javaBin · Norwegian Java User Group
The Early Years
How a small Norwegian Java community became Scandinavia's largest developer conference
javaBin · Norwegian Java User Group
How a small Norwegian Java community became Scandinavia's largest developer conference
I
The story of javaBin begins not in 1998, but two years earlier. In the summer of 1996, a group including Helge Skrivervik from Skrivervik Data, Radio 1, and Schibsted Nett launched Java Brukergruppen i Norge — the first attempt at a Norwegian Java user group. The catalyst was a Norwegian Java applet competition mirroring an international one run by SunSoft. But the Norwegian Java community in 1996 was simply too small. The initiative faded within months.
Two years passed. Java had grown from a curiosity into an enterprise platform. On April 23, 1998, a proper founders' meeting — a stiftelsesmøte — was held in Oslo. The person who organized that meeting was Markus Harboe.
Thor Henning Hetland was not in the room that day.
He arrived at the next meeting. And he was elected president.
Totto had graduated from NTH (the Norwegian Institute of Technology, later NTNU) and entered the Norwegian consulting world through Taskon, one of the early Java and object-oriented consultancies in Norway. What he found was a gulf between what he knew was possible with software and what businesses were actually doing. He had been programming and getting paid for it since age 10 — by the time he arrived in the consulting industry, he had roughly a decade of real programming experience. The gap was particularly striking.
That shock is what built javaBin. Not a hobby. Not a networking club. A reaction to the state of Norwegian software development.
This motivation explains everything about javaBin's character under Totto's leadership: monthly meetings with real technical depth. Practitioners presenting to practitioners. Norwegian-language technical discussion that lowered the barrier. A forum where honest professional questions were welcome. And eventually, a conference made by developers for developers — not for vendors.
II
javaBin was built by volunteers. But some volunteers carried more than others. When Olve Maudal sat down in September 2007 to write about what made JavaZone a success, he had no trouble identifying the answer:
Thor Henning Hetland — “Totto”
President 1998–2008
The engine of javaBin. J2EE architect since 1997. Ran meetings, maintained the website, organized JavaZone, personally welcomed newcomers. Ten years as president. Built the java.no portal and customized its forum by hand.
Stein Grimstad
Vice President
The quiet engine behind operations. Methodical, incredibly effective at logistics. Totto was the visionary and public face; Stein made things actually work.
Carl Onstad
Partners & Sponsors
The third pillar. Handled sponsor and partner relationships for JavaZone. Still runs javaBin Økonomi AS today — more than two decades later.
Markus Harboe
Founder
Organized the April 23, 1998 founding meeting. Listed #2 on the javaBin heroes page. Later moved into cybersecurity (mnemonic).
Bjørn Tveiten
Finance Officer
Re-elected multiple times. Kept the books straight through years of rapid growth.
Kaare Knudsen
Deputy Chair
Active early-to-mid 2000s. Second-term board member by 2006.
Olve Maudal
Board Member 2003+
Core organizer for early JavaZone editions. Later became a well-known C++ conference speaker. His 2007 tribute post is a key historical source.
The java.no “helter” (heroes) page from January 2001 lists one name that stands out: Trygve Reenskaug of Numerica Taskon. Reenskaug is the inventor of the MVC architectural pattern — one of the most influential ideas in the history of software design. That he appeared on javaBin's heroes list says something about the kind of community this was from the very beginning: small, but running deep.
III
A Java user group running its own Java web application. They were eating their own dogfood from the start.
The early java.no was almost certainly a custom-built Servlet/JSP application on Tomcat or similar — no PHP, no WordPress, no off-the-shelf CMS. As the community grew, so did the portal. By 2003, java.no was a full-fledged community platform with news, articles, event archives, meeting minutes, and a personalized newsletter.
