JiniFest

Last night was JiniFest, which was a blast. JiniFest is what the Jini community does at JavaOne to have folks show what they're doing with Jini. Some are community projects led by interested geeks and others are commercial products. So while the Java community folks are doing boring (if important) process stuff, the Jini folks are having a party.

Jini is generally the best kept secret of Java, and in that vein, The Powers That Be™ put JiniFest in the farthest possible room from the main area of the community event. You had to walk past empty rooms to find it. Not that this implies that some folks in Sun are putting Jini down, of course.

The room, though, was crowded with folks doing fun stuff with Jini. If nothing else, we had the largest percentage of Brazilian of any event on the floor. There were around 30 community projects and companies with tables showing what they've been doing. Some have been with us since Jini was released, and others just went public. At least one company went from no Jini code to full product release in less than nine months, so it all happened since the last JiniFest.

I can't possibly remember it all, and I don't want to play favorites. Some companies had Jini development and deployment tools, including some interesting hardware demos with stuff that looks like props from an Austin Powers film (that is, it looks like a spoof on 007 technology). Several companies had products using Jini to build systems, including financial and taxes to security. Some were so new they hadn't even started last year, and others are ongoing for some time. The projects were led by some folks who just had something they wanted to do.

The first annual award for service to the community went to Bill Venners, who (among other things) runs artima.com. Bill has been doing the monthly FAQ postings, drove the first approved community standard, has been on the oversight committee since the beginning, etc. In other words: Well, duh, who else? Congrats, Bill.