Highlights from Day 1 at Alliance of Civic Technologists Congress 2026

Emerson Castaneda — Thu, 22 Oct 2026 22:42:15 +0000

Hosted by Florida Community Innovation

Started strong with Matt Zagaja from Code For Boston presenting “How Code for Boston Selects Projects and Recruits Volunteers.” Really solid insights on civic tech intake and team assembly. The core framework they shared for turning ideas into impact is a clear four-stage process:

Intake & Sourcing
Qualification & Vetting
Team Formation
Partner Alignment

Simple, practical, and very transferable for any volunteer-driven civic tech group.

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Next up: Because Transparency Matters — Michael Morisy from MuckRock on “News and Media for Tech and Social Good” (supported by Knight Foundation). A strong reminder of how open data, FOIA tools, and independent media can power accountability and social good work.

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Then a look at Stall Catchers by Human Computation Institute — an Alzheimer’s citizen science game (part of EyesOnALZ). Players help researchers identify stalled blood vessels in brain images. Citizen scientists can accelerate work that would take labs much longer, contributing to the search for treatments for one of the world’s leading causes of death.

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Followed by “Civic Tech to Help Farmers through Citizen Science,” featuring Farmer Irrigation Nation project from Indiana University in partnership with Florida Community Innovation. Farmers across the U.S. share basic data on when, where, and how they irrigate. In return they can access field-scale insights and regional trends while helping improve agricultural water-use research.

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Closed Day 1 with “AI Coding Tools in Volunteer Projects,” presented by Code For Boston and BetaNYC. Real-world cases on how AI coding assistants can support small volunteer teams — with clear emphasis on accuracy, transparency, and responsible use.

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Great mix of practical process, transparency tools, citizen science, and thoughtful AI adoption.

Special thanks to Florida Community Innovation for hosting such a welcoming and well-organized gathering, and to Caroline Nickerson for making the event wonderful, keeping everyone informed throughout, and fostering real inclusivity for all participants — whether in person or virtual.

Grateful for the sessions and the community at Alliance of Civic Technologists Congress 2026.

MicroProfile Booth Experience at DevNexus 2024

Emerson Castaneda — Thu, 05 Sep 2024 23:01:12 +0000

I'm currently serving as the Committer Representative for the MicroProfile Working Group (MPWG). At this conference, I had the opportunity to participate at the MP booth. This was a valuable opportunity to connect with the MicroProfile community and gain insights from developers and users about their experiences. In late 2023, I was elected to this role, and I'm committed to use this position to bridge the gap between the community and the MicroProfile committers.

Content

Key Takeaways
- Tuesday, Apr 9 - Workshops Day
- Wednesday, Apr 10 - Day 1
- Thursday, Apr 11 - Day 2
- Friday, Apr 12 - Extra Day
Networking
- From MicroProfile and Jakarta EE Ecosystems
- From Java Industry Leaders
- Valuable Connections from Conference Staff and Attendees
Action Items
- Relevant topics from the workshops
- Revisiting Recommended Books
- Following emails
Overall Experience

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Key Takeaways:

In the heart of downtown Atlanta, the Georgia World Congress Center (GWCC) recently hosted the 20th edition of DevNexus. This year’s event covered a broad spectrum of topics including Agile, Architecture, AI, Cloud Infrastructure, Cloud Native, Core Java, Frameworks, Jakarta EE, Java Platform, Security, Tools and Techniques, and Web Technologies.

Tuesday, Apr 9 - Workshops Day

While my conference registration didn't include workshops or the JUG summit, the afternoon offered an exciting alternative: The DPE (Developer Productivity Engineering) Tour: Atlanta, organized by The Gradle Team.

This tour featured four sessions that focused on enhancing developer productivity:

Build Scans: Brian Demers, Developer Advocate at Gradle, showcased how to debug failed builds, identify performance bottlenecks, and manage dependencies more effectively.
Crafting a Delightful Testing Experience: Roberto Perez Alcolea, Sr. Software Engineer at Netflix, explored approaches for delivering a smoother and more enjoyable testing experience for JVM engineers.
Boosting Productivity with IntelliJ IDEA: Trisha Gee, Lead Technical Evangelist at Gradle, shared tips and tricks for maximizing the potential of this popular IDE.
Setting Up a Cloud-Based Development Environment: Danny Duval, Principal Architect at Delta, provided insights on establishing a cloud-based development environment.

For more details, you can visit the DPE Tour website.

To end the day, I had the pleasure of attending the JUG leaders' dinner at the Hilton Garden Inn Atlanta Downtown.

