News from the MUG Center

The Macintosh User Group (MUG) Center posts a weekly round-up of events and other news that’s important to user groups around the country. This week’s edition covers user group member comments about Macworld Conference & Expo, important information about online copyrights, David Pogue’s free ‘iLife ’04 Mini Manual” and more.

MUGs are always a big part of Macworld, complete with a User Group University that offers useful presentations for user group leaders, and several members offer comments about the show at the top of The MUG Center’s main page this week. Available in either QuickTime or MP3 formats, the comments include Joe Fergesun, from The Rest of Us, discussing how his group is able to meet at the Chicago Apple Store, Circus Ponies’ Elizabeth Statmore recalling an unusual display of support following one of the demos during Steve Jobs’ keynote and more.

MUG Center editor Chuck Joiner also offers some helpful advice for user group leaders in the form of a link to Brad Templeton’s “10 Big Myths About Copyright Explained,” which dispels such notions as “If I don’t charge for it, it’s not a violation.” Joiner also recommends it as a possible user group meeting topic, in addition to free copies of New York Times tech columnist David Pogue’s “iLife ’04 Mini Manual,” which publisher O’Reilly has made available as a free download in PDF format.

Pogue’s 56-page guide made its debut at User Group University San Francisco ’04, which was held during last month’s Macworld Expo. The MUG Center now has syllabus materials and MP3 audio files from all eight hours of presentations ready for download. Topics covered included “Attracting Youth to User Groups,” “Plan Your Meeting Topics Up to a Year in Advance,” and more.

Finally, The MUG Center made available this week the latest Apple Regional Liaison Dispatch as well as January vendor offers for user groups, which include Office Applications for Mac OS X (based on the OpenOffice.org package), a 25 percent discount from Hemera Technologies for several of its products, and more.

If you’d like to learn more about Macintosh User Groups and possibly find one in your area, you can do so at The MUG Center or at the User Groups page on Apple’s Web site.