Recently, I asked the question “Does your Apple User Group maintain a PR mailing list?” over on the Apple User Group Discussion mailing list. Here is an expanded version of the questions I asked to give User Groups a some food for thought… Continue reading »

Our Community and Westpac are undertaking a search to find Australia’s Kookaburras – the loud and proud stirrers – the community groups, the people and the projects that changed our communities for the better.

They can be a little loud, a bit raucous,
sometimes slightly unpleasant on the ear.
But as a country we would be devastated without them.
They’re distinctive. They’re iconic. They’re impossible to ignore.
They’re our Kookaburras.

The 2010 Kookaburra Awards will offer prizes to individuals, groups and projects that really made a difference – that stretch people’s vision of what’s possible in Australia’s society today.

At times, we might think of these people as ratbags, or cranks, or worse.
We call them radical, or subversive, or infuriatingly single-minded. But we can’t deny that they made a difference in the world. Nominate now for a 2010 Kookaburra Award! Continue reading »

The May 2010 Disc of the Month, Kid’s Games is a collections of games for the younger Mac user that provides Fun Times, While Learning, for Kids of ALL ages.

[Update: We have released Kid's Games v1.1 - If you have already downloaded the previous version, please delete it and replace the Disc Image and About Kid's Games.pdf with v1.1 of the files - they are clearly named up on the DotM Archive Server. Likewise if you have already burnt CDs, please destroy them and create new copies from the new Disc Image]
Continue reading »

Welcome to the April/May AppleUsers Spotlight Contest. There are the usual bunch of software packages, physical books, ebooks and Squiz cards to win.
Continue reading »

Over the Easter 2010 break, AppleUsers.org bought forward a planned migration to a new internet hosting provider by nearly two weeks, due to unforeseen difficulties with the old server.

While we had a few minor hiccups due to the suddenness of the move, the transition has actually gone reasonably well. The main issue was waiting for various ISP’s DNS servers to update with the changes to our DNS records.

We don’t believe any mail has has been lost during the switch over, but if you have sent any mail between April 1st and April 4th ADST and you have not received a reply from us, please resend the email.

If you see this message on the AppleUsers.org website, then you are now seeing the new AppleUsers.org server and any email you send us should reach us.

We wish to take this opportunity to thank Ben May over at our new web hosts, Alyte, for his assistance late Good Friday evening and throughout Easter Saturday helping us make this transition go much more smoothly than expected.

Over at O’Reilly Answers, Mac Slocum explains how to setup a Google Profile for a business, project or team – which could just as easily be for your Apple User Group! Continue reading »

April 2010′s Disc of the Month is actually a Double DVD set, called The Ultimate iLife & iWork Companion, containing over 8GB of interesting & useful resources for use with Apple’s iLife & iWork suites. Continue reading »

The Australian Government has committed $15 million over three years (2008-2011) to provide free access to computers, broadband services and training to seniors by creating approximately 2,000 senior internet kiosks nation-wide. These kiosk services will be delivered nationally through local community organisations or in any suitable public place that services seniors, which would include many Australian Apple User Groups. Continue reading »

Marsee from O’Reilly asks how various User Groups from around the world reach out to new members. Continue reading »

Volunteer Grants 2010 recognises the valuable work of Australia’s volunteers and is part of the Government’s ongoing commitment to supporting volunteers, assisting disadvantaged communities and encouraging social inclusion to assist vulnerable people within our society. Funding of $21 million is available to eligible non-profit community organisations to assist their volunteers and encourage volunteering. Continue reading »

Marsee from O’Reilly asks User Group Leaders what they do when a scheduled speaker for a meeting cancels at the last minute and various people share how they cope. Continue reading »

Chuck Joiner, of The MUG Center, joins Christopher Breen on the Macworld Podcast #191 to discuss the state of Mac User Groups. Continue reading »

As part of our program to make the AppleUsers Spotlight more readily accessible to a wider audience, you can now follow all the latest news from AppleUsers.org on Facebook and Twitter. Continue reading »

March 2010′s Disc of the Month is called “Widgets, Widgets and more Widgets!” and it is now available for leaders of Australian Apple User Groups to download. Continue reading »