What user groups mean to me

I was there – winter on the Baltic.

As the year draws to a close it’s appropriate to take the time to write about one of the most important components of a thriving user community. Whenever we reference the subject of the NonStop community, we make it a point to break this down into three parts – the NonStop customer, the NonStop vendor and the HPE NonStop team. However, even with this segmentation, whenever we broach the subject of the NonStop user specifically, we refrain from erecting boundaries as this labelling is inclusive of all who touch NonStop systems in any way. Developers, writers, consultants, sales and marketing, social media protagonists, and everywhere carrying the title support or solutions architects on their business cards.

For me, it is important to remember this. NonStop depends as much on a thriving user community as community members depend on NonStop. It’s a strong and positive symbiotic relationship that dates back to the earlies days of NonStop. Indeed, the international user organization, what we all remember as ITUG, emerged from a simply one city user group gathering, that being in San Jose. I may have some of the details muddled but I recall the document bringing ITUG into existence was signed by then Tandem Computers VP & GM, Americas, Barry Ariko. This was around 1980 or thereabouts. Either way, a long time ago.

When I returned to Australia in 1977, it would be 1980 that I formed a user group based on the presence of EDOS on IBM mainframes – EDOS being a third-party OS sold to IBM mainframe users when IBM supplied an OS for free. Again, a reflection on my history of tilting windmills wherever I go. The company I managed at the time wore the magnificent title of The Computer Software Company (TCSC) and was based in Richmond Virgina. Less than a year later, the company was bought by Nixdorf Computer, the OS renamed Nixdorf Computer Software Company where the concept of having a user group was alien to them.

Suffice to say, it would down in due time. Fast forward to 1988 / 1989 and over a number of quite boozy (and yet traditional) lunches at the famed Sydney restaurant (La Grillade, and no longer in business once we all left town), I led the creation of OzTUG. Joining me were folks like Tony Bond (SDI) who went on to chair ITUG, John Innes (Westpac) and some other folks and represented customers, vendors and yes, a sole Tandem employee – me. None of this would have progressed without the full support of the Northern Region (Australia) leader, Steve Bailey. Again, it’s a bit fuzzy but put that down to those early, creative lunches at La Grillade.

What is important to communicate is that across the globe and throughout the 1980s similar such gatherings took place such that when I was elected to the board of ITUG, one of my earliest areas of responsibility was the community’s user groups. This culminated in a gathering of the leadership of the Regional User Groups (RUGs) worldwide where 30+ such organizations were present. Even as it might be good to continue down this path at a time when nostalgia rules even as celebrating the golden anniversary of Tandem Computers wanes, reflecting on the past only takes us so far. Today, many of the leaders of the past are still actively engaged with the community, as the recent “museum displays” have highlighted but it truly is all about the future.

And the future gives rise to the question. Is the presence of user communities together with the events they hold, a reminder of a time best described as our legacy? In these times where so much is covered under the banner of modernization, is there a place for user communities. Surely, as some argue, we can gather all the insights we need over the web. Have webinars, podcasts and yes, social media in general displaced the need to gather in person relegating, as it were, such gatherings to that of once-great industry association events? Whatever happened to the “bowling team” atmosphere? The “book club?” And yes, the once mighty National Computer Conference (NCC) at which all major IT vendors showed their latest wares?

In my time as leader of the ITUG RUG communities, I had the opportunity to visit almost all of them. Under the tutelage of Patty Fennel, Tandem, then Compaq, and finally HP designated community liaison, these visits helped with the transition from Tandem to NonStop and among the first to vote on a name change were the Scandinavian users. VNUG appeared and it was only a short time later I boarded a Baltic Ferry shuffling between Stockholm and Helsinki for a “winter overnight cruise” that will surely bring back fond memories for some fellow passengers, not the least being Sean Bicknell whose roll of the dice was disturbed by my presence. As apparently was his luck.

For the HPE NonStop community it was never solely about showing the latest hardware or software. It was never solely about showcasing the latest wares of participating NonStop community members. It wasn’t even solely about the luncheon gatherings or the beer busts that helped define the most recognizable aspect of NonStop gatherings – networking and communications. Rather, it was all about supporting each other at a time when technology was developing at a rapid breakneck pace.

And herein lies the twist. Sometimes we are coming down a little too hard on future generations. On the other hand, they are not the only generation that has and is living through witheringly rapid transformational change. As a community spanning those fifty years it is fair to say, each generation has lived through eras of rapid change. The next generation will experience something similar I am sure – let’s not forget AI has just begun – and the generation after them. I can’t help feeling that as a group, with as many shared experiences as we have (and continue to encounter), structures may change.

The big tent events may become marginalized. The local gatherings may peter out entirely. Our desktops become our theaters and our phones our source of insights updated, naturally, every hour. Does this spell doom and gloom for user communities in general? Is it time to hit the panic button as far as NonStop is concerned? Not at all – it will be different and perhaps unrecognizable but it is in our nature to want to share experiences and to sit down with those who have gone before. Cadetships, apprentices, mentoring – they will all continue to come in and out of fashion.

What will remain constant is the very idea of NonStop. It will morph and we are seeing this already occurring. From traditional to virtual to beyond. Who knows where the NonStop journey will take us but be assured; it will never become a journey of one. This journey will be blessed with likeminded enthusiasts. So yes: Can’t stop; Won’t stop, NonStop is more than just a mantra. It’s a perfect reminder that on reflection and following fifty years of activities, this simple mantra applies equally to the community as it does to the NonStop systems. It’s what we do. It’s why we network. And yes, it’s why we show up at events and conferences and will continue even as we outlive many of the artifacts we treasured for so long.

I wonder; what was the real reason La Grillade closed. “A heavenly, sun-drenched chateau-style building perched on the corner of Alexander Street in Crows Nest (NSW, Australia), La Grillade is society’s paradigm of the perfect.” The NonStop community may never claim to be perfect and yet, on balance and through reflection, the presence of the NonStop community, active as it is today, is something we can all be proud of and only too happy to say, “Yes, I am a member and yes, I participate!” See you in 2025; no helmets required.