Path: utzoo!mnetor!tmsoft!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!ncar!midway!gargoyle!chinet!les
From: les@chinet.chi.il.us (Leslie Mikesell)
Newsgroups: comp.mail.misc
Subject: Re: Which headers may Sendmail re-write?
Message-ID: <1990Dec21.185056.29364@chinet.chi.il.us>
Date: 21 Dec 90 18:50:56 GMT
References: <1990Dec18.155353.5024@mp.cs.niu.edu> <1990Dec19.061836.8692@chinet.chi.il.us> <1990Dec19.124545.26165@mp.cs.niu.edu>
Organization: Chinet - Public Access UNIX
Lines: 28

In article <1990Dec19.124545.26165@mp.cs.niu.edu> rickert@mp.cs.niu.edu (Neil Rickert) writes:

> As long as you can plug your pocket calculator into a modem and instantly
>become part of the UUCP pseudo-network, no organization can possibly exist.
>If you want organization you need an enforced central registry, enforced
>standards, etc.

Well, X.400 promises to give us a system complicated enough that only
large organizations will be able to use it.  If that is the goal, all
we have to do is wait.

I'm trying to propose an alternative to an enforced central registry
with a central standard enforcing "lowest common denominator" standards.
That alternative is for certain sites to act as hubs, allowing ad-hoc
communications on either side and providing gateway services as needed.
This makes it trivial to add and delete sites since only the local
hub needs to know about it, and gives a certain degree of freedom to
the sites local to each hub.  That physical organization already exists
around internet <-> uucp gateway sites.  Making the organization logical
as well seems like it would be a good thing for all concerned.

> But the current chaos has proved very productive - lets not break it just yet.

As the ratio of computers to users approaches 1:1 the current system will
break all by itself. 

Les Mikesell
  les@chinet.chi.il.us