OpenMPE strives toward significance in second year

While customers await commitments, volunteer group steps toward first contract

OpenMPE, the HP 3000 user organization whose mission is to find a future beyond HP’s plans for the platform, plans work this fall on its first paid membership drive, a first step toward organizing an independent MPE/iX R&D lab. The actions come at a crucial time for the group and its constituency: customers who want business reasons to remain on their computer.

After more than 18 months of existence, the group remains something of an enigma to anxious customers. Talks and proposals with HP yielded one statement of HP’s intentions about MPE licenses for customers who use any 3000 emulator. HP has also responded to a list of needs from OpenMPE members and the 3000 community.

But for much of the customer base, OpenMPE’s promise remains unfulfilled. Because HP holds the rights to the MPE operating system, the group must operate at HP’s pace and within an HP culture that now eschews preliminary promises and commitments.

The lack of an OpenMPE business plan, in spite of the group’s success at getting a first draft of an MPE emulator license agreement, has put off some customers. “I haven’t seen OpenMPE presenting a business plan to the community, as they should have done many months ago,” said MPE Forum chairman Paul Edwards. “I currently don’t have any faith in their ability to do anything concrete, as shown by their lack of a firm program to date.”

John McDowell, Operations Manager for medical billing firm Quadax, feels the time has passed for OpenMPE to make a difference.

“We cannot wait to see if HP will make the necessary decisions to make OpenMPE a success,” McDowell said. “We have to move forward with our business. The OpenMPE movement was a gallant attempt, and I applaud everyone who contributed to it, but I believe that it has failed.”

Some measure of the customers’ disappointment may stem from the secrecy surrounding OpenMPE’s discussions with HP. The organization’s chairman Jon Backus said HP has demanded the group’s directors honor “a verbal non-disclosure agreement” about any talks concerning post-2006 licenses for MPE and source code agreements.

The lack of information has hurt the chances for any perception of success, according to one consultant.

“With protracted secret negotiations going on for years now between HP and OpenMPE, the credibility of both organizations suffer in my eyes,” said Cortlandt Wilson, a consultant in the 3000’s ERP sector. “We are still waiting. If the top people at HP don’t mind this state of affairs, then how can OpenMPE do better than it has up to now?”

During the last 12 months the group made the creation of an emulator that will mimic the HP 3000 hardware a top priority. Two companies are taking steps to create such products, but neither firm has relied on OpenMPE. Meanwhile, both customers and HP have realized the rights to the operating system, not replacement hardware, are more essential to customer survival. MPE and the IMAGE database are at the heart of the 3000 experience, they say.

“That’s the reason many of us want to continue to use MPE,” said one analyst who spoke on condition of anonymity. “The hardware it runs on is largely irrelevant at this point.”

The most essential goal, these customers say, is the right to improve MPE outside of HP’s labs. OpenMPE calls this resource a vLab, since it would be a collective of MPE experts operating from many locations. Customers say getting source code into a vLab is crucial.

“No source code means no-go,” said Wayne Boyer, a hardware broker and 3000 consultant. “Because OpenMPE was pushing for an emulator license, all the focus was there, and we are still trapped without future enhancements to MPE.”

Even HP has agreed that the vLab is the most important goal. Jeff Vance, the HP engineer who’s been the earliest and primary liaison with OpenMPE, said the vLab represents the future for OpenMPE — or any group dedicated to preserving the 3000’s ability to thrive.

“Getting some kind of vLab set up is the most crucial task for HP and OpenMPE, or whomever,” Vance said. “The lead time is long, and this is potentially more controversial inside HP, since there could be an issue with HP Support dollars shifting to this new lab prior to close of 2006.”

OpenMPE instituted a QuickPoll system since the HP World conference, and it points to results that show emulator work is still the top priority to those members taking the survey. But one customer doesn’t put a lot of faith in the Web-based results.

“These QuickPolls are about as valuable as OpenMPE,” said Tracy Pierce. “You can vote as many times as you like. People don’t seem to realize that HP’s really just trying to reduce the number of users before they’re forced to turn over all source code and other MPE tools.”

That comment reflects another level of customer concern: HP is moving slowly, they say, to ensure more customers move away from the 3000.

Peter Martin, IT Operations Manager with Initial Electronic Security, said his firm could not wait for HP to deliver its terms for helping homesteaders.

“Most big companies like mine with critical systems cannot sit on the fence and wait to see if MPE will survive,” Martin said. “We need to make plans now, and unfortunately they cannot include an ‘officially unsupported product.’ HP have dragged their heels long enough for most people to move on now. It’s just the homesteaders who need it by now.“

HP’s comments during the recent HP World showed company concerns about a third-party’s ability to take over MPE support, especially for customers who once looked to HP. But the shift of MPE support away from its creators won’t disturb one of the community’s software suppliers.

“Having MPE cared for by people other than HP doesn’t bother me particularly as a vendor,” said LARC Computing’s Martin Gorfinkel. “HP, at this point, gives no better service than other vendors.”

The care of MPE is a rising issue at OpenMPE, and chairman Backus first approached the subject with a plea for fundraising during the HP World meetings.

Backus told users at the latest HP World conference that a fundraising drive might determine whether OpenMPE’s mission matters enough for the group to survive. In the weeks since the August conference, however, meetings of the group’s board have yielded a goal of creating more infrastructure. HP, Backus said, now wants a document that shows how OpenMPE would organize an R&D lab.

“In conversations with HP, they keep coming back to, ‘Well, show me your design documents for the vLab,’ ” Backus reported. “They have concerns that [the vLab] is a real entity, and there’s sufficient depth of resources to make it work.”

He added that OpenMPE will sign a contract with an outside company — the candidates remain under wraps for now — which will create the document HP is demanding before it can release source code to the virtual lab.

The contract will be one of the first commitments from OpenMPE that won’t be met by volunteers. Backus and the other board members are not paid for their time in discussions with each other, or for the time in negotiations with HP’s Mike Paivinen, Vance or e3000 business manager Dave Wilde.

Backus said the OpenMPE board is stocked with veterans across significant disciplines, from lab management to large system administration to software release management — but the volunteer board has limited time to focus on a task as complex as designing a lab.

Backus said the group will start a discussion about the lab design contract over the Internet by late October, and put the project to a vote of its members in November. The design of the lab appears unlikely to complete before the end of 2003, the first few months since HP has ended the computer’s sales through its channels.

That end of sales date may spark some movement on the vendor’s part, according to one customer.

“HP always said they did what they did [with the 3000] for the customers’ own good,” said François Desrochers, a developer at Robelle Solutions Technology. “Now that there are only a few weeks to end of sales, it’s time for HP to let go. I still have some faint hope that, come 2004 or earlier, HP will announce that it’s setting MPE free.”