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davel
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Conference Request item
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Aug 20 01:32 UTC 1998 |
This item is the place to propose new conferences, and to discuss such
proposals. Go for it!
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| 143 responses total. |
davel
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response 1 of 143:
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Aug 20 01:36 UTC 1998 |
I'm going to paste in the text from an item that was entered to propose a new
conference, for a start - also the responses so far to it:
> Item #20 entered by John S. Wolter(jsw) on Wed Aug 19 14:18:32 1998
> Request for "space" conference from Ann Arbor Space Society
>
> After speaking with Jan Wolter and EMailing Scott Helmke I want to
> request a 'space' topic under public issues section. Organization has
> existed in Ann Arbor for over 20 years in one form or another. We
> communicate with people all over the world, a conference form should
> make issue discussion easier.
>
> I don't know the complete process, so if you could let me know what is
> needed I will galdly supply what I can. I understand a 'witness' is
> needed to manage the discussion form, I will be willing to be listed to
> fulfill that role.
>
> Thank you for your assistance.
>
> John Wolter, President
> Ann Arbor Space Society
>
> 2 responses total.
>
> #1 David Cahill(dpc) on Wed Aug 19 16:25:54 1998:
> Great, jsw!
> #2 Dave Lovelace(davel) on Wed Aug 19 21:31:30 1998:
> The procedure is:
> 1. Enter a request in the "conference requests" item in coop. Hmm.
> Looks like none got created when coop was restarted. So start one.
> (It helps to have them collected. If discussion gets complicated,
> a separate item such as this one here can help.)
> 2. If there are any suggestions or criticism, refine your intentions
> accordingly. (That includes saying "That's not what I had in mind"
> & sticking with your original proposal, of course, if you wish.)
> Out of this discussion may come fairwitnesses & all kinds of helpful
> ideas. Occasionally (very rarely) it becomes obvious to the proposer
> that such a conference is unneeded or won't work, & things don't
> go further.
> 3. Assuming you're still interested in going ahead with it, after (say)
> a week or so, say so publically. Email cfadm to get things moving.
> Info you may want to have ready:
> - conference name, & brief description for the "help conference" text
> - the login banner that is seen each time a conference member
> joins to read updated items. See existing cfs for samples.
> - the logout screen (if any) which displays when users leave your
> conference
> - the bulletin which users see when they *first* join your conference
> (or when it's changed) (if any)
> - login names of fairwitnesses (beyond you, in this case, if any)
> 4. Once the conference is created, enter an initial item so that
> others can access it.
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cmcgee
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response 2 of 143:
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Aug 20 02:54 UTC 1998 |
Does "space" fit in the existing "science" conference? Or is it such an
active topic that it needs its own conference?
Or is there already a "public issues" conference that he wants to enter a
"space" item in?
I'm not quite clear whether this topic is meant to be an addition to Grex's
current conferences for currently active Grexers, or is being suggested as
a way to draw in an entirely separate audience of newcomers.
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rcurl
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response 3 of 143:
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Aug 20 05:10 UTC 1998 |
That hardly matters. With 15,000 "currently active grexers", the more ways
they can be active the better. If it draws new users, that's fine too. Why
does it matter?
There are "space" related items in the science cf, but "space" is not
just science. I would be interested in knowing all the topics the
space fanciers talk about, but I suspect that a lot of them are outside
the thrust of scientific studies and activitiers, per se.
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jsw
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response 4 of 143:
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Aug 20 13:34 UTC 1998 |
Rane, your absolutely correct. Space covers business, social,
environment, communications, government, politics, security, cultural,
technology, and yes science issues. For example imagine the positive
impact a space based worldwide realtime environmental monitoring system
but how to make it happen? Discussion may generate a way to make it
happen.
All kinds of people, from all kinds of backgrounds, and from around the
world are interested. While space related newsgroups do exist well
known problems of spam and following discussion threads is that media's
problem. This approach promises to solve these problems and be
accessible to even the simple text web browsers.
We are convinced that we would like to give this a try this year and
see what the results are.
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davel
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response 5 of 143:
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Aug 20 16:08 UTC 1998 |
John, BTW, if there are items in other conferences which are relevant and
interesting enough, the FW (you) can link them in, and they just appear in
their existing entirety as items in your conference. (Additions made in
either conference show up both places - everyone is in fact accessing the same
material, just from two (or more) different directions.)
I also think that this is a very good candidate for its own conference.
There's definitely some overlap, & I'd think a number of linked items would
be appropriate, but it's got both its own set of related issues and to a good
degree its own constituency. To whatever degree this specific conference
would have its own specific, organized constituency (in the Ann Arbor Space
Society), that's a plus - but there are lots of folks already on Grex likely
to take an interest.
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jsw
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response 6 of 143:
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Aug 20 16:25 UTC 1998 |
Dave that's interesting. I was wondering what was meant by 'linking'.
The cross conference connections can be built I assume as more content
is placed in the items. So, as I understand links as it makes sense
the links can be added or substracted.
I also took sometime this morning to page through a virtual community
book which this software begins to create. The future of this kind of
community seems unlimited. More software to write but you know the
saying, "Another day another k".
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aruba
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response 7 of 143:
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Aug 20 16:49 UTC 1998 |
I will participate in the space conference, and it sounds like a great idea.
