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Sun kicks off Java Community Process Executive Committee election

For the first time ever, developers vote on who will represent them in guiding Java's future

By Jennifer Wilson, JavaWorld.com, 10/06/00

Page 2 of 4

Second, EC members meet periodically to discuss issues concerning the JCP and the committee itself. Items up for discussion during the meetings this summer included providing better guidance to specification leads, intellectual property, and revising the Java Specification Participation Agreement (JSPA), which details JCP membership.

"We were able to talk about issues that perhaps, in a competitive environment, we wouldn't normally talk about," says Tony de la Lama, vice president and general manager of Inprise/Borland's Java business unit. De la Lama is also a member of the Standard/Enterprise interim committee. "Since we all were really interested in moving Java forward, we were able to put our competitiveness aside to do what was best for the language and the platform. The spirit of cooperation was definitely alive at those meetings."

Effective, but not open enough?

So is Sun's setup working? "I think it's more successful than its predecessor, for sure," says IBM's Rankin. "Have we reached perfection yet? No. I would say it's a more successful model. It's not the ideal successful model yet."

In developing this particular model for the ECs, Sun received feedback from members of other standards bodies. The company incorporated the best features of those organizations and molded them to fit Java's testing and compatibility requirements.

"It's a terrific model, given the circumstances that Sun is the purveyor of Java," says de la Lama. "If Java was invented by another company, maybe we wouldn't have this community voice in the Java standards process."

Although Sun has taken great strides to open up the specification process, it will not relinquish its control. In addition to the permanent seat held by Sun on each committee, a member of the PMO -- albeit a nonvoting member -- chairs each committee. One could also argue that, through the PMO, Sun basically picks the ratification ballot. Many in the industry have criticized Sun about its "open" process. One critic that has made no secret about its qualms with the JCP is IBM.

"We would still like to find a way to have a nonprofit organization end up in the stewardship role," says Rankin, speaking on behalf of IBM. "We think it would alleviate some issues." Rankin cites intellectual property as one of these prickly concerns. As most standards organizations have ironed out the wrinkles surrounding intellectual property, industry players already know what to expect from these groups and can easily decide their level of involvement. As of yet, the ECs have not cleared up the fuzziness surrounding intellectual property in the JCP.

"This becomes problematic when the companies involved are competitors with one another and the hosting company," says Rankin. "It creates problems that you don't run into, or at least you run into differently, when the process is overseen by a nonprofit organization. That said, we're happy to participate in the process as it's currently defined and try to work through those issues within the confines of the current structure."

 

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