------------------------------------------------------------ UniNews The Biweekly Newsletter For UniForum Members ------------------------------------------------------------ Issue Date: May 04, 1994 Volume VIII, Number 7 ------------------------------------------------------------ UniNews is written and published by UniForum's publications department. For information on articles in this issue or to contribute news to future issues, contact Don Dugdale at don@uniforum.org or (408) 986-8840, ext. 29, or (800) 255-5620 ext. 29. Copyright 1994 by UniForum. All rights reserved. UNIX is a registered trademark, licensed exclusively by X/Open Co., Ltd. UniForum is a trademark of UniForum. Printed in USA. UniNews (ISSN 1069-0395) is published biweekly for $12 per year (membership dues) by UniForum, 2901 Tasman Dr., Suite 205, Santa Clara, CA 95054. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without prior permission of UniForum. UniNews is presented in ASCII format. It is also available in PostScript by accessing the UniForum World Wide Web Server. Point your WWW client to http://www.uniforum.org. ------------------------------------------------------------ Table of Contents: o UniForum Board Candidates Name Priorities o Windows NT Holds Interest for Conferees o Get UniNews On-line o Hardware Vendors Eye Strength of UNIX o OS of the Future Will Handle Distributed Computing o Affiliates Meet at UniForum '94 o Affiliate Roundup o Publications, Conferences, Discounts and More o UniNews Recruitment o UniForum '94 Souvenirs Still Available ------------------------------------------------------------ UniForum Board Candidates Name Priorities ------------------------------------------ June election will determine who will fill four seats Ten candidates, including four incumbents, are running for four seats on the UniForum Association Board of Directors. UniNews asked each the 10 nominees to answer four questions. Presented here are the replies from five candidates; the answers of the remaining five will appear in the next issue. The nominees answering below are: o Josina Arfman, program manager for open systems, RISC System/6000 division, IBM Corp., Somers, NY. o Wayne Fowler, director, technology and network services, Toronto Stock Exchange, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. o Ron Lachman, president, Lachman Technology Inc., Naperville, IL. o Roel Pieper, president and CEO, Ungermann-Bass Inc., Santa Clara, CA. o Gene Siembieda, principal, Scudder Stevens and Clark, New York, NY. 1. Describe your own work and how you use or are affected by open systems on the job. Arfman: Everything I am doing revolves around open systems. My title is Program Manager for Open Systems. For the last six years, I have had some of the most exciting assignments in my career: o Chairman of the five-company planning team for the CDE Developers' Conference in October 1993 in San Jose o An active participant in the development of the COSE process o IBM marketing manager to OSF and X/Open o Chairman of X/Open shareholder marketing managers o IBM associate director of Project Athena at MIT, a joint project with Digital. From a user point of view, I would like to see the benefits of open systems arrive sooner at my desk, particularly since so many of my work relationships are outside of my own company. Fowler: I am responsible for the overall architecture of computer systems, capacity and performance, and the provision of systems hardware, software and data communications networks to the Toronto Stock Exchange. The exchange began its investment in open systems under my direction in 1989 with the acquisition of Data General Aviion and Pyramid systems as development platforms for our trading and information distribution applications, the selection of TCP/IP as our network standard and the selection of Oracle as our database standard. Since then, we have expanded that investment to over 30 UNIX servers from six suppliers and 250 desktop systems from four suppliers. My job absolutely depends on both the features and operation of open systems as well as the ongoing success of the open systems marketplace. Without open systems, we could not operate our business. Lachman: I am chairman and founder of Lachman Technology, an organization that developed and sold more than a million copies of Lachman Streamware TCP and System V NFS, as part of SCO UNIX, UNIXWare and dozens of other vendors' workstations, servers and embedded systems. My company is expanding into network storage management with our Open Storage Management family of software. I have been a strong industry advocate of open systems, including the UNIX operating system. I have also been active in UniForum since its inception and have also been involved in OSF and the UNIX International Executive Committee and in commercial support of a number of standards efforts, including DMIG, IEEE groups, IETF, X/Open, USENIX and others. I have also been part of dozens of UNIX ports and hundreds of open systems consulting engagements through Lachman Associates, Interactive Systems, Praxsys (creators of Wabi) and other companies. Pieper: In the world of communications, ATM has created a wealth of opportunity, but it has also created a convergence issue between the local-area and wide-area environments. Ungermann-Bass sees tremendous potential for user communications if we can create a fully-integrated and interoperable LAN/WAN computing and networking environment. Therefore, I am placing an emphasis on partnerships that will produce and end-to-end networking solution, and I am trying to urge the ATM Forum to take an open systems approach to defining ATM. Siembieda: My responsibilities involve the planning and development of applications that support the investment processes at Scudder, Stevens & Clark, a large asset management firm which manages money for non-profit organizations, foundations, universities, corporations and private individuals, as well as publicly listed mutual funds. Open systems have been the key for unlocking access to internal and external data and providing better interoperability for systems that share data among traders, portfolio managers, client service personnel and administrators. 