Leaving Sun...

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Leaving Sun...

It was over four years ago when I discovered that Sun was using my software, Roller, to power blogs.sun.com. I was thrilled to go to work for the company back in 2004 and what an awesome cast of characters I've gotten to work with over the years. I really enjoyed the folks I worked with on the blogs.sun.com team, the open source folks and most recently, the Glassfish team -- some of the most talented and nicest folks I've ever worked with. It's been a great four and a half years but all good things must come to an end and today is the day.

I've been swept up in the latest round of Sun layoffs. Sun has decided to disinvest in Project SocialSite and as of today I'm free and available for employment. Though I do feel some urgency due to the bad economy, Sun's layoff package is pretty good and so I have some time to figure out what comes next and no need to make hasty decisions. Whatever I end up doing, I'll be blogging it here.

Oh, and about Apache Roller and Project SocialSite? I'm not ready to give up just yet. I'll be using a little of my time to do some mentoring and to move forward plans for Roller 5.0 this spring. And I see real value in the Project SocialSite "social-enable existing web sites" concept and I'm considering ways to move that forward as well, with or without Sun. I'm still giving my talk Shindig for Blogs & Wikis in March 2009 and, actually, I'm pretty happy I have some time right now to focus on those demos and slides.

Dave Johnson in Sun 12:23PM Jan 22, 2009 Comments [18]
Tags: roller socialsite sun

Comments:

Sorry to hear about you being swept up in the layoffs [I guess that means I don't have an inside shpt at a Sun job anymore ;-)! ]. There's a lot of local folks to commiserate with unfortunately. With your talents, though, you should land at the top of the heap. I'll keep an eye peeled for you.

Posted by WillR on January 22, 2009 at 09:11 PM EST #

David, al the best for you! I am pretty sure you will be on an awesome job in the near future. You are one of the pioneers of "social computing"

Posted by Matthias Wessendorf on January 22, 2009 at 09:52 PM EST #

Gutted to hear about all this Dave - loved being in the same company as you, hope it happens again.

Posted by Simon Phipps on January 22, 2009 at 11:45 PM EST #

Hi Dave, as soon as I read that positions in social media had gone, I thought about you and sorry to see you got caught. Roller is an awesome product, and perhaps one day you might be back at Sun once they rebound working on it again. It's testament to your hard work and commitment to Roller that it's as stable and full featured as it is.

Posted by Dave on January 23, 2009 at 12:09 AM EST #

Dave, Very sorry to hear that Sun is losing one of its best assets. Their loss, and I hope that you find a great home very soon. Cheers, Dion

Posted by Dion Almaer on January 23, 2009 at 01:19 AM EST #

Dave, I'm not too worried about you. With your talents and work ethics there is no doubt that you will do well. Stay in touch. Chris R.

Posted by Chris Replogle on January 23, 2009 at 02:57 AM EST #

Sorry, Dave. Very unfortunate for us. If I can help, please do let me know, ok?

Posted by Jim Grisanzio on January 23, 2009 at 03:34 AM EST #

Thanks for all the fish Dave!

Posted by Alexis MP on January 23, 2009 at 05:00 AM EST #

Good luck Dave!

Posted by Arun Gupta on January 23, 2009 at 05:06 AM EST #

Hi Dave. I got caught by an earlier RIF, back in March '06, and it turned out to be the best thing that could have happened to me. I'm now at Amazon, having a blast, working on stuff that I wanted to do at Sun but could never translate into action. Good luck in the transition to the next thing. (And by the way, we're hiring.)

Posted by Geoff Arnold on January 23, 2009 at 07:21 AM EST #

David, very sorry to hear this - I'm confident your skill and experience will mean great stuff ahead! LMK if I can help in any way!

Posted by Gianugo Rabellino on January 23, 2009 at 02:52 PM EST #

Sorry to hear that, Dave. I will catch you over IM sometime.

Posted by Ganesh Mathrubootham on January 23, 2009 at 05:47 PM EST #

Yes, very sorry to hear that. We definitely love your work on SocialSite and hope it continues to flourish.

Posted by Chris Schalk on January 23, 2009 at 09:04 PM EST #

Dave, as Geoff Arnold's comment alluded, change is good. You know how much people enjoy the Roller blog platform and community. And, SocialSite is just smart by enabling existing websites to have social networking features. I enjoyed reading Matthias Wessendorf's comment that you are one of the pioneers of "social computing". Best, Mike

Posted by Michael Levin on January 24, 2009 at 12:08 PM EST #

Bummer, Dave, sorry to hear this. Hope you find a suitable new gig in short order!

Posted by Phillip Rhodes on January 25, 2009 at 09:01 PM EST #

Dave, really sorry to hear your news. I just wanted to say thanks for all the hard work you've obviously put in to Roller, it's a splendid product. I'm still in my infancy in terms of learning what it can do but am enjoying tinkering with it when I can. All the best in finding something suitably challenging in the future! Edd.

Posted by Edd Grant on January 26, 2009 at 08:54 AM EST #

Dave, good luck and thanks for your work on Roller and blogs.sun.com - many of us current and ex-Sunnies discovered the blogosphere thanks to your pioneering work. Let me know if you need someone to buy you a beer - I'll happily oblige :) - Rich

Posted by Rich Sharples on January 26, 2009 at 05:00 PM EST #

Dave, have you thought about Atlassian? We're still hiring, and doing some interesting stuff in the gadget/social space.

Posted by Jed Wesley-Smith on January 27, 2009 at 04:35 AM EST #

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