Apache Jini Proposal submitted!

Jim Hurley <[email protected]> Mon, 19 Jun 2006 12:35:32 -0400

Newsgroups	gmane.comp.java.sun.javaspaces
Message-ID	<[email protected]>

Hi all-

I'm happy to report that the Jini Proposal has been submitted
to the Apache Software Foundation for consideration!  :-)

I've attached an html version of the final Proposal below, or
you can check it out in the Apache incubator archives at:
<http://mail-archives.apache.org/mod_mbox/incubator-general/
200606.mbox/%[email protected]%3e>
I encourage you to follow along and participate in the general and
public discussion at Apache (in the [email protected] alias).
For more info, visit: <http://incubator.apache.org/
howtoparticipate.html>.

There was one significant change and a bunch of minor wording changes
in this final version of the Proposal (from the one I sent out at the
end of May). The significant change was the addition of two new
committers: Geir Magnusson and Mark Brouwer. Geir is our Apache
Champion and initial Mentor and will help with website and
requirements (notice files, etc) stuff. Mark Brouwer is well recognized
in the Jini Community as a strong technical lead, and his inclusion
as a committer in our initial Apache Proposal strengthens it
considerably.

This is another important step in our overall plan of achieving A New
Day
for Jini technology. Hope you're excited about it. :-)

-Jim



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JiniProposal.html (text/html, 12.6 KB)

<!doctype html public "-//w3c//dtd html 4.0 transitional//en">
<html>
<head>
 <title>Jini Apache Proposal</title>
</head>
<body>

<h1> JiniProposal</h1>

<strong>Proposal for new project Jini</strong>
<P>
<i>19 June 2006</i>
<P>
<hr>

<h3>(0) rationale</h3>
<P>
Jini technology is a service oriented architecture that defines a programming
model which both exploits and extends Java technology to enable the
construction of secure, distributed systems consisting of federations of
services and clients. Jini technology can be used to build adaptive
network systems that are scalable, evolvable and flexible as typically
required in dynamic computing environments.
<P>
Quoting from <a href="http://java.sun.com/docs/books/jini/spec/">The Jini Specifications</a> book:<br>
<i>Jini technology is a simple infrastructure for providing services in a network, and for creating spontaneous interactions between programs that use these services. Services can join or leave the network in a robust fashion, and clients can rely upon the availability of visible services, or at least upon clear failure conditions. When you interact with a service, you do so through a Java object provided by that service. This object is downloaded into your program so that you can talk to the service even if you have never seen its kind before - the downloaded object knows how to do the talking. That's the whole system in a nutshell.</i>
<P>
Sun Microsystems originally introduced the technology in January, 1999 by providing
a <a href="http://starterkit.jini.org/">Jini Technology Starter Kit</a>. This includes
a contributed implementation of all of the specifications, as well as helpful utilities
and tools. The source code was made available through the Sun Community Source License (SCSL)
as an attempt to make the code widely available and accessible to both individuals and companies. Sun has continued to innovate throughout the years, releasing many versions of the starter kit. The license associated with the starter kit was <a href= http://archives.java.sun.com/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0503&L=jini-users&O=A&P=36217">changed</a> in March, 2005 to the Apache License, Version 2.0.
<P>
Since its beginning, there was desire and effort to form a developer community around the technology. This has helped to create an interesting, active, and passionate community - the Jini Community. This global Community has engaged on technology projects, discussions and debates, events, and a decision making process. It has contributed to, and helped influence the direction of the starter kit. Some of the collaborative technology projects have led to key contributions being used by other technology projects as well as commercial products. One example is the <a href="http://www.artima.com/jini/serviceui/">Service UI API</a>, which is a way to attach user interfaces to Jini services.
<P>
Despite the obvious successes of the technology and Community, some changes are in store as outlined in a recent note to the Community: <a href="http://archives.java.sun.com/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0604&L=jini-users&F=&S=&P=4029">A New Day</a>. The most critical part of the new plan is to find the right place for the future development and advancement of the core Jini technology. We wanted an environment that was synergistic with our exisiting Community culture -- so one that is active, with open communication and collaboration, and a reputation for producing high quality software. We think we've found that place with the Apache Software Foundation.
<P>

<h3>(0.1) criteria</h3>

<P>
<i>Meritocracy:</i>
<P>
The Jini project will be meritocractic. The project will follow
the <a href="http://apache.org/foundation/how-it-works.html#meritocracy">
guidelines</a> of the Apache Software Foundation. In order to achieve
this, we plan on proactively recruiting individuals in the Community to get
involved in the project: specifying work that needs to be done, encouraging bug
fixes, enhancements, and advancements, and engaging in discussion on
how the code works and is structured. In the end, we are committed to
creating an environment to foster a meritocracy.

