[pianotech] Google groups (Horace)

[Terry Beckingham]

Exploring alternatives is always a good idea. However, by doing so, we are 
ensuring that PTG will not consider reversing its decision to keep this old 
pianotech alive, no matter how hard we complain to them.  Google groups 
looks good and I have joined it and unsubscribed from the HL forum, but I 
think we would all be a lot happier if this list stayed up and running.

Terry Beckingham

At 12:30 PM 2/26/2013 -0800, you wrote:
>Hi, Will, Joseph,
>
>I certainly agree with you that something reasonably well-planned is 
>better than simply throwing something together without thought.  That 
>said, the beauty of something like mailman is that it's so incredibly 
>simple to set up and run...so, _if_ that's what people want to do, then 
>planning might be as simple as a few interested parties pooling bits and 
>pieces of their time to make it happen.
>
>My purpose is to try to raise awareness that there are other (long term) 
>possibilities than the ones that have been suggested so far.  Mailman works.
>
>Having spent perhaps too much time working in "back-end" IT services, I 
>admit to being hypersensitive to the problems that remote users of any 
>kind can face when new technologies are introduced.  While it's very much 
>true that many of us enjoy very fast (even "LAN"-speed) connections and 
>equipment, it's also very much true that many people do not.
>Without getting too technical, the bottom line is that it's all to easy to 
>create "digital divides" without at all meaning to simply through 
>introducing technologies into an environment that is not prepared (for 
>whatever reasons) to work with them.
>
>In any event, it's the inclusive, wide-open nature of pianotech that has 
>made it the invaluable resource that it has been (and remains) for the 
>entire piano industry.  If people opt out of such communities because of 
>some kind of technical limitation or lack of time or personal preference 
>due to complexity of a new system, then everyone loses; and that's 
>catastrophic to the future of the industry and the profession.
>
>Kind regards.
>
>Horace
>
>
>
>On 2/26/2013 12:17 PM, Encore Pianos wrote:
>>Certainly that is a reasonable thing to entertain.  I would say focus on
>>transitioning to Googletech in the near term (or long term, if that is how
>>it works out) and explore the practicalities and costs  for a New Pianotech
>>separate from PTG.  This way it could be planned carefully and in an
>>unhurried way, if that is what people want.
>>
>>Will