I recently had the privilege of talking with Patrick Curran for JavaWorld’s Java Technology Insider regarding the JCP or Java Community Process. In this hip podcast, Patrick gives an overview of the structure and inner workings of the process and describes where the JCP has historically fallen apart. While candid about Sun’s ambivalent relationship to open source, and about the predominance of corporate interests on the JCP Executive Committee, Patrick ultimately places responsibility for reform in the hands of developers, baby. As he clearly states — anyone can join the JCP and participation is the key to democracy!

I really enjoyed learning more about the JCP and Patrick definitely uncovers a lot of the unknown inter-workings of the JCP process. It’ll indeed be interesting to see how the JCP fares should Sun be acquired by IBM, don’t you think?