lit up, burnt, and rendered irrelevant
I have to admit it takes some effort on some mornings to crawl out of bed after 9 a.m., as I am unemployed, when people like Bill Roth ("get a haircut"), Franz Aman, and Marge Breya are busy running BEAS. For those who know Sun, these three played the dubious role of doing absolutely nothing while under the mother ship, and were extensively brought in to BEA to help smooth out a merger of "equals". Before going on to the news of the day, I am going to announce that I am in a fighting mood, and dare, yes dare, Jonathan to pull the trigger on an app server acquisition. Considering Glassfish, under any other circumstance, that would be grounds for removal, a mere one month in to the job. However, even considering BEA's desparate straights, and Jonathan's inexperience in the middleware market, I don't believe that is going to happen. He appears to not have enough influence, and yet also maintains some credibility with the OSS market.
Bill Roth on the other hand, does not:
http://www.theserverside.com/news/thread.tss?thread_id=40709In the annals of TSS history, I cannot remember a piling on as extensive and as one-sided as what has occurred since the dubious publication of Alfred ChUang's article in El Reg:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/05/24/bea_open_source_sun_jboss/Its moments like this that make my blog better than Jonathan's. There are reasons for Bill Roth's gaffe. For one, he was the man "in charge" of Enterprise Java while at Sun, which for those in the know means he did nothing. He went to conferences, attended some engineering meetings, and basically ripped on iPlanet behind the scenes. That was the extent of his job. Ohh, and ride me about getting a haircut to comepnsate for his boss in the waiting's outdated ponytail. (sorry, call it like I see it) Bill is a good guy to most who know him, and yet he is a lightweight, with pseudo-developer credentials, and wouldn't know a good business model if it were placed at his feet, which is what JBoss has done for BEA by open sourcing JEE, along with Glassfish, JOnAS, and Geronimo. WebLogic is comepting with who exactly? Outside of lock-in which I discussed in my previous blog, why on earth would these famed customers that Bill references pay a dollar for licenses?
I like the AquaLogic move, but it is one of pure desparation, kind of like Chuang and Bill's vendetta against JBoss. The real story is the developer, of course. BEA once owned the developer market as Sun and IBM had only production app server, so by default WebLogic locked up the market. BEA people will tell you that it is because of their technical superiority, their manner of execution in the marketplace, and their personnel. I will reveal to you that it was a conspiracy organized by JavaSoft, with the support of Sun's GSO.
Man, I remember 2002 like it was yesterday. I'll never forget that summer week I spent in San Diego at eWorld. For those with good memories, you'll recall the first public look at the WebLogic Workshop environment. Damn good idea, good team, good position in the marketplace, etc...
But it failed so miserably, that only now is BEA getting around to an AquaLogic development environment. Why? October 28, 2002 is why:
http://douglasdooley.blogspot.com/2005/10/102802-102805.htmlBill, Franz, and Marge bailed to cush jobs at a fairly (or should I say previosuly) respected software company, with titles like VP of Developers and Chief Marketing Officer! The reason I began this post with my morning routine is that all three are making a career on my efforts. I launched Sun ONE Application Server 7 with PP, which sent BEA realing for cover, as GSO finally began to ask why do I have WebLogic on my price list. BEA in turn saw that Sun did some great things to get back in the app server game, and rewarded the three people that could brandish about their role in this effort. I have long ed for this day:
Bill, Franz, and Marge had absolutely zero to do with the resurgence of the Sun application server program. Your bad move, BEA. You hired them and now you have to live with innane posts like that which comes from Bill Roth or comments that make no sense, such as when Marge Breya steps on stage. They have no love for me, why should I protect them any longer? The game is up, WebLogic is done, it is only a matter of time not even execution by competitors. Investors should be running for cover, instead of propping up a dying company. Today's efforts in TSS only demonstrate more clearly how lost the cause is...
prolific Java
"I'm the illest MC, and a man of my words. When I came out (people) didn't understand it at first. I'm known to roll upn my sleaves, and put my hands in the dirt. We're at war, and I got a battle plan that could work." (Talib Kweli)
Java is officially dying on the vine. I don't know what the Java market is to the people at Sun. I know what it is to the people of IBM, Oracle, BEA, and Red Hat, and that is lock-in, though I'll give JBoss the benefit of the doubt as they implement JEE5. But there is no plan, and there is nothing but back-stabbing competition. IBM and BEA won't support JBI. Oracle won't put out a reall Enterprise java app server, instead opting for a bloated platform for Fusion. And Red Hat is just along for the ride, as they figure out how to integrate an app server in to the OS.
