2008 JavaOne Conference: General Session - JAVA + YOU

The theme of the 2008 JavaOne conference is "JAVA + YOU." Rich Green, executive vice president of software for Sun Microsystems, elaborated on this theme in the opening general session. The "you" in this case embraces both developers and consumers of rich Internet applications (RIAs).

Green asserted that technology is no longer the domain of an elite priesthood. Digital consumers are choosing technology and producing content, both in their work and in their personal lives. For students and information workers, the moat separating work and the rest of life has disappeared.

Life, according to Green, is a mashup, and the online experience more and more accurately reflects that reality. Through the Internet, everyone participates, and everything is connected. The digital lifestyle permeates the experience of life in the 21st century. Java technology, Green emphasized, is the platform on which most of the digital experience is built, whether on mobile devices, desktop computers, televisions, automobiles, or other products.

Green introduced Ian Freed, vice president of Kindle at Amazon.com, who demonstrated the Amazon Kindle wireless reading device. The Kindle downloads books, newspapers, and magazines from Amazon.com and presents them to readers on a high-quality screen without a direct Internet connection. Freed explained that Java was chosen for the software underpinnings of the device because of its power, portability, and the availability of knowledgeable Java programmers.

To further illustrate the role of digital content in people's lives, Green introduced Rikko Sakaguchi, senior vice president at Sony Ericsson. Sakaguchi described the vital role that Java technology plays in realizing his company's vision of producing new products that unify media with the communications experience.

The open-sourcing of Sun's software offerings, including Java technology, has intensified developer activity. The recent acquisition of MySQL has secured Sun's position as the world's largest open-source infrastructure provider. Reinforcing the point, Green cited other significant open-source offerings, including the GlassFish application server, OpenSolaris, and the OpenJDK distribution in Ubuntu 8.04.

Consumers of digital media demand a rich Internet experience, furnished by RIAs. More than just another pretty interface, an RIA typically collects information from across the Internet and integrates it with services into an immersive user experience, available on a variety of screens.

Producing RIAs requires close cooperation between the creative artists who create content and the technologists who deliver it. Green proposed that the days of the developer who is simultaneously artist, webmaster, and programmer are drawing to an end. As developers interact more collaboratively with art and interface designers, they will adapt to new workflows.

As a further illustration of how an RIA can place the consumer at the center of online experience, Green introduced Nandini Ramani, who demonstrated the JavaFX application Connected Life. The mashup app connects users to all of their social media across the Web and consolidates it on a single page. Breaking free of the browser, Ramani dragged the app onto the desktop, where it ran as a persistent application. Ramani then demonstrated the same JavaFX app running on a mobile phone.

The demo segued into a discussion of JavaFX, a Java technology-based, rich client runtime for empowering RIAs on multiple devices. Green described the JavaFX Runtime Environment, which includes a graphics runtime and media codecs along with the JavaFX runtime -- all supported by the Java ME or Java SE platform. When fully fleshed out, the JavaFX tools suite will include the existing NetBeans plug-in, a JavaFX SDK, JavaFX Transformer, and additional tools from Sun and third-party providers such as ReportMill, to assist user interface (UI) and animation design.

Three JavaFX runtimes are planned: The desktop runtime uses Java SE and is slated to ship in October 2008, with an SDK for early access in July. The mobile runtime uses Java ME technology and is slated for spring 2009. JavaFX TV, a runtime for set-top boxes, is also expected in spring 2009. Green also acknowledged the release of Java SE 6 update 10 beta.

Green introduced Anthony Rogers, Sun director of design, who demonstrated Flocker, an animated JavaFX technology-based RIA that displays photos from the Flickr web site in swarming groups. He searched and displayed photos by meta tags. Rogers then presented a demo of high-definition videos, with sound, mapped to an animated 3-D sphere.

Eric Klein, Sun vice president for Java marketing, then presented the Connected Life demo of the Android emulator, enabled for JavaFX technology.

Java's presence in the enterprise market continues, and Green recognized the success of the GlassFish application server, the NetBeans IDE, and MySQL database server.

GlassFish, with its rearchitected modular design, now has a kernel size of only 98 KB. Add-in modules include an HTTP listener, which can create a lightweight media server, and another that provides mobile telephony.

Green cited an increasing number of downloads for GlassFish, the NetBeans IDE, and the recently acquired MySQL, which has reached a rate of 65,000 downloads per day.

For existing client-side Java installations, Green said that the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) is now on 91% of desktop computers, 85% of mobile phones, and 100% of Blu-ray capable video players and game consoles.

With more than 6 billion Java technology-enabled devices worldwide, Green said, Java is the most global, universal, and important platform in computing.

Green discussed Hydrazine, an effort to create a robust, open-source, open-standards services platform that gives access to disc, cloud computing, databases, identity management, calendaring, and other services.

Green explored ways to profit from an RIA through integrated advertising through Project Insight -- an effort to instrument JavaFX technology to enable two-way conversations with consumers, including providing advertising. He heralded JavaFX as the runtime that can integrate advertising and content, even making it easy to determine which ads to run on a given device for a targeted audience.

To close his presentation, Green tied together the threads of his themes by posing this problem: If you were an artist and you wanted to give your fans a complete multimedia experience -- sound and images interactively presented on multiple devices -- how would you do it?

To answer the question, Neil Young took the stage to considerable fanfare. Young described his years-long desire to produce an interactive media experience that would enable him to share memorabilia with his fans. The combination of Blu-ray and Java technologies have finally allowed him to realize his project. His 10-disc Blu-ray collection is due in October 2008, covering the first 10 years of his music career.

Green introduced Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz, who summarized the main points of the general session: In today's digital world, connected users continually consume and create content, which is delivered on a dazzling array of screens. Today's developers work in a community workflow to create RIA content for these screens. As a monetizing strategy, advertising is key. The original vision of Java has become reality, and the interactive web revolution is here. Java is the strongest platform on which to deliver RIAs across multiple screens today. With JavaFX, Java is prepared for the road ahead.

Green closed the session by recognizing attendees as part of an ecosystem that powers innovation and change built on the Java platform.