midrange.com - In My Humble Opinion

Well, I haven't been blogging from COMMON yet ... but I just got out of the IBM Town Hall meeting a few minutes ago.

It was announced that the "System i" and "System p" were merging into a single, unified, platform called "Power".  The OS, originally named OS/400, then I5/OS, is now going to be called "IBM i".

New hardware was announced that would be common between "i", "aix", and "linux" ... all the same price, regardless of the OS that runs on it.

New marketing campaigns that will mention "i" set to be run.  Starting with a full page ad in the local paper.  I think they run a full page ad in the local paper at every conference.  Let's hope they live up to the promise and keep the marketing going.

They also mentioned more academic initiative stuff.

More later.

For those of you who have been paying attention, midrange.com was nominated for a System i Innovation Award in the Community Support category.

While we didn't win the award (Trevor Perry of angustheitchap.com won), it was quite an honor to be a finalist. It certainly shows that people have noticed, and appreciate, the work that I've been doing.

The award ceremony was quite enjoyable ... the food and entertainment was quite good, and we met a number of new people. It also goes to show that us System i folks can clean up pretty well.

After the Innovation Award ceremony, I was informed that I had also been nominated for another award ... and it would be presented at the iSocial (formerly known as CUDS) on Wednesday ... sadly, I was unable to stay to receive the Gibraltar award (for outstanding service to the System i community).

I really would have liked to been able to stay to receive the award ... I even had a a speech prepared ... but there was work to be done.

All in all, I did enjoy the time I spent at COMMON. As is usually the case, I wasn't able to do half the things I wanted to. But I met a lot of people and had a good time.

[tags]ibm, common, iSociety, conferences, awards[/tags]

Things are happening in the System i / iSeries / AS400 community.

• The COMMON conference is just around the corner ... and there promises to be some pretty big news announced there.
• Trevor Perry announced a new site: www.i4everyone.com as a place to showcase YOUR marketing ideas for System i. He is looking for images or videos which you have created to promote the System i platform.
• IT Jungle is reporting some more information on Project Prometheus (although still considered rumor)

Although I don't know ALL the details ... I do know some ... but I won't tip my hat (sorry, but I made a promise). I will say that yours truly is somewhat involved.

More later.

[tags]Series, System I, AS400, COMMON, IBM, Marketing[/tags]

Just a few quick items from the Spring 05 COMMON conference in Chicago ...

• Scott Klement received an iSeries Innovation award from IBM & COMMON
• Ask the Experts night at Sundays CUDS was quite a success ... a lot of list members stopped by the MIDRANGE-L table to chat. A number of list members who were at COMMON had tables of their own to man, so not EVERYONE was necessarily able to meet everyone else.
• A good number of midrange.com buttons were given out. The majority of the remaining buttons were dropped off at the LUG booth, so they will make their way to the next conference. If I don't make it to the next conference (jury is still out on that), you can always pick up a button at the LUG booth.
• Attendance seemed to be pretty good, although I haven't heard official numbers.
• Some of the support services seemed to be a bit off. A number of the sessions I attended didn't have enough handouts. I even attended one where they ran out of handouts almost immediately ... and when the TLC crew went to get more, the copy office said they didn't have the master... even though they had printed out the first batch earlier that morning. This was commented on at Meeting of the Members (MOM)
• The facilities were quite nice ... and I'm very glad that everything was in one hotel and nobody had to go outside to get to other sessions. My only complaint would be this: There is a bridge you have to cross to get from the east tower to the west tower of the Hyatt ... and it was quite easy to get turned around at the escalators on the other side ... they should have had a sign saying "COMMON is the other way". (I'm not sure that came out right ... I'll review it later)
• Wednesday night I signed up for a BOF to discuss anti-spam techniques ... although only one person actually signed up for it, it was scheduled ... and 3 people showed up. It was enjoyable discussing how various types of organizations are tackling the spam problem. I wonder if it would be worthwhile to have a session on SPAM?

Just a quick report from the Chicago COMMON conference ... and some first impressions.

• The expo seems bigger than before, but kind of spread out in an awkward pattern.
• Attendence seems to be up a bit. Although I haven't seen any figures.
• I've run into a few people wearing the old (black) MIDRANGE-L buttons ... and of course gave them a free upgrade to the latest version
• The opening session was quite interesting ... although I didn't necessarily agree with all the comments. The speaker, John Patrick was dicussing the future of the internet. He even mentioned blogs (although not this one )
• I had a very interesting discussion with Guy Vig at the IBM booth about the new command documentation generator. It looks quite interesting. Of course that's more work related than anything else.
• The "iSeries Nation Town Hall Meeting" was quite enjoyable ... they ran a number of the TV spots for the iSeries and gave everyone a a copy of the Wall Street Journal ad slick. They talked about the new investment in ISV and advertising budget (300% increase in the advertising budget, which is a very good sign). I'll be very interested in seeing how the plans are implemented.

I'll try to mention anything that particular interest that I encounter.

If you're attending the Spring 2005 COMMON conference in Chicago, don't forget to stop by the MIDRANGE-L table at CUDS on Ask the Experts night. Put some faces to the email addresses.

Ask The Experts night will be ...

SUNDAY, March 13, 2005 from 8-10pm,
Crystal Ballroom B, Green Level-West Tower

Yours truly will be the 'expert' for MIDRANGE-L