that we have found a great way to show how companies within the community can benefit Postgresql.org, Postgres User groups, and help us fulfill our mission:
There were 20 attendees, including Melanie Plageman of Pivotal presenting/coordinating “Postgres Patch Review,” and Postgresql.org -Hacker Jeff Davis as hands on help. This was the first workshop of its kind for Silicon Valley Postgres and with the feedback received, we are planning to plan similar events at least twice a year to provide an opportunity that is currently not available elsewhere. (Sneak peek: there may be one at PostgresConf Silicon Valley on October 15th and 16th, which is right around the corner!)
Eight patches were reviewed, with three including specific feedback to the patch authors:
- Bhushan Uparkar on Index Skip Scan
- Mathias Brossard on psql command to show size of partition table
- Kaiting Chen on fixing quadratic performance of regexp match/split functions
We’re excited to be a part of this path of Postgres contributor building. Hopefully it will be a model for other meetups and community partners to follow in continuing to contribute to the Most Advanced Open Source Database ecosystem.
Silicon Valley Postgres is the fastest growing Postgres user group within North America. It was initiated just 12 months ago and will reach 700 members likely before Monday. The group exists to help all facets of Postgres users and the Postgres ecosystem, including, but not limited to, PostgreSQL, Greenplum, Aurora Postgres, AgensGraph, Yugabyte, ZomboDB, TimescaleDB.
Silicon Valley Postgres is also working with PostgresConf Silicon Valley to bring a high quality and cost effective education solution to the users of Postgres within the Silicon Valley. Early Bird tickets are now on sale and available. You will want to hurry as the Early Bird price ends on September 1st, 2018.
Joshua D. Drake
August 16, 2018
Since at least 2021 there has been a disagreement between Postgres related non-profit organizations. On one side are two affiliate non-profits for Postgresql.org; on the other is a relatively unknown non-profit out of Spain. Lines have been drawn, feet have dug in, and a lot of unproductive discourse has occurred. This has culminated in legal action, bad blood, and some poor decisions.
As one of the Founders of United States PostgreSQL, a former Director of Software in the Public Interest (one of the NPOs behind Postgresql.org), a former committer (web), former major contributor, President of the oldest PostgreSQL company still independent in North America, and the Founder of Postgres Conference (in the U.S.), I thought I would offer a knowledgeable perspective.
I have had long discussions with one of the primary people within the Fundacion PostgreSQL (Alvaro) and his heart is in the best interest of the community, even if Postgresql.org, PGEU and PGCAC do not agree. You can see this demonstrated within Fundacion’s trademark policy. That said, Fundacion PostgreSQL did go about their actions in an incorrect way. There should have been an open discussion and they should have provided PGCAC the opportunity to resolve the trademark issues on their own. It is also true that while I believe PGEU and PGCAC believe they are protecting the community, if they were interested in positive community growth and collaboration, they would not be taking the approach they currently are. The current path has far reaching implications that PGEU and PGCAC do not see.
Further, the PostgreSQL Community Association of Canada and Fundacion PostgreSQL have resorted to terrible language in representing what is actually going on within the disagreement. Using language such as, “An attack on our community” or “PostgreSQL attacks the community” is immature at best and at worst an intentional decision to use good faith and mindshare against what is largely just a disagreement that could be solved with an active mediator and a few phone calls. If this disagreement is about the best interest of the PostgreSQL community, shouldn’t that involve discourse, honesty, transparency, and kind communication?
Some facts:
- The first appearance of a PostgreSQL trademark outside of Canada wasn’t until 2018.
- The trademark PostgreSQL in the European Union was not registered until 2018.
- The trademark in Canada was registered in 2003 (filed in 1999).
- The trademark in Canada does not accurately represent PostgreSQL as the services it was registered under are:
(1) Internet consulting.
(2) Internet presence provider- DNS hosting.
(3) Commercial internet support for database applications development and implementation including the ability to host internet domains (as an internet service provider) and provide a wide range of web site development, programming and information technology services, namely computer software architecture, design and/or development services.
