Recently in Conference Category
But we know that already. The really interesting part of McNealy and Gosling's exchange came at the end, when McNealy voiced his doubts that the Moscone Center where the conference is being held was big enough to hold OpenWorld and JavaOne simultaneously. Some in the Java community have speculated that the 2009 JavaOne Conference this past June would be the last. The rumors have Oracle killing the show and holding some scaled down version of it during OpenWorld. What would that look like?
The largest convention center in downtown San Francisco has three halls, Moscone North, South, and West. Oracle needs all three, plus rooms at an off-site Hilton, to accommodate the 40,000+ attendees. Not to mention that Oracle blocks off the street between the facing Moscone North and South halls, lays carpet down on the street, and erects tents above it (129,000 square feet of tenting, that is). It's a huge production. How Oracle would host another 15,000 people (the reported attendance at JavaOne 2009) is a logistical challenge I'm glad I don't have to face.
There probably wouldn't be much overlap in attendees who go to both shows either. Fundamentally, the conferences speak to different audiences: OpenWorld is an enterprise IT show for executives, while JavaOne is a developer show for Java programmers. Just observing the unwritten dress code at each one makes the difference obvious. Casual attire at OpenWorld is khakis and a button-down shirt with your company's logo embroidered on the breast pocket. That same outfit at JavaOne would be formal (What's with the khakis?).
Beyond the issues of sufficient space and differing styles is that of content. OpenWorld actually already offers content for Java developers. Oracle Develop is OpenWorld's three-day program dedicated to developer topics, and it held a number Sun-hosted sessions that were JavaOne-esque, including overviews and updates of JPA 2.0, EJB 3.1, Java SE, Java EE 6 and GlassFish, JavaServer Faces 2.0, and JavaFX. However, Sun is hosting only 10 out of a total of 217 Oracle Develop sessions--a fraction of the content JavaOne offers. Oracle would need to scale the number of sessions up significantly and find the room to host them.
Where Oracle Develop takes place also speaks volumes about the focus of OpenWorld. To get to Oracle Develop from the main show, you have to walk to a hotel about 10-15 minutes away. Shuffling off to the Hilton felt a little like being invited to a fancy dinner party and then been relegated to a wobbly ironing board in the den for your meal while the "grown-ups" (the IT executives) eat at the dining room table.
For Java developers, that feeling of being second-class citizens would be an unavoidable consequence if the shows merged. As the steward of Java, Sun constantly interacts with the Java community to help shape and plan JavaOne. During Goslings conversation with McNealy at the opening keynote, he confessed that Oracle was "a little unprepared for the volume of the Java community." Sun's developer programs, according to Gosling, are much larger in terms of downloads and interactions than those Oracle currently offers.
The developers who are downloading bits from the many java.sun.com projects, reading Sun distinguished engineer blogs, reporting bugs, and otherwise getting involved in the development of the Java platform make for an enthusiastic audience when Sun puts on a show just for them. (You won't hear the Brazilian contingent whoop and holler every time their country's mentioned here at OpenWorld, but you can count on it at JavaOne--and more than one keynote presenter has when his presentation starts to lose some steam.)
A backlash from developers who fear being marginalized in a merged OpenWorld/JavaOne likely won't be enough to save JavaOne if Oracle decides to end it; OpenWorld has swolled other conferences (PeopleSoft Connect and BEAWorld are just two). However, the audiences for the other shows it consumed have been more aligned with the IT executives who attend OpenWorld. With the logistical challenges and divergent audience, OpenWorld might choke if it tries to swallow JavaOne.
If you're going to host a tech conference in the middle of a global recession, O'Reilly's Open Source Convention (OSCON) wouldn't be a bad choice. What does a bear market mean to an open source project that thrives on programmers who code passionately—for coding's sake, not for the almighty dollar? And haven't cost savings always been the great promise of open source software for buyers? I'm oversimplifying things, but economic concerns did become a theme at this year's OSCON where one huge organization, the U.S. government—tasked with leading an economic recovery here in the States—took center stage.
