Matt Thompson, Sun’s director of technology outreach and open source programs, yesterday claimed that Sun is spending more money per developer in these two nations than elsewhere, with the side-effect that Sun is able to shape local IT curriculums at local universities and other education institutions.
Thompson did not say how much money Sun is investing.
Speaking at Evans Data’s developer relation’s conference in San Jose, California, Thompson was providing an overview of Sun’s experience in constructing developer programs.
Thompson claimed Sun’s Java.net online community, launched within the last two years, is the industry’s fastest growing Java community. Java.net consists of 125,000 members, 1,600 projects and is home to 110 Java User Groups (JUGs).
He advised software and hardware companies trying to build their own online communities to think globally in their reach, by targeting emerging markets, but to also act locally. By acting locally Thompson said companies should, for example, tailor online content to local needs even if content is written in English.
Thomson called English the language of the IT community, particularly in India. However, he said, Sun is preparing to rollout an Indian-based English-language portal for Java developers having initially provided English-language content developed outside of India. He claimed Sun has a community of 100,000 developers in India.
Thompson said providing content for local curriculums has helped to leverage Sun’s technology. We put the curriculum into the university, Thompson said, adding that Sun has the potential to influence future generations of programmers.
He added that, despite this huge potential mass of future developers into the industry, they would not possess the same skills. For example, Thompson said India is producing a ton of very high quality architects while China is going to have a lot more low-level programmers.
