Afraid to be truly open?
Let me first start by pointing out that I believe that IBM is taking with Jazz an interesting approach to improve collaboration between the members of a development team. Its OSGI based Elipse IDE extensions will definately help in an intuitive way to interact and share information between them
I regret though that the mechanism used for creating this level of interoperability is again propriatary in nature and using an SOA architecture based on the Java VM instead of the web and web services. When taking a closer look at the ALF project (eclipse.org/ALF), it is exactly those propriatary interoperabilities that customers are struggling with and try to avoid.
Also not every interoperability requirement within the application lifcycle has to go via the IDE. Interaction workflows can and will exist as secundary actions as a result of an IDE interaction.
Unless IBM is affraid of opening up to a true open application lifecycle framework, where it becomes easier to replace one solution with an alternative, I am convinced that opening up Jazz to interact within the ALF framework will provide a more flexible and richer experience for the Jazz user.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
