(00:00:00):
Hey, everybody.
(00:00:00):
Welcome back.
(00:00:01):
This is Jim Grisanzio from Java Developer Relations.
(00:00:03):
This is Duke’s Corner.
(00:00:05):
And this is a rare video appearance here from Duke’s Corner, which is my kitchen.
(00:00:09):
And I’m here with Sharat Chander.
(00:00:12):
Sharat from the Java Developer Relations team and my very dear friend.
(00:00:16):
Sharath, welcome.
(00:00:17):
Welcome to Duke’s Corner.
(00:00:18):
Jim, appreciate you having me on Duke’s Corner.
(00:00:20):
I’ve been looking forward to this opportunity all year and what a great opportunity
(00:00:24):
because it’s towards the year end.
(00:00:27):
Happy holidays.
(00:00:28):
It’s a great chance to kind of just reflect on all of the amazing community
(00:00:33):
momentum that we’ve seen transpire in 2023.
(00:00:37):
Yeah, absolutely.
(00:00:38):
It’s been a good year and I’m looking forward to 24.
(00:00:40):
It should be a very interesting year.
(00:00:42):
And one of the things that I do on this team is I do the Inside Java newsletter,
(00:00:46):
which is a monthly publication.
(00:00:48):
It basically points to a lot of the content that the team creates each month,
(00:00:53):
but I try to make it unique.
(00:00:55):
So there’s something personal about each issue,
(00:00:58):
about a team member or a community member or something like that.
(00:01:01):
And this issue,
(00:01:02):
which is December,
(00:01:03):
which will come out later in the week,
(00:01:05):
actually,
(00:01:05):
when this comes out,
(00:01:06):
actually,
(00:01:06):
it’ll be the same day.
(00:01:07):
So this week,
(00:01:08):
you took the pen and you wrote a beautiful sort of year-end summary,
(00:01:11):
which is also going to be a page on Inside Java,
(00:01:14):
you know,
(00:01:15):
a webpage basically articulating your…
(00:01:18):
your feelings about the community, year-end wishes, and some of the experiences that you had.
(00:01:22):
So people can look forward to that.
(00:01:23):
I’ll put links here for people to go to that.
(00:01:26):
So yeah, talk a little bit about what you did this year.
(00:01:29):
And you went to some really cool conferences and met some really cool people.
(00:01:33):
Yeah, you know, it’s great that you mentioned the community.
(00:01:36):
And here on the Java Developer Relations team,
(00:01:39):
we continue to appreciate just the importance of community in the ecosystem.
(00:01:45):
And over the last several years,
(00:01:47):
we’ve continued to deliver content in multiple formats and multiple mediums,
(00:01:52):
short form and long form,
(00:01:53):
to ensure all of the innovation that the Java team here at Oracle is doing
(00:01:58):
is visible to the world.
(00:02:00):
There is this appreciation and understanding of just how modern Java continues to be.
(00:02:05):
Hard to say even that we’ve celebrated 28 years of Java this year.
(00:02:10):
In just two years, we’ll be celebrating 30 years of Java.
(00:02:14):
That comes from our fundamental responsibility to ensure Java the language and Java
(00:02:20):
the platform stay relevant and vibrant to address all of the myriads of application
(00:02:26):
types that the world is facing and developers are facing.
(00:02:29):
But the other side of that equation is the community.
(00:02:33):
That’s really what’s kept Java at the forefront is the fact that we continue to
(00:02:39):
steward the ecosystem forward.
(00:02:41):
Here on the Java Developer Relations team,
(00:02:43):
It’s important that we invest in programs that touch on the community side.
(00:02:49):
And 2023 is a demonstration of that.
(00:02:51):
And here we are towards the year end.
(00:02:53):
It’s important that we give our thanks to individuals,
(00:02:56):
to user groups,
(00:02:57):
to Java champions for everything that they’ve done to share their collective voice
(00:03:02):
and activities that gives continual harmony around Java.
(00:03:06):
Yeah, one of the things, I mean, you say give thanks, it’s really interesting.
(00:03:10):
One of the things that,
(00:03:11):
you know,
(00:03:11):
I really love to do is obviously this,
(00:03:13):
have conversations with developers on Duke’s Corner.
(00:03:17):
And, you know, I spoke to, you know, a bunch of people this year, just like I do each year.
(00:03:21):
And I ask them a series of questions and I get,
(00:03:25):
obviously,
(00:03:25):
you know,
(00:03:25):
I ask them very similar questions,
(00:03:27):
but I get very,
(00:03:28):
very different responses.
