A recap from OpenMPE's birthplace
August 8, 2005
A story in yesterday's Hagerstown, Maryland Herald-Mail recaps the OpenMPE journey that Jonathan Backus started. The article takes note of Backus' current post at the Volvo facility near Hagerstown — he works in IT there — but does a great summary of the work that he sparked starting in December, 2001. The feature writer Daniel J. Sernovitz gives Backus credit for helping many 3000 users:
Jonathan Backus may not be a household name, but the Hagerstown man helped to spark a movement that advocates for the rights of thousands of businesses and government agencies across the country.
There's also news from HP in the article, apparently. Sernovitz wrote that HP will make a decision about MPE/iX source "in the last quarter" of this year. HP has said "second half" of 2005, so the Herald-Mail's recap — which includes a quote from HP e3000 Business Manager Dave Wilde — seem to rule out any announcement during next week's OpenMPE meeting on Aug. 18.
OpenMPE will be at HP next Thursday to hear from the HP managers who are working on a post-2006 vision for the 3000 customers who'll still be using their systems in 2007 and beyond. That's going to be a virtual meeting as well as a live one, though details on the virtual attendance part of the meeting aren't available yet. If you're going to be in the Bay Area (probably Cupertino, at building 47, I'd bet) you can let OpenMPE board director Donna Garverick know if you'll be attending. Send her an e-mail with your RSVP at [email protected].