Michael Nascimento Santos's Blog

Rick is right: join the JCP!

In this week newsletter, Rick Ross talks about the importance of joining the JCP. I couldn't agree more with what he says. Here is an extract:

Sun deserves great credit for its efforts to bring meaningful community into the guidance and evolution of a major technology platform. The Java Community Process (JCP) is one of the most innovative and adaptive tools I have ever seen a corporation devise to allow general public participation in the management of a core technology in which it is deeply invested. The JCP isn't perfect and has numerous critics, as any review of Java websites and blogs will quickly prove, but I still feel it has a great deal of merit and potential.

Some people complain a lot about the JCP, but they don't seem to understand that, if there's something they don't like about it, the best way to change it is to join it! Why should them? Well, Rick proceeds:

• Individual JCP membership is FREE
• Individual JCP members are entitled to vote
• Individual JCP members can run for election
• Individual JCP members can view and comment on JSRs
• JCP members are not obligated to attend any meetings

And what does it take? Rick also touches that:

Joining as an individual member is slightly tedious, but it shouldn't take you very long. All you have to do is download, print, sign & fax the Java Specification Participation agreement (JSPA) as well as Exhibit B of the Individual Expert Participation Agreement (IEPA.)

What seems to have motivated Rick to write this post was the fact that only a few hundred votes were cast in the last JCP elections and that we are, according to sun, 3 million Java developers. So, join the JCP for free right now and help to shape the future of Java technology. Thanks for reminding us, Rick.

Comments

• What keeps me from joing the JCP as an individual member is the following statement comparing corporate vs individual membership: "This means for example, that you cannot make contributions on behalf of your company nor can you share with your employer anything that you learned within the JCP." Thanks Sun but I don't care to keep all the things I learn from the JCP separate so I can be sure I don't share them with my employer. Bob

  Posted by: bwit on February 09, 2005 at 05:13 PM

• Correct. So with an individual membership you cannot work for a company...
  After all, when you work for a company you're using what you know, and as a JCP member you're not allowed to use what you know at work :)

  Posted by: jwenting on February 10, 2005 at 05:36 AM

• Are the previous posts correct? If I have an individual, free membership on the JCP, I cannot use the knowledge I gain there? This prevents any serious participatin of OSS developers on the JCP, unless they are affiliated to a corporate member like the Apache Foundation or JBoss Group. Most OSS development work is performed by independent individuals or small ISVs that do not bother or have the resources to join the JCP paying fees.

  If this is true, please someone from JCP enlightnem me. Maybe the JCP would consider chaning the rules so OSS projects are an exception.

  Posted by: flozano on February 10, 2005 at 09:51 AM

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