Notices

Future History

4 Jul - 10 Jul 1999

Z1C Election process

24 Jul 1999

XIII Pan American Games [through 8 Aug 99].

9 Jun 1999

Tenth Anniversary of the adoption of FidoNet Policy 4.07.

10 Sep 1999

10th anniversary of Zone 5 operations.

26 Oct 1999

Thirty years from release Abbey Road album by the Beatles.

31 Dec 1999

Hogmanay, Scotland. The New Year that can't be missed.

1 Jan 2000

The 20th Century, C.E., is still taking place thru 31 Dec.

1 Jun 2000

EXPO 2000 World Exposition in Hannover (Germany) opens.

15 Sep 2000

Sydney (Australia) Summer Olympiad opens.

21 Sep 2000

10 years of FidoNet in +7 (xUSSR)

1 Jan 2001

This is the actual start of the new millennium, C.E.

-- If YOU have something which you would like to see in this Future History, please send a note to the FidoNews Editor.

Candidate's Greetings
Douglas Myers, 1:270/720, doug@mdtnbbs.com
Zone 1 Coordinator Candidate

Howdy!

It's just polite for a candidate who wishes to represent you to offer some information on his background. As a further matter of courtesy, I've tried to keep these remarks brief... but feel free to ask any questions in the Z1_ELECTION or Z1_POLITICAL echoes, or contact me at one of the above addresses.

Though I've been with Fido since the eighties, ever since George Peace introduced Fido to Central Pennsylvania, most of my time was as a user. In fact, the coordinator experience I have to offer was developed on another smaller network - Speakeasy, operating as zone 18. Speakeasy only had nine nodes when I joined it in 1988, only 30 nodes when I was promoted to Zone Coordinator in 1992, and only 120 nodes at the highest peak I can recall.

Zone 18 in 1992 was a technical nightmare - echomail flowed sporadically, mostly because of a lack of stable hosts, netmail was nonexistent except as crashed, and there was no file distribution at all. Even the nodelist was a hand-cranked affair. In the process of working with folks to straighten all that out, I achieved considerable "trial and error" experience - not enough to impress the folks here on Fido who have put great systems together, but enough that I can talk nuts and bolts with them intelligibly.

However, the technical experience gained there is not the main qualification I bring, as I believe that I could have run the net with considerably less technical knowledge. The talent to accomplish all the changes already existed among the members of the net, and my prime contribution was in working with all these people to make it happen. Maybe that's why the position was called "coordinator" rather than "governor."

If elected as Zone 1 Coordinator, I'd like to focus on actions which would reverse the trend of declining use of Fidonet with a goal of actually showing some growth. Emphasis would be in two main areas:

1. Retaining the traditional membership. BBS sysops built Fidonet and, even though there are less BBS users, these sysops keep Fidonet dynamic. Actions would include...
   • ...supporting efforts to attract dial-up users on BBSes.
   • ...continuing the recent trend of involving these sysops in the selection of coordinators.
   • ...working with the coordinator structure to further dispel the perception that management of Fido is a closed process.
2. Finding the users who have fled to the Internet. Though Fidonet has made excellent use of the Internet for moving mail, more support is needed for the pioneers who are offering BBS services (particularly echomail) to Internet users. Many of these people would never hear of a BBS or Fidonet without our presence on the Internet. I would continue the policy of automatic geographical exemptions, of course, so that Internet nodes may find connection irregardless of actual location. I would continue efforts to facilitate the listing of Internet only nodes in the nodelist.