OpenMPE opens up community resource, former source server

By Ron Seybold

Chairman Birket Foster used about 20 minutes of the latest CAMUS user group meeting to update the OpenMPE membership offerings. Invent3k will be the first asset to generate money for the group, but access won’t cost much more than the free trial membership of 2010. In 2011, a $99 per year fee will get you access to working with Invent3k. (A DR version of the system runs at Measurement Specialties’ 3000 shop, managed by OpenMPE director Tracy Johnson.)

“You’ll have an Invent3k box where you can log on and develop and test things,” Foster said of the system maintained by The Support Group’s David Floyd and Johnson. “You can use it to train, so in your succession plan you can show a person how to log on and manage an HP 3000, without affecting your own production machine,” he offered as an example.

The server that’s up and running, with a fresh master password, came from HP’s labs by way of a Client Systems 3000 contribution. This Series 959 4-way arrived with HP’s name for it labeled on the rear access panel. The yellow sticker reads MPESOURC. Those eight letters — it’s an MPE system, after all, and is so limited to those characters — proves to TSG’s founder Terry Floyd that this is the HP Labs server where the 3000′s source code once lived and grew.

NOW HEAR THIS (a US Navy Term)

I’m Paul Edwards, and as a former member and treasurer of the OpenMPE Board of Directors (2003-2008), I have several major issues with the current BOD that are of great importance to the HP3000 user community. These issues are no business plan, incomplete tasks, no usable minutes, no treasurer’s report, no hope of future success, and lack of leadership.

A need for a comprehensive and realistic business plan was discussed in BOD meetings for years. None has been produced. A proper business plan is vital for the success of any real corporation. The OpenMPE organization is not a business corporation. There are no products, no employees, no corporate facility, or steady income stream. It is essentially a volunteer users group. The original advocacy purpose of the organization is now gone due to the abandonment of the HP3000 and any liaison to the group by Hewlett Packard.

Several major tasks undertaken by the group include acquiring the source code for the MPE/iX operating system, as well as providing an HP3000 server to host the Invent3k environment, the Contributed Software Library, and the Interex Conference Proceedings. A donated server hasn’t hosted the items listed above as promised by Matt Perdue several years ago.

New year, new board, new ideals

Thanks for looking into OpenMPE. We’re at work on a new mission to match the new world HP has created with its source code licenses. Our board volunteers have worked with HP since 2002 to make that resource a reality. We extend our best wishes and good luck to the other seven license holders around the world.

You’ll be seeing changes to the main OpenMPE Web site over the next several months. We want to focus on what is most useful to the community with what we offer. Most importantly, we are working to connect with HP 3000 users who rely on the system for the years to come.

Welcome to the new world. We’ll update you soon on what’s worthy of your exploration.