The only significant news I have to report is the demise of the Tampa Bay Java Users' Group (TBJUG), which finally closed its doors December 8th. The group was originally formed as the Tampa Bay OS/2 Users' Group (TBOUG) in December 1993, and switched over to TBJUG with the beginning of this year. It was hoped that switching over to a Java orientation would open the group up and encourage greater participation and attendance at our monthly meetings. Initially, we spent money advertising free "open houses" to showcase the group. As a result, attendance perked up for a couple of months but membership stagnated. Attendance at TBJUG meetings dropped off significantly and we couldn't generate sufficient interest to perpetuate it any longer. The Executive Board reluctantly voted to cease operations and dispose of monies in the Treasury to local charities.

As the original founder of the group and Secretary for the last couple of years, it was a sad day. In its heyday, our group sported over 150 corporate and individual members, our meetings would always be well attended, and vendors would be fighting to give presentations. So, what went wrong? First, I believe there is a simple lack of interest in the subject matter. We all know IBM's weak posture regarding OS/2, but the public interest in Java is simply not there, at least not yet. Although Java was introduced with much fanfare by Sun, IBM, and others, the industry has a lukewarm interest in it at this time. Java may very well indeed become a significant topic sometime in the future (the concept behind it is excellent) but the public will not respond to it if they cannot see any significant applications coming out of it.

Second, there is a general decline in interest in PC related user groups. I see this not only in Florida, but throughout the world. TBOUG/TBJUG is not the first such group to perish, nor will it be the last. There has been a general erosion in user group support for the last couple of years. When we started in the early 1990's, there was a multitude of user groups, particularly OS/2 related. Now, people are getting most of their computing news and information via the Internet as opposed to attending meetings. Although the Internet is an effective means of gathering such information, I will miss the interpersonal contact we enjoyed at user group meetings. Alas, the times they are a changing.

On a lighter note, I want to close with a cute Y2K related poem I received from a friend of mine in Cincinnati (thanks S.D.). Apologies to Clement C. Moore.