The X/Open Ltd European Unix standards organisation has formed user and independent software vendor councils which are intended to act as a public checking system on the group’s efforts. The main thrust of the two councils’ work will be to ensure that the Common Applications Environment is functional. To involve users further, the group will also be introducing a newsletter service and holding public seminars during 1988. The meeting procedures for the councils have not yet been worked out but the members have. The User Advisory Council members comprise senior executives from: Aetna Life and Casualty; British Airways; the Commission of the European Community (EEC Commission); the UK Central Computer and Telecommunications Agency, HM Treasury; Eastman-Kodak Corp; Lockheed Corp; Manufacture Pneumatique Michelin; National Bureau of Standards Institute for Computer Sciences and Technology; Shearson-Lehman Brothers; the Swedish Agency for Administrative Development; and the US Department of the Treasury. The Independent Software Advisory Council has all the major Unix-related software houses represented including: Cullinet Software; Foundation Computer Systems; Information Dimensions Europe Inc of Switzerland; Informix Software; Multihouse Systeemhuizen Gouda BV of the Netherlands; Oracle Software; Quadratron Corp; Relational Technology Inc; Softlab GmbH; Sybase; Unify Corp; and Uniplex (UK). And with the accession of Sun Microsystems Inc and NCR Corp, the membership of X/Open Ltd has now grown to 13.