Wednesday, Apr 10 - Day 1

Day one kicked off with a warm welcome from Pratik Patel and Vincent Mayers. The rest of the day was packed with thought-provoking keynotes:

Neal Ford discussed the complexities of software architecture in What Makes Software Architecture So Intractable? - video available here,

Sharat Chander explored the future of Java in Moving Java Forward Together - video available here,

Cassandra Chin offered a unique perspective on teaching kids to code in Tech Parents Do's and Don'ts for Teaching Your Kids Programming - video available here.

Java enthusiasts closed a busy day with a social hour organized by the JCP Program at the Glenn Hotel's SkyLounge. The event, which also celebrated the JCP Program's 25th anniversary, provided breathtaking views of Atlanta's downtown skyline and a fantastic opportunity to network with fellow leaders and colleagues from around the world. Attendees enjoyed delicious appetizers, celebratory cake, refreshing drinks, and a lively music performance by the NullPointers.

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Thursday, Apr 11 - Day 2

On the second day, I filled my schedule with informative sessions:

Jacqui Read's keynote on Knowledge Management for the Technically Inclined - watch the video here,

Hugo Guerrero's talk on API Management as Code: A declarative approach to handling API artifacts
Kelly Morrison's session on AI Proof Your Career With Software Architecture.

I concluded the day with the exciting Mega Raffle and conference closing. Later, I joined attendees at the Pour Taproom in Atlanta's West Midtown. This unique spot boasts a self-serve system, letting you explore a vast selection of beers, ciders, and wines at your own pace. To top off the night, we belted out some tunes at Metro Diner and Bar's karaoke night.

Friday, Apr 12 - Extra Day

To wrap up the event, the organizers treated participants to a delightful picnic lunch in CabbageTown Park, followed by a fun-filled bowling afternoon.

Networking:

DevNexus provided an excellent opportunity to connect with people across the industry. Here are some key connections I made:

From MicroProfile and Jakarta EE Ecosystems:

It was fantastic to finally meet some familiar faces and collaborate at the MicroProfile booth. Special thanks to Emily Jiang, Ondro Mihályi, Arjan Tijms, Reza Rahman, Michael Redlich, Edwin Derks, Ivar Grimstad, Tanja Obradović, and Rustam Mehmandarov for the great discussions and ongoing support

From Java Industry Leaders:

Meeting leaders from the Java industry was a highlight. I had the pleasure of connecting with Sharat Chander, Heather VanCura, Trisha Gee, Mala Gupta, Brian Benz, and Marcus Hellberg, among others. Your insights and enthusiasm are truly inspiring.

Valuable Connections from Conference Staff and Attendees:

A memorable DevNexus experience included connecting with many talented Java enthusiasts.I was fortunate to meet and chat with Jorge Cajas, Jonathan Vila, Francisco Contreras, and the dedicated leaders of the Latin America Java User Groups, including Eudris Cabrera. It was also a pleasure to connect with Alberto Salazar, Brayan Munoz, Paula Santana, Hillmer Chona and the rest of the crew.

A few unexpected encounters included Fred Peña, a near-classmate, and Arturo Parra from the Charlotte Java User Group. I enjoyed meeting Matt Raible, Rodrigo Graciano, and Ken Kousen, whose work I've admired for some time. And of course, the hundreds of visitors to the MicroProfile booth!

Action Items:

Relevant topics from the workshops:

Compilation of Architectural Design Patterns with practical demonstration of strengths and weaknesses in Architectural Design Patterns Deep Dive by Daniel Hinojosa
Practical approach toward a popular product nowadays, OpenRewrite, in Fundamentals of Migration Engineering with OpenRewrite by Jonathan Schneider and Olga Kundzich

Revisiting Recommended Books:

Fundamentals of Software Architecture: An Engineering Approach by Mark Richards and Neal Ford
Software Architecture: The Hard Parts by Neal Ford, Mark Richards, Pramod Sadalage and Zhamak Dehghani
Building Evolutionary Architectures: 2nd Edition Automated Software Governance by Neal Ford, Rebecca Parsons, Patrick Kua and Pramod Sadalage
Head First Software Architecture by Raju Gandhi, Mark Richards, and Neal Ford
Communication Patterns: A Guide for Developers and Architects by Jacqui Read

Following emails:

I have received follow-up communications from several organizations present at DevNexus, including Digma, Moderne, LaunchDarkly, Endor Labs, Sonatype, Snyk, Azul, Vaadin, and Couchbase. Each has offered valuable insights, trials, and opportunities for further engagement.

Overall Experience:

DevNexus 2024 met and exceeded my expectations. The presentations were insightful, the networking opportunities were abundant, and the community spirit was palpable. I left the conference feeling inspired, equipped with new knowledge and ideas, and eager to continue the conversations and collaborations sparked during the event. I highly recommend DevNexus to anyone looking to grow in this field and am already looking forward to the next edition.

DEV Community: Emerson Castaneda