Conference lgp30::christian-perspective

334.0. "a proposal to join the "Notes-News gateway"" by LGP30::FLEISCHER (without vision the people perish (381-0899 ZKO3-2/T63)) Tue Oct 29 1991 11:47

        At my suggestion, the moderators have discussed and generally
        support the addition of this conference to the "Notes-News
        gateway" service.  In a nutshell, this service allows access
        to notes conferences (within Digital only) via the Netnews
        system.  This is the conferencing mechanism of choice among
        Unix users, who to this day do not have access to VAX Notes
        without some access to a VMS system.  This gateway addresses
        that problem in a convenient way for them.

        (Note that Netnews software is also available for VMS users,
        and there are many USENET-wide newsgroups available within
        Digital to those who read Netnews.  Also, there is an
        experimental Netnews-Mail gateway service through which an
        internal Digital user can access Netnews, and notes
        conferences on the Notes-News gateway, through their favorite
        mail system.)

        We anticipate adding this conference to the Notes-News
        gateway by November 8.  Those who have comments, questions,
        or objections, please use this topic to express them.

        Bob
        ------------------
From:	LGP30::CRL::HALBERT "Dan Halbert  23-Oct-1991 1802" 23-OCT-1991 18:03:17.36
To:	lgp30::fleischer
CC:	
Subj:	Form letter to moderators about Notes-News

This is my standard form letter:

Dear Moderators of the CHRISTIAN-PERSPECTIVE VAXNotes conference,

We're sending you this letter to all the moderators of your conference
to tell you about the "Notes-News gateway". A reader of your
conference, ___, has requested that it be added to the gateway.

We'd like to know:

1. Are you willing to have your conference be added to the Notes-News
gateway?

2. If so, are you also willing to allow replies and new topics (or just
replies) to be posted via News?


Below, we describe what the gateway is, and discuss some issues for
you to consider in making your decision. Thanks for your time.

Netnews
-------

You have probably heard of Netnews before. It's a kind of electronic
bulletin board system that runs on multiple machines. Discussion
topics are divided into newsgroups, with names like comp.sys.dec,
ne.wanted, or rec.music.folk. Netnews readers post articles and reply
to them; the machines that run News exchange these postings. The
effect is like a distributed VAXNotes conference, except that older
articles are usually thrown away after some period of time (usually
one or two weeks). Because copies of articles are stored locally,
access is quick.

Digital is part of a worldwide network of News machines called USENET.
Quite a few machines inside DEC distribute USENET news from outside.
In addition, these DEC machines also distribute newsgroups that are
Digital Internal Use Only. These newsgroups all start with "dec."
(e.g. dec.ultrix) and are NOT distributed outside DEC.

At DEC, News is often associated with Ultrix, but many people read
News from VMS machines as well.

The Notes-News gateway
-----------------------

The Notes-News gateway allows Digital employees to read notes
conferences via Netnews. The system operates automatically.  New notes
from selected conferences are periodically extracted and distributed
to corresponding newsgroups. For example, the SMURF::ULTRIX conference
is gatewayed to dec.notes.basesys.ultrix. The gateway operates like
many other batch Notes extractors, except that it distributes the
notes it extracts via the News systems, instead of, say, mailing them
or putting them in a file. Currently, the system checks most
conferences for new notes every two to four hours. Over a hundred
conferences are now being gatewayed.

To be eligible for gatewaying, a conference must have been announced
in EASYNET_CONFERENCES (EASYNOTES.LIS) and must NOT be members-only.
Anyone may request that a conference be gatewayed; the conference
moderators are consulted before it is added.

The Notes-News gateway was originally conceived as part of a research
project here at DEC's Cambridge Research Lab (CRL). The project is
called Telegraph; its goal is to provide easier and more uniform
access to a number of diverse information sources, including Notes and
News.

After starting work on the gateway, we became aware that there was
considerable pent-up desire for such a gateway in the company. A
number of people inside the company know about VAXNotes, but can't or
don't read conferences with any regularity.  Others do follow various
conferences, but find the task onerous. Their reasons vary: slow
networks, lack of access to VMS, unfamiliarity with VAXNotes, lack of
time, or sometimes just personal intransigence.  Many of these people
do read News, and therefore see a gateway as an attractive way for
them to gain easy access to the world of VAXNotes.

Do you want your conference to be gatewayed?
--------------------------------------------

As we mentioned, one or more readers of your conference have requested
that your conference be added to the Notes-News gateway.

We would like to know: Are you willing to have your conference
gatewayed?  Below we discuss some issues for you to consider.

If you decide to let your conference be gatewayed, you might want to
post an explanatory note in your conference, Attached to the end of
this letter is a sample announcement.

Issues
------

One advantage of being gatewayed is that your conference may gain new
readers.  In addition, many conference readers find that News is a
very quick way to read new topics and replies, instead of waiting for a
slow network link or using their own batch extractor.  You may notice
a decrease in load on your system, because fewer readers will be
connecting directly to read the conference.

