hello all, a bit of very
important news and a proposal for
the future of the oslist.
the oslist -- in it's current form
-- will cease to exist within the
next year. i have been in contact
with our boise state hosts and
with the makers of the software
that drives our list and
archives. i've developed a bit of
a work-around plan (working around
paying the software company or
anyone else large sums of money
annually to run the future of the
list). the softward company has
confirmed for me that this (rather
non-standard use of their
software) is indeed technically
feasible. another nice thing
about it is that it makes the
oslist structure look even more
like what we do in open space
meetings.
the oslist at boise state is done
as of june 30th 2011, they are
cancelling their license and
migrating all university groups to
googlegroups. on that date,
oslist will disappear, unless we
do something to move it.
IF we can find another
organization to host us as bsu
has, then we can (pay someone to)
migrate our archive and user list
and go on our merry way, subject
again to the whims of their IT
department.
IF, instead, we choose to fund our
own implementation of the listserv
(brand name) software, we can
migrate our archives and continue
our conversation.
ALTERNATIVELY, or more
creatively... we can contract with
l-soft directly to set-up and
maintain our archive, control that
for ourselves going forward, AND
set it up in a way that would add
to the archive going forward any
postings from any other email
list, like germany, europe,
australia, uk, etc. what's more,
this turns out to be the cheapest
option, because we only need to
pay for listserv software for the
archiving function, rather than
for a full-blown list that will
deliver to 700 people at a cost of
almost $2 for EVERY message sent
to the list (this assumes we would
pay for the service rather than
license and run this for
ourselves. harrison is fond of
saying that we have done all this
without a marketing department.
why add an IT department now?)
this is my suggestion.
and this is what i'm proposing
(offering) to do now:
1. migrate all of our members to a
new oslist at googlegroups (yes,
googlegroups. people who pay
attention to such things seem to
prefer the functionality there and
since our list is public anyway,
there are no issues with privacy
and control of content. but we
will also archive in two other
places, a gmail account AND a
listserv system that will keep
adding all new posts to the old
listserv archive.)
2. migrate the archive (12 years,
i think, and on our way to 29,000
messages) to a new list that will
have only one member account.
3. make that one member account (
[email protected],
for instance) a member of the new
[email protected]
AND any other lists around the
world. THEN set that member
account to forward everything it
receives to the migrated archive.
so other lists become like
breakouts and the oslist archive a
global community record wall of
what's happening.
it this way, we achieve:
1. a new, free, and durable oslist
at googlegroups, with all the
bells and whistles there
2. the survival of the
29,000-message archive in
publicly-searchable perpetuity,
hosted by l-soft (makers of
listserv software)
3. the addition of all new oslist
and other list postings to the
central archive
what does it cost?
1. continuing the oslist
conversation in a new googlegroups
oslist account costs nothing.
2. forwarding to the archive of
all os community list mail from
any list, costs nothing
3. migration of the oslist archive
and setup of new archive list
function costs $500
4. the cost of maintaining the
archive would be $500 per year
i'd expect that $500 is fundable
through donations and could easily
be handled in the normal course of
business and budgeting of the
osi-usa. i assume it's better to
have a legal entity with a
standing bank account take
responsibility for it, rather than
an individual or loose group of
colleagues. but i'll leave it to
osi-usa or another group to say
they'll take this on.
i *think* that any other solution
to this results in one or more of
the following... loss of the
archives, costs that run to $3000
or $4000 annually (and are totally
variable based on list size),
reliance on volunteer community
members to be our global IT
department, additional cost of
paying community members to admin
the system, reliance on the
goodwill of some other
organization (which might be
generous initially but could pull
the plug with less warning than
we've been given now), no ability
to archive many lists in our one
online record.
i will check with boise state to
confirm their support for our
migration. i'm told by l-soft
that migrating the archive to a
new location/list is pretty simple
stuff.
i'm willing to implement this, but
not fund it. i'd like at least
four others to sign on as stewards
of the shift. more would be
fine. and i hope osi-usa will be
the official steward for
donations/funding matters.
i don't have time right now to
discuss this with 700
subscribers. i'm just one guy,
one list member. this is just my
personal recommendation and
proposal. BUT... if there are
concerns about any of this, i'm
glad to try to keep up with
clarifying questions.
if you think this is a good way to
proceed, please say so. if you
have something to contribute to
the process (time, attention,
money, etc) please say so. if you
have concerns, let's hear them,
too -- BUT if you think we
shouldn't do something in this
proposal, then bring your own
suggestions and proposals for what
we should do instead, making sure
that the solution as modified (or
replaced) is still complete
(technically, financially, etc.).
since we don't have anything to
discuss about IF we should move or
really even WHEN we should move,
the only question is HOW to
preserve the archive and WHERE to
continue the main conversation.
ideally, this would all happen
when things quiet down a bit at
the end of the year, mid- to
late-december. that's when i
would be most able to support
these things. anyone else could
do it sooner or later, but i do
think that distinguishing our two
tasks, maintaining the archive AND
continuing the conversation, is a
valuable way to think about this
now.
what can you contribute to this
(new) beginning?
m
--
Michael Herman
Michael Herman Associates
http://MichaelHerman.com
http://RonanParkTrail.com
http://ManorNeighbors.com
http://ChicagoConservationCorps.org
http://OpenSpaceWorld.org
312-280-7838 (mobile)
