Java, Zimbra and Sam

Three items smacked me in the face today with their profundity and importance. Java has gone open source, Zimbra was on the front page of The Wall Street Journal and Sam Palmisano has an avatar and has embraced Second Life (SL).

All three are important validations of needs (Java’s traction in the marketplace is tied to acceptance and use which may gain now), the go-to-market Web 2.0-ish strategy in Zimbra’s case which seems to be working, and IBM’s CEO making a statement about virtual worlds by being willing to partake is amazing.

For me this is personally validating. For two years I’ve tried to educate, cajole and persuade my senior executives (and later on my clients) about the onrush of Internet-as-a-Platform (bolstered somewhat with this new Java openness), that hosted, Web applications were disrupting and changing the paradigm of enterprise software, and that virtual worlds were gaining traction (and that last one usually got puzzled “…geez you’re a technoweenie” glances and comments when brought up).

IBM, and the CEO in particular, jumping into SL is important. Though I’m a believer that virtual world’s like SL are the future of collaboration, trade shows and other venues where geography won’t matter anymore, so is IBM’s emerging technologies thought leader Dr. Irving Wladawsky Berger, as evidenced by this post at the AlwaysOn Network.

Stay strapped into your seat ’cause the acceleration in announcements like this will continue.