New Moderator For The Telecom Digest

For personal reasons, I've decided that 2023 will be my last year as
Moderator of the Telecom Digest. It's been a great adventure for me,
and I'm proud of what we've accomplished together, but it time to have
a new person at the helm.

In the days that are left in 2023, I'll be doing everything I can to
find and train the best possible candidate for the Moderator job, and
I'm going to start now, by asking you to help me decide on the
qualifications the new Moderator will need to have.

Here, as a starting point, are the minimum qualifications I think the
new Moderator should bring to the job: of course, the requirements
will include the ordinary things, such as verification of each
candidate's identity and resume.

1. We need a generalist with experience in a wider range of areas than
I have. Frankly, looking back, I've realized that I've taken the Digest
too much in a technical direction: I've concentrated on the "What,
When, Where, and How" of telecommunications, but not enough on the
"Who and Why." I'd like to hand the reins over to someone who sees
not only the equipment, but also the people and companies which
shape and guide its selection and use: the regulators, politicians,
manufacturers, and customers.

2. A good understanding of the telecom industry's various capabilities
and future plans for them: not necessarily every wire or every
central office, but rather, the roads the telecom companies might
take, and the forces inside them and outside which must be factored
into every major change. In nautical terms, I think the Digest does
not necessarily need the perspective of an engine room sailor, but
rather that of a navigator - someone whom can bring forth a vision
of what is coming.

3. "Passable" knowledge of Internet emails, Usenet, and the
World-Wide-Web. We can build a structure that makes up for any
training the new Moderator lacks, and I think the key is to make
the day-to-day ops as easy as possible.

4. Some familiarity with Unix/Linux, or a willingness to learn it
would be nice. The Digest's "Home" machine is provided, with many
thanks, by the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence
Laboraty at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. CSAIL has
standardized its machines on the "Ubuntu" version of Linux, so it
would be helpful, although not a prerequisite, to have some
familiearity with Linux and/or Unix.

With luck, we'll be able to find a good candidate quickly, and to have
him or her up-to-speed and ready to take over on December 31st or
earlier. If no candidate can be found, I will close the Telecom Digest
at the end of this year.

Bill Horne
April 2023

P.S. Please keep the "[newmod]" tag in the subject line if you reply:
it routes your reply to a special, not-for-publication mailbox that is
only for the "New Moderator" discussions.

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