(The following as written by Dave Eden on 7/2/99 to me in an email message.)

"It all began one rainy night in ... " Oops!, wrong story. Let's begin again:

The "original" SPCUG web site was a single, text only, page placed [I guess] as a community service on Quiknet's (www.quiknet.com) web site. To the best of my knowledge, no one in our group had any input to that site, it was created by the Quiknet webmasters (but never maintained, since the information never changed -- no info about current month's speakers, etc.).

In June or July of 1995 I discovered that site, being a Quiknet business customer at the time, and noticed that it had not be updated in months. I asked the Quiknet folks if they ever received any info about meetings, etc., and they said "No." So, since I was interested in learning how to code HTML and thought I could at least keep the site current while I learned, at the next SPCUG steering committe meeting I proposed to take over the job of SPCUG webmaster (if only to keep that site up-to-date). No one objected, so I was "elected."

So, in July of 1995 I began to design my own (first) version of the site. Shortly thereafter, Frank Leonard struck a deal with Calweb for Internet e-mail service for our group. As part of that deal, Calweb offered to host our Internet site so, with Calweb's and Frank's blessing (and to the dismay of Quiknet), we moved the SPCUG site from Quiknet to Calweb. [Please check Frank's memory for anything that I may either be forgetting or remembering incorrectly -- it has, after all, been four years.]

Thus, in August of 1995, the first "official" SPCUG web site came online at Calweb along with our own domain name: www.sacpcug.org. It was a very modest site, strictly text (no tables), and [in my opinion] not a very pretty site; I was, after all, teaching myself to code HTML as I went along.

The current version of our site is, if memory serves me correctly, either the third or fourth design. It's not much to look at (since I still maintain graphics files are a nuisance), but it has done a reasonably good job of disseminating information about the group (to those who are willing to follow the appropriate links and delve into the inside pages, instead of taking the shortcut of asking the webmaster, via e-mail, for membership info, etc.).

Earlier this year I was about to embark upon another redesign of the site (a Webmaster's job is never done), but with the impending introduction of our online newsletter, eBlue, I decided to hold off on any design changes to see how I could modify the site to fit eBlue. Since then, circumstances have caught up with me and now I really don't have the time (nor the energy or ability) to spend on such an auspicious project. I'm sure the new Webmaster will have ideas of his/her own and perhaps we'll see a totally new look.

I've enjoyed being the group's Webmaster. The job of taking this web site from a single page to an entire site has given me a wealth of HTML education (mostly self taught, using resourses available on the Internet [for anyone who wants to know how to get started]; but I do also wish to acknowledge and thank Cindy Buckley and Aaron [I'll get you his last name later] of Calweb for the generous help that they have provided whenever I asked). From this experience I became the unofficial Webmaster for the company I work for, and created an Intranet site which is used nationwide. And, I have some interesting ideas for an upcoming site of my own.