From: syscrc@pickle.gsu.edu (Randy Carpenter)
Subject: SGI User Groups (Summary)
Organization: Georgia State University
Date: Wed, 6 Jan 1993 03:56:48 GMT


                         SGI User Groups                         (1/5/93)

Here's a summary of information about 20 known SGI User Groups around
the world.  There are probably more groups than those listed here, so
if you have information about a group, use the template found at the
end of this post and send me some e-mail.  Furthermore, some of the
information is incomplete and if you can fill in the blanks please let
me know.  If you have any suggestions or comments about the summary,
please contact me.  Thanks.

                                           Randy Carpenter
                                           Georgia State University
                                           Wells Computer Center
                                           rcarpent@gsu.edu

Known SGI User Groups:

   1. Albuquerque Silicon Graphics User's Group.
   2. Atlanta SGI User's Group.                       (that's us! :)
   3. East Bay SGI Users Group.                       (San Francisco area)
   4. Houston SGI Users Group.
   5. Huntsville SGI Users Group.
   6. Langley SGISIG.                                 (Virginia)
   7. Los Angeles Silicon Graphics Group.
   8. Melbourne Silicon Graphics Users Group.
   9. The Naval Research Laboratory SGI User's Group. (Washington, DC)
  10. Northern Colorado SGI User's Group.             (including Wyoming)
  11. Ottawa Area SGI User Group.
  12. San Diego SGI User's Group.
  13. The SGI Israeli Users Group.
  14. Silicon Graphics Gebruikers Groep.              (Netherlands)
  15. Nova Scotia Silicon Graphics User Group.
  16. SGI User's Group.                               (Washington, DC)
  17. Silcon Graphics User's Group Deutschland.
  18. St. Louis SGI User's Group.
  19. South Texas SGI User's Group.
  20. The University of Illinois SGI User's Group.

Rumored SGI User Groups (non-authoratative reponses):

   a. Colorado Springs SGI User's Group.
   b. Minnesota SGI User's Group.
   c. Vancouver SGI User's Group.
   d. U.K. SGI Academic User's Group.


Observations:

  a. Eighteen groups use a "SGI User Group" type name, one group uses a
     "SIG" (Special Interest Group) type name, one uses a foreign name
     and the rumored ones don't count yet.  So, the de facto standard
     user group name is:

            __________ Silicon Graphics User's Group.

  b. Only one of the groups collect meeting cover charge; all other
     groups are free-of-charge (i.e. no membership fees or cover charges).

  c. SGI seems to strongly support the local user groups.

  d. Most of the groups meet 4 times a year but a couple of really
     active ones them meet every month.

  e. The oldest known group is the Huntville SGI Users Group (1987).

  f. The largest average attendance looks like a close tie between
     South Texas and Huntsville (around 100 attendees).


Details:

  1. Albuquerque Silicon Graphics User's Group.

       Group contact:    ?

       SGI Liaison:      Margaret Herrera
                         (505) 884-1400

       SGI office:       Silicon Graphics, Inc.
                         Albuquerque, New Mexico
                         (505) 884-1400

       Date founded:     Februrary 13, 1992
       Meetings/year:    ?
       Num. of members:  ?
       Avg. attendance:  ?
       Membership fee:   ?
       Meeting cover:    ?
       Free form text:   The first meeting was in Februrary.


  2. Atlanta SGI User's Group.

       Group contact:    Randy Carpenter, UNIX Administrator
                         Georgia State University
                         rcarpent@gsu.edu
                         (404) 651-2648

       SGI Liaison:      George Smith, Systems Engineer
                         georges@sgi.com
                         (404) 392-1333

       SGI office:       Silicon Graphics, Inc.
                         1100 Abernathy Rd. N.E.
                         Building 500, Suite 1120
                         Atlanta, Georgia 30328
                         (404) 392-1333

       Date founded:     October 2, 1990
       Meetings/year:    4
       Num. of members:  75
       Avg. attendance:  25
       Membership fee:   none.
       Meeting cover:    none.
       Free form text:   The ASUG doesn't elect officers, impose dues or
           charge cover.  The group is mainly kept alive through archistitic
           volunteerism and is populated with visualization professionals
           from a wide spectrum of commercial and non-commercial institutions.
           SGI gracefully foots the bill for the cost of mailing our meeting
           notices and provides nibbles for our meetings.  Our meeting format
           is: 1) gather/admire demos, 2) introduce new people,
           3) announcements, 4) questions/answers, and 5) the speaker.
           Occassionally, we hold workshops which are very popular.  Both SGI
           and Georgia Tech have hosted our meetings.  The ASUG e-mail list
           is "asug@gsu.edu".


