At a news conference last month, press and Unix International Inc supporters expressed some concern about the resignation dated April 25 of Yumio Imamura, the representative of Unix International Asia-Pacific, and his replacement by Colin Fulton, the Australian ex-NCR Corp man who is currently head of Unix International’s Pacific Basin office based in Singapore office. The resignation of Imamura-san, who has served four years in his current post, and who was well known and well-liked in the industry, enrolling several tens of Japanese systems vendors and software houses as Unix International members, came as a shock to some members and the press when rumoured in April. Pressed about his reasons, Imamura-san cited health concerns – surgery on throat polyps and liver problems – but it was clear that there have also been disagreements with Peter Cunningham of Unix International. Imamura-san defended himself against apparent criticism from Cunningham over his ability to explain technical issues. Colin Fulton, who will remain resident in Singapore, but, he says, spending most of his time on Unix International Asia-Pacific issues, valiantly responded to some of the criticisms – which included suggestions that Unix International members might feel slighted that a non-Japanese, with no Japanese language skills, was to head an branch of Unix International that made significant financial contributions to the organisation. Unix International supporters at the press conference – including Fujitsu Ltd, NEC Corp, Nippon Unisys Co, Nippon NCR, and SunSoft Inc – vowed that language barriers would not be an obstacle to communication, and that their support would continue as before, including the work group on Japanese language standardisation.
Ongoing relevance
Questioned about the ongoing relevance of Unix International, these members reaffirmed their belief that the supporters’ club still had a reason for existence, and that non-organisations such as the Common Open Software Environment could not hope to take Unix International’s place. Unix International Asia Pacifice appears to be facing an internal crisis as questions are raised within and without about its future. The Open Software Foundation has also recently undergone a change of management in Japan. Dr Rob Morel, formerly with Philips Electronics NV, and managing director of the Open Software Foundation in Japan for the last four years, has returned to his native Holland, to start a new career, initially as a lobbyist. He is replaced by Jim Curtin, who joined the Foundation a year ago from Nippon DEC’s research laboratory.