(4) Computer hardware sales and service.
The solution
The solution to the whole problem is simple; a single contract that states:
- That the term PostgreSQL is trademarked by the PostgreSQL Community Association of Canada
- That the Fundacion PostgreSQL relinquishes all property and rights to the mark PostgreSQL held in Spain and assigns them to the PostgreSQL Community Association of Canada
- The PostgreSQL Community Association of Canada forgoes any punitive damages or secondary costs
- That the Fundacion PostgreSQL forgoes any punitive damages or secondary costs
The contract should not contain language in regards to future potential filings that involve but are not exclusive to the word Postgres or PostgreSQL. There are already a number of filings worldwide that use Postgres or PostgreSQL as part of an overall mark inclusively such as Postgres Pro, Postgres Plus, Postgres Always On and Postgres Enterprise Manager, all of which are not owned but PGCAC or PGEU.
Why forgo punitive damages or secondary costs
Because it is the right thing to do. Otherwise this whole affair is going to end up costing one entity or another way too much money for no purpose. There is no clear distinction on who would legally win, and in either situation the main sufferers are the PostgreSQL community. Let’s have the parties show an act of kindness for the betterment of everyone involved.
Joshua D. Drake
September 05, 2023
Come as you are
The theme of Postgres Conference for 2020 is: Come as you are. We want everyone to feel welcome. You are welcome for your love of People, Postgres, Data and a desire to ascend beyond the box. It isn’t about your race, gender, sexuality, political affiliation, or love of blueberry flavored popcorn. It is 100% about you, the creativity and excellence that only you can bring to our community.
Postgres Conference 2020 CFP now open
We are actively seeking content for the largest Postgres Conference in the world, set to be held from March 23rd to 27th, 2020 at the Marriott Marquis, Time Square! Please submit your content here.
Postgres Conference Silicon Valley 2019
Postgres Conference Silicon Valley doubled its attendance, making it the largest Postgres Conference on the West coast ever! We are very pleased to be able to bring so many community members together for education, fun, and ecosystem support!
Training
- Postgres Conference is now offering live digital training throughout the year. Continuing on our mission of creating exceptional Postgres people, you can now not only register for pre-defined training but request specific training and we will connect you with a class! The current training options are:
- PostgreSQL Performance and Maintenance
- Finding and Fixing slow queries
- Postgres + Kubernetes: yes it really is a match made in heaven
- PostgreSQL Replication deployment and best practices
- PgPool-II Performance and best practices
Register here: https://postgresconf.org/conferences/Postgres-Digital-Training-Series
Digital Events
We have free digital events coming up including topics such as Kubernetes, DistributedSQL, Backups, Postgis and many more. Coming up:
- Yugabyte Digital Webinar Series.
- Heimdall Data is providing a Webinar on October 22nd on Enterprise Authentication and Connections pooling
Joshua D. Drake
October 02, 2019
On occasion, professional developers will drop into the Postgresql.org mailing lists, meetups, and conferences to ask the question, “Why isn’t PostgreSQL development on Github?” In an effort to see if the demand was really there and not just anecdotal we ran a poll/survey over several social media platforms that asked a simple question:
Should PostgreSQL development move to Github?
- Yes
- No
- No, but to something like Gitlab would be good
We received well over 300 responses and the majority (75%+) chose a move to Github or to something like Github. This was an unscientific poll but it does point out a few interesting topics for consideration:
- We need to recognize that the current contribution model does work for existing contributors. We need to have an honest discussion about what that means for the project as contributors age, change employment, and mature in their skill set, etc..
- Of the people that argued in comments against the move to a service, only one is a current contributor to PostgreSQL.org core code. The rest were former code contributors or those who contribute in other ways (Advocacy, System administration, etc.).
- Would a move to Github or similar option produce a higher rate of contribution?
This poll does not answer point #3; it only provides a data point that people may desire a modern collaboration platform. The key takeaway from the conversation about migrating to Github or similar service is the future generation of developers use technology such as Slack and Microsoft Teams. They expect a bug/issue tracker. They demand simplicity in collaboration and most importantly they will run a cost->benefit analysis to determine if the effort to contribute is a net positive.