Jonathan is taking Enterprise Java for granted, not even giving it reference in his announcements of Sun's momentum:
http://blogs.sun.com/roller/page/jonathan?entry=congrats_folksMaybe his "OpenJava" comment is an allusion to Glassfish, but for some reason, he chooses not to direct attention to the core of Sun's strategy. maybe its because of MB or me, but irrespective of the motive, the reality is that Glassfish is growing in significance on an almost weekly basis as innovations come out. But I am telling the Glassfish team right now that technology only goes so far. You need to have a business plan - - how are you going to make revenue, how are you going to account for Sun hardware sales attributed to Glassfish? And please let me know how solutions will be built on JEE5.
I am so tired of custom implementations on app servers, it is time for the ecosystem to be built that will allow the next generation of app vendors. I do sound repetitive, but ultimately there will be some acknowledgement that Sun cannot do it alone. Look at the comments at the end of JS's blog entry. Its all about the channel, which is good for the hardware sales, but vital for software sales. Make some kind of move. Storage is in place, JEE5 is in place, and SPARC/AMD is in place, now its time to build a Java ecosystem that competes with IBM GS. This would be a testament to a maturing CEO. If not, revenue will stagnate...
compatibility v. portability
Ahh, platform talk from Jonathan:
http://blogs.sun.com/roller/page/jonathan?entry=busy_week1It brings me to another blog entry. What exactly is compatibility, well last time I was in the Sun software organization, I remember that compatibility was passing 4-10K tests that would certify the app server of choice was J2EE compatibile with the latest spec. At this time 1.3. I would imagine that with the introduction of the JAX technologies, many new tests have come in to play, in version 1.4. And now with JEE5, there is simplicity for the developer, but considering the growing size of the Sun app server footprint, the complexity of the app server has increased, which all leads me to believe that the number of tests has grown quite some. Maybe 20K tests?
There is some indication that an app server vendor needs to adhere to the SDK on all 20,000 tests in order to be JEE5 compatible. Is it any wonder that there are many less app server licensees, since we launched J2EE 1.2 in June 2000:
http://www.sun.com/smi/Press/sunflash/2000-06/sunflash.20000606.4.xmlIt comes down to a simple equation for Sun:
Compatibility = a licensing fee
The fact that Oracle, IBM, and BEA can claim compatibility with J2EE is funny, at best. They are truly proporietary architectures. Ever since the launch of J2EE, the most inventive new tool for application developers has been the AVK or the Application Verification Kit. Now I know this a new set of tests, but it is much more relevant than the 20K tests of app server compatibility.
For what is achieved with the AVK is 'Portability'. Compatibility is nothing, it means nothing but assurance that Sun feels good about the vendor. Portability, however is something altogether different.
I am going to take this moment as an opportunity for the Glassfish team to get more integrated with the AVK for all apps that come along. They should not be just able to run on Glassfish builds, but also run 100% on the AVK in order to get joint marketing. Think about this, please, Eduardo.
Back to portability. JEE app developers: do not let the app server vendors fool you and think that compaibility is sufficient for your purposes. Portability is where Java Economics works (aside form the comments at the end of this link):
http://douglasdooley.blogspot.com/2005/07/java-economics.htmlSo when Jonathan speaks of compatibility, he is thinking of the $20M that he values (for what reason?) from licensees, but he is not thinking about the portability initiaitive that app vendors need. Think about it Sun, you are still acting like an insular company, that need not build business, when the tools to build for Java's growth is already available in the form of the AVK. Think if all Java houses were using the AVK and there was an open marketplace of Java apps. That seems to me like that would help the goal of selling more Java solutions and more Sun gear to run those Java solutions and apps...
Glassfish, 1 year on
(I am making up for the conference-going, vacation-deserving Glassfish reps., as an explanation to my proficiency in this Blog the past 10 days)
A JBoss acquisition, a plea for resistance from BEA (http://www.theregister.com/2006/05/24/bea_open_source_sun_jboss/), an acquisition of Geronimo by IBM, another year fo defensive moves from Oracle, and a stumbling .Net priority. It would be hard to associate all of this with the announcement that put Sun back on the map last year at Java One, but it would be even more irresponsible to understate what it has accomplished, as I was saying to PP the other day. For those who know either Sun or the Enterprise Java market, there is one barometer to measure success: the Sun application server is the Reference Implementation for JEE5. there is no way this happens without the move toward Glassfish.
