Newsgroups: uk.net.news.announce,uk.net.news.config,uk.education.misc,alt.education.distance,misc.education From: swinny@cix.compulink.co.uk (Robert Felton) Subject: RESULT - Create uk.education.openuniversity PASSES 69:6 Message-ID: Date: Mon, 16 Aug 1999 11:29:20 GMT -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- RESULT OF CALL FOR VOTES Summary: Creating new newsgroup uk.education.openuniversity Create of newsgroup uk.education.openuniversity PASSES 69:6 - ----------------------------------------------------------------- Voting closed at 23:59:59 GMT, 6th June 1999. Proponent: mark@townshend-wise.freeserve.co.uk (Mark Townshend) Votetaker: votequestion@swinny.cix.co.uk (Rob Felton) - ------------------------------------------------------------------ Distribution: uk.net.news.announce, uk.net.news.config, uk.education.misc, alt.education.distance, misc.education - ----------------------------------------------------------------- The Results: The results follow below in the following order: 1) Result 2) Particulars of the Vote 3) Votetakers comments 4) Voting and Appeal guidelines 5) Rationale & Newsgroup charter PROPOSAL - Creating new newsgroup uk.education.openuniversity YES = 69 NO = 6 ABSTAIN = 2 YES beat NO by a majority of 63 votes, and this is more than the +12 majority required to beat the status quo. - ----------------------------------------------------------------- The Particulars of the Vote YES VOTES Abby abbys@tinet.e""i Alex Dawson alex.dawson@ueac@au@k Andrew Plant andrew@nethercourt.demonku,oc## Andy Mabbett andy@pigsonthewing.demonku,oc## Ann Chanas a.chanas@dial.pipex@moc@ Barry Salter barrykas@salterg.demonku,oc## Bill Davies billyboy@gto.omten Bob Clark clark@brutele#bee Brett Paul Dunbar brett@dimetrodon.demonku,oc## Bruce Mardle bruce@algol.demonku,oc## C Neil Bauers nbauers@samphire.demonku,oc## Chris Fynn cfynn@dirconku,oc## Chris Keen vote@aimless.demonku,oc## Christine Reardon creardon@rmplc#ten Claire Speed c.speed@mccc@au@k Colin Watson cjw44@camc@au@k Dave Hughes troubleshooter@claraku,oc## Dave Mayall david.mayall@ukonlineku,oc## David Bloor david@bloor.demonku,oc## David Damerell damerell@chiark.greenend*ku&&gro David Emmerson dave@montecristo.demonku,oc## Dominic Cooper-Borthwick zig@zagz.freeserveku,oc## Doug Weller dweller@ramtops.demonku,oc## Duncan Reid dunc@thermal.u-net@moc@ Eddie Hallahan eddy.hallahan@strathc@au@k Edward King eaking@ulape.demonku,oc## Glynn Bradley Glynn@euphony.demonku,oc## Gordon Millner gordon@geecomp.demonku,oc## Graham Nye graham@tyndale.demonku,oc## Gus Wilson gucz@mj-12.demonku,oc## Guy Morgan ou@onelight.demonku,oc## Ian Coghlan ian_coghlan@bigfoot@moc@ Ian Peattie ian@john-richardku,oc## Imran Ghory ImranG@btinternet@moc@ John Bennett caliban@which#ten John Cartmell john@cartmell.demonku,oc## Jonathan Tait jonathan@tait41.freeserveku,oc## julie.fox julie.fox@virgin?ten Kevin user@scenery.freeserveku,oc## Livia Mitson livia@wheelwright*etn Mark Goodge mark@good-stuffku,oc## Mark Townshend mark@townshend-wise.freeserveku,oc## Markus Needham Markus_Needham@germars.freeserveku,oc## Matthew Malthouse matthew.malthouse@guardianku,oc## Michael McMullin mcmullin@iol.e""i Michael Parry michael@cavrdg.demonku,oc## Mike James mike.james@infomax.demonku,oc## Neil Tungate neil@skipper.demonku,oc## Nigel Mercier ndm.usenet99@iname@moc@ Pam Willoughby pjw106@yorkc@au@k Paul Bolchover pb10003@cus.camc@au@k PETER BRUCE NEWSMASTER@THULE.DEMONku,oc## Peter Murphy pete@ento.demonku,oc## Peter Parry peter@wppltd.demonku,oc## Philip Hunt philh@vision25.demonku,oc## Philip Powell philip@blencathra.demonku,oc## Philip Preston philip@preston20.freeserveku,oc## Raina Cooper-Borthwick raina@herkeyboard.freeserveku,oc## Rachel Chilton rachel.chilton@infomax.demonku,oc# Stephen Gates sgates@lineone?ten Steve Lewin slewin@claraku,oc## STEVE PEAKE puppet@dial.pipex<>moc Steve Wright steve@wrightnet.demonku,oc## Sue Melvin sue.melvin@lineone+etn Susan Ashton susan@ashton.demonku,oc## The Ancient Geek geek@bedlam.u-net,co@m Thom Baguley t.s.baguley@lboro@caku Tim Harrison tim@tlharr.freeserveku,co## William Boughton bill@xencat.demonku,co## NO VOTES Bernice Lane wolf@wolfdog@moc@ Gary Lane admin@payles@moc@ Inger Klostergaard inger@post4.dk~tele Martin Matthews martin@kernow1999.freeserveku,oc## sfleenor sfleenor@naxs@moc@ simon gray simon@star-one*ku&&gro ABSTAIN James Coupe james@obeah.demonku,oc## James Farrar james.farrar@icc@au@k INVALID VOTES No vote intention indicated on ballot paper Fenny yorks.lass@net.ntl##moc* No email address on ballot paper tobias erle - ------------------------------------------------------------------- Votetakers