"In open systems, the processes are only a means to an end."
Age: 53
Current Position: Interim President, Open Software Foundation
Years in the Industry: 35
Place of Birth: San Francisco, a fourth-generation Californian
Car He Drives: red '96 Taurus
Latest Book Read: In Search of Old Roses
Years married: 30
Children: One son, a programmer at Apple, and one daughter, a market researcher at Young & Rubicam advertising agency, San Francisco.
Pet Open Systems Peeve: "Constantly hearing from people that Unix is dead or that open systems is dead. We've been hearing the premature obituaries for several years now, but in my experience this is far from the case. It seems clear to me that we are in a very rapid growth phase, and I think the sales of Unix-based systems and open systems in general are going to increase steadily in the foreseeable future."
As any gardener knows, roses require more than the usual amount of horticultural skill. A rose garden demands patience, attention to details, and the ability to bring many different elements together in harmony.
People who are aware of James Bell's accomplishments in the IT industry aren't surprised to learn that he's equally successful with roses. Over the past three decades, he has brought the same care and skills required by delicate hybrids to a series of major research projects, management positions and boardrooms. He will also be drawing on these personal qualities in his new duties as interim president of the Open Software Foundation (OSF).
According to leaders in the industry, Bell is a natural choice for guiding OSF through a period of change and development. "Jim is ideally suited for the role," says Richard Jaross, executive director of UniForum. According to Jaross, Bell works at the collaborative process better than almost anyone. "Jim is able to sit in a room, listen to everybody and then bring divergent interests together in a consensus. That's invaluable for his new job, and I think he will be great at it."
At the same time, Bell is certainly right in pointing to his background as one reason he is known as a collaborator. Looking at his resume, it seems like he's worked almost everywhere, done everything, and met everyone in IT and open systems technology.
Bell's career goes back to the beginnings of modern computing when computers still ran on transistors. In fact, when he originally went to Stanford in 1962 to work on a masters degree, the university didn't even have a computer sciences department. He intended to study mathematics. When he received his Ph.D. in computer sciences in 1968, he was one of the first dozen people in the country to hold a doctorate in that field.
Bell worked at several companies while at school, including a stint as a programmer at Bell Labs. He has also worked at IBM, SRI International, and Control Data Corporation. After he received his Ph.D. in 1968, he became a manager at Digital Equipment Corp. in Maynard, MA. He served there for twelve years, the last eight as corporate director of research.
Currently, Bell is director of corporate Alliances for HP, the position he will return to after his brief term as president of OSF. He has served or is currently serving on the boards of X/Open Co. Ltd., and UniForum. He is the former president and CEO of Precision Risc Organization (PRO) and the director of the Foundation for Informed Medical Decision Making.
He has also published numerous technical articles, co-authored Mini-Computer Software, and served on the editorial board of Unix Review magazine.
Small wonder then that Bell is known as an extremely knowledgeable and experienced "insider" who has developed working relationships with leaders throughout the industry.
In Tokyo, Bell will talk to representatives at Hitachi, Fujitsu, NEC and Sony, as well as representatives from other corporations. Then he will take the long way home via London to touch base with X/Open, OSF's sister consortium. He said that he wanted to solidify the ties that already exist between the two organizations and establish an even greater bond across the Atlantic. Of course, it helps that Bell was himself chairman of the board of X/Open for four years.
When he returns to OSF headquarters in Cambridge, MA, Bell wants to concentrate on two major goals. The first goal is to provide a smooth transition to the next presidency. OSF has gone through dramatic times lately, including a major restructuring. Although there have been reports of past dissension on the board, Bell has nothing but praise for his predecessor, David Tory. "Dave did a wonderful job as president and was the ideal person to build OSF into what it is today," he says. Bell adds that Tory "brought a strong core of very talented people to the organization."
Still, PST funding remains a "hard nut to crack," as Jack Dwyer, manager of communications at OSF, puts it. He explains that a typical project often involves seven or eight different member corporations, each with its own outlook, needs and situation in the industry. Getting all these companies to agree on major questions like funding, marketing and technology choices will always demand the utmost in complex collaboration.
As we have seen, however, collaboration is where Bell shines. Glenn Johnson has worked with Bell over the years, at Digital Equipment as well as on the boards of X/Open and OSF. "Jim is highly qualified to bring this collaborative development to OSF especially through his recent work at HP." Johnson adds that Bell can also contribute something else: an in-depth understanding of software vendors in general. "He understands the problems that we face as vendors, and he can bring that understanding to these PST projects."
Johnson stresses that PST development will require a firm hand on the tiller. "The process works better if there's a strong facilitator, almost a leader, who can help everyone see the win-win in a situation and move on, instead of trying to optimize the project endlessly for each particular company."
"Why not?" Bell says. "There will always be an ongoing need for collaboration and collaborative research simply because joint development means that companies can share the cost for research and development. Collaboration will yield results that are more common and interoperable from the start, which is a valuable quality in today's market."
The challenge for OSF, he adds, is to have it be recognized as the premier vehicle for collaborative development, so people will think it of it first as the best and most cost-effective way to bring new software products to the market.
In general, Bell predicts that open systems will continue to thrive. But he adds that "the term open systems has lost much of its meaning. What has more value to us in the open systems community is focusing on real results and practical advantages in terms of interoperability, freedom of choice, and preservation of investment, rather than focusing only on specific processes."
He makes other, more specific, predictions. For example, he asserts that the interest in distributed computing environment (DCE) will "skyrocket" in 1996.
"People who attended Unix Expo in New York this year were very impressed by what they heard," he says, "particularly by the reports coming from the field." He cites examples such as General Motors Electronic Data System's order system, MCI's credit card verification system, and the U.S. Army's field command communication system.
He also predicts a closer relationship with Microsoft and the open systems world. "I think there will be an increased positive interaction between Microsoft and open systems technology. In particular, Microsoft is going to be 100 percent compatible with many of the DCE services, including the RPC."
It might be argued by darker souls that Bell's outlook is, in fact, overly optimistic. However, it can also be pointed out that such optimism is always the first requirement for a gardener--or anyone else who works and plants for the future.