Briefly, the NativeNet lists have been in existence in one form or another
for a full four and a half years now, during which time I have been the
mainstay of the entire operation, though I have had help from time to time
by a few people, most notably Mary Kuhner, Jon Yamato, and Pat Crowe, in
various capacities. Operating the lists has been for me a labor of love,
but as with all loving relationships, I suppose, there are times when one
might feel some stress and feel a need to juggle things so as not to be
consumed by what was initially a pure joy. It's a matter of "shifting
gears, or re-negotiating, perhaps, but I feel it has to be done.
At the present time, I am serving as moderator for NATIVE-L, NATCHAT,
NAT-EDU, NAT-LANG, and NAT-HLTH (and the now mostly dormant NAT-1492).
I also am system manager for the UNIX machine here in the Boston area
on which the majority of the software that implements the lists runs
(the rest runs on machines far distant from me, one in Texas and the
other in Indiana). I approve all articles that appear on any of the
lists, sometimes adding comments, as well as dealing with the many
inquiries for subscription information that arrive daily, and I handle
the undeliverable messages that find their way back to my computer in
cases when people's mailboxes fill up or they abandon their accounts
without unsubscribing from the lists, and when there are problems out
in network-land. I also get many NativeNet-related pieces of e-mail
every day, many with questions and suggestions or requests for infor-
mation that require me to dig things out of various files.
My reason for creating the original mailing list, back in September of
1989 (which ran entirely on my own machine for over a year, until it
strained the resources of that machine), were rather more limited than
what NativeNet has now become, and I even feel that my original goals
are not being especially well satisfied. Therefore, I am now looking
for a way to permit what we have now to be continued with help from our
membership while freeing my own energies to return to the priorities I
have identified for myself, and to give me some time and space to get
a clearer vision of what I most want my own role in this whole thing
to be. I can also assist moving in new directions, such as a greater
involvement in newer technologies than the LISTSERV-based mailing list
technology we've been using, toward conferencing ("news") software,
as well as gopher, WWW, and other forms of archiving technology.
I feel I should probably draw up a list of the responsibilites that
I perform, with enough detail to permit those who have an interest in
helping to be able to pick up certain pieces and make them their own.
However, I would be willing to help people put in place mechanisms to
enable them to rotate certain tasks, and to remain involved to the
extent necessary to keep things running smoothly. I may also try to
work toward automating certain pieces of the operation, if it turns
out to be possible to do so without sacrificing too much overall
quality and consistency.
At the present time, I would only like to make you aware that I have
a need to come to the subscribers for help, and to let you be thinking
about how you might be able to assist. Several people have offered to
help in one way or another during the past year or so - and I think I
have records of most of those offers, but I may need to ask even those
who have made such offers to remind me, lest I overlook them.
If anyone wants to say anything in the form of a personal message to me,
please feel free to write, but please understand that I may not be able
to offer more than a perfunctory acknowledgement of your message. In
any case, please know that I do appreciate your suggestions and comments.
In future letters in this series, I will try to give you an idea of the
directions in which I'd like to move - hoping I might be able to interest
some of you in joining me, as well as what it will take to keep the
present system running. (I have no immediate plans to relinquish my
basic operational responsibilities, since my own system is somewhat
"wired in," providing a gateway function between the mailing lists and
a set of parallel conferences on the IGC/APC systems and a feed of
NATIVE-L itself to Usenet.) Meanwhile, I'd like to express my thanks to
the many subscribers who have already sent me kind words of appreciation
and encouragement - they mean a lot to me. It is good to know that the
information and conversation provided by the NativeNet lists is helpful
and even important to people, and it is that knowledge that has kept me
going at times when the task of keeping things running has felt oppressive.
Thanks to all of you our there for providing the content of what we do.
I realize that without you, we would really have nothing. I hope you
understand why I must now come to you and ask you to help in new
directions, to keep us strong in what we do, and to let us grow in some
new and, I feel, important new directions.
My best wishes to you all,
Gary
--
Gary S. Trujillo gst@gnosys.svle.ma.us
Somerville, Massachusetts {wjh12,bu.edu,spdcc,cdp}!gnosys!gst