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News Release 07/12/2006

db4o's First User Conference Concluded

The world's largest user community of object database technology
drives the growth of open source database db4o

LONDON, U.K., Jul. 12, 2006 - db4objects, creator of the leading open source object database for Java and .NET, today announced that the first annual db4o User Conference has successfully concluded. Users from 18 countries and all continents of the world convened in London, U.K. for the two-day session. The conference featured keynotes, workshops, product roadmap discussions, and the launch of db4objects' "Community 2.0" initiative.

The user community is at the heart of db4o's rapid advance among Java and .NET developers. With 15,000 registered users and 500,000 downloads, db4o's user community establishes the popularity of object database technology especially for zero-admin environments - as an integral, embedded part of software-enabled products.

"We owe everything to the community," said Christof Wittig, CEO of db4objects. "From the outset, the user and developer community has helped to shape and refine the product design and direction. The very active discussion forums add tremendous value to Java and .NET developers who seek to persist objects efficiently and thus cut development cost and time. The db4o User Conference marks the latest milestone in this incredible success story: the most passionate members of the community, who have been working together for months and years over the Internet, met for the first time in person."

The User Conference opened with Andrew Cowie, member of Linux Australia, speaking about db4objects' current and future community policies. The company honored 33 db4o Most Valued Professionals (dVPs) for their community contributions with the launch of the new dVP program.

Improved Online Collaboration Infrastructure Launched

At the conference, db4objects released the community collaboration platform "Community 2.0", which expands the existing forum infrastructure with unified Wiki and blogging functionality. In the newly created Projects section, developers can now showcase their projects for use and contribution by the community at large. Example projects include: ETH Zurich's Avon project, a semantic data management system based on db4o; the world's first podcast channel on object databases; and Oomega, a model driven approach to simplify software engineering.

The db4o core team and users also discussed design questions and suggestions for db4o's future product roadmap. By opening up its product management process to the user community, db4objects is able to continuously provide software that better matches user needs. The discussion was based on the results of the db4o User Survey 2006, in which more than 1,000 users had the opportunity to express their preferences for the future product direction of db4o.

Use Case Studies from Intel and Bosch

Sean DeMartino from INTEL and Sebastian Hubrich from BOSCH Sigpack presented real-life use case studies with db4o: Intel uses db4o to speed up application development without contorting OO application design through relational constraints. Bosch uses db4o to cut commissioning time of the world's most advanced pick-and-place robotic systems used to package products like apple pies, cookies, and pharmaceuticals.

Keynote sessions included db4o's founder and chief software architect Carl Rosenberger on the "State of the Object", where he shared the genesis of db4o. Carl underlined how important the user-driven approach has been to make the product as widely used as it is today.

CEO Christof Wittig outlined in his keynote "State of db4objects", how the company managed to build the world's most popular object database in no time. He shared how the open source, user-based business model drives the adoption of db4o to become the most commonly used object-oriented persistence solution used by every Java and .NET developer.

Ted Neward Keynote "Objects, All the Way Down"

Ted Neward's keynote, "Objects All the Way Down," highlighted that few people really understand object-orientation as Alan Kay (the creator of Smalltalk and generally considered the "Father of Objects") envisioned it. In his presentation, Ted spoke about how the original vision for objects was intended, how we can use modern tools (like db4o and the Naked Objects UI framework) to achieve that vision, and where and when that vision is appropriate in a world of distributed components and service-orientation.

Break-out sessions saw workshops on performance tuning and the db4o Replication System (dRS), presented by the authors of the recently published book "The Definitive Guide to db4o," Stefan Edlich and Jim Paterson, as well as open Q&A time slots with db4o's core developer team.

"I learned some really helpful use cases that will allow me to integrate db4o more effectively in my own projects. "says Ulysses Wong from Wireless Intellect Labs, Singapore. "I am really impressed with the diversity of applications in which other developers are using db4o - especially for their core development activities. I look forward to attending next year!"

About db4objects, Inc
db4objects, Inc (www.db4o.com) provides db4o, the only native object database for both Java and .NET, available under open source and commercial licenses. With more than 300,000 downloads and many more deployments, db4o is used by some of the world's most innovative companies, including Boeing, BMW, Bosch, Seagate, and Intel. db4objects is a privately held company based in San Mateo, California, and backed by noted Silicon Valley luminaries including Mark Leslie, founding CEO of Veritas, Jerry Fiddler, founding CEO of Wind River, and Vinod Khosla, founding CEO of SUN Microsystems.

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