2. Over the course of the next two years (the full term of office) what areas of the association's activities would occupy your attention the most, and why? Arfman: As board member, I would help drive UniForum's growth and unifying role in several important areas: o Promoting open systems alternatives and solutions o UniForum is vendor-neutral and is not a provider of technologies or specifications. It is therefore a trusted source. o Expanding educational programs. UniForum can play a vital role in developing seminars and presentations on current, hot topics in the industry, with industry cooperation, and worldwide as well as national and regional sponsorship. o Growing and improving the yearly conference and exposition. UniForum '94 was better from every point of view than UniForum '93. We need to build on this improvement by further expanding the membership and retaining those who have recently joined, attracting even more quality exhibits, and of course dynamite programs and speakers. o Expanding membership services to corporations and individuals With more members, expanding and improving membership services becomes even more important. For that, I suggest a comprehensive membership survey to elicit requirements and suggestions. o Providing a unifying role in the industry. How about sponsoring a "summit of open systems"? I would like to see UniForum take the lead in being the gathering place for open systems organizations and user groups. Fowler: To successfully allow my company to move to our stated direction of only open systems in the operation of our business, the open systems market must supply management tools that both meet requirements at least equivalent to those being met in current legacy systems as well as use the extensive features and facilities already available in open systems. It is essential that we avoid a simple duplication of products and tools that operate well in a mainframe environment but that do not meet the needs of or exploit open systems client-server technologies. I believe the UniForum can act as a catalyst in both the generation of clearly stated, meaningful requirements for open systems management and the fostering of vendor cooperation in the production of management tools that meet those requirements. I anticipate that I will spend my time on the Board of UniForum helping to generate an industry-wide understanding of customer system management requirements and helping vendors move to a common framework or architecture for providing products to meet those requirements. How I would accomplish these goals would be through processes like experience sharing through the various UniForum publications and conferences, encouraging UniForum to act as a focal point for the various groups concerned with systems management and working with the many current and potential vendors of products. Lachman: One of my roles as part of the UniForum board over the past two years has been as a strategic planning facilitator. I hope to continue this, and the output from these processes will drive my attention and efforts. Here are some of the thrusts we have been discussing that will be occupying my attention: Value proposition for members and open systems users; more and better services for open systems users; outreach to affiliate groups and programs of value for them; continued advocacy of open systems; continued and enhanced leadership of the UniForum conference and trade show; expanding the role of open systems advocacy beyond UNIX, particularly to support users of the Internet and increase the Internet's value; a continued thrust in publications; investigation of new conferences, trade shows and educational services; coordination, cooperation and synchronization of value provided by UniForum compared to other open systems organizations, possibly including further outreach to organizations such as USENIX, X/Open, the Internet Society, IETF, IEEE, OSF, UNIX-oriented vendor groups such as UNIXWare Technology Group, Solaris users, Interex, Decus and others. Pieper: I would concentrate on broadening the association's activities to fully encompass the networking arena. Because of the imminent convergence of the information industries into ATM - or a similar technology - it is critical to bring the open systems philosophy into that melting pot so that we can turn technological innovation into real value. Siembieda: If elected, I would like the opportunity to work with the Board in seeking to improve communications to the management of user organizations. I believe the ideals of open systems and open systems management should be communicated to decision makers with an emphasis on the facts and a non-technical explanation of just exactly what to expect - in short, explaining what's in it for them. I believe the modern executive expects to leverage technology, but he or she does not know exactly how or when. Feedback can be critical, since it is usually market forces that ultimately drive technical development. Better communication can also educate the user community and service management regarding the components of open systems and the skills that are required to advance along an open systems path. Organizations should understand how and why roles and responsibilities will undoubtedly continue changing in the field of technology management and development, with users driving and managing the change process. 