Founder and CEO Tim O'Reilly and Clay Johnson, Director of Sunlight Labs, both gave presentations centered on the emerging U.S. initiatives to establish an open government platform. One of the first projects in that effort is Data.gov, whose stated mission is "to improve access to federal data and expand creative use of those data beyond the walls of government." To put the site in a developer's context, O'Reilly described Data.gov as an attempt by the government to put together an SDK for all their APIs. If successful, civic-minded developers will be able to build an ecosystem around the platform.
Johnson knows first hand what type of innovation can grow out of this type of accessibility. Sunlight Labs is an agency that actively works on finding useful applications for the government data and creating tools that will enable users to apply them.
Both men stressed that this "government as a platform" idea won't reach its full potential until the federal procurement process (i.e., the required procedures for a government agency to acquire goods and services) is streamlined. The process is currently so complex that Johnson couldn't fit a chart of it on a single slide. What he did manage to capture looked like a Gantt chart wrapped in an object diagram inside an org chart (Take a look).
When a bid actually meets all the process requirements, the results can be very lucrative for the bidder and exorbitant for the government, like the $9 million contract awarded for the construction of the web site Recovery.gov (according to Johnson).
Open source developers (Drupal, anyone?) don't need to be civic-minded to be interested in a share of payouts like that. But they'll have to wait for a more accessible procurement model.
Some other notes from OSCON '09...
Open Source as the 'Exit Strategy' for Government Projects
An interesting idea for overcoming the procurement problem came from the audience. As the keynote speakers were taking questions, a man (I didn't catch his name) argued that a retirement strategy for government software projects is fundamental, and that open source licenses were a good match for that strategy. As I understood his point, if the government were to employ open source software, it could simply abandon (or retire) projects when they stopped being useful. With the vast sums the government invests in those projects today (see the Recovery.gov contract above), just retiring them isn't economically viable.
The Open Source Project as a Boys Clubs
If you're a male developer who wants to know what it's like to be a woman on an open source project, go get a pedicure. That was the proposition Kirrily Robert made in her "Standing Out in a Crowd" presentation. One of a small minority of women who work on open source projects, Robert argued that no matter how welcoming the nail salon staff and clientele may be, a man probably would feel somewhat out of place there.
Such is the experience of female coders, who can face everything from openly displayed pornography to sexist jokes to outright harassment—along with the burden of representation. According to the feedback Robert has received from the mostly female development communities at Dreamwidth and Archive of Our Own, women contributors felt that their contributions to projects weren't valued and that their skills were relegated to ancillary duties like documentation.
If you're a woman who's involved in open source, I'd be interested in your comments.
Microsoft Keynote Topic an Odd Choice
After Microsoft made perhaps the biggest open source news of the week by releasing 20,000 lines of Linux code under the GPLv2 license, I was surprised the company didn't use its allotted presentation time to take a victory lap in front of an audience of open source developers. Instead, VP of External Research Tony Hey spoke about Redmond's open tools and services initiatives in academic research. The work Microsoft is doing in this area is certainly important and interesting, but why ignore the 800-pound penguin in the room?
Most Entertaining Presentation of the Show
Hands down, Simon Wardley's hilarious and informative talk on cloud computing was the highlight of the show for me. Not only did he send up the numerous definitions of the term (he found 67 on Google, some self-serving, many confused), but he put the technology in a historical context that you won’t find in vendor releases about supposed cloud computing products. Best of all, he saved the pitch for Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud until the end. Well done, Simon.
Interesting Out-of-context Quotes
"Federation is, maybe, the new open source."
– Tim O'Reilly discussing the possibility of federating the disparate data services that millions of web users access everyday
"I should be able to knock you over with a feather right now."
– Google's Chris DiBona during his presentation of Google Code Search crawl data, referring to a slide that showed GPLv3 penetration at nearly 46% this year
The new Sun boss put the OpenOffice and JavaFX groups on notice during the JavaOne opening keynote today: Produce some JavaFX libraries for the OpenOffice suite and do it quickly. Larry Ellison, head of the soon-to-be Oracle/Sun Java giant, said: "I've been meeting with different groups inside of Sun, and one of the things we're looking forward to is seeing libraries come out of the OpenOffice group that are JavaFX-based."
