The Page

Susan M. Johns
Canadian Dynix Users Group (CANDU) 2000
Grant MacEwan Community College
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
June 21, 2000

Greetings to you all from Kansas, which, is often not unlike the province of Alberta, in the summer: hot, humid, windy, and full of the sounds of wheat growing in the fields between thunderclaps.

I bring you greetings and best wishes from CODI, and from the Dynix Boards of CODA in Australia, MADU in Malaysia, and DUG in the United Kingdom. They have eagerly watched the events of the past year unfold between CANDU AND CODI, and send their wishes to you for a successful future in alliance with CODI.

I would like to share briefly with you two thoughts about Sunrise. After being on the CODI Board for three years in the various capacities of Vice President (Conference Chair), President, and then finally Past-President, a few brief comments are probably in order. The future of Dynix users can be fraught or fruitful; doomed or delightful; chaotic or challenging, depending on where you happen to be standing at any given point in time.

The first thought, when to move to Sunrise, is a very institutional-individual choice. Perhaps this morning's discussions have given you new hope, or new doubt, or both. I was reminded of this philosophical dilemma when I flew back from the United Kingdom about four weeks ago.

Well into our trip, the pilot spoke on the intercom and said, folks, we're going to detour here a few miles for a few minutes so you can see something special. Don't everyone grab your cameras all at once, and those of you on the left will have your chance to see what those on the right will see in just a few minutes. But I think you'll find it's special and worth the detour.

Of course, immediately everyone leapt up and opened up the overheads and rummaged around for their cameras. But, thankfully, most everyone sat back down and then began breathing heavily on the windows craning to see what the pilot was talking about.

What we eventually came to see was a breathtakingly clear view of Greenland, with multiple glacier flows down wide blue rivers of water, rugged snow capped mountains just glistening in the sun. I suspect many of you may have seen this, or maybe have even undertaken trips where the Northern Lights are equally as spectacular. In five years of travelling back and forth from the US to the UK, this was the first time Greenland was so visible to me with the glaciers moving out to sea. It was a special treat to detour a few miles off the beaten path to view it.

And then, I thought, what had happened if everyone had gotten out their camera and vacated the left side of the plane and rushed over to the right side seats to all see the view first? I hope (and really want to believe) that commercial airplanes really do have stabilizing devices to compensate for sudden drastic shifts in weight, but I had this brief thought of the whole plane just flipping over on its right side under the weight of all the passengers wanting to be first to see Greenland. And then I thought, whoa, I'm really glad all those people on the left side just sat down and waited their turn. :_)

Well, this is my first Sunrise analogy. We can't all be first. But we can enjoy the detour. Some of us, probably a lot of us, will stay on the left side of the Sunrise plane for a few years: some for financial reasons, some for functionality reasons. If all of us rushed to be first with Sunrise, sheer chaos would envelop, in large part because epixtech could not afford to migrate all of us first. A more graduated and deliberate plan of moving all of us is necessary to balance the load.

Most all of us love the Dynix functionality a lot. Passionately. We have worked hard to get all the gizmos and features and specials and functionality in our PACS, and in all the modules, and we could add a lot more enhancements in the twinkling of an eye if they would just let us submit them.

The problem is, Sunrise development isn't employing enhancements in the traditional manner any more. JADs are the rule, and even those at times get a bit odd, and we wonder where our input and our voice is in this at times. Globally, how can you participate in JAD if you are not on the most current release? Or how can you participate in JAD if you cannot access the web page for prototypes and questionnaires? Thankfully these two issues are less problematic in North America.

As we look at the development of Sunrise, the car analogy that comes to mind is this: If you had a classic, vintage, say, 1963 Mustang, with lots of add-ons, features, leather upholstery, maybe a sunroof or a convertible -- you know, a loaded, functional, but glitzy romantic car that you loved; and someone said, hey, but this is the year 2000, you need to get current, and you need special unleaded fuel, and run-flat tires and batteries with electronic security codes, and on and on and on, would you take all the leather upholstery and the radio and the engine and the tires off the Mustang and reinstall it on the Thunderbird, or would you buy the Thunderbird with everything on it and fall in love with the Thunderbird all over again?

What I guess I'm saying, is that while we are romantically attached to the excellent design of our Dynix classic software, the development of Sunrise is not just a matter of importing an engine, or moving the seats from one chassis to another. It is an element of magnitude, the re-design, to a new and better car. It's made by the same company, maybe even made by the same designers, and the quality that we experienced with the Mustang is what we now expect with our model year 2000 Thunderbird, but many of the parts can't simply be un-screwed and bolted down in a simple retrofit process.

So it is with Sunrise. Our expectations are great. Barbara Brown Taylor writes, "We speak of 'sunrise' and 'sunset', although we know full well it is not the sun that moves." It is the earth that moves, and with it, the people of the earth. It is the commitment to the product, to the process, to the JADs, to the company. Sunrise will only be a success if our users work on the JADs, participate in development opportunities, actively beta test, and continue to bring their ideas and needs forward. Sunrise will not be a success if adequate training, workshops, support, and development staff of epixtech are not 100% up to par to support the needs of the users. It is not the sun that will rise. It will rise only based on the qualities and efforts of the people who will move it into the forefront of library automation product and design. This is where CODI, and our fellow CANDU members, will have many unique opportunities to continue to work with epixtech and, literally, "move the Sunrise" into reality.

I want to thank you for inviting me to probably the most important CANDU meeting of the new millennium, if not the only one, and to thank each and every one of you for your contributions over the years to better our common product, Dynix. Our membership this past month has approved the Canadian amalgamation by a vote of 201 to 1. We welcome you as CODI members.

I would like to thank Kit, Jim, and Michael for their hard work this past year. They have advocated strongly on your behalf and we look forward to continued strong leadership on Canadian and international issues from them and from you in the future. We look forward once again to having your input, cameraderie, and collegial influence among us at the next CODI in Salt Lake City, Spring 2001. We hope to see many of you there, and hope you will continue your membership in the CODI organization for years to come.

We WILL see the sunrise. Together!

Susan Johns
Past President, CODI

Send comments to: suzyq@pittstate.edu

Susan M. Johns-Smith
Axe Library
Pittsburg State University
1605 South Joplin Street
Pittsburg, KS 66762
Phone: 620-235-4115

This page last updated Tuesday, 26-Jun-2007 19:02:05 CDT