Re: Vintage Computer Society

[Donald Lee <coach41@pacbell.net>]

Hi,

You, while we were discussing Kansasfest participation, I was thinking
how Kansasfest could be "kept alive" if participation from A2'ers was
lacking.  i thought perhaps "Kansasfest" could be "expanded" to include
other computers (say vintage computers).  After all, most vintage
systems/users are in the same boat and perhaps shared experiences would
be helpful to each other. 

I'm sure some creative people could come up with interesting sessions
that applied to all users.  :D

Ok, feel free to flame me now :)

Don


Sean Fahey wrote:
> 
> > I'll let the hardware guys respond to that.  However, on the VCF quoted
> > above.  I was thinking MUCH more locally oriented, like our old Apple2
> > user groups with things to do every month.  The kind of user groups
> > where the participants could become friends and have fun together.
> >
> > Charles
> 
> I am one of those hardware guys - back then I was <literally> a kid, now I'm
> an IT professional with <ack!> almost 30 years experience with computers.
> Ooof, suddenly I feel older than I did 5 minutes ago...
> 
> Charles - where are you located? I know of at least 10 Apple II user groups
> still in existence. Maybe you live near one. Or move... haha just kidding.
> 
> Back in the day, when I lived in Chicago - the first computer user group I
> went to had users representing several different platforms. Altairs, PDP,
> IBM'ers (mini and mainframe) Sol, Apple, CBM... about 100 people from the
> whole Chicagoland area showed up on a regular basis and just yakked about
> computing in general. People talked about solving equations, how computers
> were evolving, artificial intelligence and their impact on society. Thats
> when we all got to meet that Bill Gates guy - before he was rich and famous
> and still selling his BASIC product in boxes that were barely above zip-lock
> baggie quality, and manuals that were copied off carbons.
> 
> Eventually, that group got a lot bigger, outgrew the place where we met, and
> eventually broke into SIGS. We out grew a few other places, then the SIGS
> started meeting on different nights so as not to over extend the facilities.
> 
> By 1980 or so, the original club had broken off into several seperate
> unafilliated user groups, some of which had regional affiliations (some
> not) - Chicago was just simply too big. For example, there was once a
> greater Chicagoland Apple II Users Group (at Lake County aka CLC) - then
> there was one in Libertyville/Mundelein, another in Aurora, Schaumburg, Lake
> Forest... a few others. We tried to make it to a couple of them a month.
> 
> My point, is that the vintage crowd is coming full circle. We all used to
> meet together, then went our seperate ways as we specialized and platforms
> grew in popularity.... now, we're consolidating again.