(00:03:30):
But,
(00:03:30):
you know,
(00:03:30):
some people love to dig into the code and go right into the engine room to get really,
(00:03:34):
really,
(00:03:35):
into the bits and they’re just way, way ahead of me.
(00:03:37):
You know, some of these people have PhDs, you know, masters in computer science and stuff, right?
(00:03:42):
And they’re young too.
(00:03:43):
And other people talk more about the community in terms of contributing to the community,
(00:03:47):
going to conferences and doing sessions.
(00:03:49):
So people talk about how Java has saved their career.
(00:03:53):
You know, some people say it’s, you know, they’ve had these aha moments like, oh,
(00:03:56):
my god now i can understand it now i can use this to do you know whatever and uh
(00:04:01):
some people will call it their superpower right and starting starting new careers
(00:04:05):
some people you know job changes things like this but the one thing that they you
(00:04:09):
know so obviously there’s a lot of diversity there but the one thing that they all
(00:04:13):
say in one way or another is how thankful they are
(00:04:17):
They’re thankful for the technology because it’s so advanced and it enables them to do.
(00:04:22):
I mean,
(00:04:22):
the tools are so advanced now,
(00:04:24):
this technology is so advanced,
(00:04:25):
it enables them to do really incredible things.
(00:04:28):
And they realize that once they learn.
(00:04:31):
So they’re very excited about that.
(00:04:32):
So they’re very thankful of the technology itself, but they’re especially thankful to the community.
(00:04:38):
And they name people by name.
(00:04:39):
They say, oh, well, I can get on the phone or I can have a chat with X, Y, or Z person.
(00:04:45):
I’m really stuck.
(00:04:47):
And that person’s 10,000 miles away, right?
(00:04:50):
Or they’re going to a conference and they’re meeting people there.
(00:04:53):
So everybody is thankful to be in the community and to be able to be interacting with everybody.
(00:05:00):
So that’s why we’re here is to thank them.
(00:05:02):
Absolutely.
(00:05:03):
Because what many technologies that have come out in the last five years,
(00:05:07):
maybe the last 10 years,
(00:05:08):
have learned from Java is it’s not just about end users.
(00:05:12):
It’s easy to address and build a population of end-users,
(00:05:15):
but how do you ensure that a technology has life beyond the 28 years,
(00:05:20):
for example,
(00:05:20):
for Java?
(00:05:21):
It’s the ecosystem around it,
(00:05:23):
it’s the people,
(00:05:23):
it’s the experiences,
(00:05:25):
it’s the best practices,
(00:05:26):
it’s the use cases,
(00:05:27):
it’s that knowledge transfer,
(00:05:29):
it’s the servicing of
(00:05:30):
It’s the surfacing of your unknowns and realizing that you’re not the only one.
(00:05:36):
And that can only happen through ensuring we steward the ecosystem forward.
(00:05:41):
And 2023 was a reflection of that.
(00:05:43):
Through the Duke’s Corner podcast,
(00:05:45):
for example,
(00:05:46):
you had eight interviews with some of the most inspiring individuals in the
(00:05:51):
community who shared their personal experiences that empower all of us.
(00:05:55):
And I’m looking forward to seeing even more of those interviews on Duke’s Corner in 2024.
(00:06:01):
We saw,
(00:06:02):
for example,
(00:06:02):
contributions for the first time on the official Java portal on dev.java from the community.
(00:06:08):
Folks like Venkat Subramaniam,
(00:06:10):
Gene Boyarsky,
(00:06:11):
Heinz Kibbutz,
(00:06:12):
Kai Horsman,
(00:06:13):
Daniel Schmid,
(00:06:14):
Gail and Paul Anderson.
(00:06:16):
We’ve now created a path on one of our Java DevRel programs so the community’s
(00:06:22):
technical experience can be shared with all.
(00:06:26):
We saw conferences,
(00:06:27):
as you mentioned,
(00:06:28):
you know,
(00:06:28):
so many of us continue to say the best element of a conference is the in-person experience.
(00:06:33):
And for sure,
(00:06:34):
online conferences are important,
(00:06:36):
but the in-person experience,
(00:06:38):
those hallway track interactions actually create the relationship and help us
(00:06:42):
nurture relationships so we can share that knowledge,
(00:06:45):
share that experience and make sure Java stays vibrant.
(00:06:48):
You know, here in 2023, we had many milestones when it comes to events.
(00:06:52):
So a couple I’d like to highlight.
(00:06:54):
Yeah.
(00:06:55):
Happy birthday, DevOx UK.
(00:06:56):
You celebrated your 10th birthday this year.
(00:07:01):
DevOx Belgium, happy 20th birthday here in 2023.