The main disadvantage some moderators have cited is the problem of hidden
and deleted notes. Like all batch extractors, the Notes-News gateway
may extract a note that is later hidden or deleted. We can, at your
request, manually cancel an article that gets onto the News system,
but, as with VAXNotes, people may read something before it is hidden,
deleted, or cancelled, or before it is automatically discarded because
it has become too old. Some moderators have requested that we
alleviate this problem by gatewaying their conference only once per
night, allowing them several hours to hide problem notes.

As mentioned, we can cancel articles manually, at your request. Just send
mail to CRL::NOTES-GATEWAY-ADMIN (or [email protected]).

A few moderators have expressed concern that gatewaying could change
the social atmosphere of their conference. This is a matter of reader
perception that could be hard to predict, but which you may wish to
consider.

We want to reemphasize that the conferences taking part in the
Notes-News gateway are NOT being distributed outside of DEC. Each
gatewayed note is also labelled as "Digital Internal Use Only" as a
reminder to the reader.

Over a hundred conferences are now being gatewayed. Most moderators
have had no objection to gatewaying. As you might expect, Digital
people who use News have been generally enthusiastic about the
gateway.

Some initial discussion of the gateway took place in the
ERIS::MODERATORS conference.  (MODERATORS is a members-only conference
on the subject of conference moderation; contact RAINBO::CANNOY for
membership.)

Do you want two-way capability?
-------------------------------

So far, we've talked about only the Notes-to-News part of the
Notes-News gateway.  However, an optional reverse channel exists as
well, and is turned on if you give permission. The reverse channel
enables people who read your Notes conference via News to reply or
post new notes directly via News.

A two-way gateway makes it easy for News readers to participate
actively in a conference; it means they don't have to run VAXNotes or
another Notes program to reply or write new notes. But they are at a
disadvantage: they are looking at a snapshot of the conference that
may be several hours old, and they cannot see the whole conference.
Thus they may post a reply to a note without noticing that it has
already be answered. They may also be tempted to post a query without
searching the conference first to see if their question has already
been answered. Some conferences are clearly suitable for a two-way
gateway; some are not. We leave it to you.

We can also offer you a limited two-way gateway that would allow News
readers to post replies to existing notes, but not to start new
topics. This may partly alleviate the problems described above.

Most moderators are now approving a two-way gateway, and most people who
read conferences via news are anxious to have it. For a number of
conferences, it has increased the number of people who are willing to
answer questions.


To repeat, we'd like to know:

1. Are you willing to have your conference be added to the Notes-News
gateway?

2. If so, are you also willing to have the gateway be two-way, that
is, to allow replies and new topics, or just replies only, to be posted
via News?

Thanks. If you have any comments or questions, send them to
CRL::NOTES-GATEWAY-ADMIN or [email protected], or to me
personally at the address below.

Dan Halbert, DEC Cambridge Research Lab (CRL)
Notes-News gateway administrator
CRL::HALBERT or [email protected]
DTN 259-6616


Sample conference announcement:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: The administrators of the Notes-News gateway

This conference is now being gatewayed by the Notes-News gateway, and
can now be read in the newsgroup

	dec.notes.valuing_diffs.christian-perspective

This newsgroup, like all other dec.* newsgroups, is NOT distributed
outside Digital.

The Notes-News gateway allows Digital employees to read notes
conferences via Netnews. The system operates automatically.  New notes
from selected conferences are periodically extracted and distributed
to corresponding newsgroups. At the option of the conference
moderators, users of the gateway may also reply and post new topics via
News.

You have probably heard of Netnews before. It's a kind of electronic
bulletin board system that runs on multiple machines. Discussion
topics are divided into newsgroups, with names like comp.sys.dec,
ne.wanted, or rec.music.folk. Netnews readers post articles and reply
to them; the machines that run News exchange these postings. The
effect is like a distributed VAXNotes conference, except that older
articles are usually thrown away after some period of time (usually
one or two weeks).

Digital is part of a worldwide network of News machines called USENET.
Quite a few machines inside DEC distribute USENET news from outside.
In addition, these DEC machines also distribute newsgroups (dec.*)
that are Digital Internal Use Only.

Like all batch extractors, the Notes-News gateway may extract a note
that is later hidden or deleted by you or by a moderator.  Currently,
the gateway does not automatically cancel such articles. We will
manually cancel articles on request, however. Send mail to
CRL::NOTES-GATEWAY-ADMIN.

The Notes-News gateway is an outgrowth of the Telegraph research
project underway at the DEC Cambridge Research Lab, the goal of which
is to provide easier and more uniform access to a number of diverse
information sources, including Notes and News.

Dan Halbert, CRL::HALBERT or [email protected]
for the Notes-News administrators

% ====== Internet headers and postmarks (see DECWRL::GATEWAY.DOC) ======

	I follow a number of conferences that I am read only in this way.
	I don't like the News interface as much for entering notes but other
	people like it better than Notes.

			Alfred

    
    
    Sounds good to me too!
    
    Carole