Re: A New Day...

Sorry for the delay in getting out more details...
I will follow this up with some specifics to discuss.

I've received *a lot* of emails since last Wednesday
that I've been doing my best to respond to. The _vast_
majority have been very positive as many are excited
about these moves (especially the potential of an Apache
project for Jini). There's also a natural feeling of
uncertainty from some on the future for the technology
and Community.

I'll just reiterate that I think our plans really give
Jini the best chance to thrive. Truely making the leap
to open source (in all it's meanings) will empower many
more people in the Community to be active at new levels
and bring fresh and different ideas to consider. And Jini
remains important to Sun, in products, technologies, and
research projects. "Becoming users" will certainly pull
Sun's Jini technology group from it's previous sole focus
on the core technology and Community, but we will still be
involved in the (potential) Apache project, in Community
projects, events (e.g., Community Meetings), on the users
lists, etc.

thanks -Jim


On Apr 12, 2006, at 10:39 AM, Jim Hurley wrote:

> ------------------------------------------------------
>
> Over the last seven plus years, Jini technology has
> proven an elegant and empowering way to build and
> deploy distributed systems which are highly adaptive
> to change. The core technology has evolved, a decision
> process (JDP) adopted, Standards created, shared projects
> initiated and advanced, and impressive commercial use
> and individual work with the technology. Along the way,
> we've built one of the most supportive and inspiring
> Communities in the tech world, with a fun and interesting
> culture.
>
> Like with the systems we build, change is constant and
> a new day is dawning in the Jini Community. It's one
> filled with excitement, risks, and lots of opportunity
> (but we wouldn't want it any other way, would we? ;-)).
>
> I'd like to make the initial announcement here on the
> changes that will be taking place, and begin a discussion
> on things we'll need to figure out together. Before I do
> that, though, I'd like to give you a short background
> on some of the key catalysts driving the need for change:
>
>   * The need to go more open
>     - we were successful in changing the licensing model
>       for Jini technology (a year ago, from SCSL to an open
>       licensing model). The choice of the Apache License,
>       Version 2.0 for Sun's contributions seems right on a
>       year later. We had hoped these changes would spark
>       interest from a larger set of developers, some of
>       which may have been disinclined by the previous license.
>       This has not occurred... interest and involvement
>       with the technology and in the Community has continued
>       at a steady rate, with no significant rise in adoption.
>
>     - the impression given by our Community site, Jini.org,
>       is surely part of the issue, as it still bears the gated
>       appearance required by the SCSL license. Regardless,
>       though, our belief is that the historical effects left
>       by SCSL have created a fairly large hurdle to convincing
>       open source developers that Jini technology and Jini.org
>       are truly an open source technology and Community.
>
>     - lastly, we (Sun's Jini technology team) have been
>       wrestling with the need to adopt an open source
>       development model for the Jini Technology Starter Kit.
>       There has been much interest and debate on this over the
>       year(s) in the Community, and with the license change
>       last year, it seems the inevitable and right direction
>       to go with the technology.
>
>   * Becoming users
>     - We (Sun's Jini technology team) have been asked by
>       Sun management to leverage our technology and expertise
>       to further some of Sun's key strategies and product
>       initiatives. This is recognition of our work over the
>       years, and the desire to take advantage of it to benefit
>       Sun's strategies and financial goals in this tough
>       business climate.
>
>   * Getting our bounce back
>     - In order for things to continue evolving and growing,
>       we're at a state in our technology and Community
>       lifecycle that needs a change, a spark to enable
>       additional leaders to emerge, and individuals and companies
>       to get involved at increased levels to chart the future
>       path. We also need new developers finding and adopting
>       the technology to help create new invention and opportunity.
>
>
> Based on these and other factors, we're embarking on a four
> step plan, outlined below. There are a lot of details and
> questions to discuss around each of these, so in the interest
> of some brevity, I'll provide a top level overview, and then
> follow-up with separate emails on each to clarify and begin
> discussion of the details.
>
>  1) Propose "Jini" to the Apache Software Foundation (apache.org)
>     - we feel that "Jini" would make a compelling top level
>       project at Apache, and plan to make contacts there in
>       hopes of successfully proposing "Jini" as a project.
>
>  2) Decommission Jini.org on June 30, 2006
>     - the costs of maintaining the site, as well as the need
>       to invest other funds to transform it into a more open
>       source style site, prohibit us from continuing our
>       own collaborative development site going forward.
>
>     - we have a lot of great projects on Jini.org, and want
>       to help those project owners move their projects and
>       content to another collaborative website to continue
>       sharing. There looks to be interest in starting a
>       "Jini Community" area on Java.net, and as this occurs,
>       we'd strongly encourage project owners to move there.
>
>  3) Create a "new Jini.org" site starting in July, 2006
>     - there has been some interest expressed in the Community
>       to host an informational site on Jini technology, where
>       new developers could get an overview of the technology
>       and better understand how and where it's used, and
>       (potentially) by whom. The idea is to redirect the
>       Jini.org domain to this new site.
>
>  4) Hold a Jini Community Meeting (the 10th) in September, 2006
>     - we have a history and culture of gathering together
>       each year to reconnect and learn what's happening with
>       Jini technology and in the Jini Community. With all of
>       the change and transition about to happen, it is more
>       important than ever to continue that tradition and
>       organize a 10th Jini Community Meeting for later this
>       year. Sun will sponsor this event.
>
> In addition, part of Sun's Jini technology team has already
> started "Becoming users" by working in the Sun Grid space,
> delivering an early (0.1) release of a project on Java.net
> called "Compute Server". It's aim is to enable Java developers
> to easily and efficiently use the Sun Grid Compute Utility as
> a platform for the distributed execution of parallel computations.
> It leverages Jini and JavaSpaces underneath. We hope you take a
> look at:  <http://computeserver.dev.java.net>
>
> A huge thanks for your continued interest and passion around
> Jini and JavaSpaces technology. I know there will be lots of
> questions (hopefully, some of the follow-up emails with details
> will help) and discussion to happen, but I hope overall that
> you'll embrace these positive and exciting changes.
>
> Opportunity awaits.
>
> -Jim
>
> ------------------------------------------------------

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