IIUG Insider (Issue #6)
July 26, 2002

Other Issues

Highlights: Board Elections, Early Bird IUC Going, New FourGen List, New UK Group, DataBlade & Data Director for Web Survey, and more...

Welcome to the International Informix Users Group (IIUG) Insider! It contains timely and relevant information for the IBM Informix community. You are receiving it because you are an IIUG member or a local Informix user group leader.

Contents:

1. IIUG Board Nominations Closed - Elections to Start
2. Informix User Conference: Early Bird Registration Going July 29
3. IDS Track Sessions at IUC 2002 Scintillate!
4. IIUG Director's Award Returns
5. IIUG Membership Referral Program Still Going Gang Busters
6. New FourGen IIUG SIG List Created
7. New UK Local Users Group Forming
8. Web DataBlade and Data Director for Web - User Survey
9. Useful Links
10. Closing and Credits

IIUG Board Nominations Closed - Elections to Start

The IIUG Nominating Committee is pleased to announce that nominations for the 2003 term of the IIUG Board of Directors election are now closed.

The slate of candidates will include IIUG leaders, men and women, from Australia, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America.

In order to facilitate your informed decision, candidate information will be posted by August 5 at:

http://www.iiug.org/members/Nominating_Committee.html.

Elections will be held on-line at the IIUG website from August 5th to 23rd, 2002 within the IIUG Member Area and the results will be announced at the IIUG Annual General Meeting, on 10 September 2002.

Informix User Conference: Early Bird Registration Going July 29

The Informix User Conference (IUC) early bird discount will terminate at the close of business on July 29, 2002. Do not miss this opportunity to obtain a total of US$250 off of the regular conference fee.

In order to take advantage of this special discount, enroll via the IBM Conferences web site at: http://ibm.com/training/conf/us/dm and follow these important steps:

If you have any questions about this offer please call 1-800-IBM-TEACH (1-800-426-8322), and select option #2 for conferences.

If you have already registered, you will need to call 1-800-IBM-TEACH BY 29 JULY, 2002 to get your $100 ADDITIONAL credit and refer to promotion code DA3.

To learn more about IIUG events and participation in IUC'02, please visit:

http://www.iiug.org/calendar/conference_corner.html#IUC.

IDS Track Sessions at IUC 2002 Scintillate!

Ok, so "scintillating" isn't exactly appropriate for a geeky conference, but it caught your eye and that's what we intended. The fact is that IUC will include over 40 IDS sessions, spanning four different tracks, and we couldn't let you miss that. Here are the highlights:

Database Design Track:

Applications Track:

Roadmaps Track:

Integrated Solutions track:

For a complete listing of all breakout sessions at IUC'02, including schedules, abstracts, and speakers, see

http://www.ibm.com/services/learning/conf/us/dm/db2_agenda_sessions.pdf

We sincerely hope to see you in Anaheim!!!

IIUG Director's Award Returns

The IIUG Board launched its Director's Award at last year's Annual General Meeting (AGM), recognizing Walt Hultgren, Lester Knutsen and Jonathan Leffler for going above and beyond the call of duty on behalf of the worldwide community of Informix users.

This year's awardees will be announced at the 2002 AGM, to take place on September 10 during the Informix User Conference, in Anaheim, California.

As it is now traditional, the AGM will also recount IIUG's prior year's successes, announce the Board election results and kick off the new IIUG President's term with his inaugural address.

IIUG Membership Referral Program Going Gang Busters

IIUG's membership referral drive, launched four weeks ago has already produced 164 new members! Gerd Kaluzinski, Michael Clark and Syed Kamal continue ahead of the pack.

Don't miss the opportunity to tell your friends about IIUG and win prizes. For more info, please see http://www.iiug.org/referral/.

New FourGen IIUG SIG List Created

IIUG is now hosting a FourGen SIG list [fourgen-list@iiug.org] with support from Gillani, Inc. To participate in the list, go to the IIUG Member Area by using your personal member link provided at the bottom of this Insider, click on the "subscribe" tab, and check the appropriate box to add yourself to the list.

FourGen was one of the original Informix Business Partners and ISV's dating back to the 80's. The software suite was comprised of FourGen Enterprise (Later Endura Enterprise), a complete end-to-end Supply Chain Management and ERP solution. Delivered via the web, the system provides advanced Order Management capabilities including eSCM (our Web OE, E-Commerce software), integrated with a comprehensive Inventory Management, Advanced Inventory Planning & Replenishment, Purchasing and Procurement and Financial Accounting functionality. The Endura Financial Management Software includes General, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Fixed Assets, Financial Report Writer, Budget Manager and Credit Manager functions. The FourGen CASE Tools, originally developed in 1983, converted to Informix-4GL in mid 80's, and bundled with Informix-4GL as "Forms" until 1996 by Informix Software, are the cornerstone of the MDB (Modifiability by Design) concept, and provide a rapid application development environment for industrial strength applications using Informix-4GL, Informix databases, and soon DB2.

Gillani, Inc. acquired the FourGen business in January of 2002 and is carrying on the support and development of the software under the brand name Endura iDistribute (with over 500 customers worldwide today), and keeping the brand name FourGen for the CASE Tools. For more information on Gillani, please visit http://www.gillani.com.

New UK Local Users Group Forming

On 17 July 2002, Neil Truby wrote the following in IIUG's Informix List, our member's gateway to comp.databases.informix:

Yesterday I attended a kick-off meeting for the formation, or reformation to be precise, of a UK-based Informix User Group.

Eight of us agreed to act on a Steering Committee, including some regular CDI contributors such as Paul Watson, Pankaj Patel, Keith Simmons, Ian Goddard and myself. David Linthwaite was elected as Acting Chairman/President, pending fuller elections to follow the inaugural meeting. Spokey Wheeler and Mel James are the other Steering Committee members.

Unlike previous incarnations, UK IUG (as the new group is to be known), will be open to INDIVIDUAL, rather than corporate membership. No subscription fees will be due: IBM have set aside a budget to support local Informix user groups.

It is the intention to arrange in inaugural meeting in October 2002: this day will take the form of a strategic presentation from an IBM representative, some technical presentations, and a Q&A session.

Hopefully this will result in a strong, active and representative Informix user group in the UK, which will help us present, our views to IBM, and be another valuable conduit in which information can flow the other way. So please do look out for mailing, both electronic and postal, giving details of the new group and its activities.

A UK-specific email address, uk@iiug.org, has been set up to which you may direct any queries or comments.

The IIUG Board is particularly pleased to assist in the reactivation of local user group activity in the United Kingdom. We wish the Steering Committee all the best and commit our full support to them.

Web DataBlade and Data Director for Web - User Survey

Here is another opportunity to make your voice heard loud and clear by IBM Management. Working with IBM product managers, IIUG has launched a survey on your experiences and needs with regard to the Web DataBlade and Data Director for Web.

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?

You can be certain that survey responses will be submitted to the appropriate managers within IBM and will be followed up on to track the specific actions taken on them. The identity of individual respondents will be protected, though, and only aggregate data will be shared with IBM.

The Web DataBlade and Data Director for Web survey is live now the IIUG website! Please click on the following link to access it:

http://www.iiug.org/cgi-bin/fglcl.cgi?datablade

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 14,000 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.