🚀 go-pugleaf

Tim Seaver set up this group at my request. I have been working with a
group in Chapel Hill to start a big public bbs. We have done a lot of
ground work -- we've incorporated (Public Information Network, Inc.), we
have tax exempt status, and we've made lots of contacts. We've even
submitted some grant proposals, though all have been turned down so far. We
would like to provide a service for RTP similar to the FreeNets currently
available, and we need a lot of help. Tim Arnold recently posted a "Call
for Interest and Experience" to triangle.general (on July 16). We now have
a special group for this discussion.
 
If you haven't seen the FreeNets, try them out. Internet to
bbs.oit.unc.edu, login as bbs, then enter your name and a password at the
prompts. From the bbs main menu, select item 9 (Libraries...) and then
type BBS. Cleveland, Heartland, Youngstown, TriState Online (Cincinnati),
and Lorain are "FreeNets." Cleveland is the oldest and has the most stuff
in it. 
  
I hope we can use this newsgroup to develop a plan for implementing a similar
service for RTP. Bill Hutchins (President of PIN) and a few others in PIN
are currently working on another grant proposal that is due August 1 and
will take most of our time until then. There seems to be enough interest
in this subject to have an "organizing" meeting. Seems like mid August
might be the best time. That would give us time to put together a
reasonable program to get the most out of gathering together. 

Meanwhile, we can use this newsgroup to bounce around ideas. For
example, what do you think of the "city" model? Can you find things? Do
you have ideas for better menus?

Think of people you know who might like to help with this project, and
think about people who will want to provide information. Start making
lists of names, addresses, and e-mail addresses.  

Think about ways to finance the thing (we're figuring on about $150,000 a
year).

This is an exciting project and there's a lot of enthusiasm for it
already, but we're going to need LOTS of help.
  
Judy Hallman (Judy_Hallman@unc.edu)
Manager of Information Services
Office of Information Technology
UNC-Chapel Hill
 
PS -- In case you are wondering, this is a volunteer project; it's not part
of my job.
--
   The opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the University of
     North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the Campus Office for Information
        Technology, or the Experimental Bulletin Board Service.
           internet:  bbs.oit.unc.edu or 152.2.22.80