Fifty thousand

Where are you all?

I was chatting to somebody last week that said there's an estimated 50,000 Java developers working in and around London. That's quite a high number but it's believable and raises an interesting question. Where are you all?

I (try to) regularly go along to events like meetups, seminars, etc, most of which are free and after work/at lunchtime. The thing that surprises me is the turnout. The most people I've ever seen at, for example a JSIG, is around 50. That's just 0.001% of London's Java developers!

I'm curious, why or why don't you (and your non-blog reading colleagues) go to events like this?

Tags : java london

Responses[19]

Posted by Simon Brown on 07 February 2007 15:09:00 GMT #

Re: Fifty thousand

Comment from arnaud on 07 February 2007 16:31:52 GMT #

Hi, I never been there because I did not know about it :) so know I register to the group and if I'm free I'll probably come to the next one.

Re: Fifty thousand

Comment from Simon Brown on 07 February 2007 16:36:42 GMT #

That's interesting ... so perhaps I should try to gather a list of all the events/groups that I can find and post them on my blog.

Re: Fifty thousand

Comment from arnaud on 07 February 2007 16:41:54 GMT #

Just check the time for the JSIG it's in the middle of the day, that means that for a permanent you need the authorization of your manager which can be problematic in some companies.

A list of the event/Java things is a great idea ! I know there is a meeting in a pub things for exemple but totally forgot about that.

Re: Fifty thousand

Comment from Simon Brown on 07 February 2007 16:45:39 GMT #

Or you could take a long lunch. ;-)

Re: Fifty thousand

Comment from arnaud on 07 February 2007 16:49:53 GMT #

I'm just negotiating the long Lunch option :)

OSGi JSIG

Comment from Alex Blewitt on 21 February 2007 01:42:23 GMT #

There were about 20-30 people at the OSGi JSIG we ran a week or so ago. (Didn't see you there, Simon ...) The presentations and demos worked (which was a pleasant surprise) and a lot of people went away knowing more about what OSGi actually is/does. It also ties into the other question you had about patching WAR files; in the OSGi world, you can patch bundles on the fly whether they're packed or not by simply attaching a fragment to the bundle. It's just one of the reasons why more people should know about it :-) The presentation, code, and screencasts of the demos are available at http://www.eclipsezone.com/files/jsig/ if you're interested in taking a look sometime. Good luck with your JSIG next time around ...

OSGi JSIG

Comment from Simon Brown on 21 February 2007 09:45:42 GMT #

I was signed up to attend but something came up at the last minute and I couldn't make it. Frustrating since our office is about 1 minute from Sun's offices and I do actually want to know more about OSGi. Sounds like you had a good result though, with people going away knowing more about OSGi. :-)

Re: Fifty thousand

Comment from Alex Blewitt on 07 February 2007 17:43:34 GMT #

Most Java developers don't read blogs, such as this one, and therefore don't get to find out about them util too late. The Java blogosphere is largely a handful of people, and I've not seen any stats on the readers, but I'd imagine it's going to be relatively small (of the 50,000 Java developers). Anyway, I'm giving a JSig before you are, and there's only 17 of the 50,000 signed up for it at the moment :-)

Re: Fifty thousand

Comment from Ricky Clarkson on 07 February 2007 18:12:52 GMT #

Where did you get the stat of 50,000? Any idea what it is for Manchester?

Most of the Java developers I know socially in Manchester work on servlet to DB interacting stuff; they don't find it interesting, so they probably wouldn't be interested in meeting up. Thankfully I know them socially for other reasons (I double as a salsa teacher and DJ).

Also, I don't have a Mac, so I'd be an outcast if I came down to the pub meets.

Re: Fifty thousand

Comment from Simon Brown on 09 February 2007 11:21:45 GMT #

I agree that the blogosphere is a tiny percentage of the total number of developers. So the question is, how can we better advertise events like the JSIG and which channels can we use?

Re: Fifty thousand

Comment from Darren on 07 February 2007 18:52:15 GMT #

Hi, I wasn't aware of the JSIG thing.
Now that I am I will try to attend it with some of my colleagues.

I've been to the London Java Meetups twice.
But both times they were in very noisy pubs and it was next to impossible to have a proper conversation with more than 2 people.
Also, the emphasis seemed to be on drinking (or maybe that was Mr Brunning's influence).
I like drinking beer, but I'm not convinced I'll learn a lot if I sink 6 pints (I have little or no restraint).

Re: Fifty thousand

Comment from Simon Brunning on 08 February 2007 13:57:58 GMT #

My influence? Slander! I should sue...

;-)

Re: Fifty thousand

Comment from Jon Poulton on 08 February 2007 19:53:10 GMT #

Late last year I wondered if there were any London Java interest groups and did a few Google searches. The results were:

1. London Java meetups.
2. Thousands of links to Java jobs, in London.
3. Simon Browns blog.

After a quick read of your blog, I bookmarked it. As for the meetups; I was about to go away travelling, so I put off going along to the London Java meetups until later. Now I'm back I intend to pop along as soon as you guys sort your s**t out for the new year and actually organise one! ;-D

Running the same searches now actually does bring up the JSIG, but I'm sure it wasn't in the search results before. I'll be coming along to the pragmatic Architects one now I know about it - thats assuming my boss lets me have the extended lunch.

As for other developers - I asked 3 of the other "Java guys" (2 senior developers and 1 architect) at my last work place if they fancied popping along to the meetups at some point, and there was not a glimmer of interest from any of them. Just not interested outside of work hours I guess.

Jon

BTW: 50,000 sounds a little on the high side for Java Developers alone..

Re: Fifty thousand

Comment from Simon Brown on 08 February 2007 21:49:22 GMT #

lol - there should be a meetup in the next couple of weeks, so watch this space.

I agree that 50K does sound high, but then London is a big place. Just think of how many banks and big companies there are here. If anybody has any good stats on the number of developers, let us know.

Re: Fifty thousand

Comment from Colin Crist on 12 February 2007 15:38:35 GMT #

We've always run JSIG at lunchtime rather than evenings as people are focused and in more of a work frame of mind than when its close to beer-o-clock.

Maybe it would be nice to sync up any London Java meets to be the same day as a JSIG so we could get the best of both?

Re: Fifty thousand

Comment from Simon Brown on 12 February 2007 15:48:13 GMT #

Perhaps we should run a regular JSIG unplugged session, once a month at beer o'clock time.

Re: Fifty thousand

Comment from Colin Crist on 12 February 2007 17:19:09 GMT #

Good idea. I think this week may to be too short notice so after the next JSIG?

If a speaker does not turn up in March that makes it your session in April.

Re: Fifty thousand Comment from Anonymous on 04 July 2009 07:36:12 BST #
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