MOBILE & EMBEDDED COMMUNITY ON JAVA.NET White Paper May 2007 …

MOBILE & EMBEDDED
COMMUNITY ON JAVA.NET
 White Paper
 May 2007




Abstract
The Mobile & Embedded Community is the open source community for the JavaTM Platform, Micro Edition (Java ME
platform) and related technologies. The purpose of this paper is to introduce the Mobile & Embedded Community,
describe the benefits of participating in the community, suggest ways to get involved, and explain the differences
between working with the open source implementation and the commercial implementation of the Java ME platform.
                                                                                                              Sun Microsystems, Inc.




Table of Contents

The Mobile & Embedded Community . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Benefits of Community Participation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Device manufacturers and OEMs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Application developers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Service providers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
ISVs, tools providers, and component providers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Sun . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Community Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Getting Involved . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Starting a project in the community . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Working With the Open Source Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
What is included in the Open Source projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Licensing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Contributing to the Open Source projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Commercial Products and Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Learn more . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13
About Sun . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
3           The Mobile & Embedded Community                                Sun Microsystems, Inc.




Chapter 1
The Mobile & Embedded Community

The Mobile & Embedded Community is a thriving community that enables and empowers
developers to collaborate and innovate, driving the evolution and adoption of the Java
Platform, Micro Edition (Java ME Platform) for mobile and embedded devices. The Java
ME platform is by far the most ubiquitous mobile device application platform today.
It provides a robust, flexible environment for applications running on a broad range of
other embedded devices such as TV set-top boxes, printers, telematics systems, and
PDAs. The Java ME platform includes a flexible user interface, a robust security
model, a broad range of built-in network protocols, and extensive support for networked
and offline applications that can be downloaded dynamically. The Java ME platform
is deployed on billions of devices, supported by leading tool vendors, and used by
companies worldwide. In short, it is the platform of choice for today's consumer and
embedded devices.

Sun announced its intention to open source the Java platform in May 2006 at the
annual JavaOne conference in San Francisco. Six months later, the Mobile &
                 SM




Embedded Community was launched on Java.net for the Java ME platform and
OpenJDK was established for the JavaTM Platform, Standard Edition (Java SE platform).

The Mobile & Embedded Community (http://mobileandembedded.org) provides the
opportunity for anyone interested in an application platform for mobile and embedded
devices to collaborate and drive the innovation, evolution, and adoption of the Java ME
platform. Within the community are open source projects related to Java ME technologies,
including the following:
· phoneMETM. The open source version of Sun Microsystem's Java ME platform imple-
   mentations based on the Connected Device Configuration and Connected Limited
   Device Configuration specifications.
· cqMETM. The open source version of the ME Framework modules and the portal to
   the JT harness project site.
· ME application developers. The project dedicated to the business of application
   and content development on mobile and embedded Java platforms.

In addition to hosting these prominent projects, the Mobile & Embedded Community is
also the home for many other innovative projects related to Java ME technologies.

Sun's vision for this community is to not only evolve and innovate within existing projects,
but also to expand the focus to all market segments that might benefit from Java ME
technology. Innovation within the community is expected to push Java ME technology
into new and emerging markets.
4           Benefits of Community Participation                        Sun Microsystems, Inc.




Chapter 2
Benefits of Community Participation

The mobile and embedded industry has recently seen a huge advancement in technology.
The gap between the capabilities of the desktop world and the mobile world has
narrowed, enabling the power of the desktop to be brought to mobile devices. A
number of compelling applications and services are being introduced at a rapid rate.
The Java ME platform plays a key role in the creation and deployment of these services.
The platform is the most ubiquitous mobile device application platform today. With
the increased opportunities also come challenges, such as:
· How to provide a consistent application platform for more than a billion devices
· How to continue to provide the most robust, secure, and flexible application platform
· How to enable application development and unified service deployment across
  three screens (TV, mobile and desktop)

The contribution of the Java platform implementation from Sun to the open source
community is expected to encourage innovation and increase the speed with which
the Java platform evolves and becomes more widely adopted as a common and con-
sistent Java platform. Through the Mobile & Embedded Community, participation in
the innovation and adoption of the platform is now available to developers, independent
researchers, small companies, school teachers, university professors, and anyone else
interested in working with the Java ME platform. The community enables true global
participation from developers everywhere, including emerging countries.

