Background

Launched in January 1984, Apple’s Macintosh computer helped popularize the Graphical User Interface that would radically change the way people interacted with computers. Soon, a diverse range of people, including computer enthusiasts, Apple aficionados, and many first-time personal computer users, acquired the new machine. Some of these early users came together to form the first Macintosh User Groups, or MUGs. During the Mac’s first year on the market, more than 60 MUGs sprang up across the United States. Their members shared an infectious enthusiasm for the Mac, and their numbers continued to grow rapidly. By the end of the decade, MUG membership was estimated to have reached 200,000. Many members met regularly, often weekly, not only to learn about the new technology but also to test its limits.

Objective

The project aims to broaden our understanding of the part played by organized user communities in the development of personal computing. Its central proposition is that through activities such as knowledge sharing, Macintosh "evangelism", and user innovation, user groups contributed to the diffusion and shaping of personal computing and should therefore be considered a significant part of its history.

The project examines the activities of Macintosh User Groups (MUGs) during the 1980s, with particular reference to user innovation at the Berkeley Macintosh Users Group (BMUG), arguably the largest and best-known group devoted exclusively to the Macintosh. It seeks to explain the rapid growth and popularity of MUGs and to answer the following questions: What were the principal characteristics of these groups? What was the nature of their relationship with Apple Computer, Inc.? How did they contribute to the adoption and development of the Macintosh and related technologies? Finally, does the available evidence support a reassessment of MUGs and perhaps of other organized user communities hitherto commonly perceived as peripheral actors in the adoption and development of personal computing?

The project draws primarily upon the extensive collection of MUG newsletters held at Stanford University and interviews with former user-group members and Apple employees. While remaining fundamentally historical, it relates its findings to relevant theoretical concepts and empirical studies drawn from several other academic disciplines.

Team