3. There are many areas where UniForum can be active and play a role as an information resource, from education to publishing to standardization work. Where should UniForum concentrate its efforts and why? Arfman: I don't think that anyone in the industry could bear creation of another standardization organization or effort! Where UniForum can provide the greatest good to its members and the industry is by being the unifier, and source of information. I therefore see education and publishing as very important, along with the programs provided through the yearly meeting. However, we should start to think about programs not necessarily tied to the yearly meetings. And above all, adapt quickly to change and think in non-traditional ways! Fowler: I believe that UniForum must be the recognized spokesperson or group for open systems to the information systems as a whole. We must foster the image of vendors and customers cooperating within the framework of an open systems architecture while preserving the underlying competitive environment that has resulted in the extraordinary level of innovation in the open systems world. UniForum represents the largest single resource of open systems experience in the industry with a unique blend of people with both vendor and customer perspectives. That resource must be effectively used to ensure that the open systems market remains successful. As such, I believe that UniForum should concentrate on fostering cooperation on and convergence of standards within open systems. I also believe that we must share our positive experiences with those who are considering open systems and collect and prioritize our needs and requirements, based on that experience, in areas such as systems management, common applications programming interfaces and the ongoing COSE efforts. UniForum should also monitor and report on these efforts to the industry as a whole so that we do not lose sight of promises made or broken and progress toward our common goals. Lachman: It's a hard choice but I would rank education first. Education, as I see it, includes publishing, not only to learn about the topics related to open systems but also changes, news and trends. The primary role of UniForum as an organization is to get more of the world in touch with and informed about open systems. My second-ranked concentration area is advocacy for open systems and standards. Although UniForum has passed the torch of defining the operating systems interface to X/Open and IEEE, there are new areas that need standardization that UniForum should consider funding. Open systems application interfaces need to dovetail better with object management, intelligent network agents, telephony and multimedia. Within the Internet or other "information highway" vehicles, we need standard ways to find information. Information access is vital: the ability to get to information you want in the form and the way you need it, cheaply, quickly, globally and designed with the potential for universal access - scalable for use by everyone. Historically, UniForum and other organizations have viewed standards and APIs from the vendor perspective: "What system should we (the vendor) provide?" Over the next two years I plan to work to reorient UniForum to the user perspective: "What applications do we (the users) need or want?" In summary, I put education first, then advocacy to enhance the current position of open systems and move forward into future orientations. That might lead to standardization efforts that should involve cooperation with some other organizations. Pieper: Marketing open systems to the networking world is a major area of opportunity moving forward. While the open systems approach is well understood in the computing world, it is not welcomed in the proprietary networking world. The differences between computer operating systems and network operating systems are blurring, and the glue that is so critical to linking users is going to be even more critical to linking groups of users in the "total area network" (LAN and WAN). Siembieda: Among the many roles that UniForum can plan, I believe information gatherer is just as important as information transmitter. While it is technically interesting to hear and understand the broad array of product announcements and standards evolution, UniForum can be a powerful ear to the marketplace. UniForum is positioned to be an unbiased marketplace observer seeking a better understanding of what is important to decision makers without being perceived as blindly trying to link needs with products. UniForum should use its members and reach to understand key business driven needs. It should focus resources on this information retrieval process to provide feedback to the users and a meaningful task list to technology industry vendors. 