Chuck Joiner’s Macintosh User Group (MUG) Center Web site serves as a continuously-updated clearinghouse for MUG news from around the world, and this week he offers information about the July edition of “Breen’s Bungalow,” the user group-only version. Breen, who is an editor at Macworld magazine, puts together the QuickTime video tutorial every month and includes it in the resource CD found in newsstand copies of the publication. He also creates a special version just for user groups, however, and in this one he talks about his favorite “cool applications,” which are some of the interesting-but-obscure tools available online. Visit the MUG Center to find out how to distribute “Breen’s Bungalow” to your user group.
Joiner also notes this week that Campus MovieFest, a coordinated inter-college event that grew out of iMovieFest, now features on its Web site the best movies from the more than 400 submitted by filmmaking crews at eight campuses in the Atlanta area. Campus MovieFest has also posted plans to bring the event to Boston in September and San Francisco later this year. Many colleges and universities have Macintosh User Groups that can band together to create their own entry.
Finally, the MUG Center now lists the latest vendor discounts being offered to user groups — including specials from BeLight Software, Total Training, CMS Products and others — and features a report from Yan Feng, Apple Regional Liaison for Asia (except Japan), who covers user group activities in mainland China, a new Mac magazine and more.
Elsewhere on the Internet, the Los Angeles Final Cut Pro User Group (LAFCPUG) is currently asking all Final Cut Pro users to stop by the organization’s Web site and vote for the top 10 features they want to see in the next version of the software. The survey consists of over 60 features culled from several online forums and other Final Cut Pro user groups, but LAFCPUG would like to trim the list down to ten that it will submit to Apple, noting that last time the company incorporated more than two-thirds of the requests.
Macintosh User Groups interested in seeing their events listed on MacCentral are welcome to send us their news. We post roundups of MUG events and gatherings each week.
If you’re wondering what user group events are happening in your area, visit the MUG Center’s online calendar. Apple also hosts a user group site where you can look for a MUG near you or find out how to start your own group.