Welcome to this year's JavaOne conference! We are glad you dropped by. We want to keep you informed of all the happenings around JavaOne: all the events leading up to the conference and all the events during the conference week itself. We'll cover announcements, news, planning (but we won't make you go to any meetings), and snafus (nothing that makes us look too bad, of course). We'll even throw in a contest or two to make sure you are paying attention. We'll post a couple of times a week, and then more frequently as we get closer to September. There's a group of us, and we cover the Java beat, JUGs, Oracle Technology Network, Oracle Solaris, and lots more. What do you want to hear about? Let us know.

A group of us from the office went to see the movie Iron Man 2 (it just debuted in the United States) last week and it reminded us of Java, the Java community, and JavaOne. In all three cases, from many disparate (and sometimes seemingly incompatible) parts and people, something comes together that works, is cool, and helps make a better world. Right now, there are hundreds of little islands of planning, all busy answering questions for JavaOne: What sessions get selected? What goes in the Mason street tent (until a few weeks ago, Will there be a tent on Mason street?), What do the JUGS need? Which Oracle ACEs will be there? Can we do a surf theme at the OTN party? And, somehow, like an Iron Man suit, they all come together and work to make a great event. At least, we hope it will be great. That's for you to decide. Please don't be shy--give us your comments and suggestions. We'll be listening.

P.S. You can attend Stark Expo online at Oracle.com/ironman2, where you can train to become a "Master Cloud Operative." I got my MCO certification. I wish I had a card to put in my wallet.