<P>
<i>Community:</i>
<P>
There has been a diverse and active Community built around Jini
technology since it was first introduced in January, 1999.
The Jini Community consists of a global set of individuals, companies,
non-profit organizations, and universities. The Community has
had a web center at <a href="http://www.jini.org">Jini.org</a>
(around 35K accounts, and over 100 projects) and primarily communicated
through various email lists:
<a href="http://archives.java.sun.com/archives/jini-users.html">
jini-users</a> (~1800 subscriptions),
<a href="http://archives.java.sun.com/archives/javaspaces-users.html">
javaspaces-users</a> (~950 subscriptions), and
<a href="http://community.jini.org/servlets/SummarizeList?listName=discuss">
community discuss list</a> (~200 subscriptions). There are a variety of
<a href="http://www.jini.org/events">events</a> (for example, Jini
Community Meetings, Webinars, etc) that the Community has leveraged
to share ideas and come together. There are also many individuals in the
Community who have chosen to evangelize the technology at various
conferences, user groups, blogs, etc.  In summary, while it isn't quite the
same as running an open source community, we believe we've developed
an incredibly strong base on which to build.

<P>
<i>Core Developers:</i>
<P>
Most of the initial core developers are key members of Sun's Jini development,
test, and Community management team. The other three (non Sun) initial core developers
are well recognized technology and thought leaders in the Jini Community, including
giving <a href="http://www.jini.org/nonav/meetings/eighth/J8abstracts.html#Brouwer">
presentations</a> at Jini Community Meetings, and receiving the annual
<a href="http://www.jini.org/Contrib_Award/>
Jini Community Contributor's Award</a> in recognition of their contributions
to the Community. There are a number of other strong developers in the Community
interested and we expect will prove themselves worthy committers in short order.

<P>
<i>Alignment:</i>
<P>
Jini is aligned well with Apache in terms of technologies and licensing.
It fits in well technologically with other Apache projects, which also
focus on clustering, web frameworks, and Java technolgies. Also, the starter
kit build framework is based on Ant.

The license of the initial source being proposed is already aligned as
it is licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0.

<h3>(0.2) warning signs</h3>
<P>

<i>Orphaned products:</i>
<P>
The project being proposed is a natural evolution of the
technology and Community. Sun has shepherded both since 1999,
and in recent years the Jini Community has been pressing to
be more involved and empowered. Once the license for Jini
technology was <a href="http://archives.java.sun.com/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0503&L=jini-users&O=A&P=36217">opened up and the Apache License, Version 2.0
was chosen for Sun's contributions</a>, an open development model
was the obvious next step. The response from the Jini Community
on this direction has been very positive, with many Community
members anxious to get active.

This is a proposal we're making with a full committment to
construct an active and successful project.

<P>
<i>Inexperience with open source:</i>
<P>
The initial committers have varying degrees of experience with
open source projects. All have been involved with source code
that has been released under an open source license, but there
is limited experience developing code with an open source development
process. We do not, however, expect any difficulty in executing
under normal meritocracy rules.
<P>
<i>Homogenous developers:</i>
<P>
Since the Jini Technology Starter Kit has been mainly
developed to date by Sun Microsystems, the vast majority
of initial committers to the project are from Sun. Over
the years, Sun has received bug fixes and enhancements from
other developers which have been incorporated into the code.
Our plan is to work with these other developers and add
them as committers as we progress. There are three other initial
committers (non Sun): Bill Venners, Dan Creswell, and Mark Brouwer.
Bill is the lead of the Service UI API work, Dan has been involved
with much Jini-based development, including an implementation of the JavaSpaces
service called <a href="http://www.dancres.org/blitz/">
Blitz</a>, and Mark is veteran of much Jini-based development, including
commercial work at <a href="http://www.virgil.nl">Virgil</a> as well as
leading the open source <a href="http://www.cheiron.org">Cheiron</a> project.