Participating in the community provides a number of benefits to everyone in the mobile
and embedded devices ecosystem and to Sun as well. General benefits include:
· Constant access to code
· Ability to influence the development and evolution of the platform
· Ability to collaborate with all segments of the industry around a common set of
  implementations
· Removal of the barriers and inefficiencies to innovation

In addition, participation helps to promote consistency in the Java ME platform across
devices and across industries, which strengthens the relevance and importance of the
Java ME platform.
5          Benefits of Community Participation                           Sun Microsystems, Inc.




Device manufacturers and OEMs
Device manufacturers and OEMs benefit from a consistent and reliable platform for
their offerings. Benefits of open source include:
· Access to feature-rich and proven implementations and technology stacks
· Early access to released code and code in development
· Significantly reduced development, testing, and maintenance costs
· Easier participation for component partners and the creation of pre-integrated solutions

Application developers
The platform is of most value when there is compelling content available. In the mobile
and embedded industry, success is often measured in terms of how much incremental
revenue is being generated by acquiring new customers or increasing revenue from
existing customers. Thus, content developers play a key role in the success of service
providers and the success of the Java ME platform. The transparency brought about as
a result of open source helps application developers plan and prepare for the availability
of technology for creating compelling content. Access to the platform enables them to
better test and certify their content and applications with the platform and empowers
them to influence the future direction of the platform.

Benefits of open source to application developers include:
· Complete access to platform source code, community resources, and support
· Increased platform consistency
· Ability to test and validate applications against the open source code and ultimately
  reduce porting and testing costs
· Faster time to market with reduced cycles of development and testing

Service providers
Service providers value how much incremental average revenue per user is generated
and the introduction of new services that increase revenue. Therefore, they are dependent
on the content developer to create compelling content that can be marketed to the
consumers.

Benefits of open source to service providers include:
· Faster innovation of the platform through more compelling content, applications,
  and services
· Increased consistency, reduced testing, and operational costs
6          Benefits of Community Participation                          Sun Microsystems, Inc.




ISVs, tools providers, and component providers
Other software providers, including ISVs, tools providers, and component vendors,
benefit from easy access to the software to help them perform interoperability testing
and bundling, and to create tightly integrated solutions.

Benefits of open source to these participants include:
· Direct access to the platform
· Ability to achieve tighter integration
· Faster innovation for platform developer tools

Sun
As the innovators of Java technology, Sun wants to preserve compatibility, interoper-
ability, and reliability. By open sourcing the Java ME implementations, Sun is taking big
steps to make sure Java technology remains compatible, interoperable, and reliable,
and that the entire Java community benefits.

Benefits of open source to Sun include:
· Wider adoption of the Java ME platform
· Maintenance and expansion of platform support across a wide range of devices
· Rapid innovation and collaboration in the development of the Java ME platform
· Delivery of high-quality implementations, technology stacks, and solutions with
  Java ME technologies
7           Community Resources                                         Sun Microsystems, Inc.




Chapter 3
Community Resources

The community offers many resources, including the community home page that
contains community highlights, news and featured articles, and announcements and
news related to the technology and the industry. The community site offers featured
blogs from industry experts and has a blog aggregation capability. In addition, targeted
forums and mailing lists are monitored and answered by Sun engineers as well as
many active participants from the community. The community site also offers wiki
pages, which are generally geared towards more detailed project information, and
provides an ability to host open source projects.

Using the resources provided, community members can participate in the following ways:
· Access the code
· Report bugs
· Discuss issues with other members
· Start new projects
8           Getting Involved                                              Sun Microsystems, Inc.




