At 03:18 PM 8/11/99 -0400, Ted Ashton wrote:
>Thus it was written in the epistle of Wirt Atmar,
>> If Interex divorced themselves from the various user subgroups -- and each
>> subgroup (NT, UNIX, MPE, etc.) formed itself into its own distinct
>> international users' group . . .
>
>I'd like to repeat my call to the MPE forum.  One of the Interex folks said
>in private email that the forums were created to fill the gap left my Interex
>as a whole moving away from user advocacy.  So I'd like to hear someone from
>the MPE forum speak to the idea above.  And if officially seperating itself
>from Interex is too far to go, I think that the same purpose could well be
>accomplished within it.  How about it?

One of the things that the MPE Forum is trying to do is to work within
existing Interex guidelines, to establish and maintain the high credibility
advocacy that Interex does for members of the HP3000 community to HP. In
this sense we are simplya a parasite on the body of the organization - we
spend a certain amount of resource, and provide virtually zero revenue. I
know that details of revenue and expense are boring, and not sexy, but they
are indeed the life blood of any organization.

All of this allows us to engage with HP and try and provide the best fit of
long term strategic advocacy efforts. The most recent example of this was
the Customer Funded Enhancment project. (Aside - this is NOT about getting
enhancements done, it is about trying to effect a strategic change in the
way in which enhancements are funded. During the course of this now almost 3
year initiative, HP has learned a lot about its development and enhancement
processes - with some intriguing outcomes...)

A new initiative will be announced at HPWorld - make certain to hit all the
usual places where major announcements are made, we don't know yet exactly
when, but at some point during the HP3000 afternoon!

One aspect of working with the MPE FOrum that we have been adamant about is
that we don't work under public scrutiny, we don't blow with the breezes of
public opinion, and we do our best to identify things that will have
significant value over a period of years or more.  Shorter term efforts are
the province of the SIGs, and are the things that they do well.  We have
adopted the strategic area.

Now, what does this mean to the MPE Forum, and the members of HP3000-L?

I guess it means two things:

1.  The MPE Forum is well palceed to be as independent as it needs to be
from any other organization this includes (potentially!) both Interex and
HP3000-L. Our major dependency is on funding, and at present that is working
out very well with Interex. I'm certain that if either Interex or the MPE
Forum felt a need to sever that relationship, that we would approach that
with all due and appropriate diligence.

2.  We are frequently going to be the target of charges and challenges such
as those from Ted (and others). To these charges and challenges we will
generally not choose to respond. We consider No Comment to be anything but a
non-comment, and as a result prefer to operate quietly and as far behind the
scenes as our personal tastes for anonymity allow.

However, it most emphatically does NOT mean that we have anything less than
the continued success of the HP3000 as our foremost goal.  Over th past few
years I have been the subject of some good-natured (ayt least I hope so!)
teasing from severla Interex staff members and volunteers, as "Mr HP3000". I
even recall a highly placed CSY manager asking me if I truly believed that
HP should be competing with Mickey$oft for the hearts and minds of the
computing public - to which ( in 1994!) I replied "Naturally".

We will continue to work with CSY to make our platform of choice ("My
Preferred Environment") a better, more responsive and more useful system.
And now, let me crawl back down my burrow - there will be six more weeks of
summer from now!

Tony "MPE Forum" Furnivall