Club Database
Regional user groups (UK)
Club DatabaseRegional user groups (UK) |
|
| Club name |
RISC OS North West User Group (RONWUG) formerly Manchester Acorn User Group (MAUG) |
|
| Contact | John Cartmell | |
| Address |
30 Finnybank Road
Sale Cheshire M33 6LR |
|
| Telephone | 0161 969 9820 | |
| info@ronwug.org | ||
| Web site | http://www.ronwug.org/ | |
| Meeting place |
Trafford Metrovick Rugby and Cricket Club
Finnybank Road Sale Cheshire |
 Map also available as a Draw file
|
| Meeting dates | 3rd Wednesday of the month, 6:00pm to 10:30pm | |
| Members | 115 | |
| Subscription | Free | |
| Coverage | Greater Manchester, Cheshire, Lancashire, Yorkshire, Merseyside and Cumbria! | |
Following a proposal by the committee of the Manchester Acorn User Group (MAUG), and an overwhelming vote by its members, the group has changed its name to the RISC OS North West User Group (RONWUG).
MAUG was originally founded by Tommy Lowe and dgs in 1997, and Acorn visited us twice within our first few months of existence. So it is not without some regret that we abandon the Acorn name as part of the title of the group; it was retained for some years as the most useful reference point for the existing Acorn community, even after the demise of Acorn itself.
It is now time for the group to move on from that name, particularly as the RISC OS market evolves and as there are now several different companies selling new RISC OS 4-based products which do not bear the Acorn brand name.
The change in name of the group also reflects the fact that, whilst our venue remains only 15 minutes' tram ride from the centre of Manchester (and a few hundred yards from Manchester's M60 orbital motorway), regular visitors (and speakers) come from a wide range of locations including Liverpool, Preston, Lancaster and West Yorkshire.
Note: details of our new venue and meeting structure are provided below.
It should be pointed out that, even though MAUG has had a lot fewer events than more established user groups, I haven't described all MAUG events here, but just an overview of some of the things that have happened...
Mike Wilson (a member of the Wakefield Acorn Computer Group, just across the Pennines) responded, "I know that Mancunians think that their city is the hub of the universe, a view for which they do have some justification, but as has been pointed out, it is sadly deficient so far as an Acorn User Group is concerned."
He helpfully went on to list some local contacts, including Desktop Projects in Stockport, the Liverpool User Group, and of course the Wakefield group just across the M62, but Tommy Lowe quickly accepted the challenge, offering to start a user group "providing I get more than say twenty replies"; words that later became somewhat ironic, with fifteen names on the list within three weeks (without any mention other than on Usenet), and over a hundred in less than a year. (The list of "local" contacts has been considerably expanded at our Web site, by the way; please tell us if you have anything to add!)
The thread subsequently gained almost a life of its own (albeit not so much as some in comp.sys.acorn.misc) with heated discussion of the Liverpool group's choice of location, involving luminaries such as Kai Andersen, and even a discussion of how to get to Manchester by canal boat (the MAUG Web site already includes genuine details of arrival by car, train, bus, and tram, and we'll add plane and boat in due course).
SASAUG (Surrey and Sussex Acorn User Group) had also contributed some inspiration, with its near-instant setup, energetic organisation, and use of the Internet providing an excellent example. Stuart Bell, who provided a great deal of SASAUG's initial Usenet-based energy, was later found to be far too energetic even for the RISC OS world, and was sentenced to using an Apple Macintosh for the rest of his life.
Tommy had pointed out that he had "no ideas for a venue," but a wide variety of helpful suggestions for rooms (some prompted by our first printed mention, which we believe was in The ARM Club's Eureka magazine) were soon narrowed down to those put forward by Manchester's extremely resourceful (not to mention numerous!) student community. MAUG aims to represent everyone from the furthest reaches of Cumbria and Yorkshire to the most central parts of Wales, of course.
The initial venue, therefore, was at Manchester Metropolitan University, arranged by Andy Wall. This was to be the first of an endless series of excellent (and free) venues arranged by students and student bodies, with Manchester University Students' Union (and in particular its Computer Society) taking care of the next meeting, not to mention (later) the Web site hosting, mailing lists, audio-visual equipment, refreshments, security, in-meeting ethernet connectivity, and a great many other things besides.
MAUG's close relationship with local universities continued, with more meetings taking place at MMU (this time after direct appeals to helpful site administrators in Andy's absence), and a great many at UMU. An entire series of UMU Computer Society committee members and ex-committee members provided (and continue to provide) just about all facilities that the group could need.
Right from the start, MAUG didn't believe in bureaucracy. SASAUG had told us they hadn't seen a need for formal minutes and suchlike; in the pub after the first MAUG meeting, it was decided (by apathy) that we didn't even need a committee. In fact, MAUG was run without a committee (probably unwisely!) from mid-1997 until the very end of 1998, when I wrote to the MAUG discussion list saying that "MAUG has for too long been organised by people with too little time and too little physical presence in Manchester." The committee has been an essential part of MAUG ever since, even though current committee members are over-stretched, and we would like more. (Contact us...)
