I have a confession to make… I’d rather be golfing!
Unfortunately, as I’m writing this Mother Nature and her pal Old Man
Winter have just finished dumping 4 or 5 inches of new powder on
Connecticut… Boo!… Hiss!. At this rate, I won’t able to put a peg in the
ground until May. Ok, now that I’ve gotten that out of the way let’s get
down to business.
I’ve spent the last few days trying to come up with a topic for my
inaugural president’s column. And after careful consideration, I’ve
settled on something that’s been on my mind for a while.
The State of User Groups
The state of computer user groups is troubled. Over last several years
DACS, like most user groups, has seen its membership rolls slowly
shrink, from a high of roughly 900 to its current level of about 350.
What’s happened? The conventional wisdom says the Internet has replaced
user groups as the premier forum for computer users to network, to share
information and ideas, and to learn about their hardware and software.
Personally, I’m not convinced the conventional wisdom is true.
There’s no doubt that the Internet revolution has had an impact on
computer users groups. But the net alone isn’t the reason for shrinking
membership rolls and declining meeting attendance.
So what is the cause? In short, we won. The revolution that we started
and drove is over! We’ve made the personal computer ubiquitous, and now
we’re trying to figure out how to remain relevant in the world we helped
create.
Personally, I think user groups are more important today than they have
ever been. Why? Because there are millions of computer users out there
who have fallen into “the computer is just another consumer electronics
appliance” trap. These folks, by and large, don’t know how their new
appliance works or how to properly maintain it. All they know is that it
is helping them educate the kids, balance their check book, stay
informed, and a dozen or so other things that make their lives better.
Unfortunately, no one told them about spyware, viruses, hard drive
failures, and a dozen or so other things that can render their new
appliance useless.
It’s up to the user group community to reach out to these folks and
educate them. My first official act as DACS president is to appoint a
DACS Community Ambassador to do just that. That ambassador is YOU. Reach
out to friends, family and colleagues, and bring them to a DACS meeting.
We all know someone who’s had their computer compromised by a virus or
spyware and spent days scratching their head wondering what to do. Bring
them into the DACS family. Not only will we try to help them solve their
current problem we’ll give them the tools to avoid trouble in the
future.
Well that’s it for my inaugural column. If you have any comments,
questions or suggestions, you can reach me at jasetaro@mags.net or
jasetaro@yahoo.com.
Cheers!
—Jeff Setaro
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