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This week in JUGland

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I believed it before, but now it’s undeniable: Java User Groups (JUGs) are awesome.
Not only do some of the greatest developers come together with students and other members of the community, but their leadership often brings a high level of respectability to the organization, which benefits everyone involved and helps the community as a whole. I’m proud to be working with people of such caliber, and I’m looking forward to more collaboration in the near future!

If your JUG is looking for speakers for 2007, we can help! Write me at jugs@jetbrains.com for more info.
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On Monday of this week, I had the chance to attend our local JUG, the CZJUG, at the Czech Technical University in the heart of Prague, where Rob Harwood of JetBrains presented “Annotations in Java” (slides coming in the near future), followed by Danny Coward of Sun and his informative overview of the upcoming JDK 7 features.

The thing that struck me most! besides the looks on the 50+ guys’ faces when Ann Oreshnikova speedily answered a java trivia question, even though she doesn’t speak Czech, and won a great-looking SDN Java Hoodie! was the competition between JUG members when personal licenses of IntelliJ IDEA 6.0 and TeamCity 1.0 were up for grabs. Awesome. As long as it never gets to this level, friendly competition is fine with me!

Later in the week I was lucky enough to meet with Bruno Souza, Brazil’s Javaman, to discuss how JetBrains can help JUG communities worldwide. I’m looking forward to attending more JUG meetings all over Europe in the future, and to helping out with even more than I can attend. So far, we’ve got a few meetings lined up outside the US, from Egypt and Greece, all the way up to Belgium for JavaPolis 06! If you’re looking for speakers for your JUG, or if you know someone who would like to speak at more JUGs, write me here!

All the best,

Dave Booth

Technorati Tags: JUG Java User Group Rob Harwood Javapolis IntelliJ IntelliJ IDEA Bruno Souza TeamCity SUN

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