4. How has your own opinion of UniForum changed (or has it?) over time, and what are the three biggest challenges the association must face over the next two years? Arfman: My experiences with UniForum in the past year have had a dramatic impact on my opinions. As chair of the planning team for the COSE Common Desktop Environment Developers' Conference, I was instrumental in turning over management and sponsorship to UniForum in May of 1993. This was something that UniForum had not done before. The success or failure would affect not only UniForum, but HP, IBM, Novell, SCO and Sun. You can well imagine that there were some nervous executives! To UniForum's credit, the conference was a big success, not just from our point of view, but also as direct input from the attendee survey. More than anything else, this has shaped my opinion that UniForum is a "can-do" organization, with the right vision and ability to execute. The big challenges that UniForum must face over the next two years are to keep on its revitalized track, and to keep renewing itself. This is a very dynamic industry, and to not only keep up with it but to be a contributor and vital force, UniForum needs dynamic leadership and active membership. The third challenge is to enlarge its role beyond UNIX and outside the U.S. Its motto is "The International Association of Open Systems Professionals." Traditional boundaries are disappearing fast. Fowler: I have enjoyed watching UniForum and, particularly, the annual conference, become the place where cooperative efforts are announced and where related user groups feel they can meet. I also believe that UniForum is taking a much more proactive role in fostering cooperation and in publicizing open systems. Over the next two years, UniForum will be challenged by: o The viability of open systems as a realistic solution for meeting business automation needs. A significant majority of information systems customers are fence-sitting on the future of open systems and many open systems vendors are hedging their bets on that future by diversifying their product offerings. UniForum must act as a calming factor within the industry and must help ensure the ongoing viability of open systems. o Obtaining corporate commitments to open systems. UniForum is now an open systems professional organization. I believe that to be an effective spokesgroup for the open systems industry, we must begin to represent open systems customers and vendors at a corporate level. In simpler terms, it is time that the open systems industry had a user group to define requirements and priorities for products that corporate customers will buy when developed. o The rate of change in the open systems marketplace. The concept of one large annual conference is in conflict with the significant rate of change that the open systems industry is going through. We must begin to rethink how we can continue our role as a catalyst for cooperation within the open systems market and for publicity about open systems beyond that one conference. Lachman: Challenge #1: The most visible activity of the UniForum Association is undoubtedly its trade show. Our recent efforts on the 1994 show have demonstrated that UniForum is heading out on the "open highway," expanding as a show central to trends involving the Internet. A key challenge is to keep the show vibrant, interesting and in touch with the trends in our industry. Challenge #2: We have to transition UniForum into a stronger professional and user organization. To do this we need to create programs that foster user involvement, continue to work on our value proposition to members worldwide, and position ourselves as the open systems user organization. We should expand our membership and become known as the voice of users speaking to vendors to direct vendors to fulfill our needs. Challenge #3: We need to be an advocate to carry the torch of open systems. Although the UNIX flame still burns, I think that it is more important to spread the light of open systems - portability, scalability, manageability, reusability, interoperability - to more users and help them build and use applications that capitalize on the advantages of open systems. Pieper: The importance of UniForum is only increasing over time and as technology develops. The greatest challenges that will face the organization in the next few years are 1) broadening its scope to encompass the new "global communications environment" of the future; 2) focusing on networking as a key area of influence; and 3) changing the mind set of a predominantly proprietary industry. Siembieda: My own opinion of UniForum has changed over time. I viewed UniForum as a vendor-driven technology-oriented committee with the aim of better communicating the evolution of UNIX standards. I was wrong! UniForum does have the key involvement of members in organizations around the world who are relying on open systems to achieve their information goals. However, I feel it still has a strong technology focus. The key challenges in the next two years may well be to: o Lose the pure technology focus and bring business "users" to UniForum o Listen to the marketplace and understand the relevant issues rather than reporting on the technology issues, and o Link the message of the marketplace to users and developers alike, so that better-focused product solutions meet the critical needs of open systems practitioners. UniForum urges all General Members to vote in the Board of Directors election. Look for ballots with complete biographical information and candidate position statements in the mail in June. End Article ------------------------------------------------------------ Windows NT Holds Interest for Conferees ---------------------------------------- But UNIX is still strong, especially for OLTP and networking A poll taken at UniForum '94 showed that attendees of the conference are substantially more interested in Microsoft's Windows NT operating system than exclusively commercial UNIX users, although they maintain a strong loyalty to UNIX. These findings came in an on-the-spot electronic survey taken by David Smith, director of UNIX and advanced operating environments research for International Data Corp., at a plenary session entitled "Windows NT: UNIX Threat or Paper Tiger?" As hundreds of attendees responded to Smith's questions using hand-held remote devices, the results were instantly tabulated and graphically displayed. Smith then compared the