New DivaBlog

Java wants you to Love Safely

Just looking at some of the off-branded tschatskes from JavaOne. Some of them are pretty clever and show a distinct sense of humor. For instance:

Opens up to reveal...

Gosh I hope nobody gets fired over this one. Shows a human side to Sun Marketing...:-)

Here are a couple of other fun posts on the same topic...I was amused to see a blog on the same topic by David Delabassee's on blogs.sun.com, which in turn pointed me to a really positive "just look how progressive Sun has become" blog written by Stephan Janssen

More fun than JavaOne

I must confess that the tendency for vendors to consider their conference sponsorship a down-payment on holding an audience hostage has finally taken its toll. I just had to get away...

Picture taken by Duncan Davidson and hosted here

Lucky for me, my friends at O'Reilly (yes, I know I'm a groupie) are holding the Where 2.0 conference today and tomorrow, just a few blocks away from JavaOne. Yes, there is Java content at Where, so this isn't an entirely gratuitous mention.

Many of my Sun friends were surprised to hear that I thought Where was gonna be cool...but its so cool. So far I've gotten to see David Rumsey talk about maps in historical context (this was one of the great talks at OSCON last year) and have also witnessed Microsoft's Virtual Earth folks making complete fools of themselves with a butterfly suit.

It just doesn't get any better than this

Cross-linking is a b*tch

I've been cross-linking all my posts to java.net for JavaOne, but this one is just gonna be easier to post a link to. Must search out that bloged tool that James Gosling is always going on about (supposedly makes cross-posting really easy).

Danese

More Unsung Heroes - SeeBeyond Acquisition

Sitting in Scott McNealy's keynote next to two Sun lawyers, Cliff Allen and Matt Marquis. Usually you don't get to see lawyers at JavaOne, but today is special for Cliff and Matt, because they worked like dogs for the SeeBeyond acquisition, which was announced today. Makes me think about how many people are behind each minute at a big event like this. Cliff and Matt's moment of fame lasted about 90 seconds, and then we were on to the next announcement. Still, its totally great to see what you've been working on hit the public wires.

Mustang and Licensing

Five years after I offered to quit Sun because I despaired of ever seeing a real attempt at building community behind Java source code, it seems they've finally thought again about participation and have fashioned a plan that is pretty close to what I was recommending...back in the day :-). Except that is for the licensing.

I'm at JavaONE listening to Graham Hamilton talk about the JDL, JRL and JIUL licenses for Java. Yes, that's right. They've taken the SCSL apart into 3 licenses!!! The JRL has been around for awhile (last JavaONE in fact) and specifies what you can do if you're a researcher. In terms it is not substantially different than SCSL's advice for researchers. Then there's the JDL, which is all the commercial terms. Finally, there's this new license that allows you to compile fixes into YOUR copy of Java, so long as you're not distributing it (eg. for personal use)...in most Open Source licensing situations that last one isn't even needed, since the licenses trigger on distribution, and personal use is an "anything goes" type of situation.

Yesterday Graham said that he's happy to have Apache create Harmony, but it looks like wasted effort when you can join Mustang and "influence the future direction", but only under the still-proprietary licensing scheme that is SCSL cleaved in thirds.

Looking at Sun's decision today (finally) to truly open source J2EE reference implementation, which I have to believe was heavily influenced by the recent IBM acquision of Geronimo's principle engineers (through GlueCode)...I have to wonder how long it will take Harmony to have a similar effect on Mustang. Still, its gratifying to see Sun finally work to build community in the actual development of Java Technology upon which so many depend.

Cuddling up to GlassFish

As I was leaving Sun a few months ago, I said there were still lots of good Sun people who were working to promote more open source. Today's release of J2EE reference implementation under CDDL is a tribute to the ongoing persistence of J2EE Director of Engineering, Jim Driscoll. A couple of weeks ago I got a call in Bangkok from Jim, who was calling (me as OSI representative) to talk about Sun's plans for GlassFish. He's been soldiering away on this topic for several years now and it seems he's finally prevailed. Yeah, Jim!. I checked with Geir Magnussen yesterday, and it seems Apache considers CDDLv1.0 license to be recombinant with ASLv2.0. I think that means that Geronimo can pick up any remaining things they need. And Jim's team finally gets to work in Open Source! Jim is an Apache guy from way back (just to pal around with James Duncan Davidson and Jason Hunter), so he knows what to do :-)

IBM and Pride

Okay, already there have been some really funny moments in Jonathan's keynote. In a minute I'll write up the F.O.S.S. bit. But first I must give a nod to the IBM lovefest. Jonathan just played a video where an IBM VP said how much IBM loves Java, even after 10 years. And in conclusion Jonathan said, "So, if you see an IBMer around JavaONE, go ahead and give them a hug"...and then (here's the really funny part) he added, "Heck, last weekend was Gay Pride...Go ahead and give them a big kiss!". Kid you not.

