NetBeans User Group Serbia in cooperation with JUG JavaSvet and local Oracle office, joined efforts in builiding Java and NetBeans community in Serbia. They started this initiative together at OpenIT , local IT event organised by international student organisation AIESEC at Faculty of Organisational Sciences, Serbia. 

On Wednesday 26th, Ljiljana Krkic from Oracle Serbia, gave presentation about ThinkQuest the international competition that challenges students to solve problems using technology. Right after the presentation many students signed up for teams to participate the competition. After that Igor Spasic from JavaSvet and Zoran Sevarac from NetBeans Group Serbia talked about open source and Java community and the opportunities to get involved. They outlined the main benefits for students  participating in open source development, to be learning about specific applications and technologies, and gaining experience with tools and teamwork which will be big advantage once they start looking for the job.

On Friday 28th, NetBeans User Group Serbia presented their activities, NetBeans Platform trainings and open source projects, to students  and 70 students (!) signed up for the incoming trainings. Thats twice more than the last year

All together it was great experience. Community groups and university started working together with official Oracle support,  and we belive that this initiative will really push forward the NetBeans and Java community in Serbia. We'll continue with events like this, and next we need to get some local companies involved...