Who are we?

In 1986, the Belgian UNIX systems Users Group (B.U.U.G.) was founded as a non-profit organisation.

On March 1, 1996 the boards of the Belgian UNIX system Users Group, under the leading of Mr. Marc Nyssen (Vrije Universiteit Brussel), and of the Belgian Open Systems Supporters, under the leading of Philippe Brachotte (SAP Belgium), were pleased to announce the merger of both organisations into the Open Technology Assembly.

The Open Technology Assembly is funded by its members. This guarantees an impartial and cost-conscious non-profit organisation, independent from any commercial influence. The Open Technology Assembly is a forum for open systems, basing its activities on the needs of its members. All members have the opportunity to submit ideas for conferences, special interest groups and articles in order to keep the Open Technology Assembly focused at the open systems-actuality.

The points of interest of the members result in concrete actions of the Open Technology Assembly. This way, the Open Technology Assembly is a forum to keep you informed of the developments in the Open Systems world and to meet other Open Systems users.

The basic mission statement of the Open Technology Assembly is to provide a forum for exchange of vendor independent technical information about Open Information Technology. The focus will not be limited to the UNIX operating system but also to the portability from and to other operating systems as well as the interoperability of various IT hardware and software elements.

Services offered by the OTA

The Open Technology Assembly provides a means to exchange information and experience between users of Open Systems and manufacturers of software and hardware used in Open Systems.

In order to promote a set of information services 'à la carte' to technical and non-technical users of Open Systems, the Open Technology Assembly will focus on the following three objectives:

• Elucidating from a neutral point of view, the evolution of Open Systems in general, and the movement towards new technologies and their coexistence with existing core platforms such as UNIX, in particular.
• Following on line the impact of the evolution of Unified UNIX and new UNIX versions regarding the development of portable applications.
• Sharing regularly feedback and testimonials from large users on the way they use Open Systems in providing IT solutions, relevant for the business area on which they do focus.

This is done, among others, by:

• Seminars on Open Systems topics: these seminars are organised about four times a year with the participation of hardware and software vendors combined with the experience from users from the private and the academic sector. This way, the Open Technology Assembly can anticipate on the needs and interests of the Belgian Open Systems community. OTA members can attend the conferences and tutorials at special rates, mostly free of charge for conferences although a reasonable fee would be asked for tutorials (see the events calendar).
• A dynamic presence on the World Wide Web: the homepage on the World Wide Web contains the following information: general information about the Open Technology Assembly, activity agenda and subscription possibility, publications, information and news of the Special Interest groups,... The homepage can be found on http://www.ota.be
• Special Interest Groups: the SIG's organise and deliver a specific set of information and services as well as developing activities for its target users group.

The LINUX Special Interest Group: this SIG is a bridge between the fast evolving Linux Internet activity and the belgian Linux users.

• Mailings: the Open Technology Assembly keeps its members informed about upcoming events and a agenda of other events organised in Belgium which could be of interest to OTA-members.
• Contact with other international organisations: OSF, Usenix, Uniforum, EurOpen, X/Open
• Contact with manufacturers of Open Systems: the Open Technology Assembly organises open doors and evening visits to major vendors and manufacturers.
• Price discounts with several publishers: members of the Open Technology Assembly have price discounts with the publishers ITP O'Reilly, Addison Wesley and Prentice Hall. These publications can be bought at our conferences.