Greetings all.
I'm Jim Knutson, IBM's Java EE Architect responsible for WebSphere
returning once again for another 2, no make it 1 year this time, of
debate and discussion in an attempt to drive the platform forward in
industry relevant ways.
For those that don't know me, I can be rather opinionated at times.
Don't take it personally, I just feel strongly about some things. I've
been involved in JSRs for many years, including EJB, Java EE, JAX-RPC,
and CDI and was spec lead for JSR 109 (WSEE) prior to turning it over
to Sun for later versions.
My interests in EE 7 are many, but generally fall into the following
strategies:
* Simplify the platform into a lighter cohesive whole instead of an
aggregate of piece parts
* Sane evolution, which includes making the platform lighter where
possible, including new and relevant technology when appropriate, and
evolving existing technology with continuous yet compatible
improvements.
* Think strategically, implement tactically - in other words, I have my
own 10 year plan I see for the platform and I view each version as a
step to get there. I revise that 10 year perspective periodically as
well. It would be nice if everyone had the same 10 year plan in mind.
:-)
For me, cloud is more focused on providing improvements for
administrators. There will be programming model impacts, but if we do
things really well, developers will hardly notice.
On the other hand, modularity will have a large impact on developers
and potentially on administrators as well.
For the above reasons, I think it would be a mistake to put cloud off
until EE 8, when modularity will have such a profound impact and will
require a large effort to work through.
I'm interested in establishing a collective vision of where we think we
want to go, communicating that vision to the world, and only taking on
enough of that vision now to enable basic support and allowing feedback
for the next step.