RE: Okay, here's some COMMON news

Great Reporting Bill.
 Thanks!

-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of William A. Hansen
Sent: Monday, September 18, 2006 11:49 AM
To: midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Okay, here's some COMMON news

One and all,

I can't believe the regular reporters are silent this morning.  It could
be because South Beach is more fun that they imagined.  I'm sitting in a
lab with nothing to do (only because I'm the instructor, and nobody has
any questions), so I'll give it a shot.

As far as I can tell, there were no IBM announcements.  They promised
not to change the name (at least while COMMON was still in session), but
there was nothing new at opening session.  IBM is helping fund the new
"i Society".  The best description I got was that it's not like iSeries
Nation because Trevor Perry and COMMON are in charge, not IBM.  See Tim
Morgan's article in today's IT Jungle for the details.
http://www.itjungle.com/tfh/tfh091806-story01.html

The big COMMON news is that they are replacing the fall session with
three days of all-day seminars.  (See you in Columbus!)  Together with
the expansion of the traveling 1-day seminars and the monthly webinars,
COMMON hopes to bring more intensive training out to the membership.
The COMMON web site has the official word (www.common.org).  Since many
members come to only one conference a year, there seems to be the
unspoken wish that everyone will attend the spring conference, letting
COMMON expand the number of sessions available.

I have not heard any comments for or against yet, but I look forward to
y'all's take on this.

Bill

William A. Hansen, Ph.D.
whansen@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Manta Technologies Inc.
office: 847-382-7189
cell: 847-528-2114