Despite living in troubled times, AUGI is managing to keep its AUGI World publication going, at least in electronic form. The printed edition, which was previously available only in North America, is no longer with us due to printing costs and/or green intentions. It may or may not not return at some later date.
AUGI World current and past issues
I was happy to note that not only is the current copy available in PDF format, but that previous issues have also been made available in that format. The unpopular NXTBook experiment is over, it seems.
Another change you may notice this year is that David Kingsley’s On The Back Page column is no longer with us. David, a former AUGI Director, is a very vocal critic of the current AUGI Board of Directors. The Board decided that the column he submitted was not deemed suitable for publication. With David’s permission, here it is.
Rejected On The Back Page column
I should point out that the views expressed in this document are entirely David’s, and do not necessarily reflect my own. Several of the points he makes are disputed by the Board of Directors. In fact, AUGI President Mark Kiker has responded directly to David’s points with a PDF of his own. Mark didn’t want to make that response available to the public, but AUGI members can find it here.
The printed version of AUGIWorld was discontinued because as of December 18 2008 there was no longer a contract between AUGI and Solidvapor (SV), the publisher. I know SV’s CEO, Rich Uphus, very well and we spoke in detail about the breakup. AUGIWorld was not often not, if ever, profitable. Rich considered it a “loss leader”. AUGIWorld’s value was that it provided visibility and credibility to AUGI in other areas and was deemed worth the expense. Cost overruns were covered by SV with profits from other profitable activities like CAD Camps and web advertising revenues. Granted that electronic versions are green, and postage costs keep rising, but if AUGI had maintained the relationship with SV, there would likely still be a printed version.