Latest News from Patrick Curran

Focus on Java Mobility

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 16:15:00 EST

For several months now a subset of the JCP's Executive Committees has been meeting as the Java ME Working Group to address Java ME-specific matters. In this column I'll focus on Java ME and on some of the issues that the Working Group has been discussing. (To follow our activities, check out our bulletin board at jcp.org.)

JSR Watch: Summer Housekeeping

Tue, 01 Sep 2009 13:15:00 EDT

It's summer. JavaOne is behind us, and much of Europe is on holiday :) At this time of year life in the JCP slows down somewhat. Nevertheless JSRs continue to move through the process, and this month I'll discuss several of these, and demonstrate how their progress has been facilitated by some of the housekeeping changes we've recently made in our processes.

JSR Watch: JavaOne Wrap-up

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 17:45:00 EDT

The year’s biggest Java community event – JavaOne – finished recently. As it is for others in the Java world, this is a busy time for the JCP. We host various events for our members, we participate in discussions and BOFs, and like all other attendees, we enjoy the opportunity to meet with members of the Java developer community. In this column I’ll review our JavaOne activities, and also discuss the new version of our jcp.org website, which we hope will encourage and enable even more community involvement in our work.

JSR Watch: Here’s to Progress

Fri, 15 May 2009 15:00:00 EDT

The end of the year is an opportunity to review the past year’s activity, and to present this to our Executive Committee (EC) members, to our broader membership, and to the general public. So this month I will summarize our progress during the past year. First, in addition to the ongoing work of moving JSRs through the process (more on this later), the JCP engaged in a couple of new initiatives around transparency and agility.

JSR Watch: Focus on Spec Leads

Tue, 12 May 2009 17:15:00 EDT

The Java Community Process requires the development of not only technical specifications, but also Reference Implementations (which prove that specs can be implemented) and conformance test suites (Technology Compatibility Kits or TCKs), which are used to verify that implementations conform to the specifications.

The JCP's Election Results

Wed, 18 Feb 2009 16:01:00 EST

The JCP’s annual elections for our Executive Committees (ECs) are now complete. As a reminder, during the first round the following members were nominated by Sun and ratified by the community: Nokia, Philips, and IBM for the Java ME EC; and Ericsson, SpringSource, and SAP for the Java SE/EE EC. In the second round of the elections, during which all members are free to nominate themselves, voters had to choose two members for each EC.

Election Time

Thu, 12 Feb 2009 12:00:00 EST

I’m writing this article on the day before the US presidential Election. As happens, we’re also in the middle of the JCP’s annual election cycle. Our elections consist of two phases. The first round, during which members vote for three ratified seats on each Executive Committee (EC), has recently been completed. The second round, for two elected seats on each EC, is about to begin. (The election process is described briefly at http://jcp.org/en/whatsnew/elections and in more detail in our Process Document.

Transparency, Agility, and Democracy

Mon, 22 Dec 2008 12:56:00 EST

A couple of months ago in this column I discussed the ways in which many Expert Groups conduct their business in an open and transparent manner. After that informal review, the JCP's Program Management Office (PMO) conducted a more formal survey, asking Spec Leads what they were doing to meet their obligations under the Java Community Process to operate in a transparent manner.

Java, Security, and Open Source

Fri, 24 Oct 2008 12:15:00 EDT

Now that a significant number of JSRs are being developed as open source projects, I thought it would be interesting to explore the implications of this for security. First, let's start with the basics. Security is fundamental to the Java platform – it's built in to the Java Language and the Java Virtual Machine specifications.

Smoke-Filled Rooms

Tue, 14 Oct 2008 19:15:00 EDT

It's sometimes argued that the Java Community Process's development procedures are secretive and that the general public is excluded from participating. While this may have been the case in the past, it's no longer true. The majority of JCP Expert Groups now do their work in an open and transparent manner, and this mode of operation is becoming increasingly common.

Java, Standards, and Free Software in Europe

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 16:30:00 EDT

Government intervention and direction has long been critical to the development of the computer industry. The Internet, after all, was derived from the ARPANET, developed in the early 1970s from a U.S. government-sponsored research project by the Advanced Research Projects Agency. Today local, national, and supranational governments from Latin America to the United States to Europe continue to influence the development of our industry.

