OpenMPE fills board with 3000 veterans

Organization works on non-profit status while HP studies source code prospects

Founders of the group dedicated to preserving the life of MPE beyond HP’s plans formed an elected a board of directors last month, with HP permitting one of its top engineers to take a board seat as well.

HP’s Jeff Vance was named in a write-in ballot conducted over the Internet, joining eight directors who were nominated and then voted in during a one-week process in early January. Jon Backus, the newly elected board chairman of the organization, reported that once Vance was named on more ballots than any other HP staffer, he had to get HP to approve his involvement in OpenMPE, Inc. before he could accept the board seat.

“He spoke with his management at HP to make sure it was acceptable,” Backus said. “He said they were ‘supportive of him being on the board.’ While this should not be construed as a commitment of any type from HP for the OpenMPE movement or any other type of effort to extend the life of MPE, it is a display that HP is willing to explore the options.”

HP gave more indication that OpenMPE is in its planning process during its latest customer Webcast. R&D manager Dave Wilde of the HP 3000 division said that HP has “pruned” out the suggestions of selling the division in total or making MPE a fully Open Sourced project. But OpenMPE has taken a place on the HP radar screen while it determines how it can help the operating system’s customers who choose to stay on the platform.

“We’re interested in working with specific partners about what alternatives would best serve the needs of our customer,” Wilde said in reply to a question about the status of OpenMPE. “And OpenMPE is one of the groups that we’re continuing to work with and discuss with. One of our architects is on the recently formed board of directors for that group, and we are continuing to work with the OpenMPE group to understand its proposals and suggestions. We’ll be considering that as one of the ways that we’ll be working to meet the needs of our customers.”

The board elected officers in its first meeting during January, naming M.B. Foster Associates’ founder Birket Foster — who’s also the chair of the Interex SIGSoftvend utility software vendors group — as vice-chairman. Mark Klein, president of consultancy DIS International and recent Vice President of Technology at Orbit Software, was named treasurer, and programmer/analyst Ted Ashton of Southern Adventist University was named secretary.

Other members serving on the board include John Marrah, president of application vendor Ecometry; Chris Miller, president of application vendor Genesis Total Solutions; Christian Lheureux of French vendor APPIC; and Ken Sletten, chairman of the SIG-IMAGE/SQL special interest group.

Backus said the group is working on a number of fronts in its first month of existence, with a primary goal of getting 501-C non-profit status from the US Internal Revenue Service. Gaining the status would make contributions to OpenMPE tax-deductible, Backus said. The group is to be organized like a mutual insurance company, where the insured group would be MPE customers who pay on policies for support and enhancement services from OpenMPE, Inc.

“Customers won’t automatically be part owners going forward,” Backus said. “Making money to cover expenses is very important, even though we are seeking non-profit status. To become a part owner in the company, there will be opportunities for end-users to purchase user policies, and vendors to purchase vendor policies.”

Backus said the policies are support agreements and license agreements that entitle users to updates and patches for the operating system. A vendor policy would deliver developer access to the OpenMPE labs, a group of technicians which would be managed by OpenMPE.