audience's answers with those in a survey of 150 commercial UNIX users who were previously polled. Smith said he found the results of the surveys contained "a lot more realistic predictions for NT than there were last year. NT is not seen as the universal system that is going to take over the world." But he added, "Microsoft is still committed to it and they're not going to let it go." When asked about their plans to evaluate Windows NT, over half of those in the UNIX survey said they had no plans to do so over the next six months. However, at UniForum '94 only 26 percent said they had no such plans and the rest either planned to evaluate Windows NT, had started or had completed an evaluation. Only six percent said they didn't know. Similarly, 86 percent in the UNIX users' survey said their purchase plans were totally unaffected by Microsoft's shipment of NT, while 63 percent of the UniForum audience said they were totally unaffected. The UniForum audience also expressed more interest in Microsoft's announcement of Chicago, the next version of Windows. Twenty-five percent of those at the session said Chicago had decreased their commitment to Windows NT, compared to only 11 percent in the UNIX users' survey. Fifty-six percent at UniForum said they were unaffected by Chicago, compared to 81 percent in the previous survey. A plurality in the conference audience also said they felt Windows would be computing's most important computer operating system in 1996 (the general survey picked Novell's NetWare) and 64 percent chose Windows as the most important OS for office automation. However, UNIX also received some high marks from the UniForum audience. When asked which OS was the best for on-line transaction processing, 64 percent chose UNIX. Even more - 70 percent - chose UNIX as the most important for OLTP when 1996 rolls around. In the area of system management and administration, the UniForum audience also preferred UNIX, giving it a highest-ranking vote of 31 percent compared to 19 percent for UNIX in the users' survey, where NetWare received the top ranking. The difference in the two surveys was most striking on the question of the best OS for networking. A whopping 74 percent of those in the UniForum audience said UNIX was best for networking, compared with only 23 percent in IDC's users' survey. For the most advanced features, the UniForum audience also ranked UNIX higher - 46 percent for UNIX and 29 percent for Windows NT - while the users' survey found UNIX only slightly ahead, 27 percent compared to 25 percent for NT. However, those who had used both UNIX and NT tended to rate UNIX higher than those who had not used both. On the question of cost of ownership, however, UNIX received a lower ranking from the UniForum audience. Twenty-six percent said it was the best OS for cost compared to 32 percent for NT. In the users' survey, the vote was 25 percent for NT and 22 percent for UNIX, with OS/2 and NetWare getting the other votes. End Article ------------------------------------------------------------ Get UniNews On-line -------------------- As announced in the April 20 issue of UniNews, this newsletter is now available electronically, as a service to UniForum members, in lieu of your printed copy. To receive the newsletter in your electronic mailbox, send e-mail to pubs@uniforum.org and include in the message body your UniForum membership number, your name and your e-mail address. You will receive UniNews in ASCII text. End Article ------------------------------------------------------------ Hardware Vendors Eye Strength of UNIX -------------------------------------- Four companies share their viewpoints in plenary session The message from hardware vendors at UniForum '94 was that UNIX is strong. In their view, it's strong because it's open and reliable, and it's strong in competition with mainframes and with Microsoft. Those opinions emerged at the plenary session discussion on hardware vendors' open systems strategies featuring representatives of four systems vendors: AT&T Global Information Solutions (formerly NCR), Compaq, DEC and Data General. "I think that UNIX is just beginning to come into its own," said Pauline Nist, vice president of hardware engineering for Alpha servers with DEC. "There will be a continuous rolling out of new solutions [with UNIX] that allow you to do more and more with less and less." Panel moderator Michael Dortch, senior writer for Communications Week, contended that UNIX has not "caught on." Steve Gardner, Data General's vice president of corporate marketing, disagreed, saying UNIX is now a system of choice in the business world. "Corporate America is buying these systems and the servers that go with them and the software that runs on them," he said. "That's an incredible landscape change in the last 12 months." But Gardner added that buyers are wary enough to "want to know about reliability, price and how you are to do business with." The main factors holding UNIX back, noted John Paul, Compaq's vice president for systems software, are that UNIX-based systems aren't being produced in the volumes necessary to make them really cheap and that fragmentation in the industry creates confusion among potential users. "The secret to UNIX's success in the future - and it still has time - is in volume," he said. Paul added that customers are making their biggest investments in software. Echoing that point, Gardner said, "The thing we [hardware vendors] have to work on most of all is to make our machines invisible, to have the software run as simply and reliably as possible on the hardware." Dortch raised the question of how users can gain the benefits of open systems while retaining the service level they're used to