Independent Eclipse organization takes shape

Computerworld - Today, after months of planning, the Eclipse development framework that IBM created and released to the open-source world will finally get an independent, nonprofit corporation to oversee its technology direction and growth.
Eclipse's board of stewards announced that more than 50 companies have signed on as members of the organization. The board of directors will hold its first meeting tomorrow in Anaheim, Calif., where the inaugural Eclipse technical conference is taking place.
Among the noteworthy Java vendors that declined to join the new Eclipse organization were Sun Microsystems Inc. and BEA Systems Inc. But Skip McGaughey, the IBM tools official who is relinquishing his post as Eclipse chairman, expressed optimism that more will choose to participate as Eclipse demonstrates its independence and the quality of its technology.
Rikki Kirzner, an analyst at Framingham, Mass.-based market research company IDC, said she was pleasantly surprised to see the cross section of the developer community that has already signed up, including companies such as Borland Software Corp. Six to eight months ago, some of them had expressed skepticism about the value of joining Eclipse.
As a member of the Eclipse Management Organization's board of directors, IBM will continue to have influence over the group's future direction. But there will also be seven other strategic partners steering its direction and coordinating projects -- Ericsson Inc., Hewlett-Packard Co., Intel Corp., MontaVista Software Inc., QNX Software Systems Ltd., SAP AG and Serena Software Inc.
"In the past, it was primarily an IBM-funded effort. In order for it to be viable, IBM had to be viewed no longer as the owner," said Michael Blechar, an analyst at Gartner Inc. in Stamford, Conn. "Now, IBM's role is significantly diminished in terms of running the organization."
McGaughey said the new organization has commitments for $1.5 million, exceeding the figure targeted in its initial financial plan.
There are two ways for a company to become a strategic partner with decision-making powers on the Eclipse board, and each involves a substantial commitment. A vendor can sign on as a "strategic developer" by contributing eight developers plus a percentage of annual revenue or a flat fee not to exceed $250,000. The other option, "strategic consumer," calls for either a $500,000 contribution and no developers, $375,000 and a single developer, or $250,000 and two developers. For smaller companies, the fee may be a percentage of annual revenue.
The annual fee is much cheaper -- $5,000 -- for "add-in providers" that will build components to plug into Eclipse. And there is no charge for associate