Chapter 4
Getting Involved

Developers and individuals can get involved in the community in several ways. A diverse
group of developers are expected to be part of the community, including those who
plan to evolve and improve the Java ME platform, those who are implementing or
integrating with the technology in devices, and those who are creating content and
applications for the Java ME platform. These groups of users include students, researchers,
and educators, as well as commercial entities such as handset manufacturers, software
and component providers, tools providers, consulting service providers, application
developers, and other Java ME enthusiasts.

Anyone can be a community observer and a user with the following privileges:
· Access to the community
· Access to source code or binaries
· Ability to participate in and monitor forum postings and mailing lists
· Ability to submit bugs
· Ability to provide bug fixes or contributions by teaming up with existing developers
· Access to wikis

Developers who want to be more involved in developing and contributing code to
the projects in the community can request the Developer role for the specific project
within the community. Members with the Developer role can provide bug fixes,
contribute changes to the source code repository, and participate in any private
mailing lists that might exist.

Starting a project in the community
One of the most powerful ways to get involved is to start a new project in the community
or migrate an existing project into the community. Java.net provides the infrastructure
needed to host and run an open source project. All projects in the Mobile & Embedded
Community enjoy the benefits of this infrastructure, including the following:
· Complete project ownership and control over the project
· Web presence, if desired
· Complete source code management and repository
· Ability to manage announcements
· Control over project membership
9           Getting Involved                                              Sun Microsystems, Inc.




All projects also support dedicated forums, mailing lists, and a bug tracking mechanism.
In addition, Java.net provides project owners with statistical information about the
project on a regular basis to monitor the activities in the project.

The Mobile & Embedded Community brings many communities together and further
extends them. Though they are different communities, they bring together developers
interested in the Java ME platform and technologies. You are invited to join in creating
the most innovative and widely deployed application platform on the planet. Share
your ideas, ask questions, start a project. Your active participation is key to the success
of the Mobile & Embedded Community.
10            Working with the Open Source Software                        Sun Microsystems, Inc.




Chapter 5
Working with the Open Source Software

With the contribution of Sun's Java ME platform implementation and testing tools to
open source, all development of the software now happens in the open source community.
The open source software includes all of the source code for the Java ME platform that
Sun owns and has the rights to distribute as open source software. The only exception
is the legally encumbered components to which Sun does not own the rights and
therefore cannot include as open source.

What is included in the Open Source projects
Sun has contributed the following software to the projects in the Mobile & Embedded
Community:
· Project phoneME phoneme.dev.java.net
  ­ phoneME Feature: Sun Java Wireless Client implementation, a leading
    CLDC/MIDP/MSA-based mass-market phone platform
  ­ phoneME Advanced: Advanced phone implementation, a CDC/FP/PBP-based
    platform for smart phones, set-top boxes, Blu-Ray, and similar devices
· Project cqME cqme.dev.java.net
     ­ ME framework: foundation for Java ME TCKs
     ­ JT harness: JavaTestTM harness, foundation for testing frameworks
· NetBeansTM Mobility netbeans.org/products/mobility

Also available is NetBeans Mobility Pack, in the NetBeans Community. NetBeans
Mobility Pack 4.0 is used to write, test, and debug applications for Java technology-
enabled mobile devices.

Licensing
Sun's intention is to make its Java ME implementation available under a genuinely
free and open license and, therefore, released its software for the phoneME and cqME
projects under the General Public License (GPL) v2. GPL v2 is a license commonly used
within free software communities. This license is designed to help advance projects
and code commons by requiring innovation sharing with the commons. By design, it
minimizes incompatible forks by requiring that all modifications be shared in the
open. In addition, GPL v2 is the right license to preserve the trademark Write Once,
Run AnywhereTM value proposition of the Java programming language.
11         Working with the Open Source Software                         Sun Microsystems, Inc.




The complete license text is available at:gnu.org/licenses/gpl.txt.

