AJUG Newsletter

["Burr Sutter" <sutter@bravepoint.com>]

Dear AJUGers,
Summer vacations are virtually over and Atlanta is officially back to
school.  For some of you that have spent a lot of "quality time"  with bored
children, it is a good thing.  For those of you who got to play at the beach
all summer perhaps coming back to work and Atlanta traffic isn't a big win.
In any case, the AJUG leadership has a few new initiatives and several
things to communicate to the group.  Please review the contents below and
pick your topic, this is a long-winded email!  And we always welcome your
feedback.

Contents:
A- Questions on JSTL & Faces for the August 19th meeting
B- JavaMarket: Contractors on 1099s, Job Seekers, Employers
C- More AJUG - events during the 9 to 5 day for the Corporate America
employees
D- Architects - calling out the seniors, gurus and rock stars

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A- Questions on JSTL & Faces for the August 19th meeting

The last several AJUG meetings have had better audience participation. Both
in terms of current users of the technologies who provided additional
helpful advice and those people brave enough to ask the questions that were
on everyone's mind.  AJUG is a community that requires active participation
from its membership in order to thrive. Please send me any thoughts and
questions related to these technologies so that we can more easily
accommodate them in the actual meeting.  If you are already a JSTL & Faces
user then please let us know that as well.
I won't promise you that we will have all the answers but we will make an
attempt.

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B- JavaMarket: Contractors on 1099s, Job Seekers, Employers

It is clear that the IT Job market in general isn't what it used to be
during the Y2K and DotCom eras. However, there seems to be some activity in
the local job market for Java developers.  Many AJUGers like to work as
contractors (1099s), consult and move from project to project.  Many others
like the stability of permanent employment.  Some continue to struggle to
find that development opportunity in today's market.  Some face that chicken
and egg issue of employers who want experience but you can't get experience
without the job.
I like to focus on this topic during our open discussion time (6:30 to 7:00
pm) at the August AJUG meeting.  Please bring your thoughts on this area and
let's continue to delve into it.
For those of you that are currently doing the contractor/1099 thing, I'm
curious to see what your experiences are since that market can serve as a
useful barometer for the greater job market.  Feel free to email me with
your thoughts.

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C- More AJUG - events during the day

At an AJUG 3rd Tuesday of the month after business hours event, we don't
always get a good representation of Atlanta's largest IT shop's employees.
AJUG is the focal point for Java evangelism in Atlanta and it benefits the
overall community to find a way to include more corporate developers.
We are looking for Atlanta's largest IT shops to co-sponsor day time events.
The co-sponsor can help us with a meeting facility (many have large
conference rooms and auditoriums)  but most importantly encourage their
employees take a 2 hour break from the typical work day to attend.
Employees benefit from the educational and networking opportunities create
by AJUG.  Employers benefit by creating another opportunity for employee
education and career development.
If you work for a large IT shop please contact us to discuss this option
(reply to this email).  We have recently contacted several corporations and
so far the interest level is good.   If your company is looking at using Web
Services, Struts, Design Patterns, latest versions of J2EE APIs, open source
technologies or any of the topics typically explored at an AJUG meeting then
an educational session could clearly benefit your organization.

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D- Architects - calling out the gurus and rock stars

There is another group that is under represented at an AJUG meeting - the
hard-core senior developers.  In many cases, these folks are the leaders of
development teams, architects of Java-based systems, mentors and the goto
guru with all  the answers.  These are the types of people that don't
normally need to attend a typical AJUG event on Ant, JUnit, Struts, Web
Services or J2EE because they normally figure it out on their own.
AJUG is looking at starting an Architects Forum specifically for those
individuals.  We have already begun to form a core group.  Many of these
individuals have 10+ years of software development experience, 5+ years of
Java, have built multiple Java and J2EE applications and serve
leadership/mentor roles within their organizations.  AJUG uses many of these
folks as speakers for our various meetings as well.  If you are interested
please let me know.

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Burr
AJUG President