Sun Seeking to Make Java World Standard

Sun Microsystems Inc. said it’s beginning a campaign to drum up support for its proposal to turn its Java Internet language into an international standard.

The company is talking with U.S. and international standards groups and companies including International Business Machines Corp. and Novell Inc. to persuade them it is willing to work on any concerns they have about the proposal. Sun is campaigning against Microsoft Corp., a vocal critic of the standards plan.

“Sun didn’t realize it would have to argue the merits as much as they do,” said Gene Grabowski, a Sun spokesman. “They want it to be decided on its own merits, and not because Microsoft wants to kill it.”

Standardization would let Sun maintain a certain amount of control over Java and prevent others from altering it to their advantage--in particular Microsoft, a big rival that licenses and uses Java. Critics have said that Sun’s proposal will let the company keep too much control over the technology.

Sun is asking for the right to submit the technology for approval to the International Organization for Standardization, or ISO. By being able to submit the technology itself to ISO, it will bypass other standards bodies and speed up the process.

The proposal is being voted on by 30 countries. All the votes will be submitted July 14, with another meeting scheduled in September for a final decision. The U.S. standards body that is part of the process already voted no on standardization, although it left room for Sun to address its concerns.

Java is a computer language used to write programs stored on central computers and designed to run on operating systems made by many different companies.