Oracle has announced the end of their flagship Java developer conference, JavaOne. The event has run annually since 1996 (under Sun's ownership), and since 2010 as a collocated event with Oracle OpenWorld.
In its place Oracle plans to run a broader developer-focused conference, called Oracle Code One. Oracle explained the move in an announcement.
Oracle Code One is our new developer conference that’s inclusive of more languages, technologies, and developer communities than other conferences.
Expect talks on Go, Rust, Python, JavaScript, and R, along with more of the great Java technical content that developers expect.
Stephen Chin, director Oracle Developer Community, provided some more details:
We are expanding the JavaOne conference to include more tracks and content. This includes content on microservices, containers, AI, chatbots, blockchain, and databases that have been part of the ongoing Oracle Code roadshow. The combined conference is called Oracle Code One and will be at the Moscone West from October 22-25.
He went on further to assure Java developers that at least some of the features of JavaOne will remain:
We will have a dedicated Java Keynote and Community Keynote. All of the Java focused community activities are being carried forward including the kids event, IGNITE sessions, community day (now as a track), Java Champion briefings, Duke’s Choice Award etc.
The track listing for Code One indicates some of Oracle's thinking about the new event. There is still a heavy Java focus, with Core Java Platform, Java Ecosystem and Java Server-Side Development and Microservices being three of the prominent tracks.
Of the others, Developer Community is likely to be a broadened version of the content that the Java community has traditionally excelled at. The Emerging Technologies also seems to be an expanded version of the "Emerging JVM Languages" track seen at recent editions of JavaOne.
The remaining tracks feature other currently hot developer technologies, such as Cloud / Serverless, Data Science, Devops as well as Dev Tools, Modern Web and a dedicated MySQL track.
Martijn Verburg, leader of the London Java Community, commented that:
Java developers have not worked in isolation on a pure Java stack in a long, long time. Devoxx and other leading conferences have always acknowledged this and sensibly Oracle is doing the same thing. Java is the glue that binds a lot of other tech together and my hope is that this conference will reflect that. I wish it all the success!
Others were less sure, with Simon Maple (Java Champion) reflecting that:
The announcement released by Oracle stated that JavaOne is expanding and its name has changed. Having digested the information, I feel left with the impression that it's quite the opposite - that Oracle Code is expanding and JavaOne is in fact being included as part of that conference.
This broadening of topics will certainly help the average developer, but there are already plenty of conferences out there satisfying that need, such as QCon. I feel we're losing one of the best, most targeted Java-focused conferences on the circuit, which although being a part of a larger commercial entity still felt very community-orientated.
The call for papers (CFP) is now open and closes on May 10th.
UPDATE: Oracle have contacted InfoQ & asked us to make it clear that they're committed to delivering core elements of the JavaOne content and programme as part of the new Code One conference, as per Stephen Chin's blog post. We've updated the post title accordingly.