[time-nuts] documentation for beginners

[Tom Van Baak]

> How about setting up a specific domain for this? Like time-nuts.org..
> Uhm.. that's already taken.. by a certain TVB :-)
> 
> Tom: Would you mind if we would use [www|wiki].time-nuts.org for this purpose?
> 
> I can also provide DNS servers and other infrastructure if needed.
> 
> Attila Kinali

Yes, I keep a number of time-nuts domains as well as LinkedIn and Twitter id's just in case, and to protect the "brand". So far we haven't decided to exploit them. (You're welcome to invite yourself to the linkedin group if you want a nice photo of a cesium clock along with your other professional affiliations).

Every year or two I send out email soliciting suggestions about the future of the group in general, or the mailing list in particular. There are plans for time-nuts.org, TBA. Send me email off-line.

The support for changing things has not been strong. For the most part the mailing list format has served us extremely well, and google does the rest. It's a good balance between informal and formal, between static and dynamic information. We've considered everything from IRC and twitter to wikis and formal papers.

I should also mention the choice to have John Ackermann host the list (free) along with all the TAPR mailing lists has proven itself again and again. Few entities on the web have been this solid for a decade. A couple of times a year we have trouble with S/N ratio, but those tend to be short lived.

The best rule is that if on average you contribute more A than Q the quality of the mailing list grows. We are fortunate that few people use the list as a replacement for google. Sending out a good question to a thousand people by personal email is a privilege not to be taken for granted. Also someone taking time out of their day to carefully answer a question or submitting the results of hours or days or weeks of bench work also needs to be appreciated and respected. The mailing list has been good to both sides of the equation.

If you have some fresh ideas for the list or the group, feel free to contact me or John off-line.

In particular I'm interested in some group projects: both equipment/construction projects and some automated information exchange projects. I would also be interested in a more mobile-friendly forum as an alternative, or at least a mirror of, the mailing list.

Thanks,
/tvb