If you’ve only got time to read one article about Java today, make Paul Krill’s “Java’s team of rivals” over at InfoWorld. It nicely encapsulates the broad range of companies other than Sun/Oracle that are advancing the Java platform, sometimes in disparate ways. One objection I do have is that it relies it bit too much from quotes from interested parties — I mean, obviously SpringSource’s Rod Johnson is going to say that most Java innovation comes from outside Oracle — but it would have been hard to write it otherwise, since Oracle apparently refused to comment for the article. IBM is also noticeably absent in the piece — probably not least because it’s been a bit quiet of late, though I think it deserves more mention for being the initial driving force behind Eclipse.One important element that emerges from this and other similar stories of late is a growing anxiety about Oracle’s seeming lack of a firm hand on the rudder. As the article points out, Oracle controls the Java trademarks and the JCPs, so it can’t be eased out of the process altogether. I’m reminded (and bear with me here for a moment) of an analysis of why Imperial Germany made poor decisions in the lead-up to World War I: Constitutionally it had a strong monarchy, but the actual monarch was a weak personality. In Germany’s case, decision-making became monopolized by a cadre of generals, who eventually settled on direction for the country that turned out to be disastrous. In the current case, though, the power vacuum seems aimed not at a spectacular folly but rather at a slow dissolution of momentum, with the platform pulled in many directions simultaneously. Software Development