jima@tekchips.UUCP (Jim Alexander) (10/16/86)
The following is a report of the efforts to begin a world-wide Smalltalk user's group. The first meetings were held at the recent OOPSLA conference and were open to all comers. Anyone interested in being included on the mailing list or taking part in the organizational effort can contact: SMUG c/o James Alexander Computer Research Laboratory Tektronix - M/S 50-662 PO Box 500 Beaverton, OR 97077 Name suggestions are welcome! ----------------------------------------------------------------- Report of the Smalltalk Users Group (SMUG) Organizational Meetings at OOPSLA-86 Jim Alexander (acting secretary) Jeff McKenna (coordinator) Forty-one Smalltalk users met on Wednesday, October 1 at OOPSLA to discuss the creation of a Smalltalk Users Group (SMUG). The initial meeting, led by Jeff McKenna, consisted of a discussion of group interests and the initial sugges- tions for organization of the group. A second session, held the following morning, was a meeting of the SMUG steering committe. Anyone interested in being a member of the steer- ing committee was welcome to attend this meeting. The steering committee was assigned the task of setting up the users group. This document summarizes the two meetings. 1. Initial Meeting 1.1 Group Interests The group agreed that SMUG should be a vendor indepen- dent organization, thus serving as a unifying and guiding force for Smalltalk users from all vendor sources. Coin- cident with this, SMUG should serve as a guiding force on the development of Smalltalk as a language and should be active in the development of future versions of Smalltalk (i.e., LV3). Attendees voiced their opinions of the function that SMUG could fulfill, and the primary concern was that SMUG be a communication clearing house for information about Smalltalk and its use. The communications that the group would provide would be best presented in two means: + Newsletter + Electronic bulletin board. The topics that might be covered in these vehicles were: + Applications - Announcement and discussion of systems developed in Smalltalk. + Research - Discussion on research in OOL in general and Smalltalk in particular + Public modules - Dissemination of handy code (goodies) to all members. + Technical Support - Providing advice from vendors and users for the maintenance of a Smalltalk system. Finally, SMUG should take an active role in promoting Smalltalk to non-Smalltalk users. 1.2 Organization Organization of SMUG was left to the steering committee which was charged with ensuring that the organization encourage local user groups as well as the national user group. The steering committee was charged with deciding on: + corporate/individual membership requirements + funding + affiliation 1.3 Communication systems SMUG will communicate with its members through a newsletter and bulletin board, though there was much discus- sion of which should be the driving force. Three options: + Bulletin board would be the main communication mechan- ism, with the newsletter being a summary vehicle. + Bulletin board and newsletter would be largely indepen- dent, with day to day discussion on the bulletin board and more formal papers in the newsletter. + A combination of the two. 1.4 Funding It is clear that an organization like this will need a fair amount of funding. Three sources were suggested + Seed money - from vendors and/or organizations like ACM + Membership Dues + Newsletter/Bulletin board subscriptions 2. Steering Committee Meeting Seventeen people appeared at the steering committee meeting, on Thursday, October 2 (8 am). The steering com- mittee agreed to concentrate on three topics initially: + Organization structure of SMUG + Creation of a Smalltalk newsletter + Creation of a Smalltalk bulletin board Forty-five minutes of active discussion of these issues was followed by the creation of three sub-committees, one for each topic, responsible for the completion of the deci- sions. A schedule of events was set, and Jeff McKenna volun- teered to serve as coordinator for the three groups until the organization was ready to take care of itself. The dis- cussion of the three areas will be summarized in order. 2.1 Organizational Issues Members: Jim Alexander, Nanette Harter, Martin McClure, Jeff McKenna, Steve Thompson, Reiner van Oosten, Alexander Ward (contact for legal issues) The official organization of SMUG will involve the creation of an administrative structure, writing of by-laws, the gathering of funds and possibly the attraction of a parent affiliation. Apparently the first and most critical step in the creation of an organization like SMUG is to create a set of by-laws that will allow SMUG to be classi- fied as a non-profit organization. The creation of by-laws is also necessary for attracting a parent affiliation. Second the organizational committee must set down the guiding purpose of SMUG. For now, the organization will oversee the production of the newsletter and bulletin board, but eventually might become a missionary organization and/or a driving force in the development of Smalltalk as a produc- tion language. In addition, the organizational committee must decide on the means to attract members and the obligation of memberships. Finally the Organizational committee is charged with finding funding methods. Seed funds can often be acquired from large organizations like ACM, though there are often many restrictions which may be attached to such a possibil- ity. Smalltalk vendors are another possible source of seed funds. Tektronix has already expressed some interest in providing funds to maintain SMUG in the embryonic stages. Eventually the organization should maintain itself through membership fees, and corporate affiliation fees. The organ- izational committee should identify the mechanism for attracting members and affiliates. 2.2 Bulletin board Members: Pieter van der Meulen, Trygve Reenskalig, Phillip Wayne The creation of an Electronic Bulletin board is seen as a major need for the viability of SMUG. The BB should be accessible from most common nets which would be available to members. In addition there should be an effective gateway to Europe and Japan. European members saw the BB as critical for their active participation in SMUG. Phillip Wayne volunteered to begin investigating mechanisms for immediate start up of the network. Currently there is net.lang.st80 on the Unix network which may serve as a model. However, some members expressed an interest in controlling the BB in a way that only SMUG members would have access to it. Funding of such a BB would be another issue. The BB Committee will investigate and report on the start-up and maintenance costs. Proposals are to examine using existing networks (i.e.,CompuServe, ARPA, USENET) and identify possible gateways and individuals to transfer the news between networks. 2.3 News Letter Members: Jerry Archibold, Sam Adams, Jean Bezivic, Norm Kerth, Rene Plouvde, Alexander Ward The newsletter committee will gather information on the startup and production costs of the SMUG Newsletter. In addition it will be charged with identifying the nature of the newsletters contents, sources of articles and create an editorial policy for inclusion in the letter. Initial suggestions were that the newsletter be infor- mal and follow the pattern of the newsletter currently edited by Xerox Parc/Parc Place. However the difference would be that this newsletter would not be oriented exclusively towards Smalltalk-80 but would include Smalltalk-V and other versions of Smalltalk. Possible topics in the letter could be research reports, application studys and summaries of the BB (a la Bix in Byte). 2.4 Time-line The following is the time-line for action by the steering committee: + October 15 - Report of meeting + December 1 - Initial sub-committee reports delivered to Jeff McKenna + January 15 - Bulletin Board in place + February 1 - By-laws draft. + February 1 - Membership plan/Call for members + March 1 - First Newsletter Publication