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nögi News, Volume 1, Issue 2 February 4 1995
The Bulletin of NEXTSTEP/OpenStep User Groups International
CONTENTS
I. INTRODUCTION
II. ANNOUNCEMENTS
A. Special Interest Groups
B. nögi Web page
C. 1994 nögi Community Service Award Nominations
III. NEWS
A. Expo Cancellation
B. nögi Sightings
C. nögi Exec Report
IV. CONCLUSION
Appendix I. nögi Membership Application
Appendix II. Press Releases
A. Expo and Dev Cons
B. WebPages by Pages
I. Introduction
Welcome to the second issue of nögi News. We have finally incorporated all the mailing lists we have inherited from NeXT. This bulletin is intended to keep nögi members and other user groups advised of the activities of nögi, your international user group federation.
You are encouraged to forward copies of this to your user group, and other interested parties, to keep them linked in to the worldwide NeXT community. We will try to bring you this bulletin at least quarterly, as well as send out other announcements as circumstances warrant. To be added (or removed) from this list, .
If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, contact the nögi President (and newsletter editor), .
II. Announcements
nögi Special Interest Groups
In order to improve communication between users interested in various topics, nögi has setup two sets of mailing lists for Special Interest Groups:
Publishing and Multimedia (nextpub)
Educational and Scientific (nexted)
These lists are open to anyone who is interested: users, vendors, developers, etc. Their mission is to provide encouragement, technical advice, and feedback to people involved in these fields.
Through the wizardry of Dimitri Tischenko, nögi's mail czar, we have setup a system for automatically converting NeXTMail to ascii, depending on which sublist you sign up for. Therefore, register by sending a message with:
subscribe FirstName LastName
in the body to:
Educational and Scientific:
nexted-nm-request@negen.twi.tudelft.nl (NeXTMail)
or nexted-ascii-request@negen.twi.tudelft.nl (ASCII)
Publishing and Multimedia:
nextpub-nm-request@negen.twi.tudelft.nl (NeXTMail)
or nextpub-ascii-request@negen.twi.tudelft.nl (ASCII)
Simply use {nextpub,nexted}@negen.twi.tudelft.nl to send mail to the respective lists, and the software will handle the translation and forwarding automatically.
nögi is happy to sponsor additional groups like these, given sufficient interest. Contact nugi@negen.twi.tudelft.nl for more details, or if you have problems signing up.
B. nögi Web Page
With the help of Scott Anguish at Stepwise, we finally have a nögi web page: !
The information there is pretty spotty, but it is a start. There are links to other User Group web pages. We hope to eventually maintain StepWise's database of user groups, and provide more user group information via web links.
Rohit Khare, nögi Web Czar, is also spearheading an effort by several NEXTSTEP developers to coordinate support for Web information: URLs, HTML, etc. If you are involved in developing Web-aware applications under NEXTSTEP, you can join the effort. Check out for more information.
With the upcoming release of WebPages by (see article below), NEXTSTEP has a chance to reassert itself as the foremost platform for WorldWideWeb publishing. The fact that now publicizes its own web server is also a positive sign.
C. 1994 nögi Community Service Award Nominations
In these days of diminishing ISV presence, NEXTSTEP users are increasingly reliant on shareware and freeware developers to provide them with useful tools. Fortunately, the NEXTSTEP community is blessed with a large number of talented and generous individuals and organizations that have enhanced our lives by their work. To honor them, nögi announces the 1994 Community Service Awards. The Award(s) will be given to recognize the best service/product provided free (or nearly so) to the NEXTSTEP Community during 1994.
All members of the NEXTSTEP community are encouraged to submit nominations. The finalists will be voted on by the nögi Assembly. The results will be announced on the NeXT newsgroups, and there will probably be an awards ceremony at the International User Group Program (wherever that is).
All submissions become the property of nögi, and may be excerpted as part of the awards process. The decisions of the Assembly are final.
The only rules are:
- The product/service must be free or nominally priced
- It must have been done/released during 1994
- nögi officers are not eligible
(such as Rohit Khare, author of eText)
Please nominate as many entities as you like, in as many categories as you can think of. Feel free to provide a _brief_ explanation of why the awardee deserves the prize. Here are a few sample categories to get you started:
Developer Tools
kits, palettes
Application Software
programs, filters
Community Service
information, tech support, administration
Community Development
meetings, parties, seminars
Please, feel free to write in your own! Send your nominations to:.
III. News
A. Expo Cancellation & Developer Conferences
In early January, NeXT and DCI announced the cancellation of NEXTSTEP Expo (formerly NEXTWORLD Expo) [see press release, below]. Instead, they announced they would hold a series of regional Developer Conferences and major cities "throughout North America and Europe." This would probably be along the lines of last fall, which was held in partnership with the local developer and consultant community.
This resulted in a great deal of speculation on the comp.sys.next.advocacy newsgroup regarding motives and consequences. Based on sources within NeXT, the main reason for canceling Expo was that it was not cost-effective at bringing in new customers. The hope is that the regional conferences will be more likely to bring new blood into the NEXTSTEP market.
