ObjectWeb gets boost from China research group

ObjectWeb, the European open source middleware consortium, has added a Chinese research institute to its membership in a move that could help broaden the use of its software in China, the groups said Thursday.

Guangzhou Middleware Research Center (GMRC), in Guangzhou province, near Hong Kong, will help to translate and localize ObjectWeb’s middleware for use in China. It will also promote the software for use by governments, academic institutions and other users in the country, the groups said.

GMRC is exploring ways to incorporate some of ObjectWeb’s technology into its own middleware. The research group is sponsored by the Guangzhou government and part of its mission is to narrow the technology gap between China and the rest of the world, said Hongbo Xu, the center’s technical director. Working closely with ObjectWeb will help to achieve that goal, he said.

ObjectWeb was founded by France Télécom SA, Bull SA and the French National Institute for Research in Computer Science and Control, or INRIA. It is best known for its open source Java application server, called Jonas, which Red Hat Inc. recently said it would distribute with its Linux operating system. ObjectWeb has also branched out into BPM (business process management) and other areas.

IBM Corp. and BEA Systems Inc. currently dominate the Java middleware market in China, but open source software is becoming more widely used, particularly for e-government initiatives, according to Xu. In Guangzhou, the local government kicked off a “Linux promotion plan” this year that requires government offices to adopt Linux, he said. It has also said that by 2007, 15 percent of software revenue generated in the province must come from Linux-related products, he said.

Guangzhou is one of the most technologically advanced regions in China, with 39 universities and colleges and the highest level of PC penetration in the country, according to its municipal Web site.

GMRC is charged with developing and promoting middleware technologies, including Java application servers, tools for application development and integration, and software for RFID (radio frequency identification) systems. It has about 70 fulltime engineers and researchers, Xu said.

Governments in China are interested in open source not because of the development model or the quality of the software, but because of the “independence” it brings from foreign vendors, he said.

ObjectWeb isn’t as widely recognized as JBoss Inc., which makes the best known open source application server. But a partnership with GMRC could well boost its standing in China, said Stephen O’Grady, a senior analyst with RedMonk Inc., in Bath, Maine. “This is a market everyone is going after,” he said.

ObjectWeb’s and GMRC’s products overlap in some areas, and one of the groups’ goals is to coordinate development efforts, Xu said. GMRC promotes its middleware platform, called LongTeng, primarily among government customers today, he said, but “as the software matures we will target telecoms and other markets.”

ObjectWeb has an online community of more than 100 developers in China today who have been helping to translate its software documentation, said Christophe Ney, its executive director. Working with GMRC will accelerate the task of localizing ObjectWeb’s software for use in China, where the group hopes to expand its presence, he said.

ObjectWeb’s founders have also been active in the region. Bull is involved in a project to develop a data processing platform for China’s Ministry of Science and Technology, including ObjectWeb software, and Lenovo Group Ltd. recently began selling its servers. Last month, France Télécom opened a research and development center near Beijing. And INRIA is a partner in the Sino-French Laboratory in Informatics, Automation and Applied Mathematics.