Alan Zeichick's Editorial for August 1994's OS/2 Magazine.

Go, Team, Go!

If you're walking around a major trade show, checking out OS/2
hardware or software in a computer store on a Saturday, or
asking a question on a bulletin-board, there's a good chance
you're going to run into a member of Team OS/2. If so, you're
lucky.

Team OS/2 is an informal organization of individuals trying to
encourage PC owners to upgrade to OS/2; support OS/2 users
having difficulty; and lobby hardware and software makers to add
or improve their OS/2 offerings. It's a daunting task. You might
call it a labor of love: Every Team OS/2 member is an
enthusiastic about OS/2, and is willing to work hard to promote
the operating system and OS/2-based applications software. And
we can't underestimate the positive effect they've had on OS/2's
success.

Team OS/2 was founded back in 1992, when a Team OS/2 forum was
opened internally at IBM. But it's not a pure IBM group: Today,
there are more than 2,500 Team OS/2 members, and only about
one-fifth -- just over 500 -- are IBM employees, some working
for Personal Software Products, the IBM division that makes
OS/2. But most Team OS/2 members are independent consultants,
satisfied end-users, or IBM corporate customers who tried OS/2,
liked it, and decided to evangelize it. Team OS/2 is growing at
a pretty good rate of more than 200 members each month, and at
last report, there were Team OS/2 members in 41 countries.

What do Team OS/2 members do? At Fall Comdex '93 in Las Vegas,
they helped exhibitors get OS/2 "up and running" in their
booths, providing free technical assistance before and during
the trade show. In large part, we should credit Team OS/2 for
making fall Comdex the "OS/2 Comdex" in the eyes of many
attendees and analysts. On March 5th, they "blitzed" the CompUSA
computer chain, with demos and Q&A sessions at 60 out of 71
stores. According to CompUSA officials, this Team OS/2 action
increased their OS/2 product sales by factor of 10.

Team OS/2 volunteers, of course, keeps on doing what they do
best. They're performing the same vital role at Spring Comdex
'94 in Atlanta, and are scheduled to play a major supporting
role at the OS/2 World Conference & Exhibition, to be held this
July in Santa Clara, Calif.

Then, there's the user-group connection: By providing help with
OS/2 demos, and by maintaining a registration of OS/2 user
groups, Team OS/2's headquarters plays a key role in maintaining
OS/2's grass-roots support worldwide.

One of the nicest benefits of Team OS/2 is its regular
electronic newsletter. Distributed on-line in .inf format, it
contains reports of Team OS/2 events, information on how to join
and contribute to the organization, and even advice on how to do
an impressive OS/2 demo.You'll even find a latest directory of
OS/2 user groups in each issue. Best of all, you don't have to
be a Team OS/2 member to download and enjoy the newsletter -- so
why not check it out?

The newsletter's file name is tnew##.zip, where ## is the issue
number -- the latest version, at the time of writing, is
tnew06.zip. You'll find it on CompuServe (OS2USER section 9),
America Online (keyword OS2), Delphi (custom forum 41), GEnie
(OS/2 Roundtable), Prodigy (OS/2 Club), FidoNet (Fernwood file
collection, General Information area), via anonymous ftp from
software.watson.ibm.com in the /pub/os2/teamos2 directory, and
via gopher from index.almaden.ibm.com.

Thanks, Team OS/2, for your invaluable role in help OS/2's
success.


Copyright (c) 1994 Miller Freeman Inc., All Rights Reserved.