We would like to extend an invitation to all staff working within academic institutions such as schools, colleges and universities around the world to join the well established Technology Transfer Partners (TTP) group. Membership in the group is totally free of charge.
Background
The TTP is an international group of individuals from schools, colleges, and universitiesi that use Micro Focus (now part of Open Text) technology in their IT implementations. The TTP was started in the mid-1980s with three universities whose goal was to share their networking experiences among themselves, and with the company, in order to leverage the knowledge of their diverse computing environments and give feedback to product teams. It has now grown to be a comprehensive group of thousands of experienced education customers who share information with each other, the software developers and groups within the company. TTP members have considerable input into the company software development processes.
Mission Statement
Our mission is to connect, form, and extend bonds between members of our global technology community to foster honest, informed conversations in order to promote high quality computing environments that advance the goals of academic institutions.
The Primary Goals of the TTP are
- Network among peers to foster mutually beneficial work relationships.
- Share successes and failures so others can learn from those experiences.
- Exchange technical information and best practices between members for mutual benefit.
- Mentor other members through the discussion lists, the TTP events, white papers, success stories, and articles for the TTP website.
- Provide honest feedback to software development teams on products and their futures.
- Help the TTP partners understand the academic community.
- Provide honest feedback to partner businesses to meet the requirements of academia in licensing programs, marketing, technical support, etc.
- Educate partner businesses on the requirements of academia in licensing programs, technical support, etc.
Membership and Confidentiality
TTP discussions are generally of either a highly technical or very strategic nature and membership would, therefore, be of particular interest to senior IT staff as well as very technical staff. Management staff (e.g. CIO level) who plan strategy can find the group useful to help determine the trends within similar organizations.
Discussions and questions on the TTP mailing list cover a wide range of topics of interest to the community. Members are urged to share information on the list, not just monitor messages. The group benefits from members who contribute and help others learn from that.
Joining the TTP requires filling out the registration form and digitally signing a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA). Once approved an applicant will be added to the group and be able to access the variety of resources and meetings of the TTP. Candidness and confidentiality are important so that all parties can discuss a variety of often sensitive issues without public exposure. The NDA requires such information and resources not be conveyed beyond the member's own institution except to other TTP members. Within the institution TTP information and resources should be handled with due care and professional discretion so that the institution as a whole may benefit. This also means asking colleagues to adhere to these same rules of confidentiality. Other TTP sites follow these rules to protect your offerings to the group. For full benefit it is recommended that interested colleagues also apply for TTP membership. If a member exceeds these rules of good conduct then the NDA obligation may come into force and membership in the TTP may be terminated.
TTP Advisory Board
The TTP Advisory Board is created from the TTP membership and is reviewed regularly to make sure it is representative of the membership as a whole. The most visible role of the Advisory Board is to help construct the agenda for the regional TTP conferences. They also help in conducting the conferences and coordinating member presentations. The Advisory Board does however carry out a lot of work behind the scenes which benefits the TTP as a whole. Selected members of the board are known as 'Moderators' and these people monitor the discussions on the lists and Forums and discuss matter with Product and Engineering Management within the company should the need arise. These people also extract useful information from the discussions and write this up to publish on the website as an information document.
TTP Ambassadors
The TTP Ambassadors are people around the world who run their own group or community that can benefit from links to the TTP. This could be anything from a regional GroupWise User Group to a regular meeting where local college computer staff get together to discuss issues of general interest to the group.
Regional Annual Conferences
The annual conference is a five day, free-of-charge, event where all presentations are of a highly-technical nature, including elements under NDA. Presentations will be delivered by senior Micro Focus staff including Product Managers, academic institution staff and carefully selected partner organisations. This annual conference takes place in Provo, Utah in July each year.
An additional regional conference will be held in EMEA in the spring time frame. Members may attend any of the TTP meetings but are encouraged to support their regional event in order to be able to network with more of their colleagues and similarly structured organisations.
How do I join the TTP?
Click on link https://thettp.org/join or https://netlab1.net/joinTTP.html and complete the form, linking yourself with an institution currently on the list or add your site if it is not on the list. Please don't forget to complete the profile information as this can be very useful for other sites to find people who are using similar technologies.
Once you have submitted the application form it will be forwarded for approval. Under normal circumstances, you will be added to the group within 48 hours and sent an appropriate welcome email.
Questions
People who join the TTP find it extremely useful and we hope you will take this opportunity to join up today. If you have any questions concerning the group or the processes involved please e-mail us at info@thettp.org