Assuming their interest, for this to proceed, we would have to
have general agreement and of course would want to individually
give them permission to use our respective FAQs. All that would
be done in an appropriate formal manner. We would obviously
not expect inclusion of any FAQs without explicit permission.
Due to the timely nature of the material, we would want to ensure
that there is a mechanism in place for updated versions of any
publication.
They'll be seeing all this and any discussion on the issue from
here on in, as I'm taking the liberty of forwarding it to them
so that they know precisely what everyone's opinion is.
If this concept actually does turn into reality, I'm not sure
what my involvement might be in the project, but let me state
now that the entire concept is so far based on donation of any
and all royalties to support rtfm.mit.edu, and of course that
includes any proceeds that I might (or may not) be a part of
generating.
ORA has also just now published "The USENET Handbook: A User's
Guide to Netnews", which I understand contains relevent material.
To ensure that all interested are aware of what's in it, they
are offering to send a limited number of copies to FAQ maintainers,
#at#no#charge# (read: FREE). To quote my contact at ORA:
: [...] Actually, I'd be interested in sending them each
: a copy of the book. Do you have a sense of how many people are on
: this list? If there aren't thousands, I'd like to extend the offer.
To facilitate this, any FAQ maintainer desiring a copy may email
them via the alias I've just set up here for the duration of their
offer: ora-book@xenitec.on.ca
That alias will forward directly to them, so feel free to take
them up on it! IMHO, this in itself speaks volumes for the type
of folks we'd be dealing with at ORA, which is why I went out on
a limb and approached them in the first place.
FYI, here's their preliminary announcement on "The USENET Handbook".
--ed
-- Ed Hew <edhew@xenitec.on.ca> XeniTec Consulting Services, Kitchener ON, Canada ---- The USENET Handbook A User's Guide to NetnewsBy Mark Harrison 1st Edition May 1995 388 pages, ISBN: 1-56592-101-1, $24.95
Description: Discussion groups aren't the fanciest things around -- but they have been networking's "killer application" ever since people first decided to connect their computers together. From the first ARPANET mailing lists to DOS BBSs to the modern USENET, the ability to hold discussions has attracted people to electronic communication by the thousands. Electronic mail may be the most necessary application, and the World Wide Web may be the sexiest, but discussion groups become obsessions.
USENET, also called Netnews, is the world's largest discussion forum. It's a place for asking and answering technical questions, arguing about politics, religion, and society, or discussing most scientific, artistic, or humanistic disciplines. You'll be surprised by who you meet; it's common for a simple question to be answered by a noted authority. USENET is also a forum for distributing free software, digitized pictures and sounds, and many other things. With the appropriate licensing, you can even get a complete newspaper.
Although the Internet now carries a lot of USENET's traffic, USENET was around first, and still reaches many places that aren't yet connected to the Internet. If you have an Internet connection, you can read News as part of the deal; but if you don't yet have an Internet connection, you can still participate by finding someone willing to pass a news feed along to you.
This book unlocks USENET for you. It's not just a technical book, although it includes tutorials on the most popular newsreaders for UNIX and Windows (tin, nn, GNUS, and Trumpet). It also explains what goes on on the Net: where to look for information and what to do with it once you get it. It gives you an introduction into the culture: Net etiquette, the private language, and some of the history...including some of the more notable practical jokes and pranks. #EOT
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