Articles

• FTSC Administrator Election Results
• North American Backbone Echo Changes [Nov-Dec]
• FTSC Nominations
• FTSC Standing Members Election Results
• Searching but not finding

FTSC Administrator
Election Results
by Mario Mure', 2:335/533 mure@sistemia.it

ELECTION RESULTS
FTSC ADMINISTRATOR

01 January 1999

VOTER SUMMARY

Eligible Voters: 17
Votes Cast: 8

Percentage voted: 47%

APPOINTMENT RULES

From "Voting Procedure", published in the FTSC_PUBLIC echomail conference and in FIDO1547.NWS and FIDO1550.NWS:

"All FTSC Standing Members as per current version of FTA-1003 who have not resigned from their position are eligible to vote.

"Each vote shall be for only one of the 2 candidates. An abstention is permitted."

"The elected candidate will be appointed for a period that ends 2002-12-31."

CANDIDATE RESULTS - 2 Candidates, 1 Appointed

# NAME         NODE #    VOTES APPOINTED TO

1 Colin Turner 2:443/13    8   31 Dec 2002
2 Radu Malica  2:530/139   -     ---

BALLOT LIST

Ballot list is in alphabetical order of password received:

      VOTER
    PASSWORD    CANDIDATE VOTED

boromir         Colin Turner
Freejack        Colin Turner
Goran_Eriksson  Colin Turner
(1)             Colin Turner
Limerick        Colin Turner
LORIEN          Colin Turner
(2)             Colin Turner
PICKTUR         Colin Turner

(1) KeepOnRockingInTheFreeWorld
(2) Peter_Karlsson_2:206/221.0

North American Backbone
Echo Changes [Nov-Dec]
by Lisa Gronke, 1:105/9 mailto:lisa@psg.com

Summary of backbone echo changes during Nov & Dec.

Brought to you courtesy of (unix) diff.

As noted last month, the North American Backbone changed the format of its areafix compatible lists. Backbone.na now lists all NAB backbone echos. The backbone.no list no longer exists. Echos that are in jeopardy because of low traffic or an expired Elist entry are listed in Section 3 of the weekly backstat.na.

When Thom LaCosta took over the Elist function last summer, he merged all unrefreshed entries from Adrian's Elist, using the merge date as the refresh date in his database. The result was to give unaware moderators an extra five months 'til expiry. Effectively no echos have been placed in jeopardy for lack of an Elist entry since June '98. These echos are expiring now, and I expect a large number of unrefreshed echos to be dropped from the January EList and added to Section 3 of backstat.na. I _think_ those echos will be removed from backbone.na after three months if they remain un-Elisted, but only time will tell for sure.

The North American Backbone also made it harder to get into, and easier to get out of, jeopardy for Low traffic. I am told that Low traffic echos will not be removed from backbone.na, so Low traffic jeopardy doesn't mean much.

The net result is that the number of backbone echos is growing, although the number of backbone messages continues to shrink.

diff backbone.na 06-Sep-98 backbone.na 03.Jan-99 [edited].

Added to the backbone

ALLFIX_FILE

Allfix File Announce Conference

ANIME

Japanese Animation Echo

BBS_PROMOTION

The BBS Promotion "Team" Join Us!

BEEMAIL

GUI mailer for Win3.1 and Win

BINKD

The ubiquitous BinkD TCP/IP FTN mailer

BURL

Serialized Electronic Novels

CWL

Contact World-Wide Link

DAGGER

Discussions of Daggerfall and other RPG topics

FLAME

National FLAME echo

MEDIEVAL

Medieval studies, re-creation, arts, etc.

MP3

International MP3 Discussion Forum

NORTH_CAROLINA

GENERAL CHAT FOR NORTH CAROLINA

SCI-FI_TV

SCIENCE FICTION TELEVISION SHOWS echo!

TRANSCAN

Trans Canada Drivel

WORLD_CRISIS

Discussion of the World Financial Crisis

Note: ANIME and FLAME are returning echos.

Removed from the backbone or quasi-backbone

AAOS

American Atheist Online Services Echo

EFC

Earth: Final Conflict series discussions

WILDRNSS

Wilderness Travel and Camping

o There are 732 echos in backbone.na [03-Jan-98] (up 12)

FTSC Nominations
by Goran Eriksson, 2:201/505, get@get.pp.se

When working with the preparations for the FTSC elections just concluded, it struck me how foreign the nomination process prescribed by FTA-1001 is to me.

In my neck of the woods, the normal thing would be for candidates in FTSC elections to nominate themselves and present themselves and their merits. The electorate would be trusted to make a sound choice between the candidates based on that information and on other information available to each member of the electorate.

Certainly, formal nomination procedures like those prescribed by FTA-1001 are sometimes used also around here.

In other cases, the nomination procedure may formally be open, but you don't stand any real chance if you're not recommended by the appointed nomination committee.

In an organization like the FTSC as well as the FidoNet as a whole, the norm would however be that anyone may nominate anyone. Even her-/himself. Seconded nominations may occur but are not required.

