Greetings all,

For people subscribed to more than one mailing list, sorry for
the multiple versions of this in your mailbox.

The news group sci.engr.micromachining has passed the group
creation process and fulfilled both criteria (2/3rds of the votes
being YES votes and 100 more YES votes than NO votes).

The results were encouraging for two reasons. The first is the
international mix of votes. At least 28 countries took part in
the vote! This is *much* more international participation than a
typical Usenet new group vote.

The voter turnout was also very good for a sci.engr hierarchy
vote (particularly a vote that took place in August). Turnout for
a successful vote in this hierarchy is usually in the 200-250
vote range, with 20+ votes in the opposition. The fact that there
were so many votes (353 for) and so comparatively little opposition
(17 against) is certainly an encouraging sign.

The control signal to begin propagation of
sci.engr.micromachining should be sent by Friday night. Since the
group went through the standard creation (RFD/CFV) process, it
will have at least 90% propagation throughout the world. If you
have good connectivity, the group should be on your news server
by Saturday, though it could take up to a week past this. If your
sys admin adds new groups manually, you might have to mention
that the group exists if you can't find it after this time.

The next step is the creation of an introductory FAQ (Frequently
Asked Questions) for the group. Danny Banks of the UK has
contributed some excellent material for the introduction. That,
along with the charter, should be enough to provide a welcome to
the new group.

Over time, I will integrate material that is discussed in the
mailing lists and newsgroup. Hopefully this will cut down on
questions on the group in the area of, "Where can I get this
material or process done". I also intend to build up a list of
reading material, facilities for hire, and other general interest
stuff as my time permits.

The maintenance of this FAQ will be an ongoing process, and I
hope for feedback and suggestions for added information at all
times. The FAQ won't belong to anyone (although information on it
will be cited to its owner), and it will be a sort of general
repository of information. "Your mileage may vary" as they say, with
its use. As it grows, I'll probably split it up into individual
sections to be posted separately. Typically I'll post the FAQ every
10-15 days, as this is the standard expiration date for posts on news
servers. As the group matures, I may lengthen that to once per
month.

Another important point to make about this group is that it is
the first step in networking information worldwide via the
Usenet. While the sci.engr hierarchy has a good reputation for
high signal to noise ratio in posts, there have been some
legitimate concerns over the fact that as an unmoderated group,
people are going to have to wade through some junk posts.

Once the group has been around for a while, and proven decent
traffic, we will be justified in creating a moderated version of
the group. Something like sci.engr.micromachining.research (or
.moderated). Posts would be randomly distributed to a team of
volunteer moderators via a robo-moderator. Again, this is for the
future (perhaps a year from now).

One final comment I feel I should make, if only on the off-chance
this has been a concern that was considered but not discussed.
Even though they share much of the same medium, mailing lists and
newsgroups on similar topics have historically complemented each
other. There is typically no competition for usage, and in
general, they tend to increase the sphere of overall
communication. Mailing lists tend to offer a denser feed of
information while there tends to be a greater variety of
information on newsgroups. FAQs have been historically attached
to newsgroups, while archives are kept in either forum. I hope
this was not a concern for anyone, but just in case.

Attached is a breakdown of the votes for those who are interested
in demographics (although this should not be seen as an
indication of interest in the science; more an issue of Internet
connectivity). A complete list of who voted is posted in
news.groups as per group creation regulations. Thanks to everyone
who participated in the vote!

Best regards,

-Chris

--
.+'''+. |Christopher Raum - craum@robinhood.engg.uregina.ca|
R A U M |Graduate Student, Faculty of Engineering          |
`+.,.+' |University of Regina, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada|
        |S4S-0A2 Tel: (306)565-2960 Fax: (306)585-4855     |

***************************************************************

USA (81 and many of the com and org domain votes)
Canada (35)
Germany (24)
United Kingdom (24)
Switzerland (12)
Belgium (10)
France (9)
The Netherlands (9)
Australia (7)
Denmark (7)
Republic of Ireland (7)
Sweden (6)
Japan (4)
Korea (South) (2)
New Zealand (2)
Brazil (1)
co (1) (Not sure what country this domain belongs to)
Greece (1)
Hong Kong (1)
Israel (1)
Italy (1)
Poland (1)
Romania (1)
Russia (1)
Singapore (1)
Slovakia (1)
Spain (1)
Ukraine (1)
com domain (81)
org domain (11)
net domain (9)