At JavaOne 2011, Tuesday's mid-day JCP discussion, presented by Heather VanCura, Oracle Manager, JCP Program, and Patrick Curran, Chair, Java Community Process, Oracle, explored some big news about the JCP. Oracle's commitment to greater transparency, participation, and openness is coming through loud and clear in JSR 348, "Towards a new version of the Java Community Process" -- otherwise known as JCP.next.

The main improvements, at this stage, involve gaining greater transparency by requiring, rather than suggesting, that all development is done on open mailing lists and issue trackers.  Furthermore, the recruiting process for Expert Group members will be publicly viewable, and ways to disclose TCK testing process results will be investigated - currently, the public is rarely aware of the results of the TCK testing process. All of these developments are designed to result in a more public, open, accessible and transparent JCP.

JSR 348 passed through a Pubic Review Ballot in mid-September with results for the SE/EE Executive Community showing 14 YES votes, one Abstain (Google) and one non-vote (VMWare). Oracle expects the initial version of JSR 348 to be concluded in October 2011, offering simple changes that will be quickly implemented. A subsequent second JSR, to be filed soon afterward, will tackle more complex issues, including any changes required to the Java Specification Participation Agreement (JSPA).

The JSPA is defined by the JCP as "a one-year, renewable agreement between you [[the participant in the agreement]] and Oracle America. It entitles you to review and comment on JSRs during the Community Review period - after they are initially approved by their sponsoring Expert Group and before they are open for Public Review. The agreement carries an annual fee, depending on your Member category."

The success of the Java community depends upon an open and transparent JCP, so JCP.next is worthy of our praise and attention.

With considerable enthusiasm I attended “The Road to Java EE 7: Is It All About the Cloud?” (23423) session, a panel of EE experts, late Wednesday morning at JavaOne 2011. I always find Java EE developers and architects to be among the smartest people around. Last year’s Java EE panel session, covered on otn/java and titled, “Where We Are and Where We’re Going” was fraught with more uncertainty about the future of Java EE. This year, it’s clear: Java EE is heading towards the Cloud. The session this year was packed even in a much larger room than last, with roughly three times the number of attendees as last year.

The panel consisted of the following people:
--Adam Bien, Consultant, Author, Java EE Expert
--David Blevins, Apache Software Foundation
--Emmanuel Bernard, JBoss Platform Architect, Red Hat
--Reza Rahman, Senior Software Engineer/Community Outreach Activist, Caucho Technology
--Linda DeMichiel, Java EE 7 Specification Lead, Oracle

The panel, moderated by Oracle’s Alexis Moussine-Pouchkine, Java EE Developer Advocate, Oracle France, addressed many issues, including:
• The current state of Java EE 6 adoption
• The motivations for Java EE 7
• What the cloud really means for Java EE 7
• Modularity in Java EE.next
• Better streamlined component models
• Status of ongoing work in the JCP
* Services and resources provisioning.
* Virtualization intersection between virtualization and PaaS?
* Meta-data: are XML deployment descriptors good after all?

Look for a detailed blow-by-blow account of the discussion on otn/java in coming weeks.