California UseNet Project Announcement

ca.* newsgroup coordination - California UseNet Project

Newsgroups: ca.news.group,ca.news,ca.usenet
From: ikluft@thunder.sbay.org (Ian Kluft)
Subject: ca.* newsgroup coordination - California UseNet Project
Distribution: ca
Message-ID: <Dwqw22.2qn@thunder.sbay.org>
Date: Mon, 26 Aug 1996 12:30:01 GMT
Followup-To: ca.news.group

[Follow-ups directed to ca.news.group; pointer articles posted in other
ca.* and regional newsgroups within California.]

Since last week's article proposing re-establishment of coordination
for the ca.* newsgroups, we have started the mail list and put up a
web page.  We're calling this effort the "California UseNet Project".
Its new web page is at
   http://www.sbay.org/ca/

In general, new info will be posted in ca.news.group as it goes up on the
web site.  New material at the web page right now is a tentative plan
for how to go about re-establishing coordination in the ca.* newsgroups
and setting up newsgroup creation procedures.  They're are also attached
to this article for public input.

If you would like to participate in the California UseNet Project, you
can do so by participating in the discussions on ca.news.group.  If you
have technical experience with UseNet, you may also want to join the
technical discussion and volunteers mail list by sending "subscribe" to
   ca-coord-request@sbay.org

The tentative plans article from the web site is attached below.
Note: there is no timetable yet for the three phases of the plan.
Their contents are still subject to suggestion and change.  Please post
suggestions in ca.news.group.

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                        CALIFORNIA USENET PROJECT PLANS
                                       
Phase I - Gather support for a coordination process

   This is the first part of the effort to establish coordination for the
   ca.* newsgroups. This phase will have the following activities
   occurring in parallel:
     * Create a mail list for coordination volunteers.
     * Write charters for existing ca.* newsgroups - including discussion
       from each affected group. No changes will be made to any
       newsgroup; this will only record their current descriptions.
     * Contact news admins to obtain support for the future issuing of
       newgroup/rmgroup messages in accordance with the to-be-developed
       newsgroup creation process.
     * In order to have something to begin getting support for, some
       preliminary brainstorming on potential newsgroup creation
       processes will be done, including input from public discussion.
       
   The process will not create or change any newsgroups in this phase.
   
Phase II - Develop California newsgroup coordination process

   In this phase, the brainstorming about possible coordination processes
   continues and moves on to begin selecting among alternatives. The
   outcome is not presupposed at this point but must take the following
   points into account:
     * California has one of the largest and most diverse online
       populations represented by any regional news hierarchy. Tolerance
       is encouraged.
     * The newsgroup creation processes will be based on public input,
       whether they depend on discussion, voting or any combination of
       them.
     * Procedures requiring the work of volunteers will not be pursued
       unless enough potential volunteers can be found to have confidence
       that the procedure can be implemented.
     * An effort should be made to use available experience and learn
       lessons, good and bad, from other related efforts on UseNet.
     * There must be procedures for at least the following:
          + creation, removal and modification of newsgroups,
          + modification of newsgroup charters,
          + installation and removal of moderators (moderated newsgroups
            only),
          + authority and limitations on enforcement of charters and
          + amendment of the procedures themselves.
            
   Once the procedures appear to stabilize after several rounds of
   revision from discussion on ca.news.group and the volunteers mail
   list, the procedures will be frozen and implemented. Further
   modifications can only be made according to the amendment process.
   
Phase III - Implementation

   The coordination volunteers will commence operation of the procedures
   as written.
-- 
Ian Kluft  KO6YQ PP-ASEL  http://www.kluft.com/~ikluft/   sbay.org coordinator
ikluft@thunder.sbay.org (home)  ikluft@cisco.com (work)           San Jose, CA