By Jeffrey Bartlett
More than 17,000 people involved in open systems and enterprise computing attended the UniForum '95 Conference and Exposition last week. They found plenty of opportunities to keep busy. In this issue of UniNews, you'll read about the high-profile keynote speeches, plenary sessions, and press conferences, but much more went on in less highly visible venues. I'd like to share some of my impressions with you.
Before the main conference began, four two-day tracks on Sunday and Monday brought breadth and depth to matters of importance for a cross-section of IT users. I attended both the Technology Managers Client/Server Seminar and the MOSES Seminar, while other UniForum staff monitored the World-Wide Web Seminar and the USENIX/SAGE Seminar for system administrators. From what I saw and was told, these sessions provided substantial content in easy-to-grasp formats.
This is well and good, but perhaps more noteworthy is the level of feedback the experts received from their audiences. Attendees generally knew what their needs were before they came and were willing to verbally nudge the speakers in the directions they wanted them to go.
This spirit of knowledgeable participation carried over into the three days of regular conference sessions. Again, our staff attended a sampling of the many sessions, looking for sources and subject matter for our publications. Again, we noticed attendees speaking up. They showed little patience with vendor pitches, which often were nipped in the bud. These IS pros said they wanted to hear from their peers, other users who solve problems similar to their own, without an ax to grind. This in itself is not news, but we seemed to be making progress in that direction.
Occasionally a panelist-even a chairperson-droned on too long for everyone's good, but attendees either voted with their feet-by walking out-or let them know about it in the Q&A afterward. The line between experts and those who came to hear them is blurring; this can only be good for all concerned, because it will raise the level of the discussion.
Session leaders to whom I spoke confirmed this impression, and exhibitors on the show floor commented similarly on the quality of the inquiries they received at their booths.
Not everything went according to this scenario, of course. I went to one panel whose preview promised three end users talking about their client/server migrations. I arrived to find four vendor representatives marshaling thick piles of slides. I voted with my feet, along with some other folks.
Even so, the influence of people using this technology, rather than selling it, was much in evidence. The first annual UniForum Open Awards were a shining example of this. On the show floor, 18 user organizations showed their successful open computing applications to all comers. Six-Burlington Coat Factory, Ford Motor Co., Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center, Salomon Brothers, Williams Brokering Services, and the Workers' Compensation Board of Ontario-were judged winners in their fields, but all who participated clearly have won in a bigger way.
And by the way: many of these apps run Windows on the front end. But we can live with that now, can't we? It's another example of movement toward solutions that work in the world, and that's what UniForum is all about.