KOSH [Kommunity Orientated Software Hardware]

Weekly Summary

Week Commencing: 18th September 1999

Number: 027

Mailing List: kosh-general@iconimaging.net

I'm happy to receive comments on this summary (and corrections if I have made
mistakes). Email me (Bridge) at kosh-scribe@mythicz.u-net.com

In the mailing list this week, the following items were discussed.


a)

Subject: KOSH is back!
         This is repeated and expanded from last week in case anyone missed it.

Summary of debate: It never really went away, it just went a bit quiet for a
                   while. Please note the following items for KOSH:

                   1) Email address is kosh-general@.iconimaging.net
                   (thanks to Jason Radford for fixing this).

                   2) The KOSH website is located on a mirror at
                   http://www.gpwebb.freeserve.co.uk/kosh/index.html
                   (thanks to Greg Webb for this)

                   3) The KOSH booklist remains at
                   http://www.snowcrash.u-net.com/kosh/booklist.html
                   (thanks to John Chandler for this)

                   4) If you have a query such as "where did that bit of KOSH
                   info go?" then please email me (Bridge) at
                   kosh.scribe@mythicz.u-net.com and I'll either have it to
                   hand or know someone that does.

                   5) A further KOSH website at http://kosh.convergence.org may
                   have been setup by the time that your read this.
                   (thanks to Convergence International for this)


b)

Subject: Compatibility via KOSH

Summary of debate: As there are many new "Operating Systems" in development it
                   was mentioned that there could be compatibility issues
                   between them. It was suggested that KOSH could provide a
                   layer on -any- OS to intercept -any- file in ".kosh" format
                   (whether picture, animation, text, sound, etc) and then
                   convert it invisibly in the background to a native format
                   for any particular OS and associated software to understand.

                   It was immediately (and justly) pointed out that we should
                   not need file dependencies (.kosh). Further, that this
                   appears to be a universal datatypes and translation system
                   which would be difficult to retrofit to existing systems.


c)

Subject: Consolidating KOSH

Summary of debate: We have got lots of ideas sitting on file, but not a huge
                   amount happening with a lot of them - or at least that
                   appears to be the situation. It was suggested that the areas
                   that we have information that needs to be furthered are (to
                   quote):

- The various ideas from the mailinglists, but not all formalised
- The beginnings of the work of the FDE group
- Explanatory documents from the LA group
- Preliminary draft documents from the survey group
- A simple website

                   Suggested is that we start with the Working Groups listing
                   page to get formal items completed. Further, the discussions
                   we have had on the web site should be properly prepared and
                   presented. It would be good to go through all the summaries
                   and individual mails (where appropriate) to get a clearer
                   picture of exactly what we all want. We could have
                   people looking at individual topics (as we have with
                   with migration for example) and then presenting them for us
                   to see more clearly.

                   It was suggested that the way that this could work is that
                   the people interested in a particular subject would
                   voluntarily be forming a Working Group to advance the
                   subject further, and when finished present the result back
                   to the general ML.

                   Perhaps we could us an organic living document approach.
                   Each person in an informal WG would hold the document for a
                   week or two at a time, add their ideas and correct the
                   previous holder's mistakes (agreed by both parties), then
                   pass it on to the next person. When passed around a turn
                   without getting any more changes, the document would be
                   trimmed, signed and posted to the ML for a quick review
                   (with any minor modifications if needed) and then finally
                   posted to the website. This however could take a long time
                   to produce final documents.

                   It was suggested that such groups be kept between 3-6 people
                   to allow working documents to be produced in a relatively
                   short timespan.

                   Alternatively, issue a copy to each person and then assign
                   someone (not necessarily part of the work group) to compile
                   the result and issue a new version until the cycle of
                   feedback ends.

                   If anyone would like to volunteer to get involved in any way
                   with this please contact me at kosh-scribe@mythicz.u-net.com
                   As this type of work is informal it is up to the
                   participants of each IWG (Informal Working Group) to decide
                   how they would like to proceed. All offers of help
                   gratefully received.


d)

Subject: Introductory KOSH website

Summary of Debate: Marcus Petersson has written some material for an
                   introductory website to KOSH-OS (thanks Marcus). Watch this
                   space for more information.


e)

Subject: Hello ta y'all

Summary of debate: As kosh-general@iconimaging.net gets its feet planted
                   firmly on the ground once more there is a definite trend for
                   KOSHans all over the place to announce that they are back -
                   which is nice and gives one a warm and cosy feeling.


f)

Subject: KOSH is not vapourware

Summary of debate: Please can everyone keep an eye out for posts to newsgroups
                   and mailing lists saying "KOSH is vapourware" or words to
                   that effect so that we can reply and state that we do indeed
                   still exist.

g)

Subject: KOSH Website new articles

Summary of debate: On an almost regular basis Greg Webb is placing new articles
                   on the KOSH website. Please go take a look as they are quite
                   interesting.


h)

Subject: Phoenix Platform Consortium

Summary of debate: A lot of information on Phoenix was passed across the KOSH
                   website but seeing as its not KOSH unfortunately it's not
                   getting scribed here except to say that readers are directed
                   to last weeks summary ksum25.txt which contains some quotes
                   on Phoenix.


i)

Subject: Lentil

Summary of debate: This is a part of the LA group's work. The complete document
                   library is at workinggroups la1/description/0000001.html
                   but the specific LENTIL docs are at workinggroups
                   la1/description/lentil.html


j)

Subject: Palm OS

Summary of debate: Continuing with the theme of giving credit to other systems,
                   this week's brief interlude is directed towards Palm OS as
                   featured in the rather nifty Palm Pilots. To quote one
                   scribee "PalmOS is an elegant solution packed into
                   surprisingly modest hardware, and a joy to use and
                   program... an Amiga for the pocket". And there you have it.


k)

Subject: KOSH Booklist Mirrors

Summary of debate: The excellent KOSH Booklist is mirrored on the many KOSH
                   mirrors. Requests for books are actively encouraged and
                   should be e-mailed to metaljoe@snowcrash.u-net.com with
                   "KOSH Books" in the subject line.


l)

Subject: KOSH Website name lists

Summary of debate: The KOSH website has sections to list developers, users,
                   journalists and retailers etc. It was suggested that the
                   names of all those known to KOSH at this time be listed on
                   the site to show that KOSH does indeed have people involved.

                   At the moment this information is "lost somewhere in the
                   post" due to the problems we've been having. If people could
                   go to workinggroups individu.txt on the website, save the
                   page, fill it in and email it to greg@gpwebb.freeserve.co.uk
                   we can fill in all the proper details on the website again.


m)

Subject: Why KOSH?

Summary of debate: A brief quote for you from one scribee that gives a further
                   insight into the rationale behind KOSH:

"KOSH tries to implement an object sea, which will be a rather radically
new paradigm in operating systems and probably also the way of using a
computer from the user's point of view - much more enabling than it used
to be."



n)

Subject: Offline KOSH Web Summaries

Summary of debate: It was pointed out that a number of people have pay per
                   minute access to the internet and that having to write and
                   post a summary for a KOSH ML online would cost quite a bit.
                   A suggestion that there could be an offline version was
                   made although how this would be implemented would need
                   carefully considering.

                   It was mentioned that the summary could be done offline and
                   that cut and past could be used to place it into the correct
                   forms. This would take about 5 to 10 minutess at the most.