Other Issues

Highlights: Board Elections, IDS 9.4 Beta, IUC Secrets, Wash DC Forum, Referrals Coming In, New FourGen List Errata, Informix Support News, IIUG Membership Records, and More...

Welcome to the International Informix Users Group (IIUG) Insider! It contains timely and relevant information for the IBM Informix community.

Contents:

1. IIUG Board Elections - Cast Your Vote by 23 August
2. IDS 9.40 Beta Program - Apply Now
3. Two Little-Known Facts About the Informix User Conference
4. DataBlade Survey - Influence Their Future By Responding Now
5. Washington Area Informix Users Group Forum 2002 - Wanted: Exhibitors
6. Refer Friends Using Informix Products to IIUG and Win!
7. New FourGen IIUG SIG List - Errata
8. IBM Announces: Informix Support Pages at Product Level
9. IIUG Membership Passes Milestones
10. IIUG Managing Director Announcement
11. Useful Links
12. Closing and Credits

2003 IIUG Board Elections - Cast Your Vote by 23 August!

We have already had exceptional turnout for the 2003 IIUG Board Elections. Thanks to all who took early interest and expressed their support for our candidates.

If you have not cast your online ballot yet, please do so by 23 August at http://www.iiug.org/members.

All candidates have provided a helpful yet short election address or biography that is found at http://www.iiug.org/members/election.

IDS 9.40 Beta Program - Apply Now!

IBM has informed IIUG that the opportunity to apply for the IBM Informix Dynamic Server (IDS) Version 9.40 Beta Program has arrived.

Reportedly, the IDS 9.40 release solves pain points for IDS 7 & IDS 9 customers by providing significant enhancements to OLTP features in the areas of scalability, security, SQL compatibility, performance and smooth upgrade. In addition the beta software will include new versions of IBM Informix Server Administrator (ISA) Version 1.5 as well as IBM Informix Client Software Development Kit (CSDK) Version 2.81.

IBM is looking for existing and committed IDS customers (7.x or 9.x) who have the ability to closely simulate production test environments during Beta.

The IDS 9.40 Beta Program is targeted to start 7 October 2002 and end mid-January 2003. IBM IDS customers applying to join this program must be committed to having their hardware ready for beta testing by early October 2002.

To request a beta application form, please send the following information to Tess Wong (tess.wong@us.ibm.com) and Helene Tur (turh@us.ibm.com) by 16 August: Company Name, Contact Name, Phone Number, Email, OS/Platform, Current IDS Version, and Account Manager Name.

Two Little-Known Facts About the Informix User Conference

Little-Known Fact #1: This year's Informix User Conference (IUC) is actually part of the overall IBM Data Management Technical Conference, which also includes the IBM DB2 & Business Intelligence (BI) Conference. This framework provides a big advantage for all IUC attendees -- when you register for IUC, you can attend all of the IUC sessions you wish, PLUS you can also attend any DB2/BI sessions that you would like, even if you opt for the less expensive 3-day registration option.

Little-Known Fact #2: You can earn your IBM Informix Certification at IUC'02 - FREE OF CHARGE! The following Informix Certification exams will be offered at no cost during the conference:

IUC attendees can take all of the certification exams that they need and/or want. Please note that normal examination retake rules will still apply.

Since the testing timeslots can fill up fast, be sure to register and schedule your exam(s) as soon as possible. For more information on the certification testing at the conference, see:
http://www-3.ibm.com/services/learning/conf/us/dm/certification.html.

The Informix User Conference for 2002 (IUC'02) will be held at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California, USA, on 9-13 September, 2002. For more info, see:
http://www.iiug.org/calendar/conferences_corner.html.

If you missed the Early Bird discount for the Informix User Conference 2002, you can still get a special US$150 discount by joining the conference as an IIUG member. If you haven't already joined the IIUG (for free!), you now have one more reason to subscribe and get all the other benefits of IIUG membership.

See you in Anaheim!

DataBlade Survey - Influence Their Future By Responding Now

The survey has several specific questions on how you use the current products, and on features and platforms you consider important. It also offers open feedback questions to allow you to help shape the future of these products and tell IBM what features you would like to see in the versions yet to be developed and released?

The Web DataBlade and Data Director for Web survey is live now at the IIUG website but will close 15 August! Please click on the following link to access it: http://www.iiug.org/cgi-bin/fglcl.cgi?datablade.

Washington Area Informix Users Group Forum 2002 - Wanted: Exhibitors

A Two-Day User Group Technical Conference
Friday and Saturday, 8-9 November 2002

The Washington (DC) Area Informix Users Group (WAIUG) is inviting companies with products of interest to the IBM Informix users to participate as an exhibitor or sponsor at the major event for IBM- Informix users on the east coast for the year 2002.

Forum 2002 is a two-day user group technical conference hosted by the Washington, Boston, and Atlanta Informix users groups, representing the largest concentration of Informix users in the world.

Forum 2002 will have vendor exhibits and over 20 speakers and technical tutorials on web-database implementations, data warehouses, OLTP systems, and DBA tips and tools. Invitations are being sent to all members of the three user groups, and to over 5,000 individuals that use IBM-Informix database products.