He offered spreadsheet and word-processing programs as the types of JavaFX application he expects. (Never mind that OpenOffice already has a spreadsheet program called Calc and a word processor called Writer.)
The two-hour keynote closed with a symbolic passing of the torch from the old “Chairman of JavaOne,” former Sun CEO Scott McNealy, to the new one, Oracle CEO Ellison. With so much speculation about how the acquisition will shake out for Java, both men had to address the topic for the largely developer audience. But their exchange was carefully worded because the acquisition has not yet been finalized.
As expected, Ellison reiterated Oracle's commitment to Java (Oracle’s entire middleware stack is 100-percent Java) and twice pledged to expand its investment in Java, which drew applause both times. But his most pointed remarks were the challenge to the OpenOffice and JavaFX groups and later wondering out loud why Sun/Oracle couldn’t produce mobile devices like netbooks or Google and T-Mobile's G1 phone, all based on the JavaFX platform.
In a setting where Ellison had to be particularly mindful of his words, choosing to declare these challenges publicly provided some insight into where Oracle will place its focus for Sun Java.
For you JavaFX devotees, hearing Ellison put the platform front and center has to be encouraging. At one point, he said: "We're very committed to seeing JavaFX exploited throughout Oracle and throughout Sun."
Game developers take note: the future of video games is all about casual, social games that women and grandparents like to play; think Facebook and the Wii. Hardcore games like Grand Theft Auto will still have a place in the industry; they will just move into a dark corner. So said Bernie Stolar, aka the “King of Content,” during a Keynote interview at a Microsoft-hosted event in Mt. View, CA last week during which a who’s who of the industry discussed the future of video game development.
Why should you believe Stolar? Because his impact in the video game industry is deep and far-reaching. His credentials include former Game Evangelist at Google, former CEO at Mattel Interactive, former President and COO of SEGA, and EVP at Sony for the launch of the Playstation. During the Keynote interview (with some big names—Activision/Blizzard, THQ, and Electronic Arts—in attendance), Bernie carved the headstone for the anticipated death of the hardcore game and couldn’t say enough about the future of casual gaming.
To secure a place in the future of game development, you need to make the games fun and ignore gender and age limitations. Social gaming has broadened the demographics away from the 18 to 35-year-old male. Game demographics are now 50 percent women in their late 30’s and 40’s and that does not include grandparents and grandchildren who are playing video games. This new game demographic are playing games on Facebook and bowling on the Wii (Reuters is reporting that 800,000 Wii’s were sold over the Thanksgiving weekend).
Facebook is now a viable gaming platform, as are all social networks. If a developer creates a multi-player (MP) Facebook game that connects to the iPhone, that game is almost guaranteed success. Take golf as an example of an iPhone/Facebook/MP game. For the game to work, players use the accelerometer on their iPhones to swing their clubs, they see their actions through Facebook, and they compete against other players online. Mobile games are going multi-player as well; if you develop it, they will come.
If developing mobile games isn’t your forte, then the future for you most likely includes Massive Multiplayer Online Games (MMOG), social communities, and cloud computing. In terms of developing games for the cloud, you need to remove the computing from the client and put it on the server, which allows for a much larger-scale community, easier updates, and simplified creation of new environments. Cloud gaming reduces retail and packaging costs, increases the life span of a game through easy updates, and allows for micro transactions.
Anne-Marie Roussel, Microsoft's Director of Strategic and Emerging Business, presented MS’s vision for the future of video games during the conference. Roussel mentioned that the third version of XNA is now available to the community and is geared towards developing games with a social community. She expressed the need to democratize video game development and the importance of nurturing a creative community. Microsoft boasts 12 million subscribers to its Xbox Live services, which they will continue to grow (think of Xbox Live growing from one station to a multitude of stations; just like how TV channels evolved).
Video gaming is a $30-37 billion business, and it’s not going away anytime soon. In the future, more and more independent game startups are likely to emerge, which is a great way for the big publishers to find new talent.
