Jonathan Thanks for the link. It’s a nice piece. It begs the question of the link to the mainframe vendors’ users groups, which date to '54 (in theory) and to ’62 (in practice.) The vendors cut them loose in the late 60s and let them become self-organized. The Burroughs group took that step in ’69. The IBM and Univac groups followed and incorporated themselves as independent groups. DECUS, which was a little later, may have started as an independent group. They quickly established some of the practices identified in the article, such as having both the technical and managerial leaders of the vendors The vendors resisted this move, of course, and the tensions came to a head in the early 70s. It was wrenching for the Burroughs group but 74-75 the practice of having vendor leadership present and having them accountable was well established. At that period you also see the start of the software and PC industries starting at the fringes of these meetings. You would find rump gatherings of users who were interested in those technologies and discussing how to incorporate them into their systems and companies. They remained focussed more on company than individual usage, of course, but they followed the same sort of pattern until they began to vanish in the early 80s. Both the vendors user groups and those described in the article, of course, examples of the self-organized mutual interest society that goes back to the 1830s in American history. However, it is worth noting that this mode of organization and education has been applied several times and in slightly different ways in this technological sector. David
On Aug 21, 2020, at 11:41 AM, Jonathan Coopersmith <j-coopersmith@tamu.edu> wrote:
From Adam Lashinsky's Fortune Data Sheet newsletter, August 20: FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Way before Slack and Reddit and pretty much anything online, people used to swap information about technology and computers by meeting up in real life. Tech writer Esther Schindler has a great deep dive <https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://links.info.fortune.com/u/click?_t=5c2d888702774d17aa3d0350287b6d73&_m=01c6ca17e09846f6bfd51077949e5a29&_e=lGq7vSweTIx3zfp0vOVYGvyVwDbl2VqB86mk4keOGNG7LOnG1YHxbc86k0WpW3biPsMTBRPQySeS8-Lrl_qpDsKL6EBahSEqyBu5gM8Mpl3kuAfD-f41ulcx-CmW-hoKnX19tozR5lVKB-lYa4eg6YiZnHqmWdCeHzxaWW3btmXEwfOjGvajvnZrlgkRaDnLYxCSVCeq9Ahykv6kDMMGj2DcNKjC6d-zZUpfbg9U67rg1cFqR6okTMNgZ0fj21k2L04Zq_PNcNTAQ4yJ17_Y1-qcK3yQzNcNs108Ew-s9Gqmj0INucgv6OwROZwlMpp955Pw5KysxC1ooBKqDrCgY-J7yUhWElTmCY0b00Ms1b4*3D__;JQ!!KwNVnqRv!Tblf7ILyNbRmI3EA8Gv2X1DuLuwlmwC6w0Fa3pRpi02jBKoscFUoJ1pvUhxNGy8H4kr3$> at Ars Technica into the history of computer user groups.
Back when the microcomputer industry was smaller, it was easy to get access to the movers-and-shakers—often before they moved or shook anything. User groups gave everyone the opportunity to learn about technology, often from the people who invented it.
Harry McCracken attended Boston Computer Society meetings beginning in 1979, and he recalls its Q&A sessions with fondness. “The questions were so tough,” the longtime tech journalist reminisces. “There was no hero worship, just smart computer users asking sensible questions.”
“Microsoft, WordPerfect, and Adobe were the headliners,” recalls a 1980s member of the Oklahoma City PC User Group. “They gave presentations that drew hundreds and provided wonderful giveaways of full versions of their software. You could always expect that the introduction of new versions of their products would be a big event, much like the way Samsung and Apple launch new hardware today.”
Stay sane, keep washing those hands, and practice social solidarity as well as distancing,
Jonathan
Jonathan Coopersmith Professor Department of History Texas A&M University College Station, TX 77843-4236 979.291.2925 (cell) 979.862.4314 (fax)
Racial disparities in waiting to vote: https://theconversation.com/it-takes-a-long-time-to-vote-141267 <https://theconversation.com/it-takes-a-long-time-to-vote-141267>
To teach or not to teach: https://www.tact.org/post/to-teach-in-person-or-not-that-is-the-question <https://www.tact.org/post/to-teach-in-person-or-not-that-is-the-question>
FAXED. The Rise and Fall of the Fax Machine (Johns Hopkins University Press) is the co-recipient of the 2016 Business History Conference Hagley Prize for best book in business history.
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