Section 1. Prelude

Abstract

m As with many things that have a significant impact on technology and standardization, the SMI PAS submission needs to be examined in light of the state of the industry at the time the submission was made. This background is absolutely necessary for ensuring that the motives of the participants are correctly understood and interpreted. Failure to do so allows one to paint the participants as either heroes or villains, which is rarely the case. The intent of the participants in this case was to act as rational business people; however, once they became part of the process the situation became really confusing. ome necessary background for understanding what happened in the PAS submission process includes the “open standards” or “open systems” movement of the 1980s and early 1900s that affected much of the industry, especially Sun, a late participant in the process. The growth of the consortia was a major shock to JTC1 and to the various national bodies involved in IT standardization, who saw their members and activities—including the introduction of new work—drop dramatically. The appearance of the WinTel market activity in the early and mid-1990s (both desktop activity and the growth of Microsoft’s NT as an operating system) as well as the tremendous growth of the World Wide Web and the appearance of the Corporate Intranet also had a great influence on the market and the standardization arena. Neither of these activities were sympathetic to the formal standardization process. The WinTel participants (Microsoft and Intel) both steadfastly refused to join JTC1, and the Internet used the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and World Wide Web Consortium to further the newest area of technology change and excitement. This article examines standardization as SMI’s Java was initiated.