Wayback Machine snapshots show how java.no evolved. Each year brought new sections, reflecting the community's growing ambitions:
From a simple set of links in 1999 to 17 navigation items by 2006 — blogs, forums, job listings, a presentation archive, and a dedicated JavaZone section. Each addition represented real community need.
The forum was the heart of the site. In 2005, a new forum was installed: JForum, the popular open-source Java forum engine. Totto installed and heavily customized it himself, integrating it deeply into the java.no portal. The Wayback Machine confirms the platform — archived pages carry the title “JForum — java.no”.
Forum categories revealed the community's priorities: Kom i gang med Java (Getting started), Generelt (General), Rammeverk (Frameworks), Appservere (App servers), Utviklingsmiljø (IDEs), and Mobil Java.
2M+
Hits per Month
2,500
Forum Messages (2006)
1,100+
Registered Users
By 2006, java.no recorded over 2 million hits per month. Content was syndicated to 20+ partner company websites. For a Norwegian-language niche community — these were remarkable numbers.
In fall 2003, java.no added two new channels: RSS feeds (early adopters in the Norwegian web) and a WAP interface at wap.java.no — a mobile version for the WAP phones of the era. Very forward-thinking for 2002–2003, years before smartphones changed everything.
javaBin also maintained a dedicated portalgruppen (portal group) that held regular meetings to develop the website infrastructure — five meetings in 2006 alone, escalating to weekly meetings by 2008–2009 as they built the next generation platform.
IV
The conference that would become Scandinavia's largest developer event started modestly. In 2002, Sun Microsystems initiated a Java conference in Oslo and gave javaBin the responsibility for ensuring technical quality. 350 people showed up, in the basement of Chateau Neuf — a university student venue.
By 2004, javaBin had taken over the entire event, with Sun Microsystems stepping back to become one partner among many. The values were set from the beginning and never changed:
| Year | Attendees | Venue | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | 350 | Chateau Neuf | Inaugural. Sun Microsystems initiative. One day, basement venue. |
| 2003 | ~400 | Chateau Neuf | Growing steadily. |
| 2004 | 800 | Radisson SAS, Holbergs pl. | javaBin takes full control. 23 partners. First venue change. |
| 2005 | 800 | Radisson SAS | Established presence. |
| 2006 | 1,000 | Radisson SAS | Outgrowing the venue. |
| 2007 | 1,400 | Oslo Spektrum | Two days, six tracks. Totto and Stein step down. |
| 2008 | 2,300 | Oslo Spektrum | 47 partners. All-time high at the time. |
| 2012 | 2,800 | Oslo Spektrum | |
| 2016 | 3,000+ | Oslo Spektrum | “15 Years of JavaZone.” |
| 2019 | ~3,200 | Oslo Spektrum | Duke's Choice Award year. |
| 2024 | ~3,600 | Oslo Spektrum | ~200 speakers, ~50 partners. |
From 350 people in a basement to 3,600 at Oslo Spektrum. Same values, ten times bigger. By 2007, JavaZone required an estimated 17,000 volunteer hours per year from roughly 50 professionals — all unpaid.
V
What made java.no's forum special was not the software — it was the culture. Five things set it apart:
Norwegian language. You could discuss “skal vi bruke EJB eller Spring?” in your own language. This lowered the barrier enormously. English-language forums like TheServerSide or JavaRanch were useful, but there was something different about hashing out architecture decisions in Norwegian.
Real-name culture. People posted under their real names because they would meet each other at monthly meetings. This kept discussions civilized in a way that anonymous forums never managed.
Practitioner-focused. Unlike TheServerSide (theoretical, sometimes preachy) or JavaRanch (beginner-focused), java.no discussions were about real problems in real Norwegian projects — banking systems at DnB NOR and Nordea, telecom infrastructure at Telenor, public sector enterprise Java.
The J2EE debates. This was the peak J2EE complexity era. Entity beans vs. session beans vs. skip EJB entirely. Struts vs. Spring (when it emerged) vs. Tapestry vs. JSF. IntelliJ IDEA vs. Eclipse. Norwegian consultants working on enterprise systems brought passionate, practical perspectives.
