I’ve been actively involved in the computer user group community for a more than 14 years now. I joined the DACS the Danbury Area Computer Society in 1993 and I’ve served as a SIG leader, vice president and president of one most amazing organizations I’ve ever seen.

My opinion is probably a little biased but I firmly believe user groups are the best way for computer users to network, share information and ideas and to get help with everyday computer problems. Unfortunately user groups are troubled these days… 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 300.

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 is 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 even been. Why? Because there are millions of computer users out there 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 their children, balance their check book, stay informed, and 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.

Personally, I think it’s up to the user group community to reach out to these folks and help them learn about the proper care and feeding of their computers... If you’re a member a of a computer user group reach out to your friends, your family and your colleagues and bring them to a user group meeting.

If you’re not a member of a user group visit the Association of Personal Computer User Groups web site and find a group near you and attend a meeting, you’ll enjoy it... I promise.