At 09:42 AM 6/5/97 -0500, Jerry Fochtman wrote:

<a bunch of very good stuff snipped>

Thanks for your insightful comments.  I appreciate you taking the time
to educate us on the inner workings on Interex.  You mentioned that there
has been times when it has been considered to have Interex become
a publications-only organization.  I would like to suggest the opposite.
If Interex were to drop all hardcopy publications and go strictly to
web publishing maybe they would stand a chance at remaining (becoming?)
profitable.

It seems to me that, because it's so very expensive to put out these
publications, the only feasible thing for them to do is to move to
web publishing.  Interact magazine is a ghost of its former self and
this isn't entirely Interex's fault.  The quality and quantity of the
articles has dramatically fallen over the years.  Back in the "old days",
it was a highlight of my month to get the Interact magazine.  We used
to fight over who would read it first (then we all got lives!).
Seriously, it was a very important part of my professional development
to get and devour the magazine every month.

Nowadays, I usually read the magazine in five minutes and throw it
away.  I find that the Newswire has far more relevant 3000 stuff
(to use Denys' technical term) than does Interact.  For cross-platform
information, other magazines are more relevant than in Interact.

As a (possibly) rhetorical question:  If it is so expensive to do the
fancy-schmancy magazines, and the profit margin is so small, why on
earth does a users group need to stay in the publications business?

If the answer is to get the "message" out to its constituency, doesn't
the web offer a much more affordable and accessible vehicle for that?

If the answer is to finance the organization, I would say: "HELLO MCFLY,
IT ISN'T WORKING!"

If it is to give vendors a vehicle for advertising, I would say: "HELLO
MCFLY, IT ISN'T WORKING!" and "isn't the web a much more affordable and
accessible vehicle for that?".

Isn't it time for Interex to return to its charter, develop a new set
of competencies (relevant and engageable for the late 1990's) and
implement them aggressively???

On a related issues, I would say that many of these issues are directly
applicable to Interex's related trade shows and user group meetings.  In
the last 6-7 years, I have been to nearly 100 different Interex/RUG user
group meetings.  It is clear to me that these shows/meetings are waning in
their appeal.  Every show, except for the annual HP World conference, has
seen significant drop in attendence.  I recently attended a conference where
one of the key speakers in the MPE track had exactly four people in his
talk!  This is a far cry from the 1982 Compucon (NOWRUG) conference in
Seattle which had 2,000 people and 400 vendors (everyone knows vendors
aren't people :-) ).  As far as the HP World conference growth, can we all
admit
that its growth has little to do with the 3000 (loathe though I am to say
it)???

Jerry's point about being part of the solution is well taken.  Let me
say, though, that I have offered, and have been declined, but that's
another story.

My last point is that if Interex is having a hard time being profitable,
is it going to get easier or harder for a small organization to keep
its high goals???


Bill Lancaster