Kevin Bedell's Blog

New Java/Linux Community Leader

Hello! I'm Kevin Bedell and I'm the new community leader for linux.java.net. I'm just getting myself organized in the project and am trying to figure out what exactly this community is and should be about.

There are a few pending projects to be created and a few that have already been created. If you have any ideas on them or are one of the project owners or contributors, please drop me a line when you have a moment. I want to try to understand what you're interested in and what you think the linux.java.net community should be all about.

I know there are a number of other community sites around -- for example the jakarta project and sourceforge. As I'm getting myself grounded here, I'm trying to understand what makes 'java.net' a special place. Why should developers host their projects here, rather than somewhere else?

And, of course, the first answer is that this site is among the best specifically if you're working with Java. That much seems obvious.

But the success of a site such as this isn't based on technology, it's based on community. The success of linux.java.net will be based on the community of users that develops around the site. Will it be an active, thriving community -- or will it languish? (I know what I'm hoping! But it's too early to tell really...)

So I hope you'll let me know what you think. Doc Searls said in the 'Cluetrain manifesto' that "Markets are conversations". Well, I'll take that a step further and say that "Communities are conversations that center around shared values". In other words, it's the things we all think are important that help shape the conversations that make up the community. In this community, it's easy to see that we all think 'open source software', 'Java technologies' and 'collaboration' are important. But what else? Is that enough?

I guess that, in the end, that's where I want to start. I want to try to generate conversations about what we all think is important and what we all want from a 'community site' like linux.java.net (or even just java.net itself). Once I can figure that out, I think the next steps to building the community will probably be obvious.

What are your thoughts?

-kevin

Comments

• Hi Kevin,

  Welcome to the community, happy that you're taking up the charge.

  In my experience over the past few years, I have found two large groups in the Java/Linux community:
  those who are very experienced in Linux, but are new to Java
  those who are very experienced in Java, but are new to Linux

  I wonder what other's impressions are of the Java/Linux community?

  Best Wishes,

  John

  Posted by: cajo on November 16, 2004 at 02:55 PM

• I completely agree John. There is not much people who is both experienced in Java and Linux. So the communities must share their knowledge about java and linux.

  Usually C is used in the projects where linux is the subject. Java and linux brothership is something new for all of us. There are java applications running on linux but there is not many application written in Java for linux, or linux based tasks.

  Communication is really important. There should be a mailing list about Java/Linux. (sorry I don`t know if there is one already) Forums can not be used as effective as maling lists.

  Java has lots of things to give to Linux. Linux is know as hard to manage, Java can generally be used to create management applications for Linux. Think of the applications which can run anywhere to manage a linux box. I especially like this idea.
  

  Posted by: aiqa on November 17, 2004 at 11:06 PM

• Hi Kevin,

  Greetings.

  I have been working in java for more than 5 years now. On Linux, off and on -- can call myself a lil better than entry level (atleast on desktop). I have deployed applications on linux using tomcat and feel comfortable doing it.

  As to the number of people who have experience both on linux and java, I guess there are a lot in the jakarta community who work on both. Initially the jakarta community came from solaris/sun BUT by large, these days, it is Linux (atleast the developer community).

  Today, I find myself struggling to get printing(using java) working under linux (without a GUI environment). Hopefully, the book "Java application development on linux" http://phptr.com/title/013143697X should go some way in improving that. Anyone found it useful ?

  Thank you,

  Best Regards,
  ANJAN. B

  Posted by: anjanb2 on January 26, 2005 at 07:10 PM

• Thanks Anjan, I appreciate the note.

  I've reviewed this bok and was actually pretty surprised to find it looked quite useful - at least to people who may be relatively new to Linux or who use it only periodically.

  There was a recent slashdot review of the book as well. Here's a link to the slashdot review.

  Thanks again!

  -kevin

  Posted by: kbedell on January 27, 2005 at 11:33 AM

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