Path: utzoo!utgpu!attcan!uunet!pdn!boake2!jc3b21!jra From: jra@jc3b21.UUCP (Jay R. Ashworth) Newsgroups: news.admin Subject: The Annotated USENET: A Cultural Coredump of the Early Information Age Keywords: Oh, I love it... Message-ID: <443@jc3b21.UUCP> Date: 3 Aug 88 15:45:47 GMT References: <692@gtx.com> Organization: The Great Ashworth & Petrillo Production Co. Lines: 42 From article <692@gtx.com>, by al@gtx.com (Alan Filipski): } } The notion of "checking the net" brings up a number of interesting questions: } } Can all USENET articles that have ever been posted be collected? Has } any site, possibly in the course of its usual backups, saved } essentially all articles over some long time period? Or, does all this } wisdom, wit, blood, sweat, tears and bullshit just evaporate? Who } volunteers to reconstruct the entire USENET corpus and put it on } CD-ROM? [ Me! ] } Surely this is more important than Stargate or GNU or SDI or } archiving LANDSAT data or geneologies or stockpiling Helium. } [ ... ] Can we deprive armies of future scholars of } publishing "The Annotated USENET: A Cultural Coredump of the Early } Information Age", in 4,312 volumes? [ Permission to use this title, please? ] } Should we tell the FBI that this } is a den of sedition and evil conspiracy so they will get their tapes } rolling, then request copies via the FOI act? [ What a great idea... ] } } ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ } ( Alan Filipski, GTX Corp, 8836 N. 23rd Avenue, Phoenix, Arizona 85021, USA ) } ( {allegra,decvax,hplabs,amdahl,nsc}!sun!sunburn!gtx!al (602)870-1696 ) } ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I'm (fairly) sure Alan was mostly kidding, but his is a helluvan idea, folks! Of course, it would probably take 3 or 4 CD's, but hey, why not. Let's start some discussion on this, as a serious project. As Alan pointed out, there's a whole lotta good stuff in the past. Reply via email, especially if you keep thorough backups... Cheers, -- jra -- Jay R. Ashworth ---+-- Suncoast Television Productions--+ ...!uunet!codas! 10974 111th St. N. | producers of Suncoast Magazine | !usfvax2!jc3b21!jra Seminole FL 34648 +------------------------------------------------+--------- (813) 397-1859 ----+-- Premiering on Vision Cable Ch. 24 in July ---+ TANSTAAFL Robert Heinlein, 1901-1988, alas, not as long-lived as Lazarus Long. R. I. P.