Simon Phipps's Blog

June 2003 Archives

Supernova

To take a recent example, you had a conference about blogging's impact on the business world where bloggers sat on panels with other bloggers, some of which were blogging what was said, while other bloggers sat in the audience blogging about all of the blogging discussions.

Sun Bloggers

For a while now I've wanted a reference list of people at Sun who maintain weblogs (first called out by Timothy Appnel). I've not found one, so decided to throw one together - Sun Bloggers. If there is a list I missed, or there are bloggers I've not encountered, let me know.

[Also posted to webmink.net]

Solving the Patent Problem

Responding to my earlier posting, Glen Martin comments that:

To my mind, patents in software add no value, and really only serve to subject software development to the less than scrupulous (lawyers, that is).

It is starting to look to me as if the OSS world won't ever meet its real potential unless software patents go away. Since the non-OSS world has little incentive to change, it would seem to be up to OSS boosters to drive it.

What became apparent (to me at least) at F/OSS this week was the need for research into how to create mechanisms that protect open source projects against patents. In his evening keynote Richard Stallman suggested building an anti-patent 'poison pill' into the GPL such that any attempt to assert patent rights against a GPL-protected project would result in automatic loss of rights to use any GPL-protected software anywhere. One delegate noted, however, that such a provision would effectively prevent a company like IBM, with a history of patent suits, from using GPL software. Ironically, a company like Microsoft with no history to date of patent suits would be able to use GPL software without any problems!

As I suggested before, I think it's necessary to understand what is the real problem patents pose to open source and then address that problem. It seems to me that, to expand Benkler's definition, open source is commons-based, rapidly-iterative peer production. Patents delay or erode the commons, and disincent peers from involvement in rapid iteration. Fighting patent legislation is one way to address the commons, but a seperate mechanism such as use of foundations to own code as a haven against prosecution seems vital to address the iteration issue

I'm not a lawyer, so have no training to construct the defences against patents. But it seems to me this is a vital research area, and I encourage the F/OSS academics to engage in it without delay.

[Also posted at Webmink]

F/OSS on Patents

Just sitting in the final session at F/OSS at Harvard, largely on software patents. The research, presented here by Jim Bessen (the paper is available online and Slashdot has a great summary), suggests that it's become cheaper and easier to get software patents over the last 20 years (overall and compared with other patents). The research finds "... software patents substitute for firm R&D rather than complement it." Increasingly, it seems, the innovation is happening elsewhere...

Several voices have suggested that the real key to open source is the practice of rapid incremental development by a distributed community. But patents are the big threat to open source authors as infringers are typically unwitting, easily traceable through the very tools that enable the process and liable for unlimited damages. So if anything open source is more vulnerable to patents as the very FUD about them could inhibit the rapidity of improvement.

Commercial firms protect themselves from patents by gather 'thickets' of them for negotiation, and it becomes an arms race. Open source can't generally play this deadly game of gathering 'thickets' of patents, so some other protection is essential. An earlier presentation by Siobhan O’Mahoney hinted at a partial solution for this, using a non-profit foundation to own the code and protect the author. But whatever the treatment, the illness is clearly dangerous and systemic.

[Also posted at webmink]

The Dog that Didn't Bark

I really like the report on Corante about java.net but it raises for me the question of why none of the other sources I respect in the blogging community have even mentioned the launch of blogs and wikis on java.net, let alone come in with a critique (positive or negative). In particular, I've not seen anyone in the blogging A-list that I track with NetNewsWire mention or critique java.net, and the greatest omission of all was the lack of any comment on Slashdot (until June 13). What gives? Is there no interest in what Corante (arguably) calls "the first large scale developer community to incorporate wikis and weblogs"?

[Also posted at Webmink]

At F/OSS

I am (unexpectedly) at the MIT/HBS Free/Open Source Software conference at Harvard. The first session included a paper comparing Apache, Mozilla and a commercial software project. The results suggested open source development does indeed deliver higher productivity levels and lower defect counts than closed team development. While I felt intuitively that this was the case, I'm pleased to see a growing research base supporting the fact.

All three papers also suggested that, regardless of the overall size of the community, most of the work was conducted by a core of participants which, as one delegate pointed out, tended to be of similar size to hunter/gatherer groups across human history. Much of the presentation activity is trying to model and understand effects which seem intuitively correct but lack logically coherent discussions.

But the one topic I'm not sure is really being explored is the phenomenon of commercial involvement in open source activities. All the discussions assume that all the participants are volunteers, but in communities like NetBeans.org and OpenOffice.org there are a large number of participants who are employed as professional engineers to participate in the community. I'll be watching today to see if this dimension gets some airtime.

Decompression

Heading out of town today, I met Mark Thomas from IBM at the Hertz office. Seems he too needs a break after JavaOne. We're both (independently) heading to Yosemite for the weekend - in fact, I am writing this from the 'Happy Burger' in Mariposa ("if it's not perfect, don't serve it" ). I see Duncan's off to Wisconsin, as is Glen. I guess we all need to decompress - I wonder where other participants have gone for the weekend?

