<nettime> First Report from Documenta Hybrid Workspace Nettime Study Group

[nettime maillist <nettime@Desk.nl>]

First Report from Documenta Hybrid Workspace Nettime Study Group

Ad Hoc Kassel Committee (Janos Sugar, Matt Fuller, Critical Art Ensemble, 
Patrice Riemens, The Nettime Brothers, and Michael van Eeden)
 
After endless deliberations concerning the current state of Nettime, the 
committee has drawn up the following plans:


I. List Moderation.

At present, the Nettime list is in a state of dis(re)pair due to the 
overwhelming volume of traffic on the list. Consequently, Geert and Pit 
(the unofficial moderation group) feel unable to complete the amount of 
work required   to keep the list functioning smoothly. In order to 
lighten the workload on them, the committee plans to form an editorial 
group of around five to eight members. The ad hoc Kassel Committee will 
act as the interim group until enough volunteers from active Nettime 
members are assembled. Service on the group will be short-term and will 
rotate so members do not face the burnout syndrome that currently 
afflicts the Nettime Brothers.  

The group will have three primary functions: First, some group members 
are to act as list moderators; second, some are to instigate member 
recruitment initiatives to increase cultural diversity on the list; and 
third, some will aid thread and genre development on the list. List 
moderators will serve limited terms. Duration of service is still to be 
determined, although a two-month limit has been suggested. 

Text access for moderators: The simplest way to accomplish this would be 
to set up a separate e-mail account with telnet access for the 
moderators, so they can share the mailbox. Some ideas have been suggested 
to make a (password-protected) website for the moderators where they can 
handle postings on the list. More facilities could be added (like tagging 
of messages with keywords for the archive, putting messages on hold to 
evenly distribute postings over a period of time, etc.). For now, we will 
just set up the moderator-account at some location yet to be determined.

The Nettime policy of an open list will continue. However, moderator(s) 
will intervene and delete spams, local announcements, self-aggrandizing 
advertisements, flames, personal conversations, and any other posts 
clearly lacking content relevant to the general readership. The 
moderator(s) will also write any necessary backchannel correspondence.

II. Traffic.

Members should expect Nettime traffic to continue at current levels, or 
to gradually intensify. In order to cope with traffic jams (and panic 
attacks) caused by the increased number of posts due to a growing 
membership, the committee suggests parallel home moderation. Each member 
has a delete button on he/r computer--you are going to need it--do not be 
afraid to use it.

With the growth of Nettime we are also seeing more and more people who 
just read Nettime texts without being actively involved in posting. A 
growing number of people use the archive to read Nettime as a kind of 
e-zine. We could make it easier for these people to find the most recent 
articles, and eliminate the need to download use lists of articles. In 
other words, the archive needs a complete overhaul. More features geared 
toward improving research efficiency could be added (such as a way to 
copy plain-text messages from the archive for use in other publications, 
or improving the search engine). Suggestions for improving archive 
software (or any other software suggestions) should be sent to Michael 
van Eeden (mieg@factory.org).

III. Glossary.

As we were talking about the Nettime Bible and one Nettime member's 
recent experiences with publishing a Hungarian book, we decided it would 
also be nice to have a lexicon of Nettime terms (such as 'gift economy,' 
names and abbreviations like 'V2', 'Next 5 Minutes,' and so forth). The 
glossary should be collectively produced by the Nettime community. The 
committee believes that a glossary would be very helpful to newcomers, 
and aid people in preparing publications, like the upcoming ZKP (yes, 
'ZKP' should also be in the lexicon). In order to accomplish this, some 
web-based database system should be set up. A small Nettime-tech group is 
looking into possibilities for creating such a system. A call for 
glossery entries will be made on Nettime.  Suggestions can be send to 
mrf@mrf.hu  (Diana & Janos at the Media Research Foundation, Budapest).


IV. The Nettime Bible.

The primary goal of the committee is to put together the Nettime Bible. 
Work on this project has only just begun. A complete statement on the 
progress of the committee will be issued at the end of the week.

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