response 1 of 48:

May 11 02:13 UTC 1995

        Well,as soon as we know what Merit has to say, can this get posted,
here? Thanks!

response 3 of 48:

May 11 04:41 UTC 1995

Jeff Ogden sent mail to the HVCN mailing list emphasizing that this is not
an open meeting.  They want one or two people per community network.  Grex
probably should send people, but we should coordinate that here.  We
shouldn't just have random Grexers showing up at this thing.

response 5 of 48:

May 11 20:01 UTC 1995

I think the reason Merit limited the meeting has to do with
space (as in room, not outer). We will all be sure the news
is posted in detail.  If you can telenet to genesee.freenet.org
you can find some good info (in administrative matters I think)
about the new Merit policies.  Jeff gave me a copy of the latest
Merit newsletter which discusses the new policies, but have
not had time to read it yet.  I will try to do so soon and
send the information to Valerie to post, or, better yet, I
will send her a hard copy and she can extract the info.

Merit "help" has a lot of info also.  Oh, just login as "guest"
at genesee.freenet.org.  They are a helpful group also.

response 7 of 48:

May 11 23:54 UTC 1995

I understand, sidhe. We have the no. 2 person at Merit sitting on our
board and I often find out things on other systems before I find them
out at HVCN (concerning Merit). Jeff is just incredibly busy - I am sure
he has a tremendous amount on his mind all the time.  He just mentioned
that the reason for not promptly responding to some e-mail was a stack
of one thousand (1,000) e-mail messages to answer.  I get excited when
I have "5 new messages".  He must go slightly crazy with that input!
Anyway, everything tells me Jeff and Merit are committed to sharing
information -- not hiding it or trying to use it to control.  We are
very fortunate to have his help, and I intend to see that HVCN shares
what HVCN knows with Grex. I see no conflict.  

response 9 of 48:

May 12 06:23 UTC 1995

        I, meantime face cut-off..

response 11 of 48:

May 12 16:34 UTC 1995

I think that merit is limiting their meeting because since they are
limiting everything else lately they didn't want to leave the meeting out.

response 13 of 48:

May 12 18:27 UTC 1995

I'm glad they're holding a public meeting at all - great idea!

response 15 of 48:

May 12 21:53 UTC 1995

re #10:  I'm sure the process by which Merit is funded is complicated.
I'm also reasonable, er, reasonably certain that some public funds
were used to bring Merit/Michnet into existance.  Add to this the fact
that Michnet has become, by intent or default, a publically accessible
dial up network, and Merit has a responsibility to keep the general
public informed.  What Merit is doing, in my opinion, is akin to a public
library funded by a local school district deciding to charge a user fee
and then passing this policy change along to the public by rumours
spread by library users "in the know."  The user fee may for may not
be necessary, -- one can't develop an informed opinion without information.

response 17 of 48:

May 13 22:57 UTC 1995

Re 15: I know a few people who work at Merit, and they've done lots to try
to keep the public informed, but I think there's no easy way for them to
*reach* everybody with good information.  There's a lot of info available
if you type "help" at the "Which Host?" prompt, but most people (including
me, mea culpa) choose never to look at that.  I'm not sure what they can do
if people won't read the information they're giving out.

response 19 of 48:

May 14 18:08 UTC 1995

  Re 17, when I tried "help" at the Which Host earlier this year, amidst
the flurry of rumors about Merit/Michnet's future policy, it didn't seem
to mention that a change was even being considered.  Their policy wasn't
finalized, but they could have at least mentioned *that*.  Their help
system seems more up-to-date now, although I still don't know if it mentions
a policy change about "Which Host?" access (though they list e-mail & phone
numbers to ask).
 
  Re 10 & 15, Merit Networks, Inc. "is a non-profit corporation owned by
eleven of Michigan's four-year publicly supported universities."  A few
people argue that their services should therefore be free to the public.
It's a rather old debate.  Merit makes their reasons for access restrictions
pretty clear in their help system, so I won't reiterate what you can get
straight from the source :-).

response 21 of 48:

May 15 00:03 UTC 1995

Recently when I went through Merit they clearly stated that the change
was coming, & told which items to read in the help to get more details.
That was maybe a couple of weeks ago.

response 23 of 48:

May 17 00:43 UTC 1995

        Alright. I apologize.
I'm just <hopefully understandably> nervous.