Diablo Valley Macintosh Users Group (DVMUG) Meeting March 20, 2012

Our March meeting will be our first virtual meeting. Our guests, note plural, will be at the opposite end of the US and will be providing us up-to-the-minute information on the daily realities at Apple and of the Apple World.

You are probably aware that Apple is preparing a big announcement for March 7. Rumors abound about new iPads, possibly the iPhone 5, and a ton of other things. The Lion update to 10.8 (Mountain Lion) is coming too. It is nigh unto impossible to book someone to discuss these things and others well in advance, as we must do with our typical meetings.

Using the virtual meeting format (what is that, eh? See below) can eliminate the time lag and bring guests to our meetings that it would be otherwise impractical or impossible to get. Our March meeting will feature Chuck Joiner, editor in-chief of the MUG Center, the Internets most comprehensive resource for and about Mac User Groups. Chuck is in Pennsylvania.

Our second guest for our panel will be Adam Engst, publisher of Tidbits, one of the oldest and most-respected Internet-based newsletters. He has been a long-time Mac advocate and written for such publications as MacUser, MacWeek, and Macworld, and published the first book I can recall as an introduction to the Internet (Internet Starter Kit For Macintosh). He also started and continues to publish the TAKE CONTROL electronic book series. He has been named one of the top 10 visionaries of the Mac world according to MacDirectory. He's in Ithaca, New York.

So, What is A Virtual Meeting?

Through the magic of the Internet, we will be able to meet simultaneously and live with our guests. We will have full video, and our members will be able to interact with these presenters. We should be able to take your questions and they should be able to answer them for you. The video will be projected onto our big screen at the school where we meet and visibility will be better than if they were there in person.

This March meeting will be a ground-breaker for DVMUG and may be the first of many. Potential speakers and presenters who would otherwise find it impossible to come to our meetings can use this technology to make their presentations and share their knowledge.

Rounding out our March meeting will be our own Steve Weiser, who will share what he learned about the iClouds iTunes Match. Steve has prepared a brief program on how he addressed this new feature and mastered it. It wont take long, but it will be a very worthwhile experience to learn about one of Apples newest iCloud features that many of us may find useful.

Official Website: http://www.dvmug.org/