  3. East Bay SGI Users Group.

       Group contact:    Tom Spelce
                         Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
                         spelce@icdc.llnl.gov

       SGI Liaison:      Susan Rosconi, SGI
                         (415) 960-1940

       SGI office:       Silicon Graphics, Inc.
                         3000 Executive Parkway, Suite 410
                         San Ramon, CA 94583
                         (510) 277-1940

       Date founded:     February, 1992
       Meetings/year:    4
       Num. of members:  approx. 90
       Avg. attendance:  50
       Membership fee:   none.
       Meeting cover:    none.


  4. Houston SGI Users Group.

       Group contact:    Micheal Zeitlin
                         Texaco, EPTD
                         mjz@texaco.com

       SGI Liaison:      Bob Pette

       SGI office:       Silicon Graphics, Inc.
                         Houston, Texas

       Date founded:     March 31, 1992
       Meetings/year:    10
       Num. of members:  50
       Avg. attendance:  20
       Membership fee:   none.
       Meeting cover:    none.
       Free form text:   The Houston Area Silicon Graphics Users Group
           meets on the last tuesday of every month at 6:30 p.m. at the
           Enterprise Technology Center in Houston.  The group has formed
           a charter and By-laws.  The HASGUG serves visualization
           professionals in the Aerospace (NASA), Chemical, Medical and
           Petroleum industries.  Our meetings center on a keynote speaker
           of interest to the members.  Meetings also include "information"
           sharing amoung members and reports to the group on SGI activities.
           Although focussed on visualization, the computational capabilites
           of SGI computers are also discussed.  SGI does not underwrite
           this group although we beg, borrow and steal whenever we can.


  5. Huntsville SGI User's Group.

       Group contact:    None.

       SGI Liaison:      George Smith, Systems Engineer
                         georges@sgi.com
                         (404) 392-1333

       SGI office:       Silicon Graphics, Inc.
                         Huntsville, Alabama
                         (205) 830-5400

       Date founded:     1987
       Meetings/year:    4
       Num. of members:  ?
       Avg. attendance:  100
       Membership fee:   none.
       Meeting cover:    none.


  6. Langley SGISIG.

       Group Contact:    Sharon Paulson (Group Chairperson)
                         paulson@tab00.larc.nasa.gov
                             or,
                         Tad Guy (Group Assistant Chairperson)
                         tadguy@ab00.larc.nasa.gov

       SGI Liaison:      Brian Hahn
                         (804) 766-2789

       SGI office        Silicon Graphics, Inc.
                         6 Manhattan Dr.
                         Suite 103
                         Hampton, Virginia 23666

       Date founded:     September, 1990
       Meetings/year:    6
       Num. of members:  93
       Avg. attendance:  30
       Membership fee:   none
       Meeting cover:    none
       Free form text:   We have an SGI special interest group formed
           under the auspices of our Langley Computer User's Committee
           that qualifies as an SGI users group.  The group is open to
           all Langley employees (including Air Force personnel) using
           or interested in Silicon Graphics equipment.  Topics range
           from administration through use, with an emphasis on issues
           of importance to Langley users.  Meetings usually end in an
           informal question, answer, horror-story session.


  7. Los Angeles Silicon Graphics User's Group.

       Group contact:    Brian Cooper
                         Jet Propulsion Labroatory
                         (818) 354- 6298

       SGI Liaison:      Andrea Costello

       SGI office:       Silicon Graphics, Inc.
                         Los Angeles, California
                         (310) 312-0227

       Date founded:     Dec. 5, 1991
       Meetings/year:    4
       Num. of members:  60
       Avg. attendance:  60
       Membership fee:   none
       Meeting cover:    none


  8. Melbourne Silicon Graphics Users Group.

       Group contact:    Terese McAleese
                         (03) 282-2462

       SGI Liaison:      To be announced.

       SGI office:       Silicon Graphics, Inc.
                         Melbourne, Australia

       Date founded:     February, 1992
       Meetings/year:    To be announced.
       Num. of members:  ?
       Avg. attendance:  ?
       Membership fee:   none
       Meeting cover:    none
       Free form text:   We are having the first meeting of the Melbourne
           group in Feb 1992.  So, while we don't exist at this instant,
           we certainly hope to soon.  Melbourne represents the largest
           density of SGI machines in Australiasia.  Silicon Graphics has
           agreed to provide refreshments for the user's group meetings.
           There are 3 large academic sites in Melbourne (RMIT, University
           of Melbourne and Monash University) as well as a number of small
           academic sites.  The commercial users include industry research
           (BHP), industry applications. The applications base include
           broadcast production, industrial design, architecture, print etc.


  9. The Naval Research Laboratory SGI User's Group.

       Group contact  : Mark Solsman,
                        code 5160,
                        Naval Rearch Lab,
                        Washington, DC 20375

       SGI Liaison    : Gerry Kolosvary

       SGI office     : Silicon Graphics, Inc.
                        (301) 564-1980

       Date founded   : ?
       Meetings/year  : 12
       Num. of members: ?
       Avg. attendance: 20-40
       Membership fee : none.
       Meeting cover  : none.


