In the last few weeks (months?), I have been wasting more time on endless and unproductive political discussions about the ownership, availability, maintenance and future of LISTSERV than I normally used to spend on the code itself, back in the days of political peace. I am getting seriously fed up with this whole business, and have therefore decided to start a survey on this topic. It is rather like a kind of referendum, as I plan to act according to the results (within reason). The survey is open to anybody who knows what "LISTSERV" stands for, although the results will be split into several sub-groups (EARN vs non-EARN, maintainers vs users, etc). Feel free to forward this note to anybody who might be interested. To answer the survey, you must obtain a copy of 'SURV1 EXEC'. If you have access to a VM system, all you have to do is to run the exec (after checking that it does not propagate a Christmas tree all over the network :-) ). If you do not have any VM account, please refer to the instructions at the beginning of the exec (basically you will have to extract the questions from the 'data' section of the exec and mail your replies to me; I will then enter them into the database). SURV1 EXEC will be mailed to the LSTSRV-L list (I expect that all the people subscribed to LSTSRV-L will want to answer the survey); other people can obtain a copy from LISTSERV@LEPICS by sending a 'GET SURV1 EXEC' command (ie TELL LISTSERV AT LEPICS GET SURV1 EXEC). Please do NOT AFD or FUI to it; the exec will be destroyed when the survey is closed (the deadline for answering is 18-Feb-89). >>> PLEASE read the questions carefully and answer seriously, this is an >>> important survey that can dramatically influence the future of >>> LISTSERV. If you do not have enough time to devote to it, I would >>> rather that you did not answer at all. Thanks and regards, Eric /* Standard LISTSERV-based survey exec This program will only work on a BITNET/EARN/NetNorth site running VM (I do not have time to write one for each operating system on the network). If you cannot run it, please extract the text of the questions from the data following the line marked 'Survey_Data:' below and "manually" reply to them. I will then run the program for you to enter your answers in the database. */ Address 'COMMAND' Do read = 1 If Word(Sourceline(read),1) == 'Survey_Data:' Then Leave End count = 0 output. = '' Do read = read+1 line = Sourceline(read) If Left(line,1) ^== '.' Then Do Say line Iterate End Parse var line '.'cmd line Upper cmd If cmd == 'DONE' Then Leave If cmd == '*' Then Iterate Interpret 'Call CMD_'cmd End fileid = 'SURVEY CMSUT1 A1' 'ERASE' fileid write = 'EXECIO 1 DISKW' fileid '0 (STRING' write '/SURVEY ANSWER' survey# write '//Data DD *,EOF' Do i = 1 for count write output.i End 'FINIS' fileid Say 'DMSDDL SEND' fileid 'TO' destination '(NOLOG NOACK' 'ERASE' fileid Exit 0 CMD_TO: destination = line Return CMD_ID: survey# = line Return CMD_CLEAR: 'VMFCLEAR' Return CMD_PAUSE: Say Say Centre('>>> Press ENTER to continue <<<',73) Parse upper pull reply . If reply == 'QUIT' Then Signal Quit 'VMFCLEAR' Return CMD_LABEL: Return CMD_IF: Parse upper var line boolean ' THEN ' where . Interpret 'boolean =' boolean If boolean == 0 Then Return Do read = read+1 Parse upper Value Sourceline(read) with cmd label . If cmd == '.LABEL' & label == where Then Return End CMD_UNTIL: line = Strip(line) If Substr(Date('S'),3) ^> line Then Return Parse var line yy +2 mm +2 dd +2 Say 'Sorry, this survey has been closed as of' yy'/'mm'/'dd'.' Exit 28 CMD_CE: Say Centre(Strip(line),73) Return CMD_ASK: count = count+1 keepin = '' opt = 0 Do forever Parse upper var line w . Select When w == 'IF' Then Do Parse var line . boolean line Interpret 'boolean =' boolean If boolean ^== 1 Then Return End When w == 'KEEPIN' Then Parse var line . keepin line When Abbrev('OPTIONAL',w,3) Then Parse Value 1 line with opt . line Otherwise Leave End End Parse var line type line If opt Then Say '-> Just press ENTER if you do not wish to answer this question.' Do forever Parse pull reply reply = Space(reply) If Translate(reply) == 'QUIT' Then Signal Quit If opt & reply == '' Then Return Interpret 'Call TYPE_'type line If result ^== 0 Then Iterate If keepin ^== '' Then Interpret keepin '=' reply output.count = reply Return End TYPE_YESNO: Upper reply Select When Abbrev('YES',reply,1) Then reply = 1 When Abbrev('NO',reply,1) Then reply = 0 Otherwise Say 'Please answer YES or NO:' Return 1 End Return 0 TYPE_NUM: Parse var line a b . If ^Datatype(reply,'W') | reply < a | reply > b Then Do Say 'Please enter an integer number from' a 'to' b':' Return 1 End Return 0 TYPE_DEC: Parse var line a b . If ^Datatype(reply,'N') | reply < a | reply > b Then Do Say 'Please enter a decimal number from' a 'to' b':' Return 1 End Return 0 Quit: Parse source . . myname . Say 'Survey cancelled, no data has been sent. Type' myname, 'to restart survey.' Exit 100 /* Insert survey data below Survey_Data: .until 890218 .clear Because of the political turmoil surrounding the issue of LISTSERV development, maintenance and support, the time has come when I must again ask YOUR opinion of what should be done with LISTSERV in the future. Everybody who has been in touch with LISTSERV is invited to answer this survey, LISTSERV maintainers and LISTSERV users alike, be they on BITNET, EARN, NetNorth, ARPAnet, etc. Only statistics will be published - the privacy of individual answers is guaranteed, although you should know that, to prevent people from answering several times, the database server