Be an EclipseCon Friend, pass it on! Win a shirt!

You may have noticed the Eclipse Foundation is in the annual full-blitz mode around promoting EclipseCon 2007. Not only do we run EclipseCon to break even, but we also try really hard to keep registration fees low. To show how successful we are at that, consider this -- attending EclipseCon is one third the cost of Java One (and is the same duration). To keep costs low, we rely heavily on the ecosystem to spread the word about EclipseCon.

We might be doing a good job at reaching you, but we could really use some help reaching out to your friends and community. To help spread the word, there are a lot of different promotional graphics you can use that have been specially designed to fit various layouts.

Check out the "Friends of EclipseCon" page. Spruce up your blog templates and signatures. Ask your web team to give us some coverage on your web site. Are you about to send out a newsletter to your customers? Show your support and invite them to EclipseCon. Altruism not a good enough reason? Ok - when you do something cool, large or small, to help us promote EclipseCon, send us an email at promotion@eclipsecon.org and let us know. Between now and EclipseCon we'll have a couple draws for shirts to give a few lucky people in appreciation.

- Don

YouTube - What's At EclipseCon

Here is a short video summary of just some of what is, and is not, going to be at EclipseCon 2007...




***NOTE -- Requires Audio!!!

(Click here to see the video if your feed doesn't support embedded flash.)

- Don

IDE Shootouts - An Awkward Position

TSSJS has approached the Eclipse Foundation to help find someone to represent Eclipse in "An IDE Shootout". The event is sponsored by Sun Netbeans and IDEA IntelliJ, and both of those companies have agreed to represent their products at the shoot out.

It's an awkward situation. As a not-for-profit member-driven foundation, we can't be in the position to choose organizations to represent Eclipse, and we're certainly not setup to participate ourselves. Our position to the organizers has been -- we're happy to make introductions if you tell us who you would like to be introduced to, but we can't be in the position of choosing.

I think it shows a challenge facing the ecosystem, largely because of it's success. The Eclipse Ecosystem literally has dozens of organizations that would blow the Netbeans product and IntelliJ product out of the water at such an event. How could we possibly choose one?

What's the big deal? Well, I see two possible outcomes. Because the foundation cannot suggest participants, the organizers may choose to note "The Eclipse Foundation declined to participate in the event", which would be unfortunate. On the other hand, if the organizers pick someone to represent "Eclipse" it does little to promote the true breadth of the ecosystem.

What do you think the foundation should do when asked for participants in events like this?

- Don

Wind River goes Gold at EclipseCon

Last week the Eclipse Foundation announced the first five gold sponsors at EclipseCon this year. Actuate, BEA Systems, Business Objects, IBM and Klocwork.

I'm pleased to note that Wind River has also just signed up also as a Gold Sponsor!Don't miss out on early registration rates to EclipseCon, it's getting close!

- Don

Genuitec is giving away a free EclipseCon Pass

Genuitec are giving away a free pass to EclipseCon to one lucky winner. Check out the details here. Contest closes February 4th, 2007.


If you've already registered for EclipseCon, or are just about to (to get the early registration rates) -- you can still enter the contest! If you win, we'll sort out the details with Genuitec and refund your registration fees.

- Don

Eclipse Training Working Goup Survey

Over Christmas the Eclipse Training Working Group ran a survey to better understand the needs and wants of the Eclipse community. The results of the survey can be found here.

I'm always overwhelmed by the number of respondents when we run surveys like this. I told Mike Taylor that this survey was too long and no one would fill it out, and it turned out I was wrong almost 500 times over :)

There is some pretty good demographic information (of people who filled out the survey), and some good nuggets of information. For example, over 30% of respondents feel a lack of training is hindering the growth of their team. I was surprised by how strongly technical books were valued as a method of learning (I'm not much of a book-guy). Not surprising that Java and J2EE focused training was what was most sought after, but Modeling was a close 3rd. As a platform, deployment training was most sought with RCP App development close behind. 77% of respondents say they have budget or are able to spend money for good training.

The five winners of Eclipse shirts were:

• Howell Lee
• Lubos Pochman who works for Insightful's InFact project and uses MyEclipse. Lubos is also currently working on extending Mylar to support CodeBeamer!
• Kevin Fowler, who works at the San Diego Supercomputer Center developing applications to support cutting-edge research in Earthquake engineering.
  
• Chris McIvoy, who works for the architecture firm TVSA and says he's really getting a lot of value out of Mylar right now.
  
• Feng Linquing who is out of Zhejiang University is a student in biomedical engineering.

Great selection of winners, thanks to everyone who filled out the survey.

- Don

• 
  

Chinese Link on Members Download Page

Back in June'06 we started to help promote the Ecosystem to members who were interested in hosting Eclipse downloads. It's different than mirrors, as downloaders are given an opportunity to see other products and services that might be of interest. It's been a great success, tens of thousands of downloads every month are diverted to more local (and often faster) downloads, and it frees up brandwidth at Eclipse.org (which makes Denis a happy man).

Actuate is now participating in the members download section by supporting Eclipse 3.2.1 and a Birt-All-In-One download in Chinese. Last month Actuate also dedicated a mirror in China, which also made Denis a happy man.

If your organization is interested in being listed, drop me a line!

- Don