Tue, 19 Jan 1993 00:32:21 +0100
|
On Mon, 18 Jan 1993 18:10:58 EST Matthew Simpson <[log in to unmask]>
said:
>It seems that BITNET will be shut down across Canada soon.
As far as I understand, this is a pretty old decision by NetNorth to get
rid of a service their board has declared useless. You and many others
are the living proof that this service is useful, however it is too late
to try to reverse the decision. What Canada must do is organize itself to
maintain BITNET connectivity by forming some sort of legal association
(similar to the kind of you'd make for a local fishing club, with some
extra legalese to be compatible with the CREN charter and say "academic"
here and there), and formally joining CREN as a cooperative network
through that association. There would be a minor manpower cost for
maintaining network tables and so on, say 25% of one person at most.
The problem is that this has not been done. Again this is nothing new,
the decision has been known for a long time but some university has to
step forward and do it. Perhaps for political reasons, this has not
happened. While there is still time to do it before this summer, the lack
of action so far doesn't give me the impression that people will act.
What will probably happen is that individual universities will apply
directly to CREN for membership as an association, and collectively pay a
lot more in dues than it would cost them to get organized. But the
majority will probably do just like U of Ottawa and remove RSCS.
My advice to you is to try to find a new host in Canada. Contact people
at other major universities running LISTSERV and ask them what their
plans are for the summer deadline. If they tell you they will leave
BITNET, remind them that this will terminate their right to use LISTSERV,
even for local administrative lists, and ask them what are their plans
for replacing this service. Eventually you will find a site willing to
look into this problem seriously.
Eric
|
|
|