Articles

• ECHO TALK - In Memory of Bob Davidson
• On Commercializing Fido Technology
• The FidoNet Technical Standards Committee

ECHO TALK
Food for thought from Fido's echomail.
Purloined without permission by D Myers

In Memory of Bob Davidson
Darrell Salter (1:229/2)

This was written in the Reg12 echo by Darrell, and I actually did get his permission to publish it in Fidonews.

---------------

Hello All!

Every once in a while we get a phone call that we aren't ready for, didn't expect, and it floors us. I got one of those today.

Bob Davidson has died suddenly.

Bob was, of course, the NC of Net 163, and to all the sysops of Net 163 go my deepest condolences.

Was there anyone that understood friendship as well as Bob? Was there anyone that was more helpful to sysops than Bob? Those of you than knew Bob know how friendly and helpful he was. I have received dozens of netmails and emails from Bob over the last few months, all of them helpful hints, tips, suggestions, and notes of encouragement. This R12C will miss him greatly. When I think of Bob I'm reminded of the Chinese proverb ...

If you want happiness for an hour -- take a nap
If you want happiness for a day -- go fishing
If you want happiness for a year -- inherit a fortune
If you want happiness for a lifetime -- help someone else

Bob was a very happy and wise man. I recall a conversation with him where we were sharing the aches and pains of work. You see, Bob used to work in construction (as I do) until serious back problems forced him to persue another line of work. He chose the computer field and became a very competant MCSE and Network Administrator. Smart guy? You bet. And yet, he never forgot about us, the little guys, the much-maligned Fidonet sysops that he proudly called his friends. Bob was loved and appreciated.

But Bob is no longer with us. He touched us, some of us quite deeply, and we will never forget him. All that we have, in the end, are the people we touched. Not money, not fame, not strength, not thoughts. Just the people we touch.

Darrell

On Commercializing Fido Technology
Roy J. Tellason (1:270/615)

> Ok... So why can't we compete with the Internet?

> MONEY!! Take a look at this. Let's take Fidonet technology, ad
> money and commercialize it. What do you have? Sell services to
> customers. We CAN deliver. You need a file from point A to point
> B? We'll get it there now!! Promote the Fidonet "Business". Get
> Fidonet Zones, Regions, Hubs, Nodes, Points in all places with
> software that sets itself up and makes the connection. Build a Point
> package that works like the "Web Browser". A business pays for the
> service, gets the software, installs it and starts sending
> information to where it's needed. The Point software is "mouseable"
> and "point and click". The software sets up a connection to a Node,
> Hub, Region, or Zone automatically and there you are. The people
> above the Point address are the "ISPs" of Fidonet. We charge for the
> service and deliver the goods. Crash mail direct. For the right
> money, we can get it there fast! In fact, the "heyday" of Fidonet
> saw many pay BBS systems that did things very similar to this.
>
> With something like this, I'd bet that for transferring of
> information, Fidonet technology could beat the pants off the
> Internet and its "site to site" relay system. The real question
> is.... Do we want to do this?!?!? Not Me!! That would be like the
> Ham Radio operators trying to compete with the Commercial Radio
> stations. Where does the hobby end and the business begin?

And Derrick, in a following article, wrote:

> This way we could even get the system sponsored so a bigger
> server can be put up which allows faster and better access.
> Through webadvertising we could get people's attention and create a
> new rage that has Fidonet's looks and feels, the graphical user-
> interface people want, and all the gadgets they get from other
> servers like ICQ / mIRC / Powwow and all that stuff.

FWIW, there was an attempt a while back to take fido technology and commercialize operations. That was called BIZynet. I was in this from near the beginning, though it was started by one Chris Gunn, formerly of San Diego though I believe he's now in New Mexico. I got to the point of being an RC in this organization, and in fact still carry the 70:5/0 address as one of my AKA's, though only because I haven't gotten around to taking it out yet.

I have no idea what Chris is up to these days, the last I heard it was something to do with "moderating newsgroups", which always struck me as too much like trying to herd cats to be of much interest.

This got started after I "moderated" Chris and others a number of times about how fido, being a hobbyist network, was not a place to actually do business, particularly with people posting in the BUSINESS echo. He figured that maybe it was time to start a network where it was...

Unfortunately for this sort of thing to work it needed to attain a certain cricital mass in terms of the number of technically competent sysops to run the thing. And that didn't happen. What we got instead were people with a strong entrepreneurial streak, who needed a lot of hand-holding on the technical side, a bit more than we could cope with, and it never really took off.

I've also participated in a few other nets with "business" orientations, but for one reason or another they never went anywhere either. If somebody wants to get something like this going and it's not going to take absurd up-front expenditures of cash, I'd sure like to hear from you.

Roy J. Tellason
1:270/615
roy.j.tellason%tanstaaf@frackit.com

The FidoNet Technical Standards Committee

This is the first part of three letters posted by Colin Turner in the FTSC_PUBLIC echo, containing information about this important Fido organization. Thanks to Lesley-Dee Dylan for forwarding this information to Fidonews.

This is a regular automated posting. Some other automated postings may follow.

This conference, FTSC_PUBLIC, exists to allow an easy channel of communication between the committee and the membership of FidoNet.

The FidoNet Technical Standards Committee exists to document current practice, and to promote technical innovation in FidoNet and other FidoNet Technology Networks (FTNs). Further details can be found in FTA-1000 and FTA-1001 (see below).

Document Archive

The FTSC maintains an archive of documents which fall into several broad categories

FTA

Administrative documents detailing the committee itself;

FTS

Standards for FTNs;

FSP

Proposals for FTNs;

FRL

Old proposals, the reference library for the FTSC.

You can find the entire archive in FidoNet at

2:443/13.0, 2:443/14.0,
24 hours (except ZMH),
300 bps to 64,000 bps (ISDN X75),

or on the InterNet at

http://www.ftsc.org

A list of alternative download sites is available and will also be posted at regular intervals.

Contacts

Here are some contact details for the FTSC. General enquiries can be directed to the FTSC Administrator as detailed below.

Administrator

Colin Turner, 2:2/20
ct@ftsc.org

Working Groups

The committee is divided into several working groups. They are listed here along with contact details.

Group A - Data Transmitted
Colin Turner, 2:2/20
ct@ftsc.org

Group B - Connections & Protocols
Thomas Waldmann, 2:2474/400
thomas.waldmann@ftsc.org

Group C - EchoMail & Routing
Andreas Klein, 2:2480/47
andreas.klein@ftsc.org

Group D - Nodelist
Michael McCabe, 1:297/11
michael.mccabe@ftsc.org

Group E - Gating
Lothar Behet, 2:2446/301
lothar.behet@ftsc.org

Group Y - Year 2000 Issues
Colin Turner, 2:2/20
ct@ftsc.org