Off to Colorado Software Summit

I'll be at Colorado Software Summit next week -- if you're going to be there, drop me a line. It's one of my favorite events each year, lots of great content and absolutely commercial free.

Eclipse talks scheduled include Developing an Eclipse Plugin by Paul Tremblett, and Eclipse Java Persistence Platform: The Full Monty and Eclipse JPA: Getting Chocolate in the Peanut Butter by Doug Clarke. Plus there's talks from Eclipse members Google, Iona, RedHat and Oracle.

And of course the annual bonus where Simon Phipps makes thinly veiled slags against Eclipse that the audience confuses it as internal SUN criticism. Like last year when he insinuated Eclipse had a "diseased governance model" but everyone assumed he was talking about SUN's plans for Java. Or maybe he actually was self effacing SUN and I am too paranoid :) This years "A Straw Model for the Future of Open Source" should be a treat :)

- Don

Eclipse should be a minor deity

As usual, it's difficult to search out Eclipse release content because Eclipse also means cars, aeroplanes and peoples names -- but in case you're on Facebook and looking for the Eclipse groups you should be looking for "Eclipse should be a minor deity" and "Eclipse Committers".

Why join yet-another-place to share information? Simple - as Lynn puts it "A newsgroup - but with embarrassing photos! I like it!" It's not a very active group, but the pictures of Gunnar trying to look like he's "working" on his cell phone while on a beach are classic :)

- Don

Steve Jobs* Keynote at EclipseCon

Last month I blogged a question asking why people in the OS community love Apple so much when I personally see them as evil and a pure proprietary play. It just didn't make sense to me. Based on the traffic my question generated and the detailed responses, it was clear I had to look more closely at this whole "apple thing".

I thought "Why don't we approach Steve Jobs to do a keynote at EclipseCon 2008". Let's invite him out to interact with the open source community. I was thrilled when I heard that he had agreed to do the opening keynote! But apparently there was some confusion amongst the program commitee and we accidentally signed a fake Steve Jobs. It should be an entertaining keynote nonetheless. :)

If you're not already a fan of fake Steve Jobs, you should be. Namaste. See you at EclipseCon!

- Don

Chris Keene doesn’t get Eclipse…

...and therefore I don't think he gets Ajax either.

I feel bad for Chris -- I'm sure what he was trying to say made sense in his head, but it just came out as a spew of ignorant and defensive drivel. I would expect more from a CEO.

Chris has made the mistake of thinking of Eclipse as just the "champion of the heads-down Java server programming world" (sic) and missing everything going on around it. That's soooooooo 4-year-ago thinking.

Chris, there are two dimensions to Eclipse. The technology and the ecosystem.

On the technology front, there are over 80 projects with many great exemplary apps - he's stuck on one. Take a look at what's going on in the CDT project, PDT project and with DLTK. Chris mentions a goal of "democratizing development" -- he should look at the BIRT project whose primary interface is a pretty darned intuitive Report Builder, so simple even an MBA can figure it out. Yes, of course there is still lots of "Java server" programming projects but it often relates to OSGi. For example, the EclipseLink project - which is from the Oracle TopLink family. I'm sure Chris remembers TopLink.

Then there is the Ecosystem. Eclipse enables innovation networks. Look at the CDT project -- lots of contributors, lots of innovative products. Eclipse is a factor in many parts of the supply chain of the Embedded world because of it.

I would never be so arrogant to say "Ajax needs Eclipse" like Chris implies, but let's take a step back and generalize. Take a look at this slide on why the Software Development Model is broken. Hypothetically speaking of course, imagine if Chris's development team went off and spent god knows how long building useless "infra" with little or no differentiating value. Maybe in some relatively unpopular programming language with all kinds of gnarly embedded proprietary APIs that would be very difficult for his new hires and acquisitions to learn and extend. Meanwhile, Chris's competitors are competing on a common platform, building with well known tools and APIs (making hiring and acquisitions easier) and tapping into a developer mindshare that Evans says is over four million people. Seems like a more successful proposition.

Chris claims that Eclipse is an "evolutionary dead-end" from a "web 2.0" perspective. Tell you what - I'll report back in a year on the progress of the Members participating in the Eclipse Ajax ecosystem, and he can do the same for Active Grid, and we'll see who's ahead, and who's dead.

- Don

ESE Sponsor Reception -- RAP-y and Google-iscious

Thanks to Google for sponsoring the ESE Sponsor Reception last night. It was a great event and I had a chance to meet a lot of the European Ecosystem that I don't have much opportunity to meet.


After the sponsor reception, Innoopract hosted a RAP 1.0 Release Party. If you haven't heard of the Rich Ajax Platform project at Eclipse, you should go check it out.


- Don

ESE Live Webcast

Very cool. *Nothing* beats being here and the networking and social interactions that happen, but thanks to the generosity of spreed and the Stuttgart Region Economic Development, select talks from ESE will be broadcast live between 9am and 5pm GMT+2 on October 10-11.

Check out the Eclipse Summit home page for details on how to join.

- Don

ESE Update

Well known Eclipse blogger Gunnar demonstrates my "pasta solves all catering problems" theory by enjoying a nice plate of Spinach noodle pasta.

The morning symposia have wrapped up and everyone is settled into the afternoon sessions. The most attended session in the morning was Modeling -- the afternoon seems to be lead by a dark horse -- Server-Side Eclipse.

- Don

ESE Underway

Eclipse Summit Europe is off to a great start. Unfortuntaely, double the attendees we expected showed up for the Symposia today, and so the local catering team is desparately trying to come up with a double lunch order. I'm predicting a lot of pasta today.

The compeople booth is setup already and there is a teaser on the Riena Project -- which is looking like a really cool and innovative project. I remember saying lots of times last year "Wouldn't it be really freaking cool if you could decide where to deploy RCP apps transparently after they were developed - as either a fat client, over the web, or mobile?"



Thanks to all the sponsors who made this event another great success. Here are a couple of the BandXI guys - up bright and early.



- Don

Can Member Meetings be effective Online?

I just closed down and collected the feedback from the Members meeting held recently in Chicago. One particularly well thought out comment noted several reasons why they beleive travel to the USA is not ideal, and then noted:

[meetings] could be held on-line just as effectively as "being there"

I strongly disagree. One of the key responsibilities I have to the ecosystem is as a mediator -- to make connections between people and organizations that otherwise would never happen. To try to get people to see different sides to problems and opportunities that they wouldn't otherwise see. I just can't imagine how to do that over an online forum, even in some of the more marketing-honey interactive-type worlds like second life. I understand the comments from an "information push" perspective, but I beleive more value comes from the networks that get established.

What are your thoughts? As with my position on Apple, I'm willing to admit I'm missing something.

- Don

$268,000 to sponsor EclipseCon?

Eclipse Summit Europe is just 1 week away and EclipseCon 2008 is quickly ramping up. The call for EclipseCon 2008 Sponsors is now posted.

As in previous years many of the items are First-Come-First-Serve and First-Come-First-Choice so do not delay getting in touch.

If you have exhibited at Previous EclipseCon’s I would like to draw your attention to one important new sponsorship option available this year – your own branded Developer Day. A dedicated long-talk track for an entire day (6 long talks of your choice). If you’re interested in exploring this option, please let me know ASAP.

- Don