Articles

• FTSC biannual report
• FTSC Frequently Asked Questions
• FTSC Mirror Sites
• Censorship of FidoNet in Russia?

FTSC biannual report
By Colin Turner, 2:2/20, ct@ftsc.org

At the end of June my term as FTSC Administrator had been running for six months. I have therefore chosen this time to write an article into FidoNews reporting FTSC business.

For those of you that don't know what the FTSC is, it is the FidoNet Technical Standards Committee. It is our job to attempt to document current technical practice within FidoNet (and also in the wider context of FidoNet Technology Networks (FTNs)). A more detailed explanation of our responsibilities can be found in our charter, document FTA-1000. Details on how to retrieve this and other FTSC documents can be found in another article below.

First of all I'd like to discuss some of what we've done in the last few months.

• We have constructed a new FTSC website which provides access to the whole family of current FTSC documents. This is to be found at the domain name of www.ftsc.org, which was newly purchased for the committee. Considerable further enhancements are planned for this site, but other tasks are taking precedence.
• Similarly, an anonymous ftp server for FTSC documents can be found at ftp.ftsc.org.
• Similarly, every FTSC member has been given an email address in the ftsc.org domain, in order to make members more accessible.
• A list of mirror sites (for FidoNet) from which FTSC documents can be obtained as been created. Please contact me if you would like to be added.
• A "Road Map" for the technical documents has been created. We understand that many proposals are de facto standards, and we hope to correct that problem soon. In the meantime, it's essential that new developers can determine which documents they should consult.
  To facilitate this, a Road Map document has been produced, listing the most important documents in each of several fields.
• Several new product codes have been allocated and published.
• Some new FSP documents have been released, specifically
  • FSP-1010 - Via control line;
  • FSP-1011 - BinkP protocol;
  • FSP-1012 - InterNet nodelist flags.
• The FTS documents are under review, with the production of
  • FTS-5000 - Main Nodelist format;
  • FTS-5001 - Nodelist flags,
  which obsolete FTS-0005.
  Additionally a discussion document detailing the various Type 2 Packet formats has been produced which will eventually spawn the new standard documents for these.
• We have reviewed two existing FSP documents and found that we cannot recommend them for promotion to FTS documents. These have been placed in the FRL (Reference Library) sequence. We have also included detailed adjudications of why these decisions were taken.
• Further work and discussion has occured on fields such as Document Submission Requirements, and how "kludge" or "control lines" should be documented in future. Even the structure of the committee and how it might be streamlined has been discussed. It's quite possible that the public (in FTSC_PUBLIC) will be asked to vote on several of these issues in the near future.

The public feedback in the FTSC_PUBLIC conference has been both gratifying and helpful, and I would invite other nodes to consider reading and contributing to this conference.

Next, I'd like to deal with what I anticipate will take place in the next few months.

• Further review of the existing FTS documents.
• Discussion of several FSP documents with decisions made to elevate them to standards, or relegate them to the Reference Library.
• Year 2000 tests of "critical" FTN subsystems, such as nodelist generation.
  Unfortunately, although many nodes and developers downloaded the FTSC Year 2000 test set, feedback has been almost non existant. The committee itself has limited time with which to run tests and so we will limit ourselves to what we regard as the most critical programs.
  I hope to make a full report on this by the end of August.
• The elected terms of many members will expire at the end of September this year. Therefore election procedures will be put in place in time so that those members being reelected can do so without interruption of work.
  Of course we will also be looking for applications from new members. If you feel you would like to join the committee, and could contribute positively to its work, then please contact me for details now so you will be well informed when the election comes around.

I would personally like to thank the members of the committee for their hard work, good debates and support. I would also like to thank all those nodes, points and others who have taken the time to provide input in FTSC_PUBLIC or otherwise.

If you'd like to contact the FTSC, please feel free to direct any queries to Colin Turner at 2:2/20 or admin@ftsc.org.

FTSC Frequently Asked Questions
by Colin Turner, 2:2/20, ct@ftsc.org

Here are some Frequently Asked Questions (and answers) concerning the FTSC.

How do I join the FTSC?

The FTSC is an elected body, and you can only be appointed in this way.
Elections are held periodically. You can ask in FTSC_PUBLIC when the next election is likely to be. Keep watching FTSC_PUBLIC and FidoNews for announcements.

