Thanks to Sun JUG Program Coordinator Aaron Houston, I have a boatload of JUG freebies in hand for a planned Java User Group launch this week at the University of Southern California (USC).
My primary responsibility as a Campus Ambassador is to promote Sun Open Source technologies on USC campus. This technology is free, it's good, so use it (is my philosophy). Not to mention, I'm an open source fanatic. To the point where I believe that every line of code written in private is one that could have benefitted millions of others... which might sound a bit extreme, but I generally believe open source is an extremely powerful way empower humanity—to add to the world's shared domain of knowledge.
Getting back on track... one of the things I'm tasked to investigate is the existence of an open source user group on campus. I've had the pleasure of working with great student organizations on USC Campus, such as the Engineering Graduate Student Association, USC ACM Chapter, and USC Upsilon Pi Epsilon Chapter. They are each doing great work and have held several open source events this past year. However, there is no single group dedicated to year-round open source software development and support.
Sun gives strong support for various breeds of user groups that utilize its open source technology. Open Solaris User Groups are one. Java User Groups are another.
Given the strength of Sun's backing, my passion for Java, and the growing prevalence of Java in our curriculum at USC, the commercial software industry, and the open source community as a whole, I thought it was appropriate to launch a Java User Group at USC.
The next step was to find a space to host the Java User Group—a discussion list and web space are the two most critical tools in such a thing. After dabbling around at USC without much luck, I was happy to find out that Java.net supports a space for JUGs, and I jumped on it. After joining the community, I met Aaron Houston and also got introduced to Abdel Remani of the Chico Java User Group via email list.
Aaron generously offered Java User Group swag (pictured above) for the launch of the Java User group. I'm confident this will get people excited about the user group and about connecting with other people who have interest in Java! Also, I'm excited to have Abdel Remani's guidance as well; it will be great to have another University JUG as a model and inspiration for our own.
Our first meeting is scheduled tentatively for April 17th (this Thursday). Stay tuned for the results!