Quite apart from these mainstream legends, MAUG has also been involved with bringing some of the most interesting RISC OS systems into the sight (and grasp!) of ordinary RISC OS users. Dr Colin Wright of Denridge Digital moved MAUG to DEFCON 1 by his last-minute proposal to bring sophisticated radar display systems to the meeting earmarked for Roy Heslop of RiscStation Ltd. The wholly RISC OS-based radar system impressed everyone there, even before Roy gave a sneak preview of RiscStation Ltd's ambitious plans. Gob-smacked RISC OS enthusiasts were still recalling the event on Usenet weeks later, and quite rightly too.
After some (but not much!) prompting from MAUG, Denridge went on to the RISC OS '99 show, alongside MAUG exhibits that included the bright yellow three-slice 287MHz StrongARM Risc PC (the yellow includes all of the non-connector parts of the numerous backplanes, CD-ROM drives, etc.) owned by Dan Maloney, and Tommy Lowe's system which included video capture equipment and (once it got there!) the Risc PC pizza oven slice. It certainly made for a very interesting AAUG stand, especially as there was already another radar exhibit there, based partly on RISC OS and partly on ARM Linux.
A similarly interesting (albeit slightly more planned) agenda occupied our second meeting, with MAUG homing in on Usenet controversy between two of the best mail/newsreaders around. Jonathan Duddington (known to many as jsd) turned up to describe Pluto, and Stuart Marshall bravely offered to represent and demonstrate Messenger (which has since grown a Pro version).
The decision to attempt to demonstrate two such capable packages in a single night has since been questioned, with even a basic description of Pluto (plus questions) taking well over two hours (it's grown considerably since), but MAUG members certainly found the combination interesting. No suggestion that Internet software in the RISC OS market is a two-horse race, though; preparations for Paul Vigay's visit (ArgoNet ANT support) continue apace at the time of writing, including the questions!
No preamble or later explanation was needed for Professor Steve Furber's visit; he was already lecturer to many of our student members, and a recognised guru to many of the others. (We managed to keep book-signing requests to a minimum.) His call for a show of hands revealed the substantial proportion of MAUG members who are already seasoned ARM assembler programmers (quite gratifying to one of the two inventors of the original ARM chip!), but the remainder were equally keen to hear the details of Steve's ongoing work on the asynchronous ARM processor.
One of the other significant things about MAUG remains the fact that it is one of the few truly free user groups of its size; membership is free, meetings are free, et cetera. This is partly due to the Internet-based nature of the group (though we do welcome postal members too), and partly to the generosity and assistance of our sponsors and supporters.
MAUG is now very pleased to have arranged a more regular venue booking, which will allow us to hold meetings on the third Wednesday of every month. This will allow both members and committee to plan for events much further ahead!
Like a number of other user groups, we have also changed our evening programme to allow for additional general discussion, both before and after the main speaker or demonstration. This gives members a better chance to talk to each other, either individually or in groups, and to address a wide variety of RISC OS problems or topics, rather than just focusing on one area.
At the majority of meetings, there is up-to-date hardware running RISC OS 4, usually either a StrongARM Risc PC or a RiscStation (or both!), so do feel free to bring along software that you think might interest others (whether commercial, shareware or PD) for the more informal parts of the evening.
Our regular venue, therefore, is now the Trafford Metrovick Rugby and Cricket Club, just 15 minutes' tram ride from the centre of Manchester and a few hundred yards from Manchester's M60 orbital motorway.
By providing easy access from northern England's motorway network, we hope that the new venue will make meetings more accessible to those who wouldn't normally consider Manchester their "local" group! (We already have members as far east as Yorkshire, as far north as Cumbria, and south and west beyond the river Mersey.) If a particular meeting appeals to you, do check out the map and directions provided above, or contact us if you would like more information.
It is worth reminding everyone that entry to MAUG meetings is free, and you don't have to be "signed up" (in any sense) in order to come along. However, we do encourage you to let us have your contact details (whether email, postal address or phone number) so that we can keep you informed of future meetings. Do also remember to let us know if your email address changes.
The new programme for each evening is as follows:
| 6pm to 7pm: | Refreshments; general discussion |
| 7pm to 8pm: | General RISC OS news, discussion, problem-solving and software |
| 8pm: | Main presentation/demonstration |
|
9:30pm to 11:30pm: (approx.) |
Further discussion |
Of course, most members won't be able to reach the venue until 7:30pm or 8:30pm; nor is everyone likely to want to stay and talk after 9pm or 10pm! Do feel free to arrive or leave as early or late as you like.