SQL University: State of the Union

Well the new year is here and SQL University is back and better than ever! I just wanted to take a minute to bring everyone up to speed on what’s going on with SQLU.

First off the last semester we had (Spring 2010) started rather late, which pushed the rest of the schedule quite a bit. One of the unique facets of SQL University is having our coach Tom LaRock (Blog | Twitter) posting on EVERY topic, EVERY week which is quite the impressive feat! That being said, since the last semester ran a few weeks late it not only made a lot of work for him so I wanted to give him ample time off as that is a TON of writing he’s doing, which I think we can all agree, is pure awesomesauce. Also Tom has undergone a job transition, as well as I have, so it’s been a little hectic on that front as well. Due to the schedule shifts, job changes, moves and generally hectic life we decided to skip the Fall semester for 2010, hence you’ll find it missing from the overall SQLU main page.

Another reason we went quiet for awhile was we were busy putting together another major project: SQL University – The Book! No, sorry, no movie deals in the works but I think you guys will like this even better. What we’re doing is compiling all of this awesome material our professors have put together for you guys into an organized e-book companion! My hope is that we can it formatted properly for distribution via Amazon’s Kindle store but if that doesn’t work out we’ll probably just PDF it and let you guys go to town! As with the rest of this wonderful project, this is absolutely free to everyone and will be released as SQL University: Volume I, Freshman Year which includes the first two semester’s worth of blog content! This is taking a lot of time to put together so bear with us as we get that worked on.

Another big change you may have noticed, and one of the most exciting parts about this new year, is our re-branding! Our new logo comes courtesy of the wonderful folks at Revealed Design Inc. (Facebook| Twitter) and a big thanks to Aaron Nelson (Blog | Twitter) for hooking me up with them. This is a much cleaner design and look than my atrocious attempt at designing a blogger badge from before. When you visit each professor’s sites this time around you should see the new badges displayed.

Finally the other huge addition this year is our partnership with SQLLunch.com to bring you the live lecture series. We had our first one featuring Josef Richberg during SSIS week. We’ll be bringing you more this semester with some big names so stay tuned! The best way to keep up to date on all the latest news and additions to SQL University is to join our newsletter.

One More Thing…

If you’re enjoying SQL University and learning from all of these great folks in the SQL community you’ll get a chance to experience all of this in person! This Spring at SQLRally we’ll be hosting a Lightning Talk session featuring the professors of SQLU as well as some other special surprise guests. SQLRally runs from May 11-13 in Orlando, Florida and only costs $299  and $199 for pre-conference sessions (optional). Hope to see you there!