EclipseCon

EclipseCon
Eclipse Foundation Staff · EPL-2.0 · source
Name	EclipseCon
Status	Active (historically intermittent)
Genre	Software development conference
Frequency	Annual (varied)
Venue	Various
Location	Various (United States, Europe, Asia)
First	2004
Organized	Eclipse Foundation

EclipseCon is a conference focused on Eclipse (software) technologies, related open-source projects, and ecosystem collaboration. It brings together developers, architects, project leads, vendors, and contributors from projects such as Jakarta EE, Git, Apache Maven, and OpenJDK to discuss toolchains, frameworks, and platform evolution. The event serves as a hub for announcements, technical sessions, hands-on labs, and governance meetings tied to the Eclipse Foundation and its hosted projects including Eclipse IDE, Eclipse Che, Eclipse MicroProfile, and Eclipse IoT.

Overview

EclipseCon is organized around keynote addresses, technical talks, tutorials, and unconference-style sessions that emphasize interoperability among projects like Jakarta EE, Spring Framework, Quarkus, and Micronaut. The conference typically features vendor booths from companies such as IBM, Red Hat, Microsoft, Google, and VMware, alongside community project stands for Apache Software Foundation projects like Apache Tomcat and Apache Maven. Attendees often include contributors from foundations and organizations such as Linux Foundation, OpenJS Foundation, Cloud Native Computing Foundation, and universities like Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford University. EclipseCon focuses on practical integration topics spanning continuous integration with Jenkins, dependency management with Maven Central, source control with GitHub, and runtime environments like OpenJDK and GraalVM.

History

EclipseCon originated after the launch of the Eclipse (software) platform to support the growing ecosystem around the integrated development environment and to promote collaboration between corporate sponsors and open-source contributors. Early editions featured participation from corporations such as IBM and Borland and project teams working on the initial plug-in architecture and OSGi runtime. Over the years, the conference adapted to include emerging domains exemplified by projects like Eclipse Che for cloud development, Eclipse Theia for web-based IDEs, and Eclipse MicroProfile for microservices on Jakarta EE. The event has been held in venues across the United States, Europe, and Asia, reflecting engagement from regional developer communities associated with organizations like SAP, Siemens, Intel, and Samsung. Strategic shifts within the Eclipse Foundation and partner ecosystems led to iterations in format, including combined events with trade shows and splits into regional conferences hosted in collaboration with groups such as Eclipse Foundation Europe and Eclipse Foundation Asia.

Conference Program and Tracks

Programs typically span multiple tracks aligned with project domains: IDE and tooling, cloud native development, embedded systems, Internet of Things, and enterprise Java. Examples of track subjects include integration between Eclipse IDE plug-ins and build systems like Gradle; cloud-native workflows leveraging Kubernetes and Docker; edge computing use cases with Eclipse IoT projects such as Eclipse Mosquitto and Eclipse Paho; and language tooling interoperability with Language Server Protocol implementations from projects like Eclipse LSP4J. Hands-on labs often pair maintainers from Eclipse Che or Eclipse Theia with contributors from Red Hat or IBM to demonstrate continuous delivery pipelines involving Tekton and container registries such as Docker Hub. Keynotes historically feature executives and technical leaders from organizations including Oracle, Google, Microsoft, and Amazon Web Services describing roadmaps for platforms like OpenJDK and standards efforts coordinated with groups such as Eclipse Jakarta EE Working Group.

Community and Governance

The governance activities at EclipseCon include project management committee meetings, specification reviews, and contributor summits that shape the direction of projects hosted by the Eclipse Foundation. Representatives from corporate members like IBM, SAP, Bosch, and Red Hat attend alongside independent committers and university researchers. The conference provides a venue for steering committee elections, trademark and licensing discussions related to Eclipse Public License, and coordination with other governance bodies such as the Apache Software Foundation board and the Linux Foundation working groups. These interactions foster cross-project collaboration with initiatives involving Cloud Native Computing Foundation projects, standards alignment with Eclipse Jakarta EE Working Group, and joint developer outreach coordinated with entities like OpenJS Foundation.

Notable Events and Announcements

Prominent announcements at EclipseCon have included major releases of the Eclipse IDE, new incubator projects entering the Eclipse Foundation ecosystem, and partnerships between vendors and foundations. Historical milestones presented at conferences have encompassed adoption milestones for Eclipse MicroProfile, the launch of cloud IDEs such as Eclipse Che, and integrations between Eclipse Theia and enterprise offerings from Red Hat and IBM. Key sessions have showcased research collaborations with institutions like Carnegie Mellon University and Imperial College London on software engineering tooling, and product roadmaps from firms including SAP, Siemens, and Intel announcing contributions to projects like Eclipse IoT and Eclipse Kura.

Attendance and Locations

Attendance has varied by year and region, drawing developers, project leads, vendor representatives, and academic researchers from organizations such as Google, Microsoft Research, IBM Research, Facebook, and Netflix engineering teams. Past venues include convention centers and hotels in cities with active developer communities like San Francisco, Boston, Berlin, Paris, London, Bangalore, and Beijing. Regional editions have partnered with local developer networks and universities, increasing participation from companies such as Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys, Huawei, and Xilinx. The mix of commercial sponsors and volunteer organizers typically reflects the contributor base of projects hosted by the Eclipse Foundation.

Category:Software conferences