THE JAVA COMMUNITY PROCESS

by Tom Welsh, Editor, Web Services Strategies

All Java specifications are created and maintained by the Java Community Process (JCP), which was established by Sun in 1995 and has been modified occasionally since then. Though apparently similar to such organizations as the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), Object Management Group (OMG), and World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the JCP differs in one vital way: Sun retains ultimate control.

The OMG owns and controls CORBA, UML, and all its other specifications. Sun owns and controls Java. Microsoft owns and controls .NET. What is the difference?

The OMG is a democratically managed body that ultimately does what's voted on by its members. Microsoft is a single corporation that does exactly what it chooses -- although, in its own interests, it often consults customers and users before making decisions. The JCP lies somewhere in between these two extremes, but there is some controversy as to which it resembles more.

There are 300-odd JCP members; anyone can join by signing the Java Specification Participation Agreement and paying a fee of US $5,000 or $2,000, depending on their status. Any member can propose a new Java Specification Request (JSR), but the resulting specifications must be adopted through a majority vote of the relevant Executive Committee (EC) -- on which 11 out of 16 seats are held by Sun and its nominees.

This is the crunch. Critics of Sun insist that the power to veto any specification -- or, through its influence over a majority of each EC, to get more or less any measure voted through -- makes the JCP a hollow sham. In other words, Sun is no better than Microsoft -- and maybe even worse (because Microsoft is at least honest about the proprietary nature of its products).

On the other hand, there is no evidence that Sun has ever actually used its power. The JCP is composed of companies and individuals who feel that the enhancement of Java is in their own interests; and, just as at IETF, OMG, and W3C, differing points of view get thrashed out in open debate.

What's more, Sun's 10 nominees on each EC must be approved by a vote of the membership -- and none of the current EC members look much like Sun's poodles. The J2SE/J2EE EC, for instance, consists of the Apache Foundation, Apple, BEA, Borland, Caldera, Cisco, Fujitsu, Hewlett-Packard (HP), IBM, IONA, Doug Lea, Macromedia, Nokia, Oracle, and SAP as well as Sun. It includes hardly a single member that could be expected to vote blindly in support of Sun on any issue.

If anything, the JCP is all too prolific. With more than 100 JSRs in the pipeline, the Java platform is quickly becoming too complicated for anyone but a dedicated full-time specialist to comprehend -- a criticism that might also be leveled at Microsoft's .NET and the proliferating world of XML standards.

-- Tom Welsh, Editor, Web Services Strategies