Sunday, July 20, 2014: 5:00 pm (Olson): This talk is a brief history of the people and events which shaped The Telecom Digest's history, presented by its current editor. (The Telecom Digest is the oldest continuously running electronic magazine about telecommunications on the Internet - and one of the oldest mailing lists still on the Internet in any category.) Bill will discuss the previous moderators and the events that led to his stewardship. There will be anecdotes from the archives, some discussion of the personalities that formed the digest, and brief speculation about its future. There have been some truly memorable posts over the years which will be focused upon. The day-to-day workflow will be described, along with the ways things have changed over the years, from manual efforts to Usenet access to the current Majordomo II list management software. Hear about the evolution of the digest from a mostly "Bell" centered e-zine, to the Wild West days of MCI and Sprint, up to the re-consolidations now underway. In addition, Bill will explain his philosophy of moderation and the ways he goes about it while seeking to lighten the moderator's technical workload, automate manual procedures, and his preparations to adapt for the new YaGooMail "walled garden" paradigm.

Bill Horne