On March 13, Azul gathered Java developers, enthusiasts, and Java Champions to celebrate 30 years of Java. An impressive lineup of luminaries gave presentations. In this blog post we recap the Friends of OpenJDK Panel featuring three Java luminaries, moderated by Azul Senior Developer Advocate Geertjian Wielenga, discussing OpenJDK communities.
What excites Java developers? How can Java developers get involved in Java communities? From user groups to mentoring, a panel of Java experts discussed these things and more in a Duke Turns 30 session earlier this year. Azul Senior Developer Advocate Geertjian Wielenda moderated, and the panel included Java Champion entrepreneur Simon Martinelli, Jakarta EE expert Ondo Mihályi, and Developer Advocate Marit Van Dijk.
What attracts developers to meetups?
Simon: The second part, after the talks, is socializing at the events…. You can share knowledge. You can share any other stuff that you’re interested in, and that’s really what makes the community.
Ondo: And I would like to say one more thing, that it’s not only about sharing knowledge. We share the common passion for something we like to do… but that also creates bonds as we meet. I saw a lot of friendships happening from out of the community, and then people go to do something completely unrelated to Java, but there is another community and other people.
Marit: And I also like having cross-pollination between communities…. You can take ideas from one place to another place and learn new stuff together. It makes it more interesting than doing that by yourself.
How did you start getting involved in Java communities?
Simon: We had… group in Switzerland. It’s one of the oldest. It was from 1996 already. We started with that but in Zurich. And someone, I reached out to them, and they don’t do anything in Bern. And they said, you can do that, so you can be the host, then we will have a user group in Bern. And so I started the job user group in Bern.
How many members must your JUG have before your first meeting?
Ondo: Should be enough that you can hold a meeting, so it’s a meeting. I saw meetups where there were just five people, like from a company, just having their own meetup in a company…. You can really start small.
Is there a connection between local activities and international conferences?
Simon: I can also do my talks at local Java user groups… to test it. You meet like people, like Marit for example, at the local user group, and then you get connections with other speakers from all around the world. And this makes it easier to go to international conferences because you already know the people who will be there.
Onto: It started with the Jakarta EE community, which I first started as a job, like application servers, whatever…. I went to the first conference. That helped, and I saw all the speakers using Twitter. So I went there to see what’s happening there. And I saw people discussing different topics. And I was curious about Jakarta EE at that time…. And then I joined these discussions, and then it helped me practically find a job which allowed me to join this effort and go to conferences, and the companies who sponsored me to talk about Java EE to in connection to their products…. Obviously and suddenly, I was employed by a company that was directly involved in Jakarta. And then it also because I was able to go to conferences, I became more like visible.
Marit: I want to jump in on what you said on being on Twitter, because it kind of happened the same way for me. I started going to conferences, seeing all the speakers on there and then started following them, and just asking them questions or talking to them when they posted. And that’s actually how someone asked me to submit to a conference, which is how I got started speaking, because they invited me to submit a lightning talk to a conference in the Netherlands called Joy of Coding, which is one of my favorites.
Must you be an expert in a technology before you do a presentation on that topic?
Marit: I know people who use their presentations to actually learn about a topic. Conference talk-driven development is a thing. I want to learn about this. Let me submit an abstract, and then if it gets selected, I’ll have to learn about this…. I like the experience and sharing your personal experience, and then also connecting with the audience. You know, has anyone ever had this problem? And people sort of giggle uncomfortably or raise their hands, and I like the interaction with the audience.
What’s a tip to get started in OpenJDK communities?
Simon: Just look around your city, where you live. If there are any communities, go there. Meet the people. Maybe you already know some of them. And if you want to speak at the local communities, just ask, because we like to have international speakers as well at the travel user group.
Simon: And some communities have starting talks or help people to get started with talking and mentoring.
Ando: I think it’s important to just become more active and just offer some help…. Every group should have some channel to be contacted. And don’t be afraid, realize that there are also people like you, yes. Maybe they know more about technology. Maybe they lack in organizing, and that would welcome your help.
Marit: At some point, you end up on the other side of that. So now people are pinging me with questions about IntelliJ IDEA, for example, which is, which is also very interesting.
