JavaOne and Oracle Develop 2010

I just returned home from Java ONE and Oracle Develop 2010 (which was also my first ONE) and I thought that it would be a good idea to take 5 minutes and share the experience.

Intro
The city of San Francisco was awesome and I couldn't find any other place in the world that could be best for the job. The weather, the size and the facilities where exactly what such event required. The organization was good enough and there were tons of sessions that I found exciting.

Don't let it cloud your judgment...
This is an alteration from a famous quote taken from "The Godfather" but its most fitting to this years Java One event. I found the excessive use of the buzz word "cloud" not only annoying but also misleading. There were tons of events, that used this buzzword to draw attention, even though there were not that related. The only thing I didn't see was:
"Taking Sushi to the Sky: Secrets for successful cooking in the premises and in the cloud".
 Note: The name above resembles with actual sessions. I am not implying anything negative about them.

And the winner is... Hadoop
For me by far the most interesting thing I saw in Java One was Apache Hadoop. To put in a sentence:

The Apache Hadoop project develops open-source software for reliable, scalable, distributed computing
I had the luck to join two great session about hadoop.
  1. Extracting Real Value from Your Data with Apache Hadoop. (HOL)
  2. Hadoop vs. Relational Database: Shout-out Between a Java Guy and a Database Guy.  (BOF)
The second one will definitely be published so don't miss it.


I also liked... XSTM
An other pretty interesting session I had the chance to watch was:
This was a session related to the open source project XSTM. Which I found so interesting, that if I could also found time, I would definitely love to work with it.

Final Thoughts
I would definitely love to join JavaOne next year too. Here are two things that I will do next year and I strongly recommend doing in such events
  1. Don't go with the buzz.  See the detailed description beyond the buzzwords.
  2. Don't spent time with things you already know. A one hour length session can be a good introduction to unfamiliar areas, but I can't see how the can "add" in an area you are already familiar with.

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