Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!think.com!compass!worley From: worley@compass.com (Dale Worley) Newsgroups: comp.archives.admin Subject: Re: building an interstate (data) highway with no roadmaps Message-ID: Date: 20 Jun 91 14:29:41 GMT References: <9106171612.AA01441@mazatzal.merit.edu> <1991Jun20.070516.683@spectrum.CMC.COM> Sender: root@compass.com Distribution: world Organization: Compass, Inc., Wakefield, MA, U.S.A. Lines: 42 In-reply-to: lars@spectrum.CMC.COM's message of 20 Jun 91 07:05:16 GMT In article <1991Jun20.070516.683@spectrum.CMC.COM> lars@spectrum.CMC.COM (Lars Poulsen) writes: One possible option would be for the Internet Society to sponsor an archive registration facility. Maybe each of the IETF task forces can identify valuable programs that need to be archived, with mirrored servers on each continent, available for NFS mounting as well as anonymous FTP. It should be worth $50 for each site to have access to good easily accessible archives instead of having to keep disk space for everything in our own space. Let me do some calculation. (Of course, some of these numbers may be off -- I'd like to see how other people think it can be organized.) First off, it's going to take at least 6 people to run the organization. For the first few years, it will take at least 3 programmers and 3 administrators. Remember, there are 15,000 (to quote somebody) programs out there, and each one needs to be catalogued, at least minimally. Also, since it is a for-pay service, somebody has to handle payment and bookkeeping. That will cost something like $600,000 per year. And then there's advertising costs -- and it's going to be hard to advertise it over the Internet, because the Internet doesn't like money-grubbing. And there's the cost of maintaining the system's computer, with its connection to the Internet. And there has to be a way to limit access to the archives to those people who have paid for the service -- otherwise there's no incentive for people to subscribe. OK, so maybe the total budget is $700,000 per year. Now, how many sites can we get to sign up? If we're extremely lucky, and spend a lot on advertising, maybe 1000 will sign up the first year. That puts subscriptions at $700/year. If you start with 100 sites, subscriptions have to be $7000/year. Dale Worley Compass, Inc. worley@compass.com -- I'm a politician -- that means I'm a liar and a cheat. And when I'm not kissing babies, I'm stealing their lollypops. -- "The Hunt for Red October"