New Endeavor hopes to create community
February 8, 2008
In our podcast (5 minutes, 5 MB) for a February weekend, we look at election season and the alliance of three HP user groups. There's good reason to join forces in 2008, but the benefits might extend to more than just a louder, more representative voice to Hewlett-Packard. Take five minutes to listen to our podcast and hear what the alliance wants to do — maybe for you.
HP always wanted a single group to talk with and listen to, and the new alliance — which might be called Endeavor — wants to leave nobody out of the bigger picture. Encompass president Nina Buik even said the new group could advocate for the 3000 homesteader. There's interim homesteaders, like the customers who won't migrate until 2013, and the permanent ones. Endeavor wants to help both. It's a good reason to join this now-free group, even if you're part of the 3000 community whose voice is fading in HP's ears.
On Monday we'll survey the field for another election, the OpenMPE board of directors. That group of volunteers has survived six years on virtually no budget and plenty of roadkill. A larger user group needs to encompass, as it were, what OpenMPE has been seeking for some time. Licensing HP's source code, or just being able to patch it, is a good mission for the new Endeavor.