 The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group Australasian PC User Group Summit Ash Nallawalla ash@melbpc.org.au |
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Sydney 11-12 March 1992. Borland International (Rust) P/L sponsored the first regional conference of Australasian user group officers at its corporate headquarters in Military Road, Neutral Bay. Borland paid the fares and accommodation for one representative from each group. Several groups sent additional representatives too. Melbourne sent one person at the group's expense. Attendees were Adelaide PCUG (Dave Read, Editor), Brisbug PCUG (Ron Lewis, President; Lloyd Smith, Librarian), Melbourne PCUG (Spen Ingamells, then President; Charles Wright, Vice-President; Bill Wesihead, Joan Hegedus and Ash Nallawalla), NZ PC Association (Graeme Roberts, President), PC Micro Users Group (WA) (Eilean Fairholme, President), PC Users Group Inc (Canberra) (Paul Savenije and John Hffvert) and Sydney PC Users Group (Terry Wilson-Moore, President; Chris Halliday, Editor).
Agenda
Belinda Hanna, the MD of Borland International (Rust) Pty Ltd opened the summit and welcomed everyone. Greg Joy, Sales Director, introduced other key staff and presented several forthcoming products that we cant talk about and recently launched programs such as dBASE IV 1.5 and Quattro Pro 4.0. The attendees introduced themselves. During a pizza lunch we watched extracts of a Saint Silicon video tape. Thence we had the rest of the time entirely for user group discussions. The following paragraphs summarise the subjects discussed and the actions arising therefrom.
Shareware
Brisbane presented a detailed paper on the problems they are facing with the distribution of shareware. We need a common policy on shareware that all user groups can subscribe to. Brisbane will circulate a proposal on shareware for comment. Brisbane also showed an impressive array of printed material to complement their shareware offerings and this was favourably commented upon by all.
Training
Perth and Melbourne led this discussion. Perth is looking at four levels of training. Free phone help, 10 to 15 minute consultation, hands on workshops, looking at structured training, also looking at equivalent of motoring association, Flying Angels (There was an interjection - "You mean a Flying Nerd?")
Bill Westhead said that our desire was to bring group training up to commercial standard, get accreditation, and work under the auspices of the Australian Guarantee Act. With 6000 members we needed to consider new buildings, new packages, new equipment. Have to think of what members want. Committee had an idea, but membership had to have an input. Melbourne broke training into three stages, planning, preparation and teaching phase. He then outlined details of our new training initiatives.
BBS Echo
Sydney proposed Fldonet BBS message and file echoes for user groups and is willing to be the coordinator of further discussion between BBS Sysops on this subject.
Combined User Group Magazine
Ash Nallawalla said that this was brought up in 1989, but only Perth was interested. We need a print run of 10,000 to jump to the next level of cost benefit, in order to go to web offset. We have a 6400 print run at the moment. The common magazine would have a new name. The insert would be the group's domestic material, e.g.
PC Update for Melbourne. It is up to other groups to pursue this matter further.
Buying Service
Spen Ingamells detailed the operations of our Buying Service. It averages in excess of $30,000 a month and is growing dramatically. Joan Hegedus pointed out that much of this success was owing to
Spen's 4 am finishes getting the product out.
PSA Inquiry
Canberra circulated an outline of their PSA Submission and Press Release. They are keen to have a collective effort on this. This is an example of where we can use a national user group body to lobby a major government regulator. Bill Westhead proposed to separately research the support area, and by the end of March, we aim to circulate a fleshed out draft to other groups and perhaps come back with a view. Canberra will coordinate and consult.
Managing SIGs
New Zealand led the discussion on Special Interest Groups (SIGs). They have a problem maintaining topical SIGs. Geographic ones seem to survive. Brisbane will circulate copies of its SIG guidelines to the others.
Australasian User Group Alliance
Canberra led this topic. Time is overdue for setting up some kind of national association of user groups because the APCUG charter does not cover the type of activities proposed by these user groups. There will be no infringement of individual autonomy, no decisions to be binding other than with a view to coordinating collective action where possible. Attendees formed an inaugural working group for such a body.
Strategic Planning
Charles said that Ash and he prepared a planning workbook for the strategic planning weekend. Most of the committee members didn't really know each other before the weekend. He detailed the planning process and added that it will be ongoing.
Press Release
The following is the text of a press release issued at the press conference on the 12th.
Representatives of Australian and New Zealand PC user groups this week forged national and international links that will give personal computer users access to a worldwide electronic network, and a powerful new voice with government and industry.
At the first Australasian PC User Group "summit coinciding with PC92 in Sydney, officers from user groups with more than 13,000 members in NSW, Victoria, Queensland, ACT, South Australia, Western Australia and New Zealand agreed to establish a regional alliance to promote the interests of computer users.
A spokesman for the summit, Mr Ron Lewis, said yesterday that the new alliance would lobby with governments and the computer industry to ensure that the needs of computer users were met.
"The end user is the most important factor," Mr Lewis said, "but their interests have been largely overlooked by the hardware and software industry and governments. We are going to be making sure that their views are heard, and that they receive more support."
PC user groups are voluntary organisations which provide a high level of support for computer owners in small businesses, professions and in the home. For a small annual membership fee (typically $30 to $40), PC user groups give members cheaper computer products, software support, training and monthly magazines.
They provide independent and unbiased analysis of software programs and hardware items.
A major event at the summit was the unveiling of Globalnet Australia, a local link to an international information network connecting more than a quarter of a million users, under the auspices of the Association of PC User Groups (APCUG), the international user association.
Mr Lewis recognised the support of a major software company, Borland International Australia Pty Ltd, in sponsoring the summit.
"Borland has given the rest of the industry a lead in how they can improve their support of the people who buy their products," Mr Lewis said.
Some of the other moves initiated at the summit were a unified national approach to computer education, to provide a uniform standard of training and support
The alliance will also present a submission to the Prices Surveillance Authority inquiry into software prices based on a user perspective.
Teleconference
During the press conference Ash Nallawalla (Vice-Chairman, Board of User Group Advisors, APCUG; Sysop of Globalnet Australia) demonstrated the APCUG BBS by showing the various file and message areas. That was followed by a live international BBS teleconference that involved the following people:
Borland CEO Philippe Kahn had made earlier attempts to join the teleconference but was unable to join us.
APCUG
The Association of PC User Groups (APCUG) acted as the meeting facilitator even though some groups present were not members of APCUG then. Three regional APCUG groups (Melb PC,
Brisbug and NZ PC Association) also took the opportunity to meet for the first time. By the end of the summit every
non-member group indicated that they would urge their committees to join APCUG. It must be emphasised that APCUG is an international, nonpolitical body that does not lobby governments, so it has no involvement in the proposed regional alliance.
Reprinted from the May 1992 issue of PC Update, the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia
