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Subject: <nettime> First Report from Documenta Hybrid Workspace Nettime Study Group
From: nettime maillist <nettime@Desk.nl>
Date: 14 Sep 1997 19:28:46 +0200

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First Report from Documenta Hybrid Workspace Nettime Study Group

Ad Hoc Kassel Committee (Janos Sugar, Matt Fuller, Critical Art Ensemble,
Patrice Riemens, The Nettime Brothers, and Michael van Eeden)

After endless deliberations concerning the current state of Nettime, the
committee has drawn up the following plans:


I. List Moderation.

At present, the Nettime list is in a state of dis(re)pair due to the
overwhelming volume of traffic on the list. Consequently, Geert and Pit
(the unofficial moderation group) feel unable to complete the amount of
work required to keep the list functioning smoothly. In order to
lighten the workload on them, the committee plans to form an editorial
group of around five to eight members. The ad hoc Kassel Committee will
act as the interim group until enough volunteers from active Nettime
members are assembled. Service on the group will be short-term and will
rotate so members do not face the burnout syndrome that currently
afflicts the Nettime Brothers.

The group will have three primary functions: First, some group members
are to act as list moderators; second, some are to instigate member
recruitment initiatives to increase cultural diversity on the list; and
third, some will aid thread and genre development on the list. List
moderators will serve limited terms. Duration of service is still to be
determined, although a two-month limit has been suggested.

Text access for moderators: The simplest way to accomplish this would be
to set up a separate e-mail account with telnet access for the
moderators, so they can share the mailbox. Some ideas have been suggested
to make a (password-protected) website for the moderators where they can
handle postings on the list. More facilities could be added (like tagging
of messages with keywords for the archive, putting messages on hold to
evenly distribute postings over a period of time, etc.). For now, we will
just set up the moderator-account at some location yet to be determined.

The Nettime policy of an open list will continue. However, moderator(s)
will intervene and delete spams, local announcements, self-aggrandizing
advertisements, flames, personal conversations, and any other posts
clearly lacking content relevant to the general readership. The
moderator(s) will also write any necessary backchannel correspondence.

II. Traffic.

Members should expect Nettime traffic to continue at current levels, or
to gradually intensify. In order to cope with traffic jams (and panic
attacks) caused by the increased number of posts due to a growing
membership, the committee suggests parallel home moderation. Each member
has a delete button on he/r computer--you are going to need it--do not be
afraid to use it.

With the growth of Nettime we are also seeing more and more people who
just read Nettime texts without being actively involved in posting. A
growing number of people use the archive to read Nettime as a kind of
e-zine. We could make it easier for these people to find the most recent
articles, and eliminate the need to download use lists of articles. In
other words, the archive needs a complete overhaul. More features geared
toward improving research efficiency could be added (such as a way to
copy plain-text messages from the archive for use in other publications,
or improving the search engine). Suggestions for improving archive
software (or any other software suggestions) should be sent to Michael
van Eeden (mieg@factory.org).

III. Glossary.

As we were talking about the Nettime Bible and one Nettime member's
recent experiences with publishing a Hungarian book, we decided it would
also be nice to have a lexicon of Nettime terms (such as 'gift economy,'
names and abbreviations like 'V2', 'Next 5 Minutes,' and so forth). The
glossary should be collectively produced by the Nettime community. The
committee believes that a glossary would be very helpful to newcomers,
and aid people in preparing publications, like the upcoming ZKP (yes,
'ZKP' should also be in the lexicon). In order to accomplish this, some
web-based database system should be set up. A small Nettime-tech group is
looking into possibilities for creating such a system. A call for
glossery entries will be made on Nettime. Suggestions can be send to
mrf@mrf.hu (Diana & Janos at the Media Research Foundation, Budapest).


IV. The Nettime Bible.

The primary goal of the committee is to put together the Nettime Bible.
Work on this project has only just begun. A complete statement on the
progress of the committee will be issued at the end of the week.

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