Just after the middle of June I started a discussion on LinkedIn.com on the following topic:

How do we expand OpenVMS to new environments? How do we attract companies to use OpenVMS? How would you get more young people interested in this environment rather than Windows and *nix?

Click on the above headline to go to the discuss. You will have to join the OpenVMS Community Group on LinkedIn.com but you should find the comments and energy encouraging.

This has been a fairly successful discussion and has reach the point where we are starting to pull things together so we can establish goals and have an action plan and create some real improvements in the OpenVMS Community. This is a copy of a recent post on that discussion:

Like any significant endeavor this program has many different levels of interaction and complexity. Yes, this is a program, not a project. Multiple independent but inter-related projects within the effort as we move forward. Delineating these efforts and breaking them down will then aid us in focusing on moving forward.

I started trying to convince HP their implementation of OpenVMS Evangelism was not properly focused and as I have been pushing this for a while in the background I am willing to take the lead on this. I look to those with close, special relationships within HP and other companies to act as our liaisons and provide either introduction to right people or take on efforts to bring each entity into the fold as we move forward.

As Michelle has pointed out this is multi-leveled in terms of communication. Taking her breakdown and expanding on it:

  1. C level management and Board members
	- Primary Goal: name recognition for OpenVMS and its strengths

  2. IT management
	- Primary Goal: educate on why they should choose OpenVMS

  3. ISVs
	- Primary Goal: why they should develop and/or 
		support their products on OpenVMS

  4. Open Source Developers
	- Primary Goal: why they should include OpenVMS 
		as a supported platform / 
		benefits of native OpenVMS operation

  5. Practitioners / OpenVMS Enthusiasts
	- Primary Goal: education and resources 
		to be volunteer ambassadors

  6. Potential practitioners / OpenVMS Enthusiasts
	- Primary Goal: introduction to / hands on OpenVMS

  7. Students
	- Primary Goal: introduction to / 
		hands on OpenVMS / 
		lowering the average age of the OpenVMS Community 

That said we need to consider how we move forward with this effort. I have been discussing with some the idea of a need for a centralized site dedicated to OpenVMS that is accurate, up-to-date, thorough, and easy to navigate which presents the following:

	Applications
		Commercial
		Open Source
		Freeware
	Utilities
		Commercial
		Open Source
		Freeware
	Open Source tools to aid implementation/porting 
			of open source code to OpenVMS
	Services
	Training
	Consultants
	User stories - SUCCESS STORIES
	White Papers
		Performance
		TCO
		DR
		Best Practices
		WHY OpenVMS vs ...
	Platforms
	Licensing
	Marketing communications resources

In other words, create a site that runs entire gamut of what, where, how, who, why, when, why not, which of OpenVMS.

The site that seems to make the most sense as far as a starting point is OpenVMS.org. It already has a certain amount of name recognition and is a perfect starting point.

I am proposing a WIKI oriented approach here. Get the community involved QUICKLY. One difference is we need a mechanism so the owner of the product or service can CLAIM the page and lock it down. The owner can get involved and maintain this resource to most accurately and thoroughly reflect their product or service. ANYONE could go to this site and find out about applications or services on OpenVMS. I have looked at some wiki engines and currently think a good starting point is the TWIKI engine. It has a good structuring mechanism and many extensions/plugins and should be able to be enhanced to fulfill our requirements. Comments and suggestions are welcome.

This site then becomes a mechanism of communication and the focusing of the OpenVMS effort. There is nothing that says the wiki could not also be used to provide coordination on the project. Documentation and coordination are the basis of the wiki anyway.

With this first step we can then start getting an idea of how someone might configure a "base" environment for SMBs using OpenVMS as a foundation - tool for introduction into that spectrum.

We need to start developing the breakdown of how we work to accomplish each of the areas we have identified as areas needing focus. I do not see any specific tool needed here at present.

I would like to keep this as much out in the open as possible. I want to see the support of organizations such as HP Connect and the OpenVMS SIG but I also want to make sure we keep it easy for people to participate. Even LinkedIn.com is a bit of "club" but it offered a forum that was easy to use as a starting point and had a decent exposure. I have started a blog on my website: www.ccsscorp.com/VMSblog. I will cross post this entry as a start.

I personally am working on the education aspects of OpenVMS. More on what we are doing here as we move forward and finish some development and start some new initiatives.

Please keep involved and keep bringing the new, good, ideas to the table!

I started a discussion on LinkedIn.com recently where I asked others to explore how we could break down the barriers of adoption of VMS as an application platform. Some of the comments have been enlightening.