<P>
<i>Reliance on salaried developers:</i>
<P>
It is expected that Jini development will occur on both salaried
time and on volunteer time, after hours. While there is reliance
on salaried developers (currently from Sun, but it's expected that
other company's salaried developers will also be involved), the Jini
Community is very active and things should balance out fairly quickly.
In the meantime, Sun will support the project in the future by dedicating
'work time' to Jini, so that there is a smooth transition.

<P>
<i>No ties to other Apache products:</i>
<P>
Currently the only tie to Apache projects is the starter kit's use of the
Ant build tool. There are potential future ties (http server,
database backend, etc) that will be explored.

<P>
<i>A fascination with the Apache brand:</i>
<P>
Many of us have been working on advancing Jini technology and
developing the Jini Community for many years. We care deeply
about it and want the technology and Commutity to continue to
flourish. As we considered options for where/how to move Jini technology
to an open source development model, our respect and admiration for the work
done by the Apache Software Foundation drove us to choose this
as our best option. As a Java-based infrastructure for building
systems, Jini fits in well with the other projects at Apache, and
the Community we've built shares many philosophies (open communication,
fairness, diversity, etc).  We believe there are strong synergies
here.

<h3>(1) scope of the project</h3>
<P>
The scope of the Jini project would be the continued development of
Jini technology core infrastructure software, including the
implementation of Jini specifications, related utilities and tools.
The development would include adding new features and improving
performance, scalability, quality, and extensibility.

<h3>(2) identify the initial source from which the project is to be populated</h3>
<P>
The initial resources would be garnered from:
<ul>
<li>
 <a href="http://starterkit.jini.org/downloads/2.1/">
 Jini Technology Starter Kit</a> project on Jini.org,
</li>
<li>
 <a href="http://www.artima.com/jini/serviceui/CodeAccess.html">
 Service UI implementation</a> from Artima.com,
<li>
 <a href="http://qatests.jini.org">QATests</a> project on Jini.org
</li>
</ul>

<h3>(3) identify the ASF resources to be created</h3>
<h3>(3.1) mailing list(s)</h3>
<P>
<ul>
<li>jini-ppmc (with moderated subscriptions)</li>
<li>jini-dev</li>
<li>jini-commits</li>
<li>jini-user</li>
</ul>

<h3>(3.2) Subversion or CVS repositories</h3>
<P>
Jini would like to use a Subversion repository.
<h3>(3.3) Jira (issue tracking)</h3>
<P>
Since Jini would have its own release cycle, it
should have its own JIRA project
<ul>
<li> Project Name: Jini</li>
<li> Project Key:  Jini</li>
</ul>

<h3>(4) identify the initial set of committers</h3>
<P>
<ul>
<li>Dan Creswell ([email protected])</li>
<li>Bill Venners ([email protected])</li>
<li>Mark Brouwer ([email protected])</li>
<li>Geir Magnusson Jr ([email protected])</li>
<li>Bob Scheifler ([email protected])</li>
<li>Jim Waldo ([email protected])</li>
<li>John McClain ([email protected])</li>
<li>Brian Murphy ([email protected])</li>
<li>Peter Jones ([email protected])</li>
<li>Juan Ramirez ([email protected])</li>
<li>Frank Barnaby ([email protected])</li>
<li>Nigel Daley ([email protected])</li>
<li>Fred Oliver ([email protected])</li>
<li>Robert Resendes ([email protected])</li>
<li>Vinod Johnson ([email protected])</li>
<li>Ron Mann ([email protected])</li>
<li>Jim Hurley ([email protected])</li>
</ul>

<h3>(5) identify apache sponsoring individual</h3>
<P><b>Champion</b>
<ul>
<li>Geir Magnusson Jr.</li>
</ul>
<P><b>Mentors</b>
<ul>
<li>Geir Magnusson Jr.</li>
</ul>
<P>
<P>
<P>

<hr>
<p><i>last edited 2006-06-19  9:27:33 by Jim Hurley</i></p>
</body>
</html>
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<p>
To view past JAVASPACES-USERS postings, please see:
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