So many thanks to IBM Systems Magazine for their recent review of iChime. You can read the article by clicking on this link – https://ibmsystemsmag.com/Power-Systems/07/2020/Find-Community-at-iChime. When senior editor Claire O’Leary attended our last meeting, she was impressed by the participation and candor of the attendees. This is completely unsurprising to those in the IBM i community. We are all friends; it is what makes this community so special. It is why those who have left because of new jobs and other situations tell me how they are so sad when they leave. There is truly a feeling of family.
When the pandemic started, conferences were quickly postponed or canceled one after another. But our friendships, as expected, persevered. And so has the need for in-person peer interaction, even if it is only virtual. With necessity being the mother of invention, iChime was born.
One significant benefit of having meetings with attendees spanning many time zones, and more importantly, many countries is the reminder of equality. How, regardless of where in the U.S. or Europe our shops are, so many of our IT challenges are nearly identical. And I do not attribute this to our mutual computing platform. No, what I am referring to is how we approach application development, general IT challenges and user concerns. Through our camaraderie, all of these have been revealed over the last several months of iChime.
So many thanks to everyone who has joined one or more meetings. Your participation is always welcome!