Active JSRs
A total of 66 JSRs were active in 2007. (I'm defining an active JSR as one that changed its state during the year by posting a draft for review, going to ballot, or making a final or a maintenance release.) This is an impressive total for a standards organization and is a credit to the commitment and hard work of our members.

The Executive Committees approved 13 new JSRs in 2007 and eight JSRs completed the development cycle and made their Final Releases. Another 13 JSRs made Maintenance Releases during 2007, demonstrating one of the strengths of the JCP - the ongoing commitment to maintain and modify the specifications after their initial release. A further 32 JSRs made progress, posting drafts for review or reaching one of the ballot stages prior to final release. (If you're interested, you can find the details of the JSR development cycle in the JCP Process Document [http://jcp.org/en/procedures/jcp2] on the JCP Website [http://jcp.org/].) Interestingly, the breakdown of platforms that these active JSRs targeted was almost exactly one third for each: Java ME, Java SE, and Java EE.

The new JSRs are:

Java ME
  •   JSR 309: Media Server Control API
  •   JSR 320: Services Framework.

Java SE
  •   JSR 310: Date and Time API
  •   JSR 311: JAX-RS - The Java API for RESTful Web Services
  •   JSR 321: Trusted Computing API for Java.

Java SE/EE
  •   JSR 312: Java Business Integration 2.0
  •   JSR 317: Java Persistence 2.0.

Java EE
  •   JSR 314: JavaServer Faces 2.0
  •   JSR 315: Java Servlet 3.0 Specification
  •   JSR 316: Java Platform, Enterprise Edition 6 (Java EE 6) Specification
  •   JSR 318: Enterprise JavaBeans 3.1
  •   JSR 319: Availability Management for Java
  •   JSR 322: Java EE Connector Architecture 1.6.

The completed JSRs are:

Java ME
  •   JSR 190: Event Tracking API for J2ME
  •   JSR 242: Digital Set Top Box Profile - "On Ramp to OCAP"
  •   JSR 280: XML API for Java ME

Java SE
  •   JSR 291: Dynamic Component Support for Java SE

Java SE/EE
  •   JSR 147: Workspace Versioning and Configuration Management
  •  JSR 196: Java Authentication Service Provider Interface for Containers.

Java EE
  •   JSR 263: Fault Management API
  •   JSR 264: Order Management API.

Two JSRs won the distinction of Most Innovative Java JSR at the 2007 JCP Annual Awards (http://jcp.org/en/press/news/awards/2007award_winners): JSR 308 (http://jcp.org/en/jsr/detail?id=308), Annotations on Java Types co-led by Sun and Michael Ernst; and JSR 307 (http://jcp.org/ en/jsr/detail?id=307), Network Mobility and Mobile Data API led by Motorola.

You can learn more about these and all other JSRs at http://jcp.org/en/jsr/all.

Spec Leads
Four individuals and 23 companies played a Spec Lead role in these JSRs during 2007. Sun Microsystems was the most active, leading 26 different JSRs, followed by Nokia who led 13. At the 2007 JCP Annual Awards two spec leads won the votes of the community and were chosen as winners in the Outstanding Spec Lead category: BEA's Nasir Khan for Java SE/EE and Motorola's Mike Milikich for Java ME. Both also won the Star Spec Lead (http://jcp.org/en/press/news/star) distinction.

Elections
Every year we hold elections for one third of the membership of each Executive Committee. (The ECs are responsible for reviewing and voting on JSRs and also for evolving the organization's Process Document - its rules and procedures - and the Java Specification Participation Agreement - the legal contract between members and the organization.) In 2007 we welcomed two new members: Time Warner Cable representing the cable TV industry and the Eclipse Foundation from the open source community. The success of Eclipse and the fact that two individuals - Rod Johnson and Sean Sheedy - were close runners-up in the elections suggest that a change in the balance of influence between corporate and non-corporate members may be under way.

Open Source
A significant development during 2007 was the release of the source code for the three Java platforms (Java ME, Java SE, and Java EE) under the GNU General Public License version 2 (GPLv2) - the same license as GNU/Linux. This isn't directly a JCP matter since our process has long permitted spec leads to choose the terms on which their implementations are licensed. However, because the platform JSRs are so important for the evolution of Java technology this will inevitably be reflected in the way the JCP conducts its business. We're not yet sure exactly what these effects will be - although Java EE development has been carried out in this manner for some time - but it's clear that open source is here to stay. To learn more about open source Java and to participate in its development, visit www.sun.com/software/opensource/java/index.jsp.

Looking Forward
This is a time of change for the JCP. The increasing popu-larity of open source within the developer community and the new licensing terms for the Java platforms will lead to an increased adoption of open source development and licensing models within the organization (many JSRs are already run in this manner). Our membership will change to reflect these new ways of doing business, and we will see greater involvement of not-for-profit organizations such as open source communities and Java User Groups. Our development processes will become more transparent, with open mailing lists and wider public review and participation. Finally, we will see an increasing collaboration with other standards bodies, as exemplified by the recent Call for Experts for JSR 235: Service Data Objects, a specification being developed in parallel with OASIS. Change is good, particularly in the New Year, and I look forward to another successful year for the JCP.