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Press Release Archive, 1995
Defining On-Line and Its Options FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE The Capital PC User Group's Seminar on July 15, 1995, from 9:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m., features CPCUG instructor Greg Smith's presentation Defining On-line and Its Options. "On-line" means connection to other computers and on-line services, such as America Online, Compuserve, and the Internet. Admission to the seminar, in the Lipsett Auditorium at the NIH Bethesda campus, is open to the public and free. Mr. Smith will discuss the various aspects of on-line services. He will also evaluate the differences between America Online, Prodigy, Compuserve, Bulletin Boards, and especially the Internet. He will demonstrate each of these services and will show how each connects to popular communications services such as E-mail and the World Wide Web. There are differing pricing schemes and methods of operation for each service. We encourage attendees to bring questions and tips they may have that they can share with the others, since a significant portion of the time will be dedicated to open discussion and a question and answer period.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Rockville, MD, May 27, 1995 The Capital PC User Group announced today that membership now includes free Internet e-mail. With this tool members can send and receive electronic mail to and from anywhere in the world. While not the same as full Internet access, Internet e-mail is used by virtually everyone with an Internet account and for many people e-mail is the only feature they use.
Access to Internet e-mail is via the CPCUG electronic bulletin board, the Membership Information Exchange, or MIX. Based in Rockville, MD, and with an additional Virginia access number, the MIX is a local call from anywhere in the Washington Metropolitan area. Since CPCUG membership is family membership, all family members can establish their own MIX accounts and their own Internet e-mail addresses.
About the Capital PC User Group: The Capital PC User Group, Inc. (CPCUG) is a nonprofit all volunteer educational support organization for users of MS-DOS and compatible microcomputers. Established in 1982, the CPCUG has grown from fewer than 50 to more than 5,000 members, most of whom live in the Washington Metropolitan area. We provide a forum for PC users--from novice to expert--to share their experiences. The group offers 67 special interest groups, a monthly magazine, a 13-line bulletin board service, free Internet e-mail, and a forum for leaders in the personal computer industry to address the group's monthly meetings at the NIH in Bethesda, all for thirty-five dollars a year. The group also offers full Internet access, including the widely popular World Wide Web, at a very nominal additional monthly fee.
The Capital PC User Group, a volunteer organization with facilities in Rockville, MD, will offer connection with the National Electronic Open Meeting from May 1 to May 14. User Group volunteers, with computers and modems set up for public use, will be available at the group's offices to help anyone who wants to participate from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. weekdays.
The National Electronic Open Meeting is a way for the public to get their ideas and requests directly to government offices. The meeting will take place on the Internet, organized by the White House OMB and the Department of Commerce. A concern for many people is that access to this meeting not be restricted to an "electronically privileged class". The CPCUG will assist in providing universal access for all, where people who don't have on-line access--and who don't even have any experience with on-line services--can come to read what is going on in the discussions and to enter their own messages and opinions.
Callers can reach the Capital PC User Group at 301-762-9372. Nationwide, to find the closest public-access site to their location, people can call 1-800-881-6842 during the meeting, or 202-512-1530 before the meeting.
The discussions will take place in five "newsgroups" or discussion areas. Since participants can read and respond to all of the messages posted by other participants, the meeting can "run" 24 hours a day, with people participating whenever it's convenient for them. The discussion groups will be devoted to five broad topics about how governments and their citizens use new electronic media:
* Delivery of government services A number of Federal officials and policy-makers will participate or at least read the messages in each of these areas, so this electronic meeting will be a way for citizens to get their ideas in front of the people who can do something about them. The volunteers at the Capital PC User Group will help.
The hot computer topic these days is the Internet. Just what is it and what can it do for you? This seminar will provide an overview of the Internet and describe what you can do with it. Various types of information gathering tools available on the Internet will be discussed and demonstrated. There will be a question and answer period where you can get answers to questions you may have concerning both general aspects of the Internet and technical advice on how to get connected. Some of the topics that will be discussed at the seminar include:
* What can Internet e-mail do for you? This seminar is intended as an overview of the Internet for those who are not already online; it is not a step-by-step course. Come find out what this exciting, new era of communications is all about. No registration needed, it's free, just walk in.
LOCATION: Lipsett Auditorium, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD
The Capital PC User Group (CPCUG) announces an agreement between CPCUG and Millkern Communications, Inc. of Rockville, MD, to provide full Internet access at a discount to the user group's members. The move benefits computer users in the Washington, DC, area because it allows the two organizations to offer individual rates significantly lower than any other Internet service provider in the region. Access is through the user group's own "domain" on the Internet, called CPCUG.ORG. Just over 500 CPCUG members now avail themselves of Internet access via the CPCUG domain.
Rich Schinnell, the group's president, said, "Access to the Internet, and computer literacy in general, have more relevance to more people than ever before, because of the Clinton Administration's strong push to get the `information superhighway' out to the general public. Offering inexpensive access to the Internet is a natural step in our efforts to help our members get more productivity and more enjoyment out of their computer use."
In support of CPCUG.ORG, the CPCUG offers the "Slipkit," a collection of shareware Windows Internet utilities already set up for the CPCUG account. This includes the Trumpet Winsock and Netscape, a World Wide Web browser that is the successor to Mosaic.
Recent reductions in user support in the computer software industry are leading to a resurgence of a social phenomenon from early in the history of the personal computer era: user groups. The reason? Lower software prices. Formerly, many software vendors offered unlimited, free technical support, but free support was a casualty of the software price wars.
Randy Steer, membership services director for the 4,700-member Capital PC User Group (CPCUG), observed, "User groups like ours were first formed in the early 1980s, with a philosophy of `users helping users.' That was because the industry hadn't yet created a good support system. In recent years, I think many people felt that they had less need for this type of help; they could just call the vendor, and it was free. Now, with the industry moving to fee-based support, that can get very expensive for individuals. As a result, we're seeing a resurgence of user groups like the CPCUG. We've already noticed an upward trend in our membership over the past six months."
The demise of such service leaves a significant "support gap" for many users. Some users, who are willing and able to pay for annual support contracts that often cost more than $100 per year per software package, can still telephone the vendors for help.
Other users will have to look elsewhere. One such source of help in the Washington, D.C., area is the Capital PC User Group, a volunteer, not-for-profit organization that has been active since 1982. Its members include all levels of expertise, from novices to power-users to system administrators.
The Capital PC User Group, which has offices and teaching space in Rockville, MD, holds monthly general-interest meetings in Bethesda, Springfield, Reston, and Baltimore. It also holds more than 20 "special interest group" (SIG) meetings each month to help users learn more about specific applications and programs, offers classes and weekend seminars, and hosts demonstrations of competing hardware and software products, called Product Showcases.
Rich Schinnell, the group's president, notes "These meetings help people keep up with new product developments and get a sense of how competing products stack up against each other. But with the changes in industry's product-support policies, the mutual-support aspects of CPCUG and all user groups are probably going to be more important.
"We have more than 70 discussion areas on our bulletin-board system, and most of them are dedicated to exchanging tips and information about using different categories of PC hardware and software. We also have dozens of members who are listed in our magazine as `Helpline' volunteers, and they'll answer questions by phone for other members. In fact we're expanding the coverage and number of volunteers in the Helpline right now. And some of the SIGs [special interest groups], like our WordPerfect and desktop publishing SIGs, will be really helpful to people after their free support period runs out," Schinnell added.
For more information on the Capital PC User Group, computer users can call (301) 762-9372 between 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. weekdays, or can use their computer and modem to call the group's computer bulletin board at (301) 738-9060.
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