Security is a tough nut that can’t be cracked by one alone—neither technology nor research, neither corporations nor start-ups, and neither products nor processes. None of these alone can crack the security nut. The most important part of the problem and solution is people! Nothing beats the efforts of few passionate people collaborating for a cause.

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”― Margaret Mead

Users groups began appearing in the mainframe days as a way to share hard earned knowledge and began to proliferate with the microcomputer revolution of the 1970’s and 1980’s. During this time, hobbyists sought to help each other with their homespun wisdom on programming-, configuration-, hardware- and software-related issues. Prior to the penetration of the Internet, these groups gladly provided free technical support and helped users discover the personal computer and aided in the adoption of the PC in a major way.

The emergence and participation of the general public in the use of the Internet and coincidental rise of operating systems like GNU/Linux as well as the open source movement was further intensified by user groups. Such groups found a new place online to discuss these tools via mailing lists, bulletin boards and more. Once run only by researchers and computer geeks, hardware and software was being made popular among the general public through user groups. Continue reading “Embracing Security Related User Groups”