Insider #55: IIUG news, IIUG Conference, XPS 8.5, II, Derby & More...

IIUG Insider (Issue #55) January 2005 Highlights: IIUG news, IIUG Conference, XPS 8.5, II, Derby & More... Online at http://www.iiug.org/news/insider.html ================================================================ Welcome to the International Informix Users Group (IIUG) Insider! Designed for IIUG members and Informix user group leaders, this publication contains timely and relevant information for the IBM Informix community. ================================================================ Contents: ================================================================ * Editorial... * IIUG - The Board * IIUG - IIUG Informix Yellow Pages Program and IIUG Sponsorship Program Update * IIUG - The Board's in the Keys! * IIUG Conference - Latest News on the Greatest Education Event of the Year... * Sponsored Event - Supercharge Your Informix Database with the CopperEye DataBlade * Event - Benelux' next meeting (Brussels, Belgium) * Event - IBM Information Management 2005 Conference (Vienna, Austria) * Event - Global WebSphere Community Meeting Calendar * Breaking News - IBM Offers Free Access to Selected DB Patents * Product News - DB2 Information Integrator is now WebSphere Information Integrator * Product News - XPS 8.50.UC1 is now GA! * Service Offerings - Software Acquisition and Channels (SWAC) lead generation program * Service Offerings - 5 Minute Briefing * Developer Corner - Develop Apache Derby applications in Eclipse, from DeveloperWorks * Useful Links * Closing and Credits ================================================================ Editorial... ================================================================ Welcome to 2005! On behalf of the board, I wanted to be the last one to send our best wishes for 2005. Speaking of wishes, what would we, as Informix users, wish for... The Death of Oracle? No, I think they'll manage to do that by themselves. The failure of SQL Server? It runs on Windows, so you first should make sure Windows runs. Anyway, that's negative and I am not a pessimistic lad. Here is my wish list... I wish for a new engine for DBAs, with plenty of new state-of-the-art features. For developers, I wish for exciting new connectivity products and easier-to-use tools. For all, I wish for more coverage, advertising, less videos with Stuart (hey I am certainly as cute as he is!), lots of] help for business partners (no, seriously, no one specific in mind). I also wish for a new editor in chief for the Insider. It has been a real pleasure serving you, chatting with some of you. My work constraints make it difficult to continue working with the Insider on a so-regular basis. I will take that time to work on two other projects (if I have board approval). I would like to thanks friends like Fred for pushing me into the Insider business and Stuart for his natural tolerance and kindness. During this year, the Insider has become monthly, a little more sarcastic, more impertinent, a little more technical, and open to vendors. Well, a little bit more "French". This was my goal and I achieved it (you may however not like it). Tell the team about all you wish for (and don't) at enews@iiug.org. Gary Ben-Israel is going to be the new editor in chief starting in February. Anyway, in this issue, plenty of news on products, services... News of our exciting conference in Denver! Be sure to be there, we have high quality speakers with high quality topics! More than 100 proposals for the 40 we needed! Even I was rejected and I am on a waiting list - this is surely a good sign of quality... Thanks again Cindy ;-). Sincerely, thanks to all for your continuous support! Ce n'est qu'un au revoir... Jean Georges Perrin Editor ================================================================ IIUG - The Board ================================================================ No, there is absolutely no connection with the "Borg" in Star Trek, however, we have assimilated 3 new people: Kate, David & Carolyn. The board has a new IBM nominee in the person of Carolyn Woods. Carolyn Woods joined Informix in 1996 as a services marketing specialist in Informix Customer Services. She managed the worldwide services marketing team at Informix until the acquisition by IBM in 2001. At IBM, Carolyn has had communications and operations roles in the Information Management Customer Support & Services team. After 8 years in the support and services organization, Carolyn left to join the Information Management marketing team in late 2004 as the marketing manager for Informix in SMB and channels. Carolyn lives in Phoenix, Arizona. 2005 board is composed of: * Gary Ben-Israel * Ron M. Flannery * David Fraser * Sam Gentsch * June Hunt * Mark Isepponi * Cindy Lichtenauer * Stuart Litel * Jean Georges Perrin * Mark Scranton * Kate Tomchik * Carlolyn Woods ================================================================ IIUG - IIUG Informix Yellow Pages Program and IIUG Sponsorship Program Update ================================================================ These programs were introduced with the last issue of the Insider (December 2004) and, we are pleased to report, they are coming along well. You may have already noticed some changes to the IIUG site related to these new programs. We have moved the site sponsors to the upper right of the main page and have added an icon to access the IIUG Informix Yellow Pages. We have also added several new links under 'IIUG'. The IIUG Informix Yellow Pages is a service that allows IIUG members an easy way to find companies that provide Informix-related products and services. The service is available at no charge, and members may search for listings by O/S platform, Informix product base, and/or through the use of keywords to find a specific type of service, geography, and more. We already have 11 products and services listed, representing 8 companies. If you would like to have your company included in these listings, see http://www.iiug.org/yellowpages for more information and to submit an application. You may also access this area by selecting the new 'IIUG Informix Yellow Pages Program' link under 'IIUG' from the main page. The IIUG Sponsorship program is also now in full swing. In addition to IBM, Advanced Data Tools, and Four J's, our site sponsors, CopperEye and Kazer are already active Gold sponsors. One of our first events was the recent notification of the CopperEye webinar. We have applications from four other companies and will be continuing to add to our sponsors list. Please see http://www.iiug.org/community/sponsors.html to keep up on those companies who are sponsoring the IIUG. You may also find the list by selecting the new 'IIUG Sponsors' link under 'Community' from the main page. Along with notification of webinars, you will be getting news about our sponsors with future editions of the Insider. Our Gold sponsors will also be highlighted on the IIUG main page. For more information about the sponsorship program or to submit an application, please see: http://www.iiug.org/sponsor. You may also access this area by selecting the new 'Sponsor Program' link under 'IIUG' from the main page. ================================================================ IIUG - The Board's in the Keys! ================================================================ The IIUG board is c