The Tuesday, Jan 9th meeting of the Rocky Mountain
Internet Users Group (RMIUG) will discuss "Digital
Photography: The Analog Lens"

To say that the digital camera has become ubiquitous
is an understatement. Consider the following facts:
* 2006 shipments of Digital Cameras in the US in 2006
are expected to be 30 million double the number of
2003 and 20% increase from 2005 says market research
group NPD
* In 2007, worldwide shipments of digital still
cameras are expected to be 82 million; a 7% increase
from 2006 says IC Insights.
* By the end of 2006, Flickr (one the most popular
online photo sharing sites) was reporting it was
sharing nearly 250 million photographs from over 2
million users.
* Do you know anyone that still uses a traditional
film camera?

And while digital photography is all the rage (and its
convenience and economy unmatched), there is still
something missing when looking at a photograph on a
computer screen. How many of remember going to
grandma's house and flipping through her "rolodex" of
pictures only to find some embarrassing, but faded,
photo of our parents when they were young. The
tactile satisfaction of holding that paper (or slide!)
is something that digital can't ever match.

And the numbers prove this feeling: 6.9 Billion
digital prints will be ordered in 2006 up from 4.6
Billion prints in 2005 (Photo Marketing Association
International).


For the next RMIUG meeting, we will take a slightly
different approach to our techie-infused discussions:
How something so innately digital percolates and
thrives in an analog world?

To help us explore this topic, RMIUG will bring in
following speaker:

Ken McDonald(kenm@...) is Vice President of
Marketing and Operations for LifePics a local online
imaging technology and applications company. Ken has
worked in the software industry since the mid 1980's
in a variety of capacities. He spent 5 years in
marketing positions at Oracle and helped drive
Oracle's e-commerce initiatives. He also spent 3 years
at Sequel Venture Partners, a venture capital firm,
making investments in software companies. He has been
on the starting team of two software companies, Topica
and Open Horizon, and spent 3 years doing IT
consulting at Booz Allen and Hamilton, The New York
Times, and The Wall Street Journal.

Additional speakers may be added.

Links:
LifePics: http://www.lifepics.com

The meeting is Tuesday, January 9th from 7:00 - 9:00
pm (with optional 6:30 pm start for refreshments and
informal networking). The meeting will be held at The
National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) at
1850 Table Mesa Drive in Boulder. To get to NCAR from
the Boulder Turnpike (US 36) or Broadway (US 93), take
Table Mesa Drive west towards the mountains for
approximately 2.5 miles into the foothills. NCAR is at
the top of the hill. For door-to-door driving
directions, go to MapQuest (http://www.mapquest.com/),
click on Driving Directions, enter your starting
address, NCAR's address, and voila! Park in the NCAR
lot, go in the main door, and ask the guard to point
you to meeting, which is held in the main auditorium,
right off the lobby. The meeting is free and open to
the public, but we may pass the hat to help defray
expenses.

Our meeting location seats about 120 people. That is
usually enough room to accommodate all attendees, but
it's impossible for us to predict how many people will
show up for any given meeting. Seating is always on a
first-come, first serve basis, and in the event of
more attendees than seats, we won't be able to admit
additional people into the auditorium after all seats
are filled.

Thanks to our three sponsors who help make RMIUG
meetings happen:
---------------------------------------------------------------
MicroStaff (www.microstaff.com) which provides
Creative and Technical talent for Web, Interactive
Media, Marketing Communications and Software
Development projects, is the sponsor of food and
beverages for RMIUG meetings.
ONEWARE (http://www.ONEWARE.com) -- a Colorado-based
software company that provides semi-custom web-based
applications, sponsors the RMIUG meeting minutes.
Copy Diva (http://www.copydiva.com) which provides
marketing project management, marketing communications
consulting, and web content development is the AV
sponsor for RMIUG.

Consultants and companies are invited to bring
Internet-related Product information, brochures, and
business cards which will be displayed on an
information table.

There are email mailing lists set up for this group.
To subscribe or unsubscribe, see
http://www.rmiug.org/maillist.html. You can also reach
the RMIUG "Executive" Committee at
rmiug-comm@.... Our web site is at
http://www.rmiug.org/


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Please note that RMIUG is hosted at NCAR and we are
their guests. NCAR has security regulations in effect
that we must follow in order to use the facility. If
any RMIUG attendee is unwilling to follow these simple
regulations, I would ask that he or she not attend and
instead read the minutes after the meeting.

Here are the NCAR security policies that must be
followed:

1. No weapons.
2. Must sign in at front desk and provide name.
3. Cooperate with security folks including providing
ID if requested.
4. We are guests of NCAR so cooperation and courtesy
are expected when dealing with NCAR staff.

If there are any questions or concerns with this
policy, please contact me directly.
Thanks, Josh Zapin (josh@...).
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