The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group Guest Editorial Stan Johnstone stanj@melbpc.org.au |
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A Twenty Year History
Last month in his President's Comments George Skarbek told of the lack of interest in contributions to a 20 year history of the group, and how the task of writing such a publication was too much for any one person.
At a time when I was on the committee back in 1995 I made a suggestion with the thought that with only 12 years history it would be easy to write one then, and it could then be carried on from there. Someone else on the committee who had been there for many years made the offhand comment "There would be as many different versions of the history as there are members"!
At the beginning of last year (2002) I was asked if I would be prepared to undertake the task, and I gave some thought about how to do it properly with interviews with those who had played significant roles over the years. My first contact was with Lloyd Borrett, the founder of Melb PC, and immediately it became obvious we were a year premature - the group had started in September 1983!
So the project was put on hold until this year. At the same time I realised that the publication would necessarily run to about 100 or more pages; there were very few photographs available to use as illustrations; and I wondered just how much interest there would be in a task that if done properly would take about 1000 hours to complete. Would anyone buy it? Could we afford to distribute it for free? Would I be wasting my time?
During 2002 while I was completing the PC Update Online pages at http://www.melbpc.org.au/pcupdate/ I realised that reading the monthly President's Reports and the Editorials in the months where they appeared did in effect give a history of Melb PC. To make this easier for those who are interested, I have made a page with links to all of these articles. So if you are interested to read "a history of Melb PC through the eyes of PC Update" just point your browser at http://www.melbpc.org.au/pcupdate/history.htm.
Of particular interest is one article by founder Lloyd Borrett in November 1987 which tells the history of the first few years. This article can be found at http://www.melbpc.org.au/pcupdate/8700/8711article4.htm.
Most articles from the current issues of PC Update are posted online each month shortly after the magazines are delivered to members in the mail. I have made many checks and found that almost all articles can be retrieved through Google within two weeks of posting them on the Web. One result of this is that we receive regular enquiries from worldwide for additional information, and it seems some contacts consider us experts in everything computing as we often receive questions on the most basic and/or obscure matters.
We did have our own search page based on an old simple Perl script. It was adequate at one time, but with the large number of pages we now have on our server it is not fast enough to use for searching out that elusive article you vaguely remember from some time past. We did investigate installing a new large indexing and search program, however using Google specified to search just our own site, the results are so fast (and free) that searching is a dream. Just click on the Google logo at http://www.melbpc.org.au/pcupdate, enter your search string and the results are just seconds away.
This is pleasing and rewarding. I hope it will encourage writers of articles in PC Update when they realise that their articles quickly become part of the world-wide source of information through the Web. Likewise products that are reviewed receive exposure for an unbiased and independent review of interest to prospective buyers.
Beside this, it's all a great deal of fun.
It's a Sad Day
Reading the President's Annual Report it is quite saddening to read of the resignation of two of our office staff. As you will have read, after 10 years assisting part-time, Kerry Williams is starting her own business venture.
For myself, I am saddened to learn that Margaret Greer is leaving. I remember when Tracy Swan and I interviewed Margaret for the position more than six years ago and how we were both taken by this bubbly young lady who we felt sure would be just right for the job. Working in a non-profit organisation like ours with volunteers can be difficult, and both Trish and I look back to what we consider our best decision ever.
We will all miss Margaret, and wish her well for her future. I'm sure her replacement, Julia Dyer will be just as cooperative and pleasant to members - whatever their problem.
Kind regards to all.
Reprinted from the November 2003 issue of PC Update, the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia
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