This is the last week you can register with the early registration discount, so you better get your socks on! And you should register because we have been able to build (again) a very interesting program. This years we even had BJ Hargrave make a video to convince us to pick his presentation.
A first this year is an introduction to OSGi by yours truly. Though virtually all developers on EclipseCon are using OSGi, there are still many developers that have no good working knowledge of what OSGi really is. So if you want to become enlightened in 20 minutes, come to the Introduction to OSGi.
If those 20 minutes of introduction are not sufficient (can't imagine though), then you might want to try out one of the tutorials. We have the following tutorials:
* Developing Apache Aries Enterprise OSGi Applications, by Graham Charters (IBM), Jeremy Hughes (IBM).
* Developing OSGi-enabled Java EE Applications with GlassFish
* Apache ACE in the Cloud, by Marcel Offermans (Luminis), Karl Pauls (Luminis)
Even though the inside joke in the OSGi expert groups is that we always start with a telegraph pole but end up with a tooth pick, we've actually been quite busy inside the OSGi. We added lots of new things to the new specification. BJ Hargrave (IBM ) will elucidate you know about all the new gadgets in the OSGi 4.3 Technical Update. There is also an Update on the OSGi Enterprise Expert Group by David Bosschaert (Redhat) and Tim Diekmann (TIBCO), who are the co-chairs of the Enterprise Expert Group.
OSGi would not be OSGi if we did not have our eyes on the cloud. Richard Nicholson (Paremus), who happens to be our new OSGi Alliance President, will inform you about progress in the OSGi Cloud workgroup as well as efforts in his company in his OSGi and Cloud presentation.
If you want to be really entertained then the 10 signs you're doing OSGi wrong by
Jeff McAffer (EclipseSource ) and Paul VanderLei (Band XI International ) is always highly recommended. Two years ago I almost had tears in my eyes and I actually also learned a few things.
One of the (in my eyes then) most undervalued parts of the OSGi service specifications is Declarative Services (DS). DS is very lightweight, takes all the pain out of using services, and is surprisingly powerful. And it is also simple to use (especially with the annotations). If I had to do the OSGi framework all over again, I sure would fight for including DS in the framework. Felix Meschberger (Adobe) is the Apache Felix implementer of DS and will tell give you the Declarative Services - Dependency Injection OSGi Style presentation.
In the big enterprise world there is Virgo from the Eclipse Foundation, Aries from Apache, but there is a lesser known third player in the distributions that is slowly building up momentum: Apache Karaf. Guillaume Nodet (Progress) will tell you more about about Karaf in his Building and deploying OSGi applications using Apache Karaf presentation.
There are many more good talks that are all too good to miss, take a look and select!
Oh, yes. Do not forget that we have the OSGi BoF/Reception Tuesday, 19:30. The OSGi Alliance will spring for drinks. You can attend this event even if you've not registered for OSGi DevCon/EclipseCon so no excuse to not be there when you're in the bay area.
Hope to see you in Santa Clara next month, do not forget to register!
Peter Kriens
