There’s always something going on at a Macintosh User Group (MUG) near you, and this week we’re going to highlight a few important events. First up is a presentation by Ted Lindsey, a computer scientist for the FBI, who will stop by the San Diego Macintosh User Group (SDMUG) on Wednesday, March 3.
Lindsey will cover two aspects of cyber crime: protecting your personal information from identity theft and safeguarding your Mac against malicious software. The presentation starts at 7:00 p.m., after a general Q&A session at 6:30. Admission is free. SDMUG meets at Cox Communications, 5651 Copley Drive, San Diego. More information and directions can be found on their Web site.
Meanwhile, if you’re in Texas, you may want to stop by the Cowtown Macintosh Users Group on Tuesday, March 9, where Adobe demo master Terry White will show off the new Adobe Creative Suite. He’ll put Photoshop CS, GoLive CS, Illustrator CS, and other graphics tools through their paces as he shows off what’s been added to them for the Creative Suite editions.
The event will be held from 6:30-9:00 p.m. at the University of North Texas Health Science Center, 3500 Camp Bowie, Fort Worth. More information, including a map, is available on the CMUG Web site.
White’s appearance is mentioned at the MUG Center, where editor-in-chief Chuck Joiner (president of the Hershey AppleCore user group ) offers a weekly overview of happenings at MUGs all over the world. He leads off the news this week with his audio-based User Group Report, which features Shawn King of Your Mac Life announcing a special offer for user group members, Nicholas Pyers offering an overview of Australian MUG AUSOM, and Oriana Mellot and Eddy Nivens of the Charlotte Apple Computer Club discussing a leadership conflict in their group and tips for avoiding the same in yours. The User Group Report is available in streaming QuickTime and downloadable MP3 formats.
Joiner also notes that Graeme Moffatt, the Apple Regional Liaison for Oceania, recently filed a new RL Dispatch highlighting what’s going on with user groups in his part of the world. He mentions that a new group just started in Toowoomba in Queensland. Apple Regional Liaisons are user group leaders who volunteer to assist other groups in their area and let Apple know what the local needs are.
Closer to home, the Arizona State University Macintosh User Group (ASUMUG) will hold a “Birds of a Feather” session on Tuesday, March 16, during the 24th annual Microcomputers in Education Conference (MEC). The session will be held from 3:15-4:15 p.m. Its purpose is to bring together like-minded educators who use Apple technology in their professional personal lives. Apple Distinguished Educator Barnaby Wasson will facilitate.
MEC is expected to draw over 1,500 K-12 teachers and administrators, as well as university educators, who will attend hundreds of technology-oriented presentations from March 15-17. Highlights include a keynote by Apple’s vice-president of education, John Couch, day-long pre-conference workshops covering Final Cut Pro 4, Mac OS X for Lab Managers, and Dreamweaver MX 2004, and the iCademy Digital Film Festival, which features education-oriented short films by K-12 students.
Other upcoming user group events include Apple’s Barrett Thomson presenting to the Virginia Macintosh Users Group on Monday, March 1, the online User Group Leader Chat at the World Without Borders Web site on March 2, Santa Fe Macintosh Users Group’s 10th anniversary celebration on March 3, and more. You can learn more about those events, as well as everything else happening this month, at the MUG Center’s online calendar.
And if you’re interested in learning more about user groups, some of which are more general in natural and some of which cover specific applications, you can visit Apple’s user group page to learn more and find one near you.