This is WAIUG's fifth user group technical forum. Past forums have enjoyed excellent turnout, averaging over 250 attendees. An exhibitor at the last forum reported they meet more qualified prospects in the first hour than at other similar type events.

Visit http://www.iiug.org/waiug/present to view information about previous events. For more information, please call Andrea Knutsen, Exhibit Coordinator, at 703-256-0267 x110, or email her at andrea@advancedatatools.com.

Refer Friends Using Informix Products to IIUG and Win!

IIUG's membership referral drive, launched four weeks ago, has already produced 240 new members! Gerd Kaluzinski, Michael Clark and Syed Kamal have remained ahead of the pack, but are now closely followed by Jean Georges Perrin.

Don't miss the opportunity to tell your friends about IIUG and win prizes. This is their opportunity to join the most influential group of Informix users.

For more info, please see http://www.iiug.org/referral/.

New FourGen IIUG SIG List - Errata

The IIUG regrets that in the July 26 Insider issue, the article titled "New FourGen IIUG SIG List Created" contained inaccuracies and omissions and implied that Gillani, Inc. is the only company that has acquired rights to market the products introduced by FourGen, Inc. IIUG has now learned that Fourth Generation Software Solutions Corp. (www.fourthgeneration.com), among others, also acquired certain non-exclusive rights from FourGen, Inc. to their Business Accounting Series and CASE Tool in 1995 and have been supplying their updated versions of this technology marketed under the name Fourth Generation for the past 7 years.

We welcome Fourth Generation as an active participant in the IIUG FourGen SIG list and welcome other vendor companies in a similar situation to participate as well.

Subscriptions to the IIUG SIG lists are restricted to individuals who are members of IIUG. To become a member, please visit http://www.iiug.org/join.

IBM Announces: Informix Support Pages at Product Level

IBM recently announced the launch of Informix product support pages at a product level. Excerpts of the release follow:

"We are pleased to announce that online support for IBM Informix products is now available from the IBM support site as with all other IBM products. Although the URL and the names of some resources now found at http://www.ibm.com/software/data/informix/support/ have changed, we are committed to continuing to provide you with valuable and effective on-line support resources for your IBM Informix products."

"The next time you require on-line technical support, please direct your browser to http://www.ibm.com/software/data/informix/support. Select your IBM Informix product from the listing."

For more information, look for the complete announcement within the IIUG home page highlights.

IIUG Membership Passes Milestones

IIUG reached two membership milestones at the end of July:

1. IIUG has grown to more than 8,000 active members and 15,000 registrations on file with significant and continued worldwide growth.
2. Participation in the various SIG e-mail lists hosted by IIUG also reached new records, exceeding 3,300 messages and exceeding 5,200 subscribers for the first time ever.

These milestones show that the IIUG worldwide community remains engaged and committed to Informix technology and that their voice is getting stronger in shaping the present and the future of their favorite database software products.

IIUG Managing Director Position Announced

This past summer, in accordance with the powers vested on the IIUG Board of Directors by the IIUG Charter and Bylaws, a new office was created called IIUG Managing Director, to be staffed by Fred Hubbard.

Fred currently performs both the President and Managing Director duties and will continue to do so until the next IIUG Annual General Meeting that will take place on 10 September during the Informix User Conference. At that time his presidential duties will be transferred to the IIUG President Elect, Jerry Hamilton. Fred will continue to serve in the position of IIUG Managing Director.

The IIUG Managing Director will serve at the will of the IIUG Board of Directors and will be given direction through the IIUG President. Functions of the Managing Director include, but are not restricted to, the following: To supplement the IIUG Board of Directors with working capacity that IBM has made available; to direct the operations of any contractors as mandated by the IIUG President; to serve as the primary editor for written public content; to continue expanding the IIUG's visibility and promoting IIUG around the world; to maintain and create relationships that benefit the IIUG; to provide marketing and business guidance to IIUG, thereby helping the Organization function more fluently throughout the year.

The responsibilities of the IIUG President will continue as defined in IIUG's Charter and Bylaws. Those responsibilities include: Acting as chief spokesman for the IIUG; chairing the Board of Directors, the Informix User Group Leadership Council the IIUG Advisory Council and the general elections of the IIUG; and creating and overseeing any committee needed to run the Organization. The IIUG President will continue to oversee the operation of the Organization on both a general and a day-to-day level.

Useful Links

• Upcoming IBM US Conferences
• Informix Page Within IBM PartnerWorld for Developers
• IBM Informix Homepage
• Recent Data Management Product Announcements
• Informix News from IBM Data Management

Closing and Credits

The International Informix Users Group (IIUG) is an organization designed to enhance communications between IBM and its worldwide user community. IIUG now exceeds 15,000 members and enjoys the support and commitment of IBM's Data Management division. Key programs include local user groups and special interest groups, which we promote and assist from launch through growth.

Sources: IIUG Board of Directors
Editors: Fred Hubbard and David Smith, IIUG Board of Directors

For comments, please send an email to ug@iiug.org.