(00:07:05):
20 years.
(00:07:05):
That’s amazing.
(00:07:06):
Happy 10th birthday to…
(00:07:10):
to DevOps Morocco,
(00:07:11):
and of course,
(00:07:12):
happy 20th birthday to J-Fall,
(00:07:15):
the largest developer conference and Java-specific developer conference in Europe,
(00:07:20):
and especially held in Netherlands.
(00:07:23):
These conferences melt these milestones because not only is there a rich population
(00:07:28):
of developers that we know of,
(00:07:29):
it continues to grow.
(00:07:31):
We allow new developers in whether you have one year experience,
(00:07:34):
five years of experience,
(00:07:35):
10 years of experience.
(00:07:36):
We want to ensure that the ecosystem around Java is as inclusive as possible.
(00:07:41):
There’s that next generation of developers develop that affinity and find purpose
(00:07:46):
in the language and in the platform.
(00:07:48):
Thank you to all of the event organizers, whether you celebrated a significant birthday this year or not.
(00:07:55):
Thank you for also collaborating.
(00:07:58):
there’s no competition in community, it’s about sharing and collaboration.
(00:08:01):
To see conferences helping each other surface Java locally,
(00:08:06):
but also embrace a global representation from speakers and attendees is just phenomenal.
(00:08:12):
It touches my heart and I think that’s what’s going to give Java 28 years and
(00:08:17):
beyond more viability is because we keep Java relevant,
(00:08:21):
we keep it innovative,
(00:08:22):
and we continue to grow the ecosystem.
(00:08:25):
Yeah.
(00:08:25):
You,
(00:08:26):
in terms of,
(00:08:26):
it’s really interesting you say in terms of the growth,
(00:08:29):
because,
(00:08:29):
you know,
(00:08:30):
you go to the conferences and you see a lot of older people and you see a lot of
(00:08:34):
younger people,
(00:08:36):
you know,
(00:08:36):
and they just mix,
(00:08:38):
they mix.
(00:08:38):
I was talking to a friend of mine and he’s been around for a while, probably about 15 years.
(00:08:43):
And he says that, you know, he goes to a fair number of conferences.
(00:08:46):
He’s obviously a speaker.
(00:08:48):
He’s a speaker and an engineer.
(00:08:49):
And
(00:08:50):
You know,
(00:08:50):
some of his best friends,
(00:08:51):
he says,
(00:08:52):
some of his closest friends he meets regularly around the world at these events,
(00:08:57):
you know,
(00:08:57):
because he’s developed relationships over the years.
(00:08:59):
And he also commented that,
(00:09:01):
you know,
(00:09:02):
as I’ve grown into this community and growing older in the community,
(00:09:05):
I see these older guys and see these younger people just mixing.
(00:09:08):
It’s very, very interesting.
(00:09:10):
And you can see it in the photographs.
(00:09:11):
I mean, I’m really into photography.
(00:09:13):
I love taking pictures.
(00:09:14):
And when I go to events, you know, photographing people is something that I think the most
(00:09:20):
important to me.
(00:09:21):
And I’m always searching around for interesting faces and really anybody doing anything interesting.
(00:09:27):
And I noticed the photography coming out of the events that you just mentioned.
(00:09:31):
Well,
(00:09:31):
those,
(00:09:31):
you know,
(00:09:31):
four or five events,
(00:09:33):
some of the photography was really beautiful in the sense of you can tell the
(00:09:36):
organizers took care to create culture at the event.
(00:09:40):
The lighting was,
(00:09:41):
you know,
(00:09:42):
someone had to think about what the look and feel that we wanted this thing to look
(00:09:45):
at the branding basically,
(00:09:47):
right?
(00:09:47):
some of these conferences have music that’s everything’s local you know the local
(00:09:51):
community the local culture and they’re all different these are communities within
(00:09:54):
communities and you can plus they were packed i mean they were full there was like
(00:09:58):
thousands of people all right and so that’s very good to see that things are re uh
(00:10:04):
are regenerating themselves you know after a break for a couple years so that was
(00:10:08):
fantastic i’m glad you were able to go there and experience that and bring that
(00:10:11):
back for us you know
(00:10:12):
Yeah, and it’s not just for us.
(00:10:15):
The entire Java Developer Relations team continues to be not just publishing of content,
(00:10:21):
but are also out there speaking at events,
(00:10:24):
connecting with developers,
(00:10:25):
ensuring that we are bringing new developers in with seasoned developers,
(00:10:31):
and ensuring those relationships are nurtured.
(00:10:33):
It’s an important dimension of our collective team’s role.
