The MySQL community team has a new manager for North America. Dups and Giuseppe will be touring the East Coast to speak at several meeetups and attend the OpenSQLCamp. • Nov 10 - Boston, MA • Nov 11-12 - New York, NY • Nov 13 - Baltimore, MD • Nov 14-16 - Charlottesville, VA

The MySQL Users Conference and Expo 2009 call for participation has been extended. You have now time until November 5th to submit a proposal. At the end of the regular CfP, we received 284 proposals, which is about 100 more than we got last year, before the extension. So, we are pleased, but we want more proposals for a better choice.

In particular, what is notably absent from the proposals, is contribution from other Sun communities. Java, Glassfish, Netbeans, Solaris, OpenOffice, are either completely amiss or faintly represented. We need good technical presentations on the above topics, involving MySQL usage and integration. And remember, the theme of the conference is Innovation Everywhere.

If you have missed the October 22^nd deadline, here's your chance! Submit a proposal, now!

Until a few months ago, the MySQL community had several complaints about the contribution process. The two biggest obstacles were an unfriendly revision control system and a too demanding contributor agreement. The revision control system was changed in June. Exit BitKeeper, enter Bazaar. And now goes the second obstacle. Today, Kaj Arnö announced that MySQL has adopted the Sun Contributors Agreement. Kudos!

There are still a few impediments, but the database group management seems well determined to tackle the problem and become contributions friendly. There is more in the making. Stay tuned!

MySQL 5.1 is almost ready for prime time, but in the meantime some brave users have already started putting it to work in production environment. MySQL wants to hear from these intrepid souls. The MySQL 5.1 use Case competition is under way. We want feedback from users who have found a practical usage for 5.1 features, and also from the ones who have met usability challenges.

Two articles have already been published from the competition submissions. One showing a popular soccer team using MySQL 5.1 and one proposing a creative way of managing large storage. More articles will come with your feedback

If you are using MySQL 5.1 in production, please let us know!

All open databases are equal in front of the developers community. This is the message launched by Baron Schwartz in his announcement of the first Open SQL Camp. After the last MySQL Users Conference, there were some talks of alternative conferences organized by the users for users. This is the first such event. It will be held in Charlottesville, VA, USA, November 14-16, 2008.

Users, in the context of databases, especially open ones, means developers. Do you feel like hacking some database project? If your database of choice is open (MySQL, PostgreSQL, JavaDB, SQLite, Firebird), you may give the OpenSQLCamp a try!

The MySQL Users Conference and Expo 2009 has open its Call for Papers. The past edition had close to 2,000 participants, and the next one shouldn't be any poorer. The theme for the next conference is Innovation Everywhere. After being a earthquake in the business world with the acquisition by Sun, MySQL continues its course towards innovation, by pursuing new users, new markets, new needs with continuous innovation.

A novelty, compared to past edition, is an embedded MySQLCamp within the conference. It will be an open space, driven and organized by the community, oriented to developers and advanced users.

Congratulations! You have MySQL and Glassfish in your server. Now what? If you have asked yourself this question before, perhaps you did not have the right stimulus to continue. Indeed, what can you do with the most popular open source database and the most advanced application server? People providing a practical answer to the above question may be handsomely rewarded. If you have the answer yourself, rush to participate to the MySQL-Glassfish student contest. The contest requires GFv2 UR2 and MySQL 5.1. Make sure to read the contest rules before applying.

Of course, you may have a better idea, and create a killer application that will make you rich and famous overnight. No objections to your plan either. If you do, and thus consider the competition utterly superfluous, just drop us a line. We will appreciate it.

After a longer than expected hiatus, MySQL Community Server is back with release 5.0.67. There have been complaints about this delay, but the claim that the community edition was dead has proven to be groundless. Being a maintenance release, this edition has no new features. There is an important security fix, though, and anyone using MySQL 5.0.x should read the release notes and act accordingly.

The buzzword on MySQL blogs is drizzle, a lightweight fork of the MySQL database, initiated by Brian Aker and quickly joined by a dozen developers. The project has stirred the interest of the community, it has the blessing of Sun R&D and paves the way for a different and more dynamic model of participation. While everyone was waiting for the announcement of MySQL 5.1 release, Brian got a fair share of the crowd's attention at OSCON, by announcing the birth of this new project. The reactions so far are quite positive. Drizzle met the enthusiasm of the OSCON crowd and it has even created a fairy tale. What more should you ask for?

Kaj Arnö, MySQL ambassador to Sun, has written a digest of his blogging production this year. It's an intriguing reading, because Kaj has been more on the road than at home this year, mostly performing the duties of communicator, explaining to Sun people what really is this MySQL that had just been acquired, and sharing his findings with fellow (ex) MySQL employees. Kaj's blogging sometimes has the role of breaking the news to the community. For example, he was the one who first wrote about the Sun acquisition of MySQL (published his post at 8:02 EST, barely one minute after Marten's jaw dropping announcement from the podium.)

The buzz of the week is all about books. The second edition of High Performance MySQL has just hit the shelves. In addition to being a complete rewrite of the first edition, this is a sort of community book, where the authors gathered together the official tools and the ones available in the community to explain how to make MySQL fly. Many topics were submitted for public discussion. It is also the first time that an author has explained in public how to write it. The other second edition is a reprint of the MySQL Cluster certification guide. Noticed anything peculiar in the cover? Yes! It's a Sun book. This is actually the very first book to be published through Sun's new print-on-demand partner, Vervanté. In other words, Sun's first Vervanté book is a book on MySQL!

Today MySQL announced that it has switched from its previous RCS to Bazaar with its web associated Launchpad. The move intends to facilitate contributions by the community. There is much excitement at Canonical, the company that supports Bazaar. And if you want to see a really happy man, check Elliot Murphy's blog.

A popular question is "Why not mercurial?", to which Kaj answers that the switch to Bazaar was planned long before the Sun acquisition.

So now the Bazaar community rejoices and the MySQL geeks are already hard at work.

Jim Starkey, the well known database architect, author of Interbase and Netfrastructure, is leaving MySQL. Jim's company was acquired by MySQL two and half years ago, to help creating MySQL new transactional engine, Falcon. Zack Urlocker, reports on the event and says that Falcon is still on track and he is confident that it will be a success.

Marten Mickos, former MySQL CEO, now Senior SVP with Sun Microsystems, is expected in Rome, at the local University, called "La Sapienza" (= Wisdom or Knowledge). The event, on May 30, is a mix of private and public occurrences. Marten will meet local customers and Sun officials, before speaking in front of an audience at the University. More information at the other speakers' blogs. Ivan Zoratti and Giuseppe Maxia

You may have noticed a new author at TheAquarium: Giuseppe Maxia, The Data Charmer, a long time member of the MySQL community team. Giuseppe also writes at (@Blogspot, @Blogs.Sun.Com) and will help us cover the happenings in the MySQL community. A very warm welcome, Giuseppe! Andi and James will also start posting to the TheAquarium soon and Arun has also resumed his contributions. This should help with our coverage of topics - and will return me some of my free time!