I spent last week in India attending the Great Developer Indian Summit (GDIS)  that took place in Bangalore, in the Institute of Science, one of the most prestigious graduate schools in the country.  I’ve been wearing  two hats there – a speaker and a vendor – and can testify that organization of the conference (Saltmarch Media) was great –transportation, hotel, food, parties – all were top notch.  I’d say it’s the most speaker-friendly conference I’ve been so far, and I usually speak at three-four conferences a year.

The first two days were dedicated to .Net, which I spent traveling, sightseeing and blogging about India. The third day was devoted to Web technologies and the last two days were about Java. More than three thousand people have attended this event.

The conference featured more than 100 presentations and workshops delivered by about 40 speakers from around the world. These are some of the names that you may know:

- Jesse James Garret, who coined the popular acronym AJAX
- Greg Murray from Sun Microsystems. He’s a creator of jMaki
- Dr. Venkat Subramaniam, an excellent speaker and the proponent of agile development.
- Brian Sam-Bodden, Java Author and Ruby geek

It was not a surprise that lots of the talks during the Java track were about dynamic languages that can run on JVM. This seems to be a trend. While running a workshop on developing rich Internet applications with Java and Adobe Flex, I've asked the audience, "How many people know Java?" About 95% of people raised their hands. These days, Java often is being labeled as boring or not sexy. But after visiting Bangalore and comparing it with non-technical Indian cities, I was thinking to myself, "Java played (and keeps playing) the crucial role in the evolution of India".

I’ve had many conversations with local software developers. The word local may not be exactly right, because a number of people moved to Bangalore just because the IT jobs are here. The other IT hubs are Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune, and Mumbai.  People complained about the cost of living getting higher and higher in Bangalore. Rent of a two bedroom apartment in a good area costs about $1000 USD. Morning commute is a problem – driving 10 miles during a rush hour takes 1.5 hours. The food is more expensive too. No wonder that Bangalore software developers are demanding higher salaries.

This is what I’ve learned from these private conversations (take it for what it worth):

1. About 10% of local software developers enjoy programming. Ninety percent are just making a better living. I wonder what would be the numbers among American developers? I’d guess 20/80.

2. People working remotely for American companies want more control, “Just give me a task, and I’ll complete it”.  I explained, that it’s possible only after the trust between American and Indian parties is  established.

3.Turnover  in consulting companies is high mainly because of poor management.  People work from 10AM to 10PM on a regular basis. They do not mind, but just expect some tokens of appreciation like free food after hours. In product companies it’s different – they enjoy 40-hours week and can build their careers the same way we do in the USA. These people seldom quit - mainly for a better paycheck.

4. A guy stopped by asking for a career advice. He’s an experienced programmer but is asking, "What’s the best way to switch to project management?". I went,
“Do you like programming?”
“Yes, I really do”
“So why do you want to switch?”
“I am 35,  and since I’m not a manager yet, my relatives think that I’m underachiever”.  I can’t imagine that in the USA a person would want to become a manager just to please family members and neighbors.

In general, visiting this event was a great experience for me. The summit finished with the first developers' awards that were given away at the Java Teenage Party. It was not a party for teenagers. Java turns 13 this year.  The party featured solid rock bands and a birthday cake.

Overall, this was an interesting and educational trip and a great technical conference. GDIS will become an annual event, and if you’ll get a chance, be there next year.