User Group Presentations
                               Jim Butterfield

    Most observers classify computer users into three  generation  groups:
    beginners,  intermediates  and experts.  It's a little like the school
    grading system.  When you have successfully mastered grade 1, you  may
    move on to grade 2 and so on.

    There's  some  justification  for this scheme.  Obviously, a user must
    learn fundamentals before proceeding to more complex  areas.   If  you
    don't  know  how  to turn the machine on, you can't run it.  The first
    stages seem quite clear.

    A number of questions arise about such a scheme.  Should  the  various
    groups  be  segregated,  so  that  a  beginner  may not participate in
    "expert" subjects  and  vice-versa?   Should  clubs  and  user  groups
    promote  themselves  from  beginner clubs to advanced clubs as members
    gain experience?  And are the lines of demarcation really that clear?

    I can recall being at a TPUG meeting where  presentations  were  under
    way.  Some presentations are exciting and interesting;  whereas others
    are ...  well, not quite so exciting and interesting.  At the time,  a
    younger member was outlining how to scratch files .  Until just before
    that time, the poor fellow had to buy a new disk every time he  filled
    one  up;   he  didn't  know how to remove the files he didn't need any
    more.  To him, the discovery of the fact that files could be scratched
    was  a  marvellous  and novel thing.  And perhaps that was true for  a
    few of the attendees.

    I was standing near a clever young man who had written a  good  number
    of  programs.   "I  won't come to any more meeting," he said.  "I know
    all this stuff and these presentations do nothing for me."

    I didn't know what to  reply.   Certainly,  if  he  hoped  that  every
    meeting would be on an advanced technical plane, he would be doomed to
    disappointment.  I wondered:  is this the  only  reason  that  members
    attend meetings?  To obtain technical advancement?  Surely there  must
    be other reasons.  What about  social  aspects?   How  about  swapping
    notes  on  the  performance  of  programs and peripherals?  And surely
    there is pleasure in showing others how to do something new,  even  if
    the information flows only one way.

    It  seems  to  me  that  there  will be some members who will never be
    satisfied with a program.  They want to be entertained and educated in
    the  same  way  they  would expect if they went to a movie, theatre or
    trade school.  The fact is that clubs are not made up of  professional
    entertainers;   they use volunteer help and must do the best they can.
    The same is true of  software  distributed  by  clubs:   most  is  not
    professional  work  but  is  simply  contributed  programs  written by
    members.  There is a need to police present ations (and software),  of
    course.    I'm   all   in  favor  of  the  beginner's  "show-and-tell"
    presentation.

    There may be information of interest to others, it may  entertain  and
    it  will  be  good  for  the  member to gain presentation skills.  But
    there's a limit.  A member who  has  used  the  sound  features  of  a
    computer  to  make  the  sound of duck quacking has a good two  minute
    presentation to make which will inform  and  entertain.   A  half hour
    speech on the same subject would be tiresome to all ...  the presenter
    would be a dead duck.

    Magazines, newsletters and clubs often make a  simple  mistake.   They
    think  that  everyone has been around from the beginning and remembers
    everything that has happened.  Some of us start late -- magazines have
    new  readers, clubs have new members -- and don't know things that may
    have gone before.  Some of us forget.  The idea that we never need  to
    repeat  a simple concept but can go on to the next one in sequence can
    be deadly.  One of the great killer phrases in articles  and  speeches
    is:  "As you know ..."

    That's  part  of  the  fallacy  of  "advanced  groups." There's always
    something simple and apparently obvious that many of the group members
    don't   know.    There's  the  programmer  who  writes  nice  graphics
    animations  but who has never discovered that holding down  SHIFT  and
    then  pressing  RETURN  takes you to the next line without "actioning"
    the previous line on the screen.  There's the  student  who  joins  an
    advance  machine  language  course  who  knows  how  to write a binary
    multiplication routine but cannot clear the computer's screen.

    I don't mind users grouping together to study advanced topics  --  I'm
    all  in  favor  of  it  -- but I hope that no group gets the idea that
    "dumb people can't join in." There are beginners  who  would  like  to
    listen  in  just  to  see if they can catch any of it, o r learn a few
    good buzzwords with which to impress their friends.  Some may want  to
    go  to  ask  advice;  for example, what would be a good study route to
    catch up with the more advanced users?

    I have this vision of an expert-level  group  in  which  most  of  the
    members  might  be scared to ask a question.  After all, it might be a
    DUMB question and then they'd be kicked out of the group?

    Personally, I find that others tell me a great deal that I don't know.
    I  gasp  with  astonishment  when Mike Todd plugs some custom hardware
    into a 4040 disk and displays the contents of a disk  track  --  every
    bit  mapped  out  for  inspection.  I'm amazed when I get a phone call
    from Tulsa asking:  "How come typing a line number  of  350800  causes
    the  computer  to  crash?" And I'm impressed when random POKEing by an
    English schoolboy turns up the fact that (on the VIC 20 and  Commodore
    64) POKE 22,35 causes programs t o list without line numbers.

    I  support  the  idea of special interest groups -- some of which have
    "level" implications.  But any club should still provide a  forum  for
    intermingling  of  users  at all levels.  Beginners can ask questions.
    Experts  can  show off the knowledge.  People  with  missions  can  go
    after the specific information they need.

    When  you can do it, it's best to appeal to a cross section of levels.
    Even if you're taling about an elementary concept, you can often dress
    it  up  within an interest program.  Sometimes you can demonstrate the
    concept  in an amusing way.  Remember -- computers are  fun!   If  you
    have  a  chance to make a presentation, try to keep the idea of fun in
    there somewhere.

    Copyright  (c)  1984 Jim Butterfield.  Permission to reprint is hereby
    granted, provided this notice is included in the reprinted material.