The hiring pipeline. The job board (stillingsannonser) and career discussions made java.no essential reading for the Norwegian Java job market.
javaBin ran meetings across Norway: 14 per year in Oslo, 6 in Bergen, 3 in Stavanger, and events in Trondheim. Oslo meetings were typically held at Lille Auditorium, Institutt for Informatikk (IFI) at Gaustadalléen 23, or hosted by member companies.
Attendance was typically 100–140 people, even on short notice. Topics ranged from visiting international speakers (Ed Roman on Message-Driven Beans in January 2001, Bruce Tate on Java's future in June 2005) to homegrown presentations on EJB architecture in Norwegian banking.
| Year | Members | Companies | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1998 | — | — | Founded April 23 |
| ~2001 | ~800 | 180+ | Early growth |
| 2003 | 1,400+ | 130+ | Rapid expansion |
| 2004 | 2,300+ | 150+ | Doubled in one year |
| 2007 | 3,200+ | 180+ | 1,100+ registered site users |
| 2024 | ~4,000 | — | 70+ active volunteers |
Norwegian consulting firms shaped the early community. ObjectWare was Totto's employer and javaBin's spiritual home. ObjectNet, Mesan, WM-Data (later Logica, then CGI), Cap Gemini Ernst & Young (later Capgemini), Mogul, Bekk Consulting, and Accenture all had board members or hosted meetings. Sun Microsystems Norway was a natural partner, providing speakers and support from the beginning.
VI
In September 2007, after six years of JavaZone and nearly ten years leading javaBin, Totto and Stein stepped down.
Olve Maudal captured the moment the day after JavaZone 2007:
His guess proved right.
Kjetil Paulsen took over as chair in 2008, followed by Andreas Roe. The organization matured. javaBin Økonomi AS — a separate limited company created in 2007 for JavaZone event risk management — formalized the financial operations that Carl Onstad had built. (Onstad became its CEO, Øyvind Lokling its board chair — both from the original 2003 board.)
By the 2010s, a new generation had arrived: Rustam Mehmandarov led JavaZone for three years and became a Java Champion. Dervis Mansuroglu joined around 2010, led Oslo meetups from 2015, and was named Java Champion in 2019. Markus Krüger helped restart Oslo meetups in 2014 after a quiet period.
The values held. The conference grew. JavaZone 2008 — the first without Totto and Stein — hit 2,300 attendees with 47 partners.
VII
javaBin helped establish Teknologihuset (“House of Technology”) at Pilestredet 56 in Oslo — a collaboration with Macsimum to create a free, open venue for any tech community hosting free events. Over its roughly seven-year run, more than 70 different communities used it. It closed during COVID-19, but it demonstrated javaBin's philosophy in physical form: build infrastructure that lifts the entire community, not just your own.
In 2019, javaBin received the Duke's Choice Award at Oracle Code One in San Francisco — one of the highest recognitions in the Java ecosystem. The award honored what javaBin had been doing for over two decades: building a community that makes developers better.
~4,000
Members
70+
Active Volunteers
3,600
JavaZone 2024
javaBin still runs monthly meetups across Norway. java.no is now a modern Next.js/TypeScript site on Vercel. The JForum is gone, replaced by Slack channels and social media. The job board has been eclipsed by LinkedIn. But the monthly meetings continue, JavaZone sells out every year, and the core value — a community made by developers, for developers — remains exactly what Totto set out to build in 1998.
The java.no portal, the hand-customized forum, the WAP interface, the 2 million monthly hits — those are artifacts of a specific era. What endured is the culture: real-name, practitioner-focused, community-owned, stubbornly non-commercial. Twenty-six years later, it still works.
VIII
This history was compiled from primary sources, annual meeting documents, Wayback Machine archives, and firsthand accounts.