From: utzoo!decvax!harpo!seismo!uwvax!solomon
Newsgroups: net.news,net.mail
Title: Re: The USENET corporation, a whole new way to run usenet
Article-I.D.: crystal.154
Posted: Sat Jan  8 09:35:29 1983
Received: Sun Jan  9 02:19:11 1983

Tom Truscott seems to feel that CSNET is competing with UUCP.  In fact,
CSNET was created to fill a specific need and serve a specific
community.  As Tom points out, CSNET is doing a few things that UUCP
should have done long ago but never got around to.

To answer a few specific questions:  As of Jan 7, CSNET had 46 PhoneNet
sites operational and another 12 that have received the software but
not yet installed it.  In addition, there are 19 ARPANET CSNET members,
two PhoneNet relays (Udel and Rand) and the Service Host at Wisconsin.
These are numbers of sites, not hosts; some sites have multiple hosts
with local relaying.  CSNET is growing rapidly, but as you can see it's
still nowhere near as large as the UUCP community.  CSNET was founded
with development support from NSF, but it is to become self-supporting
through dues and fees.  In fact, the first set of invoices has already
been mailed to member sites.  During the period of subsidy, the
management was understandably cautious about the amount and kind of
traffic supported by "the taxpayers", hence the reluctance to support
netnews.  There really is no secret plot to impose censorship.

Some of the problems Tom cites, particularly the need for users to use
a separate mail user interface for PhoneNet mail, have been removed.
More details are available from the hotline number at the end of this
note.

Finally, let me try reassure everyone that CSNET is not operating in a
vacuum or trying to reinvent the wheel.  We are working closely with
Berkeley to integrate CSNET software with the Berkeley version of UNIX,
and the 4.2 release will include CSNET software.  We are also talking
with Bell Labs regarding UUCP/CSNET interface issues.  For more
information, please contact:

	CSNET CIC
	Bolt Beranek and Newman
	10 Moulton St.
	Cambridge, MA  02238
	(617) 497-2777
	CIC@CSNET-SH
	uwvax!cic (via seismo, harpo, allegra, intelqa, or ucbvax)