New IBM i Logo, Publication
January 20, 2021 Alex Woodie
The new year has brought a few changes for those interested in IBM i content (i.e. “words and pictures”), including a new IBM i logo that debuted in a product from IBM, as well as a new publication that is focused, at least in part, on covering the IBM i community.
Let’s start with the new logo. With last month’s launch of Access Client Solutions (ACS) version 1.1.8.6, IBM introduced what looks like a new IBM i logo. The new logo only seems to appear in the ACS product at the moment.
Some folks liked the new logo, saying it looked like the power icon that is commonly affixed to power buttons, both real and virtual. It’s unclear if IBM intended a power (or Power) connection, but in any event, the logo was well-received.
The “i for business logo” (left) stands next to the new ACS logo (right).
At this point, it’s unclear if the new logo will replace the longstanding “i for busines” logo that the IBM midrange community has enjoyed for the last 13 years (an eternity in terms of IBM naming continuity), or whether the new logo only will be used in the ACS product. There is no “i” in the ACS name, so it seems a bit strange for a different IBM i logo to appear there. But stranger things have happened.
That brings us to the new IBM i publication. We told you in November about IBM’s decision to stop publishing IBM Systems Magazine, which MSP TechMedia, a division of MSP Communications (MSP-C), published for many years (at least 22) under a license from IBM, at the end of 2020.
While IBM was moving away from print and hoped to push the magazine’s readership toward its new IBM Community website, the folks at MSP hinted that they had something cooking that would replace Systems Mag, and this month we finally found out what it would be: TechChannel.
Like the old Systems Mag website, TechChannel readers can filter content by operating system, thereby enabling IBM i folks to weed out the AIX, Linux, and mainframe content that doesn’t interest them. They can also choose to view IT-related content that is geared toward enterprises or toward SMBs (small and midsize businesses).
TechChannel is a trademark of MSPC, which is the rebranded MSP-C division of MSP Communications (note the dropped hyphen). Evelyn Hoover, the longtime editor at Systems Mag, heads up MSPC publications as its senior content director and will have a hand in shaping the editorial direction of the new publication.
TechChannel has retained some of the contributors from Systems Mag, including Dawn May and her popular i Can column. Longtime Systems Mag contributor Jim Utsler is also writing new articles, and RDi expert Charlie Guarino is also contributing pieces, among others.
However, the IBM contingent of columnists that used to anchor Systems Mag, including IBM i chief architect Steve Will and Jesse Gorzinski, the business architect for open source, have moved on to the IBM Community website. There does not appear to be any relationship or publishing contract between TechChannel and IBM.
IBM i logo?
At least they have introduced some in changes in the graphics department…