NWA-PCUG 10/99 NewsLetter Article 18861 N. Hwy 112, Springdale, AR 72762-9303 'Korner' Turns Two: Looking back...and ahead by Ken Fermoyle, The User Group Network It doesn't seem possible that two years have flown by since I clicked on "Send" to launch the first Ken's Korner column into cyberspace. Yet, when I stop to think, it's equally incredible that so much has happened in just 24 months. In September, 1997, that first article (Prehistoric DTP, or Publishing in the Stone Age) went out to just 11 editors, all of whom had signed up at the Southwest Regional User Group Conference in San Diego a month earlier. Now 225 editors and webmasters subscribe. In addition, the list of computer pros who have asked to receive the column has swollen to more than 50 since I started adding individuals some 10 months ago. Several Ezines (electronic magazines) feature Ken's Korner regularly, as do such differing Websites as the North Carolina Dept. of Education, Australia Seniors Online and the Mac-oriented User Group Network. (I think I'm UGN's token PC person.) Practically all of the early subscribers were from California and Arizona. Now almost every state is represented, including Alaska and Hawaii, plus Australia, Canada, Costa Rica, Great Britain, Greece, Japan, New Zealand and Panama. What makes this growth surprising is how it happened. Most subscribers have come aboard as a result of word of mouth, or seeing the column in other group newsletters of Websites. APCUG Reports, official publication of the Association of PC User Groups, has run several articles about Ken's Korner and its availability. Fred Showker at UGN has been another booster. I have written to acquaint some groups with the column after learning about their publications while surfing the Net. Of course, the fact that articles are free doesn't hurt! But still, a 25-fold increase in 24 months is impressive. The growth also indicates that my two main premises in starting the column were on the mark. First, having been "volunteer" editor of many newsletters over the years, I knew that many editors have to scratch for good material. Second, I felt the mainstream computer press was so focused on corporate computing and "enterprise solutions" that it often failed to provide information for grassroots computers, the area on which I concentrate. New projects are born Ken's Korner gave birth to a major new offshoot early this year: the User Group Media Workshop project. It resulted from reading hundreds of group newsletters and journals over the past two years. Most editors comply with my request that they send me a copy of any publication in which one of my articles appears. From two to six newsletters arrive every day, either via snail mail or e- mail (usually in PDF format). I don't claim to read every word of every one but I do go through them all, and I do read many of the articles. A lot of editors can testify to that because they've received e-mail from me commenting on their newsletters and/or specific articles. (Many a cyberspace friendship has developed as a result. I started with one "UG Column" mailbox, added one for "First Contacts" as requests for the column began coming in. Then I opened folder in the UG Column mailbox for individual editors and groups after I had corresponded with each one several times. Now I have about 110 folders in the UG Column mailbox!) I also visit group Websites regularly, checking out their design and just generally trying to keep up with what's happening in various groups. I do this to keep in touch with grassroots computing, to get ideas for future columns and quite simply to learn from many of the great articles I find. Quality of the newsletters and Websites is surprisingly good, given that most editors and webmasters are volunteers (or draftees!) with little or no publishing background. My correspondence revealed that these volunteers, particularly the least experienced ones, are eager to improve and welcome any help they can get. This, and some discussions with Rick Altman, founder and host of CorelWorld, led to planning of what was to have been the first User Group Media Workshop, during October in Orlando, FL. Another conversation soon after that with Judy Taylour, one of the Southwest Regional organizers, resulted in the first Media Workshop being presented in August. (You can find more details on Workshop history at my new Website: www.zyworld.com/wordsmithken.) The Website is the latest project from Ken's Korner. Started in late August, it is still very much a "work-in-progress." I do invite you to visit it, and will appreciate your feedback. Be forewarned: don't expect music, animated GIFs, abundant graphics or other gimmicks. And you definitely won't find blue type on a black background! My goals are to provide easy readability and navigation, plus reasonably fast downloading. Plans for the future I hope to do more Workshops and to keep updating and improving the Website. Beyond that, I am researching several subjects for future columns, and could use your help in that respect. I'll list the subjects I have in the works below. If you have any experiences, suggestions or comments you care to contribute, I'd love to hear them. Reader letters and input have often been a big help in the past, and I hope that continues in the future. AOL censorship - The Irish language, American Civil Liberties Union and various other groups have been the target of Steve Case and company in recent months. In addition, serious security breaches allegedly have occurred on AOL. I will welcome any experiences, pro or con, you have had with the service. Net conferencing - We've been working on this for some time, but new developments keep appearing. If you use this technology, I want to hear from you. Digital web cameras - We have two units installed now in Ken's Korner: Kodak's DVC323 and Vista Imaging's VICAM. Each has excellent features, which we will be reviewing soon. Broadband Internet Access - This is a complex, fast-evolving subject. I've started an article on it at least four times in recent months, only to have new developments change the picture. I think I have a handle on it now, but would like to hear any experiences you have had with cable, DSL, wireless of ISDN. Opening Cable Access - This deserves its own separate treatment. Cable companies have valid arguments against opening access through their expensive new cable infrastructure. Proponents of opening cable access to other providers have their own arguments (often hypocritical ones, I might add). I've studied the situation carefully and will give you my in-depth take on it ASAP. Copyright 1999 by Ken Fermoyle, Fermoyle Publications. Ken Fermoyle has written some 2,500 articles for publications ranging from Playboy and Popular Science to MacWeek, Microtimes & PC Laptop. Ken's Korner, a syndicated monthly column, is available free to User Groups. For information or permission to reprint this article, contact kfermoyle@earthlink.net.