will keep a list of all the persons who have answered the survey. This list can be accessed only by the LEPICS computing centre staff. Most questions are optional, so that you do not have to answer if you feel that you do not have enough experience with or knowledge of the product to provide a valuable answer. Finally, you can quit the survey at any time by replying "QUIT" to any question. Your answers will then be discarded and nothing will be added to the database. .pause .ce *** Preliminary questions *** Are you an EARN user (here 'EARN' really means 'just EARN', ie you should answer NO if you are a BITNET or NetNorth user)? (YES|NO): .ask keepin earn yesno Are you a LISTSERV maintainer ("postmaster")? (YES|NO): .ask keepin postmaster yesno .clear .ce *** The present of LISTSERV *** You will now be asked to express your satisfaction about the various services that LISTSERV is providing TODAY. Please answer in a 0-5 scale, where 0 means "Extremely unsatisfactory" and 5 is "Extremely satisfactory". .if ^postmaster then post1 As a LISTSERV maintainer, please try to keep performance in mind all throughout this survey! .label post1 How do you rate the service provided by LISTSERV to the user community, as a whole (remember: 0 = very bad, 5 = very good)? .ask num 0 5 How do you rate the ease-of-use of these services (ie 0 = impossible to use without special training, 5 = extremely easy to use)? .ask num 0 5 How do you rate the quality of the maintenance (difficulty to get a bug report accepted, time to get a fix, quality of the fix, etc)? (0-5): .ask opt num 0 5 .if earn then earn1 How do you rate the quality of the support provided by the author (time to get a question answered, accuracy of the answer, etc)? (0-5): .label earn1 .ask if ^earn opt num 0 5 .clear .ce *** The future of LISTSERV *** You will be asked several times throughout this survey to give your own opinion on the desireability of a change to LISTSERV. Please use the following scale when answering: 0 - Extremely undesirable, consequences would be catastrophic for us! 1 - Undesirable, should be avoided if possible. 2 - Tolerable, even though we would rather avoid it. 3 - Neutral. 4 - Desirable, we would like to see this done. 5 - Extremely desirable, this is definitely the way to go. Remember: <3 = Don't do it, 3 = Neutral, >3 = Do it. .pause .ce *** LISTSERV as commercial, vendor-maintained software? *** In this section, you will be asked your opinion on the consequences of LISTSERV becoming a commercial, vendor-developed and vendor-maintained piece of software. It is assumed that the license cost is reasonable, and that the vendor in question is a serious company. Development and maintenance would be done by an employee of the company, not by me. --------- First of all, how desirable do you think this solution would be, all things considered? (0-5): .ask opt num 0 5 Do you think the quality of the software itself would improve? Please reply -5 ("It would become completely useless") to 5 ("It would become really more useful"): .ask opt num -5 5 Do you think the quality of the maintenance would improve? (-5 to 5): .ask opt num -5 5 Would you trust the vendor to develop and improve the software in a way that meets your needs? (YES|NO): .ask opt yesno .clear Now let's assume that the vendor only packages and sells the software, while I keep doing the development and maintenance. The vendor guarantees that if I am forced to stop working on LISTSERV, one of their employees will continue my work. How desirable do you think this solution would be, then? (0-5): Remember: <3 = Don't do it, 3 = Neutral, >3 = Do it. .ask opt num 0 5 Do you think the quality of the software itself would improve in that case? (-5 to 5): .ask opt num -5 5 Do you think the quality of the maintenance would improve? (-5 to 5): .ask opt num -5 5 Would you then trust the vendor and myself to develop and improve the software in a way that meets your needs? Do not forget to take into account the fact that the vendor might impose some requirements on me, like a different ordering of the "wish list" than I would have chosen myself. (YES|NO): .ask opt yesno .clear .ce *** LISTSERV as an EARN-owned, EARN-maintained service? *** In this section, you will be asked your opinion on the consequences of LISTSERV becoming the property of EARN, with maintenance being done by an employee of EARN (EARN now has a budget to hire the equivalent of 4 full-time "people", 2 of which being dedicated to the maintenance and operation of the network). It is assumed that EARN would grant BITNET and NetNorth the right to use the software at no cost to your institution; however permission to distribute changes to the software would be the prerogative of EARN, in order to avoid having dozens of different versions of LISTSERV running on the network. That is, EARN would keep control of the software. First of all, how desirable do you think this solution would be, all things considered? (0-5): .ask opt num 0 5 Assuming that the EARN employee in charge of development and maintenance is not me, do you think the quality of the software itself would improve? Please reply -5 ("It would become completely useless") to 5 ("It would become really more useful"): .ask opt num -5 5 Still assuming it is not done by me, do you think the quality of the maintenance would improve? (-5 to 5): .ask opt num -5 5 Would you trust EARN to develop and improve the software in a way that meets your needs? (YES|NO): .ask opt yesno .clear Now let's assume that LISTSERV becomes the property of EARN but I keep doing