Highlights of JavaOne 2006

NEW DELHI: JavaOne conference is one of the biggest annual events for Java developers worldwide. It is a place where anybody and everybody related to the four-letter technology aspire to be in person. JavaOne 2006 was hosted from May 15^th to 19^th at San Francisco's Moscone Center. Running in its 11^th year, the conference brought together Java developers, partners, enthusiasts, evangelists all under one roof giving them a platform to listen, acquire, share and exchange notes on the technology.

The four day event began with a welcome address from Sun Microsystems recently appointed president and chief executive officer,
Jonathan
Schwartz. Jonathan, expressed his amazement at the pace with which the technology continues to evolve and expand, and gave full credit to 5 million plus developers scattered across the entire geography.

Quoting him, "In fact, it's your innovations and this community that have helped make the Java brand one of the most well-known and respected in the industry. Java technology is recognized by an amazing 86 percent of tech-savvy consumers who base their purchase decisions on whether a product runs Java or not. Java technology truly has become the key ingredient of the digital experience for hundreds of millions of people across the planet."

Java Platform, Enterprise Edition (Java
EE), was one of the hot topics for developers. Other areas that got a lot of developer traction were
AJAX, and
JavaServer Faces technology. Packed with 'how-to' sessions; tutorials; sessions on technology innovations; vendor led sessions and technical case studies the attendees kept on their toes all through the day, going from one pavilion to the other; participating in on-the-spot competitions, networking and exchanging notes.

General sessions were conducted Sun partners like Oracle, IBM, BEA, Motorola etc. BEA spoke about its Blended Strategy approach to enterprise development and new opportunities in Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), and EJB 3.0. Oracle's session harped upon the importance Services Oriented Architecture (SOA) paradigm; JavaServer Faces (JSF); Enterprise JavaBeans 3.0 (EJB 3.0; and
Business Process Execution Language (BPEL) for mapping business process flow. Like last year they announced free tools for developers. IBM's session talked about the advantages of using the Eclipse platform. Mobile giant Motorola's session introduced the developers to MOTODEV a program that creates a developer ecosystem to speed the pace of innovation while creating new business channels and revenue streams.

This year's conference offered an expanded Hands-on Labs program. These instructor-led labs packed with technical content gave attendees a chance to see the Java platform in action.

The Java University program was a major hit amongst the developers. Created and delivered by Sun certified instructors who are experts in Java technology, these daylong courses are designed for Java technology developers who are seeking in-depth knowledge on specific areas of interest related to Java technology programming. These courses highlight many of today's hottest areas of focus for Java technology developers.

The open source debate, yet again

Will Sun open source
Java? Has been a question lingering in many minds for quite some time. Lot has been said about it from all quarters. The issue was raised yet again at JavaOne. Rich Green the new Sun EVP of software hinted on making the Java platform open as the next major direction. Not giving any details on this, Green said

"It's not a matter of Whether, but a matter of How."

Sun officials remained tight-lipped and said to wait and watch for more on this.

Were you at JavaOne 2006 or did you miss it? Drop in a line sharing your thoughts about the same with us at

aparnal@cybermedia.co.in.