X-Message-Number: 262
Date: 14 Dec 90 22:39:31 EST
From: "Russell E. Whitaker" <>
To: <>
Subject: Cryonics in the BBS community
Message-Id: <"901215033930 71750.2413 EHE80-1"@CompuServe.COM>

Here's some interesting news: someone out there has decided to take 
cryonics to the BBS community.  Here's the text of a letter sent to 
Alcor recently...

****************************************

JOSEPH DUMANOV
55 HILLSIDE ROAD
SPARTA, NEW JERSEY
201-729-9538

Carlos Mondragon
ALCOR Foundation
12327 Doherty Street
Riverside, CA 92503Q9927

Dear Carlos,

Thank you for reminding me of my subscription renewal. Enclosed 
please find a check for it.

I have been meaning to contact ALCOR in regards to setting up a 
computer bulletin board conference open to ALCOR members and 
people interested in the science of suspension and re-animation and 
all its possibilities.

Let me explain in more detail. I have operated a computer bulletin 
board system (BBS) named the NEW WORLD'S BBS for nearly five 
years. This BBS system is in operation 24 hours a day and 365 days a 
year and is open to all callers. The BBS also supports 8 different 
languages for foreign users. There are no fees paid by any user for 
accessing this BBS.

Some of the conference areas that the BBS supports include law and 
medicine. The BBS enjoys a membership of nearly four hundred 
callers from mostly the Northern New Jersey/NYC metropolitan area 
and many other callers throughout the U.S.

Here is what I'd like to do only with your cooperation and support 
and at no cost to anyone involved. What I'd like to do because of my 
interest and belief in the merits of ALCOR's aims and hope to be 
suspended myself when the time comes I'd like to set up a ALCOR 
information conference, electronic mail and information file area.

The goals of the BBS conference would be for communication and 
information exchange through this ever-expanding medium. This 
conference would allow ALCOR members from anywhere in the U.S. or 
the world to communicate with each other (most likely they will 
call only in the local area). Callers that have an interest in ALCOR 
can leave questions and have them answered by qualified ALCOR 
spokespersons. You may post meeting announcements, news relating 
to ALCOR developments or anything related to interested parties. If 
you feel this may be a good way of generating added interest, 
member communications, or public information I could set the 
conference up in a short time. 

One of the things I'd like to do is set up an information file category 
that contains a list of articles written in your publications. If you 
have any and all articles on computer disk in any text format, i.e. 
Wordperfect, Multimate, Displaywrite I could file and catalog them 
for easy retrieval by any interested callers or members. I will post a 
bulletin as to where and how people can obtain membership and 
subscription information for you. The final format of the conference 
can take any for and me be changed at any time. 
Suspension/reQanimation is an exciting possibility of the new world 
and I've found that many users of computers have a real sense of the 
future and appreciate its possibilities.

Well enough for now. If you get a chance give my BBS a call at 201-
729-9538 8-N-1 2400 baud 24hrs to see its present format or 
contact me with your thoughts on my suggestion at the above voice 
number or address.

Sincerely,

Joseph M. Dumanov

P.S. You may publish this letter and all ALCOR members are 
welcomed to call! 

***********************************************

R.W.: 

I spoke to Joe Dumanov today, after having called up his BBS last 
night and this afternoon.  It's a fairly standard PC BBS, running PC 
Board.  Joe's willing to put aside several megabytes for storage of 
archived text, and provide a conferencing/messaging area.

I have several MB of cryonet material (Keith: what's the storage 
total so far for these messages?) and quite a bit of Alcor 
introductory text I can send to him.

In addition, Hugh Hixon, an editor of Cryonics magazine, has offered 
to give me the 10MB of magazine text which comprises the history 
of the magazine.

Max More, editor/publisher of Extropy magazine, a libertarian/immortalist
monthly, will contribute the full text of his back issues.

Joe's board isn't yet connected to a news or mail net.  He wasn't 
familiar with Fidonet, the largest organization of PC BBS's.  He is, 
however, seriously considering picking up the mailer software 
required to participate, and should have it up within 2-3 months. 
What this means is that users of his board can receive cryonet 
mailings, via the Fidonet/Internet gateway(s), and vice versa.

Dumanov stated that he would actively promote a (PC) net 
conference on cryonics, and will start by touting to his friends in 
the New York/New Jersey area, most particularly those who operate 
multi-line BBS's to which he could replicate the files I supply him.

His efforts should prove immediately useful to the New York and 
Boston cryonics discussion groups of Alcor, due to the obviously 
lower costs of telephoning his BBS.  It shouldn't be forgotten, 
however, that even those of us in far-flung California and other 
Great West territories can afford the call, IF we pick up accounts 
with packet carriers like SprintNet, and their bulk-time buyers such 
as PC-Pursuit. Costs of calling coast-to-coast - for data exchange - 
can be driven down to $1.50 or less per hour.

Next project: reanimation of The Portal Alcor SIG... stay tuned.

Russell E. Whitaker


Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=262