the maintenance and development. EARN guarantees that if I am forced to stop working on LISTSERV, one of their employees will continue my work. How desirable do you think this solution would be, then (0-5):? .ask opt num 0 5 Do you think the quality of the software itself would improve in that case? (-5 to 5): .ask opt num -5 5 Do you think the quality of the maintenance would improve? (-5 to 5): .ask opt num -5 5 Would you then trust EARN and myself to develop and improve the software in a way that meets your needs? Do not forget to take into account the fact that EARN might impose constraints on me, eg migration of the software to OSI protocol. (YES|NO): .ask opt yesno .clear .ce *** LISTSERV as a BITNET-owned, BITNET-maintained service? *** In this section, you will be asked your opinion on the consequences of LISTSERV becoming the property of BITNET, with maintenance being done by a pool of properly selected and knowledgeable BITNET volunteers (I would not be part of that pool, although I would provide some guidance at the beginning). The BITNET BoT would guarantee that, in the case that the BITNET volunteers can no longer keep working on LISTSERV, they would hire someone to continue this work (probably as part of the BITNIC staff). It is further assumed that BITNET would EARN and NetNorth the right to use the software at no cost. First of all, how desirable do you think this solution would be, all things considered? (0-5): .ask opt num 0 5 Do you think the quality of the software itself would improve? Please reply -5 ("It would become completely useless") to 5 ("It would become really more useful"): .ask opt num -5 5 Do you think the quality of the maintenance would improve? (-5 to 5): .ask opt num -5 5 Would you trust BITNET to develop and improve the software in a way that meets your needs? Please note that BITNET is almost free from politics, and that there would probably be little or no constraint placed on the pool of volunteers. (YES|NO): .ask opt yesno .clear All things considered, what do you think is the best option for the future of LISTSERV? 1 - Keep it the way it is today. 2 - Sell it to EARN. 3 - Sell or donate it to BITNET. 4 - Make it into a commercial, vendor-supported product. .ask opt num 1 4 .clear .ce *** Putting a price tag to LISTSERV *** In the event that LISTSERV had to be sold, the issue of "what is the financial value of LISTSERV" will undoubtedly come up. Actually this issue is likely to come up anyway, regardless of whether I decide to sell it or not. I will therefore ask you a few questions along these lines, to which I would like you not to reply if you are not sure that you have enough information to provide a "valid" reply. In the event that LISTSERV became a commercial product, or that it otherwise became the property of an entity asking your site for money (directly or through your EARN/BITNET/NetNorth membership fee) in order to run it, how much do you think your institution would be willing to pay for a "One Time Charge" license? Please answer with the amount, in thousands of US dollars, that your site would be willing to pay; do not put a '$' sign in your reply, or a 'k' at the end to indicate thousands. For example, for $5500, you would reply '5.5'. Reply '0' if your site would never accept to pay anything to run LISTSERV. >>> Please do NOT answer if you do not have good reasons to think that >>> your answer would be accurate! .ask opt dec 0 999 .clear Let's assume that your institution had to re-create LISTSERV from scratch, ie write a piece of software that does exactly the same thing as LISTSERV, running in the same environment and with comparable performance. The person doing this would not be allowed to extract pieces of code from the existing version of LISTSERV, or even to look at the code to see how things are done, BUT he/she would be provided with a complete functional description of what LISTSERV does. What type of programmer would you choose to do this work, if you were the manager of the organization having to do the work (knowing, of course, that the salary is not the same): 1 - Novice, straight out of grad school. 2 - Beginner, 1-2 year of experience with VM, knows REXX, not assembler. 3 - Knowledgeable, 2-4 years of VM experience, good knowledge of REXX, can understand assembler but finds it hard to program in assembler. 4 - Expert, 5+ years of experience, REXX expert, can understand and write good assembler. 5 - Wizard, remembers his first IPL of CP-40, knows the opcodes and card punch codes of any assembler instruction you can name, etc. .ask opt num 1 5 .clear How long do you think it would take this person to do the work (this includes testing, debugging, etc), in months? .ask opt dec 0 999 How much do you think this would cost your institution (counting not only the salary paid to this person but also the corresponding taxes/welfare paid to the state, the CPU time and disk space he would use, the floor space for his office/terminal, and all other associated overhead)? Please answer with the amount in thousands of US dollars (no '$', no 'k' in the answer): .ask opt dec 0 999 How much do you think it would cost your institution, in thousands of US dollars per month, to maintain the software (ie write bug fixes and develop improvements that become required by a change in the technology or protocols use in the network)? .ask opt dec 0 99 .* .* End of questions .* .clear Thank you for having answered this survey. Your answers are being sent to LISTSERV@LEPICS for inclusion in the database. .to LISTSERV AT LEPICS .id 1 .done */