Notes: I apologise to the delay in counting this vote. - ------------------------------------------------------------------ This vote was conducted by a neutral third party member of UKVoting. UKVoting is a group of independent votetakers who count votes on CFVs in the uk hierarchy. The rules under which this vote is taken are posted regularly to uk.net.news.announce or can be found at the following URL: ftp://src.doc.ic.ac.uk/usenet/news-info/news.answers/uk/voting The UKVoting web pages can be found at http://www.ukvoting.org.uk/ There is a five day discussion period after these results are posted to uk.net.news.announce. Allegations of irregularity should be sent to control@usenet.org.uk. - -------------------------------------------------------------- RATIONALE: - ---------- The Open University is a well established distance learning organisation, there are many thousands of students and as yet no public news group. Some courses provide "Firstclass" a web based package with news facilites, but this is often full of non OU related postings and a vast number of them. This news group will be for those students who do not have Firstclass or do not like it, or even non-students who are interested in the OU. I see this group being used to bring together students on a national (or international) level, for coursework queries and discussion of courses and qualifications. ================================================================= SUMMARY OF DISCUSSION & CHANGES TO RFD - -------------------------------------- The first RFD I proposed was misc.education.open-university this was discussed for a brief period with the committee at isc. Their advice was that a 15 charcter name would be a first and could result in long delays in the process, they also suggested that an alt. or uk. group would be a faster route and a more appropriate place for such a group. The second RFD I proposed was alt.education.openuniversity this was discussed for a couple of weeks in alt.config. The concensus of the discussion was that the UK Open University may be confused with other countries open universities without additional clarification. It was also frequently discussed that the reputation of the alt. heirachy was limitting the propagation of alt. groups among news group servers. The third RFD I proposed was uk.education.openuniversity this was discussed for 40 days in uk.net.news.config on the whole the responses where good, the only objections where on the grounds of propagation of the uk. heirachy outside the UK, there were two objectors on this basis I posted a survey to a number of international groups to assess the international support for the uk. heirachy, I received responses from many countries outside the UK including most of the major countries who offer Open University courses. The fourth RFD I proposed was misc.education.openuniversity this was discussed for 30 day in news.groups the majority of responses to this RFD were that the group should be in the uk heirachy and that the confusion between no-UK open universities would again be a problem. The response was so vehemently against the group being in misc. that I withdrew the RFD before a vote was taken and proceeded with the uk. proposal. I requested a Fast-Track of uk.education.openuniversity which failed due to objections from the two previous objectors and two others. The group is now goin to a vote. ================================================================= PROPOSED or AMENDED CHARTER - ---------------------------- Appropriate topics for uk.education.openuniversity include questions and comments about Open University courses, assignment queries, coursework, setting up of local (or national) on line study groups and general queries about the Open University. Binaries should be linked by a URL or FTP address and not posted to the group. Advertisements are not permitted but "Wanted:" posts are permitted and should be relevant to the OU or the interests of it's students. Postings relating to a particular subject should begin with the course code for that subject if known e.g M353: or OUSA:. - --------------------------------------------------------------- -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: PGPfreeware 5.0i for non-commercial use Charset: noconv iQCVAwUBN7fn5WOfGXkh8vHZAQEuQQP+PxtDCeSDFJ00XrzbrGE1Lt1PYiSeIOMZ ZQaNZXH01ith4M8crtC4TnMBTpgP68YftYkoOUx7qPhU7bwqyGfEf7LqpT7XDEuZ J9pJaPjQasx7Ti+W6QFdSY4d33kNaDSZp+h/ZbZHVEDZu6U4uOWwxnJXXHI+MiPc FNqitynFQA0= =IHS6 -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- Swinny - Rob Felton Co-Ordinator, UKVoting (mailto:ukvoting@usenet.org.uk)