info-vax@ucbvax.ARPA (01/01/85)
From: Marshall Abrams <abrams@mitre> I am soliciting members for the IEEE Computer Society's Computer Services Advisory Committee (CSAC). The function of the committee is to advise the President and Governing Board on hardware, software, and services to support office operations, provide member services, and provide electronic mail services to members and officers. There are two items presently on the agenda which might interest you and would profit from your experience: (1) The PDP 11/44 in the East Coast office and the Microdata in the West Coast office are both approaching saturation. A suggestion being considered is to purchase additional 11s. This would permit utilization of existing software (which has proven satisfactory) and DECNet interconnection when necessary. Replacing these existing computers with VAXs has been suggested, but is currently not favored. People experienced with DEC products would be quite valuable. (2) The Computer Society provides an electronic mail service called CompMail+ to its officers and employees to conduct Society business and to members as an extra-cost benefit of membership. Quite favorable rates were obtained as a result of a competative procurement. This CompMail+ service as provided by Dialcom is in the process of being re-evaluated. The contract may be re-competed. There is a very strong interest in establishing a gateway between CompMail+, CSNet, and ARPANET. Several alternatives are under investigation. I hope to conduct as much committee business as possible via electronic mail, so physical location should not be too much of a problem. I think each of the two items discussed above will be handled by separate sub-committees. A person could belong to either or both. It is desirable, but not absolutely necessary, that volunteers be members of the Computer Society. Let me hear from you if you are interested. Marshall Abrams abrams@mitre.arpa 64:M.ABRAMS (on Dialcom) phone: 703/883-6938