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 The job of an Executive Committee (EC) representative
is a serious commitment. The time required is extensive, and includes reading of specifications, Reference Implementations (RIs),
and Technology Compatibility Kits (TCKs), as well as regular attendance at EC meetings and teleconferences to discuss and vote on
various technical and process topics. Besides voting on Java Specification Requests (JSRs) at various stages, the EC guides the
Program Management Office (PMO) in the evolution of the Java Community Process (JCP) program. EC decisions can have significant,
long-term consequences to not only the community, but also in the industry and the market. Still, plenty of JCP participants relish
the task of representing a corporation, non-profit, open source group, or themselves.
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Royal Philips Electronics, a company that grew from its 1891 roots in Eindhoven, the Netherlands,
is now one of the world's biggest electronics companies and Europe's largest. With sales in 2004
of 30.3 billion euros, the main divisions in the company are consumer products, lighting,
semiconductors, and medical systems.
Jon Piesing headed straight to Philips after completing the three-year course in Physics at Oxford
University in 1986. He worked for Philips Research until two years ago, when he moved to Philips
Applied Technologies following a reorganization. Now a senior technical consultant, Jon is still
professionally captivated by consumer electronics products, where the environment and available
facilities are extremely limited. For the last several years, he has worked with Java technology
in consumer devices, especially the Multimedia Home Platform (MHP) initiative of the Digital Video
Broadcasting (DVB) project.
Jon managed a project team that developed prototype systems showing the implementation
of Java technology in consumer electronics, the best known of which was the Philips
Trimedia MHP reference system. This was the complete hardware design of a set-top box
and a partial MHP implementation separate from the Philips product developments in progress
at the time. The MHP implementation was complete enough to be usable for demonstrations and of
high enough quality to be able to sell externally. Jon spent a few years selling over 300 of the
Trimedia MHP reference systems worldwide to customers, including application developers, broadcasters,
and network operators. To this day, John continues to promote the MHP specification, applications, tools,
and products, presenting papers on the technology at technical conferences such as DVB World, IBC, and the
JavaOne Conference. Since its formation in 2000, Jon has also been a major contributor to the MHP Test
Consortium of MHP implementers, creating almost all parts of the MHP receiver conformance test suite
except for the Sun contribution. This consortium contributed over 3000 tests to the DVB.
Jon has been heavily involved in the development of specifications for the use of Java technology in digital
TV systems, starting in 1996 with the selection of the Java virtual machine for use in the Digital Audio Visual
Council (DAVIC) specifications. Jon has participated in numerous standards organizations in addition to DAVIC,
including the DVB project, Home Audio Visual Interoperability (HAVi) group, the ISO/IEC JTC1 SC29 WG12
Multimedia/Hypermedia Experts Group (MHEG), and US Digital TV activities through the Open Cable
Applications Platform (OCAP) group, CableLabs/Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) working
group, ATSC T3/S2, and CE/Cable "bi-directional" negotiation meetings. Jon has traveled
regularly to the USA since January 2001 to participate in person in standardization activities and
to build and maintain relationships with the other participants.
Philips became interested in the JCP program as Java technology was built into a number of the
products made by Philips. Once Philips became a member of the JCP program in 2000, Jon got involved.
Jon's breadth of understanding of Java technology issues -- technical, business, and licensing -- in
general and of Philips' products in particular make Jon an ideal Java ME EC representative for Philips.
He serves as an Expert Group member for these:
JavaTV Experts Group (1998 - 2000, directly for Sun Microsystems)
JSR 62 Personal Profile Specification
JSR 68 J2ME Platform Specification
JSR 129 Personal Basis Profile Specification
JSR 216 Personal Profile 1.1
JSR 217 Personal Basis Profile 1.1
JSR 218 Connected Device Configuration (CDC) 1.1
JSR 219 Foundation Profile 1.1
JSR 249 Mobile Service Architecture for CDC (Observer status only)
JSR 272 Mobile Broadcast Service API for
Handheld Terminals
Jon has four patents approved or filed. Besides having a deep technical understanding of Java,
Jon also has considerable understanding of the legal, commercial and regulatory issues relating
to Java technology licensing and conformance. He says, "I've been deeply involved in Java
technology almost since the beginning, both technically and in discussing and negotiating Java
technology licensing agreements, where no Philips lawyers understood the technical consequences
and agendas relating to the points under negotiation."
EC members have the opportunity to comment on JSRs in a way that commands attention. Having
served on the EC for five years now, Jon is pleased that he was able to make an important
difference by encouraging JSRs 216-219 to be more responsive to market needs and to reduce
the planned code size increase relative to the first version of those JSRs. In his quiet way,
Jon uses his position to remind people that Java ME is useful for a broad range of systems.
He feels strongly that "J2ME should be about more than mobile phones."
Philips is an extremely diverse electronics company, contrasting markedly in the
ME EC with the heavy representation of mobile phone operators, manufacturers, and
technology suppliers. The difference is healthy, and as a result, "Philips
is well placed to identify and assist in some of the other opportunities for
Java," says Jon. If Philips is re-elected for another three-year term,
Jon plans to continue to encourage JSRs and Spec Leads to look beyond the
mobile phone industry.
Jon was born in Croydon, England and is a British citizen. He enjoys following political
and current affairs, traveling, and consuming science fiction.
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