OK. We have the hardware for the project, and more than likely the software. The problem we have is creating a "core group" of people to attract others to come in...any suggestions?

Ok, for a start your going to need some sort of direction.. What are you going to focus the talks about, how many conferences are you going to have? Who's going to start everything off?

Darn good questions :) Focusing the conferences: I don't know. I'm unsure as to exactly what people *want*. Here at Spring, the two or three busiest confs have been Motorcycle and Drool I would say...Oh, and the Bronte conf was ridiculously busy a while back. What links those three I don't know! They just seemed to hit the right spot with a few ppl, which drew a whole load more in! As for how many conferences, I don't have a clue. I would guess that at startup we would have probably two or three - we don't want to open conferneces and then have them sit there unused, because then ppl will think the place is deserted! Starting things off? I don't know the best way to advertise it. We have links with one of the Brighton Cyber-Cafes, and I could probably build something up with the other one...

It's just occured to me, that most people dont tend to stick to the topic.. Well, on Usenet at least most people tend to talk about anything.. Getting a group of people who actually talk and not sit there staring will be the difficult part IMO..

Well, the idea is not to have rigidly defined and strictly enforced topics. People tend to ramble at tangents and stuff all the time. One thing that conferencing software encourages is a conversational form of posting - you don't need to quote someone else's response, since everyone can read it just up the screen. You've hit the nail on the head with the last point. We have to invite the right people in at the start, and get them talking, if we're going to attract anyone else.

How many folks are you going to invite and how are you identifying them, Mike?

Something relevant that I read on the WELL today: Topic 320 [vc]: Publicising a vc #28 of 37: Stoopid Jerk (silly) Sat Jan 17 '98 (22:43) 60 lines Yes, what Brighton needs is a River-a-like, imho. The birthplace of the English language is the ideal location for a text-only online environment. Despite pervaisive cultural decline, the Brits continue to be more literate than we Yanks. Wow. They read books with no pictures in 'em. From the River FAQ : > Q. Does The River have direct dial-in access? > > No. Internet access is globally inclusive, and The River is > dedicating its resources first to global access. The River will > continue investigating other forms of access as they become > technically and financially feasible, but we believe telnet access > provides us with the best way to make ourselves reachable by people > from all over the world. [...] Especially Brighton. ;-) > The River uses YAPP, which is very similar to the Picospan program > used by the WELL and Grex. [...] > The River is currently housed on a PC Pentium, using Free BSD Unix. [...] Radio Free Unix. > Q. Do you have plans for a GUI interface? > > Yes. The River is experimenting with options that help users > participate more fully and deeply in conversation with each other. > A graphical user interface offers exciting possibilities for ease of > use, inclusion of sound, pictures & video, and hypertext linking. > The River provides options such as these while preserving the > ability to conduct focused, ongoing conversations and maintaining > accessibility to all users. Uh-oh. Has anyone looked into the possibility of individuals or small groups of people running single conferences, each conference at its own telnet site, each site run by different people? A central telnet site would contain a directory listing all of the conferences at the other sites. Scripted software would enable you to go from conference to conference without manually entering telnet addresses. I mean, look at all of the MUDs out there. Each conference could be run like a MUD, by individual "wizards" for free. Picospan is superior to usenet, imho. It's almost instantaneous. No worries about propagation, forged cancels and the like. Spam is more easily dealt with. There are lots of forums on the web these days. I've posted at Cafe Utne, Poets & Writers Speakeasy, Salon, Slate, NPR, The Atlantic Unbound, and many others. There are also software-driven graphical super-IRCs like The Palace. But is a web presence really necessary or even desirable for text-only conferencing? A single URL could announce the existence of the loose confederation of conferences. Beyond that, who needs the web?

It's *ALIVE*!!! After a brief recess over the Christmas/Winter period, Brighton-based WELL-a-like (working title only ;) is breathing again. I am meeting with Simon Turner of Virtual Brighton on Tuesday of next week, to sort out some more stuff - keep your fingers crossed!

will do...

Fingers crossed, good luck! Glad to see a liftoff beginning.