Open systems consolidation appeared to inch forward last week as X/Open Co Ltd and the Open Software Foundation formed the Open Group to streamline their respective specification and technology development processes. On the other hand, it could just turn out to be another layer of bureaucracy. Until a president and chief executive is hired, little change is expected in either X/Open’s or the Software Foundation’s activities, although their user and marketing operations will be consolidated immediately. While X/Open attributed Open Group’s formation to an inevitable process of consolidation among the industry’s assorted vendor, user and technology consortia, it admits egos and marketing in that order will determine whether any other groups can be coaxed under the new umbrella. Discussions are said to be under way with a number of key organizations including the Object Management Group, bringing to mind that ‘SUPERconsortium’ idea mooted about last year (CI Nos 2,719, 2,797, 2,803). Perhaps its day has finally dawned, provided egos and marketing oblige. However, it’s actually more likely that the Open Group could be home to still- unborn initiatives that would otherwise spawn new vendor or user bodies than existing ones. Officially, the Open Group will only say that it’s collaborating with the Object Management Group, UnixWare Technology Group, the World Wide Web Consortium and the Petrotechnical Open Software Corp, and will establish vertical industry initiatives where there’s a desire, modelled on the Petrotechnical club.

Single advisory board

Although Open Group claims it will be more than the sum of its parts, some executives at member companies we spoke to were left to wonder how that could be, given that the Software Foundation and X/Open effectively remain intact, complete with their names and management. Open Group says its aim is to offer more standards and technologies in the areas of security, interoperability, distributed systems management, architecture and the Internet. It begins life immediately with a single advisory board comprising 15 representatives of the existing Open Software Foundation sponsors and X/Open shareholders – Digital Equipment Corp, Fujitsu Ltd, Hewlett-Packard Co, Hitachi Ltd, IBM Corp, NEC Corp, NCR Corp, Novell Inc, Siemens Nixdorf Informationssysteme AG and Sun Microsystems Inc – the independent software vendor and end-user members of the two current boards, plus its first new sponsor, the Santa Cruz Operation Inc. It will work with a management team that includes executives from X/Open and the Software Foundation to co-ordinate day-to-day activities. A 300-strong Open Group Customer Council chaired by Elf Acquitaine’s Alain-Francois Robert and 3M Corp’s William Estrem, will bring together and replace the Software Foundation’s End- User Forum and the X/Open User Council. Its first meeting is in San Francisco next month. A single marketing council will serve both organizations. Existing Software Foundation and X/Open membership fee commitments will provide the Open Group’s 1996 funding, although a new single-payment model is proposed from 1997. Software Foundation sponsors currently pay $1m; X/Open shareholder fees are $600,000. The Software Foundation’s 1995 revenues were $41.9m from sales and sponsorship. The Open Group’s chief executive is expected to operate out of the Software Foundation headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Geoff Morris continues to head X/Open, based in Reading, UK – also Open Group’s European headquarters – while acting Software Foundation boss Jim Bell will return to Hewlett-Packard when a chief executive is found. Other offices are in Menlo Park, California and Falls Church, Virginia (X/Open); Grenoble, France; Brussels; and Tokyo (the Foundation). The Open Group expects to add 50 staff this year. It starts life with 275, 60 from X/Open, and the rest from the Software Foundation.