Re: COMMON Attendance (was: COMMON Focus was: SQL Finding & Using)

Listers...

Since I sit on the CaN with Trevor (yikes!), I'll add my 2 cents as well. Common is so much more than the Focus and Spring Conference events and I guess that is why I don't get too wrapped up in all the dollars, cents and headcount issues. What Common (and iSociety for that matter) is about is providing a community infrastructure to encourage support and growth of System i professionals. That includes offering conferences, web casts, articles, and the like, but Common is also trying to build up the community as well. My particular part of that is to renew some interest in Common's support of LUGs, industry SIGs, the YIPs and ISV's. The Common CaN is a way to focus on the community aspects of being a System i professional. Other parts of Common focus on Education and Professional Development. So, when I see Common compared to other technical content providers, its and apples and oranges things. You can't really adequately compare a group that prepares and presents technical conferences for profit to a non-profit community oriented organization like Common.

Is the general "midrange" community smaller than it was 15 years ago? Yes. But in some respects a small community could be a more solid one. Would we all (System i users collectively) like to see a bigger community of users? Yes. But, most importantly, there are some very dedicated folks out there that want to see this community be as "healthy" as possible, regardless of size. It goes way beyond dollars.

Pete Helgren


Don wrote:

Al,

Uh, anyone they can slap a badge on is included in that "total" number...

COMMON used to post the weekly totals by demographic group for the 13 or so
weeks leading up to the conference. Several of us had some REALLY GOOD
models of predicting the totally PAID (aka REAL REGISTRATION) numbers at
about 5 weeks out...and you're right the numbers are slipping, so COMMON
moved to thinking in terms of Dollars...since there's more or less of a
linear relationship and I doubt the relationships in the product mix have
changed, you could perhaps retro a model with some degree of accuracy, but
nobody really cares anymore... It's sad that COMMON hides the real numbers
especially trends before conference as people used to use those numbers to
figure out how much stuff to bring for conference in terms of expo etc...

You're right on IBM dropping the ball...but then, you have to ask yourself,
when looking at the longer term trends and avoidances, was it intentional or
not...and if it's not intentional any more, is it too late to change.

Don in DC

-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Al Barsa
Sent: Saturday, September 22, 2007 2:31 PM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: COMMON Attendance (was: COMMON Focus was: SQL Finding & Using)


In all seriousness, they are known to someone. COMMON announces total
attendance which includes:

o Paid Attendees
o Complementary attendees (such as myself by virtue of having "speaker
credits")
o Expo Vendors
o IBMers
o Spouses

I too would like to know the number of paid attendees, but it is kept a
secret. I suspect that System i classroom education (i.e.: COMMON and
various other venues) is dropping because of many factors:

o The platform is less strategic to the general public as IBM has been
milking profit off it for decades.
o EBCDIC computing is no longer taught in schools. When I graduated
from RPI (Troy, NY) in 1975, I was well schooled in S/360, and was in a
good position to evaluate the System/38 as strategic technology in 1978
when I tripped across it. RPI no longer teaches EBCDIC computing. When I
asked the dean of the school of science about that his precise words were:
"Why would you ever want to know about that, you'd have to be IBM to use
it."
o Today, the correct spelling of "strategic" is "w i n d o z e".

It's a sad state of affairs, and unfortunately IBM gets the blame.

Al

Al Barsa, Jr.
Barsa Consulting Group, LLC

400>390

"i" comes before "p", "x" and "z"
e gads

Our system's had more names than Elizabeth Taylor!

914-251-1234
914-251-9406 fax

http://www.barsaconsulting.com
http://www.taatool.com
http://www.as400connection.com



Vernon Hamberg <vhamberg@comcast .net> To Sent by: Midrange Systems Technical midrange-l-bounce Discussion s@xxxxxxxxxxxx <midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx> cc 09/22/2007 02:17 Subject PM Re: COMMON Focus was: SQL Finding & Using Please respond to Midrange Systems Technical Discussion <midrange-l@midra nge.com>



LOL Al

That means they might be known to NO one!

Vern

At 01:09 PM 9/22/2007, you wrote:

The "paid attendance" numbers from Common are more widely known that the
location of Osama.

Al

Al Barsa, Jr.
Barsa Consulting Group, LLC

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