I just returned from an excellent trip to the “Red Hat Summit/JBoss World”:http://www.redhat.com/summit/ in Boston. The event was fantastic, kicking off with a great “keynote”:http://www.redhat.com/summit/sessions/keynotes-sessions.html#12345 demoing “Drools”:http://www.jboss.org/drools/ in a Mobile scenario. Following the keynote were a number of great sessions, including one I presented on the topic of “Mobile RichFaces Applications”:http://www.redhat.com/summit/sessions/jboss.html#187.

The session was well received, with some good discussion afterwards. In the session I motivated mobile web applications as a must-have in today’s market - users’ will want and expect a functional web application even if your native application is better. I then demonstrated how JSF w/ RichFaces can be an effective means for providing mobile web applications, particularly if it’s a technology stack in which you are already invested. Feel free to check out “my slides”:http://www.bleathem.ca/talks/2012-JBW/richfaces-mobile.html (be sure to use the space key to advance through the pages). I’m looking forward to seeing the mobile applications people will do with these tools, particularly once we get our mobile “slidfast components”:https://github.com/richfaces/sandbox/tree/master/slidfast out the door.

After my session on RichFaces mobile, we re-convened for a “mobile BOF”:http://www.redhat.com/summit/sessions/jboss.html#809 with some of the other mobile related projects at JBoss (“Aerogear”:http://www.jboss.org/aerogear/, “Errai”:http://www.jboss.org/errai/, and the Demo app “Ticket Monster”:http://www.jboss.org/jdf/examples/ticket-monster/tutorial/WhatIsTicketMonster/). Here the discussion got very lively with a number of personalities both on the panel and in the audience getting their opinions out. It’s always great to hear user/customer feedback on our projects, with people oftentimes using the tools we provide in use cases we never envisioned.

Aside from the sessions, BOFs, and the invaluable “hallway track” there were plenty of other things to do in the great city of Boston. I managed to catch a game at “Fenway park”:http://boston.redsox.mlb.com/bos/ballpark/index.jsp: the Red Sox vs. the Blue Jays - sadly my fellow Canadians weren’t able to pull through with a win. We also got to visit the park again two days later in a conference event. This time we had a free-run over the park and I got my picture taken swinging over home plate!

Thanks to all my team mates and our fantastic user community who made the event a success - I look forward to seeing you again next year!