It should also be considered that this is not just individual potential contributors. There are many corporations big and small that rely on the success of PostgreSQL. Those corporations will not contribute as much directly to PostgreSQL if the cost to benefit analysis is a net negative. They will instead contribute through other more productive means that produce a net positive when the cost->benefit analysis is run. A good example of this analysis is the proliferation of external projects such as pg_auto_failover, patroni and lack of direct contribution from innovative extension based companies.
Do we need a culture shift within PostgreSQL?
There are those within the Postgresql.org community that would suggest that we do not need a culture shift within PostgreSQL but that does not take into account the very clear market dynamics that are driving the growth of PostgreSQL, Postgres, and the global ecosystem. It is true that 20 years of hard work by Postgresql.org started the growth and it is also true that the majority of growth in the ecosystem and community is from products such as Greenplum, Aurora, Azure, and Timescale. The growth in the ecosystem is from the professional community and that ecosystem will always perform a cost to benefit analysis before contributing.
It is not that we should create radical rifts or disrupt our culture. It is to say that we must evolve and shift our community thinking. We need to be able to consider the big picture. A discussion should never start as an opposition to change. The idea of change should be an open discussion about possibility and vision. It should always include whether the change is a good idea and it should always avoid visceral reactions of, "works for me,” “no,” or “we tried that 15 years ago." Those reactions are immature and lacking in the very thing the community needs to continue to grow: positivity, inclusion, vision, and inspiration.
Joshua D. Drake
May 13, 2019
It is with great pleasure that we announce the preliminary program for PGConf Local: Austin!
We have received a plethora of positive feedback from the local Postgres and Data communities and we are proud to host a second PGConf event held in Austin in 2017.
Training Opportunity:
- Postgres Performance and Maintenance by Joshua D. Drake
- Event Sourcing with a Postgres Event Store by Scott Bellware
- Using GIS in PostgreSQL by Lloyd Albin
- Trees/Hierarchical Data in the SQL Database by Ryan Murphy
- Amazon Aurora with PostgreSQL compatibility by James Finnerty
- Deep Dive into the RDS PostgreSQL Universe by Grant McAlister
- Open Source Communities as Biological Ecosystems by Debra Cerda
- The Power of Postgres Replication by Joshua D. Drake
- Multi-cloud deployment of PostgreSQL in minutes. by Stephen Holt
PGConf Local: Austin is made possible by the wonderful team of volunteers including the Austin PostgreSQL User Group and our sponsors:
Platinum: Compose.IO, OpenSCG, 2ndQuadrant, and Microsoft
Joshua D. Drake
November 09, 2017
PostgresConf hopes everyone had a great holiday season and we hope everyone has a fantastic 2019.
With January upon us, we start conference season. This year, PostgresConf 2019 will be in NYC at the Sheraton New York Times Square March 18-22, 2019.
If you have a story about lessons learned with Postgres, a cool feature that you've found a creative way of using, or just some practical knowledge you'd like to share with your fellow Postgres users, submit a talk. Remember, there are many people who are new to Postgres, so introduction levels talks are welcome. The CFP ends this Friday so get your talks submitted soon at:
With January upon us, we start conference season. This year, PostgresConf 2019 will be in NYC at the Sheraton New York Times Square March 18-22, 2019.
If you have a story about lessons learned with Postgres, a cool feature that you've found a creative way of using, or just some practical knowledge you'd like to share with your fellow Postgres users, submit a talk. Remember, there are many people who are new to Postgres, so introduction levels talks are welcome. The CFP ends this Friday so get your talks submitted soon at:
https://postgresconf.org/conferences/2019#callforpapers
Also, the Early Bird window for PostgresConf 2019 will be ending next Friday, January 18. This tickets are pretty substantially discounted if you purchase them early. On top of the Early Bird discount, for being a member of the NYC Postgres User Group, there is a promo code for an additional 15% off. Just use the code 2019_PUG_NYC when buying your tickets.
