JavaOne 2007; does Sun need to re-invent itself?

Overall the conference was a good one, as usual. Left it full of new energy and compelled to try out numerous new technologies. Update the address book with those new contacts and new friends.

Not that many big announcements during this JavaOne – more like last years that there are some nice mobility things happening, but nothing really concrete comes out of it, yet. See previous post.

There are a few disappointments at this JavaOne2007 though:

• I am little worried, though, regarding the fact that JavaOne has become a more of an SUN event, there are way too many speakers from SUN.
• When it comes to the quality of the sessions, the span is huge; from the very worst to the very best one I attended

I compiled a list of some suggestions to, in my opinion, to make better conference next time at JavaOne 2008:

• A better mix of speakers selected from various parts of the Java Community, around the world, based on their merits. There are actually great many people from numerous organizations very knowledgeable within their fields of expertise.
• Don’t exclude others communities, e.g. Eclipse eRCP, OSGi, etc. There are way too few sessions covering these “competing” technologies – please keep in mind that other Java based technologies are our friends, the foe is .NET and other things.
• Why no Pavillion on Friday? Some of the really cool toys presented by Gosling where on display in the Pavillion. After Gosling’s display I would like to see those gadgets for real and close up. Also, I do not want to miss out a session or two just because I also want to check out the Pavillion.
• Community One was great, but would like to see more specialized days, e.g. for Mobility, etc. We who have traveled from far away would like to spend our time more effectively when in SF.
• Make Mobility the theme for the next JavaOne
• “Fly your own planes”, i.e. every year there are a number of announcements regarding Java on mobile devices but we do not see any progress of this implemented within the context of the conference itself
• Content catalog available only on mobile phone and on the web, it will save a lot of trees.
• Also record BOFs, some very good sessions not to be missed
• At next years party we would like to see a repeat appearance with Grinder Girl! Will she cut up those freakin’ robots this time?
• Don’t start tearing done the place until conference is really over! SunRay where being removed when there where sessions to go to. No, there should be formal ending of conference, where e.g. the official T-shirt is handed out. That wil make people wanting to stick to the very end. Then you can start dismantling
• Finally, why not have a full five day conference? Less stressful maybe, and there is nothing wrong with repeat sessions on the more popular presentations

See you at next JavaOne May 6-9 2008!

The above comments where compiled from the notes of myself, Ove, and Robert Varttinen. The same text, more or less, will appear soon on his blog.