Groovy / Grails User Groups

Technology user groups benefit both a technology (with the companies behind it) and its users. Java user groups around the world played a big role in the adoption and advance of the Java language and platform. Even now that Java is in its old age (or on its deathbed, depending on who you talk to), JUGs are actively promoting educational and community-building initiatives.

The Groovy community is benefiting similarly from a growing number of user groups. There are currently a few dozen groups around the world, and more are forming every day.

Now there is a website that can help you find a group in your area or help you get one started. G2Groups.net has a list of active Groovy user groups, with links to their sites. If you can't find one in your area, you can propose one. The site will post a link to your proposal on Twitter; you can retweet this to help get the word out. Then when others are interested in your idea, you'll get emailed about it, and you're off and running!

Once you get a few likeminded (and by "likeminded," I of course mean "brilliant") people together and get a group started, send me a note, and I'll invite you to the Groovy User Group Leaders list on Google Groups. This list is a great way to get support and ideas from other Groovy/Grails/Griffon/Gaelyk/Gradle/Getc. group leaders.

I've always said that the best feature of Groovy and Grails is the community. User groups are a big part of that. So if you're not already involved in a G2Group, get plugged in. You'll be glad you did.

10 Reasons to attend SpringOne 2GX

I was going to come up with one of those clever top 10 lists but when I went to the SpringOne/2GX home page, I saw 10 great reasons to attend staring me in the face.



The early bird discount ends Friday, September 18th, but even at full price this event is less expensive than JavaOne and will contain way more good technical content. Check out the rest of the speakers and the awesome session list at http://springone2gx.com

If you're interested in Groovy, Grails, Griffon, (or related technologies) or if you use Spring in any of it's myriad forms, or, for that matter, if you use Java, you won't want to miss this conference!

See you there!

We have a US Groovy/Grails/Griffon Conference!

But let's not blow it!

A while back I wrote about the need for a US conference dedicated to the G3 technologies. Well, now there's one scheduled! You've probably already heard about the SpringOne 2GX (I know it should be 3GX, but names are hard to change sometimes, so we'll cut them some slack :-).

This conference will be a two-for-one deal. You can sign up for either the SpringOne or the 2GX (Groovy / Grails Experience) and you get to go to both. Which means that there will be 8 concurrent sessions to choose from. Ouch! That's going to hurt when I try to split myself into pieces to go to more than one at a time.

The speaker line-up is fantastic. I won't try to list all of them all here, but the three Gs are well represented, with 20 different speakers on the Groovy / Grails / Griffon side and even more on the Spring side. You can see the full list on the website.

But the sessions are only part of the picture. The interaction with speakers and other attendees during breaks and meals is the part that just can't be reproduced or replaced. You may be able to find a book that covers some of the topics, but you won't find a book that contains that great conversation you had with the creator of your favorite tool or framework.

So why did I start this post off with the warning to not blow it? Well, you may have noticed that the economy isn't doing all that great lately. You may have also noticed that many conferences and training events have been canceled due to lack of attendance. I don't think that would happen with the SpringOne 2GX -- but why take the chance? If we want these types of events to continue, we need to support them. So if you haven't registered yet, head over to http://springone2gx.com and register. The early bird pricing, which will save you $400, ends July 31st! Why wait? You can save a good chunk of change while at the same time telling the organizers that they might as well start planning the next one!

You can also help by getting the word out. Tell your co-workers, colleagues, friends, neighbors, etc.

This is going to be an excellent conference. It will be way less crowded than JavaOne, and with much better sessions and overall experience. And it's cheaper to boot! There's just no good reason to miss this event. I hope to see you there!

Groovy Buzz at JavaOne

As suspected the G3 buzz at JavaOne is much higher than indicated by the technical session list.  You hear it in the hallway conversations; you hear it in the attendees questions at other sessions; and you heard it loud and clear at the Scripting Bowl (aka, the Alternative JVM Languages Bowl).  The contenders were Jython, Groovy, Clojure, Scala and JRuby.  The clear winner was Groovy!  Dick Wall, of Java Posse fame, came in second with Scala but based on audience feedback Groovy was the one!  

