Friday June 11, 2004

I have attended two Java User Group meetings this week. The first was the LAJUG meeting where Gavin King and Marc Fluery presented on Hibernate, EJB 3.0, JBoss (the company) and Aspect Oriented Programming. Great presentations.

Last night I attended the Orange County Java Users Group meeting. Prakash Malani (a well-respected local) presented on JSR 168. Pretty high level to get everyone at the same level but also because there sure isn't much to JSR 168. Pretty simple stuff.

Because these are developers, they like to see code and also like to present code. Generally, I don't really care to see code because there is only an hour (or two). The exception is seeing code that makes an impact (such as EJB 3.0 and metatags). I want to understand the high level concepts, impact and direction of technology, etc. UML works just fine for me as well as pattern-speak. I'll pick up a book or google if I want code.

I'll be honest. I don't go to Java User Groups for the presentations. I attend every JUG meeting I can, regardless if the topic meets my interests or not. I go to JUG meetings primarily to network. Meeting people, maintain contacts, etc. I have created some lifelong friendships at the JUGs. One day I'll need something or they will need something and we can leverage each other. I also go to talk to developers to learn about the impact of technologies on their business. "Moving from pure JSP to transformed XML enabled our company to ...." for example. My favorite part of the JUG meetings is when we go off to eat/drink afterwards. I learned more about JBoss from Marc and Gavin during dinner/drinks than I did during the presentation. I didn't go out after the OCJUG meeting this week to spend some time with the family.

In August I'll be presenting on JXTA. In October I'll be presenting on Jini. My personal interest is not J2EE, it is dynamic distributed systems. My presentation style is a bit different. I like to do demos that make a lasting impact. My hope (given time) is to create demos by having attendees bring in their wireless laptops and participate in the presentation by participating in a dynamic distributed system. That, to me, gets the point across more than showing code. Many developers don't understand why Jini and Jxta haven't hit mainstream. They will some day primariy because Jini and Jxta solve problems that haven't hit mainstream. These problems are looming on the horizon for the mainstream.