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"Team Ada: Ada Advocacy Issues (83 & 95)" <[log in to unmask]>
Subject:
From:
Brad Balfour <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Mon, 4 Nov 1996 09:42:21 -0500
In-Reply-To:
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Brad Balfour <[log in to unmask]>
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At 8:57 AM -0500 11/4/96, [log in to unmask] wrote:
>   So where does the process go now?? One message implied that Congress must
>   accept and approve this report. Is this true?

This is *not* the case.
The report was commissioned from the National Academy of Sciences, National
Research Council (NRC). It was commissioned by Assistant Secretary of
Defense for C3I [ASD C3I] Emmett Paige, Jr. The report was briefed to its
sponsor on 31 Oct 96. It now is in his hands. Any action will be initiated
by him or by his successor. (Last spring, he announced his decision to
retire by the end of 1996.)

>   I've always had some serious concerns whenever a committee formulates a
>   policy behind closed doors. I thought that public hearings and 'sunshine'
>   laws were becoming the more accepted practices. When were the 'public'
>   hearings for this report conducted?

It was not a DoD committee. It did not hold public hearings. DoD asked the
NAS NRC to conduct an independent study of an issue for them. The NRC
committee did receive testimony from many individuals and groups. However,
this was by the committee's invitation.

>   Actually, this couldn't come at a better time. Call the campaign office of
>   your Congressional candidates and voice your opinion if you have one. Let
>   them know what you think of closed door policy sessions which affect your
>   tax
>   dollars and how they are spent.
>
>   Another thought might be to have SigAda stop spending money on a conference
>   devoted solely to Ada. It's like preaching to the choir. Maybe, in light of
>   this policy, it would be better to increase Ada's visibility in the
>   commercial market by sponsoring more booths and perhaps even sponsoring
>   authors at other conferences.

SIGAda does not hold Tri-Ada in order to preach to the choir!
The conference does *not* attempt to convince anyone to use Ada. Rather, it
is a place where those who are *already using Ada* can gather. In one
place, you can hear talks and attend tutorials by the best and brightest in
the Ada community. You can see the major vendors products and get to play
with all of the tools available for Ada development. You can also get an
opportunity to sit and talk to Ada developers who have common software
development issues and learn how they solve their problems. You can find
all this out for yourself by examining the Tri-Ada web page
<http://www.acm.org/sigada/tri-ada/>

It is, of course, a good idea to "increase Ada's visibility in the
commercial market by sponsoring more booths". SIGAda has done this over the
past 3 years. We were at a half dozen conferences this year alone
(including Object World and the recent FEDOOTS). Anyone wanting to
volunteer their time to help staff one of these booths should contact Ed
Colbert ([log in to unmask]).

By the way, anyone wanting a chance to discuss/debate the NRC committee
report with the members of that group might consider attending Tri-Ada '96
in Philadelphia. Dr. Barry Boehm, the chair of the committee, will be the
opening keynote speaker and Tucker Taft and Maretta Holden, two of the
committee's members will be on a panel on Friday afternoon.

Thanks,
Brad


--
Brad Balfour                            SIGAda WWW Server
ACM SIGAda Secretary                      http://www.acm.org/sigada/
(703) 277-6767                          and also try:
[log in to unmask]                          http://www.adahome.com/

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