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JavaOne 2008: Day Four

Posted by editor on May 9, 2008 at 10:33 AM EDT

Parlez-vous Java? Java o hanashimasu ka?

One thing I've noticed this week at JavaOne is the profound international presence. It's all over San Francisco anyways: the ever-cosmopolitan city is even more attractive when the dollar is so low against other currencies. At my hotel near Japantown, the breakfast conversations are a polyphony of languages, as is the chatter in the shopping district around Union Square.

At JavaOne, the international presence has been, if anything, stronger. You hear it in the many accents of our mini-talk speakers, as well as the conversations in the booth. Brazil (wait for cheer) is represented of course, but in the last few days I've chatted with Germans and Italians, Australians and New Zealanders, Indians, Russians, Chinese, and more (OK, some of these folks now reside in other countries, but still, I think it counts). Another sign of the international presence made itself clear at the Java Posse BoF last night, when they polled the audience for continent of origin. North America sounded like it came in third, behind Europe and a very noisy "Down Undah" contingent. That said, it was surprising not to hear more applause for "Asia", given that we know Java to be immensely popular in India, China, and Japan, and beyond.

Being at the Java Posse BoF meant that I was missing a media BoF, but I happened to run into Tony Wyant of Sun's client group just before he kicked off that session. Their big news this week is, of course, the licensing of modern On2 video codecs for use in JavaFX. The whole media story isn't there yet -- work is continuing on Java Media Components, and the choice of a works-everywhere audio codec seems an obvious shoe yet to drop -- but things are far better on this front than they were a year ago.

On today's schedule, the irresistible James Gosling general session, along with the final sessions of JavaOne 2008. Then all of us will scatter back to our respective parts of the globe. Safe travels, all...

On today's special JavaOne 2008 java.net front page:

Parlez-vous Java? Java o hanashimasu ka?
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Comments

by evan_j_goff - 2008-05-09 22:21

Hai! Java wa, hanashitai deshoo... ganbatte! Mais oui, je croit que je trouve ca tres interessante... < /p>

Guess that proves I could brush up on my French and Japanese (don't know that I could pick up a shimbun successfully anymore... or pick up anything on the Champs-Elysees ;-)) < /p>

Anyway, hope to make it to JavaOne 2009! Thanks to those in SF who shared their experiences of JavaOne online to allow others the experience vicariously...