WebCenter EMG can blow out his first candle!

As from today the WebCenter EMG is one year old. It has not been a very busy year for the EMG but we are growing. WebCenter gains on popularity and Oracle is putting a lot effort into making it a very good product. This reflects on to the number of customers who are using WebCenter which also reflects to the members we can welcome to the EMG.

As of today we have over 150 members, 30 topics and almost 200 messages. I know every start is difficult but I'm glad to see the commitment.

Here's an overview of some of the most popular topics during the last year:

Authorization on WSRP2.0 Portlets
Portlets versus Taskflows
UCM Taskflows versus Open WCM
Friendly URL approach for custom WebCenter implementations
WebCenter Search
Spaces versus Portal Application

As you might see from these responses, some guys from Oracle are also involved to help us out. Thanks to them! They are partially responsible for the success of such an EMG. Without their input we could never have such a high standard of responses. I surely hope they will be able to give their thoughts as well in the future.

As you all know, everybody who wants to join the EMG is required to take a survey. After a year and more than 150 members later, it's a good time to do some analysis on the responses:

91% of the members joined the group to learn more about best practices. If we take a look at the actual discussions than I think we provided them with a few good best practices.

37% is currently developing in WebCenter while 15% has chosen WebCenter but not yet started implementing it. We also see that 17% are Oracle employees!

71% is using WebCenter PS3 while 37% is still using pre PS3 versions. This also means that some people are using both versions which can lead to interesting discussions on how to implement features in way they work on both versions.

82% is using the WebCenter framework which is not really a surprise because it's the core of WebCenter. 67% is using Spaces which is very high in my opinion. That's why discussions like Spaces versus a custom build application are very valuable.

62% are using ADF portlets with the JSF bridge and over 40% are using different services.

When we asked which portals you have been using before, 43% answered Oracle Portal which is a good think because we see that a lot of people are migrating from Oracle Portal to WebCenter. 40% is also migrating from Weblogic Portal to WebCenter and 33% is coming from Sharepoint which is something Oracle will be happy to see!

I'm also happy to see that 46% of the members would also attend the WebCenter EMG at an Oracle conference.

Last year Chris Muir organized a day dedicated to the ADF EMG at Oracle Open World. I am hoping we can do something similar in 2012. Maybe together with the ADF EMG because some topics overlap.

As a closure I want to thank Chris Muir and Simon Haslam again for helping me creating the EMG and the support in the first days.
They are the founders of the ADF EMG

If you aren't already a member of the WebCenter EMG, you can take the survey and we will add you as a member.