Community talk about the evolution of Postgres community, brief view of what's up for 9.1 and suggestions on how to get involved with us.

1. Selena Deckelmann
PostgreSQL Global Development Group
Major Contributor
User Group Liaison

2. We know the
world is changing.

3. “People today seek and
consume information in
considerably different
ways than the past.”
http://mashable.com/2009/03/30/microsoft-encarta-to-close/

4. “Seven-Eleven Japan... pushes buying
decisions down to the salesclerks at
its 13,000 Japanese stores.”
More than 200,000 salesclerks make
informed decisions, using software
and the scientific method,
about what to buy, and when.
Wall Street Journal, April 25, 2011
“Leadership in IT, Four Questions Every CEO Should Ask About IT”

5. How do we get so
many people to
collaborate?

6. Ingredients
• Revision control
• Peer review
• Public discussion forums

7. Open source
pwns collaboration.

8. Postgres
pwns collaboration that
produces awesome code.

9. What is Postgres?
• Database Management System
• Relational Database
• ANSI-SQL:2008 standard
160 of 179 core conformance features
• PostGIS
• Collaborative software development platform

10. http://www.postgresql.org/about/featurematrix

11. Databases are:
“An operating system
without sound-drivers.”

12. What is the PostgreSQL
Global Development Group?

13. PostgreSQL Global
Development Group
• ~300 developers contribute per year
• 1000s on discussion/review mailing lists
• Major user group communities in Japan,
US, Brazil, Europe, Russia

14. Who makes up the
Postgres community?

15. User
Deployer-Developer
Extending
Co-Developer
Co-Developer
Free Software
Commons
From http://webmink.com/essays/community-types/

16. Where we
are growing
the fastest
{ User
Deployer-Developer
}
Extending
Co-Developer Postgres
Co-Developer has always
focused here
Free Software
Commons
From http://webmink.com/essays/community-types/

17. User
Where
MySQL
focused { Deployer-Developer
Extending
Co-Developer
}
Co-Developer
Where they
are growing
Free Software now
Commons
From http://webmink.com/essays/community-types/

18. Some PostgreSQL Global
Development Group Sponsors

20. All hiring, all seeking open source software skills.

21. Using PostgreSQL.

22. “[C]ommunities are composed of individuals
who collaborate toward a common goal but
do not share a common employer
and are not governed by an
employment hierarchy.”
The Role of Participation Architecture in Growing
Sponsored Open Source Communities
Joel West and Siobhán O’Mahony

23. “Companies or foundations that run open
source project are not software firms, they
are community management firms
whose communities happen to
make software. “
http://eaves.ca/2006/12/17/community-management-as-open-sources-core-competency/

24. Proprietary Development
http://momjian.us/main/writings/pgsql/adoption_and_trends.pdf

25. Open Source
Development
http://momjian.us/main/writings/pgsql/adoption_and_trends.pdf

26. We require these tools.
• Revision control
• Peer review
• Public discussion forums

27. Development work
• Revision control - We share our git repos:
http://git.postgresql.org
• Peer review - our tool for patch review:
http://commitfest.postgresql.org
• Public Discussion Forums - hackers list:
pgsql-hackers@postgresql.org

28. Results
• Yearly releases
• Reputation for excellent code
• Growing developer community
• Reputation for rejecting patches

30. 9.1 beta 1
(Monday!)

31. Key pre 9.1 Features
• Transactional DDL
• Recursive queries
• Built-in replication (async AND sync in 9.1)
• Multiple-language support for database-side
programming

32. DO
$$
HAI
BTW
Calculate
pi
using
Gregory-­‐Leibniz
series
BTW
This
method
does
not
converge
particularly
quickly...
I
HAS
A
PIADD
ITZ
0.0
I
HAS
A
PISUB
ITZ
0.0
I
HAS
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ITR
ITZ
0
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HAS
A
T1
I
HAS
A
T2
I
HAS
A
PI
ITZ
0.0
I
HAS
A
ITERASHUNZ
ITZ
1000
IM
IN
YR
LOOP
T1
R
QUOSHUNT
OF
4.0
AN
SUM
OF
3.0
AN
ITR
T2
R
QUOSHUNT
OF
4.0
AN
SUM
OF
5.0
AN
ITR
PISUB
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SUM
OF
PISUB
AN
T1
PIADD
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SUM
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SUM
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AN
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O
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"PI
R:
"
VISIBLE
PI
FOUND
YR
PI
KTHXBYE
$$
LANGUAGE
PLLOLCODE;

33. Hot in 9.1!
Things other databases also do:
• Unlogged tables performance with ephemeral
Less consistency for better
data, and NoSQL buzzword compliance
• Writable Common Table Expressions
Recursive queries that update data
• Per-Column Collations sorting words in Farsi and
True multi-language support (e.g.
Swedish correctly in the same table, in separate columns)

34. Hot in 9.1!
Things we are first to do:
• SE-Postgres Control integration with SE-Linux
Mandatory Access
• Extensions framework for easily installing,
CREATE EXTENSION
removing and updating extensions to Postgres.
And launch of PGXN network: http://pgxn.org

35. Hot in 9.1!
Things we are first to do:
• Synchronous replication to prevent data loss.
Create synchronous standby databases
Includes "transaction-controlled synchronous commit"
• SQL-MED data source access that enables
Easy-to-use remote
transparent usage as a table (SELECT and JOIN)
• K-Nearest-Neighbor Indexing
Permits doing an indexed search of "what's near me".

36. We still have bugs.
We still have an epic todo list.
We still need people of every ability.

37. So, how do you get
involved?

38. Download 9.1 Beta 1!
(on Monday)

39. Commitfest tool
http://bit.ly/pgdevnow

40. Volunteer.
Blog, answer email, join #postgresql,
write documentation, test features,
make things with Postgres, tweet,
help organize meetings, create olypug,
give a talk, do a translation...

41. Change the world
with us.

42. Thanks!
Contact me: selena@postgresql.org
Twitter: @selenamarie
Blog: http://chesnok.com

43. Credits:
Bruce Momjian (Proprietary vs Open Source
development style)
Joshua Tolley (PL/LOLCODE)