There has been the belief that VMS is in maintenance mode. This is far from the fact but is part of the FUD that needs to be dispelled to help all who support and depend on the VMS environment for their livelihood.

Another set of comments has focused on the lack of developer exposure to VMS while in college or other training. A fairly easy, but long term issue to resolve by once again pushing to get VMS in front of students. HP and its VMS predecessors have had the Educational Licensing Program in place for a long time - but not much marketing behind it to push to product into the arena. Many people are unaware of the this program.

Still more comments on the idea that VMS is just too good. No hordes of support and development personnel - unlike much of its competition. If this is the case then the managers of the organization are not pushing their pencils very effectively to see the TCO for VMS is generally lower than any other solution.

And of course then there is the application issue. VMS has been losing applications each time it has been migrated to a new platform. When Alpha was introduced fewer applications were there than on VAX. Now with the Itanium/Integrity platform fewer applications still. It is not that the migration of the applications should be difficult, it just that it appears management must think that the customers do not want the applications on the platform and then do not migrate them and they fall behind.

So, now the discussion needs to be how do we get more applications available on the platform - FAST?

I do not think I have the answer to this yet. If I did I would expect HP or others would be beating a path to my door. As we explore this I will report back. Or, better yet, go to the LinkedIn.com discussion and comment yourself.

VMS is too good of an environment to wither. More exposure by more people is one of the keys to moving it forward.

Spread the word.

Train the people.

Implement the solutions.

Over the last few months I have been engaged in support activities for new customers on VMS in areas remote from my offices here in the Southeast. These have been clients new to VMS but very familiar with their own business. They have needed a some specific help in various areas of VMS with which they are not experienced.

These new clients have been in Puerto Rico and Lebanon. Access to their sites have varied. We have initially used the client as our extended hands and eyes by communicating with email. This has had the effect of giving these new clients more confidence in knowing the commands and functions they are executing on their own systems. A more effort has been required my clients have enabled VPN connections for us to access the VMS environments as well.

This is not unlike work we have preformed for clients over the years. During the time of the Y2K "crisis" I was committed to spending time with my wife's family in England. So, I managed the Y2K transitions for a major client entirely from the Yorkshire area of the UK. This transition came off with a glitch - customer HAPPY!

Virtualization has been a function of my service offerings for many years - the Virtual System Administrator or Remote System Manager. This allows the client the flexibility of having me available at anytime, day or night and yet lets me spend time with my family or other clients as necessary.

VMS has been well suited for this remote/virtual administrative function since it was introduced. Little if any of the administration of the system must be done from the physical system console. Truly a great operating environment.

Well, back to work for a client someplace in the world.

Bill.

We are starting this blog to keep you informed of our efforts to push OpenVMS forward and out of the stagnant position it is in both within Hewlett Packard (HP) as well as in the world of IT in general.

The cry is NOT "VMS is dead, LONG LIVE VMS!" But more appropriately, LONG LIVE VMS! It is the BEST EVER!.

We want to emphasize that we are not part of HP, BUT we are strong supporters of VMS and want to see it succeed and grow as the best development and computing environment available for most any application - not just the business critical applications.

A bit about myself, Bill Pedersen. I am a self admitted "VMS Bigot". I have been around VMS since before it was released. NO, I was not part of the development team. I was customer in the mid-1970s when VMS was just being thought of and had minor input as far as requirements from a scientific prospective. I was at the University of Washington at the time in the Department of Oceanography and was the project manager for a "portable" computer system we used at see. Portable meant we had a computer room we built inside a 20 foot shipping container we loaded on the ship and took to see - PDP-11/45s and such.

When VMS was announced in San Diego at the Fall 1977 DECUS Conference I ported a user mode application while at the conference - Chess-11. Possibly the first user application ported to VMS.

Since then I have worked for DIGITAL, run my own consulting company with many customers, participated in several startups, run a Vermont Country Inn and many other things. I still PUSH VMS. I still work with it. I also work with other systems and environments but VMS IS the BEST!

You might note that I do not always say OpenVMS. Open is silent most of the time when I talk about this environment. I have been around it way to long to worry about the full name. And in ways think that the "Open" should be dropped. It has caused too much confusion along the way - complaints about people thinking VMS is open source - which is not - and therefore should be "cheap". Well, VMS is not cheap, it is not as expensive as it used to be but...

I look forward to many more contributions to this blog and also look forward to discussions with others as they comment on my blog and other activities I discuss.

Thanks!

Bill.