DonaldOJDK Blog

I’ve been trying to plan my week at JavaOne (coming up in 3 short weeks) and I’m having a real challenge.  As a relatively new Product Manager in the SE team, there’s absolutely no shortage of areas I could focus on.

One thing that has struck me from reading the program though, is the incredible diversity of the Java Ecosystem.  I always awed with it while I worked at Eclipse, but I see it even more so now that I have a broader scope.  For example, at JavaOne this year there are almost 200 different organizations represented from the very large IBM’s to the very small solo-consultant companies.  Within Oracle, we have representative from all the worldwide development labs and hubs including Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, India, Israel, Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Sweden and the United Kingdom.  You can expect as usual to see lots of talks from the VMware/IBM/RedHat’s of the Java ecosystem — but what sticks out to me is there’s lots of content coming from the SMB orgs like CloudBees, Avast and EngineYard.  I’m also pretty keen to see what the NFL has to say :).

– Don

With help from my colleague at SAP, the EclipseCon Europe Java 7 track is now completed and tentatively scheduled.  We have great content spanning all three days that will provide insight into what’s new with Java 7, OpenJDK and hints towards what’s happening next. We have great speakers from a variety of organizations and perspectives. Registration gets you all of the Java 7 track content, all of the EclipseCon sessions and keynotes (not to mention the meals and receptions ;)).

You should register now!  Register before September 30, and use the coupon code “JAVA7” during registration, and save €275 off the onsite price (€200 early-bird + €75 for JAVA7).

*All times/sessions are tentative – a full conference schedule will be available at the EclipseCon website in the coming week(s).

Wednesday, November 2:
16:00-17:00 – The 55 new Java 7 features you (probably) didn’t hear about.
17:00-17:30 – This is not your father’s Java

Thursday, November 3:
09:00-10:00 – Project Jigsaw and You
10:30-11:30 – How to Contribute to OpenJDK
11:30-12:00 – IcedTea and IcedTea Web
13:30-14:00 – Avoiding Java Vulnerabilities
14:00-14:30 – Practical Migration to Java 7 – Small codesamples
14:30-15:00 – State of the Enterprise Adoption of Java 7
15:30-16:30 – JavaFX Past, Present and Future and Interop with SWT and Swing

Friday, November 4:
10:30-11:30 – Generics: Evolution in Programming
11:30-12:00 – Java 7 and other new stuff in JDT
14:00-15:00 – Java SE 7 and 8 – Moving Java Forward

Java 7 was formally launched on 7/7 and the full GA download should be available within the next couple of weeks.

The timing created a great opportunity for us to host a “Java 7 Summit” at EclipseCon Europe this fall (November 2-4), and I proud to say that I’ll be leading the summit program along with my colleague Martin Jaekle from SAP.  Our goal is to create three great days of content for those looking to learn more about not only Java 7, but also OpenJDK.

Attendees to the summit will be able to attend all of EclipseCon (and vice versa, of course).

The first step is to solicit great content, in a very short period of time!  The call for participation is only open until August 17th, so please propose your ideas today!

– Don

First off, thank you to Ian Skerrett, who wrote a blog that covered 90% of what was on my mind this morning (and in a much clearer way than I ever could have, I’m sure).  Before you read any further here, go read it.

When I joined the Eclipse Foundation back in 2005, I had a pretty naive perspective that Ian describes as “Open Source is just one big happy family”.  I quickly learned it’s not, it’s a continuum of opinion on multiple dimensions.  Conversationally, it often plays out as license preferences, but it can also play out by development process preferences, scale of participation, diversity expectations and so on.

Which means if your objective is ever to make the entire “Open Source Community” happy, you will fail.  There is just too many different perspectives and opinions on countless dimensions.  You need to focus on making your community happy, and those partners and participants that will help drive the project forward.  Listen carefully to all the feedback you can, as broadly as you can, but never dream of capturing every vote.

And if you’re a “people pleaser”, this is a tough skill to learn.

– Don

Maybe it’s just me, but I’ve noticed lately an increase in people representing themselves as Individuals in communities where they are clearly acting on behalf of an Organization.

In some cases, I understand the motivation – banks, in particular, are extremely cautious about tipping their hands to the public about their IT choices not only for security, but for legal reasons.  I’ve also run into a front or two for a group of people working in national security departments throughout Europe.

But if you work for an IT company, or a large company that is predominantly IT driven, why would you go so far out of your way to hide that fact?  Doesn’t it limit your credibility?

– Don