Jon Udell, who unfortunately isn't able to attend next week's workshop, apparently did the next best thing by interviewing Steve Vinoski for this week's podcast.
As Steve said, it's exactly this whole issue of "existing enterprise IT systems are not going away any time soon" that is why we are having the workshop. I remember visiting an automobile factory in the Netherlands about 10 years ago, back when I was working for Digital. I was there as part of an effort to help them convert their transaction processing systems from the VAX to Alpha.
During a tour of the factory floor I noticed an old VAX model controlling part of the production line and asked, "How about that, do you plan to replace that one too?"
They said, "We plan to replace that the day before it fails." This was a joke of course, but it was their way of saying that the production line was working just fine, thank you, and unless they absolutely needed to mess with it, they were going to just leave it alone as long as they could. There are literally thousands of systems like that, running businesses all over the world.
Recently the workshop seems to be gaining some momentum. This past week we received some very good additional papers, including one from Pete Lacey, a long-promised one from Boeing, and a surprise from Westinghouse Rail (this via encouragement from presenters Mark Baker and Mark Nottingham - so thanks Marks!)