 10. Northern Colorado SGI User's Group (including Wyoming).

       Group contact  : Bill Bishop
                        wrb@wrb.com

       SGI Liaison    : Susan Krauscamp

       SGI office     : Silicon Graphics, Inc.
                        Denver, Colorado

       Date founded   : November 1992
       Meetings/year  : 4
       Num. of members: < 15
       Avg. attendance: 15
       Membership fee : TBD
       Meeting cover  : TBD


 11. Ottawa Area SGI User Group.

       Group contact:    Martin Serrer
                         National Research Council of Canada
                         (613) 993-9442
                         serrer@nrc.ca

       SGI Liaison:      Evan Fietz
                         (613) 225-4747

       SGI office:       Silicon Graphics Canada, Inc.
                         One Anteres Drive, Suite 100
                         Nepean, Onterio
                         K25-8C4

       Date founded:     June 13, 1991
       Meetings/year:    4
       Num. of members:  40
       Avg. attendance:  36 first meeting; 8 second meeting
       Membership fee:   none
       Meeting cover:    none
       Free form text:   The group was established to:
           a. Create a forum where IRIS users can share some ideas and
              software.
           b. Create an informal forum where SGI can listen/talk to users.
           c. Have some fun, and maybe hoist a few.


 12. San Diego Silicon Graphics User's Group

       Group contact  : Hylton Murphy

       SGI Liaison    : Greg Carter
                        gregc@sandiego.sgi.com

       SGI office     : Silicon Graphics, Inc.
                        San Diego, California

       Date founded   : July 17th, 1992
       Meetings/year  : 6
       Num. of members: ~100
       Avg. attendance: ~60+ (first meeting)
       Membership fee : none.
       Meeting cover  : none.
       Free form text : Meetings held at the San Diego Supercomputer Center.
           Format yet to be determined, though probably two demonstrations/
           speakers, questions and answer sessions, announcements and
           social/refreshment periods.  Group members represent a wide range
           of commercial and non-commercial institutions - a large number of
           individuals belong to academic and research organizations.  SGI
           contributes resources in the form of arranging speakers,
           demonstrations, and equipment, although the group retains autonomy.


 13.  SGI Israeli Users Group.

       Group contact:    Arie Rudich
                         Isreal Institute of Technology
                         arier@cs.technion.ac.il

       SGI Liaison:      Israel Veinman

       SGI office:       Silicon Graphics, Inc.
                         Israel

       Date founded:     December, 1990
       Meetings/year:    None yet
       Num. of members:  20
       Avg. attendance:  ?
       Membership fee:   none
       Meeting cover:    none
       Free form text:   This group is intended to be a forum to
           exchange information between Israeli users of Silicon
           Graphics (SGI) computers.


 14. Silicon Graphics Gebruikers Groep.

       Group contact:    Loek Bakker
                         loek@dutncp8.tudelft.tn.nl

       SGI Liaison:      {andre,michiel,luc}@sgihol.sgi.nl

       SGI office:       SGI NL,
                         De Meern, Netherlands

       Date founded:     1991
       Meetings/year:    whenever the sun shines (ie. about 2 times a year).
       Num. of members:  > 100
       Avg. attendance:  ~ 40
       Membership fee:   none
       Meeting cover:    varies
       Free form text:   Silicon Graphics Gebruikers Groep (thats a
            translation of Silicon Graphics Users Group !) is amazingly
            active group of highly motivated, young, dynamic and intelligent
            users who (dispite their busy daily schedule) take time to
            organize regular meetings. Since SGGG's existance there have
            been two extremely succesful meetings.

            SGGG, or SG^3 for short, also distributes a newletter which
            has all sorts of goodies, such as public domain software,
            addresses for cheap memory and exiting interviews with Dutch SG
            users.  It has been rumored that the quality of the SG^3
            newsletter is comparable to IRIS Universe. Too bad for
            illiterate Dutch readers : the newsletter is in Dutch.

            Finally, SG^3 spends most of its time figuring out what to do
            about SGI NL's outragously high prices. There are rumored
            plans of organizing a peaceful sit in at SGI NL's main office
            sometime this year, to express SG^3 concern about this delicate
            issue.


 15. Silicon Graphics User's Group of Nova Scotia (SNUGUNS).

       Group contact:    Bill Silvert (Chairman)
                           silvert@biome.bio.dfo.ca
                         Vivien Hannon (Chairwoman)
                           hannon@ac.dal.ca

       SGI Liaison:      None (Sirius Solutions is the local SGI dealer).

