Giving Thanks (DBW 2024-11-23)

Giving Thanks

My last two months have been packed full of activity. I’ve had the amazing opportunity to be with PostgreSQL friends in New York, Greece, and Seattle. In between, it was a treat to be back in Pittsburgh for the first SQL Saturday since before the pandemic. The strength of the database community at each event was inspiring and encouraging.

As I reflect back on many of the things that happened at each event, there are many things to be thankful for. Many relationships that I grew to cherish just a little more. But it was something that happened in Seattle at PASS Summit that I can’t stop thinking about, which gives me the most joy. Something that most attendees had no idea was happening all around them.

Three years ago, I had the opportunity to represent Timescale as one of the keynote speakers at PGConf NYC 2021. It was the first in-person conference after the pandemic, squeezed in right between the world opening up for six weeks, and then shutting down again just before Christmas. In that keynote I didn’t talk about Timescale at all, but about community. I shared my experience over the years in a different database community and wondered out loud if there were things each community could learn from the other.

At the same time, I began learning a little bit about a schism in the PostgreSQL community that had been ongoing for a couple of years. Everyone seemed to know just a little bit of the story, but never the root cause.

And so, for the last three years I’ve worked to build relationships in the PASS Summit community, the PostgreSQL.org community, and the Postgres World community. I’ve been blessed to make great friends from across the globe in all three. And, finally, all three were together under one roof during PASS Summit in Seattle two weeks ago.

SQL Server users got to meet PostgreSQL users. PgUS was on-site to talk about PostgreSQL with hundreds of attendees that are new to the platform. Some of the long-time leaders of the PostgreSQL project were able to hear from the #SQLFamily about SQL Server and the things that confuse them about PostgreSQL. And long-time friends from both PostgreSQL.org and Postgres World sat and had conversations over lunch and dinner to begin exploring how each can help the other. It was a thrill to see so much happening earlier this month and just a small glimpse of what I had hoped for three years ago come to fruition.

There’s more work to do on all fronts. But I am so thankful for the many seeds that were planted, new… and renewed relationships that were formed, and a vision for what the future can hold as we continue to work together sharing our love for data and databases.

Happy Thanksgiving to the U.S. contingent. And to everyone else, you can still share with others what you’re thankful for this week, too.

Ryan Booz

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