Whether or not this is true, the question remains as to what will happen to the other activities which meant so much to us ªexistingº customers: the International User Group conference, the Software Exhibition, and of course the infamous Stone Rave. nögi has been in consultation with NeXT, DCI, and Stone Design, as well as numerous ISVs (independent software vendors). Our focus is on finding a forum for users and developers from around the world to interact with each other. At this time it is not clear if there is any demand for an Expo-style exhibition.
Currently, our best option appears to be to hold the International User Group Conference and Stone Rave in conjunction with the San Francisco Developer's Conference, to give our members the best approximation of the feel of the old Expo. DCI and Andy Stone have been very supportive, and we have gotten some positive feedback from NeXT, but no firm commitments.
At the same time, we wish to encourage local user groups to coordinate user group programs in conjunction with Regional Developer Conferences. NeXT has not publicized a list at this time, but likely spots include sites of last year's presentations: San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, Dallas, and Germany. NeXUS, our Japanese member, is looking into the possibility of a Japan conference with Canon. nögi will pass along any information as soon as possible. We encourage you to contact your local NeXT sales reps and NEXTSTEP vendors to start discussion options for user group participation in such conferences.
B. nögi Sightings
The cancellation of Expo also resulted the first mention of nögi in a mainstream publication. The January 16th, 1995 COMPUTERWORLD had a article about reaction to NeXT's cancellation of Expo, entitled ªDevelopers blast decision to drop Expo.º It was written by Kim Nash, who had interviewed me earlier about other matters. It was drawn largely from USENET posts, which goes to show that the world is watching!
Below that was a box subtitled ªLashing out at Nextº which had three quotes, including:
ªMaybe there weren't enough ISVs to fill [Moscone Center]. There aren't that many left.º Ð Ernie Prabhakar, president of NextStep/OpenStep User Group International.
No mention was made of our efforts to put together some kind of replacement.
Of course, nögi has been prominently featured on the back page of NeXT-In-Line, the quarterly community magazine published by Rob Wyatt and other denizens of the Net. As President of nögi, Ernie has a commentary column entitled ªThe LaST Wordº. He has also been asked to write an article for the May or June Dr. Dobb's Journal on Portable Distributed Objects (PDO), in response to an article on Interoperable Objects in their Winter Special Report.
C. nögi Exec Report
President's Report, February 3rd, 1995
nögi Activities for the last few months include:
a) User Group Database
and have been working to update our information on the number and size of user groups around the world. This is intended to give other user groups a better understanding of what is out there, as well as provide us with greater leverage in dealing with NeXT. Wendy Mattson of BaNG has also provided assistance with California groups, and may be joining the Exec.
b) User Group Communication
This has primarily involved setting up Special Interest Groups and Web Sites to aid users in finding information [see above]. nögi Assembly members Rohit Khare (SCaN) and Dimitri Tischenko (NeGEN) have both been extremely helpful in this area.
Other information that people have been asking for include:
- User Group Resources: presentations, ideas, demos, etc. - Skill Registry: for developers/consultants to advertise their services [possibly including free technical support to user groups]
Scott Anguish of StepWise has been generous in his assistance, but there is more that could be done if we had more human and computer resources. If you would be interested in helping setup or maintain services like these, please contact nögi.
c) Publicity
As President, I have been involved in writing letters and articles to magazines, newsgroups, and NeXT itself. As an outgrowth of this, I have gained the recognition and support of a large number of NeXT employees, although without much visible fruit. The next major project for the Exec is to write a letter to Steve Jobs requesting that he recognize nögi as a valued customer. As a representative of many users, we desire the same treatment and access as large corporate customers do.
Making a case for this, and determining what exactly to ask far, is a tricky and delicate job! It will take some time to do the research and writing necessary to pull it off. Currently Jackie and Ernie are drafting a proposal, but it will ultimately go before the full Exec, and possibly the Assembly, for comment and approval.
d) Vendor discussions
In the absence of any organized vendor organization, nögi officers have recently found themselves acting as a clearinghouse for vendor information and cooperation. Of particular note is Rohit Khare's efforts in building the WebStep standards body for Web-related development under NEXTSTEP. To date, this has all taken place informally, without any formal nögi involvement. Given that many users are developers, and even vendors (not to mention vice versa), we may wish to set up some mechanism for development issues like standards, and perhaps even some form of vendor membership.
IV. Conclusion
The loss of Expo and Darren Smith, as well as other traumas, have made this a difficult six months for the user community. However, there appears to a be a second generation of user group leaders arising, and emergence of web publishing may breathe new life into the non-MCCA NeXT community. If we can improve our communication and mutual support, we may yet make 1995 a turnaround year for the NeXT community.
Sincerely,
-- Ernie Prabhakar
nögi President
APPENDIX B. PRESS RELEASES
These are provided solely as background material, and do not imply endorsement of the products or companies mentioned by nögi or any of its officers.
These are the contents of the former NiCE NeXT User Group NeXTSTEP/OpenStep software archive, currently hosted by Netfuture.ch.