No, not the Obama/McCain smackdown on Nov 4. As you may have read in SD Times, SpringSource has been elected to the JCP Executive Committee for Java SE/EE, along with SAP, Ericsson, Nokia, Philips, and IBM. I will be the SpringSource representative.

Not that the JCP matches the scale of the presidential race. But this is an important moment for SpringSource, and one that reflects the years of hard work and leadership the entire team at SpringSource has provided in enterprise Java. More importantly, I believe that our election will help us to make Java stronger.

From the first book through the founding of SpringSource, we've done a lot to benefit Java through our innovative open source software and advocacy of pragmatic, effective architectures. Producing software that benefits users will always be our primary aim—but now we will also have a voice in the workings of the JCP, which we'll use to lobby for positive change.

Political rhetoric in the current election aside, I think it's fair to say that yes, I am a change candidate. I've always been very vocal about what needs to happen with the JCP.

Besides SpringSource, every company on the Executive Committee has a market cap of many billions of dollars. We're honored to be included in such company, but we think it's important to have strong voices from outside the community of large, traditional vendors—many of whom created the complexity problems of enterprise Java in the first place. In the words of the great computer scientist Tony Hoare, “the pursuit of the utmost simplicity…is a price which the very rich find most hard to pay.”

This elected official wants to hear from you, readers and fellow developers. What's wrong? What would you like to see? Please post your comments and let your voice be heard. I am listening, and I will try to ensure that the JCP is, too.