How to become a stellar ADF blogger

[Chris Muir]

As follow up to the recent post with Timo Hahn & John Stegeman on "How
to use the JDev/ADF OTN Forums effectively" (http://bit.ly/P2ZD4W),
this time I wanted to widen the discussion to considering blogging
about ADF.

Ever since I started working with ADF one of the frequent ADF blogs
I've read is that by Oracle ACE Director Andrejus Baranovskis (http://
andrejusb.blogspot.com.au). In looking at Andrejus's blog today I
count just under 500 posts (!!!) on all aspects of ADF and FMW
products. That's a lot of free assistance for the wider ADF
community. Thank you Andrejus! :-)

What I'd like to do in this EMG post is to invite Andrejus to discuss
tips n tricks for beginners wanting to start a stellar ADF blog. In
turn I was hoping Andrejus can comment on what benefits he see
bloggers get out of blogging, and why you should start an ADF blog
too.

Over to you Andrejus, thanks for your time in participating on the EMG.

[Andrejus Baranovskis]

Thanks for invite Chris. I'm happy to share my tips and tricks for successful ADF/FMW blogging.

I think ADF/FMW blogging community activity is very important indicator for ADF/FMW success and adaption across the world. Recently we can see quite exponential increase in new blogs dedicated for ADF/FMW - this is perfect. However its also important to keep high quality content, main goal of my post today is about quality and advices how to be productive blogger.

I think its not required to be experienced ADF/FMW developer to start ADF/FMW blogging - anyone can do it. Its more important to find technical area and post unique content. If you are just starting ADF development, you could post about your daily learning experiences - this would allow other developers to follow your learning path. If you are already ADF experienced developer - post detail information that could help others. Most important is to have a plan and goal - before starting your blog, create a list of posts for 3 months in advance, this will help to maintain stable blog at least in the beginning.

Hints for ADF/FMW blogging:

1. Don't look for quick success and promotion. While quick success and promotion is good - it may turn against you as well. What I mean is - don't just copy your project code into internet. Its not enough to copy paste solution from the project into blog. Ideally work on blog after hours, this should be independent of your work activity. Of course, there are exceptions as always - there must be common sense.

2. Never copy content from other blogs and post as your own. There is nothing worse as to see someone posting identical post to already existing one from different author. You will loose respect, because news in the community spread fast.

3. Provide references to Oracle docs or other blogs. Often solution is based on information from different sources, try to include references to these sources. This will help blog readers to understand context of posted topic better.

4. Focus on technical blogging, I mean avoid too much theory in your posts. Usually people are looking for solutions (at least for ADF/FMW topics), every technical blog must provide sample code application.

5. Finally you must enjoy it, it should be same as your favorite hobby.

Now about benefits. Its very cool to be recognized by community. This means you can visit conferences, meet people and make new friends. Also its about learning - when you share knowledge with people, you get double knowledge back - from blog comments, other bloggers posts, etc.

I must mention how important blog could be for career development. Just this week I have met a colleague, who was promoted at his company and got approval to visit OOW - this happened after he started his own ADF/FMW blog and was recognized by the management.

I hope my post will motivate to appear new ADF/FMW blogs out there in the community.

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--
Oracle ACE Director

My Blog - http://andrejusb.blogspot.com/
My JDev/ADF Samples list - http://andrejusb-samples.blogspot.com/

[Jan Vervecken]

Thank you Andrejus.

As a blog-reader, a big "+1" for "3. Provide references to Oracle docs or other blogs. ...".

regards
Jan Vervecken

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[Andreas Koop]

First of all, thanks a lot Andrejus for continuous blogging of high quality ADF/FMW related posts! It is always refreshing, inspiring and really helpful of course. Very often I am landing on your page if googling for some ADF related stuff. (Sometimes I land on http://one-size-doesnt-fit-all.blogspot.com as well ;)

While reading "how to be productive blogger." in your post I also think of the optimal tooling. On Windows I am using LiveWriter which I think is very productive tool for blogging. Could you share some productivity tips for blogging from the Mac - if there is anything special to mention?

-- 
Best Regards, 

Andreas

Blog - http://multikoop.blogspot.com

by http://www.enpit.de

Am Mittwoch, 4. Juli 2012 10:29:48 UTC+2 schrieb Andrejus Baranovskis:

Thanks for invite Chris. I'm happy to share my tips and tricks for successful ADF/FMW blogging.

