OpenMPE pays HP's bill to notch a milestone
July 13, 2010
It's been two months since I've written about OpenMPE's doings. There's been a good reason: the volunteers stopped doing anything since HP issued them a license to use MPE/iX source code. Writing about the potential for an organization gets stale after a few months.
Now there's news from these volunteers, however modest. They've paid the bill for that 3000 source code license they received in March. Group treasurer Matt Perdue called over the weekend to report he was sending the check for HP's invoice. Although OpenMPE has paid some bills out of its own coffers, they've been for the likes of tax preparation or website hosting. HP's bill ran somewhere in the neighborhood of five figures, though the group cannot report the exact amount.
Perdue said that "not very much of that payment was in bridge loans, either." The loans have been extended by Keith Wadsworth of Orbit Software and Birket Foster of MB Foster. The two volunteers represent the bookends of experience for this group that talked HP into making 3000 source available to independent companies. Foster's been on board since the start of the group. Wadsworth joined this spring.
Wadsworth and Foster have been at the tip of the spear to snag contributions from the 3000 community. Pivital Solutions and Abtech have contributed to the organization in recent months. Steve Suraci of Pivital served on the board until 2006, and Abtech's Jack Connor is a current board member.
The migrating HP 3000 shops could benefit from some new OpenMPE accomplishment. In one way, they already have -- since those source code licenses might help independent companies support customers in transition. Four support companies hold a license. One migrator after another reports using a third-party support contract while migrating a 3000. Migration is tricky and detailed work, even compared to Y2K projects. Doing it right takes time, and these independent support companies buy time for the migrators.
What we don't know yet is whether MPE/iX source will make any difference to the independent support companies. They can't even start to use it until January 1, 2011. Neither can OpenMPE, even though it has now paid for the code.
Paying HP's bill is one sort of milestone on the road to relevancy for OpenMPE. While it's a laudable step -- organizations that can't pay invoices cannot conduct business -- it's a modest beginning. (Another step came when HP paid OpenMPE in 2008 for consulting about operations to build an MPE/iX release.) When I last wrote about these volunteers, I said
Until this group shows off a business and operational plan for source, and publishes access to a Contributed Software Library portal, invent3K is the only resource the group might offer that you can't get elsewhere, either sold or supplied for free.
Let's be clear: Nobody's seen a business plan for OpenMPE yet. As for the CSL, it's a useful resource -- but not as useful as a repository of 3000-ready open source programs and utilities, something that Applied Technologies has been at work on since last fall. That's the same period of time since OpenMPE said invent3k was almost ready to go online. To be frank, such contributed software already exists online at allegro.com, at beechglen.com, and at 3k Associates' 3k.com. The CSL might not be a significant value anymore.
Unique value, supported by a business model in operation, is a crucial goal to make OpenMPE matter. Reading two months of board meeting minutes, it seems the group is examining what it can offer that the community can't already count upon. (In another note, volunteer Anne Howard resigned from OpenMPE last month. In addition to frustration over a lack of activity, resignations have been triggered by a lack of time, too.)
The programs and development environment of invent3k, the 3000 public access development server, are one such unique value which HP gave to the group, gratis. But invent3k is unlikely to generate much revenue -- at least not enough to make OpenMPE relevant to a community in transition. The MPE/iX source, now an asset at OpenMPE, could present a genuine resource to generate operating revenue. But only if independent source code holders, or individual companies, want to pay OpenMPE contractors to develop patches in a lab setting.
The group's treasurer said he believes that's going to happen, because he says few of the other source license holders want to operate a lab. That might be true because a lab isn't necessary. Beechglen, one of the best-represented support providers, has said that patches are not popular with 3000 managers. "Three things can happen when you apply a patch, and two of them are bad," said Beechglen's founder Mike Hornsby.
Two months ago I wrote an editorial that asked if it's go-time for this group -- time to go away, or time to go into business. Conference call meetings of May 13 and 27, and June 10 and 24, are about all that OpenMPE can show the community. Structure and mission look like they're being examined. But as of today, there's just that milestone check to HP to count for OpenMPE's business enterprises.