News From UniForum
Contact:
Jane Smeloff, The Open Group, (617) 621-8997, j.smeloff@opengroup.com
Dick Shippee, UniForum Association, (408) 986-8840, dick@uniforum.org
Greg Sendi, Fleishman-Hillard, (415) 356-1040, gsendi@ccnet.com
THE OPEN GROUP AND THE UNIFORUM ASSOCIATION PROPOSE TO COMBINE OPERATIONS
Combined Organization Seeks to Enhance Services to Individuals
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. and SANTA CLARA, Calif. (September 30, 1996) - The Open
Group and the UniForum Association, two leading organizations for the advancement
of open systems, today announced that they have signed a letter of intent
to combine their respective operations to enhance education, publication,
advocacy and technical support services for open systems developers, suppliers
and customers. The final agreement will be subject to approval of the two
boards of directors on behalf of their respective members.
Under the terms of the proposed agreement, the two groups would combine
staff and operations under The Open Group by the end of March 1997. UniForum
would retain an independent board of directors with continuing responsibility
for providing open system services to its members. The ongoing activities
of the UniForum Association would continue to be managed from Silicon Valley
with new, expanded operations from current Open Group locations in Cambridge,
Massachusetts; Reading, England; Tokyo, Japan and elsewhere.
According to Joseph De Feo, who officially begins his tenure as The Open
Group's new CEO in November, the new, closer relationship with the UniForum
Association represents an opportunity for both organizations to provide
more focused leadership for the advancement of open computing solutions.
"At a time when the explosive growth of the Internet and electronic
commerce are highlighting the importance of genuinely open information solutions
to the future of information systems, our new affiliation with UniForum
signals the commitment of both organizations to work together to provide
real-world solutions for customers," De Feo said. "By working
as a single entity for the advancement of open systems, we believe the real
winners will be the individuals and organizations who count on open systems
as their enterprise computing strategy of choice."
After completing a final agreement, The UniForum Association board of directors,
which represents individual open systems developers and end-users rather
than companies, would work in cooperation with the board of The Open Group
to continue to deliver UniForum programs and services, including the annual
UniForum open systems trade show and conference, and publications such as
UniForum's IT Solutions. Current and future UniForum members would continue
to have the same member privileges they presently enjoy plus new benefits
associated with UniForum's merger of operations with The Open Group.
UniForum board president, Michael Tilson, who is also Chief Information
Officer at SCO, emphasized that the goal of the combination is to provide
maximum possible benefit for individual developers and end-users.
"The UniForum board believes very strongly that our new relationship
with The Open Group will mean better service for all our core constituencies,
especially the professionals who use and build open systems," Tilson
said. "UniForum provides The Open Group with a powerful channel for
communication and interaction with the community of individuals in addition
to their current vendor based membership. Our mutual objective is to further
the cause of open systems."
UniForum, the International Association of Open Systems Professionals, is
a not-for-profit organization founded in 1980 and based in Santa Clara,
California. The originator of the POSIX open systems standard, UniForum
today has over 4,000 members, all individual professionals, and 30,000 subscribers
to its magazine, UniForum's IT Solutions. Central to UniForum's mission
is the delivery of high-quality educational programs, trade shows and conferences,
publications, on-line services and peer group discussions.
The Open Group is an international consortium of systems vendors, software
vendors and customers, dedicated to the advancement of multi-vendor information
systems. Under the umbrella of The Open Group, the Open Software Foundation
(OSF) and X/Open Company Ltd. (X/Open) work together to provide a focal
point for the development of standards based technologies, specifications,
test suites, branding, advanced open systems research, and professional
services. The Open Group's brand mark is recognized worldwide and is a guarantee
of compliance to open systems specifications. The Open Group is headquartered
in Cambridge, MA, with European headquarters in Reading, England and offices
in Menlo Park, CA; Washington, DC; Brussels, Belgium; Grenoble, France;
and Tokyo, Japan.
Open Software Foundation, OSF, and the OSF logo are registered trademarks
of the Open Software Foundation, Inc. X/Open is a registered trademark and
the "X" device is a trademark of X/Open Company, Ltd. The Open
Group is a trademark of the Open Software Foundation, Inc. and X/Open Company
Ltd. UNIX is a registered trademark in the US and other countries, licensed
exclusively through X/Open Company Ltd. UniForum is a registered trademark
of UniForum Association. All other products or company names mentioned are
used for identification purposes only, and may be trademarks of their respective
owners.