About

Welcome! I’ve been profiling software developers via photos, videos, and podcasts for a long time. So, I figured I’d start collecting some of that content here on this site along with my own work building Open Source software communities. I have hundreds of images under photos and thousands more on Flickr. And beyond the images you’ll find hundreds of interviews as well. I also talk about money, geopolitics, science, and biomedical issues. Follow the navigation links on the left and poke around and let me know what you think.

Most of the content I post these days on this blog comes from my work at Oracle, but that will fade now as my career changes and as I get into more of my own personal interests. Previously, I used to blog at Sun Microsystems on blogs.sun.com, but all of that fun ended abruptly after the Oracle acquisition in 2010. I wrote thousands of posts for Sun during those years, and thankfully that content still lives in the Internet Archive. I really loved that blog! It’s a shame how it ended. Anyway, everything below sums up some key projects I’ve run and also what I do these days in the developer community.

Jim Grisanzio, Duke's Corner Podcast, JavaOne 2025 — *Jim Grisanzio, Duke’s Corner Podcast, JavaOne 2025 Community Keynote*.

Briefly

I’ve managed projects in software, biotech, publishing, and construction. I’ve navigated multiple economic and political systems, sparred with some overtly hostile unions, survived a few near-death experiences, and overcame serious medical limitations. I’m lucky to be alive and thankful to be walking.

I ran my own excavating and real estate development business, and I was also a mechanic, truck driver, and landscaper. After everything crashed and burned I picked up the pieces, went back to school, and eventually became an editor, a writer, and a publicist. I’ve worked with the global news media, and also U.S. local, state, and federal government officials; I’ve interviewed hundreds of engineers, scientists, and biomedical clinicians; and I’ve produced thousands of articles, photos, videos, and podcasts that have reached millions of people.

In recent years I’ve built FOSS communities at Sun and Oracle, managed developer events globally, profiled engineers, and delivered my own community sessions at conferences around the world.

Jim Grisanzio Excavating — This was my first experience as a developer and that’s my $125K IDE. I ran my own 15-ton Cat 953 track loader in New York when I was in my 20s. The experience moved me deeply and lives with me today. It was totally hands on — clearing, digging, grading, building, demolishing, and working closely with strong and highly skilled craftsmen from a variety of trades. It was a meritocracy. I miss that. It was also brutally violent and the best political and economic training I’ve ever had.

Short Bio

Jim Grisanzio worked at Oracle on the Java Developer Relations Team. He hosted the Duke’s Corner Podcast, published the Inside Java Newsletter, produced videos and photography, facilitated the Java User Group and Java Champions programs, and delivered community sessions at conferences. Previously in Oracle developer marketing, Jim managed the Oracle Developers YouTube channel, the team’s social media channels, and the Oracle Groundbreakers Podcast. Since 2017, he’s interviewed hundreds of developers on Java, Linux, Oracle Database, MySQL, AI/ML, and Open Source. Before Oracle, Jim managed FOSS projects in Solaris engineering at Sun Microsystems, served as OpenSolaris Community Manager, and led competitive communications for Sun’s Open Source projects and senior executives.

*Jim Grisanzio hosts a JavaOne 2026 Community Keynote Panel with Brian Vermeer, Mala Gupta, and Bruno Souza. Photo by Yuichi Sakuraba.*

Full Bio

Jim Grisanzio worked at Oracle on the Java Developer Relations Team in the Java Platform Group, which is the engineering organization building Java. He hosts the Duke’s Corner Podcast, published the Inside Java Newsletter, produced video and photography, facilitated the Java User Group and Java Champions programs, delivered community sessions at events, and contributed to the team’s community development programs.

In recent years while in Oracle developer marketing, Jim managed the Oracle Developers YouTube channel and multiple social media platforms. He also hosted the Oracle Groundbreakers Podcast, produced videos and live streams, delivered presentations, managed events, and published the Database and Java newsletters. From 2017 to present Jim has interviewed more than 450 developers via live streams, podcasts, and videos on a variety of technologies including Java, Linux, Oracle Database, MySQL, AI/ML, Developer Tools, Cloud, and Open Source.

Before Oracle developer marketing, Jim worked in Solaris engineering managing FOSS projects delivering into the operating system. He was also the OpenSolaris Community Manager at Sun Microsystems from the project’s inception until the acquisition by Oracle. He directed Solaris engineering projects with corporate partners, managed Linux and OpenSolaris user groups, presented at universities and conferences, briefed press and analysts, and ran developer events. Earlier at Sun, Jim managed competitive marketing campaigns for all of Sun’s Open Source and Open Standards projects. He also wrote keynote speeches and managed communications for Sun’s CMO and other senior executives.