Blogging @ JavaONE

For the duration of JavaONE I'll be blogging at http://weblogs.java.net/blog/danese/ and mirroring here. My good friends at O'Reilly secured me a pay-it-backward Miracle Ticket for JavaONE in exchange for blogging what I see. Such a deal!

Intel and the World OSS Community

WARNING...THIS BLOG FINALLY TALKS ABOUT SOME OF WHAT I'M WORKING ON FOR INTEL

I'm a people person. I like to connect folks up so they can learn from each other. This was one of the things that attracted me to Open Source, the chance to build community.

In my last few years of travel around the world, watching governments come to conclusions and enacting policies around Free and Open Source software, I've found myself bumping into the same learning curve over and over. Different countries are at different places on the curve, but eventually they all run over the same paradoxes, the same risks, the same potential for good outcomes, the same implementation issues. For this reason I got involved last year with the compliation of a new book of essays about Open Source that we expect to see coming out from O'Reilly this year, Open Sources 2.0. I specifically wanted to make sure the content of that book included essays from around the entire world of Open Source, both from current government adoption projects and from authors contemplating new and unexpected uses of Open Source, which occur worldwide.

But for many people reading that others have trodden the path is not as helpful as a real conversation. So for some time I've been thinking about how to create a forum for real conversations that will scale and build into a community of government implementors. For the record, this work and the opportunity to pursue it is what really drew me to Intel.

Last week I got to spend two full days in Bangkok testing out a part of the potential infrastructure of this new community, as host of an Intel-sponsored summit for government implementors of Open Source-based programs worldwide. From my (admittedly biased) point of view, this meeting was a very positive step in the direction of supporting a worldwide community to help itself. Because at the end of the day I believe that Open Source is not just another technology leveraging opportunity, which is still being missed in many parts of the world. Open Source is fundamentally a bootstrapping phenomenon, and participation rather than mere use is the key to reward.

The theme of the meeting in Bangkok was "Choice & Opportunity". Choice, because you have to choose to show up instead of conducting business as usual. Opportunity, because in the developing world Open Source represents a huge chance to support and grow local technology ecosystems as well as an important component to bridge the digital divide. In the spirit of bootstrapping, we constructed a meeting full of opportunities to collaborate and problem solve across cultural and language barriers. Basically we remixed techniques from some of our favorite meetings (like Davos Forum and FOO) and brought a few of our most favorite people out to Bangkok to speak. Attendees came from all over the world and were experts in education, e-governance and rural development in their respective regions.

Interestingly enough, I've found my new colleagues at Intel totally willing to allow we Open Source folks to experiment with the methods of meetings like this to break through the usual to come to community. I would have to say that so far the part of Intel I've worked with is fundamentally interested in supporting its customers to find innovative solutions. They are ready to think and work outside the traditional box to assist in that working. As surprised as I was, I think the attendees were even more surprised to experience this side of Intel. In the next few months I'll be working at least part of the time on expansion on this theme in more meetings designed to create out of the box connections and community.

Let me know if you'd like to join the conversation...you know where to find me.

FISL 2005

In Brazil for several days for the largest open source conference in the world, FISL. How large? Well, imagine 5,000 people attending content-rich talks with enthusiasm and willingness to contribute and join the society of Free and Open Source workers and you have some idea. It really is inspiring what's been going on in Brazil!

Here's a picture of a portion of the audience at the opening ceremony today.

Just a minute ago, representatives of DataPrev, part of the IT arm of the Brazilian Government, and my old company Sun Microsystems jointly signed the agreement to make Brazil a member of the JCP! Here the Harmony project is gaining a huge amount of interest, and the Javali part of Harmony has the full support of the Brazilian Government. Sitting here it seems we really will have compatible open source J2SE in my lifetime.

My congrats to my OSI colleague, Bruno Souza, who has been working towards this moment for many years.