I’ve mentioned previously that Eclipse is coming alive as a place for runtime technology. The last few days have seen some more concrete steps down that path. Last Wednesday the Eclipse RT top-level project had a successful creation review. So over the next few days the project itself will be provisioned and open for business. In the proposal there were 6 projects declaring their intention to move: Equinox, RAP, ECF, Swordfish, Riena and EclipseLink. While the path is now clear for these moves, I wouldn’t expect to see a mad rush. Each project will move at its own pace. After all, several of the projects are shooting to release in the next few months and really don’t need the distraction of messing with repositories, bugs, etc. There are several other projects including eRCP, EILF and Corona that have expressed interest in a new home. Most likely there will be some discussions on this at EclipseCon and on the RT newsgroup in the coming days.

In other news, today we are announcing the creation of an Equinox Community portal. The portal is a recognition that runtime technology at Eclipse spans the entire ecosystem today and will continue to do so tomorrow. We can’t (and actually don’t want to) contain it all in the RT project. The portal is a landing site for people looking to know more about Eclipse in runtime scenarios. It gives you a view of Eclipse through runtime glasses. You can information on the related projects and technologies, demos, tutorial, articles and other resources.

If you are at EclipseCon on Tuesday, come by the Equinox Community talk that Jochen Krause and I (the RT PMC co-leads) are giving. The slides will be on the web and there is a white paper that paints the vision and benefits of the approach we see evolving. Also check out Ian’s post for more info.  (Damn that Ian for posting before me…)

I’m a fan of simplicity. Hopefully that shows through in the Code 9 website.

As mentioned elsewhere (here here here), the Eclipse Foundation Board of Directors election results are in. I am very pleased to have been re-elected for another term.  I mentioned in my vision statement that working on the board is extremely educational and gratifying.  Gaining the support of the community to do that work is doubly so.  Thanks to everyone who voted and to the other candidates for making it an interesting process.

I have to say however that I am bummed that Howard Lewis, a long time elected add-in provider representative, chose not to run again this year so tomorrow will be his last board meeting.  It is our loss.  Thanks Howard for many years of great service to the Eclipse community.

You know those times when you are blissfully away from email and you come back and all hell has broken loose? That’s me today as I read the various posts and messages about e4. Hopefully the following will help make things better rather than making them worse…

First, to dispel some myths.

• There is no evil plan. Actually, there is really only a plan to make a plan.
• There is no prototype. There are some wads of code that people have used to test and express their ideas. Some of those wads are useful as demos. Some as stalking horses. None of the code is real in any way.

Ok, so what’s happened here? At least part of it is a miscommunication/misunderstanding around the creation of an “e4″ component in the Eclipse Project Incubator. That component is NOT e4. So what is it? Aside from being unfortunately named, it is a place to put the demo code and random hackings that would be used to facilitate discussions around creating an e4 proposal and interesting EclipseCon talk.

There is no doubt that the Eclipse project team has a reputation for being closed. Being more open has been one of our goals for the past couple years. There has been good progress but there is still a ways to go.

In any event, it is actually the, perhaps clumsy, implementation of the desire to be open and create the open community structures (e.g., projects) that has gotten us here.

Early on there was discussion around branching the platform code in-place, doing the work in a set of Eclipse project incubator components, … We quickly saw that making a full-on project was the only right direction.

In the normal process of creating a project

An individual or group of individuals declares their interest in, and rationale for, establishing a project. The EMO will assist such groups in the preparation of a project Proposal.

So the current incubator component and all discussions up to now have really been focused on getting to the point of proposing a project. Not on actually doing the work.

Once a project is proposed

The proposers, in conjunction with the destination PMC and the community, collaborate in public to enhance, refine, and clarify the proposal.

So the proposal is the real beginning of collaboration, community building and the work.

The communication around, and creation of, the e4 component confused things and was (reasonably) perceived as saying “here is e4 and these people are working on it and there is a direction and …”.  Its all done so to speak.  In reality it is none of the above.

It could be (and has been) reasonably argued that more communication in the pre-proposal phase would have been the way to go. In retrospect, that looks like wise advice.

With mea culpas, clown noses and red faces all around the team, I propose that we, collectively, all of us, attempt to reset our thinking and perceptions, and make the reality be a completely open, innovative and interesting e4 project that takes Eclipse to the next level.

Each year when the board election comes around I have to remember how it works.

By now everyone eligible should have received a password email enabling them to vote. If you have a password and have not yet voted, please do so now. There’s no point in having an election if people don’t vote.

Now, if you do not have a password but think you are eligible to vote, read on…

Only members can vote.

Who is a member? Well, committers who work for a member company or those independent committers who have signed individual committer membership papers.

Apparently some very small number of independent committers go through the process of becoming a member. You should. Its pretty easy. I recently left IBM and became an independent committer. Walking the process to become a member took about 10 minutes and most of that was the time to print and fax the forms.

These forms are different from the committer paperwork that you filled out. Membership is not automatic.

If you hurry, you might be able to get the forms in and processed in time to vote. Why bother? Well, for one, your vote will count for as much as all of IBM’s, Oracle’s, Intel’s, … Votes from committers at member companies are aggregated down into one vote so us independents wield just as much power as the big guys.

I was thinking the other day, “Why am I running for re-election in the current Eclipse Board elections?” It’s really quite a bit of work. There are monthly phone calls, quarterly face to face meetings, committees and working groups, prep for all of the above, … Oh my!

All in all I figure it takes at least 5 days a quarter just to keep up. If you want to help drive things, well, you could easily double that. When you figure there are about 50-55 work days in a quarter (depending on your location’s holiday calendar and your vacation time), that’s at least 10% of your normal work time!

So what’s up with that? We have 8 dedicated committers all willing to contribute still more of their time to help run the foundation. Why?

I can’t answer for the others but I can list some of the reasons I’m on the list.

• The other board members. I’ve mentioned this before but the set of people on the board today is frankly, superb. Diverse, talented, bright, engaged. You can’t pay for a better set of teachers.
• Committer members have an impact. We have day to day knowledge of how the committer community thinks and works, and the kinds of challenges they face. Because of that, we ground the discussions in reality and focus on the things that help committers most.
• Committers don’t know it all. Gads! But its true. Eclipse has a very vibrant commercial aspect that, to be honest, I did not know or particularly care about when I first became a director two years ago. It is extremely interesting to understand. More committers should take some time to understand how their companies and others make money with/from/… Eclipse. The board spends quite a bit of time on this.
• The board meetings. Two days, locked in a room with 30 other people, no internet access, … Wait, that was not one of the pros…

Anyway, we’d be here all day. There are more reasons and many are outlined in my vision statement. The point is, as I went through the list, I quickly realized that being on the board is a huge opportunity that excites and inspires me. That is why I am willing to donate this time.

Eclipse is many things that are good and can be many other great things. The Board of Directors’ mission is:

“to advance the creation, evolution, promotion, and support of [Eclipse]”

There is no better place to be than on the board, if you want to have a hand in shaping the larger Eclipse world. I look forward to another term on the board and more interaction with the entire Eclipse community.