[11041] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
CREN Announces Acquisition of UNIX(TM) TCP/IP List Manager
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Marco Hernandez)
Fri Mar 18 17:26:10 1994
To: com-priv@psi.com
Reply-To: marco@yukon.cren.org
Date: Fri, 18 Mar 1994 16:04:27 -0500
From: Marco Hernandez <marco@yukon.cren.org>
Subject: CREN Announces Acquisition of UNIX(TM) TCP/IP List Manager
CREN is pleased to announce that it has acquired ownership rights to
the Unix(TM)-TCP/IP list management and file distribution software
developed by Anastasios Kotsikonas ("Tasos") and known as "ListProcessor"
and "ListProc". List managers are essential for supporting global
scholarly discussion and collaboration over the Internet and for
distributing materials in electronic formats. Version 6.0c of ListProc is
presently being used at more than 320 sites throughout the world to manage
some 4500 electronic mailing lists. Testing and production experience by
CREN and others has proved that ListProc, when used with the ZMAILER Mail
Transfer Agent (available at no cost from the University of Toronto via
anonymous ftp at cs.toronto.edu in /pub/zmailer.tar), can easily support
active lists with several thousand subscribers on even a small Unix host.
or example, CREN is currently hosting 11 public lists and sending an
average of 20,000 pieces of SMTP mail daily, over 2 Megabytes per day, on a
small Unix processor. EDUCOM's EDUPAGE list has close to 12,000
subscribers and takes around an hour for distribution. Alternatively,
other mail transfer agents are also supported.
CREN in partnership with Tasos is developing enhanced versions of this
software. The first release of the CREN version of ListProcessor is
scheduled to be available in the June 1994 time frame. A later release
scheduled for the end of 1994 will include the capability of hierarchically
distributing list postings and other enhancements not available in the
first release. CREN will thereafter continue to improve and develop this
software in support of its strategic plan, adding new capabilities as
requirements and standards evolve. Version 6.0c (the current version) of
ListProc will remain available at no cost for non-commercial use but all
further development of this software will be owned and licensed by CREN.
CREN will provide each of its non-profit members one free copy of each
of these two releases of its ListProcessor software (for use on a single
computer of any size), and additional copies will be priced to encourage
departmental use. CREN's international Cooperating Networks that are
willing to provide support to their member organizations for CREN's
ListProcessor will be able to arrange with CREN to similarly make available
a single free copy of the first and second release of this software for
each of their non-profit educational member organizations, and to license
additional copies for these member organizations.
For-profit CREN members and organizations that are neither CREN members
nor members of participating Cooperative Networks will also be able to
license ListProcessor at very competitive fees that will be announced at
the time of release of the CREN versions. Several popular implementations
of Unix will be supported.
In addition to development of the ListProcessor server, CREN expects to
contract for the development of Mac and Windows-based list management
client software. That software will be a part of CREN's "plug and play"
client software suite and will be designed to facilitate the use of the
server for list subscription, unsubscription, information requests, and
other list-management functions required of list owners and list
initiators. The "plug and play" initiative is discussed in the CREN
strategic plan described in the CREN Brochure and newsletters available via
ftp or Gopher from info.cren.net. CREN is also pursuing plans that will
enable the distribution of scholarly materials such as electronic journals
in multimedia formats.
Continuing support for the use of this software will be provided
electronically by CREN for its members and other organizations that license
the software from CREN. Cooperating Networks are responsible for
supporting the use of the software by their member organizations. Feedback
from all users of the software, on their requirements, will be encouraged
by CREN as part of the continuing development process.
The CREN versions are being developed consistent with the ideas
published last fall in CREN's RFP for list-management software (available
from info.cren.net via Gopher and ftp). CREN will actively cooperate with
the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) in the development of open
Internet standards leading to improvements in the performance and
functionality of this and related software.
CREN will also develop improved documentation for users, list owners,
and installers/managers of the software.
Ken King
Executive Director, CREN
Jim Conklin
Director, BITNET/CREN Network Information Center
