Elaine Hunt wrote:
> How do you plan to open this Alliance up to individual users and share
> information? What are you plans to distribute information? Do you plan
a
> World Summit each year with reports available to everyone? What type
> information do you see this group producing, withholding, etc?
Elaine - Good questions! As I mentioned before, the Global Alliance of RP
Associations (GARPA) is not an international users group, although we hope
to provide some of the benefits of such an organization. The information
we produce is being distributed to individuals through each of the 14
groups and associations. For example, we have produced a CD-ROM made up of
RP applications and case studies from each represented region of the world.
Its purpose is to show how the technology is being applied in Europe,
South Africa, Asia, and North America. At our meeting in May, each
representative walked away with a copy of the CD-ROM. Everyone agreed to
distribute its contents to the members of their associations. Ian Gibson,
who headed this effort, has made the contents available to the Hong Kong
Society for Rapid Prototyping Tooling and Manufacturing at
http://hkumea.hku.hk/~CRPDT/rpt/cases.html. Of course, anyone can access
this page, so others have linked to it.
We are in the process of developing a Digital Newsletter and each group and
association has agreed to contribute. The effort is currently underway, so
it's too early to know how successful it will be. The idea is for each
participating region to contribute one part, and in return, will receive 13
parts. The composite newsletter will be made available to individual
members, friends, and affiliates of the 14 groups and associations. We
expect to encounter some language barriers and other problems, but we will
try to work through them. Ian Gibson has graciously agreed to be the focal
point for the Digital Newsletter. Meanwhile, a couple of our friends at
Helsinki University of Technology -- Jukka Tuomi and Hannu Kaikonen (Rapid
Dude) -- have agreed to host the official GARPA website.
We plan to hold Global Summit '99 at RP&M '99. We do not have a budget or
staff (and we may keep it that way), so we have to be careful with expenses
and programs. Consequently, this meeting will likely involve one
representative from each group, similar to the first one. (As a side note,
every group on the list was represented at the Global Summit in May.)
There is some interest in expanding this meeting into something bigger, but
we are not sure we can accommodate it. Our hope is that the hundreds of
individuals that are affiliated with our member groups and associations
will benefit in some way from GARPA. That is a primary goal of the Global
Alliance.
If an RP association does not exist in your country, and if you are
interested in forming one and becoming affiliated with GARPA, let either
Ian Gibson (igibson@hkucc.hku.hk) or me know. We are open to your input
and ideas. Also, if Ian or any of the GARPA participants would like to add
to my comments, you are welcome to do so.
Terry Wohlers
Wohlers Associates, Inc.
OakRidge Business Park
1511 River Oak Drive
Fort Collins, Colorado 80525 USA
(970) 225-0086
Fax (970) 225-2027
twohlers@compuserve.com
www.WohlersAssociates.com
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