Easy400 CGIDEV2 - Your action required

To all of you users and advocates of CGIDEV2:


Below is an email that was forwarded to the COMMON Board of Directors by
Charlie Massoglia.  Please read it, and if you are a user of CGIDEV2,
please consider submitting a letter to IBM in support of making this
incredibly useful tool Open Source.

Also, if you frequent other discussion lists, please consider posting
this note to those lists for wider distribution.  If enough people feel
passionately about making CGIDEV2 open source, and express that passion
_THIS_ _WEEK_,   I'm sure it will gain the attention of IBM.


Thank You,

jte


--
John Earl | Chief Technology Officer
The PowerTech Group
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Seattle, WA 98032
(253) 872-7788 ext. 302
john.earl@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
www.powertech.com 
 

 
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> ----- Forwarded by Charlie Massoglia/COMMON on 07/20/2005
> 11:49 AM -----
> 
>              "Charlie
>              Massoglia"
> 
>              07/20/2005 11:40
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Giovanni B.  Perotti
> To: Charles Massoglia
> Sent: Wednesday, July 20, 2005 12:39 AM
> Subject: Easy400 CGIDEV2 - Yr action required
> 
> 
> 
>        Easy400 CGIDEV2 - Your action is required
> 
>        Dear Charles Massoglia,
> 
>        if you, as as subscriber of the IBM Easy400 site
> www-922.ibm.com
>        ever used CGIDEV2, you know for sure that this free
> software is the
>        best gem ever distributed by IBM to encourage RPG
> programmers in
>        developing iSeries WEB sites at no learning cost
> and with minimum
>        hardware requirements.
> 
>        CGIDEV was developed by Mel Rothman in 1996,
> enhanced by him to
>        CGIDEV2 in 1999 when he was working for the IBM
> Custom Technology
>        Center in IBM Rochester, MN.
> 
>        I discovered CGIDEV in 1997, rated it as a pure
> diamond, and
>        established an IBM site, named Easy400, intended to
> inform the
>        public about the value of the tool, through
> demonstrations,
>        tutorials, and examples.
> 
>        Once CGIDEV2 was available, I convinced IBM
> Rochester CTC
>        management to let me distribute it at no charge
> through my site.
> 
>        Mel Rothman, though he retired a couple of years
> ago, continued  to
>        provide support, fiexes and enhancements, which I
> cared to be  made
>        available through the IBM Easy400 site.
> 
>        The success of this piece of software, CGIDEV2, has
> been  extremely
>        high.
> 
>        More than 30 articles, most in english language and
> in italian  have
>        been published in the last five years. Some were
> stressing its
>        easy-of-use and performance, other were providing
> fine professional
>        guides.
> 
>        As to the number of iSeries WEB sites implemented
> through  CGIDEV2,
>        I have no precise figure, though my educated guess
> -  considering
>        that the site has currently exceeded 17 thousand
> subscribers from
>        126 countries, that a number of developers have
> provided fine
>        testimonials, and occasional news have reached me
> by  e-mail - is
>        that at least 3 thousand iSeries (AS/400) WEB sites
> have  ben
>        established through CGIDEV2.
> 
>        Let us now come to the sad part of the story.
> 
>        One month ago it was my turn to retire.
>        Knowing that IBM would  not let me any longer
> maintain the IBM
>        Easy400 site, I have  established my own new
> Easy400 site
>        www.easy400.net where I  plan to provide futher
> software
>        deliverables at no charge.
> 
>        I did then ask the owner of CGIDEV2, the IBM CTC
> Rochester, to  let
>        me redistribute CGIDEV2 from my site, in order to
> provide future
>        maintenance and enhancements. After consulting with
> the IBM lawyer,
>        the answer was negative, the rationale being that
> IBM would not give
>        away its code, even when - as the case is - no IBM
> resources have
>        been made available for supporting it any further.
> 
>        I believe that such position is totally
> irrespective of the  iSeries
>        and AS/400 customers needs all over the world. I
> know a  large
>        number of parties that develop WEB applications for
> small  customer
>        who cannot afford the huge hardware requirements
> needed to  run
>        WebSphere with a reasonable response time. These
> parties would  have
>        rather migrated to Microsoft, but their decisions
> were stopped  by
>        CGIDEV2 availability and support.
> 
>        So what?
>        If you are an active CGIDEV2 developer, the time
> has  come for you
>        to stand up and tell IBM that CGIDEV2 deserves
> better attention
>        than paid from IBM so far and must become Open
> Source. In this way
>        Mel Rothman may continue ehnacing the code  and
> have it distributed
>        through my new non-IBM Easy400 site.
> 
>        What should you do.
>        Write a short letter telling the  advantages
> CGIDEV2 has given to
>        you, and asking for its  classification as Open
> Source.
> 
>           Address it to the IBM World Wide iSeries
> Marketing  Vicepresident
>           Peter Bingaman, bingaman@xxxxxxxxxx
>           Copy it to the Manager of the IBM Rochester CTC
> Center,  Richard
>           Ross, rbross@xxxxxxxxxx
>           Do not forget to add a blank copy for me,
> Giovanni B. Perotti,
>           gb_perotti@xxxxxxxxxxx
> 
>        If a few hundred letters hit the  target in the
> next two days, IBM
>        will have material for  reconsidering its position.
> 
>        Dear Charles Massoglia, your active contribution
> for defending  the
>        iSeries community is required NOW!
> 
>        Thanks indeed,
> 
>        Giovanni B. Perotti,
>        the man who made CGIDEV2 run around  the word
>        gb_perotti@xxxxxxxxxxx