Jonathan Payne, Sami Shaio, Arthur van Hoff and Kim Polese, four members of the original Java development team, recently left Sun and started their own Palo Alto based product development company.
Computer languagesaren't normally big news. Java, Sun Microsystem's new language, is a phenomenon unlike anything else to hit the computer world. It's bigger than Windows '95 because it isn't an Intel dependent technology. In fact, it isn't a computer dependent technology.
Java was designed to be small and compact so that it would run on personal digital assistants (PDA's) and set-top boxes. In fact, the goal was to make it possible for Java to run on anything that connected to a network. If your toaster oven ever gets connected to the Net, it will probably run on Java. I guess then you'd have toast with your Java.
JDJ was lucky enough to catch Kim Polese, formerly Sun's one-person Java marketing department. She and three of Java's original development team have decided to launch their own Palo Alto based Java application development company. When their phones get turned on, we'll make sure that JDJ readers know how to get in contact with them. Kim has a distinction that few people know about. She was the person who gave Java its now famous name. Kim was kind enough to answer a few questions for JDJ.
JDJ: How did you first become involved with what was to become Java?
KP: I had been employed at Sun Microsystems for seven years. Sun put together a team to find all the problems with both operating systems and languages. Mainly, they wanted to address the insanity of having application tied to operating systems. They decided to create a new language from the ground up. Some of the people, James Gosling, Patrick Naughton and Mike Sheridan, decided to take the best parts of Cedar-Mesa, SmallTalk, Objective C, C++ and Eiffel. Three years ago I learned about this new technology called Oak that was being developed. It solved a lot of problems for developers. I was the product manager for C++ at Sun Microsystems at that time and when I found out about Oak, I decided that I wanted to come and work on this new technology. I transferred to a spin-off company called First Person that Sun had created to productize and commercialize Oak, but there was no marketing or business development. Here were developers, some UI (User Interface) designers and documentation people, but no marketing or business development, so I was the first and, as it turned out, the only marketing person. As product manager, it was my job to figure out what to do with the technology and how to make it a commercial success. That was what I set to do.
JDJ: You've recently left Sun and started a new company. Could you describe your company?
KP: Four of us started the company. The other three people, aside from myself, are part of the original Java team. Their names are Arthur van Hoff, Sami Shaio and Jonathan Payne. Between them they have over twelve years of experience working on Java technology, so we have a lot of development experience.
