The next six months could be crucial in the life of iManifest, the worldwide organization formed by ISVs and other supporters of the IBM i platform. 

The U.S. arm of the organization is in the process of being restructured to broaden its membership base and find new ways that the group can be helpful to the tens of thousands of people whose livelihood in some way is wrapped up in the IBM i platform. 

Author and programmer Jeff Olen has been almost single-handedly running the organization in the U.S. since it was first formed more than a year ago. Now, Olen has some welcome support from Jenniefer Halversion, director of marketing at S4i Systems. Halverson has been in the industry for a number of years and has a sharp mind and good instincts when it comes to marketing fresh ideas to a mature audience. 

"With the initiative as designed today, I don’t feel it meets the needs of today’s U.S. ISVs," Halverson says. "If it did, we would have more members and more interest."  

The idea under consideration is to somehow get everyone—not just major ISVs—on board the iManifest bandwagon. 

"I'd like to see this organization speak for everyone—the customer, the consultant, the previously employed, the developer—not just a few large companies," says Halverson. 

To get it done, she is connecting the dots among the industry's influential leaders and is proposing that the group throw open its doors to new members without the burden of it costing them something. Let them try it first, and if they like it, stay on board and then start supporting the organization financially. 

For a full run-down on the iManifest ideas currently in germination, join not only Halverson and Jeff Olen, but Zend Technologies' Mike Pavlak and the always popular Dr. Frank Soltis at the first iManifest webinar Tuesday, Dec. 14.

Chris Smith was the Senior News Editor at MC Press Online from 2007 to 2012 and was responsible for the news content on the company's Web site. Chris has been writing about the IBM midrange industry since 1992 when he signed on with Duke Communications as West Coast Editor of News 3X/400. With a bachelor's from the University of California at Berkeley, where he majored in English and minored in Journalism, and a master's in Journalism from the University of Colorado, Boulder, Chris later studied computer programming and AS/400 operations at Long Beach City College. An award-winning writer with two Maggie Awards, four business books, and a collection of poetry to his credit, Chris began his newspaper career as a reporter in northern California, later worked as night city editor for the Rocky Mountain News in Denver, and went on to edit a national cable television trade magazine. He was Communications Manager for McDonnell Douglas Corp. in Long Beach, Calif., before it merged with Boeing, and oversaw implementation of the company's first IBM desktop publishing system there. An editor for MC Press Online since 2007, Chris has authored some 300 articles on a broad range of topics surrounding the IBM midrange platform that have appeared in the company's eight industry-leading newsletters. He can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..