Meet This Year's Top Ambassador Nominees

Paul Fremantle

DZone: Congratulations on the nomination Paul. Could you tell us more about yourself?

Paul: Sure. I am Paul Fremantle, CTO of WSO2 and involved in a number of Open Source initiatives, including Apache projects and others. I used to work at IBM where I led development of the IBM Web Services Gateway and in 2005 I left to setup a company devoted to creating better Open Source middleware. I co-chair the OASIS WSRX technical committee and I am the VP of Apache Synapse. Most of my last year has been spent in completely re-architecting our open source SOA initiative on top of the Eclipse Equinox OSGi runtime.

DZone: What are the main things that you do within the community?

Paul: My main involvement with the Eclipse community has been in trying to encourage wider use of Equinox. I think that Equinox is an amazing set of code and it has revolutionized the code that I am working on, and I know there is more to come. The main Equinox based project I am involved in (Carbon) is just starting to look at p2 and going beyond the initial modularity and composability that Equinox gives.

DZone: How long have you been involved with Eclipse?

Paul: Well of course I've been an Eclipse user for a long time - its been my main IDE for as long as I can remember - at least 5 years and probably longer. And I have been evangelizing OSGi and Equinox as much as I can recently. All the projects I work on also use Eclipse as the main tooling platform.

DZone: Do you have a favourite project within the Eclipse ecosystem?

Paul: Yes, of course - Equinox.

DZone: In the Eclipse world, what were your highlights of 2008, and what are you looking forward to in 2009?

Paul: So my highlight for 2008 was whats happened with p2. I think that is extremely exciting. For 2009, I think the highlight is going to be how widely Equinox spreads into new projects and initiatives.

DZone: What is your full time job?

Paul: CTO of WSO2 means that I have to manage the technology development of a complete Open Source SOA platform - which is now deeply based on the Equinox OSGi container. As well as my role in developing WSO2's technology, I spend a lot of time with customers both consulting and advising on technology. There is huge excitement around how OSGi and SOA are coming together to create composable systems, and WSO2 is leading this drive - and we couldn't do it without the Equinox runtime.

DZone: Is it difficult for you to find the time to promote and support the Eclipse community?

Paul: Not at all - its something that aligns beautifully with my job, thanks to the fantastic technology coming from the Eclipse Foundation.

DZone: Why do you think you should be chosen as Top Ambassador?

Paul: Honestly speaking - I don't! I think amongst the other nominations there are more deserving candidates who have contributed immensely to the Eclipse community. However, I am incredibly happy if I have made any contribution to the success of Equinox and the wider Eclipse community. I am a huge fan of all Open Source communities and Eclipse has proven one of the most successful and vibrant. Long may it continue!