It's that time of the year again when the JCP is in election mode and an update about it is more than timely. At writing time, the ratification ballot was just posted (September 27) and this year's nominees are BEA, SAP, and SAS for the Java SE/EE Executive Committee (EC) and Nokia, IBM, and Philips for the Java ME EC (www.jcpelection2005.org/jcp/ratification_ballot).

Before I share with you the nominees' qualifications, just a reminder that the JCP Elections process starts with member nominations by the JCP Program Management Office (PMO) for the vacant Ratified Seats of the two JCP ECs. Nominations are made with due regard for balanced community and regional representation. For more details, here are a few pointers to useful election information resources. You'll find a 2005 JCP Elections primer on jcp.org at http://jcp.org/en/whatsnew/elections and an overview at PriceWaterhouse Coopers, the annual online central of the JCP elections, at www.jcpelection2005.org/jcp/overview.

And the ratified ballot nominees for JCP SE/EE EC are...!

BEA Systems, Inc.
BEA's elections qualifications card mentions the company's leadership in enterprise infrastructure software, its contribution to providing standards-based platforms to accelerate the secure flow of information and services. BEA product lines - WebLogic, Tuxedo, JRockit, and the new AquaLogic family of Service Infrastructure - help customers reduce IT complexity and successfully deploy service-oriented architectures to improve business agility and efficiency.

BEA WebLogic Server, a leader in the application server market segment, has been a supporter of the Java EE Platform and its latest release is certified for J2EE 1.4. The WebLogic family of Java products are providers of Java technologies and a continued source of innovation within the Java community and have played a significant role in the success of Java in the enterprise market.

BEA has served on the Executive Committee for J2SE/J2EE since its inception and continues to be a strong supporter of Java and Java standardization. BEA has been a diligent voter in progressing new JSRs through the process and a significant contributor to improvements in both the JSPA and the JCP process document. The company also supported numerous JCP activities at JavaOne and other venues. BEA also holds leadership positions in other standards and open source organizations, which enable BEA to be even more effective on the JCP EC.

BEA has successfully completed three JSRs as Spec Lead: Java Rules Engine API (JSR 94), Streaming API for XML (JSR 173), and Web Services Metadata for the Java Platform (JSR 181). They participate in over 20 JSR Expert Groups, including JAX-WS (JSR 224), EJB3 (JSR 220), JDBC 4.0 (JSR 221), Content Repository for Java Technology (JSR 170), and Java EE5 (JSR 244).

SAP
With 12 million users and 96,400 installations, SAP is a large inter-enterprise software company and the third-largest independent software supplier overall. With this experience, SAP is positioned to guide Java to become the foundation for a next-generation service composition platform that can rapidly deliver applications that support those business processes that are most critical for a company.

SAP has been a member of the SE/EE Executive Committee since 2002 and has actively worked with other leaders in the Java industry to guide the future success of the Java platform. SAP has proposed ways to make Java simpler and easier to use by reducing the number of technical choices that Java developers face. SAP has been most active in JSRs related to the Web services space such as JAX-WS 2.0, Java Business Integration (JBI), and the SAP-led API for Web Services Policies (JSR 265). Also, SAP has facilitated the dialogue with communities outside of the JCP such as the Eclipse Foundation.

SAS
SAS provides a new generation of business intelligence software and services that create enterprise intelligence. SAS also develops solutions that are used at about 40,000 sites - including 96 of the top 100 companies on the FORTUNE Global 500 - to develop more profitable relationships with customers and suppliers; to enable better, more accurate, and informed decisions; and to drive organizations forward. SAS integrates data warehousing, analytics, and traditional BI applications to create intelligence from massive amounts of data.

Java technology is a critical underpinning of the SAS Enterprise Intelligence Platform. Because its customers desire to run SAS software on a wide array of platforms and operating systems, Java is a natural fit for SAS. Java technology provides SAS with a solid foundation upon which to build multi-platform solutions that meet key customer requirements. The company delivers a broad range of Java-based software, from general-purpose analytical and reporting software to targeted, industry-specific, vertical-market business intelligence applications. This software is delivered to both desktop clients and the mid-tier.

Due to the multi-platform nature of SAS software and their use of Java technology, Java standards and interoperability are critical components to successful development and deployment of their software offerings. SAS believes that encouraging and supporting the development of such standards is an important part of working with the Java community. As a result, SAS has been a Java licensee partner since 1997 and has been actively involved in the Java Community Process for much of that time. SAS has participated in approximately 25 Java Specification Requests spanning both J2SE and J2EE technology, including such diverse JSRs as the J2SE umbrella JSRs (JSRs 59, 176, and 270), Java OLAP Interface (JSR 69), Data Mining (JSR 73), JSP 2.0 and Servlet 2.4 (JSRs 152 and 154), and the Portlet specification (JSR 168).

SAS believes that it brings a unique, end-user focus to the JCP Executive Committee. As a Java platform consumer rather than a platform provider, the company has an understanding of the challenges and opportunities related to deploying end-user Java applications in large-scale, enterprise environments. By participating on the JCP Executive Committee, SAS intends to collaborate with the broader Java community in helping to strengthen the Java platform and effectively drive Java standards forward.

And the ratified ballot nominees for JCP ME EC are...

IBM
IBM has been a contributor to the Java Community since 1996, bringing its breadth of resources and deep understanding of Java technologies to bear on almost every aspect of the platform's evolution. Since 1998, IBM has been a key participant and leader on numerous JSRs and has been a contributing member on both Executive Committees since their inception in 2000. IBM is heavily investing in the success of Java technology - providing Java SE ports for more than a dozen environments, delivering over 300 Java-compatible products to market, and creating the Java EE implementation in the form of WebSphere Application Server. In the Java ME space, IBM provides VM ports to more than 20 environments together with support for a broad range of configurations, profiles, and JSRs. IBM's representatives, whether leading or participating in Expert Groups and Executive Committees, will continue to use their expertise and technical resources to make contributions for the betterment of the Java Community and to help guide the Java platform's evolution and development.