143 lines
7.4 KiB
Groff
143 lines
7.4 KiB
Groff
From: sjackson@tic.com (Steve Jackson)
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To: eff-a@tic.com
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Subject: Minutes of 2-12 meeting
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MINUTES OF AUSTIN EFF DIRECTORS' MEETING - Feb. 12, 1992
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Held 7:30pm at Matt Lawrence's. Directors present were Jon Lebkowsky,
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Matt Lawrence, Ed Cavazos, John Quarterman, Steve Jackson. Observing:
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Nancy Loomis, Jon Boede, Bruce Sterling.
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As usual, minutes taken by SJ, who is solely at fault for any
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omissions or errors.
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Minutes of the last meeting were approved w/o reading.
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Recommendations on organization and our official status - Smoot
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and Jon worked on this and sent a letter to Mitch Kapor. His reply
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was favorable. We have a GO to write organizational bylaws. Ed
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Cavazos will prepare a draft, keeping it to the bare bones that
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will satisfy Texas law if we later attempt to register as a nonprofit
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corporation. We discussed directors, officers, etc., briefly.
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Local dues - Tentative approval of $10/year, or $5 per students,
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or $50 for corporations. That does NOT have to be specified in the
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bylaws - but it needs to be in our membership material. Final decision
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to be made next meeting. (It was suggested that these rates might be
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too low.)
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Meetings and publicity - General agreement that it's time to
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find a site and hold a general meeting. SJ has talked repeatedly
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to a Dell representative about their Arboretum site, and sent
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information about the EFF, but has never gotten any commitment
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from him.
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Jon thinks that he can get permission to use the excellent MCC
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auditorium. An Austin Community College facility near Highland Mall
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was also mentioned; this won't be as pretty but is more central.
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SJ will draft a membership package for the local group, in time
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for the March meeting. Smoot will take care of postage.
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We have had an increasing demand for literature, as various
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Austin EFFectives make public appearances. Steve now has a stock of
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literature at his office. Rita Rouvalis at the Cambridge office
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continues to be very helpful in sending more as needed. We still need,
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and do not have, a volunteer for local distribution of this material
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The ACLU show TAKING LIBERTIES, with Steve Jackson as interviewee,
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will rerun part 1 on March 6 and part 2 on March 13.
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Local activities since the last meeting:
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Steve Jackson addressed the monthly meeting of the Central Texas
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Civil Liberties Union. It went well. Questions afterward ranged from
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exactly-on-point to out-in-left-field, which indicates that we were
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not just preaching to the choir this time - some of these people were
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not yet aware of the issues, but they were interested!
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Steve Jackson also went to San Marcos to speak to the SWT chapter
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of the ACM on February 5. This also went well. Audience about 30.
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Bruce Sterling gave away 300 copies of EFFECTOR during his
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promotional tour for DIFFERENCE ENGINE.
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Today was the first day of the Government & Technology Conference.
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Unanimous acclaim for Jon's excellent job of organizing our participa-
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tion. The booth looked good, was well stocked with a variety of
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EFF literature, and was staffed at all times. Lots of people stopped
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to ask questions, and many signed up for more information. Bruce will
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appear on a panel later in the conference. Improvements needed for
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next time: a more prominent banner, sign or booth-back. For tomorrow
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and Friday, John Quarterman is working on a supergraphic illustrating
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the growth of the Net over the last few years and projections for the
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next few.
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Local activities, upcoming or proposed:
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SJ will appear this weekend at OrcCon, a very large gaming
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convention in Los Angeles, and will take literature and discuss the EFF
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in his main presentation.
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The UT College of Communication is interested in having an EFF speaker
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at their Communications Week, April 1-4. They're talking with SJ. Mike
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Godwin is interested in coming down from Cambridge.
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SJ has been invited to participate in a debate at the
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yearly ACM meeting in Kansas City. The debate will concern licensing of
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computer professionals. Mike Godwin will be on hand for that one, too.
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When Bruce's HACKER CRACKDOWN book is published, EFF-Austin
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should sponsor a signing. Maybe at a local bookstore . . . maybe at a
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computer store. Bruce is willing. The book will be released in September.
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See the note from Bruce below.
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Mailing list - Nothing new on this. Jon will discuss again with
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Earl Cooley. He may be waiting on some further go-ahead from us - not
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clear. If he is able and willing to write the database, we need
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something by next meeting.
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We discussed whether we should fulfill, or block, requests for our
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mailing list when it is created. Decision: There should be a flag in the
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database so people can indicate that they're willing to have their names
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given out, but the default is NO.
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As for the online list, we will not share or redistribute it.
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Local conference: It has been pointed out that there may be a
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conflict, though not a direct one, with the name BBScon. Nobody loves
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that name anyway, it seems. The name CyberTex was suggested, and met
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with general glee.
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Ed Cavazos notes: "I have gathered a group of active Austin modem
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users who are willing to help with the conference and any other EFF
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activities. They could prove invaluable when it comes time to
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publicize meetings, organize membership drives, etc."
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We definitely want a dealer room and a flea market. We definitely
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want some video, visual or VR-type activities. We definitely want
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some good speakers.
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Date: probably late in the year, at this point. Austin is a very
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pleasant place even in November.
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Jon and Ed will start holding convention committee meetings and
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will announce them to eff-a.
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Computer display program - No progress.
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Logo - we now have a working graphics file of the star, cannon and
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"Come And Take It" image.
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NEW BUSINESS
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It's been proposed that we start feeding files to local BBSs which
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are interested in carrying EFF material. Everyone thought this was a
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reasonable thing to do. Ed Cavazos is already posting lots of EFF files
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on his own BBS - the rest of the Board will just start sending him any
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files that seem worthwhile.
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On a related issue, Bruce Sterling writes:
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"HACKER CRACKDOWN will be out in September. I visited my editor's
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office in NYC two days ago and the Bantam crew seemed quite pleased with
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the book and determined to promote it vigorously. One of their
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promotional schemes is to give away a free floppy containing the
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electronic text of the book and "other interesting material." Perhaps
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the fertile imaginations of the EFF-A B.O.D. can conjure up some
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possibilities for this "other material." The COME AND TAKE IT graphic
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file leaps to mind, but what else? Perhaps a complete run of EFFector
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Online? WELL log-on procedures? The mind boggles...."
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Other suggested additions: Crime & Puzzlement, of course - see if
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Barlow wants to update anything. Ten False Facts about the Cybergate Raid.
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The Hacker Test. Material for law enforcement. The Tribe amendment.
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Bibliography!
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Not discussed - held over till next meeting:
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We've been sent an "Interactive University" proposal from Dick Cutler
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at UT. Is this something we are able and willing to support in any way?
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There's a report of a phreak bust in Houston - a kid going by the
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handle of "Archaic Illume." Do we have any information about this? Do
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we want to research further?
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Until further notice, directors' meetings will be held on
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the second Tuesday of each month, at 7:30 pm, at Matt Lawrence's. That
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makes the next two meetings March 10 and April 14.
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