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Effort on the edge, Part 2

A fact-based analysis of the JCP's effectiveness

By Frank Sommers and Sonali Shah, JavaWorld.com, 01/31/03

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"IBM and indeed many JCP members can reasonably assert that Java is successful partly because they participate," Gingell continues. "That's true. The UN is what it is because nearly 200 nations participate in it too. That doesn't cause the five permanent members to stop having their permanence. Of course, the JCP recognizes some of this in the current structure. It should be noted that IBM does not run for its seat on the ECs, having been appointed there by Sun since the ECs' inceptions and eagerly having reaccepted appointments to its seat on the ME [Micro Edition] EC just this year. [IBM's seat] is in essence a permanent seat because it's hard to imagine a circumstance where Sun wouldn't simply reappoint IBM because it just wouldn't be credible to do otherwise, no matter the state of other matters between the companies."

Apart from the special powers the JCP charter grants it, Sun is the busiest JCP member when it comes to shaping JSRs. Of the 183 JSRs in our database, Sun has participated in 166 expert groups. As Figure 5 shows, IBM came in a distant second, with membership in 104 JSR expert groups. Oracle, HP, and Motorola are next in line, participating in less than half as many expert groups as Sun.

Figure 5. Java's movers and shakers: membership in expert groups. Click on thumbnail to view full-size image.

When it comes to initiating and leading JSRs, Sun is also by far the most assertive. But it is no longer true that Sun dominates the JCP's agenda. In total, 531 experts contributed to the 183 expert groups in our database. When counting experts, we counted JCP members, not individuals, since larger organizations are often represented by different employees in different JSRs. For instance, if Oracle had 10 different employees working on JSRs, we counted them as only one (Oracle, the JCP member).

Of those 531 JCP members participating in JSR expert groups, 50 acted as JSR leads. Figure 6 shows which members led the most JSRs. Sun leads, playing leadership roles in 84 JSRs. But that's less than half of the JSRs in our database. Less-dominant JCP members (noted as "Other" in Figure 6) led no less than 31 JSRs, followed by IBM and Nokia. Sun seems to take a hands-off approach when it comes to JSRs dealing with the telecommunications industry: Telecordia, a telecommunication firm, led five JSRs, all relating to that industry.

Figure 6. Distribution of JSR expert group leadership

The dynamics of JSR expert groups is increasingly vibrant. Gingell notes, "While it may be true that different companies have agendas they fulfill in part through their actions in the JCP, those they have sent arrive as problem-solvers. The expert groups are organized around a technical problem and thus often have objective means of examining and working on that problem. The structure of expert groups tends to give the leader a lot of sway over how the work is accomplished."

Expert groups are growing increasingly larger. Figure 7 shows the most populous groups. The least popular ones are often new JSRs that have not gathered enough interest from JCP members yet.

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