(00:10:37):
We have so many different modalities in terms of the content that we produce
(00:10:41):
because 10 million plus developers,
(00:10:43):
everyone has their preference in terms of how they want to connect both online and in-person,
(00:10:47):
whether from a learning experience or from a sharing experience or collaborating dimension.
(00:10:52):
We’re just trying to ensure across the team that we have those avenues,
(00:10:57):
those channels,
(00:10:58):
those programs that represent enough of the ecosystem to have that community spirit
(00:11:04):
associated with it.
(00:11:06):
We have inside.java,
(00:11:08):
which represents all of the collective voices of the development that’s happening
(00:11:11):
here at Oracle.
(00:11:12):
We have dev.java,
(00:11:14):
which is the official Java portal with all of the technical learning dimensions and tutorials,
(00:11:19):
but also community elements to it as well.
(00:11:23):
We have the SIP of Java.
(00:11:24):
We have JEP Cafe.
(00:11:26):
We have Duke’s Corner podcast.
(00:11:28):
There’s so many channels to stay connected, but the most- Inside Java podcast as well, the other one.
(00:11:34):
Absolutely.
(00:11:35):
We get two podcasts.
(00:11:37):
One focus on the community and one focus on the technology.
(00:11:40):
That’s right.
(00:11:41):
And to all of that,
(00:11:43):
all of those digital experiences,
(00:11:45):
all of that digital learning,
(00:11:46):
all of that digital sharing is galvanized by the in-person experience that we have
(00:11:51):
at meetups,
(00:11:52):
at Java user groups,
(00:11:53):
at conferences.
(00:11:56):
It creates a milestone moment that just creates much more momentum and mass.
(00:12:01):
Yeah,
(00:12:02):
it’s almost as if the content that we’re producing on the team reflects the
(00:12:05):
diversity in the community.
(00:12:06):
It does.
(00:12:08):
You know,
(00:12:08):
we got all kinds of different forms and people,
(00:12:11):
as you said,
(00:12:11):
you know,
(00:12:11):
digest it in different,
(00:12:12):
you know,
(00:12:13):
ways.
(00:12:13):
And the,
(00:12:14):
it’s,
(00:12:15):
you know,
(00:12:16):
if you go to the conferences,
(00:12:17):
you hear people say,
(00:12:19):
oh yeah,
(00:12:19):
I saw your video or I saw this podcast or I heard this podcast or I see this content.
(00:12:24):
It’s really a very substantial amount of content that the team is producing.
(00:12:28):
It’s really only a handful of people.
(00:12:30):
Yeah.
(00:12:31):
It’s not a big team.
(00:12:33):
I would consider ourselves lean and agile.
(00:12:37):
It’s amazing with the amount of content we produce,
(00:12:40):
but also important in all of our roles is the listening that we do.
(00:12:44):
Part of
(00:12:46):
Steering a community forward is not just in the technical information,
(00:12:51):
but extending an ear and listening around those significant watering holes,
(00:12:59):
what’s happening,
(00:12:59):
so we can then represent that in the content that we then produce.
(00:13:03):
Representing the voice of new developers,
(00:13:06):
representing the voice of experienced developers,
(00:13:08):
that’s an important dimension of engaging an ecosystem the size of Java.
(00:13:14):
Excellent.
(00:13:14):
Well, Char, thanks for joining me tonight.
(00:13:16):
I really appreciate the summary of your blog that’s coming up,
(00:13:21):
essentially summarizing the year and giving thanks to the community.
(00:13:23):
It’s very, very important.
(00:13:24):
I appreciate that.
(00:13:26):
And that blog is reflective of all of the experiences across the Java DevRel team.
(00:13:30):
One important shout out to the 18 new members who are now part of
(00:13:34):
Java Champions Program, a lot of experts there.
(00:13:36):
Congratulations to all of the new Java user groups that have formulated or have restarted.
(00:13:43):
Vjug, I know that they’re just kicking off with a restart there.
(00:13:48):
Congratulations again to all of the conference organizers that continue to build momentum.
(00:13:53):
On behalf of everyone here on the Java Developer Relations team,
(00:13:58):
we want to just say thank you to the entire ecosystem for what they do to keep Java vibrant.
(00:14:04):
Excellent.
(00:14:04):
And Char, have a great holiday.
(00:14:06):
You and your family have a great new year.
(00:14:09):
And we’ll see you on the other side, 24, real soon.
(00:14:12):
2024, here we come.
(00:14:13):
Thanks, Ben.
(00:14:13):
Talk to you soon.
(00:14:14):
Bye-bye.