with proprietary systems. Nist said that users who want service will have to pay for the value they want. "It's not going to exist as a freebie" when users are opting to buy segments of their systems from multiple vendors. While AT&T's Russell Holt, associate vice president of platform and system software, hailed IBM's MVS operating system as "the standard in reliability, maintainability and serviceability in the data center," Gardner jumped to the defense of UNIX. "The average IBM mainframe is truly available for operations about 53 percent of the time," he said. "It's just erroneous to say that the mainframe sets the standard for availability. UNIX is the enterprise server of choice today. It's reliable and it's superior to anything that the proprietary world has to offer." The issue of UNIX unification prompted Nist's observation that the Common Open Software Environment has been "sort of like the United Nations - you participate because you don't want to be against world peace." Dortch contended that "the level of confidence out there is not very high" on the chances for COSE's success. In response, Gardner jumped on the bandwagon of Spec 1170, the application programming interface unification initiative that grew out of COSE. "That's a wonderful initiative," he said. "For the first time, the industry didn't invent a bunch of new stuff." Paul said that it is important for Spec 1170 to succeed. "We need to allow the software developer on the UNIX platform to amortize his investment to the point where he can take advantage of it," he said. Nist found another reason why COSE might succeed. "I have a lot of faith in the biggest unifying force in the computing market, and that's Microsoft," she said. End Article ------------------------------------------------------------ OS of the Future Will Handle Distributed Computing --------------------------------------------------- Debaters also see system and network management as key Distributed computing and system and network management are the biggest issues facing computer users over the next few years, four representatives of major system software vendors agreed in a debate in San Francisco held in conjunction with UniForum '94. The discussion, sponsored by Wyse Technology was supposed to answer the question, "Which Operating System Will Lead the Enterprise into the 21st Century?" Panelists were Jim Billmaier, vice president of marketing for SunSoft; Rick Bohdanowicz, vice president of marketing for the Novell's UNIX Systems Group; Doug Michels, chief technical officer of The Santa Cruz Operation; and Matt Regan, group product manager for Microsoft Windows NT. The four agreed that distributed computing is the issue of the day. "Companies want to distribute and manage their worldwide resources," Michels said. "System and network management and distributed computing go hand in hand. If you can't solve the management problem, you can't solve distributed computing." Billmaier added that cost of ownership is also important. "You need to sustain your investment to do all those things," he said. Although the group didn't get into a full-scale debate on UNIX vs. Windows NT, the UNIX vendors made it clear that they consider proprietary, vertically integrated systems a thing of the past. Regan of Microsoft did not challenge that view. "Proprietary doesn't work as a business model," Bohdanowicz said. "A lot of the future of where we're heading is based on open systems." The operating system of the future will have to work across many machines, according to Billmaier, because "No one is going to build an implementation that only works on one architecture," he said. The future operating system for servers may be in doubt, but the desktop system clearly will be Windows, Michels said, so users need to link their Windows desktops with something else. "The users have already bought their desktops. The productivity desktop is going to be mostly Windows. You can have Windows on the desktop and Windows NT on the server, or you can have Windows on the desktop and something good on the server." That "something good," for SCO, clearly is UNIX, though the company is billing itself as a "windows-friendly UNIX company," in Michels' words. "Our purpose is to provide a server that is the center of solving an evolutionary problem that customers have," he said. Regan said he sees users moving toward "more of a true distributed computing environment that is mostly object-oriented" and that "the employment of standards makes it easier to implement that technology. We are working with standards bodies." He said Microsoft sees itself as having an operating system on the server of the future as well as the desktop. But he added, "We see everyone else on the server too." Bohdanowicz asserted, "The concept of networking must be there [in the future]. Novell sees the world in a rightsizing environment, but in an increasingly heterogeneous one. We want to reach to the next level to enable integrated applications support." Though panelists didn't get around to the question posed by the event's title, their answers showed a level of agreement that would give one the impression that the major issues were settled. End Article ------------------------------------------------------------ Affiliates Meet at UniForum '94 -------------------------------- Representatives from 20 UniForum affiliates met with the UniForum staff and members of the UniForum Board of Directors in San Francisco during UniForum '94. Separate meetings were held with U.S.