mike@hcradm.UUCP (Mike Tilson) (04/07/86)
The combination UUCP mail service and USENET news service has proved to be
very attractive and useful to our community. However, there are a number
of problems with the current set of services, due to technical,
organizational, and financial problems. Some problems include:
o Service is erratic and unreliable.
o Security is virtually non-existent.
o Efficiency is low. Routing of mail and news does not minimize cost or
maximize reliability.
o Overall cost is extremely high, in terms of telecommunications
charges, CPU utilization, and disk utilization, especially when the
total over all sites is considered. Many of the costs are currently
"hidden".
o Costs are not allocated fairly. Continued service depends on the
continued goodwill of voluntary "backbone" sites who absorb many of
the costs. USENET (the primary cost generator) is in fact very
vulnerable to a chain reaction -- if a few key sites drop out, the
load and cost at the remaining sites increases dramatically, leading
to more dropouts, and so on.
o Traffic is growing without bound, with no sign of abating.
o There are few standards or too many (conflicting) standards.
o There is no established uniform way of addressing messages.
o The "useful information" content of netnews appears low.
As the network grows these problems seem to be getting worse, and many fear
the ultimate demise of a useful tool.
The Usenix Association has funded some efforts in aid of UUCP/USENET.
These include the network mapping project and the Stargate experiment.
The Association would now like to receive proposals by which we could fund
or aid projects that would solve some or most of the UUCP/USENET network
problems. At this point, we do not have any set agenda or pre-conceived
notions; we are open to any reasonable proposal.
We would like proposals that answer the following questions:
o What user needs are met? What user problems are solved? How was this
determined?
o Who is going to take action, and how are they organized? What
person(s) or group(s) are going to take the lead in making things
happen? If needed, who will take care of any proposed on-going
operations.
o How much does it cost? What funding is required from Usenix? Will
Usenix recover any of its expenditures? If needed, where will on-
going operating funds come from?
o What technical solutions are proposed? What technology exists, and
what must be developed?
The order of the above is significant; we are most interested in a good
analysis of user needs and problems, along with an understanding of who
exactly will meet these needs. We want to know: "What functions are to
accomplished, and who will lead the charge?"
Next we want to know how much money is wanted, and whether any solutions
seem technically feasible. However, we believe these issues are much
easier to deal with if the first questions have good answers.
This request for proposals is not a formal bid. The Usenix Association has
not yet allocated any funds for this purpose, nor has it made a commitment
that it will indeed accept any proposal. However, we do feel that modest
funds could be made available for one or a few deserving projects. The
Association feels it could fund projects on the order of $10,000 if
justified. Larger numbers would almost certainly require some cost
recovery. As an upper bound, we would consider $50,000 to be financially
out of the question without of an assurance of some cost recovery in the
near future. The Association realizes that the amount of money it can make
available is small relative to the millions of dollars being spent on
UUCP/USENET. However, we feel we can play a role in planting the seeds of
a solution.
The Association is willing to consider a wide variety of projects,
including research, seed capital for an operating organization, studies
intended to attract interest from telecommunications carriers, or small
projects that directly solve at least a few problems.
We would like to be able to discuss proposals at the next Usenix Board
meeting in June. If a proposal can not be prepared by then, we would still
be interested in a one page outline. Proposals should be sent to:
UUCP/USENET Proposals
Usenix Association
P.O. Box 7
El Cerrito, CA 94530
Proposals can also be sent electronically to "usenix!jim".
Please direct followup discussion of this proposal to net.usenix.
Michael Tilson
on behalf of the Board of Directors of the Usenix
Association.
{decvax,utzoo,usenix...}!hcr!hcradm!mike