RELATIONSHIP TECH

A user group is a peerage of responsibility.

Group members take education into their own hands, and distribute the job of keeping up among themselves. It’s long been appreciated that the best and most useful working knowledge about technical gear comes out of user groups. User groups are now a regular feature for avocations such as scuba diving, bicycling, saltwater aquariums, hot-rod cars, or any hobby where technological change seems to outrun understanding.

The most fanatical of user groups can be thought of as “hobby tribes,“ a phrase coined by science fiction writer David Brin. Hobby tribes are very informed, very connected, very smart customers. They band their enthusiasms together and become the experts. In some smaller niches they become the market, too.