OpenJDK governing board, constitution

[Mark Reinhold]

The OpenJDK Governance Board (GB) has not met since last April because
Sun has not yet appointed anyone to the two open GB seats.  Sun and the
GB considered various candidates early on but then the effort faded into
the background over the summer in the face of more pressing issues.

Without a full GB, there has been no further work on the Constitution.

In the meantime, as others have noted, work is getting done and the
OpenJDK Community is, slowly, expanding.

It is definitely the view of the current GB Members that the GB is, and
ought to be, more of a legislative and judiciary body than an executive.
The GB exists to define the high-level processes by which the Community
operates, and to adjudicate disputes when they arise.  It should never,
ever be in the position of making technical decisions.  I fully expect
this view to be codified in the Constitution.

With regard to the JCP, as Doug observed there is not yet a Java SE 7
Platform JSR due to a policy impasse within the Executive Committee.
Sun will submit such a JSR as soon as that issue is resolved.  In the
meantime the JDK 7 Project here in the OpenJDK Community will move
forward to prototype some features and enhancements that might -- or
might not -- wind up in the SE 7 Platform Specification.

Some of these improvements will come from outside Sun.  Several major
contributions from non-Sun developers are already lined up, and we'll
shortly announce a process by which anyone can propose a new feature.
Stay tuned.

- Mark