Artemis Project: January 1996 ECTC Status Report

THE ARTEMIS PROJECT
PRIVATE ENTERPRISE ON THE MOON

1996 ECTC Status Reports
Section 9.1.1996.

Home

Tour

Join!

Contents

Team

News

Catalog

Search

Comm

January 1996 ECTC Status Report

As the first full month of existence for the new Artemis Electronic Communications Technical Committee, January was an extremely busy month for the ECTC. The highlight of the month (or lowlight, as it turned out) was the major snafu on the ASI web server, when our current ISP decided to move the asi.org domain to a different machine. All of the mail processing on the server was shut down for most of the last week of January, and although the web site remained operational, it ran on autopilot since all of the accounts on the server were disabled. At the end of the month, most of the services we depend on were at least limping along, but we're still cleaning up the mess. Because of this mess, the primary action item for the ECTC in February is finding a new home for the asi.org and tlrc.com domains, using an ISP that can better support our needs.

Despite the web server troubles, the ASI web site got a significant facelift in January. A lot of information about the new ECTC and the plans for improving the Artemis electronic communications environment were put on the web site as a collection of web pages. Follow the communication link from the Artemis home page at http://www.asi.org/ and you will find an overview of the planned communications infrastructure and information about each individual area of communications. You will also find a description and membership list of the ECTC, and the latest version of the ECTC Task List, along with ongoing discussions and information about the work that is currently in progress. Although a lot of work is now going on in many areas, we are always looking for additional help, so if you are interested in joining the ECTC you can now sign up using forms on the ASI web pages.

One change that should be noted is that the address for the ECTC mailing list has been changed. To conform to the new mailing list naming conventions for Artemis lists, the ECTC mailing list is now called "asi-ecomm@asi.org". The original address will work for some time, automatically forwarding mail to the new list, but you should start using the new list address immediately.

Here is the latest status information from the individual work areas within the ECTC:

Help Desk

Nanci Brasket is currently the sole member of the Artemis Help Desk, manning the Artemis Comm & Info Center. Several discussions took place during the month about putting in place an automated help desk environment to handle an increased volume of questions in the future. Those design ideas were put on the ASI web site, but we are still looking for volunteers to research this area further.

Listserver Mailing Lists

Greg Bennett wrote up the master list of mailing lists and newsgroups for all Artemis activities, which is now posted on the ASI web site. Dana Carson set up a new mailing list for the new Web maintenance team and changed the name of the ECTC mailing list. Randall Severy began research into mailing list server software to select which one would be best for the Artemis mailing lists.

World Wide Web Server

Greg Bennett updated the draft copy of the ASI Internet Site Design document, which is available on the ASI web site. Greg Bennett, Randall Severy, Simon Rowland, Nanci Brasket, Dana Carson, and several others have updated and created numerous web pages on the ASI web site. A new team, the Artemis Web Maintenance Team, was formed to handle updating and maintaining the Artemis web site. Led by Dana Carson, the Artemis Webmaster, the team is responsible for receiving web page updates and new contributions from other Artemis members, reformatting the documents to match the style of the ASI web site, and updating the web server with the new documents. If you have updates to any ASI web pages, or have some new documents that should be put on the web server, either as text or HTML documents, send them to the Web team at <asi-web@asi.org> and they will be put on the web server.

WWW Conversation Pages

Some initial research into software that will support WWW conversation pages was done, and is available on the ASI web site, but no further work has yet been done in this area.

Usenet newsgroups

Dale Amon has begun research into creating a new newsgroup hierarchy for the Artemis project. The latest consensus is that putting the artemis newsgroups under sci.space would be too unwieldly for what we need, so the latest plan is to create a new artemis.* hierarchy. Dale has begun talking to several news administrators about carrying the new hierarchy and has put together a draft structure of the new hierarchy. Randall Severy did some initial research into software that will support automated mailing list to newsgroup gateways, and the results are available on the ASI web site, but a lot more work still needs to be done in that area.

On-line services

Nanci Brasket created a web page on the ASI web site that describes the Artemis presence on GEnie. We hope to have similar pages for the other on-line services soon. Candace Dicks talked to some sysops on America OnLine about setting up an Artemis "message board". MB talked to some people on MSN about setting up an Artemis presence there. Since MB is leaving MSN, he has turned over the information he gathered to the new Artemis rep on MSN, Doug Cross.

Bulletin Boards

David Brummel is working on putting together an overview of how his mailing list to BBS system works and how FidoNet and BBSs work as well. That document will be posted on the ASI web site as soon as it is available.

Real-time Meetings

Some discussions took place early in the month about the different environments available for real-time meetings, and those discussions are posted on the ASI web site. Beyond that, nothing has been done in this area, and we are still looking for volunteers to do additional research.

Miscellaneous

Tom Hopper is working on an Electronic Communication FAQ, and that document will be posted on the ASI web site as soon as it is ready.

1996 ECTC Status Reports