From: predator@cat.org.au
To: catkore@cat.org.au, catgeek@cat.org.au
Subject: [catkore] We need the history.
Date: Tue, 14 Aug 2001 14:03:15 +1000 (EST)
PROPOSAL down the bottom, to host this email as the germ of an evolving
document on this history of the Cat.
I was chatting in voicemode to Hugh the other day concerning cat's
impending move. He mentioned that there are some places interested in
having us in their buildings/toilet blocks/ shipping containers for free.
However, it transpires that there is nowhere on the catalyst site to which
we can refer the holders of community assets (like unused buildings which
cat could be stashed within) in the event that they want to know about who
we are, how we originated. What we *do* is probably covered already.
Occasionally at meetings I hear snippets of Cat's history and the people
who were a part of it. It's not exact, and is error prone. Things like
Maffew and JJ stopping at a pedestrian crossing in Newtown and having a
discussion about how crapola community televsion was in Sydney. Someone
brought in a bit of paper which had a flier on it for community access
television (CAT) in 1991 on UHF 31. How Channel 31 was snarfed so cat
changed to community activist technology. Then the Class C address space
(203.57.122.n) was assigned. How the first server (lyst) was a 486
slackware box purchased at auction, doing dialup at Black Rose or Jura or
somewhere. The link was through apana.org.au then triode.net.au through a
dialup modem. Then ISDN emucafe.com.au on a Redhat 5.2 pentium, then
debian on a PII over ethernet at tws. Who joined and what they did, who
left and why. Who has never sponsored us (govt, corps). How we got
mirrored in Canada. How Active and Indymedia happened. How we survived on
under a grand a year while zillion-dollar dot.bombs like one.tel and
kgrind and a load of others incinerated themselves in an orgy of corporate
cashflow combustion.
But it's all a bit hazy and probably wrong. I wasnt there for the early
bits (why it probably worked 8-) ) so I dont have the memories.
The people who were there need to write this down. Soon. When Australia's
premiere recreational trespass organisation, the Cave Clan, came to write
its history in Sydney, it was all there pretty much in writing since it
was originally done through letters to my post box, and .ZIPped textfiles
circulated over bulleten board systems (in the early 1990s long before the
Internet ever really had infiltrated here). So we know and look back
fondly.
I think this needs to happen soon. I know it's right in the middle of the
move but I think it needs to be there not only so we can intro other
people to the (dis)organisation but also so the specifics don't get lost
in the mists of time.
Maffew's doing his thesis, John "I fought the law and I won" Jacobs has
broken his wrist; Paul Black and John Doig and John Downes have long been
out of the loop though they still have their names in Cat's DIG entry.
So here's the PROPOSAL. This bogus, watered down and inaccurate email gets
put up on the Website as the Cat history and whoever has the time and
inclination can jump in and edit it / add to it / correct wrong bits. It
must be written by members but that's taken care of by who has access to
the filesystem. If anyone can track down the early dudes and get them to
contribute something, well, put it in. The file will remain in the
/www/how_it_started tree and (hopefully) evolve, if nobody has any
objections to this process.
predator
simon (at) rumble.net
