WorldWide Pen Developers Organization sees Bright Future

Recent announcements from EO and AT&T suggest that PenPoint development is ready to take off. As with every new technology, early information comes very slowly until a critical mass is reached to ensure that adequate information is published and exchanged in a timely manner. Until then, early adopters often form special fraternities, exchanging information by word-of-mouth or its electronic equivalent.

We had a conversation with Paul Williams, President of the Worldwide PenPoint Developers Organization (WPDO). Mr. Williams has been an active PenPoint developer for about a year, chiefly as a principal of Pen-squared Computing. The WPDO is an organization established for the purpose of bringing PenPoint developers together to exchange ideas and information.

The WPDO was started by Paul Williams and David Schachter, with early assistance from Ramin Firoozye, and the first public meeting was held in July. The name of the Worldwide PenPoint Developers Organization was carefully chosen to reflect its scope and purpose. The name was jointly constructed by Williams and Thom Hogan, Pen Evangelist at GO Corp., who is also the chief liaison between GO and the WPDO. However, many people affectionately refer to the WPDO as the “Whoopee-doo.”

Williams explained that the organization’s charter is to serve as an information facilitator between GO Corporation and the PenPoint developer community. Clearly, GO has provided moral support to the organization by allowing the use of its trademarked name PenPoint. However, GO does not provide any direct funds for the operation of the organization. For this, the WPDO relies on membership dues, merchandise sales, and contributions.

GO provides support in many other ways. For example, the WPDO meetings are held at GO headquarters in Foster City, CA, and GO has supplied many of the early speakers. In addition, since the meetings are held on site, many GO engineers are usually available for impromptu question and answer sessions, a feature that PenPoint developers find invaluable. GO is also helping the WPDO in producing its first newsletter. According to Williams, “without their cooperation, our organization would be severely impacted.”

Each meeting is videotaped to enable people who are unable to attend the meeting to have access to the information. The videotapes can be purchased or rented from the WPDO. The WPDO library also has videotapes of non-WPDO sponsored events related to PenPoint such as “Archaeology & PenPoint,” “Pen Computing in Asia/Pacific,” and the first EO press conference. As part of its educational mission, the organization will continue to enhance its video library.

WPDO BBS

The WPDO also runs an electronic bulletin board system (BBS) where members can exchange information, share public source code, and question fellow PenPoint experts. The BBS also welcomes information about employment opportunities for PenPoint programmers and encourages developers to advertise their products and achievements to help expand the industry.

While GO Corp. does not offer any special support arrangement for WPDO members, GO employees will have free access to the BBS. The WPDO hopes this will widen the avenues of information thereby complementing GO’s existing channels. GO has also agreed to upload all new public information to the BBS.

Membership Growing

Williams said that membership currently stands at about 30, with more joining each meeting. At the current rate, he expects the total to be about 50 by the end of the year and over one hundred by next year. From a survey conducted at an early meeting, it appears the WPDO attracts three types of developers: hard-core PenPoint developers, programmers active in pen computing but perhaps not necessarily PenPoint, and people interested in staying abreast with important new technologies.

The early adopters of this technology will be people whose profession requires them to have information available at all times. The economics of their business will enable them to afford the early classes of machines because their requirements will demand it. These professionals will include doctors, lawyers, nurses, pharmaceutical professionals, and delivery personnel. After the cost per machine has lowered, the market will expand to general users. As Williams states, “What kind of people are on the go? It turns out all of us are on the go!”

Technologies Converge

Williams also sees a very fortunate convergence of three important technologies on which he feels pen computers can piggyback: wireless communications, smaller and lighter computers, and digital signal processing (DSP). The marriage of these three technologies is now being introduced as personal communicators. Later in this decade, Williams sees voice and pen as an “incredible way to put information in the computer.”

When and Where

Currently, the WPDO has chapters in Boston, Massachusetts, and Waterloo, Notary, Canada, along with the main chapter in Silicon Valley. In addition, interested parties from Southern California, Texas, and Europe have expressed a desire to start local chapters.

Future meetings will feature speakers such as Andy Novobilski, author of “PenPoint Programming,” talking about his work with PenPoint and Objective C, and Ronjon Nag of Lexicus, talking about issues in cursive handwriting recognition and the Longhand product. The WPDO also plans to offer training seminars on technical subjects and, in the future, perhaps sponsor a conference on PenPoint development.

Charter memberships for the WPDO are available at $70 per year until the end of the year. At that time, the cost will rise to $95 per year.

Meetings are held each month at GO’s headquarters located at 919 East Hillsdale Blvd., Suite 400, Foster City, California.

The WPDO bulletin board can be reached at (415) 328-5204.

The WPDO can be contacted at 801 Middlefield Road, Suite 8, Palo Alto, CA, 94301-2916 or by e-mail at [email protected].