Okay, here's some COMMON news

["William A. Hansen" <whansen@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

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