adam bien's blog

Adam Bien: When the Warsaw JUG (http://warszawa.jug.pl) was founded? What was the very first meeting?

We had our first meeting in November 2006 with a talk about Apache Geronimo given by WJUG founder - Jacek Laskowski. However Warsaw Java User Group roots go even deeper, all the way back to the Polish BEA User Group.

Adam Bien: What makes WJUG "cool"?

Fellow developers you can talk to, ask questions and learn from. Big community which will help you find an answer, job, or something interesting to do. And above all a place where you can discover interesting technologies, share knowledge and learn best practices for free in a friendly group.

Adam Bien: How you would describe the climate for Java developers in Poland? Is there any demand for Java / Java EE developers on the market?

There’s much more work than people. The community is also strong and supportive. These are golden times for Java devs. It is not only easy to find a good job but also thanks to many international (GeeCON, 33rd Degree, Java Developers Days) and national (Confitura, Warsjawa) conferences, we can share our experiences and learn from the best.

Adam Bien: What are the goals of the WJUG?

Share knowledge and have fun! We also want to spread the word about software craftsmanship and good practices that we find important in our everyday work and hobby.

Adam Bien: After my session we met in a nice bar. The developers were extremely motivated and were constantly searching for new challenges, so we kept talking Javanese. Can you meet the member's expectations with a JUG?

We hope so. We are completely open, twice a year we have a meeting where anyone can join organizers, we have dedicated meetings for Spring/Groovy/JBoss users, we have special set of meetings for people new to Java and technologies around it, we have two big, and completely free conferences every year, we have one-day workshops… There is a lot going on, so I suppose we have something for everyone. Although we are still looking for new ideas and we like to find inspirations outside - this year we are organizing Devoxx4Kids for the first time.

Adam Bien: Would you appreciate more support from Oracle (the Java stuart)? If yes, what do you like to see?

We are doing fine on our own, so we don’t have any needs we can’t handle, but definitely, some love from Oracle would be welcome. Not sure about the details though. Java gadgets are always handy. And speakers. We’d love to have someone from Oracle at our regular meetings once in a while.

Adam Bien: Are you planning to participate in any open source projects / JCP activities?

Last month we had OpenJDK hackathon and we are planning OpenJDK test fest or two in a near future. As for the active participation in the JCP programme we haven't decided yet - there`s so much to be done there and so little time, maybe focusing on contributions to open source projects and libraries is the way to go. We have lots of individual contributors to the well known JVM frameworks and libraries and we encourage other WJUG members to join them and try to impact and improve open source projects as a group, not just as a bunch of individual contributors.Last but not least we will have an open-source brag in June, where anyone will have a chance to present his open source project.

Adam Bien: How many members the WJUG has? Are you happy with the participation. What could be improved?

It is hard to say exactly how many members we have. Our regular meetings gather usually from 50 to 200 people, conferences go over 1k. Our online discussions are subscribed by over 800 people and on our meetup there are over 600 people registered. Still not the numbers are important, but the quality of the meetings. We are constantly looking for interesting subjects, new speakers and ways for more effective networking. Together with our subgroups (Spring-Labs, Groovy User Group, Jboss User Group, etc.) we have practically 2 meetings per week.

Adam Bien: How the readers of this post could support your JUG?

Come over to our meetings, learn something interesting and share your knowledge by giving a talk. It’s simple.