Who are we ?
AmigaSoc is a small group of Amiga enthusiasts who got together to try and help the Amiga community whilst the powers that be decide exactly what they're doing with our beloved machine. As such, AmigaSoc is not really a user group, but more of a support organisation. We don't have regular meetings. Instead, core members of AmigaSoc are active participants in their local Amiga user groups.

What exactly do we do ?
Good question! Basically all we're trying to do is to help the Amiga and the Amiga community in any way we can. Our main vehicle for achieving this is our website. However we also want to include those Amiga users, especially in the UK, who do not have Internet access. This is one of the reasons why we try to co-ordinate our efforts with UK user groups, and traditinal print-based magazines to ensure that we can reach as wide an audience as possible.

So far our efforts to help the Amiga community include:

• A web-based postcode locator. Our website contains a number of CGI programs that can locate various Amiga resources via postcode. One use of these programs is to provide a user group locator. By simply typing in their postcode any Amiga owner living in the UK can find their nearest user group to within 5KM. We hope this service will encourage people to join their local user group and thus become more involved with the Amiga.

• In addition to our user group locator, we are also co-ordinating a lost souls database,. Amigans who have no local user group can register with us, and we will put them in touch with other Amigans in their neighbourhood. So far this lost souls database has been more successful than we could have thought. Our database has over eighty entries in it, and so far two new user groups have grown out of this database.

• UK Dealer locator. In a similar vein to our user group locator, we also offer a dealer locator. This stores details of all the stores in the UK that sell Amiga hardware and software or offer Amiga repairs. We hope this will encourage Amiga owners to support their local retailer, which will hopefully prove to local retailers that the Amiga is still a viable platform to support.

• AmigaSoc UK have been appointed co-ordinator for all UK user groups by the UGN (User Group Network). More recently, A definitive list of what this job involves is almost impossible to produce, however it generally involves giving support to UK user groups. Whether it be helping them with HTML design or registering a domain name for their website, to arranging for "Amiga celebrities" such as Ben Vost from Amiga Format, and Paul Nolan (Photogenics/Siamese) to attend user group meetings.

• Shareware registration programme. We have recently launched what we hope will become a very valuable resource to both users and shareware developers. We hope to be able to offer "instant" registration of Amiga shareware titles at upcoming Amiga shows, and eventually over the Internet (for those shareware authors who don't already have secure transaction servers). We hope that this will encourage more people to register the shareware programs that they use on a regular basis, and thus encourage shareware authors (particularly those with a lower profile) to continue to support the Amiga.

• Excursions to Amiga shows. So far AmigaSoc has sucessfully organised discounted trips to foreign Amiga shows, including the recent Computer '98 in Cologne. These visits have so far been limited to members of UK user groups (due to ease of organisation on our part) and have been quite successful. On our recent visit to Cologne, we took a group of around twenty people, and offered substantial discounts on travel and accomodation due to the group booking.

• Industry support of current Amiga platform. A number of members of AmigaSoc work for an Internet Technology company that has a large number of high profile UK companies as clients. Where possible we work within the confines imposed by these clients to ensure that any solutions we deliver for them do not use proprietary technology that isolates users of non-Windows platforms. In particular we have developed Amiga specific software for one particular client who offers an E-Mail based information service for Football (Soccer), Cricket, or Music news, previously only available to Windows users.
  This service seems to have been particularly well received by the Amiga community and indeed we have even had requests from Mac, Atari and Acorn users requesting software for their platforms, which currently does not exist.

The AmigaSoc website has also been presented with the following awards:

	Made on Amiga "Cool Site" Award. According to the website "This is awarded for sites created or maintained on Amigas which show exceptional quality in either design or content." Why not visit Made On Amiga for more examples of websites that have been built with Amiga software ?
	Power Amiga "5 star" Award. A 5 star award (the best) from this user group in Portsmouth, UK. Visit their website for more info.