-based and International affiliates, along with a joint lunch and reception at which representatives met and shared ideas on common concerns such as membership development, building revenues, producing publications and creating new services for members - especially on-line services such as Internet access. After a presentation to the affiliates by UniForum Executive Director Richard Jaross and UniForum Director of Marketing Corinne Moore, which covered the activities and support services from UniForum available to the affiliates, the meetings were turned over to the affiliates for reports on their own initiatives. Several common themes emerged from these meetings: o Most if not every affiliate publishes some kind of newsletter, magazine or directory. All these efforts are accomplished by hard-working volunteers. o Providing Internet access to members is a reality for some affiliates such as WAUUG, the Washington Area UNIX Users Group, and DKUUG, the Danish affiliate, both of which have sophisticated arrangements to serve their members. Others voiced a strong desire to offer Internet access. The extent to which affiliates have implemented this goal varies. o Membership growth was a continuing challenge for all affiliates, who often faced softness in growth attributable to slowness in local economies. From the U.S.-based affiliates were representatives from Ohio!UniForum, Southwest! UniForum, UniForum Central NY, michigan!/usr/group, DFWUUG, Seattle Unix Group, UniForum.Okc.Forum and WAUUG. At the conclusion of the U.S.-based affiliates meeting, Glenn Schulke, representing Southwest!UniForum, was selected by the group as liaison to the UniForum International affiliates, with the goal of bringing the two groups even closer through the sharing of information. There were 13 International affiliates represented at the meeting from Argentina, Australia, Brazil, China, Colombia, Denmark, Italy, Mexico, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa, Trinidad and Tobago, and the United Kingdom. UniForum actively seeks relationships with new affiliates and urges groups that may be in formation to contact the association for more information on how to become an official affiliate of UniForum. E-mail may be sent to corinnem@uniforum.org. End Article ------------------------------------------------------------ Affiliate Roundup ------------------ UniNews, in keeping with an emphasis on the importance of UniForum affiliate groups, will devote increasing attention to the activities of affiliates in the United States and around the world. Affiliates with late-breaking news should send via fax or e-mail to Don Dugdale, senior editor, fax (408) 986-1645 or e-mail don@uniforum.org. *** Japan UNIX Fair'93 The Japan UNIX Society newsletter reports that the three-day UNIX Fair'93, held Dec. 8-10 at the Pacifico Yokohama, had an attendance of 39,315 and 128 companies participating. That made it the largest event in their history. The fair had the theme "UNIX Technology and Open Systems Solutions" and featured several simultaneous events: a Network Connection Test with an Internet connection demonstrating business network services; an X Window Application Corner with 40 applications in special fields shown on the X Window System; a PC Connection Corner with PCs connected to UNIX workstations; executive seminars and COSE seminars; 18 Japan UNIX Society seminars; and product and network presentations. *** Unigroup Meeting Schedule Unigroup of New York has announced the following topics to be discussed at its upcoming meetings: May: UNIX Tools (Pearl, Awk, Sed, Shell) June: Special Event: Meeting at PC Expo at Javits Center in New York City June 28-30; topic: Personal UNIX July: Network Management (TCP/IP, SNMP) October: Special Event: Meeting at UNIX Expo; topic: UNIX war stories November: Internet Domain Name System January 1995: Sendmail March 1995: NFS and NIS+ Unigroup announcements may be obtained from the following sources: with a modem, dial (212) 787-4270 and log in as "unigroup" or send any e-mail message to jpradley!unigroup or unigroup@jpr.com, or via uucp: "uucp jpradley!~unigroup/meeting"; (212) 787-4270; login: ugny. For information not obtainable from these sources, call J.P. Radley at (212) 391-9100. To get on the Unigroup electronic mailing list, send e-mail to unilist@unigroup.org or uunet!unigroup.org!unilist. *** Ohio!UniForum Meeting The Ohio!UniForum Cleveland Group's monthly meeting will be held May 10 from 6 to 8 p.m. at Crown Center Auditorium, lower level, 5005 Rockside Rd., Independence, Ohio. The Cincinnati and Columbus groups also will have meetings; information is available by calling Ohio!UniForum, (216) 886-2018. *** UniForum Chicago Meetings UniForum Chicago meets the fourth Tuesday of every month except for the January annual meeting, which is held on the third Wednesday. The Board meets on the first Thursday of the month at 7 p.m. Contact the group's office at (708) 652-3888 for more details. *** Hounix Meeting Hounix, the UniForum affiliate in Houston, will hold its main meeting on May 17 on the topic of Enterprise Workgroup Software. For dinner reservations, call (713) 684-6590 by May 13. The presentation will be made by Uniplex Integration Systems Inc. End Article ------------------------------------------------------------ Publications, Conferences, Discounts and More ---------------------------------------------- UniForum Member Benefits Benefits for General Members ($100 per year): o UniForum Monthly magazine and UniNews biweekly newsletter; Free ads in the "Positions Wanted" section of UniNews; Open Systems Products Directory; All UniForum Technical Guides; Discounts on purchases of additional UniForum publications; Discounts on all UniForum conference registrations; Educational seminars and special classes; Opportunity to participate in local Affiliate activities. o Discounts on Avis car rentals. o Discounts on