I therefore suggest that FTA-1001 is changed accordingly.

You're invited to take part in the discussion about this suggestion in the FTSC_PUBLIC echomail conference. That's where the FTSC has to seek consensus for changes like these.

FTSC Standing Members
Election Results
by Mario Mure', 2:335/533 mure@sistemia.it

ELECTION RESULTS
FTSC STANDING MEMBERS

01 January 1999

VOTER SUMMARY

Eligible Voters: 110 (71 RCs and 39 RECs)
Votes Cast: 26 (16 RCs and 10 RECs)

Percentage voted: 23% (22% RCs and 25% RECs)

APPOINTMENT RULES

From "Voting Procedure", published in the FTSC_PUBLIC echomail conference and in FIDO1547.NWS and FIDO1550.NWS:

"Only those candidates obtaining support from more than 50 % of the total number of RC's and REC's casting valid votes will be considered successfull. Successfull candidates will be appointed according to the total number of supportive votes they have received. The one with the highest number of supportive votes will be appointed first etc."

"Elected candidates will be appointed for a period that ends 2000-09-30."

CANDIDATE RESULTS - 4 Candidates, 4 Appointed

Candidate list is in order of number of YES votes received:

# NAME           NODE #     YES NO APPOINTED TO

1 Lothar Behet   2:2446/301 23  3  30 Sep 2000
2 Sean Rima      2:252/300  22  2  30 Sep 2000
3 Todd Cochrane  1:345/2    18  3  30 Sep 2000
4 David Hallford 1:208/103  18  3  30 Sep 2000

BALLOT LIST

Ballot list is in alphabetical order of password received:

             CANDIDATE NAMES
VOTER
             Lothar Todd     David    Sean
PASSWORD     Behet  Cochrane Hallford Rima

caladan      YES    YES      YES      YES
Chopin       YES                      YES
CIAO         YES    YES               YES
EREBUS       YES    YES      YES      YES
Eucharist    YES
FTscSM       YES    YES      YES      YES
GUTEN_TAG    YES    YES      YES      YES
HOTDOG       YES    YES      YES      YES
in_between   YES    YES      YES      YES
kachkeis     YES                      YES
kalamaja     YES    YES      YES      YES
MAGNIFICAT   YES    YES      YES      YES
MNBVWQ       YES    NO       NO       YES
Multisync    NO     NO       YES      YES
MUSFTSC      YES             YES      YES
phugueadugue YES    YES      NO       YES
RCVOTE       NO     YES      YES      NO
REC23        YES    YES      YES      YES
(1)          YES    YES      YES      YES
spudnut      YES    YES      YES      YES
Tony         YES    YES      YES      YES
Voyager      NO     YES      NO       YES
vrx12        YES
W6TFE        YES    YES      YES      YES
X007         YES    YES      YES      YES
xxxxx        YES    NO       YES      NO

(1) Santo oficio de la memoria

Searching but not finding

It's not a game to many of us

I am writing this article in hopes it will generate some thought and be distributed to folks who can make a difference in the future of the net and search technologies. If you are such a person, sit back and relax, I'd like to converse with you about this for a few moments in a totally nonthreatening way. you might even be glad I did.

LEt's take your typical day, and mine. WE've gotta get the kids off to school, during our work day we've got to research for upcoming projects and network with coworkers to do our daily tasks. Yes, we've also got to do lots of research, whether it's on which model of furnace to get for the house or is this a safe toy for Junior. The internet was gonna make this easier for us, right?

At this point you're uttering the great words of modern search technology, such as yahoo, excite and so on. WEll, all that's fine but we're missing the boat.

During one of those average days you want to order a piece of equipment you need. YOu want to make that call when you're not on your boss's dime which limits your available time to do this. So, you're going to do some research. Ah yes, the supplier has a web site, and somewhere on that web site is a price list for products they sell, and another of used merchandise they have in stock. WEll, no big deal, right? We're gonna go there and grab those two lists which are common garden variety zip files, download 'em, unzip 'em and either print 'em out or read them.

Not so fast! well, we get there, but we can't quite remember under which link we found it before. LEt's wander around for awhile. Hmmm, here's a neat one, a midi file downloads and plays while a dancing bear tells you about something you really don't want. THe text scrolls across the screen so fast you couldn't read it if you tried, but let's back up, our link didn't seem to be there. Let's try another. Still not there. Where's that darned file? A coworker reminds you that you're going to be late for your lunch appointment with the prospective client if you don't get a move on, so you log off and grab your coat. AH well, maybe later this afternoon. Oops, can't get outside on the net now, can't connect, whatevver. NO luck.

We had it but we lost it! Remember when the internet was a collection of machines in the halls of academia, technology companies and the military? My first contacts with the internet were in the later years of this period, through something called fidonet. It was a gateway connection, no binary files could be transferred, but a guy could get a lot of work done.

