Author: Murdoc Addams (h24-68-142-12.ed.shawcable.net)
Date: 06-01-2001 09:07
Trax, you have some great ideas here. Let me see if I can add a little to them....
The non-profit org would be great. I've been actually thinking along the same lines for a while now, but wasn't sure if anyone else would be interested, but we sure seem to have generated some momentum here! I think that any project (or group thereof... can a community become a movement? It's happened before, look at Linux...) needs coordination, and NPOs are strictly voluntary, so that would help bring in the energy. It could figure out what assets were availble (largely existing talent, hard and software, associations with other orgs), and coordinate these into various projects, like (some examples) sorting Rakoon's list of PD softs, or making Milan's more available in other countries, or <gasp> marketing. I had no idea 2 months ago that so many people still believed so much in Atari until I got bored one day at work and threw "Atari" into a search engine on what seemed to be a slim chance. Imagine my surprise! Now one month later I am helping set up a Canadian Atari Users Group. I would guess then, that few others outside this community (and some European countries) are even aware of what great things are still afoot for Atari. Time to wake them up perhaps?
Then there is the need for specific goals. Your goals are great, Trax, but we need to narrow it down too (eventually). Do we want to convert the world to Atari (thereby competing with every major HW/SW maker out there), or only others who share a sentimental nostalgia for our 2600s (and watch us all be ridiculed until we die off)? I imagine that the answer would be somewhere in between these two extremes, and that would give us a better idea of what to shoot for.
You're right about talking to other companies like Opera too. First of all, this sort of thing is already underway (with Opera anyway), so why not others as well? Obviously we can leave out MS, IBM, and the intrenched biggies like that, but many people are waking up to the fact that there are pleasent alternatives to the MS/IBM/Intel paradigm. These people are fed up with constant crashes, and cheap compaqs and emachines that break within a few months. They also are too scared of Linux for the time being, although that is changing. Wouldn't it be nice for them to hear that they could get an affordable system that was stable, and powerful? I think they might, and once you get them on board, you've got a presence, somewhere to launch bigger projects from: Atari-supporting companies, etc. Also, companies like Milan need to realize that they can safely export to other countries and still profit. They need to be supported and/or helped or we will get more Milan II's happening. How about xTOS?
And I like all your other ideas too, and I have some more specific idea's of my own than I have said here, but going into too much here wouldn't be very productive, except to show what is possible, and you've done that already Trax. Time to find out who wants to get involved, and what they can bring to the new org. For instance I have some experience creating and running NPOs, but never over the 'net. Maybe some sympathizers from some of the more successful Linux orgs would be willing to teach us some... net guerrilla tactics?
What say you all? :)
M.I.A.
Mighty Interested in Atari
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