News

JavaOne Replaced by Oracle Code One

• By John K. Waters
• April 24, 2018

JavaOne, the annual gathering in San Francisco of Java jocks from around the world, has been replaced by a new event, dubbed Code One. Oracle is billing the change as "an expansion of tracks to include more languages, technologies and developer communities," and plans to include talks on such languages as Go, Rust, Python, JavaScript and R.

The new event will keep the Java Technical Keynote and the Developer Community Keynote, and it will continue to be the venue for announcements about Java 11 and advances in OpenJDK and other core Java developments. The initial Code One program will include dedicated tracks for server-side Java EE technology, including Jakarta EE, Spring, and the advances in Java microservices and containers.

In a blog post announcing the new event, Stephen Chin, Director of the Oracle Developer Community Team, declared that Code One will include "a wealth of community content on client development, JVM languages, IDEs, test frameworks, etc."

"As we expand, developers can also expect additional leading-edge topics such as chatbots, microservices, AI, and blockchain," Chin wrote. "There will also be sessions around our modern open source developer technologies including Oracle JET, Project Fn and OpenJFX."

Oracle also plans to keep some community run activities for the new conference, including the Oracle Code4Kids workshops for young developers, the IGNITE lightning talks run by local JUG leaders, and "an array of technology demos and community projects showcased in the Developer Lounge."

The JavaOne conference has run annually since 1996, growing from a single conference room to filling all three wings of San Francisco's Moscone Center an international collection of attendees and presenters. But the writing has been on the wall for this venerable conference since Oracle acquired Sun Microsystems in 2010, and with it, all things Java. The company combined JavaOne with Oracle OpenWorld and relocated the event from its longtime Moscone Center home to a nearby hotel.

The Twitterverse was buzzing about this announcement. Former Eclipse Foundation VP of Marketing Ian Skerrett tweeted: "JavaOne is being renamed Oracle Code One. Pretty clear to me, Oracle is now positioning this an Oracle vendor event not an industry event. I don't imagine the other Java vendors will participate."

Reza Rahman, enterprise Java consultant and co-founder of the Java EE Guardians tweeted: "I have to say this makes me very sad. JavaOne meant so much for so many years and this is just not the same. Need to now seriously consider whether to submit. EclipseCon here I come?"

Consultant and Chicago JUG member Bob Paulin tweeted: "Sad that #JavaOne is gone. Feels like the part in the Grinch where the town wakes up to no presents. But then again, I don't go to conferences anymore for the toys they have. It's about the people. Hoping that sticks together."

The Java ecosystem has diversified (more open source frameworks and libraries), and innovation happens mostly in the community instead of expert groups. These are obviously good things but put conferences in a different perspective. You don't need to go to a conference to learn about the latest & greatest frameworks. The most valuable content is now about case studies, best practices and lessons learned. You want to hear how others are using Java in the bigger picture. In contrast to the old days, Java now plays a role together with other tools, languages, and runtimes. We don't just care about Java, Java EE, and app servers anymore. This puts a Java-only conference in a tough spot, and a wider focus makes a lot of sense. In recent years this has resulted in fewer attendees, and less of an urge to be there.

Oracle Code One is scheduled for Oct. 22-25 at Moscone West in San Francisco. The company has opened a call for papers for any of the 11 tracks of content for Java developers, database developers, full-stack devs, DevOps practitioners and community members.