<<> A good portion of the cause is what you're reading now. The rise
of the
        > internet and the HP3000-L has clearly obsoleted a lot of the
reason for a
        > local user group meeting.
        [snip]
        > Times change. To my mind, the days of the local user group
meetings were --
        > more or less -- the dark ages.

        Personally, I disagree with this assessment.>>


What he said. Though I'd probably phrase it as "strongly, violently,
jumping-up-and-down disagree..."

        <<hp3000-L is certainly a very valuable asset to the HP 3000
community, as (nearly?) all who read this would agree.  But it does not
replace user group meetings.

        For some needs, this medium suffices quite nicely.  For
others--including, for example, product demos and technical tutorials--it
simply cannot replace the effectiveness of a face-to-face (or
face-to-technology ;) meeting.>>


Plus the simple human value of seeing the other person in the flesh. With
the ever-increasing depersonalization of our relationships thanks to
telephone, electronic mail, and the 'Net, the value of real-live
seeing/hearing/touching/other -ings as agreed upon by consenting adults
becomes more significant than ever. If user-group meetings are an
anachronism, so is IPROF, since the same discussions could be held over
electronic links.

People don't create and use things like videoconferencing and Web-based
phone calls because they're "cool"; frequently, they're an inconvenient
lousy-performing hack. But we recognize, whether we know it or not, the
value of actually experiencing the physical interaction with the other
people involved and, even when real physical co-location is not an option,
try to simulate it as closely as possible. But the "real thing" is what we
want, and that is what user-group meetings and IPROF give us.

Steve