"'Stop dreaming.' The people who are saying that are blaspheming, they're doing 9-5 and moaning, and they don't want you succeeding."
The mantra of open source has been the introduction of an economy that finally values high-end developers. I still love Charlie's Angels scene when the girls are whipping the developers into mental shape, to make them realize that they hold the keys to the castle. For too long, pseudo-business people have taken advantage of the developers of the world and convinced them that they do not know business, so they cannot make decisions. Well, those days are dead. I'm not a coder, but neither would I expect some of my associates to go back to coding now that they are making business decisions. But what we all know is that developers now run the business world. You can't run a business without an app server infrastructure, and you can't run an app server without developers.
Open source has opened up the barriers to entry, and leveled the salary, or rather the hourly consulting fees, structure. Where did that come from. Well, all props to JBoss. But as the VC community sees it, they were just filling a void that was left there by the vendors. Now they are a vendor themself. So we come back to Glassfish. It has been an impressive run for the team. They were discredited, disregarded and came back to demonstrate their relevance by dominating Java One 2006. I would like to thank the Sun app server team for being so bold in their ambitions to compete in the heavily competitive open source app server business. Carla, Eduardo, Pratik, and ahhem, Rich have led a market de-stabilizing initiative that will have lasting consequences on Sun's business and the Enterprise Java market.
Congratulations on turning 1, let's amp it up for year 2...
re-cap of J1
It's 2006, hard to believe that it has been 10 years since Java and Netscpae teamed up to begin building an infrastructure for middleware, and yet we still are building the platform. Aside from all the supposed complexity that the JEE5 is solving for, there is still too much complexity in the implementation of new revisions of the Enterprise Java platform for the vendors that depend on the standard for their livelihood. I speak of the apps companies and the apps vendors in the form of systems integrators. Nowhere is their more promise of growth in Java revenue than from the mid-sized integrators, even the international integrators that have adopted JBoss for their business offering. I say this in order to point out the opps. that are in front of the Java enablers - - the platform vendors, that we have talked about in great deal on this Blog.
I cannot take another Java One when there are no news worth listening to. I am listening to Glassfish people, I called that before anyone outside of Sun. But beside the implementations of JEE5, there was nothing that came out of SFO that was worth relating to as a non-participant at J1. Jonathan can prop up RG all he wants but the reality is that no one outside of Eclipse that cares about open sourcing Java. I don't see how that will grow the market for revenue. I don't want to come across as the negative blogger on Java issues, I have just realized that the whole Java middleware market is a Masquerade, it is set-up to destroy independent software vendors who are basing their plans on the supposed opportunity in the Java market. It is not real.
I am going to go through a several step process of engaging with the Glassfish team and see if that is a new opportunity that can be leveraged, but I am going to be honest along the way. I am going to point out deficiencies and praise successes. They are doing something very good for developers, lets see if they can do it for the software vendors that they rely on for future growth. I am not convinced that glassfish is integrated in to the existing infrastructure at Sun for partners, based on current experiences with their Partner Program people, but I am optimistic that the Glassfish reps. themselves will be available for advice and help.
I am here Glassfish to promote you guys as the next thing to push Java forward, we just need some help in the field, as well. there is a gigantic opportunity out there, let us help each other. For starters, do not limit yourself to one solution/technology need. Utilize the scale of partners to reach more than what Sun's GSO is able to reach, and find a way to scale internal operations. I remember when i was on the Sun application server product team, we were stretched too thin to do anything but refer people to the forums and the web-site for partner programs. I think it is going to take more than that this time around, you guys can do it, I can see it. Even JBoss will be looking for answers to the Glassfish approach. Let's just keep working it out...
Sun's Partner Program
this is not sufficient, there is no way that developers are going to know how nor care about the implications of a Sun Partner Adavantage Program. I was somewhat pleasantly surprised to find out that JBI was featured on the partner portal! But this means nothing to me, there is no chance that I will make money off of this. Well, here it is, more at the end of this post:
"Subject: Welcome to the Sun Partner Advantage Program
Dear douglas dooley:
Congratulations! Your application as a Member of the
Sun Partner Advantage Program has been received and approved. Your
Company ID is xxxxxx.
