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From: control@almsa-1 (William Martin)
Newsgroups: net.news.group
Subject: Re: Net.software.projects group idea
Message-ID: <190@almsa-1>
Date: Mon, 12-Aug-85 13:31:34 EDT
Article-I.D.: almsa-1.190
Posted: Mon Aug 12 13:31:34 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 14-Aug-85 01:43:23 EDT
References: <134@isis.UUCP>
Reply-To: control@almsa-1.UUCP (William Martin)
Distribution: net
Organization: ALMSA-1, St. Louis, MO
Lines: 30
Keywords: distributed software projects

This appears to be a rather good idea... One point, regarding the
proposal for having a "no followups" rule: I think that might be
counterproductive. Suppose I post a note saying that I am working on
idea "X". Across the net, there are twenty other people also working on
idea "X" (the usual simultaneous occurrence of ideas when the time is
ripe for them -- the history of science is full of examples of this). If
they only mail to me, it is then up to me to put all of these people in
contact with each other. I may not do this -- I may not know how, or may
not have time, or maybe I want to get their ideas for myself and not let
them collaborate. However, if followups are allowed, and all twenty
people post notices that they, too, are working on idea "X", the info
and the identities are public, and it is also apparent to others, who
might have thought about devoting time and resources to idea "X", that
it is being handled already by a lot of different people and/or
organizations, and mybe they would be better off putting their resources
into some other area. 

Of course, nothing would keep a "no followup" rule from being avoided by
people simply posting newly-originated notices with similar subjects (or
even putting a "Re: " in manually, so it would not be
enforceable in any event -- it just seems that making that be an
explicit goal might not be wise...

Other than that, seems like a pretty good idea. Guess that means it'll
never happen... :-)

Regards,
Will Martin

ARPA/MILNET: wmartin@almsa-1.ARPA    UUCP/Usenet: seismo!brl-bmd!wmartin