JavaLand 2015 Wrap Up

After months of preparation, it all came down to three days of intense execution, and I was just one speaker. I can only marvel at the logistical acumen that was on display from the JavaLand and DOAG team. I had an action , capably coodinated by Andreas Badelt. Because of the high level of activity on my personal agenda, I was not able to attend as many sessions as I would have liked. In any case, this blog entry is my place to share my overall impressions of the conference, and of the sessions I did get a chance to attend.

Day One

Right off the bat, I want to tip my cap to Marcus Lagergren for remaining calm in the face of some AV problems. Even with all that, and the 45 minute session duration, Marcus managed to give a compelling whirlwind tour of his personal experience with Java from the beginning. More photos like the one on the right are available from Stefan Hildebrandt's flickr photo stream. I think there is a lot more room in the "20 year's of Java meme", however, and I applaud Marcus for wisely not attempting to speak for all of it and drawing from his own experiences. That's one great thing about the #java20 meme, everyone has their own story. Maybe at JavaOne 2015 they will have some sort of Story Corps type thing where people can give their stories. Come to think of it, if someone wants to build Story Corps as a Service (SCAAS), perpahs they can sell it to Oracle for use at the show.

Shortly after Marcus's session, I presented with my good friend Oliver Szymanzki a 45 minute capsule of our full day training session about Java EE 7 from an HTML5 Perspective. It was tough to make a meaningful abstraction from a full day session to just 45 minutes, but I hope at least people could take something useful away from it.

Then came my first exposure to the EAA, which was my only chance to present JSF content here at JavaLand. I gave a quick presentation and had an informal meeting with several JSF EG members who were at JavaLand. We covered f:socket, multi-component validation, and URL mapping.

The evening community event was really not to be missed. If you ever have a chance to attend JavaLand, I really recommend you participate.

Day Two

I started out the day by presenting a modified version of my DevNexus session about Servlet 4.0 and HTTP/2. I basically dropped the demo and moved the Java SE 9 content to an EAA session in order to fit into the 45 minute window.

Following my session I was able to enjoy Mark Little's keynote about Java Enterprise and Internet of Things. This session put out some hard-won truths of problems we have solved in Java as cautionary tales for newer stacks that seem intent on re-inventing wheels rather than standing on the shoulders of others. I must admit it was a feel-good session, but still realistic and largely kool aid free.

In the afternoon, I supported David Blevins during his session about the new Security JSR. This was a very informative session that got a whole lot done in only 45 minutes. I hope it encouraged some people to get involved in JSR-375.

Running back to the EAA, I presented the exciting work being done by Michael McMahon to bring a new Http Client to Java SE 9, including HTTP/2 support. I can't post the slides, but I'm sure we'll have something on this at JavaOne.

My last engagment of the conference proper was to participate in a joint vJUG/NightHacking session regarding Adopt-a-JSR. This was lots of fun, and I thank Stephen Chin and Simon Maple for providing a vehicle for it.

As a nice wind-down from the conference, and a bit of chill before the training day, I was invited by DOAG boss Fried Saacke to attend the 5 year celebration dinner for Java Aktuell magazine. I didn't know it at the time, but the invitation included an opportunity to give a short speech, in German, on the importance of JCP to the Java Community. I hope I didn't mangle my words too badly.

After being blessed with many years of German conference opportunities at which I invariably bring home lots of chocolate, I felt it was time to give the Germans a taste of American-style sweets along with their pre-loaded VM usb sticks. These Tasty Kakes or a specialty of my home-town of Philadelphia, and each attendee of the session Java EE aus einer HTML5-Perspektive received some along with a full day of instruction and a USB stick with a VM containing the workshop materials.

In summary, JavaLand has lots to recommend it. Come for the content, stay for the fun.