Guillaume Laforge was the Groovy representative and he showed off some cool demos with help from the grooviest guys in desktop development, Danno Ferrin, James Williams and Andres Almiray.  It was a great community effort and a great opportunity to show folks how powerful, easy to use and just plain fun Groovy is.

We need a US Groovy/Grails/Griffon Conference

It's been over a year since the best conference I've ever attended. The Groovy/Grails Experience was held in February 2008 near Washington DC. It was an awesome experience. For the nostalgic and those with too much time on their hands you can read my review of it here.

But we are way overdue for another. The folks that put that conference together, Jay Zimmerman and Scott Davis, both heroes of mine, tried to organize another but when the economy took a turn for the worse they decided to hold off. I understand their concerns. One only has to look at the desperate attempts at drawing attendees the JavaOne organizers are going through to realize that this is a tough climate for conferences. But hey we're talking about Groovy, Grails and Griffon here.

These are technologies that transcend tumultuous times.
While other conferences are being scaled back or cancelled, The GR8 conference, dedicated to G3 technologies, has had to move to a larger venue! And from what I've heard, the turnouts at the growing number of Groovy and Grails training classes haven't been too shabby. The G3 user group community continues to grow. The Grails podcast audience is climbing. We even have a G3 dedicated magazine. We are ready for a G3 Experience.

So, what are we going to do about it? We could get together and put one on ourselves but I still have faith in Jay and Scott. Anyone who has been to a NoFluffJustStuff or related conference knows that nobody does it better. So, let's let them know that it's time. Here's a few steps you can take:

• Go to the 2GX website: http://groovygrails.com/gg/2gexperience and use the form there to register your interest.


• Go to the NoFluffJustStuff feedback form and tell them it's time. You can even plead for your favorite city.


• Send Jay and/or Scott an email (I'll leave it as an exercise for the reader to track down their email addresses)


• Repeat this urgent plea on mailing lists, news groups, forums, at user groups, at work, in letters to the editor, etc.


• Finally, if you are attending an upcoming NFJS event (coming to Atlanta, Denver, Dallas, Columbus) tell Jay or Scott that it's time for another G3 Experience.

Let's get to work, we can make it happen. After all, we are the G3 community. It's not like we're a bunch of (insert your favorite inferior language or technology here) hackers!

I'll see you at the next G3 Experience!

Thoughts on Groovy, Grails, Griffon and JavaOne

You may have already heard that Groovy, Grails and Griffon are going to be under-represented at this year's JavaOne. While this is a bummer and hard to understand in the face of the enthusiasm that continues to grow in the community (see below for some examples), I don't think the right reaction is to say "who needs them" and skip JavaOne altogether. One idea Graeme Rocher mentioned on Twitter is a good one: a G3 mini conference would be great! The Monday night before JavaOne kicks off would be a perfect time for that.

Anyhow, it's important to note that last year there weren't all that many Groovy related talks either, but what I observed was that Groovy was represented as much by excited attendees as by presenters. I think it can be the same this year. Some of the brightest minds in the G3 community will be at JavaOne and they will have many opportunities outside of the session rooms, to talk about and demonstrate the power, efficiency and fun of Groovy, Grails and Griffon. The rest of us can do the same. So if you can make it to JavaOne go for it and feel the Groovy in the air!

Speaking of enthusiasm in the community, here are a few examples:

Here's a screenshot of the DZone popular link tab for 3/01/2008

This is one of my favorites, from a Sun blog.

This one is from the Stephen Colbourne's blog and shows the results of a whiteboard poll at Devoxx, a European conference that is very similar to JavaOne.

So don't be discouraged- the better mousetrap is doing all right!