Path: utzoo!utgpu!attcan!uunet!unisoft!hoptoad!dasys1!tneff
From: tneff@dasys1.UUCP (Tom Neff)
Newsgroups: news.admin
Subject: Re: Suggestions for a new backbone (was: Re: comp.sys.next, voting, etc.)
Message-ID: <7133@dasys1.UUCP>
Date: 23 Oct 88 00:32:43 GMT
References: <5178@medusa.cs.purdue.edu> <8187@rpp386.Dallas.TX.US>
Reply-To: tneff@dasys1.UUCP (Tom Neff)
Organization: Independent Users Guild
Lines: 41

In article <8187@rpp386.Dallas.TX.US> jfh@rpp386.Dallas.TX.US (The Beach Bum) writes:
>What we need is a smaller backbone with members selected by the community...
>What I propose is a 15 member committee.  Fourteen members are selected
>from the largest sites by vote, after a nominating process.  They then
>select a speaker-to-the-net from some other ``well-connected'' site.
>This body then formulates and implements USENET policy.  All discussions
>are made public in a moderated digestified newsgroup.  No more secret
>meetings.  Members serve until they resign or are removed by vote of
>no-confidence.  Empty seats are filled by nominations from the backbone
>and vote of the net.  The chairman serves at the discretion of the
>remainder of the backbone.

This is a well intentioned proposal which might actuall work on the
mechanical level (for all I know) if you could get it up and running.
I suspect John and those who agree with him will have a great deal
more spade work to do convincing these Well Connected Site (WCS)
honchos, not a few of whom probably feel stung by recent developments,
to go along with it.

There's a bigger problem though.  I think it's archaic at this point to
try and establish a "constitutional" oligarchy of supersites.  Surely
one of the things we learned this spring was that if the supersites are
calling the shots, there is too much emphasis placed on the perceived
needs of the supersites, and not enough on what the smaller people
need, want or think.*  There are more and more small sites all the time,
and more and more mid-sized sites are getting better and better
connected.  The net rutgers, decwrl et al. USED to oversee really
doesn't exist anymore.  If Usenet is to be governed in any way, shape
or form other than anarchy, you will have to include a broader
representation of its constituents.

--

* The net being what it is, this translated into a number of reasoned
and/or impassioned arguments purporting to show why what the small
fry need, want or think was irrelevant!  But the net effect (excuse
the expression) remains the same.
-- 
Tom Neff			UUCP: ...!cmcl2!phri!dasys1!tneff
	"None of your toys	CIS: 76556,2536	       MCI: TNEFF
	 will function..."	GEnie: TOMNEFF	       BIX: t.neff (no kidding)