JUG Communities represent the core of the Java universe - the first layer of organization between Java professionals, like local sport teams or that bar you used to go with your school friends. It is something glued to the roots of your society - something stable that is always there, no matter the velocity of the transformations around you. They speak your language and they share your values, that good-bad-ugly feelings that only local boyz can understand - they are your people and you love it.

The original format of JUGs was quite informal and promoted by Sun as a simple and natural way to reinforce the adoption of Java technologies around the world. Globalization seems to be strong motivation behind American companies, and Sun as many others promoted this label "Java User Group" in order to recognize local Java heroes.

The renascence of JUG Community

After an initial period, when everyone with a computer could create a JUG, the profile of the groups started to become clear. Today is less complicated to know where are the JUGs and who are the people behind them - but we are still sufering the natural issues of global scale initiatives. Not all JUGs are visible, not all are well supported. To understand and support the behavior of JUGs all over the world, Sun created two special leaders communities: Java Champions and Global JUG Community Leaders. These special members of the Java community has the privilege and the responsibility to help others to promote Java. It is not a simple task, because you must handle very different cultures and localized issues. That's why it is important to promote meetings between these special leaders and also to push visibility to the local communities represented in such meetings.

During Jazoon, we will have a JUG Leaders BOF with the presence of a lot of JUG leaders, Java Champions and, for the very first time, the presence of all JUG Community Leaders together: Michael Hüttermann, Leonardo Galvao and Fabrizio Gianneschi. A great chance for confluence and an open forun about ideas that can help JUGs to get even better in a near future. All JUG members are invited to participate, to know what is being done in other countries and what could be changed in order to facilitate the Java adoption all over the world.

Suggested Topics for the historical session

• The importance of JUGs, and how to create your own and keep it alive
• Java.net and the JUGs Community: what’s available and what else should be there
• Making the most of the growing corporate support for JUGs
• Closing chasms: Java User Groups and social initiatives
• Discussing the future of Java from the trenches

Michael Hüttermann

Leonardo Galvao

Fabrizio Gianneschi