Pia Niemela - Java ME luminary at JavaOne 2007

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At JavaOne on day 1 Pia Niemela of Nokia will speak about the future of mobile web services as they are being defined in JSR 279 - Service Connection API for Java ME and JSR 280 - XML API for Java ME. Pia is more than qualified to speak on the topic, being co-spec lead on JSR 280 as well as working on three other JSRs currently under development. Pia generously agreed to an interview in the busy days before the 2007 JavaOne Conference.

Q. What keeps you busy day-to-day at Nokia?
I currently work with four JSRs: Mobile Sensor API (Maintenance Release), XML API, ServiceConnection API, and Telematics API. In addition to writing the spec, I'm giving consultance and implementation guidelines for the developers of the implementations, and keep in touch with RI and TCK developers, trying to solve ambiquities together with them. Sometimes the specification lead is also implementing the RI. For example, I wrote the RI of Mobile Sensor API.

Q. Do you participate in any industry/standards bodies, the JCP (Java Community Process) for example?
I participate currently in the JCP only, but our team is responsible for participation in some other standards bodies, and therefore I might be involved in the future in activities other than the JCP.

Q. How long have you been working with the Java ME platform?
With Java ME since 2003.

Q. Would you call yourself a Java developer?
Yes, definitely. Although writing specifications is "coding with words," I try to keep up my real coding skills, too.

Q. What do you see as the challenges and opportunities for ?the Java ME platform?
The challenges are to make sure that developers will be able to?build robust and functional applications on top of Java ME platform and sometimes (improve) performance.

The number one opportunity for Java software is "write once, run everywhere." Currently in Java ME, the principle can be rewritten into: "write once, run fewwhere."

Without agreement about which JSRs mobile devices contain, running an application in all the devices is not achieved. Mobile Service Architecture (JSR 248) reduces fragmantation by defining an API set for mobile devices.

The relatively easy learning curve of Java development, compared to native programming environments, is another competitive opportunity.

Q. What is a web service?
Web services is the glue between distributed systems. Services are the building blocks in developing service-oriented architecture.

Q. What defines a "good" service?
Maybe a better question is what are the "best practices" for a web service.

I'd rather strive for simplicity and the direction of restful web services aiming at loosely coupled services and robustness.

Q. What are the challenges in bringing what is generally viewed ?as a Java SE and Java EE feature to the Java ME platform?
Resource-constrained devices, power consumption constraints and special properties of wireless networks (slower connections, sometimes being out of coverage), missing core platform functionality, for example, reflection.

Q. As developers, do we have the tools needed to easily develop ?web services? What's missing from the toolbox?
Tools for finding web services more easily.

Q. What are you favourite examples of a "live" web service?
Have to confess that I am currently using none that is publicly available.

As the JSR 279 standardization process goes on, I will write samples to test the functionality.

Q. What are the carriers doing to drive web services adoption?
Standardization effors (e.g. W3C), new tools, and fancy and useful services. Also, new emerging mobile web services and support for authentication.

Q. Are there any geographic or economic trends with respect to web services?
The only geographical "trend" I am aware of is Semantic Web Services Framework (USA) versus Web Service Modeling Ontology (DERI, Europe).

Q. Do you feel there are enough Java ME developers to meet the demand?
Yes, I suppose so.

Q. What will be the "tipping point" for web services?
To achieve critical mass of users.

Q. Do you foresee a day when Java ME will be subsumed by Java SE,?or will they both always be needed to address separate markets/functions?
Surely small devices like mobile phones will have more memory and processing capacity in the future than currently, although because of cost and power consumption reasons, there will continue to be some limitations. However, it's not only about memory footprint or processing power - it's a lot about the device form factor, like screen size and user input paradigm. Java ME takes better into account the properties of the form factor and specific functionality of the devices than the desktop computer-oriented Java SE.

Q. Any last words before JavaOne?
Let's meet there!

Pia Niemela and Stephen Lewontin of Nokia with Jean-Yves Bitterlich of Sun Microsystems will present "TS-5188 - Web Services to Go: Mobile Access to Web Services with JSRs 279 and 280" on Tuesday, May 8 from 4:40p to 5:40p.