Greetings, and welcome to Observer/Observable, my new editorial blog on JavaWorld. As an editor in the high technology space, I've been engaged by the evolving technology and culture of Java programming for more than 10 years. In that time I've edited and published hundreds of articles related to Java technology; created and launched a couple of online communities for software developers (one long forgotten, the other right here on JavaWorld); written articles, conducted roundtables, and so on. Best of all, I've worked with many knowledgeable and insightful writers and technologists, as well as some dedicated and talented editors. Collectively, they've taught me a bit about Java technology and a lot about its evolution, particularly through the powerful vehicles of culture and community -- not to mention sweat, inspiration, and persistence.

In the couple of years since I last wrote for JavaWorld, the Java platform and community have gone through significant changes, most notably the shift from Sun's stewardship of the platform to Oracle's ownership. While that statement may put a too-fine point on it (Sun exercised ownership rights, too), the conceptual shift from stewardship to ownership is huge. It has rocked, and will continue to rock, the Java ecosystem.

As Dustin Marx noted this week on his JW syndicated blog, we'll have the opportunity next Tuesday (February 15, 10 a.m. PST) to hear Oracle's official view of Java-related developments over the past year. This first State of the Union will be an OTN TechCast with Oracle VP Ajay Patel, who will reportedly also give a glimpse of the company's vision for the future of Java. I plan to listen in, and if there's an opportunity to ask questions, I have a few.

In the meantime, however, I'm interested to know what JW's readers and contributors (past and future) think about Oracle's influence on Java so far. Not all influence is direct, so no need to focus on the obvious, or the FUD. I'm more interested in subtleties and contradictions. For instance:

• While it's been not unexpected to see Oracle aggressively defending its Java licensing rights, one of the surprises of the past year has been the company's skill at wooing powerful allies into the OpenJDK camp. In fact, there's been a "win some, lose some" effect in play here: even as Oracle has vigorously defended its trademark and intellectual property rights in court of law and the JCP, it has also formed surprising alliances, first with IBM, then with Apple, and most recently with the Brazilian JUG, SouJava, whose Bruno Souza it has nominated as Apache's JCP replacement.
• Similarly, Oracle's well documented unilateral stubbornness in the JCP has cost the Java standards body dearly; but first defector Doug Lea is nonetheless a co-signer on the initial draft OpenJDK governance bylaws -- which if anything, more transparently define and restrict the rules of community engagement with OpenJDK. Perhaps the difference is simply in that transparency of ownership and control, something Apache Foundation member Stephen Colebourne recommended more of in his call for a JCP split (still an important reference document for the future of Java platform governance, in my opinion).
• Also related, possibly, is an emergent shift in how Java developers view the prospect of a Java fork. A FOSS mainstay, code forking has been traditionally received with reasonable dread by the majority of (especially corporate) Java developers. From this perspective, an upside of IBM's dropping Harmony and joining with Oracle on the OpenJDK project is the enhanced stability of the Java platform RI. But living with the evidence that "Java as we have known it is over" may have changed that view somewhat. If Oracle's vision for the future of Java doesn't stack up, even mainstream developers could be on path to adopting the philosophy of "let a thousand flowers bloom" -- especially given the disruptive effects of distributed version control/GitHub. (It's also worth noting that Simon Phipps's OpenJDK governance scorecard matrix includes an evaluation based on "feasibility of forking." Current score: 0.)

There's more of course, but for now that's what I've got. How about you? What's stood out for you about this first year of Oracle's ownership of Java? How's the future of Java shaping up from where you're sitting?