Developers, it’s time to get your social game on.
From a developer's perspective, Tech Ed 2008, which attracted over 6000 developers to Orlando, doesn't offer much that's completely "new;" however, it does offer a great deal of value for developers who need to find out about existing technologies. If there's a single overview word that one might use to describe the thrust of the conference, it's "unification." Microsoft is unifying the developer view into its existing technologies.
For example, starting with the small and moving toward the large, the .NET Compact Framework, the .NET Embedded Framework, Silverlight, Office, Visual Studio, SharePoint, BizTalk, and SQL Server all leverage developers' knowledge of the .NET framework and its supported languages in very much the same way; after becoming familiar with the framework and one language, you can build on that knowledge to write applications intended to run embedded in other devices, to run on mobile devices, to deliver rich content through a browser, integrate with Office applications, run as standalone desktop or Internet-connected applications, or run custom code inside SQL Server—all without having to learn a completely new environment or language. Unification is the theme not just with developers, but with architects, development managers, designers, testers, and maintenance; the newest and upcoming toolsets cover the entire application lifecycle.
One of the most exciting additions to this lineup is Silverlight—no, not the 1.0 version; the new 2.0 (still beta, but soon to be released with a Go-Live license) version. Silverlight puts Microsoft's WPF technology—specifically XAML—front and center in the development world. The new version not only improves rich media (video/audio) delivery, but moves beyond JavaScript, letting developers write Silverlight code in familiar .NET languages such as C# and VB—and some newer ones, such as IronPython and IronRuby. If you haven't started exploring WPF, I highly recommend it.
Bill Gates, giving what may be his last keynote for Microsoft (he's stepping down at the end of June to concentrate on his work with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation) mentioned two other noteworthy topics. First, SQL Server 2008 (soon to be available as RC 0) adds the ability to store geographic location points (geopoints) as a native type. In a brief demonstration, he showed how a user could identify a point, and an application could request additional points of interest within a circle with a defined radius from that point. While perhaps not groundbreaking, adding location data as a base type both simplifies developing location-aware applications, and elevates them to mainstream status.
Other enhancements to SQL Server 2008 include support for external blob storage in the file system, on local NTFS-formatted drives. Storing blobs externally gives SQL the ability to manage files and large binary data blobs in an intuitive way, letting developers treat them as standard file streams, while still taking advantage of SQL Server's transaction, rollback, and backup features. This also helps to avoid the performance penalty associated with storing large blobs internally.
Finally, SQL Server 2008 adds support for hierarchical data (tree structures). While it's been quite possible to handle such data before, T-SQL itself provided no assistance. Because tree-structured and hierarchical data has become ever more common, that's a welcome addition.
Another welcome technology, although still under development, is enhanced modeling in Team Studio.Brian Harry, a Technical Fellow in Microsoft's Developer Division, demonstrated how code submitted to a project repository containing a model of the application can be tested at check-in to ensure that the code contains no dependencies that would break the model. As applications have become ever more complex, improved modeling support helps to unify the original architect's vision of not only the application but the application code itself. The modeling support will ship as part of "Oslo," Microsoft's code name for its upcoming model-driven and service-enabled application toolset(Oslo is MS's vision, but what, exactly, is it? What kind of app? EG). Brian said developers could expect a CTP of Oslo at Microsoft's PDC conference in October.
Being in the front row for perhaps Bill's last keynote reminded me how long I've been working in this industry; I remember when IBM chose the relatively unknown company Microsoft as the supplier of its PC operating system—DOS. Bill's departure comes at a time when development is undergoing a major shift, where instead of having to learn new languages or new hardware platforms to gain new capabilities, developers can concentrate on gaining deep knowledge of their core focus areas, relying on tool improvements to give them access to new capabilities and new devices, while still using their existing tools. We all owe Bill a debt of gratitude. Sure, he was lucky to be in the right place at the right time, but he also helped create our industry and make developers a driving force in the modern world. Thanks, Bill. Good luck in your new endeavors. You'll be missed.
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