News

JCP Executive Committee Posts Election Results

• By John K. Waters
• November 29, 2017

The Java Community Process (JCP), the standards-development organization for Java, has posted the results of its 2017 Fall Executive Committee (EC) election.

Each year roughly half the seats of the 24-member EC are up for ratification/election. The EC oversees the work of the Expert Groups that define Java specifications, essentially guiding the evolution of Java. The committee picks the JSRs that will be developed, approves draft specs and final specs, approves Technology Compatibility Kit (TCK) licenses, approves maintenance revisions and occasionally defers features to new JSRs, approves transfer of maintenance duties between members, and provides guidance to the Program Management Office (PMO).

The EC comprises 16 Ratified Seats, 6 Elected Seats, and the 2 new Associate Seats, all serving a two-year term, as well as a permanent seat held by Oracle America, the official steward of Java. The Ratified Seats are filled by Full Members nominated by the PMO; the Elected and Associate Seats are filled by members nominated by Full and Partner Members.

In this election, the Ratified Seats went to ARM, Credit Suisse, Fujitsu, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, IBM, Intel, Red Hat, and Sociedade de Usários da Tecnologia Java – SouJava. The Elected Seats went to Twitter, Hazelcast, and Tomitribe. And the Associate Seat ended in a tie between incumbent Werner Keil and Java Champion Andres Almiray. It was settled in a tiebreaker election won by Almiray.

This was the second election held under JCP 2.10 rules implemented last year. Among other things, the rules created two new seats on the committee for unaffiliated individuals. The new Associate Member seats are part of an ongoing effort by the JCP to get more Java pros involved in the process. The JCP's Associate Membership is aimed at individuals who want to contribute to a Java Specification Request (JSR). There is no employer approval required and Associate Members get to vote for the two new Associate EC seats.

The JCP now offers three membership levels: the Associate level; the Partner level, which is for Java User Groups and other non-profit organizations; and Full Membership, which is for "legal entities who wish to join Expert Groups, lead JSRs, and/or vote or serve on the Executive Committee."

Despite a spate of changes in the Java community, including Oracle's recent decision to move the Java Platform Enterprise Edition (Java EE) to the open source Eclipse Foundation, the JCP is still the touchstone of the Java community.

Newly elected EC Members took their seats on Nov. 28. The first EC meeting is set for Dec. 12. It's a teleconference, the second hour of which is open to the public. The committee meets face-to-face for the first time in a January meeting in Hursley, England, hosted by IBM.