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mta
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response 8 of 143:
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Aug 21 11:54 UTC 1998 |
This is a great idea, John! I've been curious about the Ann Arbor Space
Society for years -- even talked Jean Barnard out of a couple of old
newsletters earlier this summer. I'd love to participate in this
conference!
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jsw
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response 9 of 143:
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Aug 21 15:00 UTC 1998 |
Response has been good from our current members and some from around
the world. I am ready to go. The next step is to EMail the request to
the conference administrator. Hope it is put on-line soon.
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janc
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response 10 of 143:
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Aug 23 02:15 UTC 1998 |
This seems sufficiently uncontroversial that we could go ahead with it.
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jsw
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response 11 of 143:
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Aug 25 11:40 UTC 1998 |
Jan, I have forwarded the necessary conference setup information to the
conference administrator. If you here anything additional is needed
please call or EMail me.
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jsw
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response 12 of 143:
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Aug 26 18:09 UTC 1998 |
BTW Jan what issue would be sufficiently controversial to _not_ be
consicered on a free speech web site?
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janc
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response 13 of 143:
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Aug 26 19:39 UTC 1998 |
If there was controversy, then we would allow more time for discussion.
Current policy allows for up to a week. The only way it wouldn't be
created after a week would be if nobody still felt it should be created.
Of course, if you tried hard enough you could probably come up with
something sufficiently controversial to trigger a change in the policy.
But it's never come up yet.
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valerie
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response 14 of 143:
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Aug 26 19:49 UTC 1998 |
This response has been erased.
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davel
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response 15 of 143:
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Aug 26 19:52 UTC 1998 |
If you go back into some of the conference request items in old coops - which
are all there, I think - you'll see some cases where people raised questions
("why do we need this when we've got that already?") or suggestions which
changed the focus of the proposed conference or caused the proposal to be
dropped by the person proposing it (because some existing conference seemed
reasonable for the function involved, say). That kind of discussion just takes
more time, that's all. The policy has always been that you get it if you
still want it.
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davel
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response 16 of 143:
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Aug 26 19:55 UTC 1998 |
Valerie slipped in & said the same thing better.
The picture you should have is not "too controversial to be considered" but
rather "after discussion it seemed obvious that the proposed conference would
die from lack of interest" or "after discussion it was decided to pursue this
in the xyz conference".
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gracel
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response 17 of 143:
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Aug 27 16:58 UTC 1998 |
So, "too controversial to be decided immediately, let's wait for consensus".
But not in this case.
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valerie
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response 18 of 143:
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Aug 28 12:54 UTC 1998 |
This response has been erased.
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jsw
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response 19 of 143:
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Sep 1 10:20 UTC 1998 |
I have been looking for the 'space' conference name to appear in the
'Public Issues' section of the conference list but have not seen it
yet. Do I have to setup this up through config somehow?
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remmers
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response 20 of 143:
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Sep 1 15:13 UTC 1998 |
Nope, that's cfadm's job. I was waiting for you to supply a one-line
description of the conference to put there, but in reviewing your
original mail I see that you already did that, and I missed it. I'll
go put it in. Sorry about the mixup.
Other than that, I believe the Space cf. is all set up. In
particular, I notice that you've posted a first item. Good luck
with the conference.
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remmers
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response 21 of 143:
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Sep 1 15:22 UTC 1998 |
Okay, the Space conference is now listed in the public conference
index.
^R
(With a dialup or telnet connection, you can see the conference
index by typing "help conferences" at a Picospan prompt. Via the
web, its at the URL
http://www.cyberspace.org/cgi-bin/pw/bt/pistachio/conflist
With the web version, you can go to the conference by clicking on
its name.
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davel
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response 22 of 143:
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Sep 2 01:20 UTC 1998 |
What's the ^R in aid of, John?
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remmers
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response 23 of 143:
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Sep 2 11:49 UTC 1998 |
Beats me. I posted the response in Backtalk, and it looked fine
before I posted it.
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keesan
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response 24 of 143:
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Sep 22 21:07 UTC 1998 |
The Slavic Languages Division of a national translators' organization is
looking for a way to conference. We have about 300 members, maybe half of
whom are originally or still from Eastern Europe or the former Soviet Union.
THe group publishes a quarterly newsletter of about 15 pages, discussing such
topics as why it is now Ukraine instead of the Ukraine, ecotourism in national
parks in the former USSR, the life of a translator in Ukraine, dictionary
reviews,, electronic dictionaries and other computer related topics (how to
type Bulgarian using WP5.1). THere is also a question and answer column for
problem words and phrases. I have asked the administrator if grex would be
a suitable location for a Slavic translators' conference. If so, I would
request first that users donate to grex, and that they try to make the
discussions, or at least many of them, of interest to non translators. Many
of the translators are recent arrivals from former communist countries and
would be able to answer questions about life there, politics, economics,
cooking, housing, whatever. Translation can be a lonely business and I expect
there would be quite a lot of general chit-chat. Some of our members are
still living in eastern Europe (but would write in only in English).
I do not expect a flood of users, possibly ten or twenty new grex members at
the very most and some other occasional users.
THe translators' association is non profit and educational. would
there be any problem in setting up a conference on grex intended primarily
for the use of another nonprofit organization? (And if this worked, how about
a conference for an amateur fruit growers' group?)
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