Java and Free Software in Brazil

Fri, 30 May 2008 16:30:00 EDT

A couple of recent Brazil-related news events suggested the theme for this column: Java in Brazil. First, the annual International Free Software Forum (FISL) was recently held in Porto Alegre, Brazil. FISL is one of the world's most important free software conferences, and more than 7,400 people attended this year, including many from Sun's Java organization.

The JCP at the 2008 JavaOne Conference

Tue, 06 May 2008 10:00:00 EDT

As I write this the JCP's Program Office staff is busy preparing for this year's JavaOne Conference, to be held at the Moscone Center in San Francisco from May 6 through May 9. As you read this you're probably at the conference, or if you were unable to attend I hope you've had a chance to follow it via webcasts, blogs, and news reports.

Java, Open Source, Transparency and Community

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 12:45:00 EDT

In last month's article I wrote about Open Source and Open Standards. This month, having just returned from the QCon conference (http://jaoo.dk/london-2008/conference/) in London, during which I discussed the role of community in the JCP, and particularly the role that individual ('non-corporate') developers could play in the organization, I'd like to address some other aspect of openness: transparency of process and community involvement.

Open Source and Open Standards

Sat, 29 Mar 2008 11:00:00 EDT

As I write this article the 2008 FOSDEM (www.fosdem.org/2008/) (Free and Open Source software Developers European Meeting) is about to start. Of course, by the time you read this the meeting will be long over (that's the name of the game with publishing deadlines). I will not be attending, but several members of Sun's OpenJDK (http://openjdk.java.net/) team are gathering in Brussels to meet with the movers and shakers of the free and open source software world. This suggested the topic for this month's column, in which I will explore the relationship between open source and open standards

JSR Watch: Java Mobile and Embedded Spotlight

Fri, 29 Feb 2008 06:30:00 EST

As I recently spoke at the Java Mobile & Embedded Developer Days conference at Sun's Santa Clara campus, and the yearly Mobile World Congress conference was held in Barcelona in February, and the majority of the JSRs that have been active in the past few weeks are in the mobile space, I thought it would be opportune to focus on Java ME in this month's column.

JSR Watch: A Look Back at 2007 and A Look Ahead to 2008

Mon, 28 Jan 2008 11:15:00 EST

The turn of the year provides an opportunity to review the events of the past and to think about what lies ahead, so I'll address these themes in this month's column. But first I'd like to wish you all a peaceful and successful New Year. It's been a year of steady progress for the JCP. Our membership grew by more than 10% to a total of 1,427.

Final Results of the JCP Elections

Thu, 27 Dec 2007 12:00:00 EST

In October we announced the winners of the first round of this year's JCP elections, during which members voted for three Sun-nominated candidates on each Executive Committee (EC). To refresh your memory, the winners on the Java ME EC were Research in Motion (RIM), Samsung, and Time Warner Cable. The Java SE/EE EC winners were the Apache Software Foundation, Red Hat Middleware, and Nortel.

And the Winners Are...

Sat, 01 Dec 2007 16:00:00 EST

The first round of this year's JCP elections is complete. In this round Sun nominates members for election to six ratified seats on the Executive Committees (ECs): three seats on the Java ME Executive Committee (EC) and three on the Java SE/EE EC. A second round of elections takes place in November, during which members vote on candidates who nominate themselves for elected seats on the ECs.

JCP Elections: Time to Choose Your EC Representatives for 2008

Sun, 04 Nov 2007 14:00:00 EST

This is election time for the JCP: five seats on the Java ME Executive Committee (EC) and five seats on the Java SE/EE EC are up for re-election. All JCP members are eligible to vote and may cast one vote for each seat (hence the recommendation to vote often). The voting process is in two stages. During October members cast their votes for three ratified seats on each EC.

JSR Watch: From the New Chair of the JCP

Sun, 07 Oct 2007 08:00:00 EDT

In last month's column Onno Kluyt announced that he would be handing over the role of JCP chair to me. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Onno for all of the effort he's put into the JCP over the past several years, to thank the hard-working staff of the Program Management Office (who thankfully will not be moving on) for their support, and to introduce myself to the regular readers of this column.