Devoxx 2010 is over since a few days. Here is a quick return on our presence in Belgium. As agreed, our community was well represented by Chrisbel and myself.
We had the opportunity to interact with experts working on the technologies we use every day. Including the developers of Google, SpringSource, JBoss, Hibernate, IBM, Oracle, InteliJ, Vaadin etc. ...Only Devoxx can offer such proximity between the community and Java experts of all stripes. To note, the strong presence of the Java community from France with an imposing team from ParisJUG. We also had the opportunity to discuss with Antonio Goncalves and Zouheir Cadi about the opportunities to collaborate.
Good points:
What is striking, when you go for the first time in the Metropolis cinema complex where Devoxx instals itself every year, is the size of the presentation screens, and the sound quality. Just Amazing! Cinema rooms designed and optimized for better visual and audio experience are definitely a great advantage for an event like this. On this point, Devoxx 1 – 0 JavaOne -:).
Points to improve:
The wireless internet connection was unpredictable and it wasn’t easy for me to configure that. Throughout the conference, I only managed once to connect with my laptop. Under these conditions, taking notes and blogging were a bit difficult. But fortunately there was Twitter and Facebook via my iPhone, which however, had no trouble connecting to the wireless network. Don’t ask me why!
Highlights:
It was very refreshing to see Google in a conference Java from the legal troubles with Oracle. Sign that does not lie on the popularity of Google among the Java community, the Android presentations were always packed. You would have to show up early to expect a good spot.
Oracle for its part has proudly announced the agreement found with Apple on the OpenJDK. It was another sensitive topic among many others that haunted Oracle for the past few months (JCP, Apache, OpenJDK 7...). For sure, Oracle has not had it easy since the acquisition of Sun and Java within the package.
An other good news from Oracle was the announcement, of the decision to go ahead with the JSR 336 for the Java SE 7 and 337 for Java SE 8 despite the boycott of Apache; who by the way is a great contributor and influential member of the JCP (Java Community Process). The release of Java SE and Java SE7 8 are respectively expected for mid-2011 and late 2012
My favorite subjects:
Personally, I had three main points of interest:
1 - Participate to a maximum of Android presentations:
2 - Evaluate Web Frameworks to found the best tool for modern Web applications
3 - Meet and invite experts and businesses to Brazzaville for the JCertif conference 2011.
Most of these objectives have been achieved even though I regret not being able to participate in more sessions on Android. But as a consolation prize, Stephan Janssen, the organizer of Devoxx, introduced me to Romain Guy, one of the leading developers of the UI 
layer of Android at Google platform. Roman would potentially be interested in making a presentation at JCertif conference 2011. Fingers crossed that it will work!
In my quest for a Web Framework to quickly build Web 2.0 applications in Java, I came across Vaadin. This Open Source Framework which is easy to integrate with main Java development tools is pretty impressive. I had the opportunity to discuss and exchange since with Joonas Lehtinen's, the Vaadin representative, in order to work together on a prototype for the website of Jcertif Conference: JCertif.com. ...
What I missed:
I would want to enjoy again the JEE 6 presentation by Adam Bien although I had seen it at JavaOne 2010 in San Francisco two months earlier. Anyway... This is a pure Java demonstration, no PowerPoint or framwork additional. Just NetBeans and GlassFish JEE6 ... This is art of presentation! I highly recommend it to everyone.
The icing on the cake:
Alexis Moussine a JEE evangelist at Oracle has agreed to grant us an interview. All subjects was cover : Java EE 6, Apache, the cold war between and the comer CDI Framework in JEE6 and the SpringSource, the JCP, Open JDK, the Java 7 and 8 etc ...
The video and transcript will be available online shortly on www.congojug.com.
The community:
An informal meeting (BOF), took place Thursday night (before the last day of the conference) in which several JUGs from around the world were represented. Oracle has marked its presence 
with such Nichole Schott (Senior Manager) and Jackie Rose (responsible for the EMEA). The discussions mainly tour around the best communications channels to be established between Oracle and the Java community. Several suggestions have emerged among which the creation of regional JUGs and whose leader will interface with Oracle such as the JUG-AFRICA is doing.
The sensitive issue about the integration or not of the JUGs within IOUC (INTERNATIONAL ORACLE USER GROUP COMMUNITY) has also re-surfaced. Unsurprisingly, some JUG Leaders disagree strongly with the notion of integration but no more. In the end, each JUG will decide to join the IOUC or not.
Appointment was arranged for the Users Group Leaders' Summit - 24-26 January 2011 at the Oracle headquarters. Some JUG leaders have already signaled their presence at this event. Of course, I’ll be there!
The CongoJUG received an invitation from Oracle to attend the event. A conference will be followed by two days of training Java / Oracle at Oracle Campus in Redwood Shores, California.
In the end:
Thank you Stephan. We will be back next year!
