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From: goldfish@concour.cs.concordia.ca
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apollo
Subject: Re: Open Letter Response
Message-ID: <9106171736.aa03482@concour.cs.concordia.ca>
Date: 17 Jun 91 21:36:12 GMT
References: <9106172032.AA09153@xuucp.ch.apollo.hp.com>
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 55


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|   We think that input from our customers is invaluable when it comes
|   to making the best possible business decisions.  As you might 
|   already be aware, the primary channel for this communication is
|   and has been the Apollo Domain User Society (ADUS) of which there are
|   nearly 7,000 members worldwide. 
| 
|   We have chosen to focus our dialogue through this organization. 
 ... stuff deleted ...
|   become an active member of the ADUS community.  For information about 
|   how to join ADUS, please contact your local HP Sales Representative or 
|   call Carol Relph at HP in Chelmsford, Mass., at (508) 256-6600, 
|   extension 7646. 
| 
|   Sincerely, 
| 
|   Mark E. Tolliver
|   Marketing Manager
|   Hewlett-Packard Workstation Systems Division  

sir:

I appreciate that HP wishes to disseminate its information through a vehicle
which is subject to greater influence by HP than the USENET community, however,
not everyone has the option of spending a week in San Francisco at their
company's expense.

One of the most valuable aspects of USENET in general and the Apollo group is
its informal nature and high level of expertises, and volume of useful
information.  You need look no further than the two letters which have
originated from this group to see that we are, by and large, an articulate,
cohesive, community of experienced Apollo/Domain users, systems administrators,
and developers.  Those who participate in this group do so of interest, and the
fact that USENET can be accessed in a more timely and inexpensive manner than
an ADUS conference in San Francisco, argues that it is a better vehicle for
dissemination of time critical information than conferences.  This reaches a
larger segment of Apollo community, and it operates continuously.  Almost any
document on almost any networked computer can be fed into this group with no
greater difficulty than the letter that I am responding to.

It is incongruous that HP purports to support networking philosophy when it so
vigorously avoiding the use of existing, available, technology to communicate
with its user community.  I put your suggestion, quoted above, back to you,
	HP should become an active member of the USENET community.
This is not to say that ADUS does not have a place in the Apollo user
community, just that electronic communications are a fact of this century and
other manufacturers are not ignoring it.

Yours very truly,

--	  Paul Goldsmith
<goldfish@concour.cs.concordia.ca>				 (514) 848-3031
	(Shirley Maclaine told me there would be LIFETIMES like this)
      the future isn't what it used to be; and possibly, never was (ao)