Article for the WBF Newsletter, June 1999

How do you say "Batch" in French?

"Batch" of course!

After the WBF, the EBF, the JBF, we are pleased to introduce the FBF.

FBF translates either as "French Batch Forum" or "Forum Batch Francophone".

Neat, isn't it!

The very first meeting of the FBF was held on the 9th of June in Paris. The FBF aims at being "francophone" which means not limited to the French borders. Participants from the French-speaking countries such as Belgium, Switzerland, Canada and others are welcome!

Even if the Batch topic is partly covered by some associations, no entity in France

was dedicated to Batch. The FBF bridges the gap.

One of early tasks and challenges will be to make the information available to the public in its native language. English has been one of the major obstacles to the dissemination of information among the user.

The main tasks that were defined are:

  • Organization of a one-day information session, target date is November 1999,
  • Yearly conferences and information sessions coupled with the major fairs,
  • Creation of Working Group on selected topics,
  • Implementation of a Web site,
  • Maintain an FBF Update in the WBF Newsletter (here we are!)

A second meeting will be held on the 19th of July. Please pass the message around! The first meeting gathered a bunch of enthusiastic folks, no doubt that it will not take very long before it propagates to the rest of the public.