Java Community Process: EC Special Elections nominees for 2011

Goldman Sachs custom-builds most of its software, and its historical reliance on open source components, as well as its extensive multi-vendor relationships, give it deep experience with problems of interoperability and systems/software integration. As a major consumer of Java, Goldman Sachs is thus deeply invested in its future, and seeks to contribute to Java standards. We remain committed to the continued evolution of Java, both through the innovation of the broad Java community, and the ongoing process of standardization.

The firm participates on both individual and corporate levels in a broad range of industry forums and leadership groups, including: Java One (presenting "Java on 40,000 desktops"); The Hong Kong Java User Group (which is run by a member of the firm); contributions to the Fitnesse acceptance testing framework; and various open source projects, including Zookeeper, the Trove Collections framework and OpenJDK.

As a member of the JCP Executive Committee, our representative, John Weir, would put particular focus on ways to advance the role of Java in the enterprise, and on furthering cross-vendor integration. Areas of specific interest include management features, parallel processing, serialization, cloud / dynamic computing and security.

Goldman Sachs position paper (.pdf file)

Fulfilling its main role of vendor-independent Java evangelist, SouJava has created and organized some of the largest Java conferences and community gatherings in the country in any technology. These include all editions of JustJava (the major independent Java event in Brazil) and of the University-focused Abapuru, as well as two successful international developer conferences: Sou+Java and CaféBrasil.

SouJava has also acted as an independent evangelist of open source technology, having organized the influential "Java Livre" event, part of Latin America's major open source conference, FISL. By helping connect the Java and open source communities, the group has brought together major industry and community players and mediated discussions and controversies between vendors and open source organizations. SouJava had, thus, an important role in the open sourcing of Java.

SouJava was the first JUG to join the Program and has been a member of the JCP for 7 years. Having promoted the Java Community Process in Brazil for many years more, the group worked heavily to get the Brazilian Government to participate and recognize the importance of the JCP - and to add open source, standards and Java to the Government's agenda. SouJava also facilitated Brazilian developer participation in the JCP. Additionally, many of the group's directors are experts in JSRs, which worked to extend the group's experience.

SouJava considers the JCP a fundamental part of the Java ecosystem. The long-term success of Java depends on a process that encourages vendors, developers and users to contribute and innovate, and that gives everyone the necessary rights to implement the results. SouJava is committed to ensuring that the JCP is balanced and transparent, and that there is an equal standing among JCP members. The group intends to represent the main concerns of Java developers (individuals as well as companies), in order to help ensure the JCP is not a process dominated by vendors. From its good standing with many of the most active Java vendors and corporations, SouJava will help mediate disputes, while bolstering developers' best interests. Moreover, as an active participant in open-source efforts, the group will help ensure that FOSS projects and implementations of Java standards are able to both bring contributions, and also to share process results.

SouJava intends to bring its passion for open source, standards, and Java technology to the JCP, and thus foster transparency and participation. We look forward to expanding our relationship with the Java community as a SE/EE EC member, and appreciate your support in making this possible.

A Java Developer since the earliest days of the technology, Bruno took part in some of the largest Java projects in Brazil. Bruno is a Principal Consultant at Summa Technologies, and has extensive experience in large projects in the Government, finance and service industries. A Cloud Expert at ToolsCloud, he promotes and develops cloud-based systems using Java. Nurturing developer communities is a personal passion, and Bruno worked actively with Java open source communities and projects.

Bruno Souza is an Honorary Director of the Open Source Initiative (OSI), President of the innovation-focused Campus Party Institute, and Coordinator of Nuvem, the Cloud Computing Lab of LSI/USP. When not in front of a computer, Bruno enjoys time with his family in a little hideout near Sâo Paulo. An amateur in many things - photographer, puppeteer, father - he strives to excel in some of them.

Central Ohio Java Users Group position statement (.pdf file)

Siddique Hameed's position statement (.pdf file)

Liferay position statement (.pdf file)

In 2011, the superiority of the open source model as a method of producing software is obvious and no longer needs to be qualified. Therefore, if elected, we take the position that any exemptions to the open model must be well-justified and very narrowly drawn.

We welcome the efforts to reform the JCP and the efforts by Oracle and others, but we wish to be clear: Our goal is extreme openness.

We seek constructive engagement with our corporate partners, however, this is strictly secondary to serving the needs of our members.

We believe that our members, and the wider community, are best served by an entirely open model that rigorously enforces the principles of free and open software above any corporate or private interests.

We believe that the encouraging signs and new leadership that Oracle have shown are a welcome step in the right direction, but that there is still a long way to go. We welcome and celebrate the work that has been done so far. If elected, we look forward to being a vigorous partner in driving SE/EE towards a shared open future to the benefit of all in the Java ecosystem.

We have the best general purpose virtual machine in the world, and its Open. We want to build on this, who wants to come with?

Ben primary technical interests are language design, virtual machine ergonomics and drinking beer.