How do I suggest my own new standard?

Any point or node can suggest a new standard. You should read FTA-1002 and to a lesser extent FTA-1001, FTA-1006 and FTA-1007. After that you should know all you need to, but you can always contact the FTSC administrator to clarify any problems.

Where do I find the development information I need?

Experienced developers can find the information they require on the FTSC Archive site:
WWW http://www.ftsc.org
FTP ftp://ftp.ftsc.org
FidoNet 2:443/13.0 and 2:443/14.0
A list of mirrors is also available.
Beginners might find it useful to look at the RoadMap project to help them find the documents of interest.

How can I contact the FTSC?

The FTSC can be contacted in a variety of ways.

FidoNet

Contact the Administrator, Colin Turner, at 2:2/20

InterNet email

Contact admin@ftsc.org

Snail mail

FTSC
PO Box 443
Bangor
Northern Ireland
BT20 3BF
UK

FTSC Mirror Sites
By Colin Turner, 2:2/20, dct@ftsc.org

This is a list of sites which provide an archive of some or all FTSC material. If you run a similar site, on FidoNet, the InterNet or otherwise, and would like to see your site included, please contact

Colin Turner, 2:2/20

With information about how the files are available, File Request, BBS downloads, FTP, HTTP etc. and the star rating you feel appropriate (see below).

Mirror Sites on FidoNet

Denmark

Bruno Olsen, 2:236/42
File Request : Yes
BBS Access   : Yes
Star Rating  : **

Germany

Lothar Behet, 2:446/301
File Request : Yes
BBS Access   : Unknown
Star Rating  : *

Italy

Mario Mure', 2:335/533
File Request : Yes
BBS Access   : Unknown
Star Rating  : **

Holland

Jan Vermeulen, 2:280/100
File Request : Yes
BBS Access   : Yes
Star Rating  : **

United Kingdom

Colin Turner, 2:443/13
File Request : Yes
BBS Access   : Yes
Star Rating  : ***

United States of America

California

David Hallford, 1:208/103
File Request : Yes
BBS Access   : Unknown
Star Rating  : *

Louisiana

John Souvestre, 1:396/1
File Request : Yes
BBS Access   : Unknown
Star Rating  : ***

Texas

Lawrence Garvin, 1:106/6018
File Request : Yes
BBS Access   : Yes
Star Rating  : ***

Mirror Sites on the Internet

Primary Archive

WWW : http://www.ftsc.org
FTP : ftp://ftp.ftsc.org

Other Archives

FTP : ftp://ftp.eforest.net/e/filearea/fido/ftsc

* One Star

This sort of site has a collection of all current FTA, FTS and FSC, FSP documents. (That is, administrative documents, standards and proposals).

** Two Star

This sort of site also has all FRL documents.

*** Three Star

This sort of site also has documents and files related to specific working groups. (For example, there are a number of relevant files for working group Y (Year 2000 issues) which have not been released by the FTSC channel itself).

Censorship of FidoNet in Russia?

My suspicion has been aroused that Soviet-era-type censorship may still be continuing in Russia. The following gave rise to this suspicion.

In 1996 I carried on extensive netmail correspondence with a person in Moscow. At some point he made critical remarks about Russian politicians. Soon after this our correspondence stopped. I heard no more from him, and my netmail to him went unanswered.

Until recently we carried on a fairly active correspondence with people in Russia via the ENGLISH_TUTOR echo. Then some critical comments were made about Russia's role in the Kosovo crisis, and all of our Russian correspondents suddenly fell silent. I've since received netmail from one of them, complaining that no more messages are showing up in ENGLISH_TUTOR over there. This despite the fact that there are messages in this echo from North America and Europe.

The above is insufficient to establish that the spiritual heirs of the former Soviet KGB are monitoring and censoring FidoNet in Russia, but it is enough to arouse such a suspicion. To help me settle this question, I'm writing this to ask the other users of FidoNet whether they have had similar experiences in communicating with Russians. If so, I would like to receive documentation of such experiences by netmail or e-mail along with suggestions on how to combat such odious Russian censorship. I think it's worth the effort to settle this question one way or another.

Andy Manninger
Moderator, ENGLISH_TUTOR
Netmail: 1:153/831
E-mail: andym@lightspeed.bc.ca