I think ADF/FMW blogging community activity is very important indicator for ADF/FMW success and adaption across the world. Recently we can see quite exponential increase in new blogs dedicated for ADF/FMW - this is perfect. However its also important to keep high quality content, main goal of my post today is about quality and advices how to be productive blogger.

I think its not required to be experienced ADF/FMW developer to start ADF/FMW blogging - anyone can do it. Its more important to find technical area and post unique content. If you are just starting ADF development, you could post about your daily learning experiences - this would allow other developers to follow your learning path. If you are already ADF experienced developer - post detail information that could help others. Most important is to have a plan and goal - before starting your blog, create a list of posts for 3 months in advance, this will help to maintain stable blog at least in the beginning.

Hints for ADF/FMW blogging:

1. Don't look for quick success and promotion. While quick success and promotion is good - it may turn against you as well. What I mean is - don't just copy your project code into internet. Its not enough to copy paste solution from the project into blog. Ideally work on blog after hours, this should be independent of your work activity. Of course, there are exceptions as always - there must be common sense.

2. Never copy content from other blogs and post as your own. There is nothing worse as to see someone posting identical post to already existing one from different author. You will loose respect, because news in the community spread fast.

3. Provide references to Oracle docs or other blogs. Often solution is based on information from different sources, try to include references to these sources. This will help blog readers to understand context of posted topic better.

4. Focus on technical blogging, I mean avoid too much theory in your posts. Usually people are looking for solutions (at least for ADF/FMW topics), every technical blog must provide sample code application.

5. Finally you must enjoy it, it should be same as your favorite hobby.

Now about benefits. Its very cool to be recognized by community. This means you can visit conferences, meet people and make new friends. Also its about learning - when you share knowledge with people, you get double knowledge back - from blog comments, other bloggers posts, etc.

I must mention how important blog could be for career development. Just this week I have met a colleague, who was promoted at his company and got approval to visit OOW - this happened after he started his own ADF/FMW blog and was recognized by the management.

I hope my post will motivate to appear new ADF/FMW blogs out there in the community.

On 4 July 2012 05:23, Chris Muir wrote:

As follow up to the recent post with Timo Hahn & John Stegeman on "How
to use the JDev/ADF OTN Forums effectively" (http://bit.ly/P2ZD4W),
this time I wanted to widen the discussion to considering blogging
about ADF.

Ever since I started working with ADF one of the frequent ADF blogs
I've read is that by Oracle ACE Director Andrejus Baranovskis (http://
andrejusb.blogspot.com.au).  In looking at Andrejus's blog today I
count just under 500 posts (!!!) on all aspects of ADF and FMW
products.  That's a lot of free assistance for the wider ADF
community.  Thank you Andrejus! :-)

What I'd like to do in this EMG post is to invite Andrejus to discuss
tips n tricks for beginners wanting to start a stellar ADF blog.  In
turn I was hoping Andrejus can comment on what benefits he see
bloggers get out of blogging, and why you should start an ADF blog
too.

Over to you Andrejus, thanks for your time in participating on the EMG.

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[Amr Gawish]

Hi Andrejus,

First I'd like to thank you for the great blogs, I learned alot from you, and still do...Thanks so much for that

I'd like also to +1 Andreas question, because its very important as I don't find time to blog about stuff, as I need to plan carefully what to write, create the application couple of times myself to make sure everything is easy to understand, and with all the sweat and tears the blog posts come to my blog -rarely- as I don't find that much time to write things.

Even my git plugin which I worked on for a while, was doomed as work takes me -but its good that oracle is doing their own-.

How can you manage your time to blog about everything, yet to maintain the quality of your blog posts?

 

Best Regards,

Amr Gawish
Senior Oracle Middleware Consultant
    

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[Andre Araujo]

Hi Andrejus,

You have a superb blog. I'm a long time your follower.

I would like to ask you how do you get inspiration for your blog posts?