Dot-Stuff

I've seen a few people commenting on the new java.xxx URLs - Paul and Bertrand, for example. The java.com site is target for some misunderstanding (some of it great fun!). Rafe Colburn for example says:

Maybe I'm just naive, but I'm convinced that there is little overlap between people who care about Java and people who want a virtual Christina Aguilera on their mobile phone.

When it comes to the java.net site, people have been asking me why the site sounds so like something Microsoft markets. java.org wasn't Sun's to use, so to paraphrase Bono in the lead-in to U2's cover of 'Helter Skelter', "this is the suffix Microsoft stole from the Internet, now we're stealing it back." You can draw your own parallels.

Roundtable report

FTPOnline has a report on the J2EE Roundtable held on Monday.

Elitism?

Alan Williamson wasn't too impressed with Jonathan Schwartz's keynote yesterday, it seems (complete with IDE demos - I hope he's enjoying the Project Rave demo I am watching now!). I'm very interested in his comments on the desire to expand the Java developer base from 3 million to 10 million. He says:

The threshold that we call someone a developer, is going to be dropped significantly ... Sun have historically treated the developer with respect. Giving them the attention and kudos they solely craved. Java developers are real developers; they don't want to be labelled with the Microsoft VB/Marco crowd. Sun will have to be very careful in how they are going to take this forward without alienating and devaluing the current developer base.

The distinction that I'm starting to see is that there no longer seems to be much of a role for a general purpose programmer. The primary skill required of a Java programmer these days seems to be significant expertise in some set of related specifications.

Cruisin'

I'm taking the chance to roam the exhibit hall today and just bumped into my friend Neil Bauman of GeekCruises, who is here promoting events like his Java Jam. I've been a speaker at a couple of his events, and both times have been memorable. Neil's idea is to run training events that deliver the very best speakers (like Sun's Kathy Sierra, whose new book is being well received), provide a compelling personal package by placing the event on a cruise line yet bring it all in at an overall competitive price (he says it better than me). Having got his XML eXcusrsion going a few years back I'm pleased to see he's still winning

Round-table

The last few years I have been privileged to moderate a round-table discussion between the leaders of the J2EE community, hosted by JavaPro magazine. Each year I'm struck by the way there is a diverse competitive landscape for Java. This year the diversity was as strong as ever, with great participants like Ted Shelton from Borland (leading their corporate strategy), Graham Hamilton from Sun (the current brains behind J2SE) and David Litwack from Novell (creator of PowerBuilder and now driving web services at Novell).

I'll leave reporting on the content to JavaPro, but for me each year the fact that a competitive round-table is even possible is a cause for celebration and a mark of the success of Java. Within the community we naturally focus on our concerns and issues but seeing a room filled with high-energy companies like Borland, Novell, BEA, Motorola and Sun always reminds me that the openness of the Java community is a remarkable thing.

Java - to Mars and beyond!

Dinner last night was an excellent opportunity to meet Ronald Mak, a researcher at NASA Ames who is respoonsible for the middleware powering the information feeds used by Mars Probe scientists. You may remember seeing the way NASA was using Java at past JavaOne conferences, but it's really come a long way since then. Mars Probe scientists and engineers have a powerful Java client application called CIP (Collaborative Information Portal) that displays images, data, schedules, reports and the rest of the information needed to run the Mars Exploration Rover (MER).

Ronald told me that the diversity of the client environments - Windows, Mac, Unix (including Solaris and Linux) and more - means Java is the only way they could even imagine providing CIP to the MER team. His personal responsibility is the web application server that powers CIP, and he's used all the power of J2EE (including the new Web services support) to make it happen. Java is also in wide use in the R & D areas at Ames, including modelling and simulation.

So when the weather finally allows it, MER will be one of the most exciting Java input devices around. I wish them luck with their mission!

Update:It launched!

Anticipation

I'm now in a cold & grey San Francisco and my hotel room overlooks Moscone Convention Center. The new Java logo is scattered all over the buildings and billboards, and there are people everywhere building stands and making preparations for the influx. Last night I sat in on preparations for Rich Green's keynote on Wednesday, and there's some cool stuff in there...

I have been to all of the US JavaOne conferences (I went to the first few representing IBM), have spoken at a many of them in one capacity or another, and I remain convinced that this is a unique event in the realm of technology conferences. The energy, the buzz in the place, the unexpected fusion of geek and culture, the venue, all contribute to create a spirit and presence that I don't find at any other event.

Even so, a lot has changed, even since last year. The blogging, for example. I'll be fascinated to see how many people are blogging the conference this year - please leave a comment with a pointer to your blog if you are. The rise of the blog has its critics of course, and there's a range of quality stretching from the banal through the abusive to the excellent, but in a context like JavaOne where the community is everything I am expecting quality and insight to flow. So, your links please!

Webmink About Town

I've been blogging for 18 months or so over on my personal page so it's a delight to finally be able to write under the java.net banner. Starting at JavaOne 2003 in San Francisco I'll comment on trends, oddities, gadgets and whatever else catches my eye as I travel. I'll cross-post anything relevant from my personal blog but if you want to read about my politics, musical taste etc you'll need to read that blog too :-)

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