Sun takes small step to opening Java development process

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by Paul Krill

(IDG) -- Sun Microsystems this week took a step toward allowing greater levels of partner involvement in the Java development process, hoping to quell growing unrest among vendors and developers who fear the company is beginning to mirror Microsoft in the way it controls what is supposed to be an open standard.

The key olive branch being offered by Sun is a draft plan for the next version of the Java Community Process (JCP), JCP 2.0, which would allow for the establishment of a "Blue Ribbon Panel" to audit several key control points in the JCP over which Sun currently has sole ownership.

Those control points, said a Sun spokesperson, will include the juncture at which specifications are accepted or rejected as well as three timing-related points: when to release a specification for private review, when to release a specification for public review, and ultimately the acceptance of a final draft.

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JCP 2.0, however, still allows Sun veto power over any decisions, which negates, in the opinion of one insider, any real benefits of the concession. In addition, JCP 2.0 fails to address one of the more contentious issues surrounding Java: licensing fees.

"This only addresses one part of the problem, which is where technology innovation starts and occurs, but what we've been saying is that the process itself is not a substitution for a standards body," said an IBM spokesperson. "Everyone's talking about an open standard, like XML, where no one makes money off of it, and this doesn't address that."

What could have addressed that is an agreement from Sun to allow the European Computer Manufacturer's Association (ECMA), an open standards body, to assume control of Java, but that initiative now seems completely doomed.

Sun officials exchanged letters with ECMA at the end of last month that ostensibly ended any chance of the two sides working together on the standard, and in fact the ECMA committee that had been overseeing the Java issue was disbanded last week.

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