Question for net.views column in UNIX Today!

[icl.co.nz!malcolm at uunet.UU.NET]

In article <1991Mar01.203755.16915 at utoday.com> you write:
>Will user organizations ever be effective in steering open systems?
>
>
I see, still debating whether they tail can wag the dog are we? :-|

I think that some of the large user organisations e.g. Boeing, General
Motors, Eastman-Kodak, McDonnell Douglas, etc are having a significant
impact on the direction of Open Systems.  X/Open has a user council 
with some 29 organisations represented.  Also both UNIX International
and OSF have user representation.  However, offhand I can't give 
specific examples of how users have influenced these organsations
processes.

Ultimately, it is the ordinary user who votes for Open Systems with 
his/her chequebook. The reasons they do so may have nothing to do with 
the principles of Open Systems (i.e. lower cost)  but none-the-less
their purchases have a valid effect on the momentum of Open Systems.

User still have a choice between proprietary and open and the fact
that open is gaining market share speaks for itself.

In the final analysis, I believe that the move towards Open Systems is
a complex interplay between users and vendors.  It is impossible
to isolate the influence of one without considering the other, and 
without both we simply would not have Open Systems.

-- 
Malcolm Stayner - Open System Consultant             Email: malcolm at icl.co.nz
ICL New Zealand Ltd, P.O. Box 394, Wellington, N.Z.      Tel: +64 (4) 724-884
"Intelligence is silence, truth is being invisible,      Fax: +64 (4) 726-737
but what a racket I make in declaring this" NED ROREM
---
Malcolm Stayner - Open System Consultant             Email: malcolm at icl.co.nz
ICL New Zealand Ltd, P.O. Box 394, Wellington, N.Z.      Tel: +64 (4) 724-884
"Intelligence is silence, truth is being invisible,      Fax: +64 (4) 726-737
but what a racket I make in declaring this" NED ROREM