Work is already in full swing to help make sure that next year's UniForum Conference is better than ever, and that includes a recent planning session by the UniForum program committee on May 4-5 at Carmel Valley, CA. The committee members determine the content of each year's conference, basing their selection on what they feel are the most important issues and technologies of the day.
Although details about next year's plans are not yet available, members were optimistic going into the session about what they hoped to accomplish. "We've assembled an outstanding international group of people this year," says Richard Jaross, UniForum executive director. "The committee represents a broad spectrum of the industry: hardware and software developers, analysts, the press and end users." Jaross also points out that the committee is balanced between experienced and first-time members, ensuring a welcome diversity of viewpoints.
Each year, the program committee analyzes the previous year's conference in detail, discussing attendance patterns and the written comments provided by attendees after the sessions. Based on this information, they plan next year's track sessions, seminars and tutorials. This planning effort is an impressive challenge because, in effect, the committee has to predict what will be leading-edge technical issues almost a year in advance. However, it is a challenge that the members are well suited to handle. As David Bernstein, consultant and committee member, put it, "We have a lot of the people here who are inventing the future."
In addition to Jaross and Bernstein, attending committee members include Jeffrey Bartlett, executive editor, UniForum; James Bell, CEO of The Open Group; Kim Biel-Nielson of the Denmark Unix User Group; Andrew Binstock, editor-in-chief, Unix Review; Rebel Brown, president, Cognoscenti; Marie Burch, director of conferences, Softbank Comdex; Tsvi Gal, senior VP, Bank of America; Rob Gingell, VP, Sun Microsystems; Don Harbert, VP, Digital Equipment Corp.; Michael Harrington, systems administrator, Beth Israel Hospital; Phil Johnson, director of advanced operating environments, IDC; Derek Kaufman, middleware manager, Levi Strauss; Deborah Murray, conference manager, UniForum; Ted Prindle, director, open computing, Softbank Comdex; Dan Slavin, VP, Open Market; Richard Shippee, director of publications, UniForum; Cathie Smith, president, UUNorth International; and Tim Yeaton, director of strategic planning, Digital Equipment Corp.