The JCP community continues to revise itself, with progress lapping forward in a series of gentle waves. JCP 2.8 (JSR 348), reached Final Release in late 2011, and on the horizon, we already see one ground swell now at the Early Draft Review stage: JSR 355, JCP Executive Committee Merge proposes to collapse the two ECs into a single group that include fewer total seats. All this is leading up to the Big One, but don't get out your surf boards just yet; the third JCP.next JSR is still in developmental stages. Meanwhile, though, you can enjoy the ripples of a few more helpful changes to the way the JCP community does business. A lot of the most recent changes improve usability of the website we all depend on.

The Becoming a Member process pages have been cleaned up and clarified to make them easier to understand and follow, potentially increasing this year's percentage of entities signing up for membership.

We've always been able to sort the growing list of JSRs to some degree. But never has it been easier to rearrange this lists to quickly find the information you need. Now the navigation bar has three ways of accessing JSRs: see the views by stage (including the usual milestones plus those holding inactive, dormant, withdrawn, or rejected status, and by committee (ME, SE/EE). The complete list of all JSRs can now be sorted by number or by title through a toggle choice at the top of the page.

And there's no need to wait for a Spec Lead to finally acknowledge which nominees have been accepted into the Expert Group. Now the nominees themselves can view the status of their nominations when they log in to JCP.org with their usual login credentials.

FAQ pages by their nature tend to be a chaotic compilation of perceived problems and solutions. The JCP FAQ pages have been reorganized and revised to make it easier to find grouped topics of interest. A navigation bar at the top of the page lists five types of questions: General, Membership, JSR and Expert Group, Spec Lead process, and Web Site. The glossary also resides on this page now.

So jump in, the water is fine!