Not many people know that Java technologies are insanely popular
in Sri Lanka. Many Sri Lankan IT organizations are involved in
developing cutting edge products and IT solutions using the Java
programming language and Java-centric platforms like J2EE and J2ME. Java
is also quite popular among Sri Lankan students and undergraduates who
are pursuing educational goals in the field of IT. As a result we see
many great research projects being carried out using Java and many
students becoming certified professional Java developers year after
year.
However the Sri Lankan Java community has
always lacked one important thing. That is the notion of a strong local
developer community. Most Sri Lankan IT organizations and developers
engaged in Java programming, operate with no real sense of communication
or collaboration. We believe that lack of a medium to discuss, share
knowledge and work together can greatly hinder progress and innovation.
In addition to that, by working in isolation, many developers and
organizations may not get the attention and the appreciation their
high-quality work thoroughly deserve.
Fortunately, those days are now behind us. On 15th of March 2012 we officially launched JAVA Colombo,
a Java User Group (JUG) for Sri Lankan Java developers, IT
professionals and students. If you are a fan of Java technologies and
want to meet other techies who have similar interests, then JAVA Colombo
is for you. The official website of the group went live somewhere
around early February and within a matter of 3 months our membership has
grown beyond 200. Already, our membership spans across nearly 50 IT
organizations and all major IT institutes and Universities in Sri
Lanka.
We organize regular meetups where our
members get to meet each other, have brainstorming sessions, listen to
tech-talks and take part in panel discussions. We give our members
opportunities to learn about new and upcoming trends in the technology,
share their own experiences related to programming and boost their
leadership and management skills by help organizing events. We give
organizations opportunities to talk about their products, ideas and
ongoing projects to a larger audience. Overall we intend to bring the
Sri Lankan Java community together and work as one developer community
so that our innovative ideas no longer go unheard and our creative works
no longer go unnoticed.
We warmly welcome all Sri Lankan Java
developers to join and be a part of JAVA Colombo. The following slide
deck was the introductory presentation that was conducted at the
official JAVA Colombo launch on 15th March. That should give you a clear
insight as to who we are and what we are planning to achieve.
We welcome your kind feedback, suggestions and
constructive criticism to help make JAVA Colombo even better. Please
send all your comments and questions to srilankanjug@gmail.com. Alternatively you can join our meetup group on-line and post your comments on our public mailing list – java-colombo-list@meetup.com.
We also welcome offers from the industry to sponsor our meetups. Contact us via srilankanjug@gmail.com for more information.
-Hiranya Jayathilaka-
Senior Technical Lead – WSO2
JAVA Colombo Executive Committee Member