Thanks,

Andre Araujo

http://andrearaujo.me

---

From: Amr Gawish <amr.g...@gmail.com>
To: adf-met...@googlegroups.com
Sent: Thursday, 5 July 2012 7:43 AM
Subject: Re: [ADF EMG] How to become a stellar ADF blogger

[Chad Thompson]

Andrejus:

I'll echo my own thanks - I've found your blog useful on a great many questions.  I'd like to pose a few comments and questions:

1. Don't look for quick success and promotion. While quick success and promotion is good - it may turn against you as well. What I mean is - don't just copy your project code into internet. Its not enough to copy paste solution from the project into blog. Ideally work on blog after hours, this should be independent of your work activity. Of course, there are exceptions as always - there must be common sense.

Some awareness of the legalities of blogging certain topics are necessary as well:  I know in my own little blogging efforts there are a number of things that I'd like to post, but due to my line of work (consulting) and project contracts, there are also occasionally barriers to posting things that you may have learned while working at a client site. 

I've had to take care regarding intellectual property agreements:  some of them state ownership of IP developed while you are under contract.  A blog may be something that goes relatively unnoticed by corporate legal teams, but it's often better to be safe than sorry.

 

2. Never copy content from other blogs and post as your own. There is nothing worse as to see someone posting identical post to already existing one from different author. You will loose respect, because news in the community spread fast.

RIght - and as someone who has written things that have been 'ripped off' in such a manner (even if it is copying, pasting and providing you a byline), it's infuriating.

 

One thing that I'm curious about - because it applies to 'blogging' as a whole and your use of lots of images and media:  what types of tools do you use that help with your content production?

A little context:  when I write documentation or blog posts, I like to use lots of annotated images to demonstrate a step-by-step approach to solving a problem.  My use of images also 'clicks' with me a bit better as I'm a very visual thinker - a good image or illustration can often be more helpful to me than a few pages of text.

Do you use any tools in particular to ease the production of your blog posts/how tos?

Thanks,

Chad

-- 
Chad Thompson 
chad_t...@mac.com

[Ultan Ó Broin (Oracle Applications User Experience [Usability])]

I'm not a stellar ADF blogger, though do try and learn as much about ADF as I can, related to usability naturally, and have been blogging for a while in different domains. Agree with what's being said here, especially Chad's comments on how stealing. It's infuriating, and very bad form. Basically, treat others content as you wish others to treat yours. Other observations from me:

* Use plain language when describing actions but official terms and names for code and other technical elements.

* Explain non-industry standard acronyms and abbreviations in brackets after first use (or tooltips using ABBR TITLE etc)

* Use the correct spelling and terms for code and other technical bits and pieces. Make sure your code snippets are correct. Reputation is critical in the tech space and cost in the enterprise space of getting it wrong can be high (hence MOS is a 'gated' community).

* Check out in your logs what blogs are popular (my most popular was on how to do Android screenshots)

* Structure your content - a descriptive title, headings and paragraphs with bullets are easily read online. A heading that starts "How to..." works better for people searching

* Get the message across early in the text (the pyramid approach to content).

* Disregard any of the formal wrtiting style. Keep it conversational and bring your own touch to it. Plain language. Don't worry about the English Lit majors. Remember, the ready, shoot, aim approach  - you can fix typos and grammar later, but busted code samples can have an immediate impact so focus on those.

* For Oracle folks - When you publish an Oracle Blog, the Oracle Blogs twitter account listener picks it up and circulates a few hours later. Personally, I've found that the best Twitter RT time is to publish and circulate around 11 AM pacific time on a wed or thursday.

* Images and pictures help too!

* I don't ask permission, though sometimes forgiveness might be requested...:)

In general each of my blog posts take a couple of hours to research, assemble and publish.

Hope this helps a bit.

U

[Andrejus Baranovskis]

Hi Andreas,

Thanks for your feedback.

Actually, I don't have special tips related to blogging tools. Myself I prefer to use online blogger interface and type directly. If offline - I'm using simply Text Pad - its fast, simple and not distracting.

On Mac its quite easy to take screenshots with Ctrl-Shift-4.

Andrejus

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[Andrejus Baranovskis]

Hi Amr,

I think its very important not to be stressed about number of posts. For example, you can create a plan - to post 1 blog per month. If you will be comfortable with this - it will come easy. Once you will get into 1 month schedule, you may optimize it and post 2 posts per month and so on.

Sometimes I can see people are posting 30 blogs per month and then nothing. Probably its easy to get burned out, when trying to post very often. Same time, when keeping longer periods of time between posts - easy to loose motivation.

