Over 4,200 Delegates Registered to Attend Before
September 12

Conference Attendance Exceeds 2,700

James Gosling Delivers
Opening Keynote to More Than 1,200 Delegates

JDJEdge 2001 International Java Developer
Conference & Expo was colocated with the Web Services Edge 2001 East International Web Services
Conference & Expo

New York, NY, September 23, 2001 - In spite of what many thought might prove insurmountable obstacles, the international software industry has provided New York City today with a resounding indication that heavy hearts and thoughts are not to be permitted to become a barrier to returning to the business of business, including the Internet technology business.

Delegates from various parts of the country and from around the world began gathering at the Hilton New York to attend the leading Java and Web services technology events on the East Coast this year, JDJEdge 2001 International Java Developer Conference & Expo and Web Services Edge 2001 International Web Services Conference & Expo East, both produced by SYS-CON Events, Inc. www.sys-con.com.

Coming so soon after the devastating World Trade Center carnage, this is a strong sign that America's software developers and vendors alike are determined to go forward - coming together - to learn, to network, and to do business with each other. The first conference sessions were well attended, in one case so well that there was standing room only.

Between September 23 and 26, SYS-CON Events hosted its JDJ/Web Services East conference in the heart of Manhattan. In light of the tragic events a couple of weeks earlier, we made the agonizing decision to follow the advice of Mayor Giuliani and get back to normal as quickly as possible. With that, we had near full attendance from our exhibitors and a nominal no-show from some of our speakers, who understandably felt safer not flying.

Web Services Journal editor-in-chief Sean Rhody opened up the conference to a packed hall and indicated the value that attendees would be getting in the next few days. This included a rich overview of Java and the prolific implementation and adoption of Web services. James Gosling presented the first keynote, offering insight into Java and where it was heading with respect to the whole Web services revolution.

Gosling delivered a small anecdote illustrating the need to embrace and open up our technologies for greater interoperability by drawing an analogy to the airline industry after it moved to jet turbine engines. In the old days of aviation, you navigated your plane by simply hanging your head out the window, looking for identifying landmarks on the ground. With the advent of jets, the logistics of sticking your head out the window became rather more life threat- ening. A new breed of pilots had to rely on technology for their bearings, but now at least they could complete their journey 10 times faster.

The computer industry, Gosling continued, was going through the same change: "Just think of the applications that would be possible if we were to stop putting our heads outside and work together."

This was the main theme of the conference that carried through to both the sessions and the exhibitors. Walking around the show floor I got the feeling that change was in the air. When I stood back and looked at several exhibitors' booths, it was interesting to see that the ability to communicate to outside systems was the top selling point. This was comforting to see, and I believe a sign of an industry maturing and starting to get down to the business of delivering on the promises of the evangelists.

Speaking of evangelists, there was no shortage of them at JDJEdge. Technology evangelists are a funny breed, and from my experience they generally fall into one of two camps: those that can, and those that cannot. I've found that the ones that have captured my interest (and the room in which they speak) are those that have a coding background and still consider themselves developers. The likes of Dave Chappell from Sonic and Tyler Jewell from BEA are two great examples. They animated their sessions with thoroughly insightful and enjoyable technical discussions on Java as a whole without continually plugging their respective company's products. They inspired their audiences to go and build more open systems.

The second day opened up with a Web services panel of the industry's heavyweights, chaired by our own Sean Rhody. Don Leclair, James Gosling, Richard Soley, Tyler Jewell, Dave Chappell, Rick Ross, and Dave Litwack answered questions from both Sean and the floor. It was interesting to note that the panel spent a significant amount of time defining exactly what the term Web services connotes.

Richard Soley argued the marketing-hype card and that we would all be talking about something else in two years' time. It just goes to show the infancy of this emerging market, that the technical definition of a Web service is hard to nail down.

One thing the panel did agree on was the need for more open systems. Whether or not XML was the best tool for the job came up as well, with James Gosling and Richard Soley both playing the performance card - there is too much redundancy inherent in the protocol, which only serves to eat up valuable bandwidth and unnecessary parsing.

SavaJe announced the winner of its developer's competition that was run in conjunction with Java Developer's Journal. The winner of the large LCD monitor was Passport for its Java Remote Presentation Applet. Full details on the winners can be found at www.savaje.com.

On the whole the show was well attended and was just the perfect size to ensure that delegates were able to see everything they needed to without rushing around like headless chickens as they do at JavaOne!

Scott Dietzen, CTO of BEA's eCommerce Division, stopped for five minutes during his presentation to actually build and dem- onstrate a Web service. While trivial, it did show the power of the J2EE tools available already, and how they can be exposed as Web services with very little effort. Dietzen actually demonstrated service chaining, combining two Web services to obtain traffic information in French - one to obtain the information, another to translate it from English (à la Babelfish-esque technology). He pointed out how naturally Web services fit on top of the J2EE stack, and how the design principles already employed for J2EE design serve well in the Web ser- vices world.

There were a number of vendors present that were focused primarily on Java, but almost all of the vendors had some take on what a Web service was and how their product line did or would play a part in the world of Web services.

The exposition floor was packed with vendors exhibiting wares aimed at Web ser- vices. Cape Clear and Shinka were both present, demonstrating tools aimed at the simplification of Web service deployment. SilverStream dem- onstrated their eXtend product set, and has made a free Web services container available to developers on their Web site. BEA demonstrated the latest version of WebLogic Server, which has been tuned to provide Web service performance from the J2EE stack.

Discovery and Web Services UDDI was a topic on everyone's minds. The panel discussed the ability to create a global DNS as well as the real value in having one particular global system. The prevailing opinion seemed to be that UDDI was destined for smaller, private usage (i.e., a domain per industry) with only limited deployment of services to the public. Part of this was due again to the social nature of the way people do business - they like to know their trading partners. "The idea that Joe's tire shop will provide the next million tires to Ford just because they have a Web service for tires is ridiculous," was one of the more memorable quotes from the panel. People share with other people based on relationships, and any technology that ignores this is doomed.

Richard Soley
Chairman and CEO of OMG
Delivering his keynote speech

"JDJEdge 2001 International Java Developer Conference & Expo was a tremendous success! Following Mayor Giuliani's advice in the wake of the September 11 tragedies, the SYS-CON organization made the gutsy call to go ahead with the show - and they proved that JDJEdge is an important industry event. A large, technically astute crowd took the opportunity to learn more about Web services and the Java platform. The high attendance proves the importance of this venue, and I'm glad I was able to come and share information on model-driven architecture, Java, and Web services."

Richard Soley
Chairman and CEO
OMG

Dave Chappell
Renowned Author and Chief Technology Evangelist of Sonic Software
Teaching to a Packed Classroom at JDJEdge...

"JDJEdge 2001 International Java Developer Conference & Expo was very well attended. The mood of the attendees was remarkably upbeat, given the recent tragic events and the proximity of the show. I applaud the 'show must go on' attitude, both on the part of the attendees and SYS-CON. Also, speaking from the perspective of a speaker, and the interactions that I had with many of the attendees, I am very impressed with the high caliber and technical adeptness of the audience that was drawn to this conference."

Dave Chappell
VP and Chief Technology Evangelist
Sonic Software