Seven days, 36 OpenMPE votes
February 20, 2007
After seven days of voting — which got off to a bit of a late start on Feb. 12, because of a Web snag — the 2007 election for OpenMPE board directors has delivered 36 ballots. Including mine, using my free membership to select who will brainstorm with HP about its HP 3000 endgame policies.
Five candidates are running for four open seats, so there's some mystery about who will continue to serve. The candidates are incumbents Chuck Ciesinski, Paul Edwards, Birket Foster and Alan Tibbetts.
Anne Howard, a 3000 veteran of the K-12 application business, has tossed her hat into the ring, too. You can vote at the OpenMPE.org site. Be sure to join as a member first. You need a membership number to cast a valid ballot.
The election runs for 13 more days including today. If you're inclined to compare turnout so far, after one week of voting last year we had 55 ballots on hand. The final count of 2006 ballots was 111, so the community has a good share of its turnout still in the hands of customers and members.
We think that HP's decision to revive licensing for the 3000s, at least for the upgrading customer, puts the future of the system in a new light -- and might give the community the idea that their server won't have an exit even within a couple of years. After all, a 3000 product did make its way onto the HP Corporate Price List.
But things can change, especially plans at a corporation of HP's size. It would be a good thing to have a committed OpenMPE board, ready to work if HP's estimate of its market exit is truly end of 2008. That is just 22 months away. Your vote matters in the coming two weeks.