Also, the Early Bird window for PostgresConf 2019 will be ending next Friday, January 18. This tickets are pretty substantially discounted if you purchase them early. On top of the Early Bird discount, for being a member of the NYC Postgres User Group, there is a promo code for an additional 15% off. Just use the code 2019_PUG_NYC when buying your tickets.
Lastly, if you are already in the NYC area we look forward to seeing the community at the Winter Party on the 10th!
We hope to see you at PostgresConf 2019 and remember:
Joshua D. Drake
January 09, 2019
People, Postgres, Data is not just an advocacy term. It is the mission of PostgresConf.Org. It is our rule of thumb, our mantra, and our purpose. When we determine which presentations to approve, which workshops to support, which individuals to receive scholarships, which events to organize, and any task big or small, it must follow: People, Postgres, Data. It is our belief that this mantra allows us to maintain our growth and continue to advocate for the Postgres community and ecosystem in a positive and productive way.
When you attend PostgresConf the first thing you will notice is the diversity of the supported ecosystem; whether you want to discuss the finer points of contribution with the major PostgreSQL.Org sponsors such as 2ndQuadrant or EnterpriseDB, or you want to embrace the Postgres ecosystem with the Greenplum Summit or TimeScaleDB.
The following is a small sampling of content that will be presented April 16 - 20 at the Westin Jersey City Newport:
Learn to Administer Postgres with this comprehensive training opportunity:
Understand the risks of securing your data during this Regulated Industry Summit presentation:
Struggle with time management? We have professional development training such as:
Educate yourself on how to contribute back to the PostgreSQL community:
We are a community driven and volunteer organized ecosystem conference. We want to help the community become stronger, increase education about Postgres, and offer career opportunities and knowledge about the entire ecosystem. Please join us in April!
Joshua D. Drake
February 27, 2018
Silicon Valley Postgres and PostgresConf Silicon Valley are happy to announce that early bird tickets are now available! You can purchase them here. You will want to hurry as early bird discounted tickets are only available until September 1st, 2018.
PostgresConf Silicon Valley takes place on October 15th and 16th, 2018 at the Hilton San Jose. The schedule is not finalized. However, we have a comprehensive list of content from technical leaders in the Postgres ecosystem we are reviewing. Here is a brief list of some (but not all!) of the topics to be presented:
- Postgres 11
- Data integrity at scale
- Distributed data and GPDR
- Massively Parallel Postgres for Analytics
- Data intersection between roles
- RDS tips and tricks
- I didn’t know Postgres could do that!
- Performant time-series data management analytics
PostgresConf is organized by an all volunteer team of fantastic individuals and is backed by a 501c3 non-profit. The Silicon Valley conference provides the most cost effective avenue to learn all about Postgres and the Postgres ecosystem. We invite everyone to enjoy our expertly delivered presentations, good food, the hallway track and the opportunity to learn, network and appreciate everything that is Postgres.
Joshua D. Drake
August 21, 2018
With the pending GA release of Star Link, more cities adopting municipal WIFI, and the growth of remote work due to the pandemic, one would assume that cell phone providers would be falling hand over fist to provide quality services at a quality price. Unfortunately this is not the case and it is hurting the future of our workforce.
Carriers currently think that 30GB of Hotspot data is enough for the average digital nomad. While that may have been the case previously, it isn’t any longer. There is a hundreds-of-thousands-strong workforce specializing in Information Technology, Digital Design, Web Development, and other creative industries. They are living, working and adventuring in RVs, Sprinters, Skooolies (pictured), and other vehicle dwelling options. This community is nomadic by design and should not be artificially limited by technology.
Why is it that we are being charged so much money for so little? Outside of two providers announcing rural initiatives, we are still acting like data needs are small and that they come at a quality price. Data is ubiquitous; it is the new water (for getting work done). In the new economy workers need faster, higher quality, and unlimited amounts of data to get their job done.
Where could you go and what could you experience if you weren’t tethered by the faux limitations of bandwidth?
Resources
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Joshua D. Drake
October 13, 2020