Under the strategies employed in those halcyon days of the net, I might get the price lists in the above example via ftp. REmember Ftp? Simple to use, allowed anonymous log-ins, didn't care if your browser doesn't have the latest plug-ins. IT worked for everybody, worked well too. I might ftp the file, or I might use a doccument or database search tool such as wais to narrow down my search to items I knew I wanted. I can have a price quote of those items via email using something akin to wais. I send out my email, meanwhile go have my lunch with my coworker and the prospect, come back and get other work done. When checking my email later my request has made it through the queue, I find. The results of my search are now sitting in my email in-box for my perusal. No muss, no fuss, no strain, but the gain I sought when I was playing with my browser like I was channel surfing between football games. I don't want to channel surf I want to get what I want and leave. If I'm in the mood for browsing, the web or my public library both work fine, but if I really want to find it, my public library has the edge. It can accomodate me there too with the Dewey Decimal system and knowledgeable librarians.

Yes, I lament the loss of some of the old standard internet search tools, Archie and wais to name but two. Consider the FIdonet gateway I spoke of earlier. SEarch tools such as those I mention could be used from gateway connections to the net such as Fidonet. Not so with the newer breed of search engine and information retrieval which is the www. Here's another example of the search from hell. This one was saved, though, by a knowledgeable librarian who figured out four11.com just wasn't getting us where we wanted to go. Yes, the web has opened up the internet to the masses, and there are many web search tools to choose from which offer the same functionality. Or do they?

Sometimes using modern search strategies you just can't get there from here. A few months ago, I wanted to look up an alleged bail bondsman from the Kansas City Missouri area. He had contacted me looking for one of my daughters as she'd helped out a boyfriend once. I had a phone number and wanted to cross reference it with listed bail bonding agencies in the area, so off to my local library I went hoping to browse their cdrom telephone directory. AS I'm a blind person, I scheduled time with my reader to accomplish this. Much to my surprise, the Library's telephone directories cd had disappeared in favor of an internet workstation. (Great! another one for patrons to use.) But now, on with our search.

The librarian punches up four11.com for my reader. WE try to find a way to just browse listings for the area, but it wants to know if we want to buy a computer, we want to find people or whatever. WE enter "Bail Bond" as a string but it burps on that. SO much for four11.com or similar strategies. WHat a joke! After wasting twenty minutes we're still not finished and we have other things to do with our afternoon.

An emailable wais server, on the other hand would have given us just what we need. With a hardcopy telephone directory or Boolean logic and the old text search engines we would have been able to retrieve our information and be on our way. one can narrow one's search terms and get the information sought. In the phone directory search example, the librarian finally figured out we couldn't get there from here and offered us a hardcopy Kansas City area phone directory. Within its pages was what we sought, and we verified the legitimacy of the individual and moved on It took us exactly three minutes from the time the physical phone directory was placed at our disposal. .

SO now I'm to the place where I'm going to ask you to do something. If you're an average net citizen like me, demand that search engine providers provide an offline search capability. which usually would mean an emailable interface. Offline searching saves you time. It also saves other net citizens trouble. Sure, your request is queued up behind those who got there before you, but you're using less resources to accomplish the job than you would online browsing complex web pages. You don't get the seeming instant gratification you get from a web search, but how many times did you really need the information you sought right now? While you were clicking away to get your search started, wouldn't you rather have sent your request out over the net and gone to have a cup of coffee or a snack? Maybe you would have had time to help Junior with that math problem.

If you're a system administrator or operator in a network such as Fidonet, demand such services be placed at your disposal by the companies with whom you do business as an alternative to all the glitz. . Your users can benefit from them as can you yourself. Value added is a big buzzword today, and for the bbs operator hobbyist, it isn't gratifying without callers. Callers will call when they feel they derive a benefit, and these tools are definitely a benefit when they're understood. A little education makes them quite understandable. Try it, your users will like it! Just tell 'em a little bit about how to use it. They'll do the rest.

I know, I was such a bbs operator for awhile. The internet hadn't yet come to town, and users were using the mail gateway and a few search tools I made them aware of. They were quite happy to find they could do this with their older hardware and software, especially since full net access had yet to come to my community.

If you're someone in a position to choose what software options will be available for users of search technologies, consider these simple options from the earlier days of the net. They use less resources but are just as useful. For your users who are intimidated, explain to them how these systems work. YOu'll find converts aplenty when they realize how much faster it really is for them.

Platform dependency isn't an issue with these search engine strategies either. The old apple II, the commodore models, anything that can use email and a terminal program can access them if it has a net connection somehow. SOme still use email services through gateways from bbs networks and the like. FOr those folks and the developing nations' citizens such strategies give them full access to the resources that make the internet what it is.

FInally, thanks for taking the time to read this. YOu are free to distribute it to any interested party or appropriate usenet forum or listserv.

REgards,

Richard WEbb
P.O. Box 614
West Burlington, ia. 52655
Internet elspider@interl.net
Messages voice phone only: (319) 758-0427