       SGI office:       None (see above).
       Date founded:     ?
       Meetings/year:    about 10 (monthly with some exceptions)
       Num. of members:  35
       Avg. attendance:  10
       Membership fee:   none.
       Meeting cover:    none.
       Free form text:   Our meetings are the first Thursday of the month at
            15:00.  Mail to the group can be sent to sngugns@biome.bio.dfo.ca
            where it will be automatically redistributed.


 16. SGI User's Group (Washington, DC).

       Group contact:    Cynthia Traeger
                         George Mason University
                         cindy@gmuvax.gmu.edu

       SGI Liaison:      Denise Miller

       SGI office:       Silicon Graphics, Inc.
                         Bethesda, Maryland

       Date founded:     September, 1989
       Meetings/year:    11 (once monthly)
       Num. of members:  100
       Avg. attendance:  15-45
       Membership fee:   none
       Meeting cover:    none


 17. Silicon Graphics User Group Deutschland.

       Group contact:    Hartmut Juergens
                         University of Bremen
                         hartmut@mathematik.uni-Bremen.de

       SGI Liaison:      Gabi Hofer, SGI Munich, Germany.
                         D-089 461 080

       SGI office:       Silicon Graphics GmbH
                         Am Hochacker 3 
                         D-8011 Grasbrunn

       Date founded:     October 2, 1992
       Meetings/year:    2
       Num. of members:  100
       Avg. attendance:  25
       Membership fee:   none.
       Meeting cover:    none.
       Free form text:   We are still in the process of becoming an active
            group.  Since we are spread over Germany we are trying to build
            up electronic communication.  Our User Group E-address is:
            silicon@sfb256.iam.uni-bonn.de


 18. South Texas SGI User's Group.

       Group contact:    David M. Senseman, Ph.D.
                         Center for Information Visualization
                         The University of Texas at San Antonio
                         senseman@lonestar.utsa.edu

       SGI Liaison:      Don Williams

       SGI office:       Silicon Graphics, Inc.
                         San Antonio, Texas

       Date founded:     September, 1990
       Meetings/year:    4
       Num. of members:  100+
       Avg. attendance:  90
       Membership fee:   none
       Meeting cover:    none (buffet dinner provided by the Center)


 19. St. Louis Silicon Graphics User's Group.

       Group contact:    Michael Wellington
                         McDonnell Douglas
                         (314) 234-6096

       SGI Liaison:      Andy Ascher
                         ascher@sgi.com
                         (314) 542-0677

       SGI office:       Silicon Graphics, Inc.
                         12400 Olive Blvd
                         Suite 450
                         St. Louis, MO  63141
                         (314) 542-0677

       Date founded:     December, 1990
       Meetings/year:    4
       Num. of members:  50+
       Avg. attendance:  30+
       Membership fee :  None
       Meeting cover  :  None
 

 20. The University of Illinois SGI User's Group

       Group contact:    Amy Swanson
                         National Center for Supercomputing Applications
                         University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana
                         amys@ncsa.uiuc.edu
                         (217) 244-1917

       SGI Liaison:      Brian Osmond
                         Account Manager, University of Illinois
                         bosmond@ncsa.uiuc.edu
                         (217) 244-4551

       SGI office:       Silicon Graphics, Inc.
                         University of Illinois, Champaign/Urbana
                         (217) 244-4551

                         Silicon Graphics, Inc.
                         1420 Kensington Rd.
                         Suite 334
                         Oak Brook, IL  60521
                         (708) 571-6505

       Date founded:     June 26, 1991

       Meetings/year:    about 6
       Num. of members:  100
       Avg. attendance:  40
       Membership fee:   none
       Meeting cover:    none
       Free form text:   The members of the user group are both administrators
            and users, so we try to cover topics of interest to everyone.  The
            group is open to everyone that has an interest in SGI - this
            includes scientists, professors, students and area businesses.
            NCSA has done a lot of development work for SGI, so we are able to
            have some very interesting demos and discussions.  We had a great
            meeting last September '91 where the NCSA Visualization group
            presented an overview and comparison of AVS and Explorer.  We are
            also working with the Chicago and St. Louis SGI offices to set up
            a series of free workshops taught by SGI on subjects of interest
            to SGI users.  In January, we hosted a "Making the Transition to
            IRIX 4.0" workshop, and we are looking forward to several
            workshops this summer.


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Template:

   Group name     :
   Group contact  :
   SGI Liaison    :
   SGI office     :
   Date founded   :
   Meetings/year  :
   Num. of members:
   Avg. attendance:
   Membership fee :
   Meeting cover  :
   Free form text :
-- 
===========================================================================
Randy Carpenter                    rcarpent@gsu.edu          % Got a light?
Georgia State University           (404) 651-2648            No match.
Wells Computer Center                                        %