With the choice of GPL v2, Sun provides simplified access to source code and binaries
and encourages transparency with the development of the platform and tools. Now
that the Java platform implementations are free software (as defined by the Free
Software Foundation), developers and others are encouraged to use the software,
participate, and contribute to the projects. Developers can use the open-source Java
ME platform code bases in any way that a GPL v2 licensed code base can be used. In
working with the software, understand that GPL is a copyleft license, which implies
that source code used to create software under a copyleft license must also be released
under a copyleft license. Additional software not distributed with this copyleft software
can be licensed independently. For the Java ME platform, this includes software distri-
butions such as MIDlets and compatibility and quality tests. For more details on copyleft,
see:gnu.org/copyleft.

For more details and frequently asked questions on the open source Java ME imple-
mentation, see sun.com/software/opensource/java/faq.jsp.

Contributing to the Open Source projects
All developers working with the Java ME platform technologies and tools are encouraged
to contribute to the projects in a variety of ways, such as fixing bugs, updating existing
modules, or even contributing entirely new modules. Every contribution helps to support
and complement the platform and tools.

All contributions to the phoneME and cqME projects require a Sun Contributor Agreement
to be in place. Such contributor agreements are commonly employed in a large number
of open source communities. The agreement serves as a certificate of originality by the
contributor and allows the contributors and Sun to share the rights to the contributions.
In addition, it also enables Sun to offer community contributions to customers and
licensees under Sun's commercial license.
12           Commercial Products and Services                         Sun Microsystems, Inc.




Chapter 6
Commercial Products and Services

For commercial customers, Sun offers the most mature implementation of the Java ME
platform. Sun is committed to ongoing development of the platform capability and
features, which assures that the available products from Sun stay on the cutting edge
of technology. Sun's solutions provide high-performance and feature-rich implemen-
tations within resource constraints, while reducing porting and deployment costs. Sun
is confident that licensees will continue to leverage Java ME commercial products and
services that help them deliver an exciting and compelling mobile internet experience
to consumers.

Among many others, Sun's commercial licensees enjoy these benefits:
· High quality, optimized performance binaries released on a predictable schedule
· Packaged updates, patches, and security fixes
· Support for fixes, including customer-specific bug fixes delivered out of cycle
· Branding, access to trademark and logo licenses including Java PoweredTM
· Installation and custom engineering services
· Training and education
· Developer support

Commercial source code licensees can optionally buy additional services and gain
additional rights, including:
· Shipping of binaries derived from custom modified source code
· Making of modifications to the source code without putting those modifications
  back into the open-source code commons
·    Use of the Java CompatibleTM logo for compliant custom implementations
·    Complete access to TCKs
·    Porting services
·    Custom development and engineering support services
·    Upgrades and updates to the source
·    Binary support
·    Testing services, including TCK testing
13         Commercial products and services                               Sun Microsystems, Inc.




Learn more
For more information on commercial products and services visit java.sun.com/javame/
overview/products.jsp. For any licensing questions, contact Sun sales at:sun.com/sales/
wwsales.jsp.

References
Mobile & Embedded Community                   mobileandembedded.org
phoneME project                               phoneme.dev.java.net
cqME project                                  cqme.dev.java.net
ME Application Developers project             meapplicationdevelopers.dev.java.net/
Free and Open Source Java FAQs                sun.com/software/opensource/java/faq.jsp
GPL v2                                        gnu.org/copyleft

About Sun
A singular vision, The Network is the ComputerTM, drives Sun in delivering industry-
leading technologies that focus on the whole system -- where computers, software,
storage, and services combine. With a proven history of sharing, building communities,
and innovation, Sun solutions create opportunities, both social and economic, around
the world. You can learn more about Sun at sun.com.
Mobile & Embedded Community on Java.net                                                                                                                                             On the Web sun.com




Sun Microsystems, Inc. 4150 Network Circle, Santa Clara, CA 95054 USA Phone 1-650-960-1300 or 1-800-555-9SUN (9786) Web sun.com
© 2007 Sun Microsystems, Inc. All rights reserved. Sun, Sun Microsystems, the Sun logo, JavaOne, Java, Java Powered, Java Compatible, JavaTest, phoneME, cqME, NetBeans, and Write Once, Run Anywhere, The
Network is the Computer, are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States and other countries. Information subject to change without notice.
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