I Dream of Jini
What struck me most, though, was a comment by Jim Waldo, one of the founders of Jini who now works in Sun Labs. He feels Jini is "truly a community now" ... that Sun is no longer teaching the community about Jini but that the community has achieved parity with Sun and is teaching Sun as much as the other way around. I observed the parity Jim was talking about. It was clear. Aside from a little stress around one licensing session, I found it utterly impossible to draw any discernible line between Sun and the community. The two groups mixed freely as one, concentrating on technology, not politics. But that took five years? Absolutely, I was told by several people. Quality takes time.
After Sun's dramatic public launch of Jini five years ago, the community and technology have both steadily grown -- but very much under Sun's -- and the industry's -- radar. That may soon change. With Sun, IBM, Microsoft, and Hewlett-Packard now all hawking N1 Grids, On Demand, Adaptive Enterprises, and Dynamic Systems it seems that Jini could be poised to play a new role here since it already does many of the things these vendors are talking about, according to Jennifer Kotzen, Sun's senior product manager for Jini. The near future could be interesting for a community and its technology that most gave up on.
When you go to a Jini community meeting you are treated by a powerful ending -- the "FishBowl." This was wonderful. At the end of the last day of the conference, six chairs are placed in the middle of the room with the other 200 or so lined up in concentric circles around the core, otherwise known as the FishBowl. Five chairs inside the FishBowl are filled with people who want to talk. About anything. One chair is always left open. Then after a period of time (usually a few minutes) someone from the back enters the FishBowl, and someone else gives up his or her seat, thus leaving one chair unfilled encouraging others to enter. This system provides an opportunity for anyone to enter the FishBowl to say anything on any subject. Uninterrupted. And into the center they came. One by one. Some talked about a project they were working on. Some thanked the group. Some responded to questions. Some made announcements. Some offered observations. But all listened. Absolutely everyone was glued to every speaker's comments with the utmost respect. Loved it. It's no wonder this community has jelled so well. The respect each other.
The Jini meeting was held at The Charles Hotel in Cambridge, Massachusetts. An excellent venue for a conference, but the elevators drove me absolutely nuts. Daniel explains it all much better than I can.
Special thanks to Jini community manager Jim Hurley for letting me lurk and learn.
