An open letter to the CREN Board of Trustees:
 
   What is the status of the CREN negotiations with L-Soft.  As you know,
EARN made an agreement with L-Soft immediately after the company was
formed and this is already paying off for EARN members.  But BITNET/CREN
is seen as dragging their feet.
 
   Obviously that perception may be unfair but it is rampant.  After making
a rather "flipant" comment on one list about this I was surprised at the
reaction from other BITNET members.  Many of us have invested a lot of money
to make BITNET work and to provide excellent list and file services using
the Revised LISTSERV product.  We want to take advantage of the new features
of the 1.8a code.
 
   I have no problem justifying this to my management but would prefer (or
would have preferred) that CREN made a timely decision (I know - that is
probably too much to ask given the dismal track record).  For many of us
if CREN doesn't come up with any provision to support LISTSERV/LMAIL then
we probably look at our CREN membership as a trade-off between having good
current software and supporting CREN.
 
   Actually, BITNET has been successful primarily because of member
contributions and NOT CREN initiatives.  One of those BIG
contributions is the network of LISTSERV servers.  CREN should really
be working with and for its members to build on current successes as
well as prepare for the future.  I sure hope that is still the case
and that I just missed some announcement or something.
 
   Thank you for your time.
 
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Marty Hoag   [log in to unmask]            US Mail: NDSU ITS
ND Higher Education Computer Network                IACC Room 206
Phone: (701)-237-8639  Fax: (701)-237-8541          PO Box 5164
Bitnet: nu021172@NDSUVM1  (note 0=zero)             Fargo, ND  58105
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