A computer user group is a type of club focused on the use of a particular technology.
SHARE, a user group originated by aerospace industry corporate users of IBM mainframe computers, was founded in 1955 and is the oldest computer user group still active.
ACGNJ - The Amateur Computer Group of New Jersey is the oldest Amateur Computer user group.

Users' groups began to proliferate with the microcomputer revolution of the late 1970s and early 1980s as hobbyists united to help each other with programming and configuration and use of hardware and software.

Participation dropped off with the emergence of the World Wide Web, where people could share with a larger body of users.

Some of the more well known groups are:
1975 Homebrew Computer Club Menlo Park.
Steve Wozniak credits that first meeting as the inspiration to design the Apple I. BNUG - The Boston Network Users Group founded in 1986
BMUG - Berkeley Macintosh Users Group - Wikipedia


ACGNJ - The Amateur Computer Group of New Jersey Established in 1977 bu Sol Libes at Union County College, the Amateur Computer Group of New Jersey (ACGNJ) is the oldest continuously running computer club in the United States.
[The typical computer user group is gone now. For the exceptions, you can find an incomplete and mostly out-of-date list via the Association of PC User Groups,] In the early days they were one of the largest computer groups in the country, with paid staff to distribute public domain and shareware disketts.
In 1981, the club had over 1,600 members SIGs (Special Interest Groups) for CP/M, Apple, Radio Shack, Atari, and other computer types.Meetings typically had attendance of 200-300 at main meetings in large cafeterias, or auditoriums, at Union County College, Middlesex County College, and Rutgers University. They created the first on-line software library from which users could download software. The system also had chat rooms, and a crude e-mail facility. In 1990 the system was linked to the Internet.
In 1981, the club had over 1,600 members.

Every spring, ACGNJ sponsors the annual Trenton Computer Festival (TCF), an all-day Saturday event consisting of a vendors, seminars, and workshops.
The flea market there used to fill up a parking lot with people selling computer components and other electronic hobbyist parts.
In the 1980's and 90's attendance rose to almost 20,000.

In 1989 Bill Gates gave the keynote at TCF.
They used to fill auditoriums at Rutgers University, Union County College, and Middlesex County College with CP/M, Atari, Radio Shack, IBM PC/DOS and Apple Macintosh monthly SIGs. The C, Java and Investing SIGs are still active, but much smaller. They are lucky to get a dozen people at their main meetings.
See ACGNJ: History.


Other Active Groups:
PMUG - The Princeton Macintosh Users' Group — Welcome!

Computer User Groups in USA
Washington Apple Pi's Apple User Group Listing


Links:
Association of Personal Computer User Groups

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last updated 8 May 2017