I'm going to be at JavaOne May 6th-9th and CommunityOne on May 5th. This is going to be the most exciting JavaOne to date for RIA developers.

Here's a few reasons why:

• - Ajax is pretty much mainstream now, toolkits and developers are starting to mature
• - GWT is alive, kicking and bringing Ajax to the non-JavaScript Java developers
• - Flex has hit version 3 and is definitely shaping up nicely
• - AIR gives JavaScript and Flex developers (both viable front ends to Java) desktop access
• - JavaFX was announced a year ago and is expected to make a big announcement soon
• - Java Applets are kind of sort of trying to make a come back;-)

At JavaOne there is dedicated track for the rich web and the next generation web which are packed with talks from Ajax expert including Dion Almaer, Joe Walker and Alex Russell. There's lots of great Ajax, JavaScript and JavaFX content obviously. But there's a number or Flex sessions and at least on AIR session which includes a case study. If you're into GWT there's also no shortage of content on that front. Check out the sessions here and highlights here.

Check out Dave Johnson's talk on JavaScript and DOM Patterns. RedMonk has entire sessions they're going to devote to RIAs. I'm sure Cote will be recording podcast material for RIA weekly. Mik from TaskTop will be there too talking about some really interesting UI related topics that wouldn't typically be considered RIA but his task specific UI ideas do impact how users could use the web and RIAs.

[Update: There's now a wiki page set up for the RedMonk Track.]

I'll be there most of the week with video camera in hand to get some interviews with people doing interesting things related to RIA. Dave an I will also be giving an Ajax Development for AIR session Tuesday at 5pm as well as putting an Ajax UI on your Java App with Dreamweaver Thursday at 4pm both in the Adobe both in the pavillion. Send me an email and let's hook up.

Even Java has caught the twitter bug, just follow @JavaOne2008 or @DukeJava.

Finally Dion and few other smart folk think the future of the languages (well Java, XML and HTML) of the web are looking very similar.

[Upate