To find information about your company's benefits, please visit the
Sun Partner Advantage Program main page at
http://sun.com/partners/developmentand log in to the Membership Center at the top right-hand corner of
the page. To log in, enter your email address or Company ID and password.
You may also access the Membership Center to add or change your
company details at any time.
In addition to having access to the Membership Center, which is filled
with valuable customized information and details of the benefits and
offerings available to Sun Partners, you will receive the Sun Partner Advantage News, the monthly newsletter of the Sun Partner Advantage Program.
To fully realize the benefits of the Sun Partner Advantage Program, eligible
members can apply to become a Sun Partner; check the Sun Partner
eligibility requirements at
http://www.sun.com/partners/development/.
As a Partner, you will be eligible for the following comprehensive
resources to help you successfully create, market and sell your solutions:
- discounted hardware and software
- co-marketing and sales services
- engineering-level technical support
To take advantage of these benefits, you simply need to complete the
Sun Partner Advantage Program application, which you have already started, by
providing your company and product information. You can access the
application from the Membership Center.
Should you have questions about the Sun Partner Advantage Program or any of our
offerings, feel free to email a Sun Partner Advantage Program Contact Center in your region:
partneradvantage_amer@sun.com - Americas
partneradvantage_emea@sun.com - Europe, Middle East and Africa
partneradvantage_asia@sun.com - Asia Pacific
A complete list of free, worldwide phone and fax numbers is also
available on:
http://sun.com/partners/contacts/international.htmlThank you for participating in the Sun Partner Advantage Program.
Best regards,
Sun Partner Advantage Program Contact Center"
Think about it Jonathan, Mark B., Rich G., and anyone else charged with making money off of Java - - how are you going to ever have a viable enterprise platform if you, Sun, are the only touchpoint in to customers. You need me and my partner selling in to customers, carrying along Glassfish, and then pushing T1 in order to have optimized Java performance. This is the model that Microsoft has perfected. They make money off of direct sales to OEM's, but they embed their technology in companies, especially the thousands of mid-tier firms through...partners.
FY07 should be the year of Enterprise Java, should be the year the Java market grew by $1B from $5B to $6B, shoudl be the year that partners carried Sun to relevance again. Instead, I can only imagine what new press releases will distract the press from gthe real task of making Java sell...
what is SAP?
The lone stalwart against joining the Enterprise Java middleware market, SAP has chosen to build a proprietary infrastructure betting that its installed base is larger than the Java market's coverage. Unfortunately, they may be right. This seems to be a theme among the supposedly non-Microsoft vendors who are doing everything they can to lock-in their customers, there is so much banter about compatibility, and nothing to show for it outside of the open source app server vendors. SAP, Oracle, BEA, IBM are all proprietary, and it is difficult to choose which one is worse than the others, but think I am going to talk about SAP, for today.
It is difficult really to understand what SAP is trying to do. They have their ESA architecture and their NetWeaver platform, kind of like SOA on top of app servers. Here is where everything is up for grabs. Not only can you "extend" NetWeaver to utilize enterprise Java and .Net, but ESA allows you to do composite servcies in the form of...components. I cna almost foresee SAP being the first to actually settle on the components market for software, but alas they are only going to be able to run on NetWeaver, so the real value proposition of portability is negated.
What SAP is also missing is the ability to engage with the developer community, amkes one wonder how many ESA developers they have writing on NetWeaver, I would suppose several thousand, since no one else is going to be writing to it, as it is proprietary. However, there is another angle at this:
SAP may not be too keen on Sun's stewardship of Java, in terms of the large amount of rev's that are needed to keep up with the spec., and its ever evolving architecture. Maybe SAP is saying they will do their own thing until the JEE crowd setlle on a set of features. I personally think after JEE5, it is time to allow the developers and customers to standardize on this new and better platform. Instead the Peter Yared's of the world (peace out, bro) will call for AJAX and PHP, etc. to be utilized on the JEE platform. Who cares? Let them do JEE6, but all businesses should standardize on JEE5, and let SAP show us what they are made of (sorry Sarah Gates, I ended my sentence in a preposition).
On to a few topics, briefly:
- is it legit to say now that Glassfish pointed JBoss toward Red Hat? Remember, Marc's post from last summer "Sun open sources X, Y, Z...who cares?" Oh, how much does a year make.
