As of today, Friday, 6/24/2005 @ 2:32pm EDT (19:32 GMT), java.net celebrated it's 150,000th registration when java.net user alex_lopez became a member. As of this weblog we are up to 150,007. We went from zero to 60,000 in the first year and accelerated our growth by over 150% in the 2nd year. This 150,000 member milestone is significant for several reasons:

REASON 1: Why people register

Unlike other sites that make you sign up and login for downloads or "premium content", java.net is a wide open community when everyone, including visitors, can take/read/download most things on java.net without registering or logging in. This means that people register because they want to participate, contribute, or "put back". Registered members may not reflect active contributors, but it certainly represents people that want to make sure they can contribute.

So, what does registration get you? The ability to:

• Blog and comment on java.net weblogs.
• Write to java.net forums.
• Join java.net projects and request contributing roles.
• Start your own java.net projects
• Create a personal page and profile on our People Wiki
• Leave your mark in the Javapedia
• Join the java.net Partner Network
• More closely track and participate in cool java.net projects like Glassfish, Mustang, and Looking Glass, and JSRs

This is not a complete list, but you get the idea. Registration is free and without obligation, but the benefits keep growing.

REASON 2: Participation breeds participation

The more cool communities, projects, bloggers, articles, discussions, and people that are found on java.net, the more java.net becomes attractive, interesting and valuable to Java developers. Interesting things and people attract other interesting things and people. It's a wonderful cycle when it's growing.

REASON 3: Cool features

Since we launched, two years ago, java.net has strived to provide all of the tools and functionality to enrich the experience of those developing in Java:

• Complete collaborative development tools and personal project spaces that each project enjoys.
• State of the art collaboration tools like weblogs and wikis
• RSS feeds for almost every feature or page on java.net
• Unique creations like the Javapedia, Help Wanted Wiki, and People Wiki
• Integrated Safari Bookshelf
• Upcoming java.net plug-ins for Netbeans
• Upcoming runtime environment for Java Enterprise projects.

REASON 4: Diversity

With Java as the common thread, java.net has an amazingly broad and diversified constituency, including:

• 19 Communities representing many of the places and ways Java is being used.
• Over 115 Java Users Groups host on java.net and from all around the Globe.
• Over 38 Different countries represented.
• Hosted projects in many different (spoken) languages. On java.net, Java is our preferred language!

There are many other reasons, but all of this points to the awesome people that make up this community. A big thanks to all of the members, project owners, community leaders, JUGS, Partners, Bloggers, Board Members, and the entire java.net Management team for making java.net the coolest place in the Java Universe!

See you at Java One!

Thanks for reading.

-jbob