Author and programmer Jeff Olen has announced that he is stepping down as head of iManifest United States, and the group is officially looking for a new leader.
iManifest is a worldwide organizational movement to educate business leaders about the benefits of the IBM i platform and promote its continued adoption. The volunteer movement is sponsored by IBM Business Partners, ISVs, and other vendors who for years have made a living supporting customers and users of the IBM i platform. iManifest was first organized in Japan and later sprung up in Europe before forming a chapter in the U.S. Frank Soltis, a retired IBM chief scientist considered to be the founder of the IBM i operating system, joined the organization as a spokesperson.
Olen 's note to the 254 members of the iManifest US group on LinkedIn reads:
"Hi Everyone,
"My apologies for my long absence from the iManifest LinkedIn group and in fact from iManifest in general.
"In the past few months I have been forced to re-evaluate the projects to which I have dedicated my time and make some difficult decisions. One of those decisions affects my involvement (or recently my lack of involvement) with iManifest. I am no longer going to invest my time in developing and leading the iManifest movement here in the U.S. This was not an easy decision but for me and my family it is the right one.
"Since I would hate to see iManifest disappear altogether I'd like to call for volunteers to take up the torch.
"Please contact me at
"Thanks to all of you for your support over the last year.
"Jeff"
In September 2009, Olen founded the U.S. arm of iManifest, which already had active components in Japan and Europe, quickly signing up nine members. They collectively pledged $48,000 to support the organization's marketing efforts, which include a plan to buy a page of advertising in the Wall Street Journal as the group's commitment pledge at a cost of $150,000.
Olen said that goal has yet to be reached, but he feels confident that it can be if the group gets the right leadership, "someone with more of a marketing background who has a bigger Rolodex than mine and can access the C-level executives," Olen told MC Press Online.
Olen, who was contacted by telephone right in the middle of a house move, said that he needed to prioritize his time better and needed to focus on what was of most importance to him and his family. He said that when he agreed to create the iManifest US organization that he assumed someone with the requisite organizational and marketing skills would quickly step up and take over. That person never came forward, however, and he soon realized what it would take to run and promote a national organization such as iManifest US.
Olen said that he didn't want to give the impression of being discouraged with the response that companies in the U.S. have had to the iManifest initiative but did offer that he and others had expected it to take off a bit faster, and with broader support, than it has so far. While there was a significant amount of media attention on the group's drive to gather positive case histories on companies that solved their technology problems with solutions running on IBM i, the number of case histories actually posted to the iManifest US website was far fewer than most had hoped for. (To contribute, visit http://www.imanifest-us.com/stories.php.)
While he is pleased with having raised pledges for $48,000, he believes it will take a far greater number of firms than just the original nine to fund the kinds of marketing activities needed to promote the IBM i brand. He said the recession probably didn't help when it came time to decide whether or not to support the group financially, but he did note that while talk has been plentiful—money has been just a bit harder to come by.
Other members of the iManifest LinkedIn group expressed their concerns for the future of the U.S. arm of the group and noted that the Japanese organization is quite active and has raised support from a number of companies that have a vested interest in the continuation of the IBM i platform. Japan now boasts 71 member organizations.
LinkedIn iManifest member Gordon Davies, a vice president at LANSA, wrote, "Jeff, as international advisor to iManifest Japan, I am concerned about the future of iManifest US but appreciate your realistic appraisal of bandwidth requirements for the task at hand, vis a vis your own spare capacity. I have some ideas relevant to the global movement which I will explore further, including via discussions with senior iManifest Japan office-holders next week…"
J. Michael G. Jones, an independent computer and network security consultant in Toronto, said "What such an effort really needs is corporate sponsorship from some large, medium-scale and small AS/400 qua Sys/i shops."
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