The Data Professional Social Graph

Two weeks ago, I had the opportunity to hear a keynote by Vik Fearing at Swiss PGDay 2023. He talked about Property Graphs and the Graph Query Language (not to be confused with GraphQL), a recent addition to the SQL:2023 standard. The discussion was mostly theoretical in nature because only Oracle has a current implementation known as PGQL. Still, the talk was interesting, and the ensuing discussion showed that the concepts piqued the interest of many in the room.

Will you or I ever use this new language feature if it makes it to SQL Server, PostgreSQL, or whatever relational engine you use? I honestly have no idea, but I enjoyed hearing someone with a passion for the SQL language talk about ways this could improve the ergonomics of fetching data.

Interestingly, although not unexpected, the examples of how GQL would work within a SQL statement started with people relationships. "If person A likes something, find other people that liked that same item and are friends with someone that person A is connected with." In context of GQL, the syntax helps express these relationships in a way that would be difficult in regular SQL but provide the benefit of returning the results as tabular data for further processing in the outer query, almost like a sub-select.

For the next day and a half, there were numerous times I heard people bantering about the potential of adding something like GQL to PostgreSQL and if they would find it helpful to retrieve data.

At some point it occurred to me that I was, in fact, living out a graph query in real-time.

I'm tremendously fortunate at this stage in my career to have the opportunity to attend conferences throughout the America's and Europe to talk about PostgreSQL, databases in general, and improving the DevOps experience of database professionals. Here I was, in Germany and Switzerland, sitting down with so many of the data professionals I respect and admire. We were learning from each other, sharing small slices of our shared experience and knowledge to improve the community and encourage other data professionals.

As I worked my way home at the end of the week, I recounted just a few of the human connections I was able to make throughout the week:

• I got to meet someone that maintains app, an application I use and recommend to others learning how to use PostgreSQL on a Mac.
• I sat in a room and listened to a member of the SQL Standards committee, a niche group to be sure.
• I spent a train ride from the airport to the hotel with someone building a company that solves a data problem I've experienced in nearly every company I've worked at; efficient, continuous aggregation of materialized data.

Don't get me wrong, I also spent more than 25 hours on planes, 15 hours in airports, a few hours on trains, and even 2.5 hours on a boat from Rapperwil to Zurich (although that was an opportunity to spend time with community members as we started our journey home).

Before the pandemic there's no way I could have guessed I'd be able to make these connections. Many of the people I now connect with on a semi-regular basis are folks I had only known from a distance, virtually. They are experts in PostgreSQL and have spent most of their professional careers contributing to the project and community.

In real life, however, they're just people. They like to laugh, tell jokes, talk about family, kids, and pets, and more. And they love to talk about PostgreSQL and data. Every one of them is approachable, available, and passionate about helping others.

But I wouldn't know this if I didn't make an effort to go and be where this community is. Both in-person and virtually. In short, I must show up and be present.

That's my challenge to you this week. One thing is tremendously clear at the half-way point of 2023. Events, both in-person and virtual, are back and bigger than ever. Nearly every week from now until December, there's an event that I could be a part of which is well within my "data professionals" graph.

The economy is in a weird spot right now. I know that travel budgets and opportunities aren't as free as they were even a year ago (let alone pre-pandemic). But I really want to encourage you to see if there's something you can attend before the end of 2023.

If in-person conferences are an option for you, many SQL Saturday events are happening again, as is PASS Data Community Summit in Seattle. There are numerous PGDay and PGConf events if you'd like to learn more about PostgreSQL. And there are many developer focused conferences, like THAT conference, which are happening in the weeks and months to come.

There are also compelling virtual options to attend and connect with, too, if you're willing to do a little research.

In my opinion, the biggest win for getting connected to the data community is your ability to grow your social graph just a little bit more. This happens in sessions, in the hallway, and even when commuting by train or boat. You'll have a better understanding of the technology, the challenges others have faced, and how problems are solved in a myriad of circumstances.

And, one day soon, you might be able to query these new relationships in an expressive way in PostgreSQL or SQL Server.

So, where would you like to meet next?

Ryan Booz

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