corporate sponsors' hardware and software: o Specialix Inc. sales, (800) 423-5364, (408) 378-7919 or fax: (408) 378-0786. e-mail: info@specialix.com o Mortice Kern Systems (MKS), 35 King St. North, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada N2J 2W9. Phone: (519) 884-2251 or (800) 265-2797; fax (519) 884-8861 or e-mail inquiry@mks.com. o Discounts on products, training and publications from the following companies: o Locus Computing Corp., 9800 La Cienega Blvd., Inglewood, CA 90301-4400. Or call (310) 670-6500. o Fujitsu Open Systems Solutions Inc., (800) 545-6774. o InterCon Systems, (800) NET2YOU or (800) INTERCON. o Gemini Learning Systems, (403) 263-UNIX or fax (403) 261-4688. o ACI Technology Training, 500 Park Blvd., Suite 1111, Itasca, IL 60143; phone (708) 285-7800 or fax (708) 285-7440. o Open Systems Training, 4400 Computer Drive, Westboro, MA 01580; phone (800) 633-UNIX or fax (508) 898-2382. o Open Systems Alternatives (Steve Kastner), 250 Production Plaza, Cincinnati, OH 45219; (513) 733-4798; fax (513) 733-5194. o ITDC, 4000 Executive Park Drive #310, Cincinnati, OH 45241; (513) 733-4747; fax (513) 733-5194. o Nina Lytton's Open Systems Advisor, (617) 859-0859 or write OSA at 268 Newbury St., Boston, MA 02116. o Patricia Seybold Group's Monthly Reports, Don Baillargeon, (617) 742-5200 ext. 17; 148 State St., Boston, MA 02109. o .sh consulting, call (408) 241-8319 or write to 3355 Brookdale Dr., Santa Clara, CA 95051. o Faulkner Information Systems, 114 Cooper Center, 7905 Browning Road, Pennsauken, NJ 08109-4319. o QED Information Sciences Inc., 170 Linden St., P.O. Box 82-181, Wellesley, MA 02181; (800) 343-4848. o Specialized Systems Consultants Inc., P.O. Box 55549, Seattle, WA 98155-0649; (206) 527-3385; fax: (206) 527-2806. o Client/Server Tool Watch: Enabling Open Applications Development from Hurwitz Consulting Group (Dena Brody), P.O. Box 218, Newton, MA 02159; (617) 965-7691; fax (617) 969-7901. o Client/Server News from G2 Computer Intelligence, P.O. Box 7, Glen Head, NY 11545; (516) 759-7025; fax: (516) 759-7028. o Addison-Wesley Publishing Co. (Dan O'Gara), One Jacob Way, Reading, MA 01867 (800) 238-9682; fax (617) 944-7273. Benefits for associate members ($50 a year) include UniForum Monthly magazine and UniNews newsletter; free ads in the "positions wanted" section of UniNews; discounts on all UniForum conference registrations; the opportunity to participate in affiliate activities; and discounts on the publications and products listed above. End Article ------------------------------------------------------------ UniNews Recruitment -------------------- For inclusion in the UniNews Classified Section, please provide the following information, being as specific as possible. If you do not want your name printed, please indicate in item No. 1 and UniNews will receive replies and forward them to you. Please type or write legibly. Your classified may be edited for length or clarity. UniNews "Positions Wanted" classifieds are available FREE OF CHARGE to UniForum members only. Upon receipt of your material, we will publish your classified in the next TWO available issues of the biweekly UniNews. YOU MUST BE A MEMBER OF UNIFORUM TO PARTICIPATE 1. Your name Shall we print your name in UniNews? Your UniForum Membership # (if available) 2. Where Hiring Companies May Reach You (include phone, fax and e-mail) 3. Title and Description of the Job You Want 4. Geographical Preference 5. Professional Experience and Qualifications 6. Highest Grade or Degree Achieved, and Where 7. Salary Range $ 8. Availability You may mail or fax this form to: Sandy Parker UniForum 2901 Tasman Drive, Suite 205 Santa Clara, CA 95054 (408) 986-1645. GOOD LUCK! POSITIONS WANTED *** Systems/Network Administrator Seeks position as systems/ network administrator. Experience: 4+ years in systems administration, technical and user support on SCO UNIX, Solaris, OS/2 and LAN manager, DOS and Windows 3.1. Substantial exposure in Progress 4GL/RDBMS. Personal: B.S. in computer engineering; prefer New York City, Central and Northern New Jersey; salary open; available immediately. Jaime Rebutoc, 35 Williams Ave., Jersey City, NJ 07304-1126; phone (201) 435-5847; CompuServe 73073,3016. *** Senior Systems Analyst Seeks position as a senior systems analyst to include development and administration of UNIX-based systems. Experience: 10 years in programmer, systems analyst and project manager positions. Areas of emphasis include UNIX and RDBMS administration, C and SQL programming languages and network integration on HP-UX platforms. Extensive experience with manufacturing, finishing and order entry applications. Personal: B.A., computer science, University of Tennessee, Knoxville; prefer Southeast; Salary $60K+; available within 21 days. Donald A. Stepp, phone (804) 562-3720 (home) or (804) 562-4124 (work); e-mail steppd@delphi.com. *** Software Development Seeks position in high- or low-level software development, including client-server. Experience: 10 years developing general management systems on LANs and SCO UNIX. Wrote interface between a mainframe and a 300-node WAN at Mercantil Bank of Brazil through a Stratus 860; system development chief at Ematex Textile. Personal: Prefer South or North America; salary $25,000; available now. Claudio Lacerda, phone (031) 441-8000 or fax (031) 443-1000 (Brazil). End Article ------------------------------------------------------------ UniForum '94 Souvenirs Still Available -------------------------------------- Souvenirs Still Available Sweatshirts, mouse pads, hats, pins, key chains, backpacks etc. Order Now! Call 1-800-255-5620 End Article ------------------------------------------------------------ End UniNews.