Ahmed Hashim is the leader of the Egyptian Java User Group . Since very recently, he is also a Java Champion . In this interview, he (pictured on the right, with the author of this article) talks about the JUG's upcoming annual conference (which needs sponsors!) and the state of Java in Egypt.

Can you say something about how the Egyptian JUG started?

I started it in October 2005. I started by simply building a website and mailing list on my own. Then I invited my close friends, who I knew were interested in Java and community activities. We were a small group of five and grew from there. Now we have 1,200 subscribers to the mailing list!

Now, it is like any other Java User Group (JUG). In other words, it is a group of people sharing the same interest, which is Java. Some are just beginning to learn Java, while others are already professionals in the language. But their main common interest is Java. The JUG gives them the opportunity to have social and technical meetings, to exchange knowledge amongst themselves and to progress in their learning.

What are some of the popular technologies for developers in Egypt?

The standard technologies such as JSF, Struts, AJAX, Hibernate, and EJB are very popular here, because of the popularity of enterprise and web development. We also have desktop developers, mainly using Swing. I know a few guys using RCP for desktop application development, for example. Mobile development via J2ME is very popular too, with many companies focusing on that here. For example, Nokia usually uses Egyptian developed applications, such as those related to prayer times.

How popular is Java compared to .Net in Egypt?

.Net is much more popular. My rough estimate is that 75% of developers are on .Net, with the remainder on Java. (PHP is also popular, by the way, so that would take up some part of the percentage.) Nevertheless, I believe that almost all developers would like to know more about Java, about the differences with .Net, and the main benefits of the one over the other.

What role does Egypt play in North Africa in terms of application development?

Actually, Egypt is the leader in the area, not just of north Africa, but of all the Arab countries and the Gulf. We have a lot of Arab companies from Kuwait and Saudi Arabia opening development centers in Egypt and then focusing only on sales in their own countries. This is because we have more qualified and available resources than others in the area. One can easily open a company here and develop applications. Plus, resources here are cheaper than in most other Arab countries. The universities here play an important role, because without these we wouldn't have the skilled resources in the first place. We have about 5000 graduates per year in the IT sector. Another important factor is that the government really supports investment in the IT sector, which is the reason that we now recently had, for example, two additional new large Indian IT companies opening in Egypt.

So can you say something about JUGs in other Arab countries?

There are no JUGs anywhere in this part of the world, except here in Egypt. But, hopefully that will change!

Tell us something about the meetings that the Egyptian JUG holds?

we have regular meetings and we have an annual conference. We hold our meetings at Cairo University. We've had a lot of interesting technical meetings about SOA and system modeling, as well as new features in Java 5. Jasper Reports was another useful topic, as well as a recent Spring presentation by Alef Arendson. The turnout ranges from about 80 to 100, normally.

The upcoming annual conference is in March 2008. Speakers will be Chuk Munn Lee and Ed Burns from Sun, Alef Arendson from SpringSource, and we have, for the first time, local speakers as well. Mohammed Norldeen (OpenEJB 3) and Hassam Kareem (Enterprise Application Integration) and myself (Aspect Oriented Programming). We decide based on the needs of the community. For example, there's not much Spring development in Egypt, so that's why we have a SpringSource speaker.

At our last conference , we had 370 attendees. We had seven presentations and no one left before the day was over! Many thanks to our sponsors (ITIDA, ITSoft, SAND, eSpace), who helped and supported us during this technical day. ( Click here for lots of info about the previous conference.)

Anything special you want to say about the upcoming conference?

Yes, we need sponsors! I hope that we can get enough support from local and multinational companies to be able to double the number of attendees. There are several benefits to sponsoring our conference. First, if a sponsor is looking for people to hire, we can announce it on the mailing list and we can advise them about good candidates. Also, the conference is a great marketing opportunity for sponsors, of course, especially considering the place of Egypt in the programming world, as discussed above.

Right now, we might have to cancel the conference because we will not have a suitable place for the event without sponsors. Currently... we have no sponsors at all, though I am negotiating with Etisalat, Sun Microsystems, ITSoft, and Orascom at the moment.

What are the benefits of being a JUG leader?

You'll be very popular within the community! You'll be doing something good, which is spreading Java among local developers. You'll receive a lot of job offers. (If you are working as a consultant, this will guarantee a lot of jobs, really!) Being a JUG leader will impact your skills, you'll be aware of the latest technologies and developments around the world.

There's also a very active mailing list for JUG leaders. It is active and helpful. First, you will find JUG supporters, like java.net, O'Reilly, Sun Microsystems on the mailing list. They'll give you giveaways for your JUG events. You'll learn from the experience of the other JUG leaders. For example, I think Stephan Jansen from Belgium has a lot of experience in this type of work, having been involved since the 90's. You'll be connected to the JUGs around the world. Sometimes, there may be some sort of communication and visits between JUGs. Also, Sun evangelists are also on these mailing lists and so they'll help you if you're looking for a speaker for an event, for example.

Can you give some tips and tricks for running a JUG?

If you are someone who would like to start a JUG, just start small, by building a simple website, with a mailing list. These can both be hosted on java.net. Then you make an announcement at local universities and companies around you about your JUG. Organize with a university to hold a meeting. Then find a Java geek to talk about some interesting topic, to attract more members, and to make the meeting genuinely valuable. Make it fun! Try to get some giveaways for your members. ( More info here on java.net.)

So, say I'm in an area where there is no JUG. What would you tell me to do?

You should start a JUG immediately! If you are close enough to an existing JUG, you should contact that group for support.