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From: webber@brandx.rutgers.edu.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.sources.d
Subject: Re: EndOfSourcesList+AnnouncementOfNetOm - (nf)
Message-ID: <289@brandx.rutgers.edu>
Date: Wed, 8-Jul-87 19:57:56 EDT
Article-I.D.: brandx.289
Posted: Wed Jul  8 19:57:56 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 11-Jul-87 15:07:59 EDT
References: <267@brandx.UUCP> <7200004@iaoobelix.UUCP>
Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J.
Lines: 31
Summary: i never said that there were few european sites

In article <7200004@iaoobelix.UUCP>, wagner@iaoobelix.UUCP writes:
> 
> Bob, why do you think there are not too many European sites on USENET.
> I believe this is a strong prejudice! The procedure you suggest ...

First, the procedure you went onto refer to is no longer operative,
since weemba@berkeley.edu volunteered to be net ombudsman within
24 hours of the posting you refer to, thus activating the clause that
said I was looking for volunteers to take over the task.  After all,
who would ever take me seriously if I was seen publically turning down
a volunteer; some things just aren't done :-)

From my experience trying to get a sources mailing list together, I
quickly found out that the gateways out of the U.S. to places like
Europe and Austrailia are downright paranoid about communications cost.
For all practical purposes, they are playing by a different set of rules
than the portion of Usenet that is inside the United States (and portions
of Canada).  All of these nets are referred to collectively as Internet.
Once you step back from that and try and distinquish smaller entities,
it seems to me as logical to split off Europe and Austrailia as it does
to split off Arpanet (to which it is actually easier to get things
into from an economic point of view).  I am aware that this is a view
that is different from the one derived from the history of various net
protocols, but now that the junctures between nets are becoming less
visible to users, I think it is time to look at things more in terms
of where there is a connected region of sites playing by basically the
same choices as far as group propagation and traffic control is
concerned.  Taken to its logical extreme, this would show a very interesting
structure of communications.

---- BOB (webber@aramis.rutgers.edu ; rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!webber)