I'd also like to add a little to the CFUGs in Microsoft issue. I pondered this exact same thing recently myself. Its an interesting idea that you could hold your CFUG meeting in the premises of your 'competitor'. Getting free stuff out of Microsoft is also always nice. But thats it. There's no other real value add. We get our catering costs covered by the local Adobe office, we get sufficient free giveaways from Adobe as well, and we have a very good venue also provided at no cost. Apart from being interesting, what do we gain from holding it at Microsoft? (yes I know this all stemmed from an internet connection issue, but there are other ways around that)
The people at Microsoft are _far_ from idiots. They don't do things for no reason, or even trivial reasons. People can say all they want that it doesn't matter, and "we're not idiots, we won't be swayed", but in the end, it does make a difference, and it doesn't "feel right". Microsoft are far too keen, so they are obviously seeing it as a non trivial benefit to them. I'm not seeing any kind of benefit beyond the trivial that the CFUG gets from the arrangement, and at the end of the day, they are the competitor. As I've said in other lists lately, there are places to go to get info about Microsoft products and places to go to get info on Adobe products, and the two should be seperate and distinct things. Everyone knows where to get info about Microsoft products. The CFUG community doesn't have to facilitate information flow about competing technologies. I have no problem with getting someone from Microsoft in to tell us about technologies that we want to hear about, but its still our meeting, and its our call as to what is covered and what is not covered, and you start to loose that control when you accept 'incentives' like hosting, etc, from any vendor. Its a slippery slope, and there may not be any problems with doing it either, but the trick is to avoid the potential situations where compromising your aims and objectives becomes possible or is removed from your control. The risk is small, but the benefit is even smaller, so its just not worth taking it, in my mind. Thats why we're doing what we're doing. Regards Darren Tracey --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "cfaussie" group. To post to this group, send email to cfaussie@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/cfaussie?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
