Brazil's largest Java user group, SouJava, will now be able to take part in development, the Java Community Process announced at the broadly sponsored technical event CafeBrasil.

The Java Community Process has announced that SouJava, the Brazilian Java Users Society, has become a member of the JCP.

JCP membership gives SouJava the ability to participate in the Java Community Process, initiate Java Specifications Requests and hold sway in the evolution of the Java platform and Java technology.

SouJava is Brazil's largest Java user group, with more than 12,000 members. The group has been involved in the Javali Project, an effort sponsored by the Brazilian government to produce open-source technology, including an open-source Java Virtual Machine.

The JCP made the announcement Thursday at CafeBrasil, a two-day technical event organized by SouJava and sponsored by Sun Microsystems Inc., Oracle Corp., Brazil's National ITI (Institute of Information Technology) and others.

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The event, which is taking place in Brasilia, Brazil, also featured a panel session with James Gosling, the "Father of Java" and vice president of Sun Microsystems; Onno Kluyt, senior director of the JCP Program, Sun Microsystems and JCP Chair; Dabolir Topic, Kaffe Project; Geir Magnusson, vice president of ASF (Apache Software Foundation) and representative to the JCP Executive Committee; and Sergio Amadeu, President of ITI.

In addition, a Sun spokesperson said the JCP was finalizing discussions with the Brazilian SerPro (Federal Service of Data Processing) to have SerPro join the JCP.

In a statement, Sergio Rosa, director of SerPro, said the interest in the JCP, Java and open source is "about a tool used for the programmers to construct programs and the migration for free software… We do not want to pay royalties for what we know how to make."

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The Brazilian government is both a big user of Java and of open-source technology.

Simon Phipps, Sun's chief technology evangelist, who is at CafeBrasil, said, "It's the first time a government has seriously joined the JCP. It is a crucial step in the globalization of the JCP as a standards body. And, as they are also deeply committed to open source, it is also an important step in confirming Java's place in the open-source community of communities."

This article was first published on eweek.com.

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