- does anyone think that SeeBeyond scored relatively more than Cobalt for useless Sun cash spent on acquisitions. This CAPS thing is indecipherable:
http://www.sun.com/smi/Press/sunflash/2006-05/sunflash.20060517.1.xml- has Apache fallin off the map ever since the Geronmio boys became IBMers?
- is Identity management a product worth investing in at Sun (reference to SAP, also):
http://www.sun.com/smi/Press/sunflash/2006-05/sunflash.20060517.4.xml- where is JBI? will it be finished this fall?
http://jcp.org/en/jsr/detail?id=208- is JCA dead (I told you JK)?
- who will win in the power struggle between products and technologies at Sun (don't bet against technologies)?
monetizing java
I am moved by my post from yesterday, and still await Eduardo's response, that making money off of Java has become next to impossible. Between proprietary extensions eliminating portability with WL & WS to the lawsuit Sun has brought against Azul, there is very little that the big vendors are allowing to seep through to the next layer of vendors that are looking to make money off the left-overs of the $5B market for Java middleware. Gavin points out that Sun is basing its future on the concept of monetizing Java:
http://www.theregister.com/2006/05/17/sun_services_strategy/ IBM has already invested in this task by creating a WebSphere consulting force
that probably represents close to 50% of their revenue, BEA is on life-support from their WebLogic maintenance revenue (I disregard press releases that sing license growth), and Oracle is betting their infrastructure around maintenance revenue for Fusion. JBoss does not get lumped in to this because they are enabling a new crowd of developers, but they are nto doing much for their partners, at least those that are innovating around Enterprise Java, such as apps companies. There is no way the Java market will happen without portability, so that the burgeoning apps market actually can take advantage of that 250%+ market share that app servers have gained (>100%, due to adoption of multiple brands within companies).
That is why I am going to do from now on out, refer to the 5 platform vendors (4 after the eventual Oracle-WebLogic buyout) as brands that are doing everything they can to reference their own success but doing close to nothing for their partners. Partner programs are lipservice, plain and simple. For all the incredible success that Mr. Bauhaus has had over the past 12 months, his next 12 months should be on building the infrastructure to grow the Java market. That is the only way that whatever Jonathan is talking about makes any sense. Ironic isn't it that JS needs MB :).
Please do something to make it $6B by next J1, and $8B in 2008, we need to grow the Java market. Stop complaining about Azul, and killing Java innovation (why not sue RS and ORCL for taking app server secrets?), and start building on your claims of responding to developers. There are more developers that are doing their own thing, than work in companies, so respond to the Java apps movement, and build the community to make money for more than just Sun. You know what I'm talking about, just do it....
platform nausea
I may be overtired from the annual efforts at Java One to make something relevant out of nothing, that is from Sun's perspective. Last year was huge with the release of Glassfish and JBI, but there is nothing like a new JEE 5 platform to ignite enthusiasm in SFO. Open sourcing Java someday is nice, but as Gavin points out, what purpose does it really serve, or what impact is NetBeans having:
http://www.regdeveloper.co.uk/2006/05/11/sun_developers_java/I think the Sun people are doing all they can to talk about a relevant tools strategy, but the reality is that the app server in the form of Glassfish is lapping NetBeans with far fewer resources (nice try, DR). But what I am getting at with respect to this Java One is that the news out of the platform market is flat-out boring. All the revenue and growth has been squeezed out of the market. The platform vendors (IBM, JBoss, BEA, Oracle, and Sun) have nothing but compatibility to announce, except for the occassional 'innovation' such as Web Beans:
http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news
_view&newsId=20060516005810&newsLang=enI admit to being taxed by the never ending plans for SOA implementation, without so much as a nod toward partner implementations. I give the Glassfish people credit as they demonstrated a blog app (whats up, JJ), but it is far and few between that the Java players are giving opps. to partners that support the platforms. I have two thoughts on the state of the Java Economy:
1) The Java market stands and has remained at $5B for far too long.
2) The first platform to truly engender a partner market will take the JEE 5 mantle.
On 1), there is a never ending shift in resources between new or different platforms, due to the semi-beauty of semi-portability, but there is NO growth in the Java market. Show me companies that are porting to Java in favor of a new technology and I will show you an IBM customer. JBoss is taking away market share from BEA, and Sun and Oracle are feeding existing base. Developers are pushing up market share well beyond 100%, but the revenue model for Java companies remains at $5B, that's it. What is the fall-out? There is no growth in the market, and therefore, no business plans for apps companies or infrastructure vendors based on Java. I blame all five platform vendors though point 2) is that the true winners of JEE5 will be:
Glassfish and JBoss, and maybe Geronimo if they actually get their partner plans in place. Oracle is D.O.A. and WebLogic is Dead. I know I sound repetitive, but I am concerned about the Java Economy and how vendors other than the big 5 are supposed to make money. Someone tell me how. Mr. Bauhaus, I know you are in charge of the platform, but could you tell me how your Glassfish reps. are going to support business on the Glassfish/Clustra/JBI platform, are we supposed to tie-in to SDN or SDC or what? This is a problem for everyone because it is a monstrous opportunity to grow the Java market, and no one is looking in to it. We're all supposed to sign-up for Eclipse/IBM Partner Program, NetBeans/SDN, JBoss Partner Program, and Oracle and BEA's supposed partner offerings, but there is absolutely no value to doing it. What is an apps company to do?
Eduardo, aybe you could explain to me the value of signing up on the apps board for Glassfish, I know no one else will dare to try and answer this question...
Java One & 2006: the apps market
In the annals of Java history, there was a running commentary, or joke, that described what the proprietary vendors had implemented: "write once, debug everywhere", went the line, and it was used as competitive fodder in what would eventually launch Microsoft's .Net platform. For though Java was a standard by which vendors could certify, it was not fool-proof and thus customers began to view the application server as just another layer in the architecture.
The apps were truly transformative due to their Internet capabilities of checking stocks, buying books, and enabling supply chains, but they were not exactly all that they were billed to be. They were not portable. In order to begin anew with a fesh start to portability, the application server vendors needed to change, and this came in the form of the open source offerings from JBoss, Orion, JOnAS, and Apache initially, as well as the new Java Enterprise Edition specifications for versions 1.3 and 1.4.
Today, we have a vibrant economy of open source software platforms, as witness from SpikeSource's efforts. What we do not have is the open source equivalent of apps. Today, I would like to introduce the first implementation of a Java EE app written on open source app servers, that will be made available as an initiaitive to the open source community. It is Diamelle's Identity Management:
www.diamelle.comAt first, I thought maybe this could be a part of the platform, as identity management is certainly a core function of most thriving web-sites and businesses. But then I realized that OpenLDAP and the open source databases already have created the functionality of storage on the server-side to enable identity management. However, they are not an app to be utilized with other apps to enable single sign-on, password management, and web services federation. This is what Diamelle does, and this is why it is significant to the open source communtiy. JBoss' JEMS will be the Java Enterprise Edition platform, along with Glassfish, JOnAS, and Geronimo, while the apps market is a new frontier.
Why would I be giving this valuable secret to the world? Well, by definition open source is about the transfer of best practices, so that ultimately the best implementation wins. Diamelle will be the best implementation, not because of its first-mover status, but because of its operation, and my assistance.Go ahead, bet against it.Until we have a united front against proprietary vendors, Java will remain under-implemented and under-realized for the portable apps market that is the vanguard of thee IT industry, as described in my post:
Glassfish v. JBoss?The platform war is over, WebLogic lost, and now it is time for the apps war to begin. Check back with us in a month, we will be releasing the initial trial of the open source Diamelle IDM software, and be publicizing that throughout the community (that is if J.Ottinger allows it). But keep up with us, the implementation of a componentized-web services-based-SOA-modelled apps community is around the corner. Not as a threat to the OSS Platforms, but as a supplement, that will only help to grow their influence through corporate IT.
darfur politics
Why is the University of California divesting from Africa? One side of the story led by a number of student government participants, is that the Khartoum administration in Sudan is persecuting the residents of Darfur. This seems clear, what does not seem so clear is whether removing money from the strapped Sudanese companies, employees, and citizens will have the intended effect. In fact, the issue has grown beyond its supposed California roots:
http://www.statehornet.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2006/05/04/4458d552a3654It has been discussed in D.C. amid rallies to sort out the mess through U.S. and UN involvement. I just don't see why divestiture will accomplish the intended objective of forcing the hand of the Sudanese government to bow to western concerns. As with Africa, there is much at stake, in terms of lives and futures, and there is also many issues to contend with. The political issues are becoming clearer as to what to do. It is less clear why the University of California is making Darfur a reason to draw the line against investment, as so many fires rage, and so many circumstances demand attention.
