Last night as  I recovered from my  first 50 mile bike-a-thon, I  had time to
think about this  matter. Before continuing, I  must first say that  I am the
Senior Academic  Mainframe Consultant here and  Temple's Listserv Postmaster.
I should also say that my opinions are soley my own, not my employer's.
 
Temple recently began to take heavy  advantage of many Internet services such
as  readnews, gopher,  and  hytelnet.  These services  are  available to  our
faculty, staff and students. I am  a major Bitnet and listserv supporter here
and  have been  for several  years.  I have  three concerns  in that  regard.
 
Many systems  here can now utilize  Internet services. What does  Bitnet give
us that Internet doesn't?
 
If  Temple  drops  Bitnet,  it  seems  as if  we  must  also  shut  down  our
listserver.  Our  Listserv  hosts  several  popular lists  one  of  which  is
Help-net which I  run. Some of you probably subscribe  Help-Net and know that
it  is an  excellent way  to  learn about  Internet and  Bitnet services.  If
Temple's Listserv  had to be  shut down, our  listserv lists could  simply be
moved to Usenet.  How would that benefit Bitnet only  sites who cannot access
Usenet directly? It  seems to me that  it would be better to  allow those who
drop Bitnet  to continue  to run  their listservers so  they can  continue to
provide  Bitnet  only  sites  with information.  Denying  Bitnet  sites  this
information  could entise  some of  them to  switch to  Internet in  order to
receive the same  information. I mean no diesrespect to  Eric or anyone else,
but this  policy doesn't make a  lot of sense to  me. Why is it  necessary to
run listservers only on Bitnet connected systems?
 
Up until recently, I  did not know much about readnews. I am  using it now on
Temple's new  central site Unix  system and I am  very impressed with  it. In
fact, I  just asked our systems  contractor to install Penn  State's readnews
interface  on our  VM system.  Once this  is done,  many VM  users here  will
probably become frequent readnews users. As  such, it is reasonable to ask if
it will to our advantage continue to  run a listserver. As I said earlier, it
would be  nice to  continue to  serve information to  Bitnet only  sites, but
what would  be in it for  Temple?
 
As  far as  I know,  Temple is  not planning  to drop  Bitnet. My  intuition,
however, tells  me that my  director will ask about  this. When she  does ask
me, it is possible  that I may not be able to justify  our staying on Bitnet.
In  fact, I  was  recently hired  back  from another  university  with a  key
condition being  that I can become  more involved with supporting  Bitnet and
its  services here.  As  such, I  have  an interest  in  keeping Bitnet.  If,
however, I can no  longer justify keeping Bitnet in my own  mind, I will have
to let my director know. I must do  what is in Temple's best interest even if
it  is  distasteful to  me.  So  what are  people  thinking  in this  regard?
 
Thanks for your time.
 
 Stan Horwitz   Internet: STAN @ VM.TEMPLE.EDU  Bitnet: STAN @ TEMPLEVM
 
 Temple University's Sr. Mainframe Consultant; Manager of the Help-Net
 and Suggest lists; Listserv Postmaster
 
 Standard disclaimers apply. One of these days I will make this sig file
 look much nicer.