GeoServer is an open source server aimed at publishing geospatial data. Built on 
open source and open standards, GeoServer can be used as a tool by anyone wanting 
to connect to the geospatial web and publish or manipulate data with web services.

GeoServer has been the reference Web Feature Service implementation for a number of 
years. Over time additional services have been contributed: Web Mapping Service, 
WMS-SLD, and Web Coverage Service. In order to facilitate this development 
GeoServer has evolved into an extensible platform capable of supporting new typesof 
web services.  Just as Ruby on Rails emerged from extracting a framework out of 
Basecamp, so too has GeoServer's extensible core come from concrete experience of 
adding new services to an existing product.

An instrumental part of this evolution has been a move to the Spring framework as a 
technology base.  Spring is an extremely popular light weight layer Java/J2EE 
application framework that is a joy to work with, bringing GeoServer's emphasis on 
ease of use to developers as well as users.

Part of building an extensible platform is providing apis and utilities that allow 
developers to build new functionality quickly and easily. The presentation will 
focus on GeoServer from a developers point of view.  From an architectural 
overview, to how to extend GeoServer with plugins, to how to build your own 
application with GeoServer components.