nigelm@ohm.york.ac.uk (Nigel Metheringham) (06/18/91)
[[ This is really aimed at people in Europe, but I have had ]] [[ to use a world distribution since the European distributions ]] [[ appear to be broken. This stuff does not really apply to ]] [[ those of you in the rest of the world, but feel free to ]] [[ laugh at us... :-) ]] Two weeks back I proposed an electronic NeXT magazine to be distributed within Europe. Unfortunately the initial message seemed to get lost within the news system (I got a very few replies from within the UK only), but a follow-up a few days ago got a very positive response. This article is to describe our proposed magazine, and call for help in writing articles, distribution, and other miscellaneous bits. My apologies for the length of this - I am having to repeat a lot of what was in my previous postings, but I hope you will agree this is worth doing. Target Audience ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ It is obvious from the postings in comp.sys.next that there are a good number of NeXT owners within Europe, but that the user support (by which I mean things like self-organised User Groups, not NeXT's customer support), is lagging a year or more behind the US. There are obviously a lot of us out there, but we are more widely scattered than our US counterparts. Hence I am proposing an Electronic Magazine aimed at NeXT users within the UK & Europe. I am not intending this to be a User Group as such, but if there is the impetus then it could grow in that direction. Philosophy ~~~~~~~~~~ Like many UK Universities, in this case the over-riding consideration is one of money. We intend this publication to be done at zero monetary cost - we'll contribute time putting it together, and writing some articles. We expect others to write the bulk of the content, and for still other people to help with distribution. As part of this philosophy we wish the magazine to be readable by all NeXT Users without any additional software, so we intend to distribute it as a WriteNow document with embedded diagrams (although if there are enough non-NeXT owners with access to PS printers/previewers then we could also have a PS version around). The document would be formatted for A4 paper (since this is aimed at Europe). Editorial Policy ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Basically none. We'll take articles from anyone who can submit them, although there is no guarantee of when or if we would use them. Although NeXT themselves have expressed interest and a willingness to possibly add some input to the venture, the magazine will not be a production of NeXT and they will have no editorial control. Copyright or articles would remain with the authors, and further copying (other than distribution of the whole magazine - ie using excerpts in other publications etc), would have to be cleared with the original author of the specific article. Distribution ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Ideally I would like to mail out copies to a few (maybe a dozen or so), people who could make copies available for anon-ftp, or mail server access. I have heard from a couple of people within NeXT who are willing to pass copies along to NeXTcentres, developers, academics etc. I would like to hear (by email) from anyone who could help with distribution. I personally do not think this is a candidate for distribution by news - it sets a bad precedent - but it could be distributed that way if a big enough group of people wanted it. New issues available would be reported in a news article. Next year (no pun intended) we should have the facilities here to make copies available for mail and JANET NIFTP access. If the UK internet gets going we may be able to provide some anon-ftp access as well. Content ~~~~~~~ Since you are writing the majority of it then you can decide the content. I would expect it to cover the range of topic from hardware upgrades (I intend to put something in on this subject since we are about to add disks and DATs to some stations), to software work, to getting sendmail to work and probably including a few descriptive articles of the sort of systems that people are working with and what they are doing with them. Short (or possibly longer) pieces on what you would like to see happen in the NeXT world would also be useful (for example, how about a piece on an extended mailer, with better address handling, and how about a (switchable) audible warning (sound icon), such as the sound of letters hitting the mat when mail arrives). Certainly any common problems with a European flavour should be covered. Additionally places where you can get further information should also be listed (ie FTP sites, NeXTanswers and how non-news people get the FAQ list). Initially I was thinking in terms of aiming fairly much at the academic sector (since thats what I do), but the majority of responses I have received are from commercial organisations (although it seems to be the research sections of commercial companies), so we can cover the whole range. Article Submission ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Ideally I would like to receive articles as WriteNow attachments in NeXTmail (please note that the UK has a 100KB restriction on mail message size). Other methods of communication include 3.5 inch disks by snail-mail. I would suggest that the layout style is kept simple - single column, Helvetica 10 point with headings in a Helvetica-Bold font. I will initially edit things into a fairly uniform layout style, but do not intend to mess with the content. Later on we could prepare a style description to keep things looking uniform. I would *very* strongly suggest that you contact me before commiting keystrokes to Word Processor to check that your subject does not overlap with anything else I have been offered. Initially I would expect the total magazine length to be less than 20 pages, so your 2,000,000 word opus is probably a bit long. Remuneration ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Merely the chance to be famous at last :-). Appeal ~~~~~~ Please can anyone willing to help with this venture - either writing of articles, distribution etc or any other aspect, please contact me (preferably by email) so I can co-ordinate this effort. Also we need a name for the magazine - yet another chance for awful Puns. Deadlines ~~~~~~~~~ I am aiming to put out the first copy in the first week of August (sorry for the delay, but there needs to be time for people to get articles to me, and I am off on holiday :-) ). Ideally I would like to receive all offers of articles (just a very brief description, not the article itself) by 28 June. Offers of help I would like to receive ASAP - before you have a chance to forget. Nigel. -- # Nigel Metheringham # (NeXT) EMail: nigelm@ohm.york.ac.uk # # System Administrator ####### Phone: +44 904 432374 # # Department of Electronics # Fax: +44 904 432335 # # University of York, Heslington, York, UK, YO1 5DD #