Section 12. The analyst's view: what the world heard

m These articles were excerpted from ClieNT Server News, the “piquant weekly newsletter (by subscription only) on Microsoft, Windows NT and related phenomena”—one of three such newsletters published by Maureen O’Gara to aid policy and decision makers (from product managers to CEOs). The author knows the industry and its participants, having covered the worldwide “open systems industry” (from UNIX to POSIX to OSI to the Internet) for the past ten years. These articles reflect the positions she took on the PAS submission, and advice she provided to her subscribers, during the debate. MARCH 24–28, 1997 Sun’s Java Standardization Scheme n an unprecedented move, Sun Microsystems will try to standardize Java by submitting it directly to ISO, the International Organization for Standardization, for fast tracking. Standards experts say the scheme, which they attribute to an English consultant, circumvents all outside comment on the would-be standard and seeks to keep Java tightly within Sun’s control by bypassing the normal ISO process. Traditionally, a prospective standard would go first to a bona fide standards group such as X/Open or the European Computer Manufacturers Association (ECMA) for public airing and then to ISO. Never before, the experts say, has an individual company sought the prerogatives ISO previously only accorded consortia to become a Recognized Publicly Available Specification (PAS) submitter. The move, which is believed to reflect Sun’s fear that Microsoft will somehow kidnap Java if its standardization is handled conventionally, could cost Sun some of its vaunted reputation as an open company that adheres to open processes. Standards people, most of them partial to Sun, some of them even at Sun, are concerned that Sun might set a precedent whereby other companies like Microsoft, for instance, will also bypass the normal vetting procedure and seek to get their technologies rubberstamped as standards. Of course it remains to be seen whether ISO countenances Sun as a PAS submitter and allows it to control the requirements process. However, ISO, despite the threat of embarrassment, might find Java’s lure irresistible—it is after all a big fish to catch simply on the basis of the billions of dollars that are being poured into it. It will be July before we know whether Sun is recognized as a PAS submitter. Sun’s PAS application goes from here to the ISOInternational Electrotechnical Commission’s Joint Technology Committee1 (JTC1). From JTC1, it is distributed to the JTC1’s Technical Advisory Groups (TAGs) in 30 countries for a yes-or-no vote on whether to accept Sun as a PAS. There would then be a second yes-or-no vote on whether to accept the Java technology, as handed down by Sun, as a standard. The process could become contentious at the national level. Sun will be sidestepping the normal procedure that would see Java become a national Section 12. The Analyst’s View: What the World Heard