John,
        I appreciate every thing the board is doing on behalf of the HP 3000
community.  What you are doing has to be very frustrating at times but stay
the course.

Thanks,

Martin Vaughn
Demand Wave Solutions
1015 South Wall Street
Suite G
Calhoun, GA 30701
USA
[log in to unmask]
706-625-4898 extension 12
fax: 706-625-4473
__________________
The contents of this message represent the opinions of the employee and
not
necessarily the opinions of Demand Wave Solutions.




-----Original Message-----
From: OpenMPE Support Group [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of
John R. Wolff
Sent: Thursday, January 22, 2004 10:10 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Free MPE


>I have asked the question 2 times already and received no response, but I
>will ask it a 3rd time now:

>What exactly does anyone think OpenMPE has accomplished to date?

Chuck,

I would like to try and answer your question  --  I can certainly
understand the frustration of watching this process  --  it is much like
watching paint dry.  Please keep in mind that OpenMPE is the party seeking
a license from HP on behalf of its member community, thus they control the
time table, and to a large degree the agenda as well.

It is my belief that OpenMPE has needed to try harder to communicate issues
to the community while still respecting our agreements with HP.  To this
end you will notice recent updates on our website.  The following response
is intended to further help with the communication process:

1) OpenMPE has set up a structure (which is a legal entity) that exists for
the purpose of negotiating with HP.  The OpenMPE Board of Directors is the
organ which speaks for the MPE member community and communicates with HP on
behalf of the members.  All members of the BOD are volunteers that have
agreed to donate their time, at no pay, towards the organizations goals.
My fellow BOD members and I spend 1 or 2 hours per week communicating with
one another and performing tasks necessary to keep the organization
functional while we work with HP.

2) Our main goal (as stated in our recent AIP) is "to obtain a non-
exclusive license to all source code for MPE/iX and related MPE products,
tools, software build/test suites and internal documentation.  This license
will allow OpenMPE to produce, control, manage and distribute bug fixes and
enhancements to these products, and thereby facilitate future support of
MPE for sites that continue to run it beyond 2006".

3) HP stated in their recent letter to OpenMPE that on or about January 31,
2004 they would provide a time table for events we could expect from them.
We are waiting for this information to be revealed so that we can then
assess what the next steps must be to proceed.

4) The dilema facing OpenMPE is a simple "chicken & egg" problem:  OpenMPE
needs to initiate the collection of funds in order to develop the business
plans and infrastructure necessary to accomplish the goals stated in item 2
above.  However, we are reluctant to start soliciting for such funds until
we know exactly where we can go with HP (the jury is still out!).  You will
note that all members of OpenMPE are such with no cost of membership
currently required.  If we got some form of reasonable go ahead from HP
this would obviously have to change.  I would say that we have done pretty
well on a shoe string so far, but there is a long ways to go.

5) OpenMPE has provided a focus for HP for the homesteading issue.  It has
helped them judge the scope of the community and some of the concerns that
must be considered.  We have made surveys of opinion of our community, some
of which have been done at HP's request.

6) MPE is HP's intellectual property, it belongs to them and it is up to
them to license it as they think appropriate to best serve their
interests.  We who would seek a license from them as outlined in item 2
above must negotiate it with them  --  we can not hold a gun to their head
or steal it  --  this is a business process, although it is taking longer
than anyone would like.  It must also be kept in mind that there are
several players in the decisions that must be made at HP including: vCSY,
HP Legal and the Support Organization, to name but a few.  An organization
the size of HP takes time to pull all of this together (and it is slow).

It is my hope that this response to your question has painted a clearer
picture of what OpenMPE has done and the issues that are involved.  In the
end we all want the same thing  --  life for MPE beyond 2006!

John Wolff
Vice Chair of OpenMPE