JavaOne 2010 Blog-o-Sphere Reaction Round-Up

I wasn't the only one complaining about the first JavaOne under Oracle's stewardship this week. I'll admit that my criticism of Big O's decision to hold the J1 portion of its hybrid, San Francisco-devouring, Tandem Conference Monster was probably exacerbated by my lack of cardiovascular fitness and what evolved into the hell of hauling my chubby self back and forth between Moscone and the Hilton. (I swear, I'm joining a gym tomorrow!) But other, fitter bloggers were just as cranky about this year's show.

The Eclipse Foundation's Ian Skerrett was with me. In his post, "The New JavaOne; The New Java Community," Ian offers some cogent observations about J1 under Oracle. The Hilton, he says, was "the worst location for a conference I have ever experienced" (Yes!) He goes on to give Kurian credit (as just about everyone has) for a good keynote. Interesting conclusions. Also check out his "My JavaOne Wish List" post.

Sam Dean worries on the Ostatic blog post, "Oracle Still Shows Few Signs of Open Java Goals," that, "Many of [Oracle's EVP of Product Development Thomas Kurian's] points made clear that Oracle will encourage lots of development around Java, but not many of them made clear that Oracle will retain the level of openness that Sun Microsystems always had toward Java." (Editor's note: Go here and here for more on what Kurian said at the show.)

Adam Bien gives a nice little post-mortem of his travels at the event in his blog "JavaOne 10 Afterglow." He actually concludes that "Considering the circumstances JavaOne was even great this year…" (Hmm… Not nearly as grumpy as me.) But keep scrolling down to get even more conference notes.

Dutch coder Geertjanoffered his "JavaOne 2010 Reflections" in a blog post focused on NetBeans. Nice coverage from a guy who works with the IDE, apparently, on a regular basis. He also thought it was a great JavaOne (Okay, now I'm feeling like a curmudgeon).

The Canoo Engineering's Rich Internet Applications Blog is also worth checking out. Lots of coverage by "Bruno."

David Thielen's Huffington Post blog, "JavaOne: Confessions of a Booth Babe," wasn't cranky, I guess, though not really as funny as the title implies. It does offer some nice observations about the show from the founder and CTO of Windward Studios, who worked a booth on the exhibit floor.

I have to add that, though I'm not happy about the juxtaposition of the two conferences, I did find the quality of JavaOne's content overall to be as useful as ever. Maybe what we should do is start now encouraging (or harassing, whichever works for you) Mr. Ellison and company to set aside a separate week for JavaOne 2011. Come on, guys, we know you can afford it. Show that you're really behind this technology -- and this community -- by giving them the space and spotlight they deserve!

What were your thoughts on this year's JavaOne? Did it live up to your expectations? Share your take with John/other readers by posting in the comments!

Posted by John K. Waters on September 24, 2010