This morning John Burke said:

> The polls are now open for the OpenMPE Board of Directors ...
>
> I am one of the six candidates running for election ...
>
> I agree wholeheartedly with the objectives of OpenMPE, but
> do not agree with the way the objectives have been pursued
> to date. ...

In addition to the 3 incumbents running for reelection,
the 3 challengers are:
John Burke, Alan Tibbetts, and Stephen A. Suraci.

For whatever my opinion is worth to prospective voters,
I would respectfully urge fellow-members to vote for
John Burke and Alan Tibbetts. I have known both of them
through various Interex activities and direct contacts for
many years, and given the continued state of public non-
action by HP I believe the OpenMPE community would be well
advised to put them on the BOD.  Note I do not mean by
leaving Stephen off my recommended list to slight him in
any way:  I intend to vote for him, but have not had a
professional association with him like the other two
challengers, and so have no basis to recommend voting for
him beyond his bio, company web site, and google;  which
you all can read as well as I can.  Note I believe you
can vote for less than five candidates if you so choose,
and there is an opportunity for one write-in.

This election is particularly pertinent in light of the
timely ComputerWorld piece on MPE that went up yesterday:
http://www.computerworld.com/softwaretopics/os/story/0,10801,91451,00.html

Note especially this excerpt Dave Wilde quote:

"HP doesn't see the need to make a decision this year,
said David Wilde, HP's e3000 business manager, who
stressed that the company must act in "the best overall
interest" of the e3000 user base."

I.e:  Big-brother HP deciding what THEY think is best for
the e3000 user base that they are walking away from, and
blatently ignoring the just-released results of the 2004
Interex SIB.  And because some site theoretically MIGHT
make what ends up being a wrong decision, HP deliberately
ignores the needs and clearly expressed wishes of large
numbers of e3000 sites that WILL be negatively impacted
by HP's continued intransigence.  HP is unilaterally
deciding what is in the "best interest" of e3000 users
who have bet their business on MPE.  Continuing to insist
on that party line is just plain arrogant...  "Trusted
partner ??"...  I think not...

I said my piece in my "Free MPE or Boycott HP" post at
the end of last year.  There has been no substantive
movement by HP on key issues in the 3 months since then.
HP continues to stonewall the OpenMPE community.  I
stand by my prior statements; and believe the OpenMPE BOD
should NOT sign any NDA with HP unless HP takes SOME kind
of substantive and positive public action on OpenMPE
issues first.  Given Dave Wilde's above comment, the
trend is not encouraging....

Ken Sletten