So, its all should be natural :)

Andrejus

[Andrejus Baranovskis]

Hi Andre,

Thanks a lot - I'm happy my posts are helping in your daily work. This is actually the main inspiration - knowing that shared information helps in daily work. 

Blogging should be like a hobby, for example same as solving puzzles. Each time when new sample app is posted - new puzzle is solved.

Blog is useful for myself as well - I use it as a library of references. In future projects it happens very often to refer to previous solution - its easier when solutions are online, much faster to find. This is part of motivation also.

Andrejus

[Andrejus Baranovskis]

Thanks Chad.

My answers:

1. Intellectual property and project content is very sensitive topic, indeed. I know such situations, when developers from the project, are starting their own blogs and each trying to post/copy as much as possible solutions from the project. Such blogging activity is kind of not healthy and usually don't last long.

On other hand, I don't believe all solutions should be kept in secret - its good to share project experience. Its quite common that ADF project already consists 50%-60% of solutions gathered from various blogs, etc. So, why not to contribute back to the community.

2. No specific tools. But I have a process:

a. Create sample application

b. Create a logical flow of screenshots

c. Describe solution, based on flow of screenshots

Same as you, I'm visual thinker.

I'm not big fan of video recordings - its hard to find specifically what you need from the video, need to scroll backwards and forwards, for me is easier to read.

Andrejus

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[Chad Thompson]

On Thursday, July 5, 2012 at 1:50 PM, Andrejus Baranovskis wrote:

Thanks Chad.

My answers:

1. Intellectual property and project content is very sensitive topic, indeed. I know such situations, when developers from the project, are starting their own blogs and each trying to post/copy as much as possible solutions from the project. Such blogging activity is kind of not healthy and usually don't last long.

I've been in a few situations as well - I have a host of "Evernote-ed" documents of problems that I've solved that I'd like to find time soon to do a "Clean Room" re-implementation for blog examples.  (Some of them are not specifically ADF-based.)

 

On other hand, I don't believe all solutions should be kept in secret - its good to share project experience. Its quite common that ADF project already consists 50%-60% of solutions gathered from various blogs, etc. So, why not to contribute back to the community.

I am in complete agreement.

 

2. No specific tools. But I have a process:

a. Create sample application

b. Create a logical flow of screenshots

c. Describe solution, based on flow of screenshots

Same as you, I'm visual thinker.

I'm not big fan of video recordings - its hard to find specifically what you need from the video, need to scroll backwards and forwards, for me is easier to read.

How do you like the Blogger interface for uploading/handling images?  I've done quite a few Wordpress implementations for "publication" type web sites - but I'm finding that I'm in a love/hate relationship with Wordpress for my own blogging purposes - mainly because I find that uploading/sizing and renaming images is a bit more time consuming than I'd like.

I do have a few other third party tools that I use for software documentation that can 'export' to Wordpress (ScreenSteps) - but they have their limitations as well.  (In particular - a ScreenSteps exported document seems to break the default Wordpress.com mobile template.)

Are there any tips/tricks you have for handling embedded image posts?

[DISCLAIMER:  I probably spend a bit too much time playing around - in the vernacular "futzing" - with tools and probably not enough time writing/blogging!]

-- 
Chad Thompson 
chad_t...@mac.com

 

[hasim]

Andrejus , CM , Frank Nimphius are sort of first look for me When I started reading blogs about ADF.

Then I fortunately got an opportunity to work directly with Andrejus and his team for almost couple of
years , Which gave me deep insight that knowledge grows tremendously when it is shared through
Honesty , Blogs , Article because people ask such questions sometime it does not come to our mind.

Andrejus inspired me write a blog of mine (http://hasamali.blogspot.com) ,But I was able to publish only
106 Post in 2 years. I am trying hard , If i start implementing Andrejus suggestion , I would surely able to
make up at least 80 blogs in a year.

I have gained lot from your blogging  Andrejus , Hat's off for your hard work.

Hat's off to CM for his blog and Frank for his innovative initiative like ADF Corner, OTN Harvest.

Hasim
http://hasamali.blogspot.com

On Mon, Oct 1, 2012 at 6:49 PM, Rafael <rafael....@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi Andrejus:

I just wanna say, thanks a lot for sharing all that knowledge. I know I'm speaking by many, many ADF developers; the new and the old ones. Best of lucks.

Rafael.