Moderator (MDR): MDR-Nancy
Guest Speaker (SPK): SPK-name
MDR-Nancy: Welcome to the Java Marketing Opportunities forum.
SPK-Erik Smith: Good morning!
MDR-Nancy: Erik. Thanks for joining us today. What is your role at JavaSoft?
SPK-Erik Smith: I work in the ISV and Corporate Developer Partnerships Group. My primary responsibilities are to work with enterprise application developers.
MDR-Nancy: What types of companies do you work with, and what kind of interesting applications have you seen?
SPK-Erik Smith: I primarily spend my time with companies who are developing large applications for internal use, or ISV companies who are developing applications for corporate customers to purchase. I am interested in seeing your application. What does it do?
MDR-Nancy: That sound interesting. Specifically, what kind of applications are being developed.
SPK-Erik Smith: Many corporate customers are looking to Java as a way to access back end legacy apps and to put these apps directly onto a corporate intranet or Internet. Typical apps are things like call center, sales force automation, corporate research--basically anything that will help to enable employees.
MDR-Nancy: What parts of the Java technology are companies incorporating into their applications -- JDK? JavaOS? Others?
SPK-Erik Smith: Most companies are taking the base JDK and developing their apps. We are, however, starting to see many developers looking to use JavaBeansTM as a way to componentize their applications.
MDR-Nancy: JavaBeans is an interesting concept. Why do you feel people are gravitating towards Beans?
SPK-Erik Smith: Well, to build a Java application today you need to be a developer who understands how to program in Java. In essence, you are a builder of applications. What Beans provides is a model for the nontechnical, nonprogrammer types to be able to assemble complex applications from prebuilt components: Beans. As Java continues to grow in the industry, a move from application builders to assemblers is vital.
MDR-Nancy: Out of curiosity, who in our audience is developing a Java application and would you like to share it with the forum? Erik, what types of companies are building Beans?
SPK-Erik Smith: I think initially we are seeing tools companies building small Beans components that can be then embedded in other applications. Companies like Symantec, Borland and IBM are all big Beans supporters who are bringing out tools that will generate Beans, like function buttons, and so on. Eventually you will see companies writing entire applications like word processors and spread sheets that are written to the Beans specification.
MDR-Nancy: Here are some of the responses I received.
uomini: I've developed a newsreader, called WebReader, written entirely in Java. It
consists of over 23,000 lines of code, has been in beta test for nearly a year, and includes features no other newsreader supports. It's probably
the most full-featured reader anywhere.
WebReader supports posting and reading articles in HTML as well as ASCII.
HTML posts are totally transparent to other newsreaders, and there is little or no impact on the NNTP server. No tags are sent to the server, and very little disk space is used when posting HTML articles.
SPK-Erik Smith: uomini, that sounds like a very interesting application. 23,000 lines! How long did it take you to develop it before it was ready for beta?
uomini: I began in August 1995 and started mailing it out to beta users in early April 1996.
SPK-Erik Smith: Wow, that's a great development story! You began with Java in the very beginning (when there was little support) and were able to get a finished application out in 9 months. What type of feedback have your beta sites given you?
MDR-Nancy: Spietrow is also working on an application.
spietrowicz: I work at NCSA and we have a collaboration framework and applications that
let multiple people work together on the network. The project is called
Habanero. Sounds like this would be of interest to people you're in contact
with, Erik.
SPK-Erik Smith: With corporate customers, there is no hotter topic than collaboration. Every company wants people in remote locations to be able to work togther as part of a virtual team. When is Habenero going to be available?
MDR-Nancy: On a different note, what type of new opportunities do you see for Java developers?
SPK-Erik Smith: I talk to hundreds of developers, and I see one common thread between them. This is the first time in a lot of years that ANYONE can rapidly develop, market and sell an application. What I mean is that in the past, the barriers to entry were quite high for new developers. In addition to the development tasks, they had to secure a sales and marketing effort, a distribution channel, print documentation, and print disks, or CDs. Now with Java and the Web, anybody can make and distribute an application in a rapid period of time. That being said, I encourage developers to look at developing applications that solve real business problems Things that, as I mentioned before, are enabling technologies that can radically alter business practices as they are today.
MDR-Nancy: A couple of questions/comments have come in. Here's one from Uomini.
uomini: We still need marketing organizations to tell about our applications. That's been the main problem stalling the success of WebReader.
But I agree, Java is a fantastic language for building serious applications, whether or not they are network-based.
MDR-Nancy: Here is some feedback Uomini received for his product.
uomini: Very positive, all in all, although nobody has been posting HTML articles yet.
Mainly, people are saying they're impressed that one can really build large
applications in Java. I think with the latest performance enhancement that I've put
in, more people will start using it. There are over 270 beta users on my
mailing list.
SPK-Erik Smith: Excellent, I look forward to seeing your application.
MDR-Nancy: Spietrow has a response to Erik's previous questions.
spietrowicz: Our first beta was released at JavaOne last year. Our most recent beta just
came out a few weeks ago, and you can download it from:
http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/SDG/Software/Habanero.
If your interested, I'd be happy to talk to you about it in greater detail.
SPK-Erik Smith: Yes, let's try and talk off line. If there is anyone else who has an application that they want to let us, at JavaSoft, know about, please feel free to either send me some mail erik.smith@eng or contact me at 408-343-1535.
MDR-Nancy: Thanks for sharing your contact information. I'm sure you'll get buried with emails. Uomini has another comment.
uomini: For the group: I believe that the first full function word processor available
in Java will become the killer application (although Microsoft Word may be the first
victim :-)
SPK-Erik Smith: I have seen a couple of Java-based, Word-compatible word processors that are starting to hit the market. They look pretty good.
MDR-Nancy: That is very exciting!
SPK-Erik Smith: My feeling is that an integrated office suit, like Corel's is really going to be big news!
MDR-Nancy: Cool! Tom has a question that I'd like to know the answer to too.
TomChavez: What is the coolest application of Java you've seen?
SPK-Erik Smith: I am working with a company that is developing a large application geared to corporate travel. It basically allows the user to do anything that they can do today with a travel agent online; such as book hotels, airfares, and rental cars, but it will also allow the user to shop and access numerous databases and compare prices to find the best prices available This is all written in Java, accesses a variety of databases and legacy applications and is over one million lines of Java code.
MDR-Nancy: Interesting! Uomini has a question about marketing support.
uomini: Again, I feel that strong marketing is just as important, maybe more so, as a great application. Maybe Sun can help in that regard?
SPK-Erik Smith: Yes, marketing can be a make or break for any product. Sun realizes this, so keep your eyes peeled for a variety of marketing programs geared to helping promote developers and applications. The first of these is the 100% Pure Program targeted at developers who are developing 100% Java applications. We will brand these with a logo, and actively promote them.
MDR-Nancy: Where and when will this be launched?
SPK-Erik Smith: We will formally kick this off at JavaOne in San Francisco April 2-4.
MDR-Nancy: To close this forum, we'd like to end with a question from Sanjai.
sanjai: Does Javasoft foresee Java(VM) becoming the OS of the future, if so,
by what timeframe?
SPK-Erik Smith: That's an interesting question. Let me say this, what we do see with Java is a universal programming environment. Write once, run anywhere. My feeling is that the native API value of operating systems will go down. It will no longer matter what OS you are running, as long as the applications that are running on top of it are in Java.
MDR-Nancy: Well, our time is up. Thanks for participating in the forum and we'll see you next week. Any final comments, Erik?
SPK-Erik Smith: Continue those 100% Pure efforts! Thanks for all of your participation and the great questions.
MDR-Nancy: Thanks Erik. Goodbye. Last moderator signing off. The forum is now unmoderated