Jim’s academic background covers science and technical writing, publications production, health care policy, and history. He’s edited software and medical newsletters; written hundreds of magazine articles and press releases; and collaborated with engineers, scientists, physicians, and veterinarians in academia and biotechnology. He’s also worked with the global news media and American government officials at local, state, and federal levels — including The White House — while running hardware, software, and biomedical publicity programs for multiple companies and universities.

Jim’s foundational experience in managing complex projects came from working in the real estate development business in New York. He sold residential homes and raw land; hired and managed construction crews; acquired the legal and financial approvals necessary for building; managed the construction process on site, configured mortgages for customers, and worked closely with political, municipal, regulatory, and banking officials to finalize closings. He also ran his own excavating and trucking company — he secured financing and purchased equipment worth hundreds of thousands of dollars; worked on hundreds of commercial and residential sites; negotiated contracts with all stakeholders; and managed operations with customers, vendors, governments, and unions.

Jim knows well what it’s like for everything to crash completely and require rebuilding from scratch. That’s why he has a varied background. He never gives up. He just keeps building.

You can find Jim via your favorite search engine or on X @jimgris. More on Jim’s background can be found on his website and resume.

jim-grisanzio-shenzhen-keynote-2018 — Jim Grisanzio managing the keynotes as Master of Ceremonies at Oracle Code Shenzhen 2018. There were 800 developers in the keynote hall, the keynotes streamed to 600,000 throughout China, and 1,200 people attended technical sessions on site. The event covered the following technologies: Java, Oracle Database, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, IoT, MySQL, Linux, and a variety of FOSS technologies.

Developer Relations

The bits below outline some of the public-facing programs I’ve been managing while in two organizations at Oracle since 2017:

Java Developer Relations: January 2022 to 2026
Corporate Developer Relations: May 2017 to December 2021

Summary of what I’ve done from since 2017 2026:

Streamed and recorded video interviews and sessions with Oracle engineers and community developers.
Recorded audio podcasts with Oracle engineers and community developers.
Wrote articles to support and promote podcasts.
Shot conference photographs of Oracle engineers and community developers.
Hired and directed photography vendors at conferences.
Delivered community development sessions and keynotes at events and developer tours.
Planned and managed conference logistics for events, developer tours, and user group meetings.
Served as scrum master to lead engineering hackfests with Oracle and customer developers.
Managed conference keynote live streams backstage with audio and video vendors.
Participated in un-conferences and helped plan and facilitate the events.
Planned, documented, and participated in multi city international developer tours.
Managed multiple communication channels: social media, newsletters, websites, podcasts, videos.
Provided program management support for the Java Champions and Java User Group programs.

I’ve done whatever was necessary to push the project forward, contribute to my team’s efforts, and build the developer community.

Jim Grisanzio community session in Ahmedabad, India at OCYatra 2019. — *Jim Grisanzio’s opening keynote session in Ahmedabad during the OCYatra 2019 Tour of India.*

Podcasts, Videos, Newsletters

Duke’s Corner Java Podcast

Libsyn Audio | Podcast Video | Highlights on X | Abstracts, Quotes, Transcripts

Duke’s Corner was the name from 2022 to 2026. The podcast was previously called Oracle Groundbreakers and also Oracle Techcast and the 400 episodes go back to 2011. I took over the platform in 2020. Also note that for inexplicable reasons the Duke’s Corner videos are “unlisted” on the Java YouTube channel so they are effectively hidden. I will republish them myself.

Oracle Developers Interviews (Archive)

315 video interviews for the Oracle Developers YouTube channel

This channel is no longer active since I moved to the Java Platform Group in 2022. Also note that as of July 2023 someone for inexplicable reasons deleted over 100 videos. Deft. I will republish them myself.

Newsletters

Inside Java: I published this newsletter for 600,000 subscribers.
Database Application Developer: I published this newsletter for two years for 550,000 subscribers.
Java Developer: I published this newsletter for a year for 400,000 subscribers.
OpenSolaris Newsletter: I published this newsletter to document contributions to OpenSolaris 2004-2009.

Podcast Articles

Articles supporting the Oracle Groundbreakers Podcast:

Oracle Code Innovate: Passionate participation keeps developers connected to new virtual format December 2021
Little towns, big ideas: How scale models can imagine smarter and safer cities October 2021
Explore Oracle Labs Australia September 2021
Heating up with MySQL August 2021
Talking to makers: How to engage people who build with their hands July 2021
Building with a Purpose: A hackathon that helps people in need June 2021
Oracle’s Sandesh Rao on building AI tools for Oracle Autonomous Database April 2021
Developer tips for Oracle Database March 2021
Project Helidon: Java, microservices, and building the open source community February 2021
Managing massive change and thriving in the chaos of 2020 November 2020
At Oracle, open source development projects continue to grow September 2020

*Some images from the several hundred interviews I’ve done while working on Oracle developer programs from 2017 to now.*

Presentations

Conference sessions on building and contributing to FOSS communities:

Jim Grisanzio interviewing Michael Hüttermann on Oracle Groundbreakers Tour 2019, Taipei, Taiwan — *Jim Grisanzio interviewing Michael Hüttermann in Taipei, Taiwan on the Oracle Groundbreakers Developer Tour in October 2019.*

Oracle Code Innovate

From 2018 to 2020, I served as Scrum Master at four week-long hackfests in the United States and India called Oracle Code Innovate. The program brought Oracle engineers and customer developers together to build working cloud prototypes in three intensive days. No slide decks, no proof-of-concept theater. Just real engineers solving real problems side by side, on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI). This was probably the best program I worked on at Oracle because it combined the work of engineering, community building, and revenue generation. Check out this blog post for more details, videos, podcasts, and photos.

Solaris Project Management

This was the period from 2011-2016 after Oracle canceled the OpenSolaris project right after the acquisition of Sun Microsystems. During the reorgs I was moved from doing external OpenSolaris community development to instead focusing internally as a program manager in Solaris engineering on the following projects:

Solaris Userland FOSS Consolidation
Solaris Core Quality Engineering
Solaris Unix Commands Project
Solaris OpenStack Project
Solaris V8 Project
Solaris POSIX Standards Project
Solaris Core Innovations Workshop

I learned a great deal about engineering project management and product development during this period. But all of that ended abruptly right at the end of 2016. Then in the spring of 2017 I moved into corporate marketing to work on global developer programs, which is outlined earlier on this page.

Community Photography

*John Gage, Eric Schmidt, James Gosling, Andy Bechtolsheim, and Bill Joy during the 2019 Sun Microsystems Reunion in California.*

Here are thousands of photos from events involving Java, Linux, OpenSolaris, and other FOSS communities from 2004 to now:

Aizu University Japan for IEEE, BarCamp Unconference Tokyo and Yokohama, Beers for Books Tokyo, Community Leadership Summit Portland, Community Leadership Summit San Jose, CommunityOne San Francisco, Conference for Open Source Coders, Users & Promoters (COSCUP) Taiwan, Cross Cultural Engineering Tokyo, Developers Lounge Tokyo, Devnexus Atlanta, FOSSASIA Vietnam, GraalVM Tokyo, Jfokus Stockholm, Java Japan Cross Community Conference (JJUG CCC) Tokyo, Java Community Conference Taiwan (JCConf), JOnsen Japan Unconference, JavaOne (San Francisco, Las Vegas, Redwood Shores, Tokyo, Yokohama), JavaZone Oslo, LavaOne Hawaii Unconference, LinuxWorld Expo San Francisco, Mozilla Japan, Open Source India, OpenSolaris User Group Japan, O’Reilly Make Tokyo, O’Reilly Mac OS 10 San Jose, O’Reilly OSCON Portland, Oracle Code Innovate US/India, MySQL Tokyo, MySQL Engineering Summit Brussels, Oracle Community Yatra (OCYatra) Tour (2019, 2020, 2022, 2023) of 10 cities in India, Oracle Groundbreakers Tour (Tokyo, Seoul, Taiwan), Oracle Code One San Francisco, PostgreSQL Tokyo, Ruby Kaigi Tokyo, Sangam India, Silicon Valley OpenSolaris User Group, Solaris Night Seminars Tokyo, Tokyo 2.0, Tokyo Consumer Generated Media (CGM) Night with Danny Choo, Tokyo Hackerspace, Tokyo Linux User Group, Tokyo Open Source Conference, Tokyo New Context Conference with Joi Ito, Tokyo Tech Days, Taiwan Java User Group, UnVoxxed Hawaii Unconference.

Here is a selection of photo profiles of developers I’ve met mixed with my own sessions. And here’s a photo selection of only my sessions from over the years.

*Jim Grisanzio at FOSSASIA Vietnam 2024. Photo by Toomore.*

Freesouls

Featured in FREESOULS Captured & Released by Joi Ito in Tokyo. The book of photos and essays highlights developers and technology leaders embracing and building open communities around the world.