DonaldOJDK Blog

Twitter has announced they’ve signed the Contributor Agreement for OpenJDK and plan to be active participants.  Also, they announced that they’ve joined the JCP.

As an ecosystem guy, I find the fact that Twitter signaled their participation to be very important.  It’s not because of their very cool and popular brand, or that they’re loaded with engineers with world class reputations, or that they’re running one of the fastest growing and massively scaled software projects on the planet (although, those all certainly are nice).  From my perspective, it’s the fact they’re not an ISV*.  They do not generate product revenue by selling software licenses.  If OpenJDK were just and only about the Oracle/IBM/SAP’s of the world, plus individuals who sell consultancy hours, or to further academic research, based on their close participation, then I think OpenJDK would eventually suffer for it.

In my mind, there are three waves of participation in open source projects.  First, it’s usually initiated by an ISV and other ISV’s in the same industry.  If the project is very niche, or doesn’t really flourish, that will be it.  But if successful, and if the project is platform/infrastructure oriented, we should expect to see a second wave of participants that are largely software companies, but where the software license is not the product itself.  Twitter would be a great example of this – Twitter is software, but the software license is not the product.  Beyond that, if the project continues to be successful we should see a third phase of participation from non-software companies.  Companies where the software is critical, but it’s not largely the product.  More consumer oriented organizations, where the software is a means to an end.  I’m thinking of banks, insurance companies, auto makers, etc.

If you look at the membership of the Eclipse Foundation you’ll see some recent new members like Airbus, BMW and Continental as examples of the Eclipse ecosystem being fully into Phase 3.

These non-ISV participants serve incredibly important roles.  Simply put, they add diversity to a project.  More specifically, they can best represent end users of the project because they are the end users of the project.  They’re the ones that feel the most pain of any missteps and being able to directly influence outcomes is a huge win for everyone.

If OpenJDK continues on it’s march, we should see more Twitter like participation, and hopefully even broader participation.

- Don

*ISV = “Independent Software Vendor”.  I.e., a company that received a significant percentage of their revenue from software licensing and related activities.

I thought I would quickly share the results of the live audience poll I ran during the Community Keynote this morning at JavaOne.  Thanks to everyone who voted!  Two quick analysis bits – I was surprised that only 9% of JavaOne attendees regularly attend JUGS.  I was expecting a much higher number.  Also, It’s great to see that almost three quarters of the audience is into Java 6 and beyond, I was expecting more people to report they’re still working in earlier versions.

Java Version you used most in the past month? (n=164)
Java 7 = 8%
Java 6 = 77%
Java 5 = 13%
Earlier = 2%

Do you attend JUGs? (n=241)
Monthly = 9%
Quarterly = 11%
Rarely = 17%
Never = 64%

Do you participate in OpenJDK? (n=271)
Use Only = 25%
Contribute = 4%
No OpenJDK = 71%

If you don’t go to JUGs, why not? (n=201)
None near me = 23%
Too Busy = 52%
Perceived Value = 24%

Pace of Moving Java Forward (n=213)
Go Faster = 64%
Current Pace OK = 33%
Go Slower = 3%

I’ve been trying to plan my week at JavaOne (coming up in 3 short weeks) and I’m having a real challenge.  As a relatively new Product Manager in the SE team, there’s absolutely no shortage of areas I could focus on.

One thing that has struck me from reading the program though, is the incredible diversity of the Java Ecosystem.  I always awed with it while I worked at Eclipse, but I see it even more so now that I have a broader scope.  For example, at JavaOne this year there are almost 200 different organizations represented from the very large IBM’s to the very small solo-consultant companies.  Within Oracle, we have representative from all the worldwide development labs and hubs including Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, India, Israel, Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Sweden and the United Kingdom.  You can expect as usual to see lots of talks from the VMware/IBM/RedHat’s of the Java ecosystem — but what sticks out to me is there’s lots of content coming from the SMB orgs like CloudBees, Avast and EngineYard.  I’m also pretty keen to see what the NFL has to say .

- Don

With help from my colleague at SAP, the EclipseCon Europe Java 7 track is now completed and tentatively scheduled.  We have great content spanning all three days that will provide insight into what’s new with Java 7, OpenJDK and hints towards what’s happening next. We have great speakers from a variety of organizations and perspectives. Registration gets you all of the Java 7 track content, all of the EclipseCon sessions and keynotes (not to mention the meals and receptions ).

You should register now!  Register before September 30, and use the coupon code “JAVA7″ during registration, and save €275 off the onsite price (€200 early-bird + €75 for JAVA7).

*All times/sessions are tentative – a full conference schedule will be available at the EclipseCon website in the coming week(s).

Wednesday, November 2:
16:00-17:00 – The 55 new Java 7 features you (probably) didn’t hear about.
17:00-17:30 – This is not your father’s Java

Thursday, November 3:
09:00-10:00 – Project Jigsaw and You
10:30-11:30 – How to Contribute to OpenJDK
11:30-12:00 – IcedTea and IcedTea Web
13:30-14:00 – Avoiding Java Vulnerabilities
14:00-14:30 – Practical Migration to Java 7 – Small codesamples
14:30-15:00 – State of the Enterprise Adoption of Java 7
15:30-16:30 – JavaFX Past, Present and Future and Interop with SWT and Swing

Friday, November 4:
10:30-11:30 – Generics: Evolution in Programming
11:30-12:00 – Java 7 and other new stuff in JDT
14:00-15:00 – Java SE 7 and 8 – Moving Java Forward

Java 7 was formally launched on 7/7 and the full GA download should be available within the next couple of weeks.

The timing created a great opportunity for us to host a “Java 7 Summit” at EclipseCon Europe this fall (November 2-4), and I proud to say that I’ll be leading the summit program along with my colleague Martin Jaekle from SAP.  Our goal is to create three great days of content for those looking to learn more about not only Java 7, but also OpenJDK.

Attendees to the summit will be able to attend all of EclipseCon (and vice versa, of course).

The first step is to solicit great content, in a very short period of time!  The call for participation is only open until August 17th, so please propose your ideas today!

- Don

First off, thank you to Ian Skerrett, who wrote a blog that covered 90% of what was on my mind this morning (and in a much clearer way than I ever could have, I’m sure).  Before you read any further here, go read it.

When I joined the Eclipse Foundation back in 2005, I had a pretty naive perspective that Ian describes as “Open Source is just one big happy family”.  I quickly learned it’s not, it’s a continuum of opinion on multiple dimensions.  Conversationally, it often plays out as license preferences, but it can also play out by development process preferences, scale of participation, diversity expectations and so on.

Which means if your objective is ever to make the entire “Open Source Community” happy, you will fail.  There is just too many different perspectives and opinions on countless dimensions.  You need to focus on making your community happy, and those partners and participants that will help drive the project forward.  Listen carefully to all the feedback you can, as broadly as you can, but never dream of capturing every vote.

And if you’re a “people pleaser”, this is a tough skill to learn.

- Don

Maybe it’s just me, but I’ve noticed lately an increase in people representing themselves as Individuals in communities where they are clearly acting on behalf of an Organization.

In some cases, I understand the motivation – banks, in particular, are extremely cautious about tipping their hands to the public about their IT choices not only for security, but for legal reasons.  I’ve also run into a front or two for a group of people working in national security departments throughout Europe.

But if you work for an IT company, or a large company that is predominantly IT driven, why would you go so far out of your way to hide that fact?  Doesn’t it limit your credibility?

- Don