Number, Please: Finding the 3000 Set
February 5, 2016
When I started in this line of work in 1984, writing about the Hewlett-Packard community, I had a directory. Literally, a perfect-bound directory of HP staff that worked in the company headquarters and labs in California. HP shared it with me as HP Chronicle editor, updating it every year. When someone's number at HP came up missing, you'd call up company HQ and ask for the division operator. It was the 411 of the middle 1980s. It's obvious the 3000 world needs something similar today.
As it turns out, the community does have it. The most dynamic directory resource is the 3000-L, still in use this month to locate information about contacting experts. What makes it powerful is the wetware behind the bits. Knowing which of the 3000-L posters are customers, rather than consultants, is one example of the power of that wetware.
As the week began, Bob from Ideal Computer was searching for Brian Edminster, he of Applied Technologies. Bob slipped a message under the door of 3000-L, then got an answer back about a current email address. I followed up today, just to make sure Bob got something useful. Brian's on the lookout for consulting opportunities, as well as longer engagements.
Yesterday Al Nizzardini was seeking an email address for Vesoft. A couple of replies on the L misinformed Al that Vesoft doesn't use email. That might have been true 10 years ago, but the address [email protected] lands in the offices of Vladimir Volokh and his team. Vladimir far prefers to use the phone, but he's old-school enough to enjoy an in-person visit, too.
In another update, 3K Associates and Chris Bartram are now at 3kAssociates.com. Bartram, one of the very first of the 3000 community to set up shop in the Internet, sold his two-character domain name 3k.com for a tidy sum. "We continue to sell and support our entire like of HP 3000-based software products from 3kAssociates.com," he reported on the L.
The community is moving outward like a starburst, all getting older and ever more dispersed. But the 3000-L remains a good place to post a "number, please" request on how to find someone who knows the 3000. If you're like me and archive all those messages (more than 9,000 over the last 10 years), you can search your email client and find the latest communique from someone like Brian. Many of us don't include phone numbers in our email signatures, but the email is always there.
And if you don't have 10-plus years of emails archived, the server at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga does. It hosts the L, as it has for two decades, and you can search it via the Web.
If you're counting up such things, more than 450 people still subscribe to 3000-L today. There's also a directory of vendors